---
title: 'The ULTIMATE Wave Control Guide for Season 16'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=GmGT1aQj1ek'
video_id: 'GmGT1aQj1ek'
date: 2026-06-15
duration_sec: 651
---

# The ULTIMATE Wave Control Guide for Season 16

> Source: [The ULTIMATE Wave Control Guide for Season 16](https://youtube.com/watch?v=GmGT1aQj1ek)

## Summary

This guide covers essential wave control techniques for top lane in Season 16, focusing on changes like increased minion movement speed and the cannon minion on wave three. Key concepts include wave 1 management, wave two vs. wave three crashes, cheater recalls, and sneaking bases.

### Key Points

- **Wave 1 Caution** [00:20] — Due to increased minion movement speed, hitting the entire wave with abilities like Jax's E can put wave 1 in an awkward position, making it hard to crash. Avoid over-pushing wave 1.
- **Optimized Wave 1 for Wave Two Crash** [01:01] — For a wave two crash, kill the last minion of wave 1 just as wave two passes the tower. This allows a quick crash and sets up an extended trade.
- **Wave Two vs. Wave Three Crash** [02:28] — Choose wave two crash for extended trade champions (e.g., Olaf vs. Gwen) and wave three crash for short trade champions (e.g., Gragas vs. Sylas). Wave three crash requires gentle wave 1 management.
- **Wave Three Crash Example** [03:52] — For short trade champions, be gentle on wave 1, do slightly more damage than opponent, and kill the last minion of wave two as wave three passes the tower. Then nuke the wave to crash.
- **Cheater Recall** [05:45] — With cannon on wave three, a clean wave three crash allows a cheater recall. Only do it if you need resources and item advantage (e.g., half HP/mana), not for a single long sword.
- **Sneaking Bases** [08:30] — Sneak a base when opponent doesn't expect it, especially on cannon waves. New homeguard lets you return quickly. Trim the wave, hide in bush, and base to gain resource and item advantage.

### Conclusion

Mastering wave control in Season 16 requires adapting to faster minion waves and using new tools like cheater recalls and sneaky bases. Practice these concepts to gain advantages in top lane.

