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The Art of Mid is the second guidebook in a five-part series. The first book, The Art of Support,

was published in December 2014 by Pseudonaut. After receiving an exceptional response from

the community, Pseudonaut decided to approach a few professional League of Legends players

to work on developing a guidebook for another role. Bigfatlp, currently a substitute for CLG,

agreed to begin collaborating and started working with Pseudonaut on a new addition to the

series. After compiling Bigfatlp‟s vast knowledge over the span of two months, The Art of Mid

came to fruition and is now available for players all around the world who wish to further their

understanding of mid.

Whether you‟ve just started playing League of Legends, or you‟re a seasoned veteran, this book

contains a wealth of knowledge applicable at every level of play. Bigfatlp and Pseudonaut will

attempt to breakdown the inner-workings of mid-lane and explain concepts, strategies, and

dynamics in a clear and concise way to help you build a strong, foundational understanding of

the role. This book was written during Season 5‟s Pre-Season and is thus subject to the fast-

paced changes that occur during multiple patches and updates. The majority of information

found in this book tackles a non-meta-centric viewpoint, meaning that the information will still

be applicable even after the game is updated and the meta inevitably shifts.

To succeed in the mid-lane, you will need both a mechanical understanding of how your

champion operates and a strong theoretical understanding of how a typical League of Legends

game progresses. The Art of Mid aims to strengthen your theoretical knowledge so that you

develop your mechanics under a well-thought out and structured ideology of what it means to

play mid-lane properly. Bigfatlp, the uncontested god of mid-lane during Season 1, is the perfect

player to provide insight into this role. Pseudonaut, author of the previous book, will bring his

artistic and literary geniousness to ensure clarity in Bigfatlp‟s explanations and observations.

This guidebook is a reference manual first and foremost. Reading through The Art of Mid in one

sitting is not recommended. As your skill progresses and your knowledge strengthens, words will

begin to take on different meanings. Players ranked in Gold may interpret a section differently

than a player ranked in Bronze, so we encourage you to refer back to The Art of Mid whenever

you encounter difficult questions throughout your journey to the top. We also encourage you to

occasionally take breaks and digest what you‟ve read – try to avoid overloading your brain.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please contact us here:

John „Pseudonaut‟ Quarnstrom pseudonautlol@gmail.com

Michael „Bigfatlp‟ Tang jiji@bigfatlp.net

Starting a roam is a two-step process: First, you must leave lane at the appropriate time, as discussed in

the previous section. Second, your destination and route must be planned out in advance or thought of

immediately before leaving lane. Picking a route ahead of time and sticking with it will reduce the amount

of time spent wandering and hesitating. You will return to lane faster and lose less experience and gold

from minions. We discussed before that the best times to roam are - immediately after shoving a wave,

immediately after recalling, and when your opponent is gone from lane while the wave is frozen.

Pay close attention to the position of the minion waves in both top and bottom lane. When the minion

wave is approaching your teammate‟s turret, your target will have to position farther up the lane to farm.

With more distance between your target and the safety of his turret, you‟ll have more opportunities to

chase and kill him before he escapes. Your first observation when determining where to gank is the

position of the wave, as this has the most impact on the success of the gank (with success being defined as

either killing someone OR forcing the use of a summoner spell).

When the minion wave is shoving into the enemy‟s turret, you have the option of diving your target.

Communicate with your teammate that you intend to dive - an easy way to set this up is to type, “Dive?”

as this both insinuates that you want to dive and confirms whether or not your teammate is willing to

follow up. If your teammate confirms that he‟s willing to make an attempt, head over and try to dive the

enemy. Ideally, attempt this on players with less than half health as there‟s a huge chance he‟ll outplay

you if he can survive under turret for long enough while the turret shots shred your health pool.

When the minion wave is frozen in the middle of the lane, you will have a terribly difficult time catching

your target unless your teammate has reliable CC. You could communicate with your laner to let the

opponent shove the wave out or shove the wave into his turret. It‟s extremely difficult to dive a person

without any minions around to tank the early turret hits. Ignore lanes in which the lane is frozen in the

middle as you‟re wasting your time unless you are 100% certain that one of your teammates has the CC to

lock down someone long enough for you to deal your damage or provide additional CC.

Lanes without crowd control aren‟t automatically excluded from the list of potential places to gank. It‟s

highly unlikely that both you and the lane you're ganking has absolutely zero crowd control - at the very

least one of you should have a slow of some sort to prevent the enemy from escaping too fast. Most

champions that don‟t have much crowd control usually make-up for this with high amounts of damage

(Zed, Vladimir) or with remarkable sustained damage (Nidalee). The only requirement for ganking a lane

without substantial crowd control is that the minion wave be particularly close to your teammate‟s turret

to give you more time to kill the target.

After taking into account both the position of the wave and the amount of crowd control available, look at

the health bar of both your teammate and your target. Ensure that the difference is, at most, 30%. If your

teammate is too low to fight you may end up baiting him, so it‟s necessary to allow him to make his own

decision to recall instead of forcing him to stick around while you try to gank his lane.

