Tips to a More Successful Bottom Lane

In soloqueue, the bottom lane is typically more difficult to play well in consistently due to the amount of coordination between the support and carry that early laning demands. Winning your lane, however, will give your team a massive advantage over the other, as the support and carry can be the biggest game changers in any given match.

1. Know your limits. Possibly the most important part of the game in general is knowing what is and is not possible and capitalizing on your advantages. Practice with certain champions; know their mana costs, their range, and their damage. Try to get comfortable with them especially in the early part of the game, when all your dueling mechanics can come into play. Keep track of your enemy and know when you can win an exchange.

For example, forcing an exchange when the enemy Janna has her shield off cooldown will usually result in an unfavorable outcome; however, if you commit to an attack immediately after the shield fades, you can easily win a trade. Keep up with your farm and harass without putting yourself into unnecessary danger, as a death not only provides your opponent with gold; it gives them experience and the opportunity to surpass you in creep score while you return to lane.

2. Wards save lives. It's been said many times before, but keeping your blind spots warded will save you at least once per match, guaranteed. If you survive one gank per 4 wards used, you are actually saving more gold than you spent in the long run because you are denying the other team the 300 gold advantage that a kill brings and you lose virtually no farming time.
Effective warding spots are at dragon, lane bushes, and the blue tribush.

However, only ward when the extra sight can give you an information advantage. Know where you will be and where danger can strike from, and do not be afraid to buy more wards than you think you will need. Keeping one on hand to throw around a corner just to make sure you do not run into an ambush is always a good idea.

 

3. Feel free to be a little defensive. Is your opponent harassing you to no end? Are you struggling to stay in lane? Buy a cloth armor early; it’s only 300 gold, the extra armor goes a long way in trades, and it’s part of Wriggle’s Lantern if you plan on taking that to help your farm/sustain in lane and dropping map objectives quickly. Multiple Doran’s Blades can help do the trick as well for early game; and AD with 3 blades can easily keep up with and beat an enemy with only a BF Sword due to your health/lifesteal advantage.

For summoner spells, try taking Heal instead of Ignite or Exhaust. The burst health is bigger on the user of the spell, so you will gain a larger effect than if your support were to take it. The extra health will give you an opportunity to bait kills, survive near-death encounters, or provide a little sustain for you to stay in lane longer. Remember, you do not need to pick up kills to be effective. Your number one goal is staying safe, farming, and leveling up as fast as you can as an AD carry.

If you are facing the possibility of a low-hp execute such as Caitlyn or Karthus’s ults or an ignite, take a red elixir. Use it if you are facing inevitable doom and a free 150 hp heal could save you (this works especially well on ignites because the 50% heal reduction does not apply). Not only will you have a much better chance of surviving, but you will also return to lane with the health and damage advantage from the elixir for another few minutes. Remember to not forget about your buff bonus and try to bully the other lane around (chances are your stats are at least equal to, if not greater than, the enemies’. Press the advantage!)

4. Keep calm. It is very easy to lose your temper in League of Legends, but do your best to stay positive at all times. Angry play can result in bad decision-making which more than likely will end up giving the other team an even greater advantage. Instead of calling out the bad decisions that your partner may make, try to make gentle suggestions to “be more passive” or even help them out with extra ward coverage if he keeps dying from facechecking the same bushes. As long as you and your team can keep calm, your chances of surviving actually improve dramatically.

Winning your lane, especially one against two enemies at once, will help you achieve victory much more easily! Once you can consistently win your lane, you will see an enormous improvement in your mid- and late-game. Now get out there and win your lane!