The Mid Lane has always been a position with quite a lot of roaming potential, and certain Mid Laners can very frequently gank other lanes and help them to get ahead. There will often be times when it might be unclear as to whether or not you should roam, and this guide aims to help you better identify when the best times to roam as a Mid Laner are and where you might want to roam. With this idea in mind, where you decide to roam to will often be dependent on when you roam. When I say this, I do not mean the time in the game that you decide to roam, rather I am referring to the position you are currently in.

For example, when you are completely shoved under your tower, roaming would be a bad idea at this time due to the fact you would be sacrificing a large amount of experience and gold from the minion waves being pushed into your tower and your tower will take a large amount of damage. So, when are the best times to roam?

When and Where to Roam

It is best to roam when you have lane priority over your opponent, as this makes it harder for them to follow your roam. This essentially means that you have a good amount of pressure on your opponent, either pushing them under their tower and/or being able to effectively duel your opponent.

More often than not this means that you are pressuring your opponent by forcing back their minion waves, allowing you to roam first or completely uncontested (A couple of Mid Lane Champions that excel at pushing waves and roaming are Talon and Aurelion Sol). However, once you have lane priority, it becomes more of a question of where to roam.

To figure out where you can apply more pressure against the enemy team, you will want to analyze your mini-map and see which lanes are doing okay but could benefit from help before it is too late for them. If you see that both your Top and Bottom Lanes are doing well or are pushing up at the time you plan to roam, worry not!

This provides you with the opportunity to invade the enemy Jungle! If you do not have a good amount of vision, or any vision, going into the enemy Jungle, be careful approaching it unless you already see where the enemy Jungler is on the mini-map.

Take the opportunity to get some deep wards in their Jungle and take a camp or two on the way if you can, but it is important to remember not to greed for too much! If you are far enough ahead, you can look to fight the enemy Jungler and try and get a kill to set them back even further, allowing your Jungler to get ahead.

When roaming to the other lanes, whether it is Top or Bottom Lane, it is important to consider why you have chosen to roam to that lane. Are your teammates being pushed in, allowing you to effectively gank the enemy? Are your teammates ahead pushing the enemy back, allowing you to dive the enemy under their tower? Do you see the enemy Jungler roaming to that lane and you want to roam behind them and counter-gank?

These are some of the questions that you will want to consider when roaming around Summoner’s Rift. All of these situations are usually good times to roam as well, so long as you already have lane priority. But what happens if you do not have lane priority?

If you do not have lane priority, then you will want to consider your situation again. If you are being pushed under tower but your lane opponent is not roaming and they are staying in the lane to keep you pushed, you may want to stay in lane as well.

If you are being pushed in, and then your opponent decides to roam, then you might want to follow up on their roam after securing some of the wave, but before it is too late to follow them. By following them you can counter what they are trying to do, whether it be invade your Jungle or gank your fellow laners.

I would recommend only really following enemy roams if you are not too far behind already. When your opponent roams and they already have something like two levels or a large item advantage on you, it can be too dangerous to follow them, as they will likely just turn and kill you, further securing their lead over you.

If this is the case, I would recommend communicating to your team that the enemy is roaming and to be very wary of where they might pop up. When they have a lead like this and leave you in the Mid Lane alone, you can try to farm up and catch up to them in gold and experience.

This is not easy, but it is the best option most of the time when you are far behind. This is essentially playing for a time later in the game where the enemy has hopefully been unsuccessful in their roaming attempts and have allowed you to freely farm up to their power.

When you are really far behind and are being dived by the enemy consistently, this can also be an okay time to roam, as this has really become your only option. If you are behind to the point where going to lane is just continuously resulting in your death, roaming to assist other lanes in getting ahead and abandoning your lane can sometimes save the game. But how can this be the case?

The reason for this that you are not giving the opponent any more easy opportunities to get free kills from you, while at the same time are applying more pressure to other lanes. This ultimately sacrifices all pressure in the mid lane and allows the enemy to take your tower more rapidly.

This will put you behind in experience, however your goal is to now become essentially a secondary Support and try to get your other lanes ahead, while trying to not get overly behind. This is not something that you would want to do if you are not already very behind and are being constantly dived.

Hopefully these ideas help you to improve your presence around the map as a Mid Laner, whether you are ahead or behind, and I hope that you are able to successfully utilize these methods in your coming games! Good luck and remember to leave your lane and win the game with your roams!

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