League of Legends wave management: freezing, slow pushing and crashing waves

TUREFF• •0

Once you can last-hit reliably, the next step in League of Legends is controlling where the minion wave sits. Wave management decides whether you can roam, recall safely, deny your opponent gold or set up a dive. The ideas below are the same in every role and have stayed stable for years, even though minion stats, tower rules and items change with patches.

Why the wave's position matters

Minion waves meet somewhere between the two towers. Where they meet shapes the whole lane.

Near your tower, you are safe from ganks and the enemy has to walk further forward to farm, which exposes them.
Near their tower, you are exposed, but the wave is damaging their tower and they must stay to farm under it.
In the middle, neither player has an advantage from position alone.

Whichever side has more minions in a fight pushes the wave towards the other side. Every choice you make about which minions to hit changes that balance.

Freezing

A freeze holds the wave just outside your own tower range for as long as possible.

Let the enemy wave be slightly larger than yours, so it keeps walking towards you without crashing into your tower.
Only last-hit. Do not auto-attack minions otherwise, because extra damage speeds up the wave.
Stand in front of the wave so the enemy laner has to walk past it to reach the minions.

A freeze is strongest when you are ahead or when the enemy is weak to ganks. They must either give up gold and experience or walk into danger. It breaks if your wave grows too large, so you may need to tank a few minions or let some die without touching them to keep it in place.

Slow pushing

A slow push builds a big wave that hits the enemy tower all at once.

Kill the enemy caster minions first and leave the melee ones, so your wave keeps a small numbers advantage.
Over one or two more waves, your surviving minions add to the next wave and it grows.
When it finally crashes, the enemy loses a lot of minions under tower or has to stay and clear them.

Slow pushes are ideal before a dragon or Baron fight, before recalling, or when your jungler wants to dive. A large wave arriving at their tower gives you time to do something else.

Fast pushing and crashing

Fast pushing means killing the wave as quickly as possible, usually with abilities. Use it when:

You want to recall without losing minions.
You want to roam to another lane or help an objective.
The enemy has gone back and you can damage the tower for free.

After a wave crashes into a tower, it bounces. The tower kills your minions and the next wave starts drifting back towards you. Understanding the bounce is how you time recalls: crash, go back, and return as the wave arrives on your side of the lane.

Choosing the right tool

Ahead and the enemy jungler is far away: freeze or slow push into a dive.
Behind or under threat of ganks: let the wave come to you and farm under your tower.
An objective is spawning soon: slow push or crash first so you arrive with your lane pushed.
Need to recall: crash first, then go back.

Common mistakes

Auto-attacking every minion out of habit, which pushes the wave when you meant to hold it.
Freezing when the enemy jungler is nearby on their side of the map, giving them an easy gank.
Leaving a huge wave to die under your tower while you chase a kill elsewhere.
Forgetting cannon minions, which hit hard and shift the balance of a wave.

Practise in one game at a time: pick one concept, such as crashing before every recall, and focus on it until it becomes automatic. Then add the next. What wave habit improved your laning the most? Share your tips in the comments.