Laning
Laning can simply be defined as the act of one or more champions moving down a lane with the goal of gaining more money and experience. These champions tend to stay with allied minions as they harass and kill enemy champions and last-hit minions with the goal of leveling up. The purpose of this guide is to address and explain the various aspects of laning.
Leveling
Leveling is the accumulation of experience from killing minions, not necessarily last hits, and killing heroes, which allows your champion to advance to the next level. Staying in one lane and focusing on enemy minions is by far the fastest way to level, especially if you are soloing a lane. Jungling, the act of killing creeps in the forested areas between lanes, is another way to level, but it's less efficient than laning in most ways. Each time your champion increases in level, he or she will gain an increase to their stats and one skill point which can increase the power of your champion's abilities.
Every time you level, you gain one point with which to upgrade one of your abilities. Every time you level up you'll get a point that is available to be spent to one of your abilities until you reach your max level of eighteen. The higher the level of the ability, the better the ability becomes. So more levels means better abilities which results in better results. However, there is an ability that cannot be leveled until you hit level six, eleven, and sixteen, this ability is your ultimate.
Ultimate Abilites
Ulitimates are your fourth ability and can be only be leveled at levels six, eleven, and sixteen. Your ultimate is always a champion's most powerful skill. An ultimate usually has a very long cooldown, generally around Sixty seconds or more. So use your ultimate when you need it. Always remember to put a skill point in your Ultimate when you can!
Passive abilites
Passive abilites are abilites that you cannot manually level up. Some passive abilites cannot level up at all, but other passive abilities that can level are Sions, or Nasus. The passive ability will show if it can level if it shows. Now there are other passive abilites that come from ultimates or items. Like Jax ultimate: every 4th attack does a magic hit that does double damage. The passive will always work unless the passive part specifically said that the passive part will not work after the ability is activated.
Harassing
Harassment occurs when the opposing champions in each lane attack each other without the intent of killing. The main purpose of harassment is to force enemy champions to use abilities, spells, and consumable items that they were trying to save for a more serious fight. Ideally, a champion could be forced to return to his or her summoner pool simply to regenerate health and mana and, if forced to do this often enough, they would become severely underleveled. Harassment is also used to intimidate your enemies so that they decide to back off and let you control the lane. This tends to occur after frequent harassment when they begin to realize that they cannot attack you or your minions without being harassed.
Last Hitting
Last hitting minions is key in League of Legends. Regardless of how much damage you do to minions, the killing blow or 'last hit' will be rewarded with gold which increases as the minions level up during the game. So, knowing that gold comes from last hits, obtaining them is obviously key. Last hitting can be quite tricky for a few reasons. Minions can last hit other minions which is the primary reason last hitting can be quite difficult, and, in most cases, your ally will also be trying to score last hits. Timing is key when trying to last hit minions, but learning exactly when to attack is a skill that comes from practice. However, it is much more efficient to wait for a minion to be low on health and then attack it rather than attack it and simply hope to last hit it. Also, using your champions abilities to last hit is a great tactic, but whether or not you can do this depends on the champion.
Aggressiveness
The appropriate level of aggressiveness changes in different situations. For example, in when your alone facing multiple enemies, you need to play "soft" or, in other words, play defensively. To play defensively, you should try to stay behind the ranged minions and last hit any minions that come within your range. If your playing with a melee champion just stay by the ranged minions to outlevel your opponents because attacking the melee minions as a non-ranged champion is far too risky. However, when your playing with a partner versus a single enemy champion, you should be extremely aggressive. Harass your enemy as soon as he enters your range, and try to keep him as far away from the minions as possible. Since it is a two versus one situation, your opponent will be gaining a significantly greater amount of experience, and you need to cut him off from his supply of experience so that you and your ally are not outleveled.
Ganking
A gank occurs when one or more champions leave their lane with the goal of killing another enemy champion. It is very difficult to anticipate a gank, and, as soon as one occurs, you should anticipate that several more will soon ensue. Now, when your being targeted, if you have only a quarter of your health left, go back to the summoner pool and heal because you are of no use to your team in such a weakened state. If you have half of your health or more you should simply play soft, request aid from your teammates, and wait for your allies to arrive. When you are trying to initiate a gank, mark your target on the minimap and send one person to lure him out. All of your other allies participating in the gank should be hiding in nearby bushes, or, if they happen to be playing as Twitch, Evelynn, or Shaco, they should be stealthed. As soon as your target is far enough away from the turret, launch your attack and hope for the best.
