Tower Diving in League of Legends is the act of deliberately entering the missile range of an enemy lane turret with the goal of killing an enemy champion or champions; ideally without taking too much tower aggro in the process and dying. Early game tower damage hurts a lot relative to the health you have so if you hit the enemy then both the tower and the enemy are going to try and hit you back.

The idea behind such a dive is to secure a kill and the gold that comes with it, which in turn gives you an experience lead in lane and an item build advantage to secure more kills or objectives. Typically you’ll just sit tight and focus on farming but, if your opponent is low on HP, mana, or both, then comes the temptation to punish.

The problem is that this temptation, coupled with human error, often results in failed dives. Solo queue usually lacks the communication and synergy that well organised teams have. There are language barriers, internet connection problems, differences in skill level – just to name a few hurdles - and these diminish the reliability of tower dives.

What not to do…

The video below shows several tower dives. The first dive is perhaps the most classic in terms of people getting it wrong, but also being during lane phase. Lissandra's lane is pushed, so she feels confident in engaging on Azir. Her opponent has low mana and low HP so it seems worth the engage, but Lissandra misjudges her opponent's weakness. She aggressively flashes to engage IN tower range, uses her ultimate and Ignite, and then realises she is out of mana. Azir reacts quickly and Flash/ults to knock Lissandra back into tower range. With no Flash, and no mana to travel away, she is an easy kill.

In the second gank, Renekton pushes his wave well onto Irelia and gets help from the Rammus jungle, but Irelia is great at moving under tower. Her Q - Bladesurge reset allows sharp movements and the Irelia uses this mechanic to draw attention to the far side of the tower before moving around it, maximising the amount of tower damage put out onto the aggressors. Rumble starts to suffer and leaves, but Renekton doesn't respect a) the lack of damage he can put out, b) the amount of damage he will take, and c) the fact that reinforcements in the form of a counter gank are highly probable. Lo and behold, Kha'Zix arrives and Renekton dies.

The final fight is an example of over-commitment. The fight was a strong attempt of team pushing and is to be applauded, but the communication and lack of shotcalling becomes apparent with the hesitation to disengage. The offensive team are pushed up far but become low on mana. This isn't too much of an issue with a good pack of minions alongside but this isn't the case. The additional lack of vision too really makes things dangerous but not as much as the grouping. All four members are in a tight pack, perfect for the Nunu/Bard duo to lay the crowd control down and pick everyone off.

Here we have another example of a tower dive going wrong – or right for the Vayne and Cho’Gath duo. This is another grouping, but they don't get the tower push right, let alone get to make mistakes beyond that.

The four man collapse is imminent, and the pair aren’t great on HP, but what works in their favour is smart positioning and the staggered engage from the opposition. They come in 1 by 1 and Vayne and Cho bait them to the far side of the tower, away from their tri bush. The result is an impressive looking skirmish and two kills apiece to Vayne and Cho’Gath.

What these videos tell us is that vision and communication are key and that decisive action is more beneficial. Even missing the HP, Cho’Gath and Lee Sin should still easily kill the Rumble and at worst one of them dies. One or both of them haven’t communicated with the other what they want to do or what they can’t do. In the second half of the video, the players clearly aren't aware of their surroundings and the fact they have each backed away in turn, and this kills them. In the other video they simply need to go in as a pack. Hesitation kills, but the wrong team!

How to do it properly…

A good dive is calculated. Know how much HP and Mana you have so you know how much your abilities are going to cost and how long you aim to be in the tower’s range. There’s no use going under tower if you’re going to be instantly killed, or to fire off a damage ability only to realise you’re out of mana and can’t use your escape move. You’d be surprised how often this happens…

Usually an opponent can fend off a 1v1 tower dive so ask for help. Your jungler will often be more than happy to come along as it takes the burden off the in terms of forward thinking – there’s less “when can I do this” and more reaction, which most players are more comfortable with.

To protect against tower dives players are taught to ward well to predict as much approaching movement as they can, which then allows them to coordinate assistance to their lane. The enemy team will call what they can from their own areas but they can’t call what they can’t see; all they can call is SS/MIA – player is missing. Upgrade your trinket to provide more wards or deny them with a sweeper lens and you can control the lane more. Better still, if you’re shoved up you should be safe to buy a Vision Ward (pink) and place it in the river bush to prevent a counter-gank from anywhere but behind the tower.

In this video we see the current EU LCS first place team Fnatic 4-man tower diving the Unicorns of Love in their very first game of the Summer Split – a sign of things to come. UOL have a 3-man defence, plus tower damage, to offer a sturdy opposition to this brave Fnatic move. Ultimately Fnatic have too much C.C. in the form of Alistar’s Pulverise, Ashe’s Ranger’s Focus slows, Mega Gnar’s Boulder Toss and Wallop, and Gragas’ Barrel Roll, Body Slam, and Exploding Cask.

What’s really impressive here though is communication and the juggling of tower aggro. YellowStar’s Alistar takes the aggro first, and then he walks out of range. Rekkles on Ashe is free poking before picking up aggro. He then flashes out of harm’s way. Reignover’s Gragas tanks next – a few hits before having to flash out of danger – and so then the hits pass to Huni on Gnar. The timing was such that all throughout this fight Gnar was Mega Gnar. Some teams would use this to soak up damage as a tank but Fnatic, smartly, allow him to dish out regular and repeated slows and stuns so the team pick up the kills. Fnatic sacrificed Flash spells to prevent any deaths – exactly what the Summoner’s Spells are meant for.

This is obviously a professional and coordinated effort so in solo queue it won’t be so well done. The core things that will help you be successful are:

- Know your abilities and their costs/the damage dealt
- Know your opponent’s Summoner Spells and when they’re on cooldown
- Ask for help and work to this (push the lane fast or slow depending how close help is)
- Maintain your vision or deny theirs; increase the risk for to deter help from coming to them
- Know where the other enemy champions are before committing

Itemising well is good but it depends on what time of the game you’re at. Too early and you’ll likely have only been to base once. Armour, HP, or good chunks of damage are what you’re after, depending on your champion. If you really want to play safe you can wait it out and buy an Ohmwrecker to turn off the tower for a few seconds, but it’s perhaps more useful to have an item like Randuin’s Omen or Righteous Glory to beef you up.

To end we have the ultimate mix of what not to do versus epic outplay. Team Liquid’s Korean midlaner Fenix stands his ground in the bottom lane against a four man tower dive from CLG’s ZionSpartan, DoubleLift, Aphromoo, and Xmithie…

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