Become the Strongest Person on the Rift: Economy in League of Legends
Smash your opponents by being the strongest player on Summoner's Rift with this economy guide.
Smash your opponents by being the strongest player on Summoner's Rift with this economy guide.
In League of Legends, many people can get distracted by solo killing or weakening their opponent in some other way at the expense of their economy. Your goal with a lead should be to use it to position yourself as the strongest person in the game. You should threaten and punish your opponent when they make mistakes but, if you are to force fights in the interest of kills above anything else, you are threatening your own economy. The consistent and effective way to snowball your economy is through smart rotations and effective CSing so that there is as little economic downtime as possible while still being present at skirmishes to utilize the economy you have built up.
Effective CSing
Effective CSing is crucial to building a strong economy. You can give yourself access to as many free waves as possible and still be unable to last hit and these efforts will lose a large part of their effectiveness. Make sure you practice last hitting in practice tool and are able to last hit every minion you’re given free access to.
Laning Phase
Being able to control the lane is an important skill with the understanding of when you are able to control the lane going hand-in-hand with it. These leads can be as obvious and permanent as kill advantage or a large CS advantage or as subtle and temporary as being able to anticipate what your opponent’s next decision is and nullifying it.
When it comes to more obvious leads there are large gold leads, item or level spikes that make your champion strong, or simply that your champion is extremely strong in the specific matchup that you are in at the moment. Item spikes like Hextech Gunblade on Katarina or level spikes like getting your ultimate available on Fizz make your champions extremely strong even at even gold numbers in most matchups. With these spikes, you can threaten kills to allow yourself to get free damage and deny your opponent access to CS all while you can freely walk to the wave and last hit as you need to. Matchup advantages allow for similar behavior from level one. A champion like Syndra or Cassiopeia can force Vladimir off the wave with consistent trading patterns anytime the Vladimir looks for last hits. Galio can also force Zed or Katarina to CS from a range or simply force them under tower consistently so they can’t roam or trade.
As for more subtle leads, you may simply have a resource or cooldown advantage, a jungler available to back you up, or even just advantageous wave positioning. Recognize when your opponent is vulnerable. When the opposing Syndra uses Scatter the Weak (E) or Ahri uses Charm (E), you can step forward without risk of them being able to combo you for the cooldown durations which in laning can be 10-15 seconds if not more. Also if a Cassiopeia is out of mana, she is unable to do much of anything to control the lane and you have full decision priority until she is able to get a reset. When your jungler signals they are in the area, you can also play with more aggression knowing that they are there to back you up if a fight were to break out. As for the wave positioning, this not only creates subtle leads but also is a mechanism of effectively allowing yourself to access the wave consistently which is the goal of having these leads and using them.
When you have these leads you certainly want to pressure your opponent and punish their mistakes, but you must understand that until they make a mistake your job is to deny them last hits and, more importantly, get last hits of your own. Don’t over chase kills or force a risky fight when you can simply control the wave effectively and always have gold and experience flowing. Crashing and bouncing the wave are incredibly important in Mid lane to create pressure and be able to trap your opponent in the lane and give yourself multiple options to grow your lead. While in the longer Top and Bottom lanes, slow pushing and freezing is a bit more relevant and creates opportunities in which you can dive your opponent or simply stay safe while last hitting and refusing your opponent any last hits. These concepts also allow you to secure last hits without overextending for long periods of time which can deny the opposing jungler ganks as a form of shutting you down.
In Mid lane, one of the most important things is to be able to get your wave to reach the tower and not be stopped early by the opponent’s minion wave. This can be a frustrating situation that allows your opponent time to CS while you are vulnerable to a gank coming from their team if you want to do the same. It is incredibly simple to avoid with correct awareness and timing though. You want to create a situation where your wave will automatically slow push towards your opponent. This means that both minion waves are about even on your side of the lane or even a situation where the opponent’s wave has crashed into your tower. These will create a situation where your minions will have the advantage as the next waves meet.
To guarantee a wave will crash, you want your wave to have a significant numbers advantage while simply auto-attacking to last hit and weaken your opponent’s minion wave at the same time. As the waves meet, you want to use your wave clear all at once to shove the wave as early as possible. This creates a situation where your opponent cannot possibly hold the wave since it will take too long for the next wave to come. You can do this with slow pushing as well but you must be able to prevent your opponent from thinning the wave enough that they can simply hold the wave outside of their tower. Now, if you’ve done this correctly then you should have a wave bouncing back towards you. Your goal with this is to deny your opponent the same situation. As it is coming towards you, you want to keep the opposing wave stronger than your own so it pushes on its own. This creates a situation where you are forcing your opponent to step forward to last hit. The goal is to then look for kill threat with this situation.
In Bot and Top lane, slow pushing and freezing create opportunities for large leads. During freezes and slow pushes, your goal is to gain access to consistently safe CS while putting your opponent in difficult positions. When you bounce a wave it is important that you allow it to slow push to your opponent. This means you only want to last hit minions to allow your wave to build on its own and create a stacked wave. This creates objective pressure on your side of the map or even just a pure dive opportunity. Freezes need to be used to deny your opponents CS while also allowing you to position safely. These are created by allowing your opponent’s minion waves to be stronger than yours and keep it from ever reaching the tower. You want to freeze waves like this when your opponent has low resources or when your team is making a play on the other side of the map.
One important thing to understand in the lane is that you don’t need to actually finish a kill to garner a lead. If your opponent is unable to stay in the lane or unable to step forward after you punish, that is all that is important. Don’t overforce to attempt kills in risky situations. Solo dives and chasing into your opponent’s wave are decisions that can allow your opponent to create their own ability to fight back against you.
Mid Game
Mid game is more straightforward in terms of how to manage waves but it is more complex in terms of where you want to be on the map. You want to be able to be present with your lead in teamfights and objectives in order to give your team the best opportunity to win. However, it is also necessary to provide yourself the most solo farm and experience that is possible.
First, you need to understand what win condition your team is playing towards and how you contribute to that win condition. Then, you need to understand what this means about your side lane management and lane allocation. Generally, you want your bot lane clearing waves in the middle of the map with your solo lanes managing side waves. A champion like Twisted Fate, Tryndamere, or Ekko will want to push the side waves and pressure the opponent’s towers to make the opponents respond. Importantly, these champions must prioritize staying alive if they are ever drawing pressure from their opponents as this allows for their teammates to make plays elsewhere on the map and for them to go straight back to pressuring as soon as the opponent’s clear the area.
A champion like Zoe or Ornn will catch waves that the opponent pushes and then spend as much time out of vision looking for plays as possible. Once they catch the wave they will then set up their minions to slow push towards the opponents which will force the opponent to then respond with time. This allows for carries to all have as much economy as possible.
It is important that you understand when you need to be focusing on economy and when you need to be ready to fight or be at objectives. While catching waves is a priority you need to also have an understanding that your team can be safe and avoid fights while you’re doing so. If your opponents are threatening a massive dive on your team or simply threatening an objective then the worst thing you can do is abandon your team to fight on their own. However, if there is downtime then you should be looking to not only catch side waves but take any gold that is within reach while your opponents are getting back out to the map.
Make sure to be present when your team needs you even if it is at the expense of a wave every once in a while but also make sure that you are not stagnating your economy by sharing time in a lane where your teammates are also farming. Good luck becoming the strongest person in the game and smashing Solo Queue wide open.