Dragon vs. Turrets

Okay, I'm a Jungler, and I may have developed a negative reputation from my aggressive-sounding "Why Junglers do what they do" post about a week ago. However, this aggravates the crap out of me when I see it. Sometimes, I see teams try to do a standoff at the enemy Mid outer turret. The team commits so many resources into that outer turret while the enemy team only needs about 2-3 people to successfully defend it. So much time is wasted there while the enemy top and bot can freely push while there is no opposing pressure in those lanes. And the worst part? The team that is trying so hard to siege doesn't even get a turret. Consequentially, that team loses turrets in Top and Bot as well as so much farm from those two lanes.

Sure, Turrets are important for map control, but they are surprisingly easy to take down, and they are conversely easy to defend if done properly. My point here is that there are other objectives within the game that can be just as or even more important than that Outer Mid Turret.

I can understand why laners want to take down the enemy turret; it's their designated objective. However, before a team wastes so much effort onto a turret, here are many things to consider. Here are three major questions, as given by Challenger Player Valkrin, to consider before committing to a siege:

• Can I safely dive them?
• Can I poke them away from the Turret?
• Does the enemy team have a good source of wave-clear, like Cait's Q or Ahri's Q?

If you have answered yes to the top two while answering no to the last one, then it's definitely okay to push the lane and siege. Otherwise, you may wish to spend your time elsewhere, like Dragon, Baron, or another Turret.

But why does this matter? Time and pressure are two important elements in League of Legends. If you are wasting time trying to take down that Mid Turret with no success, the enemy team knows you are wasting your time because you cannot secure the objective. Even worse, there is only pressure in one zone of the map. This gives so many opportunities for the enemy team to split-push or sneak a Dragon or Baron.

Obviously, there are situations where it's perfectly fine to siege a single tower. If your team composition is something like or like , then it's perfectly fine to focus all your pressure onto that single objective, because your team is built to secure that objective by forcing the opponents away or by forcing a fight. On the other hand, there are situations where your team would be better off securing another objective, like if your team was . Everything is situational, but it's still important to make the best call.