Strategy & Macro

Overview

Cross-hero team tactics and positioning, organized by theme — invades, rotations, wave management, objective control and more, with key takeaways and explainer videos.

Macro & Game Sense

Take control of the map and tempo

The first step of good macro is figuring out where the enemy jungler begins their clear. If they're starting on the blue buff side, the red buff on the opposite side is often left undefended, so if your hero clears quickly you can grab that red buff for free.

But the point isn't just the immediate gain. By taking buffs and checking the location of the enemy's buffs, you learn where the jungler currently is on the map, which lets you predict whether they'll gank the top or bottom lane next.

Once you've seen the enemy's blue buff, it's important to note its location and timing carefully on the minimap. Buffs respawn at roughly fixed intervals, so if you keep invading the enemy jungle in sync with the respawn timing, you can continuously stunt the enemy jungler's growth.

If your whole team stakes out the spot a little before the buff comes back, you can ambush the enemy coming to take it and steal both the buff and a kill.

Draining the enemy's resources while your team fattens up—that's the goal of invading.

On your way back to your own lane, if your mid teammate hasn't finished clearing their minion wave, help clean it up and push it back quickly. When your teammate clears waves faster, it frees up time for them to move, which sets up ganks in your own lane.

Macro is about stacking up these cross-lane rotations to constantly create a numbers advantage or a timing edge. Even if the enemy mid overextends alone, in the early game before their damage comes online, you can deal with them by outnumbering them.

If a big teamfight looks like it's about to break out in a top lane and both teams' mids are moving toward it, the right call is to rotate in and match the numbers.

But before diving in, think about whether you can set up an ambush from a bush or similar spot. In a messy fight where even the enemy support has arrived, prioritize landing your ultimate reliably on the biggest threat (their damage dealer).

Once you win the teamfight, ride the momentum to take the respawning buff, knock down a tower, and snowball the resource lead.

If you can shut down the enemy jungler early, the impact ripples across every lane. When the jungler falls apart, support to their teammates dries up and every lane starts to fall behind in a chain reaction.

Put another way, if you can break just one player badly in the early game, you can steer the whole match in your favor. It's also important not to overextend the front pointlessly—clinging alone to the most advanced tower after your teammates have already left gains you little; rotating to the next objective or teamfight contributes far more to the match.

In Honor of Kings, low/mid rank, high rank, and pro matches are practically different games in terms of the knowledge and skill they demand. Pro-level drafts and rotation logic don't just carry over to low/mid rank, because the people around you aren't operating on the same logic.

Watching tons of guides and still not winning comes from this—what matters is making decisions suited to the environment you're actually in.

Enemies with purify：If the enemy has a purify-type spell and you haven't confirmed they've used it, don't use a pull-in ultimate. Your long-cooldown ultimate gets canceled in an instant, leaving you with nothing but a window of vulnerability.

Enemies who can cleanse themselves：Using your ultimate on a hero with built-in CC cleanse or invulnerability is a total waste—they escape with one button press.

Enemies you can't beat 1v1：If you know you can't win the duel with your own damage, pulling them in is just throwing away your ultimate, and you may even get turned on and killed instead.

Enemies already near death：Using it on a low-HP enemy your teammates are already finishing off is a wasted cast. While your teammates handle them, it's far more valuable to instead pull in the enemy's carry (damage dealer) to temporarily remove them from the fight and break the enemy's formation.

The right time to use your ultimate is when the enemy is down in numbers, has mispositioned, and you can punish an isolated player. But don't overextend into the enemy's ranks just to land it.

This kind of pull-in ultimate returns you to where you cast it when the effect ends, so if that spot is dangerous, you get surrounded and instantly killed the moment you're back.

The ideal is to create a safe setup—pull in an enemy who dove under your own tower, so the tower handles them when you both return. The duration is about 7 seconds, so your teammates should keep that timing in mind, prep their skills, and finish off the returning enemy.

In teamfights, if you can pinpoint the biggest threat and remove them for 7 seconds, you can dramatically change the outcome.

Mid's job isn't rotating to hunt kills—it's rotating to the spot where you can secure the most resources. Rotating for a kill and failing is a bad trade that costs you the resources you could have taken too.

When choosing where to rotate, if bottom has the support and marksman plus your jungler also rotating, that's a 3v3 and you can't take resources, so in that case rotate top instead.

Top, you secure the Spirit Chest (treasure) together with your clash teammate and help clear the wave. When doing this, especially when helping the marksman, be careful not to steal the last hits on the enemy minions.

After that, take the nearby monster camp together too, then return to mid to clear the next wave—keep that cycle going. Pick up kills only from the opportunities that arise the moment the enemy mispositions.

Early on, prioritize leveling your AoE skill to clear the first wave fast and create time to move. After that, adapt to the enemy: against mobile enemies, level the skill that counters their movement (one with stun, movement speed, or a shield); against low-mobility enemies, level the skill that deals the most damage.

If you fall behind, keep your economy up by having your marksman or another lane share their jungle camps. Junglers can be reluctant to give up camps, but no one complains about a side lane's camp.

While you're hiding in a bush, always keep a finger on your ultimate (or your highest-damage skill if you have none) so you can instantly counterattack even if you're ambushed.

While your ultimate is up, take the initiative and pressure the enemy; when it's down, commit to farming and rebuild—that's the basic rhythm.

Once you hit the mid game (4–10 minutes), the flow of the match changes dramatically. At 4 minutes, epic monsters start spawning and the jungle's damage-reduction effect wears off, so invades become frequent.

Junglers start fiercely contesting camps and neutral objectives, and siege minions that deal heavy tower damage appear. On top of that, tower shields also disappear at 4 minutes, so towers fall much faster and are harder to stop.

The mid game is faster, riskier, and a phase where the whole team moves together.

Support types：Support-leaning clash laners like Guan Yu or Sun Ce line up with the tank to form the front line and protect the backline of their teammates (especially mid).

For them, their own lane's first tower isn't that important. It has a bigger impact to push the enemy side together with your marksman and knock down the enemy's tower.

Since the marksman rotates to your lane and pushes in your place, you can keep pushing the favorable lane and constantly pressure the enemy side.

Scaling types：Scaling types are weak early, so they commit to farming and growing. By picking up nearby jungle camps, neutral objectives, and waves to get core items online quickly, the sooner they reach their power spike, the more they can carry teamfights and steer the match.

Stick to them head-on：Camp right next to the enemy's damage dealer and apply pressure by your very presence. Even if you can't kill them, just being nearby makes them back off or hesitate, so they can't deal damage freely.

Dive the backline：If you have a mobile or sustain-heavy hero, cut into the enemy backline and chase the damage dealer around. Even without a kill, forcing them to keep running breaks the enemy's formation.

Pressure without diving：You don't necessarily have to commit directly—just loitering near the backline and showing that you might engage keeps the enemy's damage dealer on constant guard and unable to fight with confidence.

For mid-game wave management, the rule is to fight on the side where your team has vision. If your teammates are near mid or on the right side of the map, push bottom; if they're on the left, push top.

Match your team's formation and don't recklessly push into the dark side with no vision. If you don't have vision yet, don't rush forward—wait in a nearby bush.

Without vision you can't tell whether the enemy is one player or the whole team, and by the time you notice it's too late. Dying alone on the side with no vision costs you not just the lane pressure but your team's overall initiative and map control.

Around 9 minutes, the focus shifts to the 10-minute empowered Tyrant/Overlord fight. During this window, stay in lane as much as possible and prioritize positioning and wave management over rotating too early.

The goal is to have your wave in a favorable position (pushed onto the enemy side) before the empowered objective fight begins. That way the enemy clash laner is tied down clearing the wave and can't join the fight, while you can rotate early or split push another lane.

That said, at this stage a single death can cost you the entire empowered objective fight, so when you have no vision and your teammates are far, don't force it—clear the wave safely from a bush.

The clash lane is one of the hardest roles in the game—surrounded by neutral resources and constantly a gank target. Macro doesn't start when you step onto the field; it starts at the loading screen.

Here, check both teams' compositions and spells. For example, if the enemy mid Kongming has a teleport-type spell, you know in advance that you should avoid early trades.

That's because you can watch for the play where they gank your clash instead of going mid and teleport back to their wave, or clear their mid wave and then teleport to join your lane for a 2v1.

When your jungler is strong：With a jungler who can invade from level 1, push the first wave quickly, then rotate to the jungler and guard their escape route after the buff steal. Getting spotted by the enemy makes it suddenly dangerous, so your presence makes the steal and retreat safe.

When the enemy jungler is strong：If the enemy jungler is strong and you're fragile, go into the river bush and take vision. Even if you miss one or two minions, it's more valuable to reveal the invading enemy so your jungler can defend the buff and clear safely.

The goal isn't to fight—it's to protect your team's jungle.

The most important thing at level 1 is knowing the enemy support's (roam's) position. Supports like Guiguzi or Guan Yu accompany the clash laner right at the start, make you think there's only one of them, then suddenly appear and take first blood two-on-one.

Check the enemy support's position on the minimap before committing to any risky action. At the same time, know the enemy's spells, and against teleport-holders and others who can gank from afar, avoid early trades and play safe.

Awareness of small pieces of early information prevents big collapses.

At 1 minute, the waves meet and the Spirit Chest (treasure) spawns. Here, watch whether the enemy mid is pushing the wave fast and whether the enemy jungler helped clear the mid wave.

