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Welcome to another support guide, this is impaKt and this time I'll be going over a
few minion behaviour mechanics that you should be aware of when you play bottom lane. These
won't change your play style over night, but if you keep them in mind every time you start
a new game, I can promise that you'll start looking at the bottom lane in totally different
way.
So by now most of you will already know that the minions will deal a lot of damage to you
in early game skirmishes, and that you shouldn't engage onto an enemy that is surrounded by
his minions or you'll lose the trade.
There are a few things that I think are important to keep track of though.
First things first: a minion wave will spawn every 30 seconds. This means that every 30
seconds a new wave will reach the lane. Depending on how fast you can clear that wave, you'll
have a window where there won't be any minions to deal damage to you.
Usually when you clear this wave, the enemy will retreat if he's still not done clearing
yours. This grants you an opportunity for poke since there won't be any minions left
for the remainder of the 30 seconds.
Secondly: the minion wave has a very specific path, but they have an aggro range as well.
They only deviate from their path if an enemy enters that range. However, minions will sometimes
switch targets. This happens every few seconds if a higher priority target is recognized
inside their own aggro range. And yes, as you may have guessed the enemy minions will
consider you a higher threat IF you're either the first target to enter their aggro range
OR you attack one of their allied champions. Note that the minion's highest priority is
to protect allied champions.
Now, the simplest way you have of keeping track of all of this is by imagining every
minion has a little circle around them. That circle will be the minion's aggro range. If
you want to keep yourself from getting hit by them, the simplest way to do it is by staying
out of their aggro range. Here's the funny part though: The minions
will ONLY aid an allied champion if HE is inside his minion's aggro range. Only that
way will they hear his "Cry for Help". In case you see an opportunity to poke an enemy
too far behind his own minion line though, be careful not to be the first target to enter
their range or you'll still be taking damage from them.
Last but not least, a minion that is focusing you will reset the aggro once he loses sight
of you. In other words, if you enter the fog of war (like an un-warded bush) the minion
will reset his target and find a new one to focus. If he does not, he will continue on
his path until he does so. I'm telling you this now because there is
one very specific time in the bottom lane where this information is useful.
Have you ever been in the situation where you get to the lane faster than your ADC,
the minion wave is pushing against you and you have no minion wave of your own? You shouldn't
let all those minions die to the tower for a few reasons: they will deal damage to the
tower and you want to preserve it for as long as possible; your ADC will lose experience;
he will lose gold; the lane will probably reset and both waves will meet again at the
center of the lane.
If you want to freeze the lane near your turret, you need those minions.
So in this situation you should put yourself in front of the minions so they aggro you
instead of getting themselves under your turret's range.
The problem about this is that the support is often really squishy and a whole minion
wave will either leave you at really low HP or just kill you.
But worry not, because I'm here to give you a little tip to solve this issue:
Start tanking the minions near your first bush and then go in and out of the bush as
often as you like. The minion wave will stop focusing you as soon as you enter the bush,
and they'll come back for you once you leave it. So practically speaking, you can freeze
a minion wave without taking any damage at all.
It might take some practice to do this perfectly, but even if you take some damage while you
get used to this, you'll still take a lot less than if you single handedly tank all
the creeps.
And that's all for this guide guys! This video was a little shorter because I felt like the
subject would be a little harder to go through. I actually recommend you re-watch it, create
a few custom games and try out these things for yourself. You want to get a feel of how
these mechanics work for yourself instead of just thinking about it every time you join
a game. But don't worry, they'll be part of your muscle memory in no time.
On an unrelated note, I've got a couple of news for ya:
First, I'm switching streaming services and I'll be streaming on hitbox.tv's platform
for now. I would really appreciate it if you guys could tune in, follow, and watch my streams.
I'll be trying to stream as often as possible. Secondly, I just released my new website!
So if you guys would like to check it out, I might have some surprises in store for you
in the near future. Everything will be linked up in the description.
Once again, thanks for watching! Don't forget to subscribe to my channel and if you enjoy
the sound track, give Base Desire some love by subscribing to his channel as well. He's
the one working on the awesome tracks I've been using on my videos.
Also, feel free to follow me on twitter, facebook, hitbox.tv and to join my ingame channel "impaKtLOL".
So until next time, good luck and have fun!