---
title: 'League Basics: Top Wave Management'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=IfPLKzEcAe8'
video_id: 'IfPLKzEcAe8'
date: 2026-06-15
duration_sec: 0
---

# League Basics: Top Wave Management

> Source: [League Basics: Top Wave Management](https://youtube.com/watch?v=IfPLKzEcAe8)

## Summary

This video explains wave management in League of Legends, focusing on top lane. It covers wave positions, crashes, freezing, proxying, tower diving, and responses to these scenarios, with practical tips for gaining advantages.

### Key Points

- **Mirrored Waves** [01:02] — Minion waves start mirrored and meet in the middle. By observing your own waves, you can predict enemy wave positions.
- **Wave Position Dictates Push** [01:35] — Wave position determines which side pushes due to reinforcement timing. Waves near enemy tower push faster.
- **Good vs Bad Crash** [02:33] — A good crash stacks minions to focus tower before enemy wave arrives; a bad crash lets enemy wave intercept, causing lost CS and EXP.
- **Avoiding Bad Crashes** [03:07] — Use level advantages, observe your waves, and walk the wave to tower to ensure a good crash.
- **Options After Good Crash** [04:02] — Recall, proxy, or tower dive. Recall on cannon waves for safety; proxying forces enemy to choose; tower diving denies enemy gold and EXP.
- **Freezing** [08:39] — Hold enemy wave from tower to zone opponent from CS and EXP. Maintain three caster minions to sustain freeze.
- **Responding to Enemy Actions** [10:22] — Against proxy: last hit under tower or counter-proxy. Against dive: ward, track jungler, or recall with TP. Against freeze: soak EXP, ask jungler, roam, or bait abilities to break freeze.
- **First Three Waves** [14:55] — Cheater recall: stack third wave, recall for item advantage, then freeze. Proxying after second wave is strong due to Rogue Quest interaction.

### Conclusion

Mastering wave management in top lane involves understanding crash types, freezing, proxying, and responding to enemy strategies. Practice and experience are key to applying these concepts effectively.