If they helped, the jungler is likely to leave the jungle around 1:30, so you can exploit that delay to push the wave and secure the chest. If they didn't help, they're probably clearing camps fast to aim for an early gank at level 4, so move more cautiously.

You can also estimate clear speed from the jungler's hero—a fast jungler reaches level 4 around 1:15. At 1:50 the small camps (like the boars) respawn, so if you can read that the enemy jungler's clear path is heading toward the gold lane side, take the camps on the opposite side to slow their growth.

For the second wave that meets at 1:30, if you judge that your and your jungler's pair is weaker than the enemy's, avoid a head-on clash and freeze the wave in front of your tower.

If you keep the second wave in front of the tower without letting it hit the tower or killing it, then when the third wave arrives the minions pile up in front of your tower, forming a defensive wall.

At 3:45, clear the wave quickly and rotate to the 4-minute Tyrant fight, but if the enemy jungler isn't visible on the map, kill only the ranged minions and don't overextend.

Weigh the cost of early rotations carefully. If you go to help the marksman and fail, you lose your own lane's wave and neutral resources.

In the early game of Honor of Kings, one wave's worth of value is roughly equal to one kill, so don't leave your lane carelessly. The top priority early on is to farm safely, take what you can, avoid needless risk, and grow steadily.

You tend to get intimidated facing strong opponents (so-called top Chinese players), but you don't actually know if they're really good. Don't get swept up by names or reputations—doing the best you can is what matters most.

Especially when you're on an assassin and behind, you want to stay calm and not force things out of panic. The match covered in this video is also themed around a comeback from a situation where clash is badly losing and you're at a big disadvantage from early on.

If the enemy has a farm-type jungler, they'll often invade your jungle early to steal from it. Even if your blue buff gets taken, you don't need to force a play to take it back.

Instead, invade the enemy jungle the same way—have your teammate throw out a few skills to poke while you steal a buff and get out quickly. The goal isn't to fight—it's to bait out the enemy's skills, buy time, and offset your loss with an equal one of your own.

The enemy attacks assuming you won't invade back, so always retaliating dismantles their plan. Steal and leave immediately; don't turn it into a fight.

In a match where you're badly losing, the most important thing is not to force fights and to prioritize farming above all. If you panic, get aggressive, and keep dying, the economy (gold gap) becomes completely unrecoverable.

Honor of Kings is a game run entirely on economy, so piling up needless deaths kills any chance of a comeback. When there's no opening, go around your own and the enemy's jungle to grind gold and patiently wait for a chance to come.

Check your gold amount regularly, and if your marksman (like Marco Polo) is farming steadily, be flexible with resource allocation—like giving up the red buff.

This composition's win condition is picking the enemy off one at a time. Base your judgment on committing only when the roam with CC has their ultimate available, and going right back to farming completely when it isn't.

Kill even one player and the enemy is forced to peel someone off to defend; if they don't come to defend, you take that lane's tower. Take a tower and your vision widens, letting you use the bushes and set up combos more easily.

Forcing the enemy to peel lets your other lanes farm freely. The trick is to create a numbers advantage on the opposite side from where three enemies are grouped up and finish off targets reliably.

Assassin types (like Nakoruru) get more damage from taking the Tyrant, making it easier to one-shot enemies down. Conversely, the Overlord (the one that pushes your lanes forward) doesn't add damage, so it doesn't mesh with this kind of hero.

If you can precisely engage and crush the enemy's key players (marksman, roam, mage) all at once, the match swings hard in your favor. But against strong opponents, overextending because you think you can finish the kill gets you turned on and one-shot instead.

Even once you've swung into the lead, close it out one move at a time to the very end—never rush—to lock in the comeback.

In this match, the enemy team's composition can put out heavy damage from the early to mid game. Your team, on the other hand, is a comp that scales into the mid to late game, so you'll naturally fall behind on damage early on.

It's important to understand this imbalance going in.

In the early game, the priority is to avoid getting your lane pushed in too hard. If you get pushed in, the enemy can dive you under your own tower.

Focus on farming gold consistently and killing minions efficiently. Using healing items at the right moments lets you stay in lane longer.

All of this lays the foundation for dragging the game out.

Even when the enemy is playing aggressively, don't force fights you don't have to take—treat their aggression as a chance to farm gold instead. While their attention is on your teammates, clear extra jungle camps or push out minion waves to close the gold gap.

Taking the mid tower opens up access to the enemy jungle, letting you drain their resources.

In the late game, every player is roughly equal in strength, so a gold lead matters much less. Your carries become very fragile late, so it's crucial not to rush into reckless fights.

Wait for the enemy to make a mistake, and look for chances to punish opponents who overextend or overcommit chasing you. Staying consistent throughout the entire game is what leads to the win.

As a Marksman, it's not just about farming gold from minions and jungle monsters—rotating to help your teammates around the map matters too. By rotating well, you can pull ahead of your lane opponent in gold and gain the advantage.

Marksmen need a lot of gold in particular, since they rely on completing key items to take over the game.

In the laning phase, managing minion waves properly is important. To protect against enemy ganks, freezing the wave near your own tower is effective.

If you're ahead, put pressure on the enemy aggressively. In the farm lane, always keep your HP high so the enemy can't deny you gold and experience.

Beyond minions, clearing extra jungle camps is another way to grow your gold lead. When a big team fight breaks out, or key objectives like the Tyrant or Overlord spawn, rotate over immediately to support your team.

It's important to keep pressuring the enemy while balancing farm and helping your team. Push towers whenever you can, deny the enemy time to think, and take their gold and experience.

Also, keep track of when your team has a numbers advantage and use it to win team fights, which lets you close out the game faster.

From the moment the game starts, it's important to keep an eye on the whole map and anticipate the enemy's movements. In particular, tracking the enemy jungler's position lets you read their actions ahead of time and create advantageous situations.

When the enemy jungler is running their normal jungle route, it's easier to predict ganks onto the side lanes. Using that read, you can counter-gank them, or invade their jungle to steal buffs and jungle monsters—stunting their growth and building your own lead.

By clearing lane minions efficiently within the first four minutes and letting your teammates get gold too, the whole team can build up gold and experience. Also, since your jungle item functions like a support item, constantly applying pressure in both the jungle and lanes is the key to draining the enemy's resources.

Creating an advantage early is extremely important. If the enemy falls behind early, the mid game becomes difficult for them and turning the game around gets much harder.

Continuous map control and hero tracking are the keys to holding onto your lead and successfully snowballing it.

When your team is getting pushed around or falling behind early, the basic plan is to drag the game out. Avoid reckless fights that only pile on deaths and widen the gap further.

Your first goal is to stall the game as long as possible and buy your team time to recover.

When your carry is struggling to build up gold and experience, commit to supporting them. Use your skills to disrupt enemy heroes trying to recall, creating openings for your carry to farm minions and jungle monsters.

This helps them complete the items they need to get strong.

In a losing game, the key is to reliably capitalize on the enemy's mistakes. Look for chances to bait out or ambush an enemy who mispositions and gets isolated.

For example, against a hero like Liu Shan who has skills to harass towers, never try to defend a tower alone—he can easily dive under it and take you down.

Instead of defending, look for opportunities to punish the enemy's openings.

Even if your teammates keep dying and feeding the enemy, it's important to stay focused on your own role and contribution. Don't let your teammates' performance drag down your mindset.

Stay patient, cut down your own mistakes, and wait for the enemy to slip up. Landing a shutdown on an enemy who's grown fat off a kill streak nets a huge amount of gold and can be the big play that turns the game around.

When you're down 3,000, 5,000, or 8,000 gold, playing the same way you always do won't win the game. Your opponents are ahead on items and are simply stronger. Most people panic here: they force extra fights or dive into the enemy jungle trying to steal kills back. All that does is widen the gap, hand the enemy more gold, and speed up your loss.

The right mindset is to slow the game down. Aim to be the most boring player on the map: avoid fights that look even but are actually disadvantaged, prioritize farming and staying alive, and wait for the enemy to make a mistake.

When you're behind, the minion wave is your lifeline. It's the only thing keeping the enemy from pushing into your base. Don't shove it forward for no reason; keep the wave on your side of the map.

If the wave is in the middle of the lane and the enemy is nowhere in sight, don't touch it. Just take last hits safely and pull the wave back toward your tower. With the wave sitting near your tower, the enemy has to overextend into danger just to farm. This is what's called freezing the wave: you farm safely under tower protection and don't miss any experience or gold. If an impatient enemy dives in and makes a mistake, you can turn your defense into a lead.

A player who's behind challenges everything to a fight to stop the bleeding, but a winning player trades everything to close the gap. This is the single biggest shift in mindset.

Say the enemy starts the Tyrant. You know it's strong, but if you rush over to steal it, you get hit by the enemy support's CC, die, and hand them both the Tyrant and a kill. Instead, while the enemy is tied up with the Tyrant, take down their tower, steal their jungle camps, and push another lane. You lose the Tyrant, but you gain lasting value in map pressure and gold. If the enemy takes the Overlord, you take a tower. The key is never to give an objective away for free.

When you're behind, time is on your side. The longer the game goes, the more everyone reaches level 15 and finishes their items. Once that happens, even the 10,000-gold lead the enemy had starts to matter less, because there's nothing left for them to buy.

