When to Push in League of Legends
Transcript
G'day it's UberGiantsBro here, and today we're going to be talking about 'When to Push in League of Legends'.
Firstly, what is pushing?
Pushing is shoving the creep wave to the enemy tower by killing creeps as fast as possible. The general rule for pushing is that you want to push as soon as you kill your lane opponent.
The reason for this is that you want your opponent to miss as much gold (and exp.) as possible while at the same time allowing you to farm that extra wave of creeps so that you can go back to base ASAP. However this is not ALWAYS the best idea as will be discussed soon.
The inverse of Pushing is Freezing (or holding) the lane. Freezing is holding the creep wave by only last hitting minions and/or trimming the wave so that it stays where you want it to. It is a characteristic of a good player to know when to push and when to hold a lane.
There are some key questions that we need to ask ourselves here that will help us understand and decide WHEN to push:
Is it safe to push?
Use common sense here. If people are MIA and you are on low health after a kill, you should probably not stay to push. However if you see that the mid and jungler has 4 man ganked bot, you are safe to finish pushing the lane to secure your advantage.
What is my pushing potential?
Recognize the difference between playing a fast pusher like Morde compared to a notoriously slow pusher like early game Ryze.
Is there more gold to be had elsewhere?
Whether it be roaming to another lane, helping with dragon, potentially stealing an enemy buff or simply farming a wraith camp, there is usually an opportunity to claim more gold elsewhere on the map. Be careful you are not putting your teammate behind.
Do I need to base?
If you are sitting on a large amount of gold it is often smart to push your lane and base (provided it is safe of course). Most good laners will recognize this so be sure to recall in a safe position and call your jungler to farm-farm the wave.
Map Awareness is another subject on its own but it is important to mention that sometimes it can actually be SAFER to push if your champion is a good pusher or relies on lifesteal or spellvamp to sustain.
A good example here is a Cait and Nunu bot lane. This lane is generally very powerful in solo queue because they can push fast which keeps their opponents at their tower. This makes it harder for them to counter harass and the pressure or lack of bot lane coordination may cause opponents to miss CS under their tower.
That's it for when to push, for League of Legends tidbits you can follow me on twitter @UberGiantsBro.
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