Hey everyone, we all know that feeling when you're playing ADC, cosplaying Doublelift
in lane, but it's totally irrelevant because your support is AFK, staring at your laners
and jungler, spending more time talking than playing.
All while you're busy 1v2'ing
Today, we're going to show you how to make even the most idle of supports look good,
as we sent Lattman into gold elo to see how he could still dominate the lane phase.
As a taste of what's to come, here's a preview of Lattman's Sona killing a scuttle crab while
he's left to 1v2 alone, in lane.
Pretty standard right?
Oh, and if you're a support player, this guide should help you a ton with how you can default
win lane with correct positioning and identifying windows to punish mispositioning.
Let's break down the match-up first.
Lattman is playing Lucian Sona vs Draven Bard.
Draven wins in damage, while Lucian has move waveclear with Q. Their range is about even.
Sona has slightly less damage than bard, but better sustain.
The big takeaway is the damage is high on both sides vs squishy champions, which means
the right plays will pay off harder.
Lucian's game plan should be:
Mission 1: Let Draven push.
Lucian doesn't want to push the wave away from his tower, or he risks getting run down
by Draven if someone gets hit by Spinning Axes.
Mission 2: Look for isolated trades.
Having less damage doesn't mean you're powerless.
Timing trades on Draven's last-hits or when his Bard leaves him alone will be key to winning.
Mission 3: Play parallel with ranged support.
Playing parallel with ranged supports is essential to having any type of lane pressure.
We'll talk more about this in the guide, along with what Draven should do.
Let's jump into it.
Lattman starts by leashing red buff, as he pulls off, we see Sona stick around for too
long, while Lucian is on his way to lane.
And then we can see that Draven is in lane early, meaning he didn't leash.
This seems bad, but it's actually totally fine for the Lucian.
This is because mission 1 is to let Draven push.
By being in lane immediately, Lucian wouldn't be hitting the minions anyway as he wants
to setup a freeze.
So sure enough, Lucian gets into lane and we can see Draven is pushing.
This is great for Lucian and it highlights how most low elo players have no idea what
to do with their leash advantage.
Draven wants the level lead and it's good he's securing it - but what Draven is not
thinking about is: what happens when you get the level lead?
Can you tell what he's doing wrong?
Draven wants level 2 first to run down the Lucian.
But by pushing this hard, the wave will be near Lucian's tower when he gets level 2 - which
is where Lucian wants it and could farm safely, even with a level down.
Draven only needed to be a single minion ahead to secure level 2 and now he will likely end
up with the wave in this spot, instead of here, when he hits 2, dramatically reducing
the chance he can convert it into a meaningful lead.
When you find yourself with a leash advantage, think to yourself: What are you trying to
achieve in the lane?
To contrast, if this was an Ezreal Karma vs a Draven lane, they would want to push right
with their high wave-clear to deny pressure and just harass from range even with a level
2 lead.
Whereas the Draven wants room in the lane to run someone down with level 2.
Anyway, let's play out the next moment of this lane.
While watching, try to identify why both bot lanes are playing incorrectly.
Rolling it back, look at Draven.
He's got an exp lead, but he's not pushing forward to punish Lattman for getting any
of these melees, he's just hitting the casters which won't get him anything.
Granted, his Bard is probably AFK in this brush, but Draven should at least be threatening
by pushing up and encouraging his support to get aggressive here.
And then soon after Sona decides to AFK, likely playing some mini games, when she could be
playing parallel to the Lucian, ready to 2v1 punish any last hits if Draven steps up by
himself.
By playing parallel with your support, we basically mean: side by side.
By standing side by side, it means that the opposing lane cannot move forward unless they
are also side by side.
If Draven would walk up to into their range, he would get hit by two people simultaneously,
resulting in a lost trade.
Therefore, Draven can only walk up and harass if his support is also parallel, so they can
trade together.
This is something low elo players struggle with and is something you can look to exploit
for free trades.
Note: This is true only for when you play with a ranged support.
With a melee support, you need them to be in front of you when trading and which we'll
talk more about in the near future.
