I have been playing mid and jungle lately and I've been kind of struggling with "proper" roaming I guess?

Sometimes I'm very successful, others not so much. Sometimes I'm behind and another lane is behind and my tower is still up and I'm struggling to get an edge back in the lane. Should I just camp the losing lane and never return to my losing battle for cs/farm? Idk...

If there is any advice like little things I can always remind myself to help me roam better? Or advice or an in depth guide on how to roam well? Thank you so much

-Well for starters as midlane (i know this sounds lame, but i see it all the time) have boots or teleport if you're gonna roam. You waste too much time otherwise, and time is valuable (missed CS & XP in lane).

-Push your lane before you roam. Pushing your creepwave into the enemy tower forces their midlaner or jungler to come defend the tower instead of doing their own roaming. It also gives you a good amount of time to roam and gank before having to worry about the enemy pushing it back into your tower and costing you CS & XP.

-Your midlane tower is your most important tower to keep standing early game IMHO. If your tower is in danger you should not be roaming. If you're behind your opposing midlaner try to setup a gank for your jungler (keep the wave closer to your tower and hopefully you can capitalize if they make a mistake). Then you can safely roam if the enemy dies or is forced to base.

-If another lane falls behind it's nice if you can help out and gank it, but if it's not safe just let your jungler handle it. You can relieve pressure on other lanes by pushing your lane really hard. Forcing their jungler to come try and gank you will open some opportunities for your jungler to assist other lanes.

-Wards, wards, wards, and more wards. Ward their wraiths/red/blue, see the enemy jungler farming at low HP, team up with your jungler and gank them and steal their buffs. Ward spots you expect them to come from. Sometimes as they approach to gank you, your jungler might be nearby and you can cut them off and kill them 2v1 before their midlaner is in position to help. Maybe too you get lucky and their mid tries to help but gets there a tad late to do anything and you get a 2nd free kill.

As a jungler:

-If a lane is ripe for a gank, gank it. Your job is to help your team. If your lane is pushed back, and the enemy isn't warding or you know where their ward is and can get around it, go gank.

As a mid:

-Follow your lane. If your opponent shoves the lane and then leaves, odds are they're roaming. Quickly get your tower out of any immediate danger and follow them. You may or may not end up counter-ganking. Sometimes, simply showing your presence gets everyone to back off and everything returns to neutral. This isn't a waste of time. This is teamwork. Depending on your elo, a lot of people demand MIAs and then don't react to them. It should be obvious when enemy mid is MIA to back up and play safe, but most people don't. Until you reach a point where teammates are capable of thinking, following your lane is usually better. And you should know where your lane is going because you've been warding.

-Ping to alert your team to your presence. Yeah, yeah map awareness, but if your teammates are in a volatile lane, extra units of brain power may be focused on the struggle in lane. Pinging can make the difference between a nice double kill with assists and a team derp.

-If your jungler says "wraiths then bot" for example, start making your way bot. Especially if your bot lane is behind, a 3v2 can be risky, but a 4v2 has a high chance of playing out in your favor. Moreover, have a four man presence can often deter the enemy jungler from coming in for a clean up while three extremely weakened opponents may allow him to pick up a triple kill.

-Value your tower. Don't over value your tower. Outer mid tower has strong strategic importance for vision. Sooner or later, outer mid tower is going to fall in all but the most one-sided games. Losing your tower gives the enemy team a nice chunk of gold. Leaving your other two lanes to fail gives the enemy team a win. If you can see enemies moving in for a gank on another lane, it can sometimes be a better trade to lose the tower but help your team. Ultimately, it's a judgement call. But teams that scratch each others backs win more games than those that don't. Also, know when to anticipate losing your tower first. Melee assassins like Kat or Fizz will have a hard time keeping ranged lane bullies like Cass or Zyra off their tower. If you've seen this heading into the game, prepare to help your team in other ways since you will probably give up your tower sooner than the other mid.

I'm not a jungler but as a mid (usually Ahri), I closely monitor top and bottom to see if they are over extended meaning past the lane neutral half way point close to our tower...if one is I quickly finish off my minions and push them into the enemy tower if my opponent is gone. I don't take the obvious route thru the river but go parallel to it thru our jungle usually to avoid being seen by mid's wards or any wards in the middle of the river. I also make sure my team is watching their opponents to see if they have warded the river gank bush and if not then there is a high chance we can get a successful gank. I also always target who I intend to go after which is usually for bot the adc and top is usually just one but if its not then I target the squishiest one. Don't always get a kill but it'll certainly make them retreat back. Then I quickly return to my tower taking the safest route back (usually just recall and go back to mid). If I know the enemy jungler is out of play or somewhere else (map awareness) then I'll just go back thru our jungle.

Thanks for the tips guys. I figured this helped others too because people often say "just roam", but never really give in depth explainations and stuff.