An Intro to Trading

Hey friends, it's Fox here with another blog. This time I'd like to talk about a little bit about trading. For those of you who aren't familiar with the term, tradeing refers to trading damage with your enemies. To be successful in trading, you need to know your champions strengths, the abilities of your opponents, and how best to use this knowledge to your advantage. There is a lot to cover so let's get started.

There are three basic styles of trading. Every champion dabbles in a little bit of each and it is shown in their playstyle.

Poke

Poke is when you when you go in, throw an attack on your enemy, and back out, preferably without even allowing your enemy to trade blows with you. This is sometimes called free damage, damage that cost you practically nothing to get. This can include Nidalee throwing a spear and ducking back into the bush, Ashe using Voley, or Warwick running in to swipe at the enemy if they get too close. All of this can be considered poke. You don't need to be ranged, you don't need to be using an ability, you just need to be getting free damage when there is an oppening. Ideally you will start wearing your opponent down, and run them out of lane, or get them low enough to go for the kill.

 Here you see an example of Jax using his passive (which causes every third hit to do bonus damage) to attack on his third hit for the burst of damage while Irelia is focused on cs.

Kill

Now in a poke lane, you try to just get free damage onto your enemy and back off, but in a kill lane, you go all in onto your opponent. If your champion has an attack combo with high burst, high cc, or your opponent has no way to defend against such an assault, you can play it like a kill lane. Synergy with your lane partner or jungler can make it all the better, if you ask your jungler nicely, they will be more than happy to help rack up some kills for your team. Your lane opponent should be playing scared, and you should be trying to force any fight you think you can win. Ideally you will begin snowballing your lane, getting kills or denying cs, and your opponent will soon be far behind you in gold.

 

Sustain

In a sustain lane you will have some sort of way to heal yourself. This will allow you to make slightly more wreckless trades. Just an example would be if you attacked your enemy for 100 damage as he hits you for 150, it may initially look like you lost the trade. But in a sustain lane, you will recover those losses over time by healing yourself. So like during this hypothetical example he hit you for 150, but afterward you were able to heal yourself for 60, it would effectively put you up in the trade. By having sustain, it will allow you to keep making trades because your health will come back. 

 

Knowing your champions strengths and weaknesses is key to successful trading. I also think it's worth mentioning that no champion has just one of these traits. Every champion has some poke, every champion can get kills, and even Soraka, the undisputed queen of sustain lanes, can dish out some damage in the right situations.

 

 

But how should I be making trades? 

Right now you may be saying "Well Fox, that all sounds great and all, but I still don't quite get it." and that's great, because I can help you out there. There are certain times you should be going for trades.

 

Times you should be looking to make trades are when...

- an enemy goes in to cs

An enemy in the middle of an attack animation can't attack you back. They will have to choose between getting cs and taking damage, or just backing off, either of which is a win for you.

 - the enemy's abilities are on cooldown

It could be an escape, a stun, or a damage ability, but if the opponent's important spells are on cooldown, it's a sure way to have a big advantage in a trade.

 - the enemy's summoners are on cooldown, yours are up

If you know the enemy doesn't have Flash, they won't be able to escape. If you have ignite and high burst, you might be able to get a kill. Knowing your potential with summoners, and knowing the cooldown on theirs can give you the edge you need to get the kill.

- you have jungler support.

Help from your jungler will go a long way to establishing dominance over a lane. If the enemy has no wards, boots, or flash, and you think you can get a kill, politey mention this and that you'd like some help. 

- your champion is strong

So a lot of champions have a few key moments in the game where they are comparitively very strong. It can be from hitting 6 and getting your ultimate, hitting 9 and reaching rank 5 in your best ability, or it could be that you get better and better over time. Some champions are very strong early and drop off a little late game, and some champions have a weak late game to make up for scaling well into late, and knowing when you are strong compared to your enemy is key.

An example of this would be say when LeBlanc hits level 6, her killing power skyrockets, thus making trades at level 6 very favorable, but going all in for a kill at level 1 as Kog'maw may not be that wise, as Kog'maw is late game carry. 

 

And if the enemy has no cooldowns up, you've got your summoners, the jungler is coming to gank, and they're over extending to get cs, you are down right golden. 

 

 In conclusion

So just remember to play to your character's strengths,  know when to strike, and play smart, and you will be out trading your opponent all day. 

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it!  

I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the article, if you have a Reddit account, feel free to stop by and leave a comment: here!