Building a Monster Wave

What is a Monster Wave? “Monster Wave” is a term given to a minion wave that has build up a large amount of minions from more than one minion wave. They apply a great deal of pressure on the map because once a monster wave is going, it can only be stopped by an enemy champion or an enemy turret.

Why build a Monster Wave? The key to building a monster wave are restraint and patience. In order to successfully build a monster wave you will need to sacrifice a few CS. What you will lose in immediate gratification however will be rewarded with map pressure and a better footing to take objectives.

I feel this may be an easier concept to grasp visually. For all intents and purposes, all allied minion waves will be sequentially labeled with numbers (1,2,3) whereas all enemy minion waves will be sequentially labeled with letters (A,B,C).

Wave 1 in the diagram is the first allied minion wave, and Wave A is the first enemy minion wave. Now, if you wanted this wave to push, the initial reaction might be to take all of the minions and allow Wave 1 to continue on to fight enemy Wave B. While this would cause the waves to push towards the enemy turret, there is a more effective way to get your minion waves to apply pressure.

 

If you look at this diagram, if you were to take Wave A, then Wave 1 would simply push into the enemy turret and get off some damage and die. This is good early game when you want to deny the enemy lane opponent experience and you want to back, and that is a great strategy to utilize. But lets say you are out of the lane phase, and there are no outer turrets on each team. If you were to take all of Wave A, Wave 1 would push into the inner and die before wave B arrived, and then Wave B would push on and fight your Wave 2.

What if, however you only took PART of wave A. You would still be pushing, as you would have a minion advantage, only you would be pushing slower. I know what you are thinking. Why would I want to push slower? Well the answer is you are buying time for Wave 2 to reach Wave 1. This is a difficult concept to grasp for some players so I will try to break it down as best I can.

A minion wave spawns every 30 seconds. If you were to only take part of wave A, and then left the lane alone, Wave 1 would now fight the partial wave A. It takes a lot of time for the minions to take the rest of the wave without the aid of a champion. This is good for you because while fighting, Waves 1 and A are remaining stationary, while Waves 2 and B are rapidly approaching. Where your advantage comes in is that by the time Waves 2 and B arrive, there will be no minions left in Wave A, whereas your Wave 1 will still have some caster minions. The same cycle will apply with waves 3 and C, and each time your wave will build up more and more minions, ultimately forming a monster wave.

 

 

How to build a Monster Wave? Okay, now that you know the 'what' and 'why' let us talk about the how. Honestly, you are well on your way to being able to use this tool in your League of Legends matches. The hardest part of building a monster wave is understanding why you want one in the first place.

To build a monster wave, examine the two waves of minions fighting each other. If it is a wave without a siege minion, simply take the enemy caster minions, and leave the melee ones. If it is a wave with a siege minion, take the siege minion and one caster. After you have done this, simply leave the lane and go apply pressure elsewhere. You have just created a ticking time bomb, and I'm not talking about Zilean. Remember when I said the only thing that can stop a monster wave is an enemy champion or turret? The longer the enemy takes to respond to a monster wave, the more devastating it will be.

When to build a Monster Wave? There are a few scenarios that call for a monster wave.

1. Your team wants Baron: If your team is dead set on either taking baron or fighting the enemy there, consider building a monster wave in the bot lane. When it starts to become a large wave, the enemy will have to either send a teammate bot to deal with the wave and lose baron pressure, or keep all 5 members around the pit and lose bot lane turrets.

2. Your team wants to siege Mid: If your team wants to siege mid, build a monster wave in either side lane, or both if possible. Delay the enemy team at mid until the wave(s) build up. Eventually, they will either have to send teammates to respond to the side lane wave(s), and give up the mid turret, or engage your team at Mid. If the latter occurs, your monster wave(s) will likely take a turret in whatever lane you set them up in.

3. Your team has a splitpusher: You can have the splitpusher build a monster wave in the lane he is in, causing a great deal of pressure in one lane, or alternatively, you could have him splitpushing in one side lane, while a monster wave builds in the other.

4. One lane is pushed, and you don't have the time to properly clear before a fight starts: If the enemy team has shoved bot and there is a wave approaching your turret, and you fear they might dive your team middle soon, it will actually be faster to form a monster wave than to clear the entire wave. The goal here is to ensure the enemy wave doesn't hit your turret while you fight at mid.

Things to keep in mind: Monster waves are best utilized after the outer turrets have fallen. They won't form very large if they are stopped by those pesky outer turrets! Moreover, the longer the wave has to build, the larger it will become. If the enemy team has pushed one of your side lanes well into your side of the map before retreating, and you decide to make this wave a monster wave, it will become extremely massive if left unchecked.  

If you don't succeed with your first monster wave, be sure to try again.  This is a valuable tool that you can utilize to gain advantages in your solo queue matches.  Anywho, I hope you found this article useful, and good luck out there on the rift!