## Transcript

Welcome back team. Today I'm going to be
teaching you all the new wave control
that you need to know for season 16 in
just 10 minutes. There are quite a few
big changes that heavily impact the way
we manipulate the waves in top lane. So
it's really important that you
understand them if you want to climb in
solo Q. So let's not waste any more time
and get straight to it.
Starting off with wave 1. And due to the
increased movement speed from the wave
this season, you have to be a lot more
careful with wave 1 than we were in
previous seasons. So you can see in this
example where I'm playing Jax up against
a Garen. I played it pretty much exactly
how I would in the previous season, a
big fat E that hits him and the wave at
the same time cuz I want to go for a
two- wave crash. But because I did that,
because my E hit the entire wave and I
also committed a bunch of free autos. My
wave one got put in a very awkward
position where it doesn't really quite
crash. Even if it did crash, you really
don't want to do that. It really messes
with your wave. And now Garen can freely
farm. It feels a little bit
uncomfortable for me to hit the wave,
get level two, and abuse that level two
versus one. So, it's definitely
something you should strongly avoid
doing this season. And here's an example
of what it looks like if you optimize
wave 1 correctly. So, in this game
versus Casante, I wanted to do a wave
two crash so that the wave came back
near my tower and allowed me to get an
extended trade against him. With
Conquering Ghost, I'm going to beat him
in an extended trade, but he can win
short trades. So, if I slow down my push
too much, and he pokes me down, gets
level two same time, level three same
time, and blocks the wave, it can be
very hard for me to crash. So, wave two
crash is optimal. So, you can see I'm
bashing the wave down. I want to push
quickly, but I'm not hoofing my Olaf
life axe through the wave or anything
like that and pushing too fast and
getting my wave 1 too close to his
tower. So, you can see the goal for a
wave two is you want to kill the last
minion of wave 1 just as wave two is
passing the tower like this. You'll also
see I walked a little bit ahead of the
wave because I wanted to block it
momentarily. The reason why I want my
wave two to move up a little bit because
it cuts down on travel time when I kill
wave two. I want my wave two to crash
under his tower quickly. So, if it's
close to its tower, it's going to get
there a lot faster because wave three
moves very quick every wave does. But
the extra movement speed means wave
three arrives to your lane faster than
it did before, which means you need to
crash wave two faster. So, you can see
now I'm hoofing my ax through the wave
because I really want to crash this
under tower. So, you can see making sure
it goes under clean wave two crash. So,
that's the number one rule for wave 1.
If you want to do a wave two crash, you
want to kill wave 1 before just as wave
two passes the tower. If you want to do
a wave three crash, you have to be very,
very gentle with the wave.
Now, one of the most important wave
control concepts this season is still
when to crash wave two versus wave
three. That's something I talked a lot
about last season and is still extra
important now, especially with the
enhanced minion movement speed. You have
to have a lot of intention. If you're
crashing wave two or wave three, you
have to really know what you're doing
and nuke that wave in because the next
wave is going to arrive very quickly.
So, in this game, vers Gwen, I want to
showcase an example of a wave two crash
and the benefits of it. So, like we just
talked about, kill the last minion of
wave 1 before wave two arrives. This one
is pretty much perfect, the position of
the wave, it's not quite under tower, as
you can see. So, I can hit all the
minions, but it's so close to the tower
that when I kill wave two, my wave two
is going to crash very quickly. So, you
can see I'm just bashing the wave down,
perma, hitting it, trying to kill it as
quickly as possible without missing CS.
So, you can see I got 12 out of 12
minions and crash wave two very quickly.
Now, the benefit of that here, I just
checked the jungle. Nothing to see
there. The benefit of the wave two crash
is now not only did I have level two
advantage and he had to respect. Now, I
can allow the wave to come back towards
me. So, I'm trimming the wave as it
comes in trying to stay healthy. And now
that the wave has come back in, it's
time to go. The lane is stabilized. It's
by my side. I'm an extended trading
champion. It's time to go here. So,
you'll see the second I hit the zolafax,
boom, pop the ghost. I've got so much
room to run her down from my side of the
lane to hers. I'm able to get this
extended trade and get the kill based
purely from my two-wave crash.
And now I'll showcase an example of a
game where it's more optimal to do a
wave three crash. So this game I'm grasp
the hen versus silus. So I want short
trades. Now I'm a short trading
champion. So it's better for me not to
crash wave two and let the wave come
back in. I'm not going to be have to run
down a conquer silus with a early game
grasps ahead. it's better for me to
maintain priority and go for a wave
three crash. So, your goal here is to be
quite gentle on wave one and do slightly
more damage to the wave than your
opponent. You don't want to do too much
more. So, if they're a Mundo sitting two
screens away doing nothing, you're also
being very gentle. If they're farming
the wave and doing a bit of damage,
you're just trying to do slightly more
than them cuz if you push too quickly,
you can't wave three crash. And if you
push it too slowly and let them hit the
wave more than you, they're going to get
level two before you, level three before
you, and you're not going to get
priority anyway. So you can see I'm just
doing slightly more than the silus. And
when I know I've got pry, which is
around here, the switch, boom, I've got
push. Nothing you can do about it. Now
I'm being extra gentle, milking the
last. You can see I'm lasting them when
they're really low HP, not when they're
76 or whatever I'm hitting here when
they're very, very low. Now, same with
the wave 1 mindset I talked about. You
want to kill the last minion of wave
two, just as wave three passes the
tower. It's exactly the same. You kind
of see the pattern now. So now I only
have to kill the six minions here, the
seven minions, including cannon. I don't
have to kill eight or nine. So you can
see I'm eating the wave. I'm just nuking
it and getting it cleanly. Crash under
tower. Can even proc the crust here for
good measure. So much better way to play
the lane in this type of matchup where
you really favor short trades. And if
you give them the wave advantage, if you
give them the level advantage, then they
can use that against you. The Olaf
