LoL: How to properly play a lane.

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Welcome to my "Learn how to properly play a lane" guide. I've been playing with a bunch of people in matchmaking and they don't know how to properly play the game and it's seriously beginning to frustrate me mostly cause they begin blaming their team when it's their fault.

But it's alright, I'm going to explain how each lane SHOULD operate and how to pick your lane depending on what you feel you can do the best.

Top Lane

Top is a solo lane, which is primarily the lane for bruisers (People with a lot of health and moderate damage to go with that) go. You should be getting decent CS (Creep Score, AKA Killing minions) as top, by last hitting properly when a minion is at low health to gain gold and exp. You usually want to play decent top laners like Garen, Renekton, Yorick, Chogath, or Singed. Those are some simple Top lane champions that usually fulfill their duties, killing their enemy and creeps.

Top lane champions should have a sustain when going top, to sustain themselves, this is because it's a bit harder for the jungler to gank that lane out of all the lanes, since mid has to open spots for him to gank, and bot has 2 people to rely on, while top it's just you. You should be warding the river, if you barely look at the map ward the bush in the river, otherwise ward the water between the path to the right of the bush or a bit above where baron is. This way, you can see if the enemy jungler is coming to kill you.

Simple start ups for champions going top is Boots and 3 health potions or a Doran's Shield (I prefer the boots/3pots.)

Middle Lane

Middle lane is a lane usually for the AP caster (Ability power caster AKA the mage) of the team. This is because the AP Caster usually has CC (Crowd Control like Stuns, Slows, Fears, etc.) to harm the enemy while the jungler ganks from a multitude of spots from the top or bottom of the middle lane. Most casters should be packed with CC to help them engage in fights and also farm as well so they can buy some items to aid their power of damage in team fights.

You should ward the top bush and/or bottom bush mostly cause the enemy jungler will gank from those locations. When your jungler takes the first blue buff you should receive the second blue buff because as a caster, you need mana to help dish out damage, CC, and to farm faster as well.

Standard middle lanes are Annie, Brand, Vladimir, Xerath, Malzahar, Kassadin, or Ryze. Some champions also don't need blue buff but go middle lane, an example is Vladimir since he uses health for his skills and has no mana. A standard build for middle lane is Boots 3 potions or Doran's ring.

Bottom Lane

The cool kid lane.
Bottom lane is pretty important mostly cause the Carry is there, who will serve insane damage to the enemy in team fights, and it also has the support, the healer and aura of the team. Bottom lane has the Carry (The attack damage of the team) and the Support (Healer of the team) working together at bottom lane. This is because the Carry is weak in health but strong in damage, so the support is there to heal the carry while they dish out damage. The support should be getting NO minion kills and let the Carry get all the minion kills so they get more gold to buy items to make themselves stronger. Supports should be getting gold per 5/10 second items and such to compensate for this. An example is Philosopher's Stone, which builds into Shurelya's Reverie, to get cash health and mana regain. Shurelya's Reverie can help the team retreat or engage a team fight since it boosts everyone's speed up.

Carries should be getting damage such as BF Swords, Doran's blades, Wriggle's Lantern (If they're losing their lane mostly), and etc. Supports should be starting out with 3 Wards, A Feire Charm, and 3 Health Potions/2 Health Potions 1 Mana Potion to help lane and provide heals to their carry while also warding the river from the enemy jungler. The carry should be going boots 3 potions or doran's blade (This is usually determined on your support and what carry you are. Caitlyn with a Soraka should go Doran's blade while a Ashe with a Taric should go Boots 3 Potions.)

As a support, you should ward the river bush or in between the bush and left wall of the river if you watch the map closely a lot to not forget. If you're on the blue side, you can also ward the tri-bush above your bottom tower. When the enemy bottom lane is gone or dead (same for the enemy jungler) you should have your jungle and your bottom lane help get dragon for your whole team in gold and experience. Middle lane can help as well and even have top lane teleport onto a ward to get to dragon as well, this is because the dragon has a lot of gold to give to the whole team and it's worth it in the general aspect.

Common carries are Caitlyn, Vayne, Corki, or Graves. Common supports are Taric, Sona, Soraka, or Janna.

Jungler

Now I'm going to say this now, the jungle is pretty hard to explain because there's a lot of different stuff to do and what to do when you jungle. I'm going to give a basic overview for the common junglers people use and do, but I'll try to explain what other junglers do.

Most junglers have a sustain and a CC/gap closer (get them to enemy in melee range as a skill) sustain to help themselves to be safe in their jungle (from getting killed) and to help gank other lanes to ensure a kill. Most junglers need to get blue buff to gain the cooldown reduction, mana regain, and to level themselves to 2 to help themselves jungle safely for a while. Red buff slows and deals true damage (ignores armor from the enemy) for every basic attack, so once junglers can a red buff, they can gank a lot better than previously without one. It also speeds up their jungle.

Junglers should usually go Blue Buff, Wolves, Wraiths, Red Buff, Golems, then either repeat, invade the enemy jungle, or gank a lane in need or just for the gold or help the lane get an advantage. Junglers usually go Cloth Armor and 5 health potions. This is because all the minions in the jungle do attack damage, which is lessen by armor. The mastery Bladed Armor deals 6 damage back to enemy creeps that hit you, which can also speed up your jungle. Junglers should have smite no matter what, to ensure their buff can't be stolen and to secure dragon and baron. Smite can also increase the speed of your jungle by dishing a lot of true damage to monsters. You should smite blue buff golem and then red buff lizard when they're low enough health to ensure the enemy jungler isn't waiting in a bush to smite your buff at low health and steal it from you.

Common junglers are Nocturne, Gangplank, Rammus, Shaco, Trundle, or Udyr.

Certain good junglers such as Lee Sin can start at golems since he uses Energy and not mana, so he doesn't require a blue buff. Warwick has enough sustain to heal himself without blue buff, and can go golems first.

When I say golems, this means they go Golems, Wraiths, Wolves, Blue Buff, Golems, Wraiths, Wolves, and then Red Buff. This is faster than the blue buff route.

Certain junglers hit their wolves before blue buff spawns to get a quick kill and fasten their jungle. Middle lane should hit the blue buff golem behind a wall to make their jungler does not take a bunch of hits by the blue buff golem for a while. Junglers should be getting wriggles and boots early on, and ward as well in key areas, like the enemy jungle or dragon.

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I hope I was able to help people out a bit with this guide on how to lane properly. There is certain ways to lane differently like putting Talon middle, or Akali top, or an AP Caster + Tank bottom as well, but that's for another time. This is a guide purely on the standard laning format.

This SHOULD make you play better and win games as well, by the way.