How To Play Mid as a Beginner in League of Legends

Mid-lane has been a popular role in League of Legends for a long time. Its high impact and heavy damage playstyle make it a significant role to play. Playing mid is not just about picking an overpowered champion and diving into the rift. It involves learning various skills, from roaming perfectly to wave management and playing safely when your champion is countered.

We’ll show you the basics of how to get started and what to do when learning to play the mid-lane!

Mid Lane Champions

Mages and assassins typically dominate the mid-lane. These two types of champions are selected for their ability to ambush enemy opponents in the mid-lane quickly. Mid-laners are the core of any team. Their role is incredibly difficult to perform well due to the amount of knowledge needed to perform at their best. In this guide, we will be categorizing the mid-lane champions into three different categories. These categories are Control, Burst, and DPS (Damage Per Second).

Champions under the control category are usually characterized by their zoning potential, high CC (Crowd Control) levels, and balanced playstyle. They are mostly mage champions such as Anivia, Orianna, and Lissandra. They excel at macro play and are usually largely team-dependent.

With fantastic team fight potential, these champions can have a huge impact on how the game goes, especially in the mid to late game phase. They tend to become more of a threat as the game drags on when they are almost at full builds.

Champions under the burst category are able to dish out a considerable amount of damage in a short period of time. Burst champions include champs like Katarina, Talon, and Leblanc. They are centered around making picks and bursting down isolated targets. These champions lack team fight potential as they cannot dish out consistent damage and often have little or no CC.

When playing a burst champion, you want to get ahead at the beginning of the game. You can do this by efficiently roaming, bullying enemy champions, and getting fed enough to carry the game. Burst champions can easily fall off if they do not have a good start

Champions under the DPS category are scaling champions. These are champions who prevail in the late game. They are team-fight-oriented and can dish out a huge amount of damage over time with the right items. They include champions like Azir, Ryze, and Cassiopeia. DPS champions can be likened to ADCs (Attack Damage Carries), except they tend to have more CC and combo abilities. This is the way to go if you are a player who enjoys patiently farming and waiting for your time to shine.

Summoner Spells Usage

With the option of different summoner spells, you want to know the right ones to take to the rift. When playing more aggressively, you want to go with Flash and Ignite for kill pressure. When playing defensive and safe, you want to take spells that can help in difficult situations. This includes Flash and Barrier, Exhaust, Heal or Cleanse, depending on the situation.

For example, Cleanse would be very important if you are playing against an enemy mid-laner with many CC abilities.

Wave Management

One of the most crucial parts of winning the mid-lane is wave management. Killing minions involves more than last hitting them to earn gold. Learning wave management as a beginner will definitely have a huge impact on how you play and win games. Here are a few tips and concepts you need to understand about wave management.

• The first minion wave will reach the middle of the mid-lane at 1:27. Each subsequent wave will arrive 30 seconds after the other.
• Every 3rd wave before 20 mins will be a siege wave, which contains a cannon minion.
• Last Hitting: A melee minion will die to two tower hits and an auto-attack, while a caster minion will die to one tower hit and two auto-attacks.
• Slow Pushing: This concept involves amassing a large army of minions that slowly push and can be a threat to turrets and serve as a great distraction if not taken care of. This is done by killing one or two caster minions to allow your minions to build slowly.
• Shoving: this is a concept that helps you deny your enemy laner Gold and XP. This is done by quickly killing the enemy waves to allow your wave to crash into the enemy turret. This should be done when the enemy laner has roamed or recalled and will also give you time to recall for items or roam yourself.
• Freezing: this is a beneficial wave management concept. Here you want to "Freeze" the wave close to your turret. This allows you to deny the enemy laner farm when you are ahead and also keep them open to ganks from your Jungler if they stay too deep into the lane.

Warding

Since mid-lane can be attacked from all directions, learning how and when to ward is crucial. Seeing as your wards are limited, you want to use them wisely. When playing in the earlier stages, you want to play closer to the side of the map you have warded. This allows you to easily escape if the enemy jungler comes from the darker area of the map.

You also want to help destroy enemy wards. This can deny the enemy team vision and help set up your jungler for easy ganks. Warding Totems can be switched out for Oracle Lens and Farsight Alteration during the mid to late game. Feel free to pick the Oracle Lens to help you find and kill wards if you are trying to roam and pick out isolated targets. The Farsight Alteration can also help to ward far locations to find out enemy positions easily.

Map Awareness

Being aware of what's happening around the map is incredibly important for mid-laners, as they are more prone to getting attacked from all sides. Ensure to always pay attention to what is happening on other lanes and the path of the enemy jungler. Knowing where the enemy jungler is at every point in the game can help when roaming and simply pushing the lane.

Roaming

Roaming is very important for a mid-laner because it is the center of the map and it can be used to help out top or bot lanes. It can also help make plays with your Jungler. It is essential to get your minion wave into the enemy turret before you roam. Doing so will allow you to get back into the lane without losing much in a case where the roam is not successful.

You also need to be aware of the lane you are trying to roam towards. Keep an eye out for the enemy Jungler and ensure that your teammates can quickly help you turn things around if you show up. It is also helpful if your allies can communicate with you what summoner spells they still have available.

Jump into the rift!

Good knowledge of all the concepts explained above will help you dominate the mid-lane as a beginner. It would help if you tried to play easier champions while you learn and master these concepts.

Once you're more familiar with your role, you should try out every champion until you find the one that matches your playstyle. Or just look up the most overpowered mid lane champions, and play that instead - we won't judge!