What is laning phase? Laning phase is the time in the game where both teams have one person in top lane, one in mid, and two down in the bottom lane. Laning phase is crucial to how the game will go as it will determine who gets which objectives and the advantages. This guide will detail each lanes’ laning phase and how to win.

Top Lane

Top lane is an island as people say, and they aren’t that wrong in some cases. Top lane is a farming lane. You can win lane by just farming up and harassing your enemy when they make mistakes. Top lane is very reliant on your ability to properly CS in lane. Using wave manipulations tools such as freezing and fast pushes can be very useful in this lane. Here is a link to my guide on wave manipulation that will help you learn them all.

When you are being ganked a lot or simply in a losing matchup, just play really safe. Look to obtain help from your jungler when they are topside, but don’t totally rely on your jungler to help. You must be able to farm minions under your tower and keep looking for an opportunity to trade with your laner.

When you are ahead look for ways to extend your lead or help your teammates get ahead. Try taking a roam down to mid lane or even bottom lane. It is nice to share the wealth so don’t forget about your teammates; everyone struggles in lane sometimes.

Since top lane is full of champions that take Teleport, you must be even more aware of the map. If you and your enemy laner both take Teleport and your opponent decides to start Teleporting bottom lane to make it a 4v3 fight, then you need to follow him with your Teleport if your team is capable of winning the fight. Below is a video with some great tips to use in lane.

Mid Lane

Mid lane is probably the hardest lane to master in League of Legends. Mid lane is usually dominated by spell-based champions such as Ahri, Kassadin, Neeko, Ryze, these champions are all mages. The second class of mid lane champions are assassins, who use their spells and a mix of auto attacks to deal damage, some of these champions are Zed, Talon and Fizz.

Trading in lane is very important to winning the mid lane. To trade with the most success, you must take into account the forms of damage your opponent has and the cooldowns of their abilities. Auto attacks from Ryze won’t do a lot of damage, but the damage will add up over time, so you must know the range of your opponent’s auto attacks.

Keeping track of your laner’s cooldowns are essential to timing your engages and trades. Engaging Fizz when he has his E ability up is a waste of time. Try to get him to use his E by throwing a skill shot at him or baiting him to use it. This applies to all mid lane champions with disengage abilities, Zed, Ahri, Corki, Vladimir, etc.

Warding is also an important part of laning as you are close to both sides of the jungle and both objectives. Look to ward in river at jungle entrances and by objectives. My guide on warding details mid lane ward positions, so if you want to check it out here's the link. Wave manipulation is important for all lanes to know. Look to uses various tactics to advance onto your enemy’s tower, like slow and fast pushes. Below is a great video on how to win mid lane.

Bottom Lane

When playing ADC, you must farm creeps very efficiently while also looking to trade with your opponent. In mid lane, auto attacks don’t do much damage. In bottom lane, auto attacks do almost all of the damage. You must use auto attacks to poke down your enemy while farming and wait for an engage opportunity. Trading is about dealing more damage to your opponent in a tight window compared to what they can apply to you. It’s one of the ways you can suitably weaken a target to set up a kill opportunity with your support.

You can run bottom lane by playing using poke, going all in or sustaining in lane. These play styles are determined based on the champion you pick. Poke ad carries include Caitlyn and Ezreal. All-in AD carries are the ones who bully you with pure damage and quickness, examples are Twitch and Draven. Pick whichever style you like to play.

It is true that the support is the person that wins botlane, 99% of the time the better support will win the lane. However, by being a better ADC you can't win the lane by yourself, but you can make it go even. Long range ADCs such as Caitlyn and Ashe are great at the laning phase as they can poke really easily, and they do more damage from a distance.

You will 99% of the time not do the engage, your support however will be the one to engage the enemy. Your support will be the one with all of the crowd control and abilities to set you up to kill the opponent.

Farming is essential to an ADC's success in the game. You must learn to last hit and become a master at it. This is the way you’ll generate the majority of the gold you’ll need to purchase items and start improving your power throughout a game. Farming and last hitting must be prioritized over any kill hunting. Missing too much cs can cause you to fall far behind and lose your lane and the game. The first 6 minutes of this video can help you out with the early game in bottom lane, be sure to check it out if you want more help.

Conclusion

Laning phase is crucial to success in league as it sets the tone and foundation for how the game will go. Winning the laning phase is just step one in winning the game and it provides a great start for your team. Make sure to analyze your lane and the matchup, look for weaknesses and strengths and play them to your advantage.