Games like League of Legends belong to the tower defence genre. While it’s dubbed today as a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, the evident towers are what make LoL a defence game against enemy champions and units.
The main goal of the game is to destroy the base of each team to secure a win. With that said, there are players who dive towers in the early game during laning phases. But, what exactly is tower diving and how can you get better at it?
Is tower diving beneficial in League of Legends to begin with? Find out more below to increase your winning percentages!
Tower diving defined
Simply put, tower diving is when players go near the tower in hopes to secure a kill. This is a natural action taken from the harasser after the enemy champion backs off to go to base.
As the sequence goes, the player will stumble upon the tower that deals so much damage. If timed correctly, you can secure a kill and still survive the tower while you’re at it. However, a lot of players can still die in the process which diminishes the gold and experience output.
Tower diving may be simple by premise, but there is more to it than meets the eye. There’s looming questions like when to dive, if you should even dive, or when to go for it and die in the process.
Below will be unique situations on tower diving in the game, and it’s going to help you get better at it and add to your decision-making skills when playing.
Supports: A double-edged sword
Most of the time, supports don’t usually dive towers because they are very squishy characters that die easily after a few hits. However, most supports are also ranged heroes. Ranged heroes have the advantage of not getting hit by a tower within range while providing damage at the same time.
Melee heroes simply don’t get this luxury and have greaters risks at getting near towers. But they usually have higher defences which makes up for the higher hit range. Overall, supports don’t usually dive and can kill their opponents way before they are within the range of the tower, neglecting the need to dive in the first place.
Tanks: The best champions to dive
For obvious reasons, tanks have the utmost incentive to dive since they fall much longer than the average champion. If you’re against tanks in your lane, it’s best to know that they will dive more than anyone in the game.
When they acquire tanking items in the early game, towers simply are no match against them. This is where enemy heroes of any lane with a tank should be careful when farming, especially when there are area of effects (AoE) skills to be aware of that sends you home soon.
Carries: Splitting the difference
Carry heroes have the most important question when deciding to dive: Is the kill even worth it? The main point of a carry hero is to gather enough farm and experience in the game to start beating the late game.
However, a kill may give you good gold and experience if you get successful at diving, but at what cost? You’re now very low on health and the moment the enemy hero respawns, you are dead in a few skills.
For carries, it’s a risk and reward assessment when diving. Most of the time, time diving can be spent somewhere else like farming as the opponent heals on the fountain that provides you free farm for a few minutes.
Dos and Don’ts when tower diving
Now that you know the basic principles of diving for each main laner in the game, it’s now time to understand what the dos and don’ts are in tower diving.
Do: Tower dive when you have full health
When an enemy champion backs off and you somehow have close to full health, your co-laner was the one doing damage to set off the back action for the running hero.
When this happens, it’s now your turn to harass and secure a kill since you can sacrifice a few health points. However, the rules still apply as to what type of role you are playing during the game.
Moreover, each hero has individual stats to consider. Even if you have close to full health points, you still need to look at your defence if you’ll get killed after a few tower hits.
Do: Know your health regeneration capabilities
If you are a tank, you’ll naturally have regen capabilities. Sometimes, items will help on that front like lifesteal and potions. If that is the case, towers can theoretically only hit so much after you regenerate every second.
This gives you an advantage when diving because you’ll be harder to take down. If you do happen to regenerate health better, then you should dive at all costs.
Even if you are down with only a few health points left, you can still rely on your regenerative capacity to quickly replenish that health point through items or outright innate stats you have as a champion.
Don’t: Overcommit
Despite all your items, stats, and tankiness, you still have to remember not to overcommit when diving. If you can’t catch an opponent by the second tower, you have to back off. Most rookies make the mistake of following them to the third tower where the barracks are situated.
This is a bad move to make since you can easily get ganked and it’s now you who is under the position to win the trade. Because you overcommitted, you now wasted time by running towards the enemy hero when you could’ve farmed or done something more productive.
If you die through this, you have to wait to respawn, lose gold and experience, and overall get way behind the game that will cause you to feed. In League of Legends, control is the best skill to have at any facet of the game. When diving, you have to embody the utmost control to win situations that contribute to a win.