Duo Bot: The Kill Lane

For many seasons, the ADC and Support meta has dominated the Bot Lane. A passive time where there's a little poke here and there, but for the most part players just farm to get to late game, where they can push towers and avoid those scary Top and Mid laners. However, there is another way, while those ADCs are busy farming minions, you can easily farm them. The idea behind ADCs is that they are weak early, and strong Mid-Late, so why not take advantage?

What is a Kill Lane?

Kill Lanes are exactly that. You go into lane, and you kill. Sure, get some minions, but the primary objective is to stop the enemy farming, and get fed off them while you're at it. They usually take the form of two bruisers, with high burst or high CC. As Brian "TheOddOne" Wyllie said in an interview regarding kill lanes, they are high risk, but get easy kills and easy to gank for, and an interview with Yiliang "Doublelift" Peng described double bruiser bot as being "broken".

Champ select

Once you've decided you want a Kill Lane, you have to pick your Champion. You should make sure your team knows the plan, otherwise they may see your picks with confusion. Most kill lanes are AD focused, and some are better than others. You can use some which aren't as effective, but are otherwise fun. Here is a selection of the popular picks for traditional Kill Lanes.

 

Leona
- High burst potential with passive
- Strong CC to keep enemy in place
- Tanky so can tower dive
- Easy engage potential

Leona is very strong right now, and is perfect for this lane. Strong engage and high burst means high potential for kill.

Pantheon

- Stun allows follow up or engage
- High burst damage and execute
- Passive allows for diving
- Ultimate is great for ganking

Similar to Leona, has a CC gap closer, and also brings tankiness and burst. At Level 6 can easily bring dominance to other lanes, or surprise own lane.

Jarvan IV

- Knock-up gap closer to engage
- Good damage
- Ultimate gives high kill potential

Combinations

The most important aspect of a Kill Lane is the synergy. Your champions have to go well, it is not much use if one of you tower dives, but the other cannot keep up. The champions mentioned before are generally the top tier ones, who go with others very well. However, there are some other novel combinations.

- Support by death

A fun combination as seen by Doublelift and Aphromoo, the principle being supports bring utility and can easily displace the enemy Bot Lane. The original Blitzcrank and Alistar is an old pair, and with the introduction of Thresh, the possibilities multiplied allowing for double hooks and hooks into lanterns. Who needs damage when you merely force the squishy to the tower?

- From Doublelift to Double Flip

Perhaps not as effective as other teams, but just as fun, Volibear and Singed allow for quick turn arounds of fights, and laughs while you do it. The plan is simple, flip the enemy into your partner, and then they flip back. Their laners will be so far apart it will be effectively 2 vs 1, and they may well find themselves at your turret!

- AP Carry

Possibly higher risk, you sometimes just need raw damage, although a little CC helps. Seen by Robbert "SivHD" van Eijndhoven, you just kill the enemy ADC, no matter what. You both go high burst AP champions and between you, catch, burst and kill. As seen in the clip, Veigar gives the utility, Le Blanc the gap closer.

- Assassin

Equally, you can go an AD assassin such as Talon, or high damage mobile champion such as Riven. Allowing for high damage with a gap closer for instant destruction of the enemy before they can react.

 

How to start

You want burst. That is the only goal; to kill the enemy. For this reason, Doran's are your friend. If you are AD you get Doran's blade, AP get Doran's Ring. They give enough health to avoid poke, and enough damage for you burst. You can try taking your CC Level one, however a lot of these lanes rely on their level two all in. Try rush to level two and kill before they realise.

 

Post Lane phase

After the lane is won, and the tower is down, the enemy ADC may start to freeze the lane. It is at this point you attempt to help other lanes with your superior scores. Remember you are strong early, and ADCs are strong late. This means that if the game is stalled, you will struggle to push towers and siege. So try end the game quickly and promptly after coming out of lane.

This problem of late game can be solved by an ADC Top or Mid, such as Vayne, however this relies on your team mates.

 

Closing remarks

Ultimately, the point of a Kill Lane isn't always to win. Sometimes you smash, sometimes you get stomped. If your early all in backfires, you can be behind the whole game. The point of the combinations is to have fun. Play Darius, Lee Sin or Volibear in unconventional roles with your friend. There are stronger compositions just as there are weaker ones, but it's up to you to find your favourite and have fun with experiments!