League of Legends Wave Control Guide

Laning is a key aspect in League of Legends in many ways. Understanding what a push or freeze is, as well as when to use these strategies, significantly influences your success on the line and your victory in the game as a whole. In this Lol Wave Control Guide, we tried to explain as clearly as possible the concept of wave management, each of the strategies that you can find in the game and when exactly to resort to it.

What is Wave Management?

To start, let’s understand the concept of wave management in LoL, or wave control. It involves smart handling of minion waves. This crucial skill affects the game right from the start to the intense final stages. The key strategies include freezing, fast bouncing, slow and fast pushing, and the stacking a.k.a. holding. Each method offers specific advantages and can be applied in various scenarios to gain an advantage. However, before studying control strategies, let’s get acquainted with the behavior of minions in the lane. This will allow us to better understand when to use each type of wave management techniques. Keep in mind that understanding wave management, including its timing and purpose, is a learning process. Therefore, if you need a teacher who will show in practice all the intricacies of laning, then you can always use our LoL Coaching service.

How Minions Spawn in LoL

Minions begin appearing on the map from both teams at 1:05 and keep appearing every 30 seconds until the game ends. Minions reach the middle of the middle lane in just 22 seconds because it’s the shortest lane, compared to the 32 seconds it takes in the top and bot lanes.

A standard minion wave consists of 6 minions, while a cannon minion wave includes 7 minions. The Cannon minion is a special siege unit that deals increased damage to enemy structures. It appears every third wave, which means every minute and a half.

This rule works up to 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, a cannon wave appears every second wave, which means every minute. This puts more stress on the enemy’s buildings (and yours) and brings the game closer to ending.

After 35 minutes, a cannon appears in every wave of minions, which, with the help of heroes and tactics that we will describe below, leads to the destruction of Inhibitor and the appearance of Super Minion.

When you destroy an enemy inhibitor, a super minion will join each wave in that lane every 30 seconds for the next 5 minutes, which is how long it takes for the inhibitor to respawn. These super minions only travel down the lane where the inhibitor was taken down. If you manage to destroy all three enemy inhibitors, each wave will include two super minions. Also, note that while an inhibitor is down, no cannon minions will appear in that lane until the inhibitor is back up.

Minion Pushing Advantage

Your minions in League of Legends gain three types of enhancements if your team is leading. These improvements are based on two factors: your team’s average level being higher than the enemy’s, and the number of enemy turrets your team has destroyed in a particular lane. The calculation involves subtracting the enemy team’s average level from your team’s average level. If your team has a level advantage, your minions will inflict extra damage on enemy minions. This bonus damage is 5% plus an additional 5% for every turret your team has taken down in that lane, multiplied by your team’s level advantage.

Moreover, your minions will take reduced damage output from enemy minions. The damage reduction is calculated as 1 plus 1 for each turret advantage in that lane. For instance, if you’re two turrets ahead, the formula is 1 + (team level advantage x 2), which gives the amount of damage reduction.

Minions also receive bonuses after killing Nashor. More precisely, the hero who kills the Baron shares the buff with the minions.

How to Target Minions in League of Legends

League of Legends Wave Control Guide

Minions in League of Legends march along a lane until they find an enemy target, focusing on it until it’s destroyed or a more important target comes into range. They follow a specific priority order when choosing targets, and they reassess their focus periodically. This means they’ll switch to a higher-priority target if one appears.

Here’s how the minion target priority system is structured:

Enemy champions attacking an allied champion.
Enemy minions attacking an allied champion.
Enemy minions attacking an allied minion.
Enemy turrets attacking an allied minion.
Enemy champions attacking an allied minion.
The nearest enemy minion.
The closest enemy champion.
This order ensures minions focus on the most immediate threats or objectives in their vicinity.

The minion priority system in League of Legends is quite simple, but there’s a key detail about their top priority target, which is the enemy champion attacking their allied champion. Many players believe that minions only react to enemy auto-attacks, and they’re partly right. However, that’s not the only trigger for minion aggression. If you use target spells against an enemy champion, the minions will also shift their focus to you. This means both auto-attacks and target spells can draw minion aggro towards you.

What is Lane Priority

Wave manipulation is an important strategy for establishing lane priority and controlling the pace of the game.

