The Mid Lane is home to some of the Most Popular Players in League of Legends history. This lane is one of the most contested lanes to play in because everyone wants to prove that they have what it takes to shine. In this Mid Lane guide, we’ll look at some of the stuff that every aspiring mid laner should take a look at. While mid lane is arguably the most popular role, not everyone is actually cut out to play this role simply because they lack the knowledge to make it work.
About The Mid Lane
The lane is seen as the lane that requires the most skills where some of the most outplays happen. Most mid lane mains at higher ELO are already naturally talented or have worked hard enough to become as skilled as they are today. However, not everyone who wants to play mid lane have the same skillsets and talent as Faker. If you’re a person who wants to try to play this lane, let’s explore it together with this Mid Lane Guide!
The Mid Lane isn’t only a place to showcase your talent. It has one of the most important responsibilities in the game and is probably one of the lanes that need to be active around the map. The state of the game is highly dependent on how the Mid Laner plays the macro and opens up possibilities for his/her other laners. Once you commit to being a mid laner, playing for yourself is no longer an option that you can cling to.
Mid Lane Champion Choices
First off in our Mid Lane guide, let’s take a look at some of the champion choices. We’ll be looking at the general classification of champion choices instead of Champion Class. This is mainly because Mid Lane is one of the more flexible lanes and isn’t constricted to play specific champions. You can essentially play any champion you want on the mid lane. However, we’ll be looking at the 5 most viable choices to help you understand the importance of each.
1. Control Mage
The control mage is the most popular choice in competitive play and has remained so for several seasons. To explain: A control mage is essentially an ability power champion with a set of CC or Displacement skills. They are able to control multiple enemies at once and often serve as the primary engage for their team or a lifeline that prevents the enemy team from catching them off guard. These champions also have a decent ability to carry the game but are more oriented towards team play rather than solo carriess.
Examples: Anivia, Azir, Orianna, Syndra, Lissandra, Lux, Cassiopeia Zilean, and Viktor
The strongest characteristic of a control mage is that they’re able to monopolize a tactical point in the map. Champions like Orianna and Azir are able to push back enemies simply by posturing on them because they’re able to release game-breaking ultimates that will almost always guarantee a kill on teamfight settings. They’re also masters of clearing waves. Choose a control mage if you’re planning on playing for the team while not surrendering the chance to carry the game if needed.
2. Hyper-Carry
The Hyper-Carry is as the name suggests. These champions only work towards gaining an advantage and building items by securing kills or farming up. Most hyper-carry champions are scales on items and ability ranks. The longer the game goes, the stronger these champions will become and will be devastating if left unchecked on the battlefield. Because of their heavy requirements, they need patient strategies and assistance from their own team.
Examples: Kassadin, Kayle, Yasuo, Yone, Corki, Zoe, Irelia, Ryze, Veigar
The beauty of playing hyper carry champions is that you can essentially take the game into your own hands. While this sounds enticing, it has very limited applications and you’re essentially directing all your team’s resources towards you instead of other lanes like the Bottom Lane. It can also prove to be a disadvantage in non-team settings because the team might not care about funneling the advantage to you.
3. Utility Tank
Utility tanks are the dreaded role in the Mid Lane. After all, if someone wanted to play tanks, they would have played in other lanes like the Top Lane or Support. However, there are situations that justify playing Tanks in the Mid Lane and that’s mostly in more coordinated or extremely uncoordinated teams like solo queue. While they’re called tanks, not all of them are mainly playing to be bulky but also offer a bit of control or damage. Mid Lane tanks aren’t pure tanks.
Examples: Galio. Gragas, Sion, Ornn, Sett, Nunu & Willump
Players often go utility tanks when they want to bring more CC to the table and are relying on other lanes to carry the game. In premade matches, utility tanks are chosen when there is a drastic difference in skill between your mid laner and the opposing mid laner. Unless your team mostly comprises of damage dealers, there’s no reason to go for a utility tank. Go for this choice only if you think that your team composition is lacking a reliable front line.
4. Roaming Assassin
The roaming assassin is probably the second most popular choice for mid laners. They are in-charge of controlling the macro state of the game and constantly threatening a roam towards the bottom or top half of the map. These champions are hungry for kills and will often try to look for openings to “help” an allied champion. They have strong global presence due to increased mobility or global spanning abilities. They almost never stay in lane.
Examples: Ahri, Akali, Ekko, LeBlanc, Twisted Fate, Zed, Pantheon
The goal of the roaming assassin is simple – GET KILLS. The strength of a roaming assassin is that they essentially always force the enemy jungler or mid laner to react and provide backup. This disrupts their laning phase and forces them to give up a bit of gold. If the enemy can’t react on time, you’ll be able to take a kill for you or a teammate. Sine some assassins have global skills, they can harass the enemy out of the lane and place them in a massive disadvantage.
