The Ultimate Wave Management Guide for League of Legends

[00:00] Welcome everybody. Coach Mysterious here

[00:01] and in this video I'm going to explain

[00:02] you everything you need to know about

[00:04] wave management. We're going to start

[00:05] off by understanding how waves work and

[00:08] then we're going to move on on how to

[00:09] actually manage waves and influence them

[00:11] yourself. So there are two main forces

[00:13] that influence wave states. Size and

[00:15] location. Yes, size matters nowadays

[00:17] guys. So the reason why size matters is

[00:20] because if there's a minion wave that's

[00:21] bigger than the other minion wave, it's

[00:23] always going to clear their minion wave.

[00:25] Location matters because if a wave is

[00:27] closer towards someone's turret, the new

[00:30] minion wave will arrive faster than the

[00:32] other minion wave will. And that means

[00:33] that there's going to be more damage

[00:35] dealt and it means that it's going to be

[00:36] pushing. So these forces can work

[00:38] together or they can work against each

[00:40] other depending on the situation. We

[00:42] have a neutral wet. You see that the

[00:43] size and the location is similar and

[00:46] that means that the wave is actually

[00:47] going to stay in its place and it's not

[00:49] really going to move anywhere because

[00:51] there's just as many minions and it's in

[00:52] the middle of the lane which means that

[00:54] the location is neutral. Now you can

[00:56] also have a pushing wave state. You see

[00:58] that we're still in this somewhat

[00:59] neutral wave state but in this case

[01:01] Oriana has got one more minion which

[01:04] means that it will slightly slow push

[01:06] into or into any side. We also have

[01:09] pushing by location. In this uh example,

[01:12] we see that we have the wave state that

[01:14] is somewhat equal when it comes to the

[01:16] size, but the location is closer towards

[01:19] Oriana's turret, which means that it's

[01:20] going to be slow pushing into red side

[01:23] because of the fact that the blue

[01:24] minions will arrive sooner than the red

[01:27] minions, dealing more damage towards

[01:28] their redside wave. Finally, we got the

[01:30] frozen wave state in which that the size

[01:32] and the location forces are

[01:34] counteracting each other and keeping the

[01:36] wave in this position. There's a handful

[01:37] of wave states that can happen in

[01:39] League. And each of the wave states have

[01:41] clear advantages and disadvantages. And

[01:43] knowing these will allow you to

[01:45] understand when to utilize which wave

[01:46] state in which position. And that will

[01:48] allow you to then manage the wave in the

[01:49] correct position. We're going to start

[01:51] up with the hard push. When do you hard

[01:53] push? Well, you hard push if you want to

[01:55] have something happen right now. And

[01:57] that can be either something that's

[01:59] happening on the map. Maybe there's a

[02:00] play happening on bot that you can then

[02:02] move towards. So, you got to nuke the

[02:03] wave and then get out. But in this case,

[02:05] you see in this example, I'm getting

[02:07] ganked. So, I'm hard pushing the wave to

[02:09] make sure that I don't have to attend

[02:11] any minions and I can run away from the

[02:13] banion. There can be other reasons for

[02:15] hard pushing as well. I'm going to hard

[02:17] push again the next wave right here

[02:19] because I want to take a reset. Usually,

[02:21] you hard push for tempo, for time. So,

[02:24] the faster I push this wave out, the

[02:26] faster I can actually reset myself,

[02:28] which means that on the next wave after

[02:30] that, I'm not going to lose that many

[02:31] means. So, when there's hard pushing,

[02:33] there's also slow pushing, which means

[02:35] that we want to push the minion wave

[02:37] into the enemies, but we don't want to

[02:38] do it fast. We want to do it slow

[02:40] because we don't need to have to attend

[02:42] to anything on the map right now. And by

[02:45] slow pushing, we're actually going to

[02:46] generate a minion advantage. And having

[02:48] a minion advantage means that there's

[02:50] more minions on our side, and that's

[02:52] going to give us a trading advantage

[02:53] because if we trade and we hit each

[02:55] other, what's going to happen is that my

[02:57] minions are going to be stronger, going

[02:58] to be dealing more damage towards the

[03:00] rise. So that's why a slow push is so

[03:02] incredibly powerful. We use this also to

[03:04] get lane control. One of the powerful

[03:07] things of a slow push is that you can

[03:09] create opportunities to trade because

[03:11] you can last hit your minion before the

[03:13] enemy last hits their minion. So you've

[03:15] cleared yours and then they still need

[03:16] to clear theirs allowing you to use your

[03:19] spell or an out attack onto the enemies

[03:21] granting you a trading opport

[03:22] opportunity. And this will usually allow

[03:25] you to have lane control because it is

[03:27] really easy to turn a slow push into a

[03:29] fast push. and instantly make a play on

[03:31] the map if we actually see that once

[03:33] happening. So, the next wave state is

[03:35] going to be the freeze. And the freeze

[03:37] can be used offensively as defensively.

