How to Play Bot Lane – League of Legends
Bot lane is among the essential roles in the game. Your triumph is dependent on that there's a supporting champion alongside it in the lane for protecting it. While AD carry and bot lane go hand-in-hand, ranged mage carries can be implemented too.
Below is a more detailed guide on how to master the bot lane play:
Champions
Enchanters:
The use of mages has become more and more common in bot lanes. The mages' strength lies in the crowd-control and makes an effective combination alongside a support champion strong in crowd-control.
Melee Carries:
It's highly uncommon, but quality use can be found for the melee carries in the bot lane. They're dominantly offense-oriented but can benefit from the usage of items and have high killing potential. Their proneness to dying early would require substantial support, though.
Summoner Spell:
A variety of choices regarding summoner spells can present for bot laners. Following the initial Flash, the next summoner can be any of Heal, Teleport, or Cleanse. Heal is efficient in the duo lane due to replenishing the champions' health and providing a speed boost. Teleport provides quality recall timing with the initial item spikes. Cleanse's strength displays itself against teams with a variety of crowd control.
Warding for Bot Lane
To have two players on each team in the bot lane is quite a bittersweet choice. The two sets of Stealth Wards provide early support in preventing ganks. On the other end, the idea of the enemy having two laners will provide the same advantages to the enemy. The problem is solved with the purchase of Control Wards and Oracle.
Bot laners are the primary targets of mid laners and junglers due to the significant number of rewards found in the bot lane. It's easy to find a great deal of experience by killing bot laners due to how under-leveled they are compared to the other champions.
Where to Ward?
Bot river brush and bot tri-brush are perhaps the most crucial ward locations. Having Control Ward in bot tri-bush is preferred by the blue side bot laners, while the red site bot laners will prefer it in the bot river brush. And quintessentially, the Control Wards are efficient for your junglers and better in defense when they're situated closely to your team's side in the map.
Bot lane brushes can also be utilized for random trades. The Stealth Ward should infiltrate the bush they're hiding in, and the Control Ward should be in a bot lane brush extremely close to your turret.
Far-sight Alteration
You'll find your bot laners swapping to Far-sight Alteration quite regularly upon the game's progression. This is due to the bot laners relative weakness, which doesn't allow them to face-check brushes independently, resulting in them wanting to supply vision from quite a distance.
Trading in Lane
Auto attacks dominate most of the trading in the bot lane. It is crucial to master the auto-attack range. It's advised to maintain a more significant gap in auto attack range between two champions to avoid even a counter from the enemy.
Due to the bot lane being 2v2, it's essential to be on track with auto-attack ranges for two opposing champions. The three principles that are useful to be on track with the spells are cooldown, range, and the chances of the spell passing through minions.
It would be best if you relied on your support due to how difficult it is to keep track of auto-attacks and spells at once against the enemy. The support should provide the necessary trades, and if it's in danger, the retreat is the only solution.
Wave Management
Considering how underpowered and in need of leveling the bot lane is, your earliest job is to get it to level 2. This can be achieved by killing the first minion wave, as well as three minions from the second wave. The goal should be to hit level 2 before the enemy.
It's efficient to push against the enemy turret (and to protect yours) as soon as possible because the bot turret is weaker than any other turret in the game in the beginning. With the enemy turret gone, the enemy's support won't be secure enough to roam around the map either.
Summoner Spell Usage
Flash:
Flash can be equally beneficial for attack and defense. But due to bot laners being quite under-leveled and being a significant damage threat on the team, Flash should be saved for the sake of defense in the later game.
Teleport:
Teleport provides the bot laners an excellent recall. It can be perfectly tactical if it follows a decoy of some sort or if used as one. Bot laners can be at the expense of their turret if they go back to the base. This is why using teleport after you go back to the base for purchase is a beneficial strategy, allowing yourself the ability to push the minion wave on the enemy.
Heal:
Heal can be versatile due to the temporary speed boost it provides. It's quintessential to use it on yourself or your support when you lose health, but the speed boost can also be beneficial in situations needing an escape.
Cleanse:
Cleanse should be used as a way to counter the enemy crowd control. Especially if the enemy chains the crowd control spells together. In such a situation, use Cleanse on the first hit to you. That'll give you 65% tenacity for 3 seconds, with the result that would reduce the following crowd control to hit you. It will also prevent an enemy Ignite or Exhaust from having any effect on you.
Summarized Tips:
- Use crowd control effectively. Whenever your support hits the enemy with it, use your own only when that crowd control is about to expire.
- Begin with higher auto-attack range champions.
- Make sure your team possesses a vision of the early elemental drakes. If lacking vision, ask the support to place a Control Ward in the pit or use your Stealth Ward.
- Keep track of the summoner spells the enemy bot lane can use.