The goal of wave management in LoL is to control the movement of minions, although they can't actually be controlled directly by the player. You can still influence the minions through various tactics.

The management of the minion waves is an important skill in LoL to force the opponent into difficult situations. With good wave manipulation, a great gold lead can be built for your team. Here you can find out everything about the different types of wave manipulation.

Push

The push is the simplest form of wave management in League of Legends. Here you do as much damage as possible to the opposing minions in order to push your own wave to the opponent's tower as quickly as possible.

This tactic is most commonly used when you...

  • Want to recall to buy items
  • Prepare your wave for a turret dive
  • Want to destroy the tower
  • Know that the enemy can't farm under the tower
  • Want to roam to another lane

Slow Push

A large minion wave is built up by killing only one minion in an even lane (e.g. a caster minion). As a result, your own minions are slowly outnumbering the enemies', while they are just wiped out.

Waves that push slowly do not have to be pushed by a player to arrive at the opponent's tower. You can recognize a slow pushing wave by the fact that one minion wave is slightly outnumbered.

A slow push can be used particularly well to:

  • Prepare for a tower dive (better than normal push)
  • Slowly build up pressure on the map

Freeze

Here you try to freeze the minions in the lane. For this, a player only takes the minions' last hits. The waves freeze as soon as both sides of the minions are exactly equal and thus cause the same damage and also withstand the same amount. As a result, the minions meet at the same point over several waves.

The freeze is particularly good for parking the wave in front of your own tower to be safe from ganks. Additionally, if you freeze the wave in front of your tower, the opponent must run far into your half of the map. This makes your opponent vulnerable and easier to gank from your team.

Resetting the Wave

To break the freeze, the other player has to push the wave into the opponent's tower. This allows the wave to be reset so that the next waves meet again in the middle of the lane.

If this is not possible for you, you can also call the jungler for help.

Zoning your Opponent from XP/Gold

With a large item lead on your side, it can make sense to freeze the minions in front of your own tower and then place your champion between the minions and the enemy.

This makes it very difficult for the opponent to get XP, let alone gold. If the zoning is done properly, it can have a large snowball effect, which throws the opponent completely off track. This should make the game a lot easier for you.

Being Safe from Ganks

For the jungler, the lanes that are close to the opposing tower are particularly easy to gank. This opens up several gank paths for the jungler, which he can easily use.

To be safe from ganks, it is best to stand right in front of your own tower. If you are able to freeze the wave there without being pushed into your tower, it is almost impossible for the jungler to gank you.

The only option he has left is to turret dive. If you notice that a turret dive is coming up (that you would probably lose), it can make sense to leave the lane.

League of Legends