The last factor to take into consideration is the ward coverage the enemy has in other lanes and their

current summoners. Try to extract information from your teammates by asking either, “Top

summoners/wards?” or “Bot summoners/wards?” If your teammates don‟t respond and give you any

information, you may have to make an educated guess and go for the gank anyways. If they do, then shout

hallelujah at the top of your lungs and use whatever information you have to make a decision. When

laners don‟t have flash, your success rate is obviously much higher, but knowing whether their secondary

summoners are up or not will aid in your decision making when you do finally arrive. If you know where

the enemy‟s wards are, then you can alter your pathway to remain undetected for as long as possible.

The next step is to plan your entire route from start to finish including how you will leave lane, how you

will navigate through the jungle or river, and how you will approach the lane once you‟re there. Before

presenting any diagrams that detail pathways for you to roam, we must stress the importance that vision

plays on your decision making. For example, if the right side of mid-lane is warded here,

leaving through this location will immediately cause the enemy to go on the defensive. They will begin

signaling danger pings and, assuming you‟re headed bot-lane, both the support and marksman will

position passively to prevent you from successfully ganking.

Your first goal is to leave lane undetected. The enemy mid-laner may ping to alert his team that you‟ve

begun to roam, but you want to avoid wards to indicate which lane you‟re headed towards. The following

images will demonstrate all of the possible ways to leave mid-lane for both red side and blue side. Before

leaving lane, consider which spots the enemy may have warded and take a pathway that prevents any

wards from spotting you.

As you travel down these pathways, you‟ll need to take a few factors into consideration:

❏ – Sometimes a jungler will appear and zone you from continuing down a pathway.

In these cases you‟ll either return to lane or fight the jungler. Fighting someone when you‟re half-

way through a roam is bad news bears unless you have teammates to back you up. The enemy has

an easy time rotating and cutting you off –more often than not, it‟s wise to avoid these situations.

Even if you don‟t fight, you‟ve already been spotted. Lanes will respond to your presence and

play safely until you return to lane. Back off and wait a minute or two before roaming again.

❏ – Pay attention to which way the wave is headed. Roaming to either lane

takes anywhere from fifteen to twenty seconds depending on which pathway you take. During

this time, the wave has the potential to shift from one side to the other. Part of timing a roam well

is being able to glance at the lane for one or two seconds and deduce where the wave will be in

twenty seconds. After making a prediction, you can determine which pathway to take to position

yourself properly. In some cases, a wave will be pushed in too quickly. The enemy isn‟t low

enough to dive so you‟d be wasting your time if you kept going. It‟s just as important to

recognize when a gank won‟t work as it is to recognize when it will work.

❏ – Notice those hexagonal hands at the end of each

pathway? Upon arriving at these spots, you‟ll need to reevaluate how you will approach the lane.

Sometimes running into lane isn‟t the best option it either gives too much time for the enemy to

respond or they are positioned far away. Use these three strategies once you‟ve arrived:

1. – Waiting is a viable strategy if the enemies will soon be in a gankable position

within the next five to ten seconds. Any longer and you risk losing too much farm and

experience. Pay attention to how the enemies respond once you begin moving – the bush may

have been warded the entire time. If you know, or are highly suspicious, that one of the

hexagonal areas is warded, consider waiting just outside the vision range of that ward. Wait

until the enemies are far enough up the lane – they won‟t have enough time to react and

make a full retreat to their turrets.

2. – This is fairly straightforward – just charge on through and take no prisoners

alive. You‟ll want to charge forward when the enemy is within range of your burst or crowd

control, and preferably when your teammates are close enough to follow-up, although if you

have enough damage there‟s no need to wait for them.

3. – Instead of waiting, you can simply wrap around and flank the enemies.

You run the risk of wading through more wards along the way, but if you‟re bot-lane initiates

a fight and distracts them momentarily (or lands C.C.) then this strategy gives you more time

to dish out some damage. Wrapping around means you move from one hexagonal point to the

other, as indicated by the different colored pathways in the following pictures.

Upon successfully picking off one or more enemies, you will inevitably take an objective afterwards.

Whether that‟s a turret, dragon, baron, or a buff depends entirely upon where your team is currently

distributed and who is willing to step up and voice their opinion. As we discuss how to prioritize

objectives, you must keep one vital rule in mind: “A team working together to accomplish one goal

will always have greater success than one working individually, accomplishing different goals.” If

your team‟s heart is set on taking a specific objective and everyone is in agreement, don‟t go against the

grain, unless it‟s an extremely bad call. Place some trust in your teammates and expose yourself to their

mercy. With that being said, let‟s start the list:

❏ - Turrets are the safest objectives to take after picking off the enemy. They don‟t

deal any damage to your team (as long as you have a minion wave) and are killed relatively

quickly when your team is grouped. Not only do they provide global gold, but once a turret is

destroyed, your team has access to more pathways in enemy territory. Turrets are prime targets to

take when your team is already in position to shove a wave, otherwise dragon and baron are better

options that provide more utility to your team.