Around the 20-minute mark, when everyone is close to full build, the weight of a gold lead naturally shrinks. If you can win one good fight around the Tempest Dragon or catch one of their marksmen alone, you can push all the way to the Crystal from there. Don't rush a comeback at 12 minutes out of impatience: defend your high-ground tower, clear waves, and calmly wait for the win to come to you.

When you're down 5,000 gold, running down mid and forcing a 5v5 isn't a win condition; it's just a handout. To win, you have to catch the enemy off guard. When people get ahead, they get careless. Call it the winner's arrogance: they stop grouping up. A marksman roaming the enemy jungle alone, or a jungler moving without support, is your biggest opportunity.

Even if you've lost control of the map, you know where the enemy will want to go next. Hide with a teammate in a buff area or a chokepoint bush and use your information advantage. The moment an overconfident carry walks by alone, commit fully and take them out. Now it's 5v4, and the enemy that was supposed to be strong loses their carry and collapses all at once. One good catch leads to a free Overlord or tower and can flip the whole game.

Finally, here are the five bad habits to eliminate: challenging even fights when you're behind; overextending without vision; chasing kills and abandoning the minion wave; panicking just because you lost a tower or the Tyrant; and giving up a tower for a 200-gold kill. The only thing that matters is the Crystal.

Jungling

Clear order, ganks, and taking control

Highly mobile junglers (like Yao) start on the red buff side. The red buff's bonus damage lets you clear the jungle faster, and it also saves your blue buff for rotations and ganks.

Starting blue relies mostly on slows for ganks, whereas starting red lets you play around spamming your skills. Since these heroes already have high mobility and no trouble chasing, during a gank the cooldown reduction to keep spamming skills matters more to them than the red buff's effect itself.

If you look at the map and there's no one worth killing, keep farming rather than wasting time waiting for an opening—this maintains your tempo. Your early tempo decides whether the game plays out fast or slow, so you don't want to disrupt it.

If the enemy is wary of your ganks and won't push up in lane, it's also fine to help clear the mid minion wave to get your teammate moving faster and hand them early lane control.

Many mid heroes can't do much until they have items, so there's real value in helping them get going.

When the enemy overextends and leaves themselves exposed—say, right after your support uses their ultimate to lock someone down—it's a chance to dive under the tower.

Take the tower's aggro yourself first, then peel off before you take too much damage once your teammate goes in—think of it as passing the tower's aggro from person to person.

After you get the kill, invade the nearby enemy jungle to bury their jungler even further in gold. Snowballing junglers stay weak if they can't build momentum early, so shutting down their start hits hard.

Once you have a lead, play consistently and carefully all the way to the end so you don't throw the game doing something unnecessary. You can also use bait plays to draw the enemy out, like pretending to recall and then turning it around with a teammate's ambush.

Games where you're ahead on tempo and momentum are hard for the enemy to break even with four players. Keep the pressure on their lanes and jungle, pick off enemies who overextend on the open map, and be careful not to get caught yourself as you close out the win.

Playing sloppy and rushing when it's time to finish is how accidents happen, so stay patient to the very end.

The jungle has no dedicated lane—it's a role that farms the jungle while helping every lane. The workload is heavy, but the jungler is especially the key to winning team fights for the team.

If you're going to jungle, you must take Smite as your battle spell. Smite lets you kill jungle creeps faster, and without it you can't buy any jungle-specific items the entire game, so don't get your pre-game spell choice wrong.

Your jungle is in the bottom-left of the screen, the enemy's is in the top-right. There's a blue buff golem on the left, a red buff golem on the right, and smaller creeps scattered around.

Golems and creeps spawn 30 seconds into the game, and once killed take 95 seconds to respawn. Golems grant a stat buff, gold, experience, and a small amount of healing, while the smaller creeps give everything except the buff.

The blue buff grants 20% cooldown reduction and improved mana regen; the red buff adds a 15% movement slow on basic attacks (up to 30% at 2 stacks) plus persistent flat damage.

Kill a hero holding a buff and you steal that buff, and its duration resets. If the enemy takes a buff outside your vision, a trace appears on the minimap, so your team should rotate over and watch for the invader.

Basic-attack-based heroes clear faster starting on the red buff; skill-based heroes clear faster starting on the blue buff. Taking both buffs and the four small creeps gets you to level 4 almost every time.

After that, based on the jungle route you chose, move toward the farm lane or the clash lane, and if you can expect help from your teammate and a kill looks likely, go for the enemy laner (a gank).

If they have backup, don't force it—go back to farming. Judge it based on whether you're at even numbers or up, and on things like whether the enemy has Flash, Smite, or an execute skill.

Don't wait too long for your teammate to coordinate—wait 7 to 10 seconds at most. Any longer and you have to return to your own jungle route, or the enemy jungler will out-clear you and get ahead in camps.

In team fights, prioritize the farm laner and the mid laner. They're the main damage dealers, so taking down either one—or both—directly leads to a win.

That said, they'll have self-protection skills and teammates coming to help, so wait for a spot and timing where you can secure the kill. Play around the terrain and bushes.

As a rule, you want to keep your own gold higher than the highest-gold player on the enemy team. If your gold is low, don't force fights—farm until you're at a level where you can actually fight.

Don't engage when you're down a player. Even if a teammate is being chased and about to die, don't go to help unless you're confident you can save them and get out safely yourself—don't hand the enemy extra kills.

Building on the standard opening route, you generally want to secure the blue buff first. Without blue buff you'll run out of mana and be forced to recall, wasting time you could have spent farming or ganking.

Early on there's a chance one of your buffs gets stolen, so if you're going to leave one exposed, leave the red buff. If you take blue buff at the start, you usually don't need to rotate to mid; but if you take red buff first, clear it and then swing by mid to pick up a bit of gold before heading to your blue buff and camps.

When the enemy jungler is in your vision, look at their feet and you can tell exactly which buffs they're holding, just like your own. This is valuable information most players don't use.

The buff color they're missing is where they're heading next. For example, if they're fighting in the farm lane with red buff, they haven't taken blue buff yet — so blue buff is their next stop.

Even in a teamfight, glance at their feet to see the missing color, and you can predict they'll head there after the fight (or after respawning if they die).

Once you've read it, get to the spot the enemy is heading to before they do, and either steal the buff first or wait there to steal it and kill them.

Keep doing this and the enemy is forced to fight without buffs, gets frustrated, and starts making mistakes. When it's a coin flip whether you can steal it, prioritize your own buff and don't waste time on a failed attempt.

There are two keys to landing a gank. One is to come from behind whenever possible: if your ally is fighting from the front, the enemy's attention is split and you cut off their escape.

The other is to read the whole enemy team from minion waves, the same way you read the enemy jungler from buffs. If there's an uncleared wave, someone will always come to clear it for the gold and to defend the tower.

Wait in a nearby bush and you'll catch the enemy who comes to farm with high probability. Especially watch for the mid laner rotating back from the top or bottom lanes to their base, and the farm laner heading home through mid — those are prime targets.

Just don't wait so long that you lose your own farm time.

As a rule, don't force Tyrant or Overlord solo — it's a waste of time, so always call your allies. Jungle is all about rhythm (tempo): don't drop what you're doing and sprint to the neutral boss.

Finish the task in front of you, weave in the other important things, and then head over. ).

If a teamfight breaks out at the boss pit, don't fixate on the boss — focus on killing the enemy (though if the boss is nearly dead late game, it's worth going for the last hit).

Push towers within your rhythm by clearing nearby waves as you go; don't force yourself to rush to a distant fight — capitalize on the chaos and farm what's close instead.

earing nearby waves as you go; don't force yourself to rush to a distant fight — capitalize on the chaos and farm what's close instead.

Outside of matches, study counter-picking by looking at both the enemy and your team's compositions. Don't lock yourself into one favorite hero; widen your hero pool so you can pick according to the enemy.

Learn the fastest camp clear for each hero, and those time differences add up. When taking a buff, if the enemy jungler seems close, take it hidden in a bush — they can't see the HP bar, so they can't time the steal.

Learn to time your smite for stealing or securing buffs and neutral bosses by learning from times you were too early or too late, and sharpen your accuracy.

In short, it's about rhythm, smooth movement across the whole map, being in the right place at the right time, predicting the enemy's movements, and farming correctly.

The jungler is asked for better judgment and map awareness than any other role, but in exchange, along with the farm laners, has the greatest power to carry the team to victory.

A match can be split into three phases: the first 4 minutes, 4 to 10 minutes, and 10 minutes to the finish. The jungler's job changes in each phase.

In the first 4 minutes the goals are farming monsters and buffs, ganking lanes that are behind, and securing the neutral bosses (Tyrant / Overlord).

Open by heading to the buff near the clash lane side (usually the blue buff). Blue buff greatly boosts mana regen, letting you recall less and keep farming, and it also reduces cooldowns.

After taking blue buff, clear the monster on the left, then the one below. The reason to prioritize the buff over clearing the bottom camp first is that the buff is the most important and the easiest to have stolen or disrupted with poke, and it's more efficient for your next move.

Next, decide whether to swing by mid for gold and the side monsters, then head to the red buff below. Red buff adds bonus damage and a slow to your basic attacks, making it easier to chase down kills.

When you have both buffs, blue and red auras appear at your feet so the effects are visible at a glance.

Around the time you take the monster to the right of red buff, your marksman and support are often already fighting the enemy. If it looks like you can easily grab one or two kills, go in (gank); but if there's no opening, don't linger — move on immediately.

