League of Legends is a very competitive game and even minor differences in skill between you and your opponent can be the deciding factor between a won or lost game. There are various micro and macro skills involved in League of Legends, one of which is the positioning of your champion.
Positioning in League of Legends depends on the role and champion you are playing. In lane, you need to position away from the enemy jungler. In team fights, tanky engage champions tend to position in the frontline while carry champions stay at maximum range while dealing damage from the back.
Not only is it extremely important to position well in a lane to gain advantages and punish your opponents, but it is also equally important to position well in team fights to get maximum value out of your champion’s kit. You need to make sure you perform the role that your champion is meant to perform in a game, which requires careful positioning in a team fight.
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What Is Positioning
Your position (or Positioning) refers to the exact location at which you’re present, at any stage of the game. How close or far away from your opponent are you? Do you have an escape route? Do you need to stand near terrain, or away from it? All these questions must be answered to determine your position.
Positioning is important because it is what prevents you from getting caught or punished for being too far up. It is also what allows you to punish your opponents and pounce on them as soon as they take one step wrong.
Basics Of Positioning
As we have mentioned above, positioning is part of a person’s micro skills. In order to learn how to position, we must learn about the basic thought processes involved in determining your position.
Vision
During the laning phase, it is important that you keep track of the enemy’s position on the map. If you are unsure, make sure to use your wards and gain vision in the river or brushes. Wards save lives and this is one of the strengths of the Support role.
Make sure you play safe when you lack vision of the enemy and position aggressively when you determine that you can’t be punished. Weak siding is a concept mainly based on knowing the enemy’s position and assuming the worst when you are unable to gain vision of them.
Junglers
Tracking the enemy jungler can be a bit tricky but there are general concepts you can implement to make things easier. Has the jungler just cleared their top or bot side jungle? Chances are they might be looking for a gank on the surrounding lanes.
If you determine that the enemy jungler might be looking for a gank, you can position away from him in the lane. If you are playing mid-lane and you spot the jungle, try to stick to the opposite side of the lane so you can run into the opposite river when you get ganked. You can also play on your own jungler’s side so he can help you easily.
When your jungler is looking for a gank, you can attempt to play aggressively and try to bait your opponent. You can also take trades that might tempt the enemy laner to all-in you and get ganked.
Resource Advantage
Every champion in the game relies on at least one resource: Health. Various other champions depend on a secondary resource such as mana. When you have the advantage over your opponent in these resources, you can position aggressively. This will allow you to zone them off minions (CS) and maybe even experience.
On the contrary, you need to play safer and look for a Recall with minimum loss when your resources are low. Mana-dependent champions can not use their abilities without fulfilling the mana costs and low health puts you at risk of dying.
Positioning Based On Your Role
Top Lane
Top lane is a very punishing lane. During the lane phase, you must position near the enemy’s dying minions to last hit them while taking minimal damage. If you can’t last hit without sacrificing too much, then you must position safely and let the minion die.
In order to punish the opposing laner for last hitting minions, you can stand near your own dying minions and take a trade so your opponent has to decide between last hitting or trading back. Always be wary of a gank and keep your river warded. Use the brushes to drop minion aggro or to avoid getting poked out by targeted abilities.
During team fights, your job can vary. If you are playing a tank, you need to look for an engage so your team can catch someone off guard and get a number advantage. You also need to peel your damage dealers and help them survive.
If you are playing a carry champion, you need to frontline without getting poked down or killed. Look for an engage by your teammates, and try to collapse on the enemy’s carry and kill them. Make sure you deal the maximum damage before you get killed.
Jungle
As a jungler, your job is to make sure you are present on the right side of the map at the right time. During early and mid game, the positioning of a jungler is based on what job he needs to perform. If you know a lane is about to get ganked, you can position yourself near it to set up a counter-gank.
You can position yourself near the opponent’s jungle and invade if you know your laners have priority and can cover you. When you know that a lane matchup requires your help, you can path towards it while clearing your jungle. Make sure you recall on proper timings so there is no downtime in your pathing.
In team fights your job depends on the champion you are playing. Similar concepts to top lane apply to you as well. Peel for your carries and look for an engage. If you are the carry, then make sure you ensure your survival and try to deal as much damage as possible. Try not to position away from objectives like Baron and Dragons when they are available.
Mid Lane
Mid lane is similar to top lane when it comes to positioning around junglers and knowing when to go for the last hit and when to play safe. Position towards the side your jungler is on so he can help you. Position away from the side the enemy jungler is on.
Try to roam and help your jungler or side lanes when you cant achieve much in your own lane. In team fights, you need to be the secondary carry and catch people off guard or try to deal maximum damage.
If you are playing an assassin, you can look to dive the enemy carry. If you are playing a burst mage, you can look to burst someone to gain an advantage in numbers. If you are playing a control mage, you can try to deal consistent damage while zoning the opponent from your team, choke points, or objectives while staying out of their threat range.
ADC
Marksmen have always been the main carry role as the name implies. During the laning phase, you need to farm safely and avoid getting ganked. Try to position behind your caster minions so you are not in the range to be engaged by opposing support. But try to stay close enough to follow up on your support’s engage.
In team fights, you might not be able to deal damage to the enemy’s carries because of the opponent’s frontline. In such a case, stay at your maximum range and try to dish out as much damage to the enemy’s frontline before a way is cleared for you to deal with the enemy backline. Your job is to survive at any cost and constantly dish out damage.
Support
Your job is to ensure your team can do their job properly while investing all your resources into them. During the laning phase, you need to positing across the opposing ADC and look for an engage. You can also roam to other lanes after recalling and get them ahead when your ADC is not in danger.
If you are a poke support, you need to stay at maximum range and poke the opponent without getting ganked or engaged on. If you are playing an enchanter, chances are you won’t be able to win lane and will need to play safe and scale. Make sure to ward areas that provide you with the most amount of information on opponents’ positions.
During team fights, if you are playing a tank support, you need to position in the front line and look for an engage on the enemy carry. If your carry gets engaged on, peel them by positioning next to them. Enchanters stay in the backline and try to keep their carries topped up so they can dish out damage without fear of getting killed. Make sure to keep objectives warded.
Conclusion
Positioning is extremely important in deciding how much work you can put out before you get taken out. It is a complex topic and there is no easy answer to it. Make sure you keep the concepts you learned in this article in mind when deciding where you need to position yourself.
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