versus Gwen, even though she was
momentarily higher level than me, she
couldn't do anything about it and
eventually I could kill her. The Silus,
he could, if he's level four versus
three, he could beat me up as you're
kind of going kind of see here. So, it's
better for me to maintain priority. Get
level two first, get level three first,
but get do a nice slow push the whole
time so that the wave doesn't bounce
back to me.
Next up, we have the cheetah recall,
which has made a return this season with
wave three being the cannon minion. So,
now that wave three spawns a cannon, if
you can cleanly crash wave three, you
have the option to cheetah recall, which
is essentially basing for free to get a
resource and item advantage over your
opponent. So, in this game versus
Gangplank, I want to go for a wave three
crash because I have to respect his
barrels the whole time, which makes it
very difficult to do a two-wave. He can
hit the wave a lot and if I go near him
and I don't respect the barrel, you can
see this whole game I'm purely playing
the barrel mini game. So, it makes it
actually a little bit difficult to just
ignore him and crash wave two as I'll
take way too much damage. I have to play
that barrel mini game. So, you can see
here I'm slowing down my push a bit and
then here kill the last minion of wave
two as wave three is arriving. And now
it's time to nuke. So I could have
slowed down my wave two a little bit.
That E was a bit much, but it's still a
good example. So here, just nuking the
wave as quickly as possible. Q him to
get minion aggro. So my E hits the whole
wave, and you can see him. I don't want
to miss Lassets, of course, but I'm
essentially pushing this wave in as
quickly as I can. So just hard pushing
it here. Don't look at that cannon miss.
I swear it was worth dodging the barrel.
I promise. And now I can cheat a recall.
So when do you want to cheater? In the
Zahen game, I have three wave crash and
didn't cheat a recall. The only time you
want to is if you're getting resources
and item advantage. Never cheater just
for a long sword or just for an amptome
or anything like that. Only do it for
resources and items. So in this
situation, I'm half HP and half mana. So
I'm getting 400 HP mana back and an
item, not just a single long sword. So
it's definitely worth it there. And
there's a hame. It's full HP, full mana
pretty much. So there's no point basing
for just a single long sword. And you
can see the wave comes back to me
nicely. I've got this item advantage. I
can trade with him and he's also set up
for a jungle gank as well. So, cheating
has quite a few benefits to it. Just
make sure you only do it in games where
you need the resources and items. And
it's really important to keep in mind
the wave two versus wave three crash.
You can't really go into a game thinking
I'm going to cheat a recall. Unless your
opponent is fully an AI, it's fully a
noob. Because if your opponent plays the
game, a lot of the time it's not fully
in your control. So, I'll give an
example. Let's imagine you versus a
Mundo one game and he sits two screens
away chucking Q's. You can do whatever
you want with the wave. You can
three-wave crash. But if I'm playing
Versodo the next game and he walks up
and I beat the out of him with Jax
and my E hits the entire wave. Now I
need a two- wave crash. But it was worth
it because I chunked him. So don't try
to go into the game trying to cheat a
recall. It really depends on how your
opponent plays. Just remember in the
moment when you're thinking about wave
two versus wave three crashing, it
really depends on the matchup and how
your opponent plays. And if you decide
on a three-wave crash, like in the Zahen
game, like in this Jax game, then you
have the option to cheer recall if you
need the resources and you want to get
that extra item advantage as well.
And finally, we have sneaking bases. And
I'm going to include this as wave
control, even though it's mainly related
to back timers, just cuz it is wave
control related as well. And it's very,
very powerful this season due to the new
home guard. So sneaking bases is
essentially basing at a time your
opponent won't expect to get a resource
and item advantage. So in this situation
right now, if I were to play out this
lane for the next minute or two, Quinn's
going to out sustain me with fleet
footwork. She's range melee, so she's
going to poke me under tower a little
bit, proc my cross. I'm not going to be
able to base at all. It's going to be
very, very difficult for me to play the
game if I stay in lane here. Sure, I
could do my best to sneak a base when my
TP is back up, but it's better for me
right now to sneak a recall. So you can
see here I trim the wave a little bit,
go into this bush so she can't stop my
base in that second bush and just sneak
off a base. And due to the new home
guards, I get back quite quick with
resource and item advantage. And you can
see I barely missed anything. The new
home guard system is very strong. So
make sure you abuse that anytime the
wave is coming towards you. You will
lose a little bit, but being full HP
with extra items is better cuz you can
imagine now me and Quinn both handshake
a base. I'm in a really happy spot back
here. If I stayed, you could imagine me
being under tower, desperately trying to
farm, I will bleed out way more. Now,
that last example is definitely
something we could have got away with
last season. Maybe just missing one or
two minions more. This is a much better
showing of the power of sneaking your
bases. So, as we can see here, I'm
basing on the cannon wave. That's a
really important step. If you want a
base like this right in front of
somebody's face, it must be the cannon
wave. either one-shot the wave before
cannon or if you feel like they're not
going to crash it under tower like he
didn't just sneak off the base before
cannon because the cannon minion takes
them a long time to clear and it'll tank
the tower for a long time for you. So if
we count the minions here, let's see how
much I lose. Two caster minions plus the
next seven from the cannon wave. So we
boost back to lane and keep in mind this
guy pushed as fast as possible. He did a
fully charged W. He queued the entire
wave. He was not messing around here. He
cleared it as quickly as he can. So we
come back to lane here and look, we
missed one cast to minion and one mele.
We're in such a good position. I'm even
thumbs uping this guy because you can
see how broken it is. So definitely
sneaking your bases off the season. You
can really minmax it here as you can see
and it's a better alternative than
getting to the jungler for sure. All
right team, that's it for now, but do
not panic. I am working on a full
in-depth wave control guide for season
16 where I go through literally every
wave control concept. So that is coming
soon. Make sure you subscribe to see it.