Lingering puts you behind on gold. If your allies are pushed back to their own tower and the enemy is overextended, the success rate is high; conversely, if you've pushed the enemy to their tower, it's harder to land.

If it's even in the middle and the enemy has used flash, it's a good chance. As a rule, rather than forcing a play, come in with the mindset of punishing the enemy's mistakes.

On top of that, always be aware of the enemy mid's position (in their base, out of sight and rotating toward where you're heading, or already fighting bottom) and the enemy jungler's movements.

The enemy jungler is mirroring you, looking to gank the marksman lane, so even if you can't get a kill, there's value in disrupting their gank.

At 4 minutes tower protection drops and minion gold rises significantly. This is the phase where the jungler snowballs.

Buffs are still the top priority — take them the moment they spawn — but you don't necessarily need to clear the other monsters around a buff, and your biggest income becomes enemy minions.

You don't always need to fully kill the enemy; even chipping them down to burn their skills has value. Force them to recall or play cautiously, and your allies can push tower in the opening you create.

Pushing towers gives your team vision and gold, so do it aggressively within reason. The priority order for this phase is buffs → wave clear → ganks → tower pushes → small monsters.

After 10 minutes everyone is fully developed and the jungler's early leveling advantage disappears. From here, teamwork is the key, and your play shifts with your hero type.

Mobility types are effective at pushing towers 4v1 to split the enemy's defense, and pitch in when allies have a numbers or health advantage. Fighter types are great at catching and finishing off individuals, so clear waves to give allies vision, and when you have enough gold, hunt down isolated enemies 1v1.

Teamwork types stick with allies and protect the core, push towers relentlessly when ahead, and retreat to take a neutral boss when the push stalls. Note that even after 10 minutes buffs are always a priority — that never changes no matter what minute it is.

The neutral bosses (Tyrant / Overlord) spawn from the 4-minute mark every 4 minutes, and taking them gives the whole team gold and experience. On top of that, Overlord replaces your next 2 waves with a powerful vanguard, and Tyrant adds chaining lightning to your basic attacks.

Early neutral bosses have weak effects, so don't risk your life for them — only secure them when you can do so safely.

As a jungler, the first important thing is to understand your hero's early-game strengths. Forcing ganks with a hero that's weak early not only wastes precious time, it can put the whole match at a disadvantage.

Always monitor the lanes and judge whether you can gank the enemy. Avoid ganks with a low chance of success, and act where you can reliably gain an advantage — that's what matters.

After your first full jungle clear, it's important to rotate to mid as the situation allows and make the enemy burn resources like flash. When the enemy jungler invades deep into your jungle, that's a big opportunity.

Counter-attack aggressively to eliminate them and you can punish their play. When you get a kill or win a favorable trade, convert it into concrete objectives like taking a tower or seizing resources, and maintain your lead.

Many players fail to make the most of this advantage.

In late-game teamfights, always be aware of the cooldowns on the enemy's key ultimates (for example the enemy jungler's ultimate) and baiting them out works in your favor.

It's important to keep the initiative in the match and play carefully without rushing. Don't get fixated on minor kills or gold gaps; keep reading the map, predict the enemy's movements, and keep applying accurate counter-attacks and pressure to snuff out any chance of a comeback.

Jungle Invades

Invading the enemy jungle and responding

Even when you're clearing your jungle properly and rotating well, you can still end up with less gold than the enemy jungler. The cause is usually one of two things: the enemy racked up kills early, or they've been slowly invading your jungle and stealing monsters.

So you need to learn how to invade correctly and how to defend your own jungle. That said, it's a mistake to think that stealing just one or two monsters gives you a big lead — on its own it can even put you behind and throw your team into disarray.

The essence of invading isn't the immediate gold; it's about seizing the enemy's rhythm (the initiative in the match).

The first benefit is slowing the enemy's growth. By disrupting the enemy jungler's ability to secure monsters through invading, you put them behind on levels and items, and they lose the initiative.

For example, if you steal a key buff (like Luna's blue buff), a mana-dependent enemy can't keep their farm going, doesn't hit level 4 in time, and can't land their signature combos in early ganks or fights.

The second benefit is widening the economy lead. Stealing the enemy's jungle monsters doesn't just raise your own income — you take the entire experience and gold they were supposed to get.

A direct economic gap opens between you two, letting you hit your first core item, level 4, and your power spike ahead of the enemy.

The third benefit is seizing the initiative in the match. ' With the initiative, your allies can fight on your timing; lose it to the enemy and you're always a step behind and on the defensive.

The fourth benefit is denying the enemy's initiative. Invade the enemy jungle and they'll rotate over to defend their monsters.

If they come to defend, their lane thins out and your allies can farm safely; if they don't come, you take the resources for free. Either way, the enemy loses one of gold, experience, map control, or pressure.

lane thins out and your allies can farm safely; if they don't come, you take the resources for free. Either way, the enemy loses one of gold, experience, map control, or pressure.

A real invade isn't built on your allies' deaths. Stealing a buff at the cost of getting one or two allies killed isn't worth it — you'd have been better off not taking it.

Running off to steal two monsters while your allies are forced into a fight without your help isn't initiative or pressure either; it's just damage control.

The jungler's real job isn't farming or getting kills — it's building an advantage for the whole team. It's a 5v5, so helping clear the mid wave isn't about siphoning gold; it's about giving mid a lane advantage so they can rotate to both sides and create a numbers advantage.

The initiative depends not only on your own skill but on your allies' coordination, so a jungler always has to think with the team as the axis.

Heroes with built-in stealth are the ones suited to invading. They can enter the enemy's territory, steal buffs and monsters, and slip out safely.

The main purpose of invading is to disrupt the enemy jungler's farm and cut down the enemy team's gold and experience, so you come out ahead economically in teamfights.

But note that during the first 4 minutes there's a mechanic where you deal 10% less damage inside the enemy's jungle. Unless you're flush with gold, don't go in alone.

A jungler with stealth can use it from the start to enter enemy territory unnoticed, take a key golem, and get out immediately. The key to early invading is not being noticed.

Overstay and you'll get caught, so don't get greedy — slip out quickly and return to farming your own jungle. Your own jungle is your main income; invading is only supplementary earnings.

Another type of hero camps near the neutral boss (Tyrant) to steal the buff the enemy tries to take, or loops to the opposite side to grab just the red buff and leave.

The reason to target buffs is that buff golems give the most gold and experience in the jungle and also grant a 70-second stat buff. Steal one buff early and the enemy won't reach level 4 unless they clear other lanes like mid.

Buffs sit centrally near bushes, so pull the buff into a bush to clear it and you're less likely to be noticed.

Normally you use the 30 seconds at the start before the first jungle camps spawn to enter enemy territory, choosing the best route to avoid being spotted.

Be especially careful going in with a hero that has no stealth. If you win a teamfight and kill the enemy jungler, you can clear an entire side of the enemy jungle near the fight.

Also, when your allies destroy a tower, the enemy loses vision of that area, making it easier to invade and steal from there. Take the first 3 towers and part of the jungle opens up; take the next 3 and you can easily step into the entire enemy jungle (the reverse is also true, so watch your defense too).

If the enemy invades your jungle and you have no allies to help, don't force it — move to the opposite side and keep clearing. If you're spotted invading solo, don't fight — run.

If your allies are in the enemy jungle while you're clearing your own, finish your side before joining them. If the enemy is trashing your jungle with three players and your allies can't stop it, switch to split pushing a different lane.

With three of them raiding, the other lanes are thin, so your allies can get kills or take a tower there. When your jungle is being raided, the proper defense is for the support to rotate over and take the enemy's vision, and the clash laner to ward near your own buffs.

For targets, prioritize the marksman and mid (the carries), and leave the enemy jungler and clash laner to your allies. When your gold is low, prioritize leveling your most valuable damage skill and don't waste casts.

If you're playing mid, even stealing a few of the enemy's small monsters can make life hard for their jungler.

In Honor of Kings, invading (entering the enemy's jungle to kill monsters and steal buffs, the temporary power-ups) is a strategy that requires proper timing and deep understanding. Trying to steal the enemy jungler's (the hero who grows by killing jungle monsters) buff without backup is extremely risky — fail and you'll easily get counter-attacked.

The perfect moment to steal an enemy's buff is when the enemy jungler or mid laner (the hero playing mid) is down to about half HP, or when they've been killed.

Especially when the enemy jungler is low, they can't defend their buff, so you can invade while keeping the risk to a minimum. Even if the enemy tries to steal the buff back in this situation, your HP advantage makes it easy to kill them.

If you succeed in killing the enemy and stealing the buff, the buff transfers to you immediately, and you also gain the gold and experience from the kill.

To make the most of this advantage, it's important to always track the respawn timers of the enemy's buffs and keep watching for chances to invade again.

When the enemy jungler or mid laner dies, treat it as a golden opportunity to inflict a loss on them, and go aggressively for the buff.

Roaming & Rotations

Rotating, recalling, and grouping with lanes

Even though we call it all 'roam,' the role splits into several types depending on team composition and your own playstyle. Broadly, there are three: utility supports that back up your carries, tank supports that engage fights head-on, and mage supports that help allies with CC.

Which one to pick basically comes down to reading your team's gaps — whether you have a frontline (tank), and whether there are already enough hands to protect the carries.

