Since I’ve been climbing more and more, the lanes are more focused on farming. This is because players don’t do as many mistakes. Always try to harass, but when is harassing a bad idea?

I usually play mid, so that’s what I’m going to focus. Like I said, going aggressive is harder the higher elo you are, but more common. This is because everyone will make less mistakes and punish anyone who does. At lower elos players aren't punished by farming for example. You should *always* farm, and that is you main goal. Out farming your enemy lanner is winning the lane (when no kills exist).

Roaming note: mid laners usually roam if they are set behind or when they are ahead, but normally only after level 6. All positions may roam if they have pressure and their tower or the enemy’s tower is down.

So let’s talk aggressive

Best time to go aggressive is when your opponent is making mistakes. Farming is not one, but it’s a very good opportunity to go when he is farming. If he is AA a creep, he won’t be able to answer back without losing the cs. Sometimes players put themselves out of position or overextend when farming. If you are on for example on Ahri, throw your Q when the enemy is starting the AA animation. Don’t AA him early on or the creeps will do more damage to you than you to him.

If he is going to harass you, the earlier in the game, the best is for you to answer back is trying to receive one AA from him and then throw your abilities, so the creeps damage him and the enemy’s creeps don’t focus you. Again, be careful AA champions early on.

When? Before 2:45 minutes you are probably safe. Very probably. If you are mid though, and the enemies have a Shaco or a similar champion, they might do a level two gank at 2:05 minutes (more or less 10 seconds). With the recent jungle changes, most non-meta junglers can’t really gank before 4 minutes into the game because they get too low and need to go back. I’ve seen a lot of different jungle routes, so to be sure, start being more careful at 2:45 minutes.

Now it’s where

Behind Green: Can’t be safer than that at lanning phase.

Green-Yellow: If you aren’t behind, it should not be a problem if you have flash up/mobility abilities, if the enemy jungler/lanner has no CC or much brust, or the enemy jungler position is known.

Yellow-Orange: After the yellow line you should know where all players are (mainly the enemy jungler) if you need to use an ability like Talon’s Cutthroat. If you have flash and no vision on the jungler, you can play aggressive, but it may just turn to a five minute passive lane (flash cooldown). If you are playing a ranged champion, harass if you know you won’t receive damage back.

Orange-Red: You probably won’get t a kill unless he is overextending and is low or if you have an excruciating amount of burst.

After the red line: Know everything I said before. If you are melee it’s probably a bad idea, if you are ranged you can harass, but be careful with the tower agro. If you want to kill you must have a way to get out of the tower and the enemy should be low and not have any CC to lock you down and his flash should be on cooldown too (unless you have tons of CC or mobility). Personally I usually only go that deep when I’m playing someone like Katarina and the person is low enough to die with my Q-E-W, so that I can E out of the tower to a ward or a creep.

Bloodshroom Teemo by Sydlanel

When not to be aggressive.

This is kind of redundant since I’ve said when to go, and some are very obvious, but here it is.

Don’t go aggressive when you can’t win the trades. This is mostly about knowing the matchup, which I won’t explain completely here. You should know when you can go in, and when you should leave. For example, I would jump to an Ahri to harass with Talon if she missed her Charm and Orb, but run away after one or two AA.

When the enemy jungler is seen by a ward near you. Another obvious one. But understand that you should not show that you know that he is there. The more time he wastes the better. Tell your team that you have the enemy jungler near you, so they know that they can go aggressive.

Knowing power spikes is another thing that I can’t stress enough. If you are strong earlier on, you should use your advantage. If you are stronger late game, take less risks, because you’ll be strong *if* you manage to get there, and the sooner the better. For this example I’ll talk about Irelia vs Pantheon (top lane). Irelia gets destroyed by Pantheon early on, but after the Sheen/Trinity Force Irelia will win with ease.

Ending note

I usually play aggressive, but not by a lot. Going aggressive is the best way of getting an advantage, but may also be your demise. You should know when to go in and out, but never stop farming. Know if it’s worth the risk. By punishing small mistakes, you’ll be starting to get more and more ahead. The more ahead you are, the more aggressive you can play. If they can’t fight you, push them out of lane or freeze to deny them experience and farm. Another option is to get the tower and roam.

Good luck on the fields of justice.