The new Rift Herald has now been out on the live servers for a while. While I think that we all know the Rift Herald can be used in many different ways, I’m here to tell you some of my favourite ways to use it.

In my eyes, the Rift Herald should be considered a highly contested objective as it can be used in so many great ways. When I am the Jungler, I always keep it warded and try to gank in ways that will set my team up for taking it down. The two main ways to set-up and take the Rift Herald are to get a successful gank off Top at around 10-15 minutes, or to just try and solo it/sneak it in with a laner. Right now you can solo it with a lot of champions around level 10.

In my opinion, the best person to give it to isn’t always the Top laner, but instead either the Jungler or the Mid laner. My reasoning behind that is that it's often better to be able to put it in any lane or just to make sure it can be used to push down the Mid as it has the highest priority. A strategy that might also work in some cases is to give it to your mid laner to make your Mid laner a target. Doing that will allow you to get a good counter-gank to clear the way for a summoning of the Rift Herald to push down Mid.

Fanart made by: @Sciencebang on devintart.com

The first way, and probably the most common, to use Rift Herald is to simply give the eye to a split push Top laner. It’s actually pretty self-explanatory. I mean, if you are pushing down a lane, it will obviously help your push a lot to have the Herald charging into the towers. It’s also great because if you get a kill on the enemy top laner or maybe you force him/her to recall, you will almost certainly get a free tower. As you may know the Herald's biggest weakness is that it is very vulnerable to crowd control. If there is no enemy there, no one will be able to CC it. If it wasn’t the top laner that was killed or out of lane (without Teleport), it would be easier for someone to roam down to that lane. Mid lane always has a focus on it and is closer to the other lanes so people will be able to respond. In the Bot lane, it is a much harder task to get both enemies out of lane.

Okay, so now we know that it is good to summon the Rift Herald in the Top lane, but how do you set up for it? Well, the easiest way is just to set up for a normal gank. That way if you get the kill, you will have two people that can help the Herald push down the lane. Since the enemy Mid laner is probably in their lane, they won’t make it up to top in time. The enemy Jungler will not be able to stop it alone since you are two champions plus the Rift Herald. To sum it up, you’ll get at least one tower and maybe even more.

Maybe the best way to use the Rift Herald in my opinion is to give it to the Jungler. The Jungler should then try to look for a gank as soon as possible. That way you can summon it without anyone there for sure. If you get into a lane and pull off a clean gank, you can summon the Herald quickly and no one will get there in time to save the tower. That way you can also pick any lane to push down. Otherwise the person with the Eye will have to get there, wasting time and missing farm. The other team won't know which lane you will push since the Jungler can get to any lane quickly. Basically, you’ll get the element of surprise.

The Mid laner is also great to give it to in many cases. The first case is the one I spoke about earlier. Getting a counter-gank and killing both the enemy Jungler and Mid laner will for sure lead to getting a tier 1 tower in the Mid lane. It is also great to be able to guarantee that you can summon it in the most prioritised lane at the right time. Of course, it will be really good to push down the Mid lane early as it gives your team great control. So, if there is a small window of time where it is clear to summon it, you will want to do it right away. If the Jungler has the Eye, they may not get there in time and you’ll miss your opportunity to get a nice lead.

I think we have all realised by now that there are many ways to use the Herald well, but these were my favourite ways. When I have tried them, they have worked out very well and, in many cases, given my team a great lead. Make sure to try these things out, and also make sure to experiment with this new Rift Herald to find the very best way to use it.

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