Role：The type that gives your carries support like buffs, healing, empowerment, and CC. Since they're squishy themselves, warding (scouting) isn't really their strong suit — though there are exceptions like Yaria, Guiguzi, and Da Qiao who can move proactively from an early stage and take vision too.

When to use：Many of these heroes are weak at initiating on their own early, so while there's no pressure on the map yet, roam around the whole map to take vision.

They're strong when paired with a team that has a solid tank. They can still function without a frontline, but in that case the quality of your positioning and decisions determines the outcome.

Role：The main initiator in teamfights. They use their durability to soak up huge amounts of damage and make the plays that move the game.

They don't have much to protect the backline, but they can use their body to block the path the enemy takes toward your carries. With a hero like Zhang Fei that balances CC/support and engage well, you can choose to either save your allies or initiate, and even flank the enemy backline to threaten them.

Mindset：In teamfights, your job is to make space for your allies. But don't get so absorbed in pushing forward that you abandon the backline.

Hold the frontline while still properly stopping dives onto your carries. This is a good pick when your team lacks a frontline and needs a wall to protect the backline.

The type that mainly supplies your allies with CC. Their CC is easy to land and can be chained with other skills, so they're strong at starting an engage or following up on a chase.

However, they lack mobility, so positioning to reliably land your CC is key. They're effective as a counter when you want to lock down highly mobile enemies, and since they can also check bushes and clear waves, they contribute to vision and building early-game initiative too.

The Marksman is a role that only comes online once it's given time and resources, and if that's denied in the early game you'll never reach your true power spike late.

Rather than relying on a roamer to babysit you the whole match, the goal is to learn to carry the game on your own reads. That comes down to a three-phase framework: early = farm, mid = group up, late = push.

If you're clear on what your job is in each phase of the match, you can pick things back up solo even when everyone around you falls apart.

Gold over pressure：A Marksman with no items early has no damage output. This phase is your golden farming window, so pour everything into farming and don't force plays or try to build pressure.

Read the matchup through HP trades：When you're clearing the first waves against each other, watch who deals more damage and who chunks more HP off the other. If you're winning the trade, you beat this lane opponent, so don't give up any minions, push aggressively to apply pressure, and even take your own small jungle camp.

If you're losing the trade, don't over-extend, farm safely under tower. Farming under tower is nothing to be ashamed of.

Missing a minion or two while staying alive nets you more gold in the long run than dying early.

Judge intervention by the numbers：When your own or the enemy jungler shows up in your lane, decide based on the head count. If you outnumber them, fight; if you're down a body, run; if it's even, trade a little chip damage but don't chase.

Above all, don't die. Wandering around aimlessly before the 4-minute mark loses you both gold and lane pressure, so during this phase think only about greedily stacking gold.

When you're ahead：Find the teammate with the biggest lead, the one who's clearly strong, and stick with them. Don't invade the enemy jungle solo when you're ahead.

Get caught and your early advantage vanishes in an instant. If your jungler is smart, tag along on their invades and put out damage from the back to protect them.

If your jungler won't move, clear out all of your own side's camps so they're empty, forcing a situation where the enemy has to invade, which pulls initiative your way.

That said, if you overdo this in low ranks your teammates may tilt and give up, so only do it when you're confident you can carry the game.

When your jungler is behind：Don't force plays; commit fully to being the team's escort. From mid, manage both the left and right jungles and the waves, and protect the buffs of your behind (especially late-game) jungler.

Give up your own wave to clear a nearby camp together, safely handing over the gold to help them get their core items online sooner.

When you're behind：Don't try to solo-defend your first tower; deliberately giving it up is a valid move. When you're behind, your first tower is just a shackle chaining you in place.

Sitting there gets you dived and killed and your resources stolen. Let the wave push deep into your own side and wait for your teammates to respond when the enemy walks into your jungle.

Safely clear waves and resources around your second tower to recover gold and catch back up.

When you're ahead：At 10 minutes the empowered neutral bosses spawn. First take the empowered Overlord (Shadow Overlord), then transition straight into pushing all three lanes at once.

In many cases this breaks the enemy's high ground and can end the game right there. On the next cycle, take the empowered Tyrant (Shadow Tyrant).

By this point you're extremely strong, so if you take point and pressure the enemy your team will follow. If the enemy turtles up and won't come out, don't force the push; instead reap their jungle to starve them, drag them out, and then close it out.

When you're behind：Hunker down and wait. Give up the second tower, abandon jungle defense, and tell your team to fall back and defend the base.

The moment the enemy loses patience and dives your base is your chance to counterattack. If you can snipe a late-game neutral boss when you see an opening, the momentum swings hard in your favor.

This was a game where I played Lu Bu in the clash lane against an enemy team with Jing and Donghuang. I had my jungler start from the side opposite the lane, setting things up so Jing's invade would fail.

Instead of returning to lane, I went to guard the buff first, drove Jing off when he came to steal it, and stayed put for a few extra seconds just in case to prevent a re-invade.

Then a greedy mid Charlotte came to steal my team's monster without looking at the map. Because she didn't check that I wasn't in lane and never glanced at the minimap, she got punished instantly.

This is a case that shows the plays I'm sharing here aren't off-the-cuff ideas but practical stuff tested in real games.

At the 10-minute mark, check your gold and measure whether you're hitting the standard for a clash laner. The benchmark is around 7,000 gold.

If you're clearly above it, your farm and pace are healthy; if you're well below it, there's likely a farming shortfall or a mistake in your lane play.

From here the game enters its late phase, the 10-20 minute window. In this period a clash laner's job boils down to efficiently juggling two things: map pressure through split pushing a side lane, and joining team fights, all while reacting to the pace of the game.

The point is to draw attention：It's not about mindlessly hitting towers; the aim is to split the enemy's attention and disperse their focus before the 15-minute mark. At the same time it speeds up your own farm and item progression.

It's only effective when your economy is stable and you have the dueling power to go one-on-one with whoever comes to answer you. When the conditions line up, the enemy struggles to respond, and the pressure on the side lane indirectly creates a numbers advantage somewhere else.

If your gold is well below 7,000, the enemy's side-lane hero will handle you with ease and turn the fight around on you, so in that case call for a teammate or switch to lying in wait in a bush.

Always watch the minimap：Split pushing means acting alone, which makes you easy to gank. When no enemies show on the map, or when only one is visible in an attempt to bait you, don't recklessly dive into the wave.

Hide and wait until the threatening enemy naturally comes onto your radar, then push safely. After you clear the wave, feint a retreat toward the jungle and re-hide in a bush; this restores the element of surprise and keeps the enemy from reading your position.

Vision management across all three lanes：Clearing all three lanes at once, and in spots visible to the enemy, suddenly makes the area around the mid tower very fragile. When you need a three-lane push, have one side show itself first to clear its wave and draw the enemy over, while the other side hides and clears later.

This way the enemy is constantly misread and can't be threatened on both sides at once. While you're split pushing, tell your team to hold mid so the enemy can't break through the center.

Prioritize the numbers advantage：In late-game team fights, the numbers advantage matters more than which lane you're in. If your split push is forcing the enemy to rotate, your team is in the best possible spot to fight with a body advantage.

Before a big fight, check that your team isn't being forced into a numbers disadvantage, and if it looks dangerous, either react early or delay your entry.

Watch escape skills before you dive：Check whether the enemy carry or CC threat has an escape tool like flash or purify, and adjust your dive range accordingly. Diving the backline solo with no support is high risk, so if you're not confident in your combo or power spike, first have a tank teammate front-line to bait out the enemy's escape tools before you go in.

If you're a burst hero, look for a window to instantly delete the enemy carry, assuming your items and your team's positioning are set.

Always track the threats：Heroes like Guan Yu can be the biggest threats to your carry, so cut them off or keep tracking their position to avoid CC and unfavorable setups.

Dying alone on the dark, vision-less side of the map seriously hurts your team's rhythm, farm, and the next objective contest. It's important to remember that macro doesn't start on the battlefield; it starts in the lobby and the loading screen.

Boots of Fortitude (physical defense)：Buy these when the enemy lane is strong and their damage hurts. On top of 100 physical defense and 50 magic defense, the key is the passive that reduces incoming physical damage by 6-12%.

Shaving 60 off a 1,000-damage hit early is huge.

Boots of Resistance (CC counter)：These give 50 physical defense and 100 magic defense, plus a passive that shortens the duration of incoming CC by 25%. Strong against long stuns and knock-ups.

Note, however, that they don't work against binding effects (immobilizes).

Boots of Tranquility (cooldown)：For heroes who spam skills from the early game. They add 10-20% cooldown reduction to battle skills like flash, smite, heal, and stun.

Strong strictly in the early game; once your items are online and your cooldown is sufficient, swap to other boots.

Boots of the Arcane (magic/mana)：400 max mana, 60-120 magic penetration, and 10 mana restored every 5 seconds. For mana-hungry mages who don't rely heavily on cooldown.

They also boost your early damage.

Boots of Dexterity (attack speed)：For heroes who rely on basic attacks. On top of 20% attack speed, attacking enemy units or towers grants healing that scales with level.

A good fit for farm/jungle heroes and basic-attack-heavy heroes like Charlotte.

Boots of Deftness (movement speed)：For roamers. Their base movement speed is higher than the other boots (70), with a passive that accelerates you further out of combat.

