Minions are often looked at as a source of income for players to reach their item or level powerspikes. However there's more to minions than a player might expect. Proper minion management can mean the difference between forcing a 4v5 fight at Baron or losing a turret uncontested. In this guide, I will talk about minion mechanics and how a player can manage their minions to find advantages for themselves.

Minion Spawns

Minions spawn in the beginning of the game at around 1:05, then every 30 seconds subsequently after. The minions in the top and bottom lane crash with the enemy minions at around 1:47, while the minions in the middle lane crash at around 1:37.

There are three types of minion waves:

• Standard wave, consisting of three melee minions and three caster minions.
• Siege wave, consisting of three melee minions, three caster minions, and one siege (cannon) minion.
• Super wave, which consists of three melee minions, three caster minions, and one super minion. The last wave only spawns after one team takes out the enemy team's inhibitor in a lane.

For the first 20 minutes of the game, the pattern of wave spawns is two standard waves and then one siege wave. After 20 minutes, the pattern alternates between one standard and one siege wave. After 35 minutes, every wave will be a siege wave. The only except to these wave spawns are after the destruction of an inhibitor, making every wave spawn afterwards a super wave for a total of five minutes.

Minion Targeting

Minions always walk down a lane that they spawn in to find a hostile target. They will focus that target until it dies or if certain conditions are met.

Their targeting system prioritizes:

1. Enemy champion attacking an ally champion through auto attacks or single target spells
2. Enemy minions attacking an ally champion
3. Enemy minions attacking an ally minion
4. Enemy turrets attacking an ally minion
5. Enemy champion attacking an ally minion
6. Closest enemy minion
7. Closest enemy champion

For the first situation. Minions will only target an enemy champion who attacks an ally champion if that enemy champion is within the minions' auto range. Let's use the example from a Talon vs. Leblanc matchup.

If Leblanc were to auto Talon here, Leblanc will not receive minion aggression since she's not in range of their autos. She is able to free poke here. Talon would need to play farther back to not receive free poke.

Let's look at example two:

If Lebanc were to auto Talon in this lane state, where Talon is back behind his minions, Leblanc would receive minion aggression. She's in auto range of the minions and would have to play to avoid that. Talon would be in a good position here since he can use his W - Rake to farm the wave from a distance and stay in the safety of his minions.

Fast Push

Fast pushing is a standard push that every player knows (even if they don't consciously). This is just pushing the wave as fast as possible, constantly autoing or burning spells to shove the wave.

When to fast push?

There are a few reasons to fast push.

• Enemy laner has left lane (roaming or recall)

When the enemy laner has left lane (either through roaming, recall, or if they were killed through a solokill/gank), they can't contest the minion waves that a player pushes. Most of the time the laner should push the wave under the enemy turret as quickly as possible to deny the wave from their opponent and to apply pressure onto their turret. For top lane this also usually forces the opponent to burn their teleport summoner spell to catch that wave (this is especially punishing if they do not take teleport at all and have no global ability to return to lane).

• Wave clearing

This is a standard form of wave management when faced against a siege or if the player wants to recall. In the case of a siege, players just need to clear the minions to prevent the enemy from free hitting allied turrets. For recalling, pushing the wave under the turret of the opposing laner allows the player to have enough time to reset and run back to lane. This also mitigates minion loss. The ideal time to recall during laning phase (pre 20 minute waves) is to clear the second wave before the siege wave and recall. Pushing a siege wave takes a lot of time and the enemy laner 95% of the time cannot shove the wave in time to deny the player when they reset.

• Coordinating a dive

In higher levels of play, laners can coordinate with their teammates (usually the jungler) to force a dive. Having a lot of minions under a turret during a dive enables a team to dive effectively. The minions help tank some of the turret aggression. Remember the minion mechanics discussed earlier. If an enemy champion attacks a player, the minions will start to attack the enemy, forcing them to use their abilities to wave clear.

Sometimes the matchup just favors champions to fast push, even without the intent to dive. An example of a botlane match up is Ashe/Zyra vs. Aphelios/Lulu. Due to the nature of Ashe and Zyra, they want to be aggressive in the lane and pressure the turret or poke the enemy laners. Since Aphelios and Lulu want to farm and scale, they cannot match the win condition of Ashe and Zyra. Ashe and Zyra would want to force a fast push so that they can force Lulu Aphelios under their turret. From there Ashe and Zyra can use their abilities to poke and bully the enemy while they have to use their resources to wave clear.

