---
title: 'The Ultimate Wave Management Guide for League of Legends'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sbt6imQbTSs'
video_id: 'Sbt6imQbTSs'
date: 2026-07-28
duration_sec: 824
---

# The Ultimate Wave Management Guide for League of Legends

> Source: [The Ultimate Wave Management Guide for League of Legends](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sbt6imQbTSs)

## Summary

Coach Mysterious explains the fundamentals of wave management in League of Legends, covering how waves work and how to influence them. The two main forces affecting wave states are size and location, which determine whether a wave pushes, freezes, or remains neutral.

### Key Points

- **Two Forces: Size and Location** [00:13] — Size: a larger minion wave will clear the smaller one. Location: if a wave is closer to a turret, the next minion wave arrives faster, causing it to push.
- **Neutral Wave State** [00:42] — When size and location are similar, the wave stays in place, offering flexibility and trading opportunities.
- **Pushing by Size or Location** [00:56] — A slight minion advantage (e.g., one extra minion) creates a slow push. Location closer to the enemy turret also causes a slow push toward the enemy.
- **Frozen Wave State** [01:30] — Size and location forces counteract each other, keeping the wave in place. Requires holding 3-4 minions on your side.
- **Hard Push** [01:51] — Used when you need immediate tempo (e.g., to reset or rotate). Nuke the wave quickly to avoid losing minions.
- **Slow Push** [02:33] — Push slowly to generate a minion advantage, giving trading advantage and lane control. Allows you to harass the enemy on their last hits.
- **Freeze (Offensive/Defensive)** [03:35] — Offensive: zone enemy off resources. Defensive: keep wave close to your turret for safety. Rare in the new season.
- **Held Wave State** [04:46] — Hold 1-2 minions just outside tower range. Creates a slow push that is close to your turret, forcing the enemy to overextend.
- **Setting Up a Slow Push** [07:04] — Gain a slight minion advantage by auto-attacking first, using high-value abilities (hit both champion and wave), or hitting the enemy champion to draw minion aggro.
- **Cycling Waves in a Rotation of Two** [10:53] — Slow push wave 1 for trading opportunities, then crash wave 2 faster to reset the wave position and continue pressuring the enemy.

### Conclusion

Mastering wave states—hard push, slow push, freeze, neutral, and held wave—allows you to control the lane, generate trading advantages, and dominate your opponent. Practice setting up slow pushes and cycling waves to apply constant pressure.

