I Love/hate playing bot on Dom. On the upside I have less goals and can focus on outlaning 1 person. But when they all lose top I cant just walk up there and gank.
It always seems my teammates that normally always go top have no idea when/when not to gank bot. So here are some tips.

Point Priority is
Mid > Bot > Top > Enemy Bot > Enemy Mid.

This means,


If we don't currently have top I don't want to see you in my lane unless they are 4 man ganking me on point. Ganking bot when I don't need help creates a 1 man disadvantage top, making it that much harder to keep/cap the point.

If the enemy sends extra people bot to gank me and we dont have top tower, go cap it while we have the man advantage. If I need help I will ask for it.

Unless bot asks for help, or is in danger or being Capped(not neturalized) you time is probably better spent top. If you need to roam then backcap them.


All around pointers:
If no one is currently standing on a point, CAP IT.
If the enemy team sends 5 people top. Bot better be capping the enemy bot.
Watch the minimap, and pay attention to where each enemy goes, heading people off with ganks is very easy in Dom since you can all hide in brush and bait with speed shrine.




TOP DOMINION SECRET
Dominion is all about pressure. Lane pressure and jungle pressure.
EXAMPLE: I usually play bot with Yorick. So I make it my goal to push as hard as I can, while being safe and not dying. My goal is to put bot in such a bad state, he has to ask for a gank. So either I push and kill him and/or take his point, or I create a man advantage top for my team.

I create pressure on bottom, but I don't die at all costs. Revive if I do to be back in lane before they can cap. Creating pressure in one lane lessens the pressure on another. Use this to make your enemys go where YOU want them. Being bot I can't gank top, ever. So I create pressure to hopefully either cap a point/or cause a man advantage top so that They will cap a point.


I've been up all night and this probably doesn't make much sense. Will edit for clarity latter. Crashing now.

Oy, this post is so full of wrong. Every day my desire to make a post about the bot laner schizophrenia (if you gank bot - I'm doing fine. If you don't gank bot, "I got ganked, of course I lost).

Gank bot. Gank bot all day long.

Gank, and gank again.
The earlier it is in the game, gank more! Just don't kill creeps if you gank early, even just making it so the enemy bot laner can't get xp/gold but your bot laner gets all the creeps is worth it. Bot lane CAN snowball, so if you get your bot laner 2 levels ahead, you're likely not going to need to gank more, and they are going to often have to send 2 bot just to hold, not to take your point even.

Gank bot all day, every day. This line, right here? Worth 200-400 Elo, easy.

* Gank bot lane doesn't mean staying there endlessly. But if I stay to help you, and you go B, I'm staying there till you come back. It's not me switching with you. Come back, let me go back top.

Swing and a miss.

here is my humble 2000+ ELO opinion from playing a LOT of bot lane....

the game is about point control: if your gank doesn't secure the bot point, or cause so much confusion on the enemy team that you can retake top; you wasted your trip.

9 times out of 10, I would rather someone just walked over and took the enemy bot point, instead of trying to kill the enemy bot laner.

Someone doesn't know about the MMKH flowchart

If you don't see all their enemy champs already on the map (and they aren't on death CD), you cannot assume you can simply just cap one of their towers.

Normally you should assume they are in the bush or are going to gank your own bot. If you're caught out alone applying pressure to a lane that can be reversed pretty easily (they are not AI Bots), you're leaving your own team at a disadvantage. Nothing pisses me off more about blindpick than seeing my teammates die in between top and the opposing mid. It leads towards seeing our top lost/enemies inevitably heading down bot to gank me.

MMKH flowchart.

2V1 is easier than 4V4.

If you can't cap top, there's not much point in insisting over and over; make the plays happen. ;D