Lane Priority is basically having control over the lane by being able to push the wave into the enemy tower without the enemy laner being able to stop it.

Level 1: It’s crucial to understanding the power dynamics at level 1. It’s because certain champions possess stronger trading capabilities, which enables them to establish dominance and gain early lane priority.
Roaming: It’s important to consider the wave manipulation before roaming. Pushing the wave towards the enemy turret before roaming helps to minimize the loss of minions and experience.
Ganks: You should coordinate with your jungler to control the wave, as it can create opportunities for successful ganks. Timing a freeze or slow push can make your lane an attractive target for your jungler.
Denying resources: To prevent the enemy laner from farming and gaining experience freeze the wave near your turret. This strategy can be especially effective against champions who have difficulty farming under turret.

So, how to manage wave in League of Legends? Let’s find out the basics of wave management and how to master the art of wave control. There are different types of wave management in LoL, and we’ll cover each of them.

How to Fast Push

Fast pushing the line forces the enemy to pay attention to the line, otherwise he will lose large amounts of gold and experience, and in extreme cases, a tower or inhibitor. Which will radically change the balance of power.

To quickly push a wave, focus on eliminating all the melee minions in the front and any cannon minions present. Use a combination of your basic attacks and area-of-effect (AOE) skills to speed up this process. The key to effective fast pushing is to outnumber the enemy with your minions. Having more minions than the opponent makes your push faster and stronger.

When you want to Fast Push:

Use minions to tank tower shots and add damage when diving an enemy.
Pressure enemies with weak wave clear using minion advantages.
Quickly push waves to enemy towers after they recall or are defeated.
Adjust strategy based on enemy respawn times or Teleport availability.
Reset the wave in lane’s center if wave clear is insufficient.
For fast pushing, thin the wave and leave a few enemy ranged minions before recalling.

How to Slow Push

In the mid lane, especially during the laning phase, slow pushing is a strategy used to build up large waves of minions. This tactic is effective for applying pressure on the enemy while you roam elsewhere on the map.

By slow pushing, your minions endure less damage and gradually advance towards the enemy’s tower. This occurs because your minions consistently outnumber the enemy’s, leading to their increased survival and a steady push.

Slow pushing is a simple strategy in the game. To start a slow push, focus on clearing out the enemy caster minions. This can be done by using your basic attacks and abilities for faster results. Additionally, simply having more minions than your enemy naturally results in a slow push. When your side has the minion advantage, the wave will gradually move forward at a slower pace.

When you want to Slow Push:

Roam and Assist Other Lanes: Ensure your lane is slow pushing before roaming to prevent quick enemy pushes and tower damage. Regularly check your lane while roaming.
Recall for Item Purchases: In middle to late game, slow push before recalling to build a large wave that pressures objectives. Avoid slow pushing when recalling in the early game.
Execute Map Plays: Set up a slow push before moving to objectives like Dragon, Rift Herald, or Baron, to maintain lane pressure and reduce enemy counterplay opportunities.
Create Large Minion Waves: Use slow pushing to build massive waves, a common wave management tactic in professional and solo play. This forces an enemy to clear the wave, potentially creating a numerical advantage for your team at objectives. And if you want to enhance you game experience with a pro just use our League of Legends Duo service.

How to Freeze

In League of Legends, freezing the lane is a nuanced wave management tactic that involves careful observation of the enemy’s actions. It’s most effective when you’re on par with or ahead of your opponent. To effective freeze a wave, you need to last-hit enemy minions at the very last moment.

Matching the enemy’s damage is crucial in maintaining a freeze. When the enemy laner deals damage to minions, you should do the same to keep the wave balanced. This ensures that both teams’ minions perish at similar rates, preventing the wave from moving significantly in either direction.

If you don’t replicate the enemy’s damage or attack the minions too much or too little, the wave won’t freeze and will start pushing in an unintended direction. Balancing your attacks is key to successful freezing.

When you want to Freeze:

Deny Enemy Farm: Frozen lane prevents the enemy from safely farming minions, reducing enemy gold and experience gain.
Maintain Lane Safety: By freezing near your tower, you minimize the risk of being ganked and can farm more securely.
Control Lane Momentum: Successful Freeze lets you control the wave’s position, making it easier to manage and respond to map events.
Pressure Opponent: Forces the enemy laner to overextend for farm, making them vulnerable to ganks or engages.
Resource Management: Efficiently conserves and utilizes your minions to maintain a strategic advantage in lane.