## Transcript

When a person hears the word wave, they
might think of waves of the ocean.
Or maybe a hand wave.
Perhaps they'll imagine sound waves.
The average League of Legends player
probably thinks about gold,
EXP,
or pain.
If you have no knowledge of wave
management, you might have been in
scenarios like being frozen on by a
Darius while playing Nasus close to your
own front wave, losing EXP and gold with
no help in sight before you started
contemplating why on earth are you
playing in top lane?
I'll ask another question. Have you ever
been tower dived and ever questioned
why? If your answers are yes, then let's
talk about wave management.
We will discuss these topics with a main
focus on wave management in top lane,
but we'll occasionally dip into the
general laning stuff. There's a lot of
what if scenarios when it comes to
laning and wave management, so I can't
cover everything, but I'll obviously try
to cover as much as possible. And we're
going to start with this very obvious
but useful concept. With no intervention
from champions, the minion waves in
Summoner's Rift at start are mirrored.
They meet smack bang in the middle along
the dotted line on the mini map. Why do
we start with this concept? Well, when
you play in Summoner's Rift, you
obviously aren't going to have vision of
the entire map, but by looking at your
own minion waves, you can try and
visualize where the enemy waves are
going to be. So, in this specific
scenario, by looking at my second wave,
I know the enemy second wave will reach
the fights before mine does, which leads
to the first topic, wave positions.
The position of the waves fighting can
dictate which wave will push. In this
case, we have no champions hitting the
wave and the same amount and type of
minions, but because the wave is
positioned to red side, they will get
their wave reinforcements first, which
constitutes to a push. In real
Summoner's Rift games, you won't always
have the same amount of minions clashing
due to champions pushing and CSing, but
you get the idea. If the waves are
positioned by the enemy tower, the enemy
wave will get their reinforcements
faster and the enemy tower might also be
in range, which means your wave dies
faster, resulting in a fast push. If the
waves aren't as close to the enemy
tower, then you'll just get a slow push.
What ultimately matters is knowing that
the wave will push to you. With no
interference, the wave will eventually
crash, which means it hits the tower. It
will then proceed to bounce, which means
it will push the upper wave because of
reinforcements, blah blah blah blah
blah. This cycle of crashing and
bouncing will continue given no
interference. There's also a difference
between a good and a bad crash. A good
crash is when the wave is stacked, which
means it has a lot of minions, and it
focuses the tower before the enemy wave
arrives. A bad crash, on the other hand,
has the wave not reach the tower and the
enemy wave intercepts it in time. So,
why is this bad? Well, the crashing wave
will focus the enemy wave, and if you
aren't in range, you won't be able to
last hit the minions. If you stay and
try to push the wave afterwards, you'll
be susceptible to ganks. Whereas if you
recall, you will lose the EXP. Not
exactly a cash money move.
If the enemy champion is there, they
might also freeze, but more on that
soon. To avoid bad crashes, play with
your level advantages if you have them
to ensure you have priority over the
wave. Look at your own waves to see when
the enemy waves come to know when to
push. In this scenario, I delayed the
push to ensure my wave doesn't reach the
tower and I can get the third wave in as
well. Don't forget to walk your wave to
the tower, otherwise the enemy might
hold it and allow their wave to
intercept. If you do find yourself in a
bad crash, you can either try to push
the wave in, stay in range of EXP and
wait for the bounce, or just play for
the 2v1 because you're better. I'm not.
You can also just call your jungler for
a counter gank if they're top side and
you know you're getting ganked. In the
worst case scenario where their jungler
has path top and yours hasn't, you will
need to take the loss and recall. You
will lose a bit of EXP inevitably, but
the wave will bounce back and push to
you.
Now, if you manage to get a good crash
in, you have a couple of options to go
with. The first is just recalling. If
your lane opponent doesn't have good
wave clear, you can go for recall. By
the time you come back to lane, the wave
will have bounced but not reach your
tower. At this point, you can try and
kill your enemy laner with your new
items and ideally a jungle gank if they
don't have TP. This will force their TP
though if they have it, so you'll be
less likely to kill them as they would
have healed and have new items like you.
Outside of good crashes, a general
recall timer is recalling on cannon
waves as these are harder to clear early
for opponents, which means you can catch
the wave by the time you come back if
they've tried to crash it. Recalling
after kills is also a very important
option. For example, when the wave is in
the center but pushing to you, you can
recall it to catch it when or before it
crashes into your tower. Be aware that
you might need to chip down the wave if
it's too big before you back. Two three
minions more than your wave is generally
enough. If your wave is close to
crashing, then it's often worth pushing
it for the bounce after, especially if
they don't have TP as they will lose EXP
from the minions dying to tower. Avoid
greeting for multiple tower plates
though if your laner is up a few seconds
before you've crashed, even more so if
they have TP. They can stop your back
and maybe even set up a tower dive if
you don't have TP. If there's crystal
builder, you can just hit it once and
recall.
In other cases, you might need to take a
loss like when the enemy jungler is
ganking soon or your wave is pushing
from your tower and they have TP. You
will be in up soon. If you stick around
and try to crash the wave, you will
usually be punished. In this specific
clip though, Garen doesn't have TP, the
enemy jungler is bot, the next wave is
not cannon, and his death timer is not
short. So, I choose to crash the wave.
Death timers, junglers, cannon waves,
TP, and even boots can influence the
correct choice.
Keep these factors in mind though
whenever you decide to crash or recall
and try to recognize wave states.
Experience is your best mentor here.
Another option after a good crash is
proxying.
Proxying is when you sit behind one of
the enemy laner's towers and take the
minions. It's something that should only