Good for mages or junglers who want to rotate to the sides quickly for early ambushes or repositioning.

Boots have a hidden mechanic: once every 5 minutes you can swap to a different pair of boots for free. When the enemy starts bringing more CC, you can switch from Boots of the Arcane to Boots of Resistance on the spot without selling, squeezing out maximum value.

The same mechanic applies to roam items too. Since you can swap the crimson-line items to suit the situation, you can run something like switching from the Crimson Shadow - Redemption line to the Crimson Shadow - Radiance line to take vision when a lot of enemies are nearby.

Just remember that jungle items cannot be swapped.

Crimson Shadow - Starspring：For early laning. If you heal a teammate when they're near death, both of you can keep laning without recalling.

When mid-game team fights start to matter, that's the cue to swap.

Crimson Shadow - Redemption：Grants an AoE shield to you and your allies, roughly 240-480 plus 10% of HP. Strong in the late game when you want to protect someone.

Crimson Shadow - Howl：For engage playstyles. Activating it grants AoE movement speed to you and your allies, letting you instantly rush to a side lane and provide support.

Crimson Shadow - Radiance：Activating it reveals enemies in the bushes and makes invisible heroes (like Jing or Arli) visible and targetable for about 1 second. Effective for securing vision and countering assassins.

Choosing between the three colors：Purple grants HP and cooldown each time you slay a monster, for front-line tanks and fighters. Blue grants magic damage and cooldown, for magic junglers.

Red grants physical damage and cooldown, for physical heroes who scale into the late game. All of them require smite; they reduce damage taken from jungle monsters, and slaying them yields 30% more gold and 20% more experience.

Stacks and purchase timing：You don't have to upgrade to the top tier right after buying it. Slaying monsters builds stacks that convert into stats.

The half-finished version caps at 15 stacks (15 monsters) and the completed version at 25 stacks (25 monsters), so the completed jungle item is often bought as your third or fourth item to maximize the value of the stacks.

Don't poach your own jungler's camps; instead reap the enemy jungle to cut into their early gold and experience.

The pre-4-minute sharing rule：Before the 4-minute mark, when the jungler clears minions together with a laner, they don't steal the laner's gold and experience but instead get 50% of the shared value (the base amount).

However, when the jungler and roamer are in the same lane, the roam item's effect cancels out the jungle item's effect, so whoever lands the last hit takes all the gold.

This no longer applies after the 4-minute mark or once you have a completed jungle item.

First, team up with your mid teammate to quickly clear the mid wave, then rotate to other lanes to pressure the enemy. Apply pressure so the enemy is forced to recall and lose gold; if your jungler joins up, you can chase them down for a kill or grab a tower between rotations.

Mids tend to travel through the safe inner or river side, but as a roamer you want the vision of the enemy jungle and their movements, so travel a bit closer to the enemy jungle.

Just don't die. If your mid doesn't want to move, give up on that teammate and rotate with a different one who can be your carry.

This isn't about holding hands and tagging along on their camp clears. Move in sync with your jungler as they cycle blue buff -> red buff -> the bottom side, helping the lane teammates you pass along the way by clearing waves and providing vision.

The top priority is taking vision of the enemy jungler and enemy roamer. Losing track of those two is the biggest problem you can have.

Rotate this way and the three of you can gank any lane; when the mage joins you become four and it gets even easier. Fundamentally, this is a three-person rotation for ganking.

In a duo, rotate with a partner who can be the carry and help your teammates now and then. Solo, by around 4 minutes it becomes clear who your carry is, so until then contribute through vision and wave clearing, and once you know who the carry is, center your rotations on that teammate.

But you can only win by supporting them if that ally is actually performing as a carry. Trying to support the clash laner is generally not recommended.

The clash laner's job is to operate solo, and games you win by supporting them are extremely rare.

Grouping with mid + farm：A setup with the roamer as the fixed member and the other two swapped based on the situation. It doesn't work well early since the towers are still standing, but it's optimal after your allied tower has fallen.

Moving as a trio lets you reap gold while avoiding ganks along the way. The enemy will deliberately leave waves unclear to bait you far from the tower, so watch out.

If you find a lone enemy, the three of you can finish them off.

Grouping with jungler + mage：Used mainly for invading the enemy jungle. Go in as a trio with the roamer tanking damage as the tank, the mage providing damage and CC, and the jungler securing the kill.

If the enemy comes to fight unprepared, you kill them outright; if it's not favorable, you just disengage. A laner near the invade side will also join up, so unless you have a teammate with truly poor judgment, invades generally succeed.

Be the vision and the wall：You are the team's surveillance camera. You relay vision of every enemy to your teammates.

And you are the wall protecting your allies (especially the farm and mid), one you defend with your life. Position yourself so that for an enemy to touch your ally, they first have to get through you.

Engaging and playmaking：Be the trigger for team fights, absorb the enemy's skills and damage, and set it up so your teammates can follow in and secure the kill. The first time you play roamer, keep the enemy roamer in your vision and rotate the same way they do.

Rather than sticking to your allies, tracking the enemy roamer's movements first stabilizes your play. Alternatively, rotating alongside the carry also raises your win rate.

Don't steal your teammates' kills early. Securing a kill your teammate can't finish is fine, but stealing kills disrupts the whole team's gold distribution.

Item order：Buy the roam item (the support gem = the Knowledge Gem) first, and complete the roam item before buying anything else. A roamer's gold tends to be lower than everyone else's, but it's supplemented by the Knowledge Gem, and as long as the team is functioning you don't need to worry about gold.

The roam item is an AoE blessing for your allies, so fighting without completing it is the same as abandoning your job. Completing the support item first is the top priority.

Start by checking the buff：The roamer is effectively the second most important position on the team. At the start of the game, first check which buff the enemy jungler started on.

This lets your team predict where an early gank might come from. The blue buff is the most obvious one to check, and if you have room, if the enemy isn't at their blue buff, check your own side's red buff too.

Many enemies come to steal a buff at the start, so against certain heroes the check won't be wasted. Share it with your team via the on-screen call.

Mid -> farm：Once you've checked the buff, head to mid to help clear your teammate's wave and speed up their leveling, making it easier for them to rotate to other lanes.

After that, move to the farm lane to help your Marksman. Another way to start is to follow your jungler at the start and help clear camps (don't land the last hit on the buff; if you do, you'll take the buff yourself).

The aim here is to get your jungler ahead of the enemy's and enable earlier ganks. Alternatively, you can check only the blue buff, skip mid, and go straight to the farm lane, creating a 2-on-1 there while the enemy roamer is stuck in mid.

Even once you reach the farm lane, the goal is neither gold nor tower destruction (the tower defenses are still up). The goal is to help your Marksman farm and disrupt the enemy Marksman's farm.

The quickest disruption is killing the enemy, but landing the last hit isn't the roamer's job; your role is to let your teammate take the kill. Help with stuns, tanking hits, and heals.

The second form of disruption is interfering with the enemy's last hits. Don't let the enemy farm freely; at minimum make them take damage, and create kill opportunities for your teammate in the process of them trying to get gold.

Don't reap waves where your main laner isn't present. If the roamer solo-clears a wave while the Marksman has recalled, it only delays your teammate's farm.

Balance is everything：Most people lean one of two ways: either taking no damage at all for their team and being the first to run, or absorbing too much and dying for nothing.

Taking hits needs a reason. If you keep getting hit for no reason and end up low on HP, that's not much different from being dead.

You can't engage and end up having to recall, becoming irrelevant. Staying alive to put out stuns and heals is far more useful than tanking a few hits and dying.

If you die, die a meaningful death：That said, not all deaths carry the same value. If your death means the enemy farm or jungler dies, that's a win for your team.

Farm doesn't matter much to you, so the time it costs isn't a problem. Die for a reason; don't tank recklessly.

Your main targets in team fights are the enemy farm, jungler, and mid. Focus your stuns and damage-blocking there.

However, if the enemy has a hook hero like Kui, the one who gets grabbed should be you or the clash laner. You, not another teammate, should be the one to eat the dangerous CC.

Help the whole team：Babysitting the farm isn't your job. Don't stick to one person all day long; help the whole team.

Prioritize supporting the carry while also looking for chances to help your other teammates. Like Da Qiao rotating allies together to break a tower all at once, or getting them to join up on Tyrant or Overlord, the roamer is a role that can make plays that move the game.

Vision and bush checks：The enemy won't appear on the minimap unless they're within your team's or your minions' vision. Scout the map within safe limits, and relay information to your team such as the enemy being in the jungle, taking a neutral boss, or lying in wait.

The roamer, who is good at escaping, can tank a bit, and whose death has little impact, is well suited to scouting. Always check the bushes near your teammates.

Neglecting it invites sudden deaths.

Counters and hero pool：If the enemy has a lot of CC, pick a hero like Zhang Fei; if the enemy is highly mobile and darts in and out, pick a hero like Lam, Jing, or Sun Bin.

The roamer is the most frequently banned position the higher the rank, so keep a handful of heroes you can play. Numbers aren't everything, but if your damage taken is low and your team-fight participation is low, that's proof you're not doing your job.

Participation should be high, and your damage taken should be appropriate compared to your teammates.

For support heroes like Liu Shan, it's important to provide vision across the whole map as a mobile ward. By showing yourself in the enemy jungle (especially the red and blue buff camps), you block enemy invades and gain early information such as the enemy jungler's movements.

