Wave control guide: part 2
Welcome back to our series on wave management in League of Legends. In Part 1, we covered the basics of wave management and discussed the importance of controlling minion waves in the game. We looked at how wave control can help you gain an advantage over your opponents and secure objectives, and we explored the different types of wave management strategies you can use to achieve this.
If you haven't read Part 1 yet, we strongly recommend that you do so before continuing with Part 2, as it provides the foundation for the advanced techniques we'll be discussing here.
In Part 2, we'll be taking a deeper dive into the mechanics of wave management and exploring some advanced techniques that can help you gain an even greater edge in your games. We'll look at concepts such as wave freezing, slow pushing, and fast pushing, and examine how they can be used to control the pace of the game and gain a tactical advantage.
By the end of this article, you'll have a deeper understanding of wave management and be able to apply these advanced techniques to your own gameplay, giving you a significant advantage over your opponents. So without further ado, let's dive into Part 2 of our series on wave management in League of Legends.
Wave Positions:
Freezing
Freezing is an advanced technique in League of Legends where you intentionally keep the wave of enemy minions stationary in a specific spot of your choosing. This is an effective strategy because it puts the enemy in a vulnerable position, making them at risk of being ganked, and allows you to gain experience and gold by last-hitting minions. There are two ways to freeze the wave:
- The first method is to let the enemy push the wave and then stay one auto-attack behind them. This way, they always have a health advantage on their minions, making it easier for you to maintain the freeze.
- The second method is to pull the wave towards your side and into a bush to drop minion aggro. It's essential to thin the wave, ensuring it doesn't build up too big to maintain the freeze. Remember to only last hit the minions at the last possible minute, so the enemy always has 1-2 extra casters, making sure they have more damage, thus pushing the wave towards you. Overall, freezing the wave is a great way to gain an advantage in lane and put your opponent in a tough spot.
Slow push
The slow push tactic in League of Legends is a great strategy that you can use to gain advantages in the game. To execute the strategy, you should start by killing only the caster minions on the enemy wave, leaving the melee minions alive. This will create a big wave that will push slowly towards the enemy tower. Remember to only last-hit the melee minions to keep the slow push going.
Once the wave has built up, you can hard shove it to create pressure on the enemy team. This gives you a window of opportunity to recall for free, roam, secure objectives, or place deep vision. You can also use the slow push to bait the enemy team into responding to the wave, which can create opportunities for you to catch them off guard and secure kills or objectives. Overall, the slow push tactic requires patience and strategic timing, but it can be very effective if executed correctly.
Crashing
Crashing is a tactic in League of Legends where you use all your abilities, mana, and auto-attacks to hard shove a wave fast into the enemy turret. This is especially effective when combined with a slow push because it forces the enemy team to be careful while clearing the wave under their turret. If executed properly, crashing creates a lot of pressure and leaves the enemy team stuck under their turret clearing minions, not getting anything proactive done. This creates a favorable situation for you to secure objectives, roam, or get deep vision. Additionally, because there are so many minions during a slow push, the enemy team ends up stuck trying to successfully last-hit under their turret. If they move or try to do anything else, they risk losing out on gold and experience. Overall, crashing and slow pushing can be a powerful combination that can help you gain a significant advantage in the game.
Hardshove / contesting prio
Hard shoving the lane in League of Legends is a tactic that involves quickly pushing the wave of minions towards the enemy turret, creating pressure on the enemy team. Although it can put you at risk of being ganked, it is still a powerful strategy, especially when combined with warding on one side and playing on the edge. This allows you to continuously poke and threaten the enemy team under their turret and take down platings safely. However, it is important to note that some champions, such as Kayn, Zac, Shaco, and Twitch, have whacky gank pathing, so special warding is required to stay safe.
When executed properly, hard shoving creates constant pressure and forces the enemy team to trade with you and leave the safety of their turret. This is especially effective when playing with your jungler, as you can move first to fights and secure objectives like scuttle. Additionally, hard shoving makes it difficult for the enemy team to last-hit minions under their turret, giving you an advantage in the early game
Pockets
This is moderately more advanced. This is where we will talk about zones of control and what we call Pockets we play in.
Take the above picture for example, if you are blue team, the green zone for each lane is the safest place to hold a freeze just outside of the turret for every single lane. Yellow is where it’s slightly more risky as you both are still at risk of being ganked. Everything past the red line is dangerous as the enemy can freeze the wave there and as such you will be forced to over extend and the enemy jungler will absolutely come for you. The yellow zone is neutral, green is safe, and anything beyond red is critical danger because you're far from any safe zones or friendly players. Of course this changes based on what turrets are down and can even make your own or enemy jungle camps vulnerable. So this will impact your decision on what to do with the wave and base it on the matchup by having good communication with your jungler. If you’re red team it’s exactly the same, however green and red zones are reversed. This is why knowing where and when to hard shove to support your jungler and putting pink wards in the neutral zone will secure you objectives such as drake/scuttle/herald. Getting good vision in the neutral zone will also turn it into a green zone of safety for you as you know what’s there.
Tools for successfull Wave management in League of Legends
Fixing the wave
Resetting the wave is crucial if you find yourself in the unlucky circumstance of freezing the wave and not being able to step up without getting all-inned. The best way to reset the wave is to bounce the wave. Bouncing the wave means hard shoving it into the enemy turret to break the freeze. If you can't bounce the wave alone due to the threat of an all-in, don't hesitate to call for your jungler's help. Waiting too long to reset the wave can lead to losing valuable CS and experience, putting you at a disadvantage in the lane.
Thinning the wave
When the wave is slowly pushing towards you, it's important to thin it out to set up a valuable freeze position. To do this, make sure to leave 2-3 caster minions alive after the wave has depleted. This will allow you to transition from a slow push towards you to a healthy freeze. However, if the wave is too big, attempting to freeze it can be harmful since you'll take too much damage from the wave. This can put you at risk of getting all-inned by the enemy laner, so make sure to thin the wave out appropriately.
Shoving the wave after ganks/kills
After a successful gank or kill, it's essential to reset, spend your gold on power spikes and to gain an item advantage, and restore your health and mana. Don't forget to tell your jungler to help you crash the wave into the enemy turret to allow you to get a good back timing. If you take a bad trade and are unable to contest the wave when you're low on health and mana, call your jungler to help you crash the wave, allowing you to take a good reset instead of being forced to take a bad back timing. Also, it's crucial to time this correctly and know when to break your freeze before an objective and back before an objective.
Get Personalized Coaching for League of Legends with GameBoost
In conclusion, understanding how to manage waves is a crucial skill in League of Legends. By controlling the wave, you can gain advantages over your opponent and influence the outcome of the game. In this guide, we covered the basics of wave management, including freezing, slow pushing, and fast pushing. However, there is still much more to learn about wave management. In the next and final part of this series, we will cover topics such as how wave control impacts the map, how it fits into team compositions, and how to recognize the state of the wave and select an appropriate wave state to apply, as well as zoning or trading. This guide was provided by Coach "Firnen" from GameBoost. We encourage readers to consider ordering a coaching session from him or any of our other coaches to learn more about wave management and other important skills that can help you succeed in League of Legends.