## Transcript

Welcome everybody. Coach Mysterious here
and in this video I'm going to explain
you everything you need to know about
wave management. We're going to start
off by understanding how waves work and
then we're going to move on on how to
actually manage waves and influence them
yourself. So there are two main forces
that influence wave states. Size and
location. Yes, size matters nowadays
guys. So the reason why size matters is
because if there's a minion wave that's
bigger than the other minion wave, it's
always going to clear their minion wave.
Location matters because if a wave is
closer towards someone's turret, the new
minion wave will arrive faster than the
other minion wave will. And that means
that there's going to be more damage
dealt and it means that it's going to be
pushing. So these forces can work
together or they can work against each
other depending on the situation. We
have a neutral wet. You see that the
size and the location is similar and
that means that the wave is actually
going to stay in its place and it's not
really going to move anywhere because
there's just as many minions and it's in
the middle of the lane which means that
the location is neutral. Now you can
also have a pushing wave state. You see
that we're still in this somewhat
neutral wave state but in this case
Oriana has got one more minion which
means that it will slightly slow push
into or into any side. We also have
pushing by location. In this uh example,
we see that we have the wave state that
is somewhat equal when it comes to the
size, but the location is closer towards
Oriana's turret, which means that it's
going to be slow pushing into red side
because of the fact that the blue
minions will arrive sooner than the red
minions, dealing more damage towards
their redside wave. Finally, we got the
frozen wave state in which that the size
and the location forces are
counteracting each other and keeping the
wave in this position. There's a handful
of wave states that can happen in
League. And each of the wave states have
clear advantages and disadvantages. And
knowing these will allow you to
understand when to utilize which wave
state in which position. And that will
allow you to then manage the wave in the
correct position. We're going to start
up with the hard push. When do you hard
push? Well, you hard push if you want to
have something happen right now. And
that can be either something that's
happening on the map. Maybe there's a
play happening on bot that you can then
move towards. So, you got to nuke the
wave and then get out. But in this case,
you see in this example, I'm getting
ganked. So, I'm hard pushing the wave to
make sure that I don't have to attend
any minions and I can run away from the
banion. There can be other reasons for
hard pushing as well. I'm going to hard
push again the next wave right here
because I want to take a reset. Usually,
you hard push for tempo, for time. So,
the faster I push this wave out, the
faster I can actually reset myself,
which means that on the next wave after
that, I'm not going to lose that many
means. So, when there's hard pushing,
there's also slow pushing, which means
that we want to push the minion wave
into the enemies, but we don't want to
do it fast. We want to do it slow
because we don't need to have to attend
to anything on the map right now. And by
slow pushing, we're actually going to
generate a minion advantage. And having
a minion advantage means that there's
more minions on our side, and that's
going to give us a trading advantage
because if we trade and we hit each
other, what's going to happen is that my
minions are going to be stronger, going
to be dealing more damage towards the
rise. So that's why a slow push is so
incredibly powerful. We use this also to
get lane control. One of the powerful
things of a slow push is that you can
create opportunities to trade because
you can last hit your minion before the
enemy last hits their minion. So you've
cleared yours and then they still need
to clear theirs allowing you to use your
spell or an out attack onto the enemies
granting you a trading opport
opportunity. And this will usually allow
you to have lane control because it is
really easy to turn a slow push into a
fast push. and instantly make a play on
the map if we actually see that once
happening. So, the next wave state is
going to be the freeze. And the freeze
can be used offensively as defensively.
In this case, I'm using it offensively
to zone the enemy of resources, but you
can also use it to have the wave closer
towards your side and make it harder for
the enemies to trade up on you. This is
in the new season a pretty rare wave
state, but it occasionally still
happens. And the way that you do that is
by holding three to sometimes four
millions onto your side and making sure
that you manage that the wave keeps in
this position. So you got to manage the
size and the location factor that it
stays in that specific position. If the
wave gets too big, it will push into you
and crash. And if the wave is too small,
then the location factor will push the
wave into the enemies. Next up, we got
ourselves the neutral wave state. This
is a wave state in which that you're
super flexible to do whatever you want
because waves can go in both directions
and this gives you a lot of options.
That's the biggest benefit of this wave
state. This is the if I'm not sure what
to do, this is the best way to go for
this wave set also has the benefit that
it has creating a lot of trading
opportunities because a lot of minions
are dying which leads to both parties
being able to punish the other onto
their last hits. The final wave state is
a held wave state. This isn't a freeze,
but it is basically a glorified slow
push. The way that you set it up is by
holding one or max two minions barely
outside of your tower range. And what
happens is that both of the waves then
are equally strong in size, but it's
very close towards your turret, which
means that it will very slowly push into
the enemies. And this wave set is
incredibly OP because it has the
benefits of all of the slow pushes, but
it is closer towards your turret. So the
location is closer towards your turret,
which means that it is a lot harder for
the enemies to actually manage the wave
and it's easier for you to zone them off
if you actually get into a position
where you can win trades. And you see
right here that I'm playing Cinder
versus Aan and Axan is actually walking
up constantly to clear the minions. And
I'm constantly timing my abilities onto
his last hits. And that means that he's
slowly losing HP because he's forced to
CS so close to my turret. He can't swing
at me. He can't extend the trade at me.
And it puts him in this position which
is just super super awkward for him. And
because I'm now winning the trade battle
and I'm now turning this into a slow
push. You see how slow I'm pushing it.
I'm only last hitting the minions. We
see now we got a real slow push right
here because the the wave state is
neutral. The location is neutral but my
size is slightly bigger. And this leads
to me taking insane amount of trading
opportunities. So the health wave state
is one of the strongest wave states in
the game because it forces the enemies
to overextend and it forces them if they
don't to otherwise lose a lot of means
because the size is equal which means
that at the beginning they're going to
lose a lot of creeps and this held wave
state turning it into a slow push is
leaving me in an insane lane position
where I don't take any damage myself
because he simply can't hit me and I'm
slowly chipping away at his his health
bar which puts me in a position where
I'm absolutely destroying him in the
trading department. really incredible
wave set and I really recommend you guys
to play around with it. The way that you
set it up once again is by holding one
or two minions barely outside of tower
range. You see that I'm tanking the
minions so it doesn't get into tower
range. Now that means that it's in this
particular position and I do it again on