[03:40] In this case, I'm using it offensively

[03:41] to zone the enemy of resources, but you

[03:44] can also use it to have the wave closer

[03:46] towards your side and make it harder for

[03:48] the enemies to trade up on you. This is

[03:50] in the new season a pretty rare wave

[03:53] state, but it occasionally still

[03:54] happens. And the way that you do that is

[03:55] by holding three to sometimes four

[03:58] millions onto your side and making sure

[04:00] that you manage that the wave keeps in

[04:02] this position. So you got to manage the

[04:04] size and the location factor that it

[04:06] stays in that specific position. If the

[04:09] wave gets too big, it will push into you

[04:11] and crash. And if the wave is too small,

[04:14] then the location factor will push the

[04:16] wave into the enemies. Next up, we got

[04:18] ourselves the neutral wave state. This

[04:19] is a wave state in which that you're

[04:21] super flexible to do whatever you want

[04:23] because waves can go in both directions

[04:26] and this gives you a lot of options.

[04:28] That's the biggest benefit of this wave

[04:30] state. This is the if I'm not sure what

[04:31] to do, this is the best way to go for

[04:34] this wave set also has the benefit that

[04:35] it has creating a lot of trading

[04:38] opportunities because a lot of minions

[04:40] are dying which leads to both parties

[04:42] being able to punish the other onto

[04:44] their last hits. The final wave state is

[04:46] a held wave state. This isn't a freeze,

[04:49] but it is basically a glorified slow

[04:52] push. The way that you set it up is by

[04:54] holding one or max two minions barely

[04:56] outside of your tower range. And what

[04:58] happens is that both of the waves then

[05:00] are equally strong in size, but it's

[05:03] very close towards your turret, which

[05:05] means that it will very slowly push into

[05:07] the enemies. And this wave set is

[05:10] incredibly OP because it has the

[05:12] benefits of all of the slow pushes, but

[05:14] it is closer towards your turret. So the

[05:17] location is closer towards your turret,

[05:18] which means that it is a lot harder for

[05:20] the enemies to actually manage the wave

[05:22] and it's easier for you to zone them off

[05:25] if you actually get into a position

[05:27] where you can win trades. And you see

[05:28] right here that I'm playing Cinder

[05:29] versus Aan and Axan is actually walking

[05:32] up constantly to clear the minions. And

[05:34] I'm constantly timing my abilities onto

[05:36] his last hits. And that means that he's

[05:37] slowly losing HP because he's forced to

[05:39] CS so close to my turret. He can't swing

[05:42] at me. He can't extend the trade at me.

[05:44] And it puts him in this position which

[05:45] is just super super awkward for him. And

[05:47] because I'm now winning the trade battle

[05:49] and I'm now turning this into a slow

[05:51] push. You see how slow I'm pushing it.