5. Mid Lane Support
Much like the Utility Tank in this Mid Lane guide, the Mid Lane Support is a facilitative and selfless role. Just like regular supports, their main duty is to make sure that their allies are either safe or in a strong position to take a kill. Enchanters are the most common choice for support mid laners because they have good scaling with AP, meaning they can deal damage and clear waves as easily. They don’t play for the kill but are strong enough to engage the enemy head-on.
Examples: Karma, Seraphine, Morgana, Lulu
In contrast to Mid Lane tanks, supports can deal more damage or help buff allies to give them in a position to kill. They play purely to help the team survive. Mid Lane Supports are chosen if the team already has a tank and are trying to make either the Top Lane or AD Carry a hypercarry. In this case, they try to funnel as much resources as possible to their allies. This is also a great counterpick against overly-aggressive picks like assassins.
Mid Lane Guide: Duties and Responsibilities
The Mid Lane is crucial to the success of the game. They dictate the entire macro part and is the centerpiece to the strategy of every team. When things get rough, the team looks towards the mid laner to put them back on track. No matter what the position of the mid laner is, he/she is always doing something to make the game easier for the teammates. This Mid Lane guide will show you what you can do to achieve these duties and responsibilities.
Roaming
Roaming is the strongest part about being a mid lane. As a person who’s always nearest to every lane (including the jungle), you are able to travel back and forth the mid lane to provide support to your allies 24/7. Roaming isn’t necessarily done for the sole purpose of getting a kill but a more practical usage is to force a reaction from the enemy team. Roaming towards a lane will force the enemy laners to back off or move towards the lane to help a teammate in need.
Once the laning phase concludes, the mid laner finds himself all over the map, trying to scan the map for potential targets. The Mid Laner should always show that he isn’t passive in lane and tries to contest the wave clear so that he will be able to be the first one to react. Don’t stay in lane if there is nothing left to do. This doesn’t mean that you won’t get your CS. Always observe the lane state of your teammates to determine who needs help the most.
Reinforcement
On the other hand, Mid Laners should also act as Reinforcement. As mentioned in the previous mid lane guide tip, you are the closest to all of the lanes. This means that you should always be quick to help an ally in need when you think they are in danger or when they ask for help. However, providing reinforcement always places you in a disadvantageous situation because you’re coming into the fight very late.
The hardest part about being the mid laner is trying to match the opponents movements. Great mid laners know when an opponent is about to make a move and when they’re just luring you to follow them. To prevent the enemy mid laner from roaming too much, you can try pushing the wave quickly to force them to catch the CS or risk trying to roam towards another lane only to lose gold.
Carry the Game
Like all great mid laners before you, the role of a mid laner is to carry the game to victory. The mid laner is the centerpiece of a team and everybody expects you to have an extraordinary performance. If you aren’t in a position to carry the game by getting the most kills, you can carry in other ways like providing excellent utility or engages that will make any caster scream their lungs out.
Mid Lane Guide: Tips and Tricks
The mid lane is the heart of any team. The most important thing to keep in mind is that your team will always look towards you to help them out of a tricky situation. The Mid Lane is also extremely vulnerable from ganks since they can come from both sides. Always place your wards in positions that won’t easily be cleared by the enemy laner. Contest wave clear often so that the enemy can’t act freely.
Additional Mid Lane Tips
- Forcing the enemy to return to the base prevents roams
- Watch your allies’ lane states at all times
- Report in advance if you’re roaming towards an allied laner
- Try to bluff a roam to make the enemy miss a few CS
- Try to ask for the Blue Buff (if you’re a caster) to give you a significant advantage in wave clearing
Mid Lane General Overview
The Mid Lane is home to the most outstanding players in the world and for good reason. In this Mid Lane guide we learned that they are in-charge of so many things which essentially goes down to keeping the team together. Unlike how mid lane is mostly portrayed, the Mid Lane is actually a team-oriented role since they are closest to the other lanes. A good mid laner is able to capitalize on the flexibility of their position.
Is Mid Lane easy to learn?
Mid Lane is relatively difficult to learn. When playing for the team, the mid laner is in-charge of a lot of responsibities to keep the game together. Unless you’re a talented player who’s able to solo carry, you will need to learn a lot of things to play this role. All of which can be learned in this Mid Lane guide.
Become a LF minion
Subscribe to our mailing list and never miss the secret sauce on LoL or Promos on LF!
We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously
