Trading is one of the most important aspects of the laning phase. It often determines the victor of the lane as they’re able to pressure the enemy and force them to recall frequently. Through this, the laner can roam to other lanes to assist them in winning lane. By the end of this article, your ability to win trades will improve greatly.

Why is trading so important?

Before you learn how to trade properly, it's important to understand why this aspect of the laning phase is so important. To do this, I'll use the following scenario of a mid lane match-up of Yasuo against Zed. While the Zed has a slight advantage in this match-up in general, the Yasuo is able to slowly win back the advantage through smart trades by using his dash properly to maximize his damage output, while preventing the Zed an opportunity to land easy skillshots, which is the majority of his damage early. Through the use of proper trading the Yasuo is capable of completely turning what is often a slightly hard match-up in his favor. So essentially, by being able to properly trade, you'll be able to slowly gain an advantage in lane which you can then use to snowball other lanes as the game progresses.

Understand your champion

Understanding your champion and its limitations is the first step to winning a trade. A personal example is Dr. Mundo, as Dr. Mundo I like to start Doran's Blade and start E in order to win a level one trade through this cheese strategy. Along with my runes and masteries, I have over 100 AD at level one. Since I understand the power of my champion, I immediately go in for an aggressive trade against my opponent and end up with a first blood kill. This also shows the other side of this point. Since my opponent didn’t understand the power I possessed at level one due to this cheese strategy, he fought for longer than he should’ve which lead to his eventual death.

Get your damage in, then get out

Now that you understand your champion and its limitations, you should understand how long you should stay in a trade before you’ll lose it. An example of this is Renekton. Aside from his quick combo with his basic abilities, his trading prowess is quite weak. Because of this, a good Renekton player will always dash in get in his combo and dash out. Otherwise they provide the enemy a chance to respond with their damage output which will greatly beat out Renekton at that point. In summary, by understanding what the main source of your damage is early on, you'll be able to determine how long a trade should last in order to maximize your chance of slowly gaining an advantage in lane.

Abuse power spikes

Every champion has a moment in which they’re able to overpower their opponent. Whether it’s through level or items, it doesn’t really matter as long as you can abuse it. The well-known example of this (that has become a bit of a meme) is the level two power spike of Lucian. Thanks to Lucian’s power spike at level two, he can usually out damage all the other ADCs in the game. Because of this power spike, the Lucian will usually go for multiple aggressive trades at level two to take advantage of this advantage. So, by understanding when your champion gets its power spikes you’ll be able to guarantee an advantageous trade for yourself.

Finding the right range

When you’re trading, range plays a big factor in winning a trade and losing it as well. To use the Lucian example again, since he has a slightly shorter range than your average ADC, the enemy is able to take advantage of this. For example, if you’re a Caitlyn against Lucian, you should take advantage of the fact that you greatly out-range the Lucian and take multiple free shots, therefore making Lucian unable to go in for trades before he's taken a lot of damage. As you find the right range for trading for your champion of choice, you'll begin to realize that you'll have an easier time getting in free damage as the opponent attempts to farm as well, all leading up to the eventual kill.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of trading during the laning phase. With the proper mastery of this skill, you will be able to assert your dominance in lane and eventually spread the advantage to your other lanes. Along with this I hope you'll appreciate some of the smaller nuances in the game such as trading, because it's truly interesting to analyse and watch. Along with that, by having a better understanding of these nuances your possible skill cap with your main champions will also increase greatly. So hopefully, with this new found skill in your arsenal you’ll be able to win lane frequently, and if all else fails, just get the jungler to gank.

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