Hi,

I'm currently lvl20 and been playing for maybe a month or two, and while I'm not the worst last hitter in the world, I'm pretty bad. Usually tho I do ok during the laning phase where I'm usually pretty passive - depending on who I play and at what position.

But when the laning phase ends, trouble begins. I just roam around aimlessly, usually doing fine in team fights, but I fall further and further behind in cs. And when i try going to a lane to farm, odds are I'm jumped on, or get yelled at by my team for not joining them.

This issue has kind of forced me to do gp10 builds, so I play a lot of support nowdays, which I don't mind at all, but I wanna play all positions ofc.

After watching streams I'm getting the impression that map vision might be the key to farming mid-late game, true? should I always have a couple of wards on me to avoid ganks?

Thanks in advance

Hey CursedSharinganSealJPN!

Congratulations on reaching Level 20! it is truely a grind to get that far.
Concerning last-hitting, it highly depends on your champ. AP's clear them pretty fast. Bruisers usually use an AOE ability after bashing them once or twice with AA to sweep them. It's good to know what level/AD/AP needed for you to one-shot the caster minions in a wave. (personaly, i haven't zero-ed in on it yet)

With your CS as the game progesses, Yes, it is nothing but map awareness that is keeping your CS low. Map awareness allows you to know when there are free times to go to a lane and just take the CS and run to the jungle and continue. Also, it will help keep you alive so you know that you will/will not be over-extending when taking the minions.

Wards help protect against ganks. Taking one when you want to push a lane for protection is a good idea ESPECIALLY when their map presense is very strong. Otherwise, Map awareness and instincts wil protect you from ganks when pushing.

hope this helps!

Yeah, check your mini map. If the enemy team is spread out but mostly bot, and you see a chunk of red dots sitting at your top tower, go up top and get yourself some money, but also position yourself so that you have a good escape route. If the enemy team doesn't have a Vayne or Poppy sticking close to the wall is usually a safe bet. Stay as far away from openings in the jungle as possible, and be ready to run back to base at any moment.

Last hitting is only really relevant to the early game. Mid and late game, you should be knocking out waves in seconds.

However, last hitting ensures you don't have a gold deficit by mid game. One of the tricks is only getting in the last hit. That way you don't clear them too fast and end up accidentally pushing the lane when you aren't powerful enough to take advantage of it. I like to keep the fight just outside of the sight of my turret.

To stop autoattacking either hold 'S' or keep moving. I usually do the later because I'm trying to harass or avoid being harassed.

Yeah this thread wasn't really about last hitting, I shouldn't even have mentioned it. It's about how to reasonably safely get farm after the laning phase. I will try warding more for sure, although I'm not sure what the most effective ward placing is. And at my level, I can only assume no one else will be warding.

If you can safely grab one of the smaller jungle camps, that'll help with farming, too.

For wards, good placement includes:

Jungle entrances so you have time to react to gank attempts

Dragon and Baron (I also like tossing one in the jungle *Behind* Baron to watch for steal attempts)

Red and Blue buffs--yours if you're pushed or getting counterjungled, theirs if your team is pushing/counterjungling

Intersections where you can see several approaches

Bushes if they like ambushing.

I've found playing Teemo has helped with learning to ward. Granted, they give a much smaller sight range and explode if an enemy steps on them, but they last 10 minutes and you don't have to constantly back to get more.

When the laning phase ends, you are probably finding yourself grouping up for fights (which is correct) but ending up in Mexican standoff situations such as trying to siege a tower but unable to damage the tower.

When this occurs and minions begin pushing and bunching up in other lanes, one member of the team can try to sneak his/her way over to farm up that CS and get that lane pushing in your team's favor. This allows you to catch up on some gold while the other players dance around the tower.

The downside to this is being sighted reveals the 4v5 which causes your team to slowly back up to avoid engages. Too much time spent away from your team can cause your team to be engaged on 4v5 or a major objective stolen because of numbers alone. Make sure to communicate to your team that you are NOT with them and getting a lane pushed (crucial to avoid getting stuck in a 4v5 situation)

Other points with this tactic are to be aware of enemy movement. If they send someone after you, join your team where you will have a 5v4 advantage. Should the enemy send no one after you, you have a chance at getting a free tower/inhibitor. Ward vision as previously stated make it much easier to farm up safely, while keeping track of enemy movements for map objectives.

I find that for many people learning League of Legends, what to do after the first tower in your lane (allied or enemy) goes down presents a challenge. There is some good advice in this thread.

Here's my take -

If you destroy the enemy tower - Move to a nearby lane and try for a gank. Team up with your jungler, if you have one, for even better results. Keep an eye on your lane so that the enemy doesn't get to immediately push down your tower for free, but add another roamer to the list of things that the enemy has to worry about. If you can grab a few kills or assists you'll get some nice money AND help put other lanes ahead.

Beware of trying to push/cs to the next enemy tower and deeper into enemy territory without enough wards. When you are in that far it becomes easy for the enemy to gank you by walking through their own relatively safe jungle.

If your lane opponent continues to push while you are gone, return every once and a while to clean up the minion wave and claim the CS while stopping their advance. If they push really far, bring a friend and take them down.

If the enemy takes your tower - This situation can actually work in your advantage if you are a good farmer. Carefully last hit to keep the minions balanced in the lane, and if the enemy laner leaves to gank quickly clear the wave and wait for their turret to bring the wave back to you.

If you can keep the minions on your side of the map, you'll have a safer farm and it will be dangerous for the enemy to continue farming. Your team will have to manage the threat of having another enemy that can be roaming around, but if they can avoid getting killed you can lower that enemy's gold flow a bit!

In the true mid game, when teams band together and start fighting each other, you need to be careful about farming lanes. Not just because you might get ganked if you go to bot to clear a wave, but also because teams will being targeting objectives like Dragon, Baron, and your remaining towers.

The advice to ward that others have given is really good. Also keep in mind that if you go bot and the enemy team sees you there farming there alone, they might decide to jump the rest of your team at mid and have a 4v5 fight or snag Baron when you aren't there to help drive them away. Communication with your team is key. Let them know that you're clearing a lane and that they shouldn't fight without you.

On the other hand, you can also use these tactics against enemy players. Map vision in the mid game has a lot more uses than just preventing ganks!

Thanks for all the pointers guys. I will definitely work on my map awareness, both the intuitive knowledge of the enemies whereabouts and probable behavior, and trying to get a grip on where and when to ward. I also assume that as I (hopefully) get better I will be teamed up with teammates that make for a more comfortable mid-late game when it comes to safety.

And by the way, what is the jungle etiquette post laning phase? I usually dont touch much of it if we have a jungler (depending on how he is doing too I guess), apart from getting buffs that synergize with my champ/role. Is it, generally speaking, a free for all? say I just cleared a wave bot and going top; murder everything on the way there?

And lastly, Is it ever justifiable to purchase a Wriggles to "always" have a ward ready? ofc assuming that the item is reasonably useful for the champ in question. I'm guessing top after gp10 items and boots might be the only viable situation, apart from jungle, which I dont do much of atm.

Thanks again