Greetings everyone, in this next part, we will be talking about how to maximize your time in the laning phase and how to maximize your gain over your greed. The main focus of this article will be to explain how important your creep score is, and how going deep for a kill might not be the best decision. Jungling, and jungle camps will not be covered in this article.

Common League of Legends terms may be used in this article, I will include any that I use that you may not know in the glossary below.

CS – Creep Score: This is the amount of minions and jungle creeps you have slain.

 

First, lets talk about the value of each individual minion, and the types of minions you will encounter in each lane. The 4 types of minions you will see are Melee minions , Caster minions, Siege minions (Also called Cannon minions), and Super minions. Minions start spawning one minute and thirty seconds (1:30) into the game and spawn every thirty (30) seconds until the game ends.

Melee and Ranged minions increase gold value  by .5 every 3 minutes rounded up. Meaning they are worth 1 extra gold gold once the game reaches 3 minutes, and until the game reaches 6 minutes. Then increases to 2 extra gold for the following 3 minutes until the 9 minute mark, following this pattern until the game ends.

Melee minions: the value of a melee minion starts at 19 gold

Ranged minions: the value of a ranged minion starts at 14 gold

Siege minion: the value of a siege minion starts at 40 gold, and increases by 1 gold instead of .5 gold.

Super minions: a super minion is worth the same as a siege minion, see above.

That means for every non-siege minion wave you can earn 99 gold, plus their increased value, if you score the last hit on every single one. It doesn’t sound like a lot yet, but by seven minutes into the game, you will be on the 12th wave, which is also the fourth siege minion wave. That wave will be worth 154 gold.

Another thing to remember is passive gold gained. One summoners rift (the 5v5 map) you gain 19 gold every 10 seconds passively.

Below I have included a chart created by bluebaron201 on the League of Legends forums. this chart represents the highest possible gold you can gain from only CSing (along with gold gained passively) without the purchasing of any items that increase the value of a creep or of passive gold earned.

Perfect_Creep_Score

Click to enlarge

 

There are a few other things to consider when taking in the value of your CS. These things are Passives or items that give bonuses to gold gained. For example, Ashe’s skill “Hawkshot” passively causes her to gain 3 more gold per creep slain once leveled once. The other moves are Gangplank’s Parrrley, which gives 4 gold plus 1 more gold per skill level (to a max of 8) when the move kills a minion, and Twisted Fates passive, Loaded Dice which grants him 1-6 more gold per minion killed.

There are also items which passively increase gold gained. These items are Avarice Blade which generates 3 extra gold per 10 seconds. Followed by Nomad’s Medallion, Talisman of Ascension, Spellthief’s EdgeFrostfang, and Frost Queen’s Claim which all generate 2 extra gold per 10 seconds.

Some of these items also actively increase gold by the item’s passive. Avarice blade also increases the value of any creep slain by the owner by 2 gold. Nomad’s Medallion and Talisman of Ascension each grant 3 gold and 10 health when near a minion that you did not get the killing blow on. Spellthief’s Edge, Frostfang, and Frost Queen’s Claim each grant 10 gold when dealing damage to a champion or structure when a tribute charge is available. Finally Relic Shield and Targon’s Brace will allow you wielder to execute a minion below 200 health and share the gold value with a champion in range if a Spoil of War charge is available. Most of the above items, excluding Avarice blade, are items that are purchased by support champions in the bottom lane to allow them to gain gold without taking gold away from the ranged carry champion in lane with them.

Last hitting is very important when trying to increase your CS in game, which in turn increase the gold you gain, and the strength of your champion through item purchases. Last hitting, means getting the killing blow on a minion, which is more challenging at the start of the game, and get easier as you acquire more items increase your damage output. The hardest time to CS is when the minions are pushed into your tower by the enemy. A tower will always kill a full health melee minion in 3 hits, and a range minion in 2. Melee minions are the easiest to kill under the tower, because after 2 tower hits, the minions are almost always low enough that one hit will kill it. ranged minions take more skill though, because after the first hit, you might not do enough damage kill it after the tower hits it a second time. This means you might have to prep the minion if this is the case. that means, hitting the ranged minions one time before the tower does, and then a second time after the tower hits it. This will, in most cases, ensure a minion kill for you.

When is killing a champion worth it? A standard kill on a champion grants you 300 gold, with first blood granting 100 extra gold. An assist is worth 50% of the kill gold, divided between each player that got an assist. This means that if another player helps you get a kill, that kill becomes worth 450 gold for your team instead of 300. Assists never take gold away from gold value of the one achieving the kill. Killing a champion who is on a kill or death streak effects how much gold they are worth, as shown in the chart below.

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The hardest question is whether it is worth chasing an enemy to kill him, versus farming your CS. Is it a guaranteed kill? Are you sure you won’t be ambushed by other members of the enemy team? How many minions are you missing by chasing him? Those are all questions you have to consider when you think about chasing an enemy who is low health. If you spend 30 seconds chasing the enemy, and he gets away. You have to walk back to lane, with out kill gold, losing out one at least 1 or 2 waves of minions, possibly more. around the nine or ten minute mark, you’re losing over 200 gold worth of minions at the least by chasing an enemy that long out of the lane.

In comparison, if you weaken the enemy, and come to the conclusion, you might not get to kill him as he runs away. Chasing him might be tempting, but instead you could continue killing minions, while he loses out on killing your minions because he had to recall to base, losing at least 10 seconds for recalling, plus the time it takes him to walk back into lane.. Instead of both of you losing out, you are gaining an advantage over your opponent by simply staying and farming better then him. If you can do this to the enemy two, or even three times before the laning phase of the game ends (we will cover the end of the laning phase and more in a later segment) you will be ahead of him in gold by larger and larger amounts. Which may turn into more opportunities later in the game for guaranteed kills, instead of being on a more balanced level where he may get away. The extra 700 or some gold may more sound like much in your head, but could be the gold that seperates you and your opponent by completing that key item first and turning the next big teamfight and thus turning the game in your favor.

 

Key things to remember from this:
Minions win games: If you are winning in CS, you are most likely winning in items and power, which in turn means you are most likely winning the game.
Fact over chance: Don’t gamble your guaranteed advantage with more minions, by rushing after a weak enemy.

I hope you’ve all gained a few insights into the game in this segment of Next Level. Until next time, this is James Montgomery, and I’ll see you on the rift.

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