the next wave. I'm trading him off. He's
trying to crash the wave. He's desperate
right now. He really wants to get the
wave out but I just tank it. I hold it
and he's getting absolutely destroyed by
this wave state. So, since a slow push
is probably the strongest wave state in
the game, and I get a lot of questions
about players in my coaching program
asking, "How do I properly set up a slow
push or I I feel like I can't get the
push, Tim. How do I do that?" I wanted
to specifically highlight that in this
example, in this video. There's because
there's a bunch of tricks that you can
use to get the push. Now, very high
level, what you want to do is you want
to make sure that the size or the
location of your wave gets so big that
it pushes into the enemies, but not too
big that it hard pushes. So, we want to
find a nice balance. So, we want to have
a slight mean advantage. That's the
goal. There's a lot of tricks that we
can use to get a slight mean advantage.
Normally, we can auto more. Sounds
simple, but a lot of people just don't
auto attack. So, if you're the first one
to auto attack the minions, you
generally already get a slow push. So
that means that at 125 you get you
better make sure that you're in the
center of the lane to start hitting
these minions if you want to get a push
in that lane. Another thing you can do
is you can make sure that you look for
high value abilities. What do I mean
with that? You look, for example, if I'm
playing Victor, my E hits both rise and
the minion wave, which means that I get
push and I hit him. That is if he's
contesting. If he's not out attacking
the wave or he if he's just sitting
back, then we want to just out attack a
little bit and not do not do this.
Another thing you can do is you can hit
the enemy champion so that the minions
will attack you. So you got to stand
your ground and the minions will then
attack you, which means that they won't
attack your wave and that will reset the
aggro and that means that then you can
also drag the minions backwards which
means that the location factor is
getting closer towards your side. It's a
little bit more advanced. Another thing
you can do is if you're currently
playing versus mages like Zeraf, you can
stand outside of the wave. Zerif has a
lot of AoE with his W. And if you stand
inside of the wave, what's going to
happen is that he's going to be getting
these high value abilities, putting him
in a position where he's going to be
able to
um hit both you and the wave, worst case
scenario, you're going to absolutely get
destroyed if you do that. So, let's take
a look at this specific example versus
Rise. What I'm going to do is I'm
pushing him off because I know I'm the
stronger champion level one. So, I'm
pushing him off the wave. I'm
controlling the space in the lane and
I'm going to make sure that I am then
going to hit the minions first. And what
I'm doing is I'm hitting him and I'm
nuking a minion because if one minion
dies, that's one minion from the enemies
that doesn't damage my minions anymore.
So, which also leaves me to slow push
into him. And what I did is I hit rise
and I slightly dragged the means back.
Once again, I'm hitting Rise. You see
what happens to these means? They're
getting closer towards my side. So that
means that right now on my side, I'm
turning this into a slow push because my
means will arrive a lot more, not faster
than it would be in a neutral wave state
right here. Turning this into a slow
push. The more you're going to out
attack, of course, the better it is. And
now I slightly stop auto attacking a
little bit because I already have the
slow push. I don't want to make it too
big. Okay, he's stepping up again. I'm
managing my auto attacks. I'm just
making sure that I'm having this small
main advantage over him all the time.
not out attacking too much but not out
attacking too little as well. Um having
a bit of a combination and you see that
the combination of having the slow push
is leading me to getting these trading
windows onto rise and this puts me in a
fantastic position where I can pressure
him due to the beautiful wave state and
this is the power of this wave state. A
slow push perfectly an example right
here. Now I want to have a bit of an
example what a high value ability is.
The high value ability is for example
this. You see what I need to do? I need
to clear this wave because the next wave
is coming in. I got to make sure I crash
it otherwise he can hold it and that
would be a disaster for me because then
I can't reset. I need to hard push this
as fast as possible. But I also want to
hit rise. So I clear the minions plus I
hit rise with my E. High value ability.
Now the final thing I want to talk about
is cycling waves in a rotation of two.
And this is really important if you want
to take your wavement to the next level
and want to pressure your enemy lane
opponent. And the way that we're going
to do that is by slow pushing wave one
because slow pushing wave one nicely in
the center of the lane gives us a lot of
trading opportunities. And I got this
example versus kill because it's
literally me versus me in this lane. I'm
managing the wave. This guy is
spectating. So this is the perfect
matchup to practice it on. And what I do
is this first wave is I slow push the
wave on top of her giving me trading
opportunities onto all of the minions
that she needs to last it. I can zone
her away right here. And I'm going to
push the second wave a little bit
faster. And this is going to allow me to
cycle waves. And bear with me because
I'm going to explain why that's the
case. So, what we see right here is that
I'm crashing the minions. I'm punishing
her onto her last hits, which then allow
me to hit her under tower and pressure
her. Now, what would happen a lot if you
do a two- wave crash, there's a reason
we call it two wave cycle, not a two-
wave crash, because if you do two wave
crash, what would happen a lot is that
the next melee wave will get stuck up
right here, and that would be awkward
because Kale can then really easily CS.
But what I'm going to do is I'm actually
going to make sure that the minion wave,
the next minion wave is going to go
deeper towards my side. And I do that by
in this case taking aggro. You can also
do that by crashing the second wave a
little bit faster. And because the wave
is now closer toward the middle, this
guy needs to step up more, granting me
more trading opportunities onto him
because otherwise he would just be able
to duck on the tower, get all the
experience, and that means for free
standing on a range where it's harder
for me to hit him. So now I'm doing the
exact same thing. I'm slow pushing wave
one right here, hitting him onto his
last hits, pressuring him whenever he
gets close. You can see it right here.
I'm hitting all of my abilities, getting
some damage off onto the kill, and I
want to make sure that the next wave
right here is one that can slightly
stack up with the next with the new wave
coming in. It's not perfectly in the
center of the lane. I think I could have
done a little bit better job cycling it,
but it shows the example quite well
right here. And this see leads to me
getting a lot of pressure here onto the
kill where I'm just cycling the waves
trying to hit my abilities onto her last
hits. And this also allows me to punish
her under the tower whenever she needs
to hit her minions. The power of this
wave state is that you can punish her
onto all of her last hits. Whenever
you're slow pushing, you've hit your
minion. She needs to hard last hit her
minion. You can harass her. You've k all
of your minions under the tower. She
needs to CS all of them. You can harass
her. This is the most powerful wave
state. if you want to dominate the enemy
lane opponent. But of course, this is
also one that you have to use a lot of
fundamentals that I previously discussed
well to get it done properly. Now, if
you want to have more advanced knowledge
on wave management, if you if you're
like Tim, I want to see more, check out
this video right here because I go even
more in depth on wave management.