[05:53] I'm only last hitting the minions. We

[05:55] see now we got a real slow push right

[05:57] here because the the wave state is

[05:58] neutral. The location is neutral but my

[06:00] size is slightly bigger. And this leads

[06:03] to me taking insane amount of trading

[06:05] opportunities. So the health wave state

[06:07] is one of the strongest wave states in

[06:09] the game because it forces the enemies

[06:10] to overextend and it forces them if they

[06:13] don't to otherwise lose a lot of means

[06:15] because the size is equal which means

[06:17] that at the beginning they're going to

[06:18] lose a lot of creeps and this held wave

[06:20] state turning it into a slow push is

[06:22] leaving me in an insane lane position

[06:24] where I don't take any damage myself

[06:26] because he simply can't hit me and I'm

[06:28] slowly chipping away at his his health

[06:30] bar which puts me in a position where

[06:32] I'm absolutely destroying him in the

[06:34] trading department. really incredible

[06:36] wave set and I really recommend you guys

[06:38] to play around with it. The way that you

[06:39] set it up once again is by holding one

[06:43] or two minions barely outside of tower

[06:45] range. You see that I'm tanking the

[06:46] minions so it doesn't get into tower

[06:48] range. Now that means that it's in this

[06:51] particular position and I do it again on

[06:53] the next wave. I'm trading him off. He's

[06:55] trying to crash the wave. He's desperate

[06:57] right now. He really wants to get the

[06:58] wave out but I just tank it. I hold it

[07:01] and he's getting absolutely destroyed by

[07:02] this wave state. So, since a slow push

[07:04] is probably the strongest wave state in

[07:06] the game, and I get a lot of questions

[07:08] about players in my coaching program

[07:09] asking, "How do I properly set up a slow

[07:11] push or I I feel like I can't get the

[07:14] push, Tim. How do I do that?" I wanted

[07:16] to specifically highlight that in this

[07:18] example, in this video. There's because

[07:20] there's a bunch of tricks that you can

[07:22] use to get the push. Now, very high

[07:24] level, what you want to do is you want

[07:26] to make sure that the size or the

[07:28] location of your wave gets so big that

[07:31] it pushes into the enemies, but not too

[07:33] big that it hard pushes. So, we want to

[07:35] find a nice balance. So, we want to have

[07:37] a slight mean advantage. That's the

[07:39] goal. There's a lot of tricks that we

[07:41] can use to get a slight mean advantage.

[07:42] Normally, we can auto more. Sounds

[07:45] simple, but a lot of people just don't

[07:47] auto attack. So, if you're the first one

[07:48] to auto attack the minions, you

[07:50] generally already get a slow push. So

[07:51] that means that at 125 you get you

[07:55] better make sure that you're in the

[07:56] center of the lane to start hitting

[07:57] these minions if you want to get a push

[07:59] in that lane. Another thing you can do

[08:01] is you can make sure that you look for

[08:03] high value abilities. What do I mean

[08:05] with that? You look, for example, if I'm

[08:06] playing Victor, my E hits both rise and

[08:09] the minion wave, which means that I get

[08:11] push and I hit him. That is if he's

[08:13] contesting. If he's not out attacking

[08:15] the wave or he if he's just sitting

[08:17] back, then we want to just out attack a

[08:19] little bit and not do not do this.

[08:22] Another thing you can do is you can hit

[08:24] the enemy champion so that the minions

[08:27] will attack you. So you got to stand

[08:29] your ground and the minions will then

[08:30] attack you, which means that they won't

[08:32] attack your wave and that will reset the

[08:34] aggro and that means that then you can

[08:36] also drag the minions backwards which

[08:39] means that the location factor is

[08:41] getting closer towards your side. It's a

[08:43] little bit more advanced. Another thing

[08:45] you can do is if you're currently

[08:46] playing versus mages like Zeraf, you can

[08:48] stand outside of the wave. Zerif has a

[08:51] lot of AoE with his W. And if you stand

[08:53] inside of the wave, what's going to

[08:54] happen is that he's going to be getting

[08:56] these high value abilities, putting him

[08:58] in a position where he's going to be

[09:00] able to

[09:02] um hit both you and the wave, worst case

[09:03] scenario, you're going to absolutely get

[09:05] destroyed if you do that. So, let's take

[09:07] a look at this specific example versus

[09:09] Rise. What I'm going to do is I'm

[09:11] pushing him off because I know I'm the

[09:12] stronger champion level one. So, I'm

[09:14] pushing him off the wave. I'm

[09:16] controlling the space in the lane and

[09:18] I'm going to make sure that I am then

[09:19] going to hit the minions first. And what

[09:21] I'm doing is I'm hitting him and I'm

[09:23] nuking a minion because if one minion

[09:25] dies, that's one minion from the enemies

[09:28] that doesn't damage my minions anymore.

[09:30] So, which also leaves me to slow push

[09:32] into him. And what I did is I hit rise

[09:35] and I slightly dragged the means back.

[09:37] Once again, I'm hitting Rise. You see

[09:39] what happens to these means? They're

[09:40] getting closer towards my side. So that

[09:42] means that right now on my side, I'm

[09:44] turning this into a slow push because my

[09:45] means will arrive a lot more, not faster

[09:47] than it would be in a neutral wave state

[09:49] right here. Turning this into a slow

[09:51] push. The more you're going to out

[09:52] attack, of course, the better it is. And

[09:54] now I slightly stop auto attacking a

[09:56] little bit because I already have the

[09:58] slow push. I don't want to make it too

[09:59] big. Okay, he's stepping up again. I'm

[10:01] managing my auto attacks. I'm just

[10:03] making sure that I'm having this small

[10:05] main advantage over him all the time.

[10:07] not out attacking too much but not out

[10:09] attacking too little as well. Um having

[10:11] a bit of a combination and you see that

[10:13] the combination of having the slow push

[10:15] is leading me to getting these trading

[10:17] windows onto rise and this puts me in a

[10:20] fantastic position where I can pressure

[10:22] him due to the beautiful wave state and

[10:24] this is the power of this wave state. A

[10:26] slow push perfectly an example right

[10:29] here. Now I want to have a bit of an

[10:31] example what a high value ability is.