Anyway, Sona quits the arcade and starts playing League, running into Draven for a trade with
no apparent logic - as Draven isn't going for a last-hit or anything and has a wave.
However, since Bard is *definitely* AFK in that brush, if Lattman followed this up they
could've traded positively here for mission 2, but correctly went for last-hits instead.
With Sona currently being proactive, now it's Lattman playing passively and Sona loses nearly
her whole health bar for it.
So what went wrong?
Is this still Sona's fault?
Well here, Draven doesn't have any last-hits to get and is safely with his ranged minions.
So Sona's just walking into minions and tanking an auto.
And then here, Sona is actually punishing on a last-hit, but it's a melee.
Lattman could've followed this one up for mission 2 - but wasn't on the same page.
This is partly due to harass being more optimal if he went for it when Draven goes to CS casters,
as he has to push up further for them, resulting in Lattman tanking less damage from the opposing
wave while punishing.
And then this trade is especially bad.
Sona's lane activity has motivated Bard to help Draven and they definitely don't want
to be walking up and taking a 2v2 trade here, a level down and remember: mission 2 is to
take isolated trades to win with less damage.
Anyway, during these shenanigans Draven did hit level 2 and Lucian was able to get the
wave to his side safely with mission 1, though Draven didn't even attempt to take advantage
with the level lead.
With the lane now soft frozen in a safe spot and the levels equalised it's time to start
playing to missions 2 and 3.
Ideally what he's looking for here is to stick with Sona around the ranged minions in the
parallel position.
Meaning they can instantly fire upon whoever steps forward from the Bard Draven in an isolated
trade.
Bard ends up missing with his Q, which removes a lot of their threat.
If Lattman was playing in high elo, he'd E here and get a short trade.
But instead, he waits and focuses on his upcoming last-hits.
Why do you think that is?
High elo players stay more disciplined about playing parallel with a ranged support, so
this would be a small window where Lattman can get a quick positive trade and he'd take
it.
However, this is Gold so his opponents probably aren't trying to play parallel.
With Bard Q down, chances are in the next 11 seconds Draven and Bard will once again
split up, allowing for a trade that'll actually change the lane.
Sure enough, they were able to get Draven isolated while Bard is probably busy looking
at other lanes while, waiting for his Q.
Lattman's patience here comes down to taking a little risk for much higher reward.
The risk was missing a trade opportunity if they didn't end up separating, but the reward
was an extended trade of damage on the ADC - which is a lot more valuable than the support,
given he has to move forward to CS and has less potions.
After that amazing trade, Sona goes back to sleep.
And it's at this point, most ADC's would just go in for what is a clear kill opportunity,
hoping their support will wake up and follow.
But Lattman stays disciplined and pulls back, check out the pings he throws out on the minimap
now though.
While Draven and Bard weren't parallel, they were grouped, with Sona sitting in the back.
Lattman knows he needs Sona to go all-in or at least trade with them for missions 2 and
3.
The amount of pings he dished out is exactly what you need to do to wake up your supports
and get them on the same page, with Sona once again on the move, let's see what happens.
Lattman patiently waited for the Draven to go for a last-hit before finally going all-in,
with an early heal to deny ignite, he picks up an easy kill for first blood.
So we've talked about a lot and perhaps your biggest takeaways should be about how Lattman
played around his support very effectively - even though his support had no gameplan
and wasn't even moving half of the time.
He did this while smartly avoiding trades with the Bard/Lucian when they were grouped
and Sona was out of position.
Lattman avoided getting baited by Sona's bizarre trades toward the start and made sure he got
past the threat of being at an exp disadvantage through smart wave management.
And only went in when Sona was playing parallel and they were able to take isolated trades,
abusing the windows where the opposing support was cosplaying Sona.
Eventually, leading to a kill as two players.
Remember: If you're stuck in silver, gold, or whatever and your support seems to suck
- remember: the opposing support is usually going to be of similar level to your own.
Lattman knew this and waited for opportunities to exploit when the Bard was misplaying and
held himself back when his own support was misplaying.
Alright, so that's it for this one.
Thanks for watching and we'll catch you next time!