League of Legends

Other key parts of League of Legemds gameplay are the acts of pushing and Ganking. Pushing is where you push the lane your in to the tower and kill all the towers and the creep waves that come torwards you. However, if you push in too far on your own, you become vulnerable to ganking. Ganking is where people from other lanes, or the people in the same lane, all target one person in an effort to take them down and gain the consequent gold/experience bonus from doing so.

Ganking

Who ganks?

The best gankers are ones with Crowd Control, Area of Effect, or stealth abilities. Ashe, Fiddlesticks and Shaco are perfect examples. They can all get around the map fairly quickly , Shaco can stealth in and kill anyone within seconds since he's able to do massive damage from behind, Ashe can use her ultimate ability to stun an enemy and frost arrows to chase them down, and Fiddlesticks is stacked with Crowd Control and an insane Area of Effect ultimate. There are many other heroes who can gank really well, listing them all would take up too much space and to do so would be pointless, the best way to learn is from experience. Everyone plays differently.

When to Gank

Ganking is a required skill in League of Legends, you must be aware of when a gank is coming to you and when to go and gank another lane. Usually before you gank you recall and then go to the lane with the weakest or most vulnerable enemy champions. You should only gank if you have an Area of Effect power, Fiddlesticks' Crowstorm is a great example, or some sort of Crowd Control that can stop the enemy from running away. It is a complete waste if you start attacking and they manage to escape. The best times to Gank are when you see an enemy in a lane with low health or mana or enemy champions are pushing your tower one of your towers.

When not to Gank

You shouldn't Gank if you put your own tower at risk, your team won't appreciate it when you kill the champions in there lane only for the enemy to push yours. Make sure ganks are always well coordinated with constant communication. If you are low on health and have no mana, do not gank and just recall unless you really need to stay in your lane. It is also wise to avoid ganking an enemy if your allies are low on health and mana too and are unable to help you in said gank; they have to be timed well.

After a successful gank you receive lane control, and if you managed to kill a few champions without losing any of your own teammates, you have a perfect opportunity to take down a few towers. Now, when attacking an enemy tower after a successful gank, you need to wait for minions to approach and immediately focus on the turret. As soon as it falls, you and your teammates need to retreat because your enemies will have most likely just respawned.

Pushing

When to push

Your aim at the start of the game is to push a lane and to kill a tower. The best times to push are when your team is in a team fight on the other side of the map and you're on your own on another side. You push along that lane until you come in contact with an enemy tower, and, of course, you kill the tower. Be aware that if any enemy champions become missing in action that you should retreat immediately and meet up with the rest of your team or have them come to you. Make sure you press [Tab] to keep an eye on which enemy champions are alive and how much time is left before they respawn.

When not to push

The worst time to push is when your team is about to start a team fight and it looks like they cant win without you. This is usually determined if they are fighting away from there tower and all 5 enemy champions are there, or if all the enemy team is missing in action and your team is scattered all over the map. Pushing separately will lead to you being ganked and consequently feeding the enemy team. Only push if you know where all the enemy champions are or if there happens to be a tower on low health. Early game you do not want to push too hard if your ally has recalled to the summoner pool and your in the lane by yourself for a minute or two. Just defend the tower and wait until your teammate comes back and then you can push together.

Map control

Map control is crucial in League of Legends. Champions like Teemo, Nidalee, Hiemerdinger and Shaco can all place traps in parts of the map. This not only reveals the map but it can hurt the enemy at the same time. Placing Teemo's Noxious Traps all over the map makes the enemy scared to even move from lane to lane due to being spotted and ganked. Shaco's Jack in the Box's cause fear in enemies, Nidalee's traps remain on the map for 3 minutes and if an enemy champion steps on them you can see them for the duration of how long it lasts. Hiemerdinger is the second most effective champion at map control, you can place turrets at key spots around the map and they can see farther then most other traps. Make sure you grab a Golem buff though when you're placing traps as they tend to use a lot of mana. Wards are another way to gain map control; you can buy them from the shop in the "Consumables" section. There are two types of wards:

Sight wards

These wards cost seventy-five gold and reveal an area of the map for around 3 minutes, they cannot detect stealthed units.

Vision wards

Vision wards cost one-hundred and twenty-five gold and last for the same duration, however they can see stealth units, effectively making heroes, like Twitch and Evelynn, that have stealth abilities, useless.

Why is map control important?

Controlling the map is an important aspect of League of Legends because being able to see where your enemies are whilst they do not know where you are is such a great tactical advantage that you only realize how much it pays off when you do not have map control. Do not take it for granted and make sure you keep placing traps and wards in as many places as you can.

So, to sum it all up, everything is situational. Pushing and Ganking are both important parts of League of Legends' gameplay. This guide gives you an idea of what happens in game but the best way to learn by practicing. Good luck summoners!