really be done if you have inbuilt wave
clear like Garen with his E spin or
Sion's Q. Bot lane cinder items and tier
my items like Ravenous Hydra and
Stridebreaker also supplement this.
You also need to be somewhat aware where
the jungler and mid laner are so you
don't get ganked and give them a kill.
So, what are the benefits to proxying?
Well, the enemy laner has to decide
whether to last hit minions or stop you.
If they try to hold the wave ahead of
their tower but have no wave clear or
sustain, they'll burn through their HP
and mana and eventually they have to
recall. Meanwhile, if they try to last
hit by tower, the tower takes damage,
which can give you plate gold if you're
nearby.
If they try to chase and fight you when
they have minions at their tower, then
they'll lose the gold and potentially
the EXP if they are out of range. The
final nail in the coffin is that they'll
lose raw quest EXP if they go behind
their tower at around this boundary. If
you find yourself getting ganked, you
can recall, leave, or execute. Executing
is fine early on as the death timers are
shorter. By the time you recall or
revive, you can generally reach the wave
before it crashes. The same scenario as
recalling normally. A quick note that a
general recall timer for proxying is
after you clear cannon wave.
Now, the general third option after a
good crash is the most lethal. It's
tower diving.
Tower diving is when you kill your
opponent under the tower. Having a
jungler assist if they're pathing
towards you helps a lot. Champions with
large amounts of CC or champions that
can reset the tower aggro are very good
for tower diving. For example, Elise is
very good at tower diving because her
spider form E can reset the tower aggro.
But also her human form stun does not
deal damage, so even if you land it, you
don't take tower aggro.
Renekton and Nidalee are also a very
good champion combo. Renekton lands his
stun and Nidalee just throws the spear
afterwards. Regardless, anyone can tower
dive with enough damage. When you kill
your opponent under tower with a wave,
they lose the minion gold and EXP that
their wave or the tower kills. This is
huge for creating an advantage. Unless
you have a bounty, killing each other is
still a net plus as well.
You can, of course, tower dive with a
single wave, but stacked waves are
better as they lose more EXP and gold.
Now, whenever the wave bounces to you in
all of these scenarios, you can follow
through with something called freezing.
Not this kind though, but this kind.
Freezing is when you hold the enemy wave
from crashing into your tower either by
holding the wave or the enemy laner not
clearing the previous wave in time.
Freezing holds multiple benefits. You
aren't in an exposed spot, so you are
not easily gankable barring the closest
brushes, while your opponent is exposed
if they walk up. If you're a lot
stronger than your lane opponent, you
can also zone them from the wave. He's
just standing there.
Menacingly.
Zoning is when you stand in front of the
waves and stop your lane opponent from
last hitting the minions and, if you
can, stop them from getting in EXP
range. EXP range for dying minions is
1,500 units, so roughly here. Creating a
level difference between you and your
opponent is one way of creating a lead
in top lane. This is because the stats
you get from leveling up are roughly
equivalent to 600 gold. This can
definitely give you the edge in fights.
Now, whenever you're freezing, you have
to cut down the wave in order to hold
its position without taking too much
damage. A general rule of thumb is
holding three caster minions at these
positions once your wave is dead.
Remember that you can reset minion aggro
by entering unwarded brushes. This can
definitely help in positioning the
freeze.
So, we just talked about all these
scenarios that you can follow through
with after a good crash, but in some
scenarios, you'll just crash one wave
with no cannon, so what can you do here?
The first thing is fast pushing the wave
and ensuring the crash. Outside of just
waiting for the next wave, you can
typically go for a deep jungle ward to
get vision. If the enemy jungler is low
and or your jungler is nearby, you could
invade them. The other choice is going
for the honey fruit plants which spawns
at 6 to 6 and 1/2 minutes. These grant
health and mana or fury, so you can take
an aggressive trade before getting the
fruit or just take it to deny from your
enemy.
So far, we've discussed tower diving,
freezing, and proxying. But, with the
nature of top lane, you're going to be
on the other side at times. So, how do
you respond to these scenarios? Let's
start with proxies. In the average
scenario, you'll be last hitting under
tower, chasing champions you know you
won't kill will lose you EXP and gold.
But, if you have a combat summoner and
or you know your damage, you can
definitely give it a go. More so if your
jungler is pathing towards you.
If your champion can proxy though, you
can hit them with one of these.
Yep. You can just proxy all day proxy.
Generally, the best choice if both
junglers are pathing away from top side.
You kind of just handshake on waves. As
for tower diving, you have a couple of
ways to deal with it. The first is just
literally hand sitting them. Outplay
them.
An easy choice for some. Another choice
would be to ward in good spots and
tracking the enemy jungler. Warding
Krugs and these bushes as well as just
taking notes where the jungler is will
stop you from getting ganked so far. If
you know you're about to be tower dived,
you can back off and lose minions, which
is better than just dying generally. If
you have TP, then you can just recall
and TP back if you're low on HP. Don't
do this if you're going to end up in a 1
v 4 though.
In the scenario where the jungler is
also diving behind you and you're much
stronger, you can hold the wave and stop
it from crashing. Good junglers will
stop your wave from intercepting, so
this can be a good response. Meanwhile,
during freezes, you have plenty of
options to choose. So, let's blitz
through them. The first is just soaking
EXP. In some cases, you have to take the
loss especially if you know your jungler
isn't top and theirs is. If your jungler
is top though, you can ask them to push
the wave, ask them for a lane gank, or
counter gank if you know the enemy
jungler will gank you. If you're capable
of ganking on a champion like Camille
for example, you can roam mid or fake
roam mid. Basically, just walk into
river and stay out of vision. Players
that don't call your bluff will break
the freeze, so you can just walk back
top. If you aren't a ganking champion