When an enemy has pushed out too far from their own tower, catch them with a CC skill and finish them off. After you get a kill or create a favorable situation, immediately secure objectives like Tyrant, Overlord, or towers to extend your team's gold and experience lead.

Constantly track the enemy heroes' movements, and predict the jungler's route and lanes where a gank might happen in particular. When the enemy has used a lot of skills on a low-priority target like a support, a chance opens up for you to counterattack from a favorable position.

Terrain like narrow passages restricts enemy movement and creates favorable team-fight opportunities for your team. Especially with a low-mobility composition, you need to carefully judge the timing to start a fight.

It's important to consider whether your team's heroes can leverage their strengths in that terrain and situation.

Mid rotations depend heavily on the traits of the hero you've picked. Mages who can clear minion waves quickly can easily leave lane to intervene in other lanes or the jungle.

Heroes with strong CC from the early game find it easy to contribute to the team while rotating.

Among mages, some types excel at quick rotations and ambushes. On the other hand, some mages need to farm in lane until they hit a specific power spike, like completing an item or learning their ultimate.

For a hero with high CC but slow minion clear, you need to cover the weakness by coordinating with the jungler or roamer. Since mages aren't all the same, it's important to pick a hero that fits your team's composition.

Rotations can either speed up or slow down the pace of the whole game. Especially when most of your team's heroes are the type that gets stronger in the late game, it's important to adjust the early-game pace through effective rotations.

By benefiting your team and picking heroes that fit the composition, you can establish a playstyle that leads to victory.

As the roamer, check which buff the enemy jungler starts on and use that information to predict their pathing. For example, if the enemy starts on their blue buff, you can anticipate a gank on the clash lane.

Early on, help your mid laner clear minions quickly so they can rotate to other lanes sooner.

Rotate to the farm lane as your jungler finishes clearing their camps. Always track the enemy's movements while keeping an eye on your team's situation.

If a threat appears on the farm lane, head back immediately so your marksman doesn't overextend and get picked off. While rotating, secure vision and keep track of the enemy buff timers.

Don't waste time idly waiting on your teammates' farm.

In fights, cut off the enemy's escape routes and wait until your skills come off cooldown. Avoid fighting when outnumbered, and don't force a fight you're already destined to lose.

Also make use of advanced minion manipulation tactics, like blocking the minion path to buy time for your carry to retreat safely.

Generally, complete your core items first, then pick your remaining items based on the situation. For example, if the enemy team has many high-sustain heroes, prioritize anti-heal items.

If an enemy mage is dealing heavy damage, consider a tier-2 magic defense item before finishing your core build. In the duo lane there aren't many hard counters, and most of the time you'll simply be rotating around the map.

No matter which support hero you play, the most important thing is your own skill. Even if you have a flashy combo with a teammate, it's your positioning and the value you bring to teamfights that matter most in this game, and that's what sets you apart from other roamers.

In the offlane, it's important to reach level 2 as fast as possible. If you have a favorable matchup, play aggressively.

In matchups where the matchup matters, trading damage is extremely important. Actively clear the neutral monster camps in the jungle and aim to gain as much farm (gold and experience) as you can.

Once you learn how to properly manage minion waves, you'll create more opportunities to rotate to other lanes and objectives across the map. This lets you build up an advantage, pick up more farm, and help your teammates.

When you manage the lane properly, it becomes harder for the enemy to push into your tower. At the same time, it's important to pick off enemy heroes and consistently be a useful presence for your team in teamfights.

Laning & Wave Control

Minion management and lane pressure

The clash laner's job is to defend and push the clash tower, coordinate ganks with the jungler and mid laner, initiate teamfights, soak damage for the team, and target the enemy carry (damage dealer).

The best heroes for the role shift with every major patch, but hero choice itself isn't that important aside from counters. How deeply you know your hero and how well you understand the game itself is what lets you dominate with anyone.

The enemy roamer is off the map：A lot of people make a mistake at the 1:30 mark. They think they can just run in and get a kill, and end up dying instead.

Your goal is to reach level 2 on this wave. If the enemy roamer isn't visible on the map, don't immediately engage the first wave.

There's a tactic where the roamer hides in the clash lane bush, and if you dive in without checking, you can get ganked 2v1. On the international server it's rare for now, but make it a good habit to check.

Your skills are weaker than your opponent's：Level 1 skills vary in strength from hero to hero. Trying to brawl with an opponent who has a strong level 1 is a bad play.

If your skills are clearly weaker, keep your distance, poke, and play the first wave passively.

Your skills are equal or better and you've confirmed the roamer's position：In this case, clear the first wave with confidence. Hit level 2 first, and if your opponent is reckless, you can even grab a kill.

As a rule, balance your attacks between the enemy hero and the minions to some degree. If you focus only on the hero, your opponent will hit level 2 off the minions and reach it faster than you.

If you only hit minions, you become vulnerable to their attacks. Watch who reaches level 2 first.

Don't force a kill on the first wave. Chasing too far will get you killed.

After the first wave, check the enemy mid laner and roamer's positions. If they're off the map, play the second wave passively.

By around the third wave, the enemy jungler will be level 4 and looking to gank. Don't commit to a fight until you've confirmed their position.

If the jungler ganked the farm lane first, they'll usually come to your lane around the 2:30 to 3:00 mark. It varies with the hero's speed and the jungler's movements.

Signs of a gank also show up in changes to the mid and jungle activity. If an enemy who was playing passively suddenly gets aggressive, it's a signal that one or two reinforcements are on the way.

If they chase you despite being low on HP and having no advantage, help is almost certainly coming.

Support type：Don't spend too much time clearing waves. Teamfights and ganks are your bread and butter, so prioritize them from level 4 onward.

Even if it feels like you're missing gold on the wave, you'll earn gold by helping your teammates. Just sitting alone in lane is a poor play.

Assassin type：Similar to a jungle assassin, you hide in bushes and create opportunities with ganks. Protect your vision and stay off the map as much as possible.

You're not suited for the front line; ambush at the right moments instead.

Tank type：Your job is to initiate fights and provide vision. Lead the way, check bushes, and guide the group.

If your team has no roamer who can tank, picking a tanky clash laner makes teamfights much easier. There are two keys to engaging: target the enemy backline (the hidden mage or marksman), and don't prioritize the enemy tank.

Chasing a slippery tank is far less rewarding than going after the real damage dealer.

Invader type：Heroes that are slippery and strong at invading the enemy jungle should steal as many enemy camps and buffs as possible. To do it well, you need to understand jungle play.

Keep an eye on camp respawn timers; the more you steal, the more you set the enemy jungler back and force them onto the back foot.

When behind：Above all, don't die. You don't need kills, and you don't need to take every wave perfectly.

Survival comes first. If you're behind, it's fine to farm under your tower.

If you die, let alone start feeding, you'll lock in a 1v1 loss. Next, use your teammates' help.

Even if you can't kill on your own, you can secure the kill by coordinating with a teammate's gank. Watch the map and engage the moment your jungler or mid laner gets close.

The enemy gets frustrated because they should be stronger, yet you only fight them when your team arrives. If no help is coming, learn to play cat and mouse, alternating between approaching and rotating away.

When the enemy clash laner leaves to help their team, focus on clearing the wave and pushing the tower; when they come back, you go help your team. Avoid the 1v1 while still getting work done, and force your opponent to play to your rhythm.

When ahead：If the enemy is hiding under their tower, scared, don't sit there with them. Once you clear the wave, move up the river to support around the center of the map, and if nothing's happening, head back to clear the next wave.

Covering half the map is enough for support; if you're going farther than that, use teleport. The time it takes to sweep half the map is roughly equal to the time it takes the wave to reach the center, so you won't miss out on farm.

A lot of players forget to defend their tower and let an entire lane get pushed in, so always defend your tower. If the enemy clash laner is reckless, lean into your lead, stack up kills, and take the tower; but if they're hiding out of fear, don't overchase and just play productively.

Managing the minion wave is extremely important for gaining an edge against certain opponents. By learning it, you can slow down the enemy's experience and gold income while getting ahead yourself.

Instead of quickly killing all the enemy minions, aim only for the last hit (the killing blow on a minion) to reliably secure your own gold and experience.

This slows your own minions from reaching the enemy tower and creates a situation where the enemy is forced to clear minions in front of their tower (a freeze).

By freezing the enemy, they're forced to stay under the protection of their tower, which limits their movement across the map. This is called zoning, and it slows the enemy's experience and gold income even further.

Freezing the minion wave also protects you from enemy ganks. Since your minions don't push too deep into enemy territory, you can farm safely near your own tower and reduce your risk.

By keeping up this kind of minion wave management, you'll get ahead in gold and experience and be able to overpower the enemy. Combining rotations that read the whole map and act appropriately with the macro skill to grasp the overall flow of the game and make good decisions will lead your team to victory.

Biron can easily tank the poke damage from Heino's ranged attacks. When Heino switches to melee form, his melee damage is low, so ignore him until you reach level 4 and focus on managing the minion wave and earning gold.

There's no need to play aggressively early. This lets you avoid unfavorable trades and keep your gold income in lane going.

Once Biron hits level 4, start applying pressure to Heino. It's important to dodge Heino's skill 1.

When you engage, activate Biron's ultimate to gain a shield, and attack while absorbing damage. Keep fighting until the shield expires.

