Now let's get down to business. Assuming you've read my previous post on laning, you should all know the basics and the general idea of this phase.
Now we can start diving into one of the more interesting aspects of laning.
Harassing
The point of harassing someone is to weaken them both physically and
mentally. When you’re harassing in lane, the best way is to usually target your
opponent’s mom. People are usually more offended when their mothers are
insulted, which can deliver some amazing results when trying to affect your
opponents mentality. Unfortunately, this kind of harassment is against the
Terms of Service (Article IX. C.), and can net you a lovely spot in the Tribunal, so let’s instead discuss attacking the enemy champion without intending to go for the killing blow.
Some Advantages to Harassing
Harassing nets you quite a few advantages, assuming you are out-harassing
your opponents. One benefit for harassing is the obvious, you lower your
opponent's health. This places your opponent in danger of dying by
either a dive, or a gank. Harassing an opponent to low health will force them
to back off and play defensively, opening up the opportunity to zone them out.
I will go into more depth about zoning later.
Another advantage to harassing your opponents in lane is creating a
psychological advantage. If you play passively, you’re basically saying you’re
going to allow your opponents farm freely with no threat, and that you are
relinquishing control over your lane. To sit idle without harassing also leaves
you open to being harassed and zoned out of lane, since you are providing your
enemy the opportunity to harass you. However, if you are on roughly equal grounds
to your opponents in lane, or superior in laning strength, harassing them would
inspire fear and hesitation. This can hinder their rhythm for farming, or even
stop their farming altogether because aggressive harassment instills the fear
of being dived and dying.
Harassing for the Kill
Harassing to poke someone out of the lane is only one form or harassment.
An even more aggressive use for harassment is to set your lane up for a kill.
When someone deems the situation too dangerous for them to stay in lane, they
often go back to base to heal. The key is to get them to the point just before
they find it necessary to return to base—usually around a third remaining of their health if
your lane isn’t overly aggressive. This gives your opponent just enough sense
of security to keep trying to press for some farm. This also means they’re
missing a little more than half of their health, and can easily be killed if you are in a duo
lane. Even if you dive for them and don’t kill them, they likely had to use
their summoner spells to escape. Just remember, the key thing is to not scare them away. This also helps set up for actual ganks, not just lane dives.
Weakening your lane opponents but not scaring them off is an excellent way to get early
kills.
When to Harass
So when do you harass? Harass when it’s safe. If you’re low on health,
don’t harass unless you know for sure you will not take any damage for it. Only
harass if you know you’ll come out with a net-gain in damage, or unless your
health is much higher than the enemies, and your harassment will drive them out
of the lane. If harassing your opponent will cause you to lose more health than
your opponent, it is usually a very poor idea to do so. An example would be Ashe
trying to exchange auto-attack hits with Teemo. Exchanging auto-attack hits
will give Teemo an immense lead due to his Toxic Shot. However, Ashe does have
a safer harass tool, Volley, which she can use. Ashe can use Volley to harass
Teemo until he reaches significantly lower health than herself. If Ashe manages
to get Teemo down to around a third of his health, while remaining at full
health herself, then Ashe can choose to be more aggressive and harass him with
auto-attacks as well. Though she will lose more health for it if Teemo decides
to exchange hits, Teemo has such low health that he will be forced to play
defensively, and can be zoned out by the Ashe.
Harassment and Minions
Another thing to keep in mind when you’re harassing is the “call for help”
AI of the minions. Any ability or attack that inflicts damage will trigger the “call for help” when used on an enemy champion. When you deal damage to an enemy, any nearby enemy minions will turn
and attack you. This is a very important thing to note since minions deal a
very significant amount of damage. Harassing the enemy while they have a fairly
large minion wave built up next to you is often a very bad idea. Caster and
siege minions, in particular, deal quite a lot of damage when attacking you,
and can eat your health away faster than you expect. So if you decide to harass
the enemy, keep this in mind. One effective way to evade minion damage can be
found in my post on the brush, which I like to call brush dancing.
