Blogs
The Beginner's Guide to Bottom Laning Phase as a Duo
THEDoughBOII
Wed 26th Nov 2014 - 4:58pm
The last two guides have focused on the laning phase from the perspective of each individual role, the Marksman (ADC) and the Support. Now, it is appropriate to combine aspects of each together and talk about bottom lane in a more holistic way. This guide will be more focused on bottom lane combinations and how each combination affects the style through which they are played.
Common Bottom Lane Combinations:
The chart below shows the most popular bottom lane combinations and a more interactive version of this graphic can be found at the following link.
In the previous guide discussing support, I talked about how different supports can serve different functions both in lane and out of it. Some are more based on poking enemies and staying safe, others are meant to be engagers and get up close and personal to their opponents.
As the ADC, it is very important that you play to the strengths of whatever support it is that you are playing with. For example, a Lucian playing with a Janna should not be looking to go very deep to engage against an enemy Leona in many situations. The reason for this is that a Leona can simply use her plethora of crowd control in order to lock him down and make it easy for that Leona’s ADC to attack the Lucian. Rather, the Lucian should be trying to harass the enemy as much as possible while minimizing their damage taken.
If the Lucian were working with a different support such as Braum, this may be a valid approach. Although this is one example, there is such a plethora of bottom lane combinations that it is near impossible to discuss them all in depth here. Again, the most important thing is to play to the strengths of your champions by knowing what their kits are designed to do, and playing these champions based off of that fact.
Level 2:
Although this was covered in the previous guide, I feel it is necessary to go over again simply because of how important this idea is. Oftentimes, level 2 is the making or breaking point for your bottom lane depending on how you play it.
Hitting Level 2 First:
When one bottom lane duo reaches level 2 before the other, they achieve a massive power spike in comparison to the other. Until that other duo reaches level 2, the bot lane hitting level 2 first has two abilities to use, whereas the other only has one. If your bot lane hits level 2 first, it may be appropriate to use this as a time to attack the enemy head on, depending on the type of lane you are playing.
The reason for this is that a duo with level 2 can simply put out more damage and will usually have more crowd control effects than a duo that is only level 1. Oftentimes a level 2 vs. level 1 engage can result in a very favorable trade, including finding kills and/or having the enemy team blow summoner spells. This is a huge advantage for the rest of your laning phase. You can now dictate the flow of the lane by zoning your lane opponents out of experience and CS, and can make your advantage grow over time.
It is very important to keep yourselves well warded when trying to zone, since oftentimes you will be very vulnerable to jungle ganks.
Hitting Level 2 Second:
While hitting level 2 first usually warrants aggression, hitting level 2 warrants passivity. It is of the utmost importance to stay safe when you know you are going to hit level 2 second. This may sometimes mean having to be zoned out and waiting for the minion wave to be pushed towards you. Although it may sometimes be difficult to accept, being a few CS back is way better than giving up your life and much more CS because of being greedy to last hit minions when your duo is at a distinct disadvantage. Once you hit level 2, you can play much more normally since you will once again be back on even footing.
Vision Control:
This is another idea which has been state multiple times in this guide; however its importance cannot be stressed enough. Being able to effectively ward is something that some players simply do not know how to do well. A map showing heavily contested warding areas can be found below:
These areas are very important since many of them can easily reveal an impending gank from a jungler, as well as alert your team of enemy team movements towards dragon. Having these areas warded constantly throughout the laning phase can win games for your team since it will let you and your teammates make more informed decisions.
Pushing/Freezing Lane:
As a duo, an important decision that constantly needs to be made is whether or not you want the minion wave to push towards the enemy tower or towards yours. Here are a couple of instances where you want the wave to push towards your own tower:
1. Behind in Gold – When your duo is behind in gold, you want the wave to go towards your own tower for safety. You can safely farm your minions under your tower knowing that you have the tower to protect you if they try to engage on you.
2. Setting up Jungler Gank – You want to be pushed into your tower so that your enemy overextends, which can allow for your jungler to enter the lane through the river and execute a successful gank.
3. Zoning Out – When you have the gold lead, you will want to increase that lead by not letting the enemy get to their CS and experience. If the tower pushes towards your own, it becomes more and more difficult for them to CS safely. If they extend too far, your duo can engage and possibly increase your gold margin more by getting kills.
While there are times where you will want to freeze, there are also a couple of reasons you will want to push your lane towards their tower:
1. Enemy Duo not in Lane – When the enemy duo has returned to base, you want to push the minion wave as quickly as possible so that your minions run into their tower. This will make it so they cannot farm these minions, and lose a significant amount of gold/experience for leaving.
2. Setting up Jungler Gank – You can also set up a jungler gank by pushing your lane towards their tower. The jungler’s ganking path will have to differ since he will have to enter the lane through tower and use the lane brush to hide, however this tactic is just as effective as ganking through the river.
3. Shoving for Power Spike – There may be times where you know that shoving lane will give your duo a level advantage. At these times shoving the lane will get your experience more quickly, and thus let you hit that power spike before your opponent. Be careful when doing this to not overextend and leave yourself open to ganks. Proper vision control is vital if you are shoving lane for this reason.
Fighting your Lane Opponent:
When fighting your lane opponent, there are several things you will need to do and keep track of in order to win out:
1. Proper Damage Focus – Your duo needs to be attacking the same target as much as possible. Many bottom lane engages can be lost when one of the two players decided to switch targets without informing the other. This will split out the damage your lane can collectively deal, making it easy for them to focus on killing your duo one champion at a time. There may be instances where each of you will have to skirmish your enemy duo in two 1v1 fights, but this is not nearly as common.
2. Summoner Spell Availability – Your duo needs to be aware of the summoner spells that your enemy has at the time of the fight. If you do not know what they have available, assume that they have both. This will let you more effectively plan the way you are going to fight them. For example, if you know that the enemy has an available exhaust, then the ADC should be ready to disengage when this spell is used on them, only to quickly return to action when the spell’s effect wears off. Being able to play effectively around summoner spells can easily turn a losing fight into a winning one, and vice versa.
3. Vision – Oftentimes a duo will bait the enemy into fighting them, only so that their jungler can come in and turn the tide of the fight. That is why, once again, proper warding is key. If your duo does not know where the enemy jungler is and cannot ward his possible ganking paths, then you may want to reconsider fighting your lane opponents. However, if you feel confident in duo versus theirs or have your jungler to back you up, then it may be a risk you want to take.
Dragon:
As the bottom lane, you are situated closer to dragon on the rift. As a result, your presence in that area needs to be felt throughout the laning phase. You will be called upon to help your team establish their presence near the dragon pit. You should also be constantly warding around that area so that your team can be alerted of when the enemy is making movements towards it. This can also let you know when your team is safe to secure the dragon objective for yourselves.
To help you think of good spots to set wards, refer to the map of Summoner’s Rift that I provided in this article. Dragon is going to be a much more heavily contested objective in Season 5 than in Season 4, so this idea of establishing dragon presence as a bot lane duo throughout the early stages of the game becomes only more vital.
Wrap-Up:
This guide talks about some important functions of a bot-lane duo and how they need to coordinate with one another in order to win the laning phase, as well as help control the vision game near dragon to help them secure that objective. This also marks the end of my three part guide to bottom laning phase. Below you will find the links to my two previous entries. Thanks for reading!