Slow Push

Slow pushing is an important skill for the mid and late game portions of the game when the team wants to play for neutral objectives. It is also an important tactic for certain champion matchups.

• Laning Phase

In order to ensure slow push, a player just needs to kill the caster minions in a wave. A slow push may already be setup if the player has minion advantage. The minion wave will always slow push if the player has minion advantage.

Some matchups that utilize a slow push are Ranged vs Melee, or a Lane bully that is winning vs any champion. The slow push allows the champion with an advantage to stay ahead of their laner and zone their opponent. The laner that is behind has to overstep to try to CS, which could cost them a lot.

Darius Slow Pushes against Cho'Gath

This video link above (credits to domisumReplay), features a Darius slow pushing into Cho'Gath. Cho is being zoned off from the minions and being denied by Darius. At this moment, Cho'Gath oversteps and Darius immediately engages with his E - Apprehend.

Slow pushing is very powerful for champions that are in winning matchups and is a very powerful wave management tool to bully out enemy champions. However freezing is a better way to bully.

• Map Setup

Slow pushing is important for side waves when teams are playing for Dragons or Baron. A player can set up a slow push in a lane, and if done correctly, becomes a very large wave that is capable of taking down turrets if not answered by the enemy. When teams play for objectives, sometimes they won't consider answer a wave on the other side of the map. But if this setup succeeds, a team could end up forcing a 4v5 for an objective if the enemy opt to send a player to catch the slow pushed wave.

If the minion wave is our the player's side of the map, they simply need to have a two/three minion advantage. If the minions are on the enemy's side of the map, it'll require a four/five minion advantage. This will allow the minions to stack up with the upcoming wave and from there it'll amass greatly in numbers, until the enemy answers the wave and pushes it back.

Freeze

Freezing is a very essential skill to learn for minion management. It is also one of the most difficult because it requires the player to play off their enemy's actions. Every auto a player takes needs to be in accordance to the enemy. If the player autos less than the enemy, the wave will push towards them. If the player autos more, then the wave will push towards the enemy. The player must match the damage that the enemy applies in order to force a freeze.

• Where to Freeze

Leaving extra caster minions alive dictate where the minions will crash on the next weave. The area where the player wants to freeze can be shown in the picture above. In the blue area, a player would need three enemy caster minions. In the purple area the player would need two. The green area one, and the yellow area no minions. The Player can dictate where they want the wave to freeze depending on how many caster minions they choose to leave alive. From there they match autos and damage based on the enemy to keep the lane where they want it.

Most of the time the player wants to have the minions frozen close to their turret. This allows the minions to be close to the player's side, while also not too close for the minions to damage the tower.

Reasons to freeze here:

1. Preventing ganks from the enemy

2. The enemy champion has to overstep in the lane to cs, allowing an easy gank from the player's jungler.

3. Allows the player to farm safely and not overstep to cs, not being denied by the enemy.

• When To Freeze

Freezing is incredibly situational and the reasons to freeze vary from game to game and matchup to matchup.

Here are a number of reasons to freeze:

If the player is behind in the lane, they should try to freeze to avoid overstepping for cs. Freezing allows the player to safely farm and not risk losing their life or a summoner spell.

If a player is getting camped by the jungler, keeping the wave frozen allows them to stay safe and not get ganked.

If the enemy has recalled and they did not properly shove the wave into the player's turret, they can setup a freeze to ensure a safe farming lane for themselves.

Freezing has lots of benefits for the player, but it can also come at a cost. By freezing a lane, the player is ensuring that no pressure can come to their turret. However in doing so, the player themselves are also not applying pressure to the enemy turret. This opens up the opportunity for the enemy laner to roam and make plays around the map. When the enemy laner roams during a freeze, the player must break their freeze and push to pressure the enemy laner to return.

Conclusion

Wave management is a very difficult concept to grasp, and even players at the Diamond level have not perfected this mechanic either! League of Legends as a game is extremely situational and it comes down to players to be adaptable with their decision making. Knowing when to freeze, slow push, and fast push can be the difference in an advantageous baron fight or the loss of a sidelane turret. With that said I hope that I provided enough information on wave management why it is important!