Similarly, if you're standing near your minions, they will help you
if an enemy champion deals damage to you. This is important
to keep in mind if your opponents are harassing you so your minions can
inflict some damage on your attackers whenever possible. Every bit of health matters,
so it is important to try to take advantage of everything you can.
On the flip side, when you attack an opposing champion, your minions will
not help you unless they attack you back, or if they are the only target within
range. When you harass, you are on your own unless you are harassed back. This
plays strongly into the damage trade when harassing, because if two champions
who deal equal damage with their normal attacks exchange hits, the person
standing next to the most friendly minions (caster and siege especially) will
come out ahead. So if your opponent enjoys trading hits with you, make sure you
stand near and behind your minions so they can help you out.
Harassing Apart From Lane
Harassing is almost always a good idea, unless it places you in threat of
being hurt yourself. Champions such as Caitlyn, Varus, and Kog’maw are especially
good at harassing throughout the game. Every bit of health counts in a fight,
so any health advantage you can create can make all the difference. If your team and
the enemy team are having a stand-off, and your team excels at poking, take advantage of it! Many battles are won before the battles even
begins due to harassment and intimidation. If the enemy team is trying to
defend their turret, but your harassment continually wears down their health
while your team remains healthy, they will be forced to either back out to
heal, or risk the possibility of being dived.
Harassment, in general, is a way to build up irritation in your opponents.
Losing health while not being able to deal any damage in return is very
frustrating, and can test a person’s patience. Constant harassment can place
pressure on your opponents and can sometimes lead them to act recklessly.
Capitalize on it. Harass through walls, in lane, or whenever you can. Just
remember, only harass if it is safe. Sometimes harassing can place you in a
very dangerous position even if you have the range advantage. Several champions
can quickly close the gap and catch you, especially with summoner spells like
Flash or Ghost.
Other Notables
Aside from brush dancing, the brush is incredibly useful when harassing. It
extends your zone of influence, while providing you with a bit more safety than
standing out in plane sight. This ruins the comfort of your opponents in lane,
especially if your lane is significantly stronger than theirs. This knowledge
is also useful when dealing with aggressive opponents who actively harass you.
The brush is a strong tool on the side lanes for harassment, but this can also
be used to your advantage. If you're playing a skill-shot champion, you can harass the brush for some free damage on your opponents when they step
inside. The brush is also against the wall of the map, limiting freedom of
movement. This can leave people in the brush particularly vulnerable to ganks
if their escape route can be cut off, but it still does provide vision
obstruction prior to the gank.
It's not worth harassing the opponent if they can simply out-harass you or
heal up all of your damage. For example, it is usually not worth it for
Gangplank to invest all of his Parrrleys into harassing a Soraka or Taric lane
if he is the only one harassing because he is not only wasting his mana dealing
damage that will only be healed, but is also sacrificing his own personal farm,
and possibly health as well. However, if you can out-harass the healing and gain an advantage, then it's still worth it to harass an opposing healing lane.
You can harass at an enemy turret with ranged champions or skills. When
your opponents step a bit in front of their tower, you can attack them with a
normal attack or skill then quickly back away before the enemy turret attacks
you. However, if this is timed poorly, the turret will attack you, so it is
best to time your harassment such that you hit them just after the turret fires
its attack.
Whether or not harassing is a good idea depends on a multitude of factors.
You need to consider everything in the given situation. Consider your health,
mana, range, cooldowns, items, and positioning in comparison to your
opponent's, the champions present in lane, the items of your opponents, the
match-up between the champions present, the play styles of your teammates, any
possible gank attempts by missing enemy champions, the situation of your lane
in comparison to opponents, the status of Dragon, buffs, and standing turrets,
possible global ultimates, and whatever else can be useful information.
Disclaimers
As with nearly every other aspect of League of Legends, how and when to
harass depends on each individual match, and the given situation in the match. Observe,
adapt, and execute. This post only covers the basic ideas behind harassing,
and is in no way exhaustive or true in every situation. Learning how to harass
effectively, as with everything else, comes with practice and experience. So go
out there and harass everyone (but don't be rude).
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