How to Bounce

In League of Legends, a “Quick Bounce” refers to a wave management technique where a player rapidly pushes a minion wave into the enemy tower with the intention of making the wave “bounce” back towards their own side of the lane.

Here’s how it works:

Rapid Pushing: The player quickly clears the enemy minion wave, usually using abilities or auto-attacks, to push their own minions to the enemy tower.
Tower Aggression: The enemy tower starts attacking the player’s minions. Since the tower shot kills these minions rapidly, there is no allied wave left in the lane.
Wave Reset: Once the player’s minions are cleared by the tower, the enemy minion wave starts to push back towards the player’s side of the lane. This happens because the next enemy minion wave arrives before the new allied wave, creating a numbers advantage for the enemy.

The purpose of a quick bounce is often to reset the lane, creating a safer farming position or setting up for a potential freeze. It can also be used to create a temporary window of time to roam or recall without missing too many minions, as the enemy wave will take time to push back.

Mid Lane Wave Management

Wave management in League of Legends’ middle lane differs from the side lanes due to its shorter length and faster minion wave arrival, making some wave management techniques less effective.

Mid laners often can’t effectively freeze waves early on because they usually don’t have defensive items and aren’t tanky enough initially. Additionally, many mid lane champions have high damage and kill potential, which can make freezing risky. Despite this, freezing can still be a useful tactic in certain situations.

In the middle lane, the safe zones for wave management techniques like freezing are smaller. This can be challenging, as many champions can easily disrupt your wave management efforts, making it a situational and skill-dependent strategy.

Moreover, because the mid lane is highly susceptible to ganks, early game wave management here is crucial. Positioning the wave advantageously is key to avoid unexpected ganks and maintain control of the lane.

Zoning in Lane

Zoning in League of Legends involves positioning yourself between the enemy and their minion wave, or adopting an aggressive stance in the lane. This tactic isn’t just about engaging in combat; it’s about exerting psychological pressure, making the enemy cautious or even intimidated by your presence.

To effectively zone an opponent, consider the following:

Advantage for Trades: Ensure you have the upper hand in terms of strength or the ability to win trades. Without this advantage, zoning becomes challenging.
Ward Coverage: Maintain good vision with wards. This is crucial to avoid being ambushed or caught off guard while you’re in an extended position.

Effective zoning allows you to land poke on the enemy and deny them farm (CS), impacting their gold and experience gain.

Tips and Tricks

The laning stage is rich in nuances, the understanding of which comes with experience. However, in this section we will present a few tricks that you might not have thought of before.

Split Pushing

Split pushing is a valuable strategy in games, especially when trying to achieve goals while your team is occupied elsewhere. Utilizing a gradually building wave of allies can help you to effectively attack towers and put pressure on key targets. This approach not only aids in your direct efforts but also offers an advantage: the wave increases in size over time. So, even if you’re unable to directly use it to apply pressure, its growing strength can independently contribute to capturing objectives.

Advanced Zoning

Zoning in games should be done only if you have the capability to challenge and potentially engage in a fight with the enemy who attempts to farm or disrupt your freeze. If you lack the strength or means to effectively counter the enemy during the freeze, attempting to zone them may not be successful and could even lead to your defeat. It’s important to assess your ability to confront the enemy before trying to zone them, ensuring that you can maintain control without putting yourself at risk.

Silent Push

In certain games, the mechanics of minion reinforcements dictate that if minion waves are evenly matched on any part of the map, the wave will gradually begin to push towards the enemy’s side. This happens because the reinforcements for the minions on the nearer side arrive faster than those for the enemy. Therefore, if there’s a standoff of 6 minions against 6 minions, and they’re battling beyond the midpoint of the map, the wave will start to push in favor of the team on that side of the map. As time passes, this wave will also increase in size, gaining momentum.

Hope you enjoyed our Wave Management Guide and now feel more confident no matter what lane you’re standing on or what technique you’re using. But don’t forget that the wave control in games like League of Legends is complex due to the situational nature of the game, influenced by factors like champion choice and enemy strategies. It’s hard to have a one-size-fits-all approach, and decisions vary greatly depending on the scenario.

League of Legends Wave Control Guide

What is Wave Management?