though, that's fine. Staying out of
vision for extended periods may make
your enemy assume you're backing, so
they might break the freeze anyways. You
need to ensure that they have no vision
of you though.
If your champion is capable of proxying,
you can also proxy. They'll be forced to
respond as you aren't losing minions
anymore. Just be wary of the enemy
jungler and a roaming mid laner.
Ideally, you don't want to get into
freezes to begin with. Time your hard
pushes, aka when you rapidly clear the
wave. Hard push when your wave is
stacked and when the latest waves have
met to ensure crashes. One last option
for breaking freezes overlaps with our
next topic, wave manipulation, which
involves a bit of mind control.
Essentially, if your enemy laner has AoE
abilities like Darius' Q, you can bait
them into using them to break the
freeze. The other mind control ability
involves single target abilities and
autos. If you're in range of minions and
the enemy laner uses one of these two
things, they will draw minion aggro. So,
if your minions start hitting them, they
are no longer hitting the enemy wave.
The enemy wave will then proceed to push
into your side, which you can then
freeze to farm in a safe spot. This
trick can be used on the other side as
well. When you auto a champion, you can
draw minion aggro and pull the wave,
which can allow you to access minions
from a safe distance, specifically
casters and cannon. Proceed to stack and
push waves for level ups and or crash
the wave. You can also induce pushes by
holding the wave away from the center of
the lane if you aren't afraid of the
enemy laner. This can be done on the
first wave to counter the mid EXP cheese
strat. The enemy wave will focus one
minion of your wave and they'll lose out
on the EXP.
If you find that you've missed time the
push but the enemy laner isn't around,
you can just block the enemy wave by
walking past the tower to ensure the
crash. Our last trick is quite niche,
but I'm going to mention it anyways. In
the rare scenario where you want your
enemy laner to walk up further from the
tower but not expose yourself to ganks,
you can auto a melee minion before it
hits your wave and drag it to the
center. This will bring the wave closer
to the center and your enemy laner if
they walk up. This is niche for a reason
though. It's much easier to do this on
blue side. You do it when you're playing
hyper aggressive champions but you can't
tower dive. It's not something you
should do on the first three waves
either because cheater recalling is
better. But more importantly, proxying
is an even better option due to the
Rogue Quest interaction. And just to
reiterate, it's not something to really
ponder. I've included this in case
somebody asks.
Our final topic of this video is going
to be on the first three waves. How you
play the first three can influence the
rest of your lane. Though, we are going
to focus on some specific wave
scenarios, so no talk on level up timers
and such. The first thing is cheater
recalling. If you have dominance over
your lane opponent due to the match up
or playing well, you can stack up a
third wave crash. Typically, you last
hit the second wave, then fast push and
crash the third wave. This gives you
time to recall and come back with an
item advantage. You can then freeze the
bounce and look for a kill with maybe a
jungle gank if your jungler is pathing
top. This is especially good against
those without TP. I'm going to list this
again just to make it a bit easier. Play
for dominance and for level ups. Last
hit the second wave, then hard push the
third / cannon wave to ensure it crashes
and so they can't tank it before the
fourth wave arrives. Then you recall,
buy an item, run back to lane, and try
to freeze the wave. Cheater recalling
allows you to full heal and get an item
advantage over your opponent.
The other scenario is proxying where you
crash the second wave or third wave if
you know the enemy jungler is pathing
bot side. You need to make sure the
enemy champion can't straight up murder
you and you need wave clear of course.
Proxying is the better option out of
these two scenarios just because of the
Rogue Quest interaction.
It's not the only choice after a second
wave crash though. If you're playing an
aggressive early game champion and the
enemy jungler is pathing bots, you can
just let it bounce and force the enemy
laner to walk up for farm before looking
for a kill. There's also currently a
cheese strategy where you can leech EXP
from one minion mid, then run top for
level two off the first wave. Don't
forget, I've taught you how to counter
this. Depending on the match ups you're
playing, you won't always be able to
execute these things. For example, level
two proxying is pretty hard to do and
sometimes you might just end up fist
fighting level one. Just keep these
things in mind in case you see a chance
to do them.
Now, let's talk about some notes on wave
management before we finish up.
Wave management is generally for the
early game since most champions can wave
clear easily later on. In a very
specific case though in the mid to late
game where you don't have TP up and an
objective is coming up, you can kill all
the minions except for the melees to
slow push a wave. This creates a pushing
wave and pressure someone has to answer
while you 5 v 5 team fight or delay. On
the topic of TP, TP aka teleport is
essentially a crutch in the early game.
If you find yourself getting chunked or
die before they crash the wave, you can
TP back and not lose as much. Another
thing is that ranged top wave management
also differs from melee wave management
a fair amount and this guide has mainly
focused on melee wave management. League
is also a constantly evolving game. You
tend to get changes for each season. For
example, in season 15, we had cannon on
fourth wave so you could not get the
cheater recall off. But, in season 16,
you have it on third wave, so you can
cheater recall.
To add on to the minion talk, you'll
find the optimal way of fast pushing a
wave is to target the caster minions
first. They have less HP and they'll do
more damage than melee minions. So, if
you're in a rush, you follow through
with this.
For further reading or I should say
watching, check out the godfather
{slash} doctor of fundamentals, Alois.
He has the best educational top lane
content by far. It is no question to
debate.
Lastly, I want to say that this video is
far from perfect. This video is based on
my own knowledge as a top laner and from
watching other people play. Regardless,
I hope it helps you out.
Thanks for watching and have a good one.
See you later.