League of Legends is among the most popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) games in the world. Since its release in 2009, players have been enjoying the fun of playing the game.
However, the unique part about League is its aesthetics and simple gameplay that allows any player to join in and not have to worry about learning the harder aspects of the game. Early on, players are taught how to play support or farm efficiently.
The trouble with farming is that if you don’t start well, chances are you’re also not going to end well. Which is why this guide is here to help you understand the farming mechanics of League of Legends and how to be efficient at it.
Here are the best tips in farming when laning or jungling from the beginning till the end of a match:
Early game
The early game is the most important time for players to farm effectively. This is because it’s the point of a match where all players’ abilities and stats are evenly spread out. With this, there are no distinct benefits other players have over you.
During the early game, it’s the perfect time to play hard and farm efficiently to get on top of other players. The important aspects of farming during the early game are:
- Wave management
- Track enemy junglers
- Learning how to lean on towers
- Mana management
- Increasing your creep kills by the 10-minute mark
To better understand what they mean, here is an in depth look at each technique:
Wave management
Every two minutes, a new creep wave appears to defend your tower. This allows you to properly position yourself to take as many enemy units as possible with the help of your own creep wave that aids you in depleting their health points.
Knowing when and how creep waves work will help you align yourself in lanes and visit the jungle camps efficiently.
Your goal is to eliminate all units first before going to your jungle. This way, you have time to kill a camp while waiting for the 2-minute creep wave respawn time to go back to your lane again.
This method is what you want to call a ‘mini-split push’ where you are doing two things simultaneously by taking advantage of the mechanics. Especially when you are a hard carry, you’re going to want to do this to save more gold and experience to be ahead of everyone else.
Track enemy junglers
During the early game, junglers are going to have a tough time managing their health and mana points trying to kill strong jungle camps. This is the perfect time to stalk them for a potential kill.
Why is this effective farming? Killing enemies easily grants you gold and experience just as much as it would when killing creep waves. As a ganking hero, your initiative should be to save as many creep waves for your hard carries as possible.
Enemy junglers are the easiest heroes to kill during the early game which is why it’s an easy farm mechanic if you can hunt effectively.
Learning how to lean on towers
Tower leaning is a skill that only professionals can do properly. However, as you are starting in the game, you might as well practice it to gain an edge on your lane.
Leaning refers to sticking near an enemy hero’s tower to deal as much damage to both the turret and the creep wave.
If you do this correctly, you’re going to deal chip damage to the turrets over time and clear waves of enemy units more efficiently. Tower leaning takes a lot of skill. It’s best to see how professionals do it first before being aggressive during lanes.
One more aspect to remember about leaning is the farm you’re going to receive when you eventually destroy an enemy turret. As the main objective of the game, League of Legends will reward you ample gold and experience when you can last-hit a turret down.
Mana management
If you’re a healer or a skilled user, it’s best to manage your mana properly. This allows you to stay on your lanes for longer periods and hit enemy heroes with more damage.
At some point, you’re going to have to deplete all your mana to win a certain situation. This means that buying mana-regeneration items is best if you’re having mana issues.
Your skills are also beneficial when last hitting creeps. It’s better to use an area of effect skill that hits more creeps than individually trying to maintain your creep score (CS). This way, you clear more waves and utilise the jungle more when waiting for the next creep wave to arrive.
Increasing your creep kills by the 10-minute mark
There’s no way of spinning the narrative on how to farm efficiently. To do so, you need to increase your creep score significantly to have the most farm by mid to late game.
Practising last-hitting creeps is the best way to increase your CS. Using skills will help you clear more waves and proceed to jungle camps where you can find more farms.
What you want to avoid is running around the map not doing anything. This is common among new players as they tend to roam the map without reaping economic benefits. As much as possible, find something to kill when you aren’t clearing enemy creep waves.
This potentially provides you with increased CS that will heavily favour your farm by the end of the game.
Mid game
During the mid-game (15-minute mark), you’re going to want to deviate from clearing waves and start coordinating with your teammates for a potential kill on both enemy heroes and turrets.
The mid-game is arguably the second most important point of the game because this is where the most kills take place.
Champions get more farms and have built good items at this stage. This is why the early game is so important because this is where you build your core items to start wreaking havoc later on.
After farming for 15-minutes, you should have 1 or 2 core items already. This means that you can potentially kill a champion alone when you see them in jungle camps. After each kill, you’re going to take a lot of bounty that adds to your farm in the long run.
Late game
The late game is where you have 5 slots in your bag full and only need one luxury item for extra damage or utility. Depending on how the game is, you should either be on the winning or losing side.
This is the stage of the game where most turrets are destroyed and you are either pushing or defending your lanes.
Farm comes when you push or defend. At this point, you shouldn’t be laning and should be helping your teammates secure the victory.
League of Legends is among the best games to utilise strategies and gain advantages by sheer knowledge of the gameplay.
Farming is one of the most basic mechanics that you need to learn first. With these points in mind, you’re going to increase your farm significantly and that will help you win more games.