This is not a champion guide per say but it is a guide to playing mid
written by myself. May be due to edits with new champions and stuff so
if I think it warrants it I will edit it and watch this space. Otherwise
enjoy.
A guide to playing mid lane. By AlphaS1x
Contents.
1. What is mid lane?
2. What is your objective in mid?
2 i. For assassins/ mages.
2 ii Phys damage carries.
2 iii Last hitting.
3. The concept of Zoning.
3 i. What zoning means for harrasment.
3ii. What sort of harrassment should be considered in mid.
3 iii. How creeps affect affect zones and how this then effects harassment.
3 iv. Zoning mentality.
4 Responsiblities of mid lane.
5 What champs counter what in mid and solid picks for mid.
6 Map awareness
6i. When you should buy wards in mid
7 Ganking in mid.
7i. When you should set ganks up and how you should do so.
8. Items
9. Comebacks.
10. Glossary.
1. What is mid lane?
It provides some of the biggest amount of farm and champion kills out of
the lanes and as a result is quite important to play mid solidly enough
to capitalize on and take advantage of as the game progress to mid
late. In this guide I aim to give some general ideas and outline some
concepts that maybe familiar or not so either way, I aim to provide a
greater understanding of the mechanics of mid specifically.
Please note before I progress with this article/guide. This will not
make you better at your champion or suddenly become a God at mid lane.
What this guide aims to do is to teach you the fundamentals of playing
mid well, if you can understand these concepts and put what I write here
into practice you should be well on your way to improving your mid
ability. If I mention things later on in the guide that you dont know
the meaning of I will leave a glossary in the bottom. Then if I have not
mentioned it in the glossary ask me about it and I will clarify. Now
onto the more interesting things.
2. What is your Objective in mid lane?
Generally speaking your objective in mid varies dependent upon the type
of champion you play whilst all the champions generally speaking want a
good level of farm and some early game kills. Essentially the cusp of
this is that you want to out gear your opponent and be able to turn the
game for your team mates as you must remember in LoL your team is only
as strong as its weakest link.
2i. For mages and assassins what is your role?
Generally speaking assassins do not farm well but make up for this in
killing power. The one exception to this rule is vayne who farms
astronomically well. But she falls under both umbrellas she needs the
farm of a Phys damage carry but can face stomp like an assassin once she
gets a bit of gold under her belt. For mages in the early game in mid
they struggle to farm because their abilities are simply costing too
much mana to be farming with. So as a result you must last hit well or
try and gain an xp or LVL advantage upon your opponent whether that be
via a kill on them or forcing them off the lane.
The comment about last hitting is true for carries and mages and
assassins, however assassins are a little more forgiving at a lower
level because they can sacrifice some farm for kills. A prime example
for this would be Le Blanc, her farming is notoriously terrible, however
her burst is nearly unrivalled early game. This allows you to possibly
kill your opponent in the mid and you can sacrifice some farm for this.
However if your familiar with LB you will know that actually her attack
animation flies very quickly making last hitting fairly simple.
Essentially speaking what I am saying is that as casters you are a bit
more flexible in what you can do in the mid lane.
2ii. Phys damage carries what is your role?
Generally speaking phys damage carries like Ashe caitlyn tristana, corki
etc need a fair amount of farm to become effective and they become able
to "Carry" through the farm that they get. So playing mid lane with one
of these champs is more difficult naturally than a mage because your
damage is not early game you scale better as the game goes on and it’s
important to remember this. Think of building a carry like building a
house, if you dont have any foundations (farm) your house will just
crumble like a stack of cards. For this reason I cannot stress enough
how important last hits are as a phys carry. Whilst the Metagame at
lower skill levels in EU servers are more geared towards killing than
free farm you can’t ignore farming as a carry if you do thats what lands
you 0 5 0 or 1/3/12 as a carry. Whilst you can harrass in mid as
caitlyn or ashe quite well you can do so but do not neglect your farm as
previously mentioned it will make or break your game most of the time.
2iii. Last hitting.
In the two previous parts to the guide I emphasize the importance of
last hitting creeps. some of you may be thinking well what are you
talking about. In short last hitting is just getting the last hit on a
creep to get the gold. Some champs are better than it than others but
that comes with the game. The art of good last hitting is getting a
decent idea of how much damage your creeps will do the opposing creeps
and how much damage your auto attacks are doing, and knowing how fast
your auto attack will fly to the target. Knowing these 3 things allows
last hitting to become a lot easier, you must take heed of these
regardless of the champ you play mid with. Also do not be discouraged if
you miss some minions when ironing out this technique. It will come
with the territory although I would recommend you stick with one
champion until you master the last hitting with it and then maybe move
on if you don’t like how it harrasses or plays in mid lane which is what
I leave up to you. Last hitting is just as important in the side lanes
aswell as the mid lanes so do not think last hitting is just confined to
mid.