❏ - An interesting conundrum arrives when you have to decide between taking an

inhibitor and taking baron (inhibitors should always be prioritized over dragons). When your

team takes baron, the next objective will be an inhibitor. When your team takes an inhibitor, the

next objective will be baron and possibly more inhibitors. You should ask yourself - if we decide

on one objective, how difficult will taking the next one be? Some teams have wave clear and can

defend a siege indefinitely. Some teams are specifically built for team fighting and can dominate

any team that decides to start baron. Taking an inhibitor against a team that has wave clear is

smart. If you‟re against a team that excels at team fighting, take baron instead of an inhibitor to

prevent the enemy from using the strengths of their team composition.

❏ - Oddly enough, teams don‟t contest dragon as aggressively as they used to. With the

global gold changes, dragon doesn‟t attract the same attention anymore. If you have picked off at

least one enemy, most teams will withdraw and allow you to take dragon without any hassle

However, some teams will still contest dragon especially if your team‟s overall health is

relatively low. These situations offer you the ability to continuously pick off enemies as they

filter in. Ensure that you‟re in position to deal damage to any incoming enemies. Mid-laners

aren‟t the primary damage dealers for dragons unless a few of your teammates are missing.

❏ - Baron is probably the most sought out objective overall. It provides a tremendous gold

boost to your team, a buff that enhances your recall time, physical damage, magical damage, and

enhances your minions when in proximity. Aside from inhibitors, prioritize baron over all other

objectives. How do you know if your team is capable of doing baron? Well nearly any time can

take it given the right circumstances - this is why strengthening your ability to analyze your

team‟s capabilities and ordering your team to attempt baron when you believe it‟s fully within

your potential to do so is an extremely valuable skill.

Never be afraid to try baron if you have the slightest belief you can take it - you will strengthen

your knowledge and confidence this way. Baron will always be contested by teams so if you start

it, be prepared to contest unless your team has already cleared vision. Often times your team

doesn‟t even need to start baron. You can simply clear vision and wait for the enemy to come

after you‟ve made a pick. They will, similar to dragon, filter in and you can fight them with the

numbers advantage. After picking off more enemies, baron will be even easier to take.

❏ – Only take buffs and jungle camps as an afterthought. Once

you‟ve secured an enemy turret or dragon, feel free to take any of them. If you focus on buffs or

jungle camps first however, you may run out of time to take more important objectives. When

taking these camps, you also have the chance to place deep wards in the enemy jungle - you have

been buying wards right?

❏ – If your team can‟t accomplish anything after a pick or team fight, the best option

is to base immediately. If you stick around too long, the enemy will eventually respawn and can

head straight to an objective. Your team won‟t be able to contest the objective because they still

have low health.

Your team may not have the same knowledge you do. After picking off an enemy, they may be perfectly

happy returning to lane and not capitalizing on their advantage. Don‟t let them just farm the next minion

wave and recall. Lead your team to victory by shot-calling these objectives and taking the initiative.

When your teammates are acting like lazy sheep, treat them like lazy sheep and order them around. Guide

your flock of sheep into the grazing areas of dragon, baron, or wherever else you want to see them. You

are the shepherd with the staff of righteousness - wield your power with strength and wisdom.

Your map awareness game needs to be ON POINT while splitting. We can‟t emphasize this enough - you

need to pay attention to the mini-map constantly while splitting. Of course, you‟ll need the necessary

ward coverage before you can even begin splitting well. You could skip this step altogether and simply

pressure without any vision but this is highly dangerous and not recommended. In the following images,

we‟ll show you which locations you need to ward. There are a few ways of placing vision in the enemy

jungle: Shove the minion wave past a ward spot and ward while enemies farm the wave, or sneak into the

jungle and place some wards down beforehand. Assess the situation and determine which method of

placing vision is most suitable for your game. Whichever method involves a lower chance of dying is the

best method.

Once you‟ve warded these spots, keep scanning them for any potential enemies. This doesn‟t include the

lane opponent you‟re currently facing, just additional reinforcements the enemy sends over. As soon as

someone walks into sight, start pinging objectives for your team to take while you run away. Having pink

wards placed in these locations helps your team control vision in the jungle and gives your team more

opportunities to make plays elsewhere or secure objectives. As enemies shuffle towards you, it‟s not

always necessary to leave. Depending on how far off the incoming attacker is and how much burst

damage your champion can deal, consider all-inning the player currently laning against you, and killing

him before reinforcements arrive. This is the more aggressive tactic, as opposed to retreating and playing

passively. After vision is in place, you even have the option to sit inside the enemy jungle and look for

picks as the enemy rotates players back and forth to deal with your presence.

When more than two players are sent to deal with you, consider fighting them and delaying their return to

base. While occupying the time of three enemies, your team has the potential to pressure objectives in a

4v2 scenario. With enough damage, you may even trade one for one. This strategy works well when your

teammates are already in a position to secure the next objective. If they aren‟t fully grouped, decide to

recall, or stop pressuring a turret, then suiciding may not be the best option since your teammates can‟t

capitalize on the distraction. We cover alternative ways to juggle pressure in the following section.