[10:32] The high value ability is for example

[10:34] this. You see what I need to do? I need

[10:36] to clear this wave because the next wave

[10:37] is coming in. I got to make sure I crash

[10:39] it otherwise he can hold it and that

[10:41] would be a disaster for me because then

[10:42] I can't reset. I need to hard push this

[10:44] as fast as possible. But I also want to

[10:46] hit rise. So I clear the minions plus I

[10:48] hit rise with my E. High value ability.

[10:51] Now the final thing I want to talk about

[10:53] is cycling waves in a rotation of two.

[10:55] And this is really important if you want

[10:57] to take your wavement to the next level

[11:00] and want to pressure your enemy lane

[11:02] opponent. And the way that we're going

[11:03] to do that is by slow pushing wave one

[11:05] because slow pushing wave one nicely in

[11:08] the center of the lane gives us a lot of

[11:10] trading opportunities. And I got this

[11:11] example versus kill because it's

[11:13] literally me versus me in this lane. I'm

[11:15] managing the wave. This guy is

[11:16] spectating. So this is the perfect

[11:18] matchup to practice it on. And what I do

[11:20] is this first wave is I slow push the

[11:22] wave on top of her giving me trading

[11:24] opportunities onto all of the minions

[11:26] that she needs to last it. I can zone

[11:28] her away right here. And I'm going to

[11:29] push the second wave a little bit

[11:31] faster. And this is going to allow me to

[11:34] cycle waves. And bear with me because

[11:36] I'm going to explain why that's the

[11:37] case. So, what we see right here is that

[11:39] I'm crashing the minions. I'm punishing

[11:41] her onto her last hits, which then allow

[11:44] me to hit her under tower and pressure

[11:47] her. Now, what would happen a lot if you

[11:49] do a two- wave crash, there's a reason

[11:50] we call it two wave cycle, not a two-

[11:52] wave crash, because if you do two wave

[11:53] crash, what would happen a lot is that

[11:54] the next melee wave will get stuck up

[11:56] right here, and that would be awkward

[11:58] because Kale can then really easily CS.

[12:01] But what I'm going to do is I'm actually

[12:03] going to make sure that the minion wave,

[12:04] the next minion wave is going to go

[12:06] deeper towards my side. And I do that by

[12:08] in this case taking aggro. You can also

[12:10] do that by crashing the second wave a

[12:12] little bit faster. And because the wave

[12:14] is now closer toward the middle, this

[12:16] guy needs to step up more, granting me

[12:18] more trading opportunities onto him

[12:20] because otherwise he would just be able

[12:21] to duck on the tower, get all the

[12:23] experience, and that means for free

[12:25] standing on a range where it's harder

[12:26] for me to hit him. So now I'm doing the

[12:28] exact same thing. I'm slow pushing wave

[12:30] one right here, hitting him onto his

[12:32] last hits, pressuring him whenever he

[12:34] gets close. You can see it right here.

[12:36] I'm hitting all of my abilities, getting

[12:37] some damage off onto the kill, and I

[12:39] want to make sure that the next wave

[12:41] right here is one that can slightly

[12:43] stack up with the next with the new wave

[12:45] coming in. It's not perfectly in the

[12:47] center of the lane. I think I could have

[12:49] done a little bit better job cycling it,

[12:50] but it shows the example quite well

[12:52] right here. And this see leads to me

[12:55] getting a lot of pressure here onto the

[12:56] kill where I'm just cycling the waves

[12:58] trying to hit my abilities onto her last

[13:00] hits. And this also allows me to punish

[13:03] her under the tower whenever she needs

[13:05] to hit her minions. The power of this

[13:07] wave state is that you can punish her

[13:08] onto all of her last hits. Whenever

[13:10] you're slow pushing, you've hit your

[13:12] minion. She needs to hard last hit her

[13:14] minion. You can harass her. You've k all

[13:16] of your minions under the tower. She

[13:18] needs to CS all of them. You can harass

[13:20] her. This is the most powerful wave

[13:22] state. if you want to dominate the enemy

[13:24] lane opponent. But of course, this is

[13:26] also one that you have to use a lot of

[13:28] fundamentals that I previously discussed

[13:30] well to get it done properly. Now, if

[13:33] you want to have more advanced knowledge

[13:36] on wave management, if you if you're

[13:38] like Tim, I want to see more, check out

[13:40] this video right here because I go even

[13:42] more in depth on wave management.