If Heino does nothing and the lane stays in a stalemate, leave the minion clearing to your jungler and rotate around the map to build an advantage through other lanes and objectives.

Heino has poke potential in lane, but he's a hero with many weaknesses in teamfights, especially in the late game. Even with a damage-oriented build his damage output is limited, and with little CC, he can struggle to contribute to the team in the fast-paced tempo of high-rank play.

In teamfights, aim to kill the enemy's squishy damage dealers first and foremost. Once you take out their main source of damage, you can keep the teamfight in your favor for longer.

Before entering a fight, keep at least 2 stacks of Biron's passive built up to bring out his full power and avoid diving in too far.

The farm lane is mainly handled by the marksman (a hero that attacks from range). The terrain is relatively safe, making it well-suited for farming (earning gold and experience).

In the early game, you can gain more gold by killing the ranged minions (enemy minions that attack from a distance) that appear in the farm lane. The goal is to power up your hero quickly this way.

Once you've completed 2 to 3 core items (key items that greatly influence your hero's performance), don't stay in lane; rotate around the map to support your teammates. Then look for teamfight opportunities (chances for large-scale battles involving multiple heroes) and join in to contribute to your team.

Kaizer is a hero with high durability, sustain, and damage who becomes powerful in the late game. He's mainly played as a tank jungler, but he can also be used as a clash laner (a solo-lane player).

This video focuses on his damage build. Each build has its pros and cons; in the current meta, the tank build is dominant, but the damage build is also viable depending on the situation.

In the laning phase, first focus on earning gold and experience. Kaizer is weak in the early laning phase, so avoid forcing 1v1s with the enemy.

You should hold off on initiating fights until your ultimate, which restricts the enemy's movement and actions, is available. Maintain the lane by spamming skill 1 to manage the minion wave, and be careful not to push too far carelessly.

This makes it easier to prevent ganks from the enemy jungler. Freezing the lane (holding the enemy minions in front of your own tower) is also effective.

Kaizer's skill 2 can be used not only to knock back enemies but also for fine control to dodge enemy skills. On a damage build, it's extremely strong against opponents with little CC, but weak against heroes with lots of CC or slows (movement speed reduction).

So on a damage build, watch out for enemy CC; you're especially fragile when your ultimate is on cooldown, so take extra care. With a tank build you can fight without worrying about CC, but this is a major difference on a damage build.

As an overall macro strategy, since Kaizer needs to grow faster, actively seek out available jungle camps (spots of neutral monsters). Stealing the enemy jungler's camps is also effective.

Kaizer's damage output relies heavily on critical hits, and comes largely from attacking the enemy's squishy backline heroes (marksmen, mages, etc.), so try to attack from the flank whenever possible.

The basics of a farm lane, like for a marksman, are to poke while you farm. Get creative with how you land your skills—if you fire them so they also catch the enemy hero standing behind the minions, you rack up gold from last hits while chipping away at the enemy's HP at the same time.

Keep the enemy low enough and you can finish them off easily later. If your hero has no poke tools, don't force it—focus on farming and leave the poke to your support.

If neither you nor your support has poke, play it safe and just commit to farming.

From the mid to late game, the quality of your fine mechanics suddenly becomes critical. Kiting to attack one-sidedly from a distance, sidestepping to dodge attacks, reacting to and dodging the enemy's skills, tracking what skills the enemy has left, and your own positioning—all of these are needed to come out ahead.

Positioning in particular is the foundation for dealing damage while staying alive.

Whether or not you go for the kill comes down to always keeping in mind which skills the enemy has just used. For example, if you know the enemy's ultimate is on cooldown, there will be many situations where you can push through even if they fight back.

Conversely, if the enemy still has their trump card, don't dive in. Remembering what the enemy has used gives you the information to judge when to fully commit.

In teamfights, narrow your aim to only the enemies you can reliably reach with your attacks. If you push too far forward just because you want to deal damage, you get left in a terrible position and go down first.

The marksman's role is to deal massive damage to support the team, so it's fine to end up with more assists than kills. First, prioritize reliably chipping down the enemies safely within reach.

If you sense the enemy has a hero that sustains through continuous healing, prepare an item that weakens healing (healing reduction) to counter them.

If you don't cut into the enemy's survivability, no matter how much damage you deal you won't finish them off, and the trades just drag on. When it gets hard to invade the jungle, or during stretches when your teammates are pulled to another lane and you have little to do, it's also an effective play to poke the enemy's HP down without forcing anything.

Scaling heroes like Charlotte, who are weak early and grow strong late, should commit to farming until their core items come online in the early game.

If this type of hero trades aggressively from the start, they lose the exchange. Don't force fights—keep your HP high and hold the lane, consistently.

What matters here is discipline; if you lack discipline and keep dying, your growth stalls. If you know your hero is weak early, prioritizing growth is the key to winning most of your matches.

Even if the enemy is looking to gank, if you manage your minion wave properly you won't overextend and can keep farming safely under your own tower. This is wave freezing—a playstyle where you take only the last hits and don't push the wave any further forward.

This keeps the clump of minions lingering near your own tower and denies the enemy their experience and gold by keeping them away from the minions. Even if the enemy comes to finish you, with good wave management you won't go down easily.

In trades, use your survival skills sparingly to hang in there, then wait for cooldowns to come back before committing again. Land your offensive skills on the enemy to build up stacks and passives, and steadily stack up your damage.

Even if the enemy flashes away, with good management it won't matter much overall. If you time your ultimate or empowered states to match the enemy's CC, you can reduce the damage you take while pushing the trade in your favor.

When you dive under a tower, it's important to know who the tower is currently targeting. While the targeted hero is soaking the tower's damage, you can dive in safely and finish off the enemy.

Conversely, if you're the one being targeted, don't dive in. Reading this correctly lets you get dive kills while minimizing risk.

After you get a lead, keep pressuring the enemy while making not dying your top priority. If you don't throw your life away, you deny the enemy any material for a comeback.

Even a hero with modest damage can finish enemies off with teammate support, so playing in sync with your team to push in reliably is more stable than forcing things solo.

Mages typically function as the team's secondary support. They help the team by providing plenty of damage, CC, and healing reduction.

Heroes that thrive in the mid lane generally have the ability to clear minion waves quickly.

Being able to clear minion waves quickly opens up more options for your next move. For example, you can easily steal gold and experience from the enemy's jungle camps to build a gold lead.

Tracking the enemy jungler's movements also lets you predict likely gank spots and give your team valuable information.

An essential part of playing mid is constantly providing vision for your team. Working together with your support makes this even easier.

Mages also excel at ambush attacks, so use bushes and similar spots to set up effective ambushes.

Always play proactively and don't waste time just waiting for something to happen. Once the mid tower is down, it becomes easier to invade the enemy jungle camps.

At this stage, controlling the enemy's resources and denying them farm is the key to victory.

Wave management is the practice of controlling the minion wave at a position and state that favors you, so you can gather more resources than the enemy marksman. Done well, it lets you get ahead in gold and experience while denying the enemy the farm and experience they want. There are three broad approaches: zoning, which keeps the enemy off the wave; pushing, which shoves the wave into the enemy tower; and freezing, which holds the wave on your side. You use each depending on the situation.

Zoning is a playstyle that shuts the enemy marksman out of the wave. Every time the enemy steps forward to last-hit a minion, you land a poke on them, forcing a choice: go for the minion and take the poke, or back off and lose the gold. Either way, you come out ahead. You can increase the pressure by standing near the enemy's minions, but this is very aggressive and leaves you exposed to a gank from the enemy jungle. Always secure vision and ward the bushes and other spots before doing it. You don't need to land a skill every single time; landing one occasionally to make them back off is enough to chip away at their resources.

Pushing is a playstyle that shoves the wave toward the enemy tower. The enemy is forced to last-hit under their own tower and has a harder time focusing on fighting back, so you get to choose whether to harass them or chip at the tower. However, pushing can backfire, and it isn't always the best option. Shoving the wave under their tower makes you an easy target for the enemy jungle, and if they have a support with strong CC, you risk getting caught under the tower and burst down. Against enemies with knock-ups, immobilizes, and the like, think carefully before you push.

Freezing is a playstyle that holds the wave just in front of your own tower, and it's most effective when you're ahead. By locking the wave near your tower, you force the enemy to overextend deep into the map to reach the minions. Coordinate with your support or jungle to zone them there, and you can deny a huge share of their resources. When you're behind, you can also use it to fall back and settle the wave down.

The key to freezing the wave is keeping the enemy's minion count higher than your own. For example, if you have four allied minions on your side, the enemy needs at least five, and the more enemy minions there are, the more the wave pushes toward your side. Be careful, though: if you let your own tower attack the enemy minions, the push evens out and the freeze breaks, so positioning that keeps the tower from hitting them is essential. Ideally, hold the wave at a point away from both your tower and the enemy, keeping more enemy minions than allied minions, and the wave won't move forward or back, giving you complete control.

You get early kills, you even take down the tower, and yet you still lose the game. This is a familiar experience for marksman players. The cause is usually not weak teammates or mechanical mistakes, but a failure to correctly understand your role in the lane.

A marksman's real job is not to chase flashy kills. It is to become the most reliable source of damage on the team, the one who keeps dealing steady, uninterrupted damage once a clash breaks out. Your starting point should be to treat yourself as the team's insurance policy for the late game, and to align every decision you make in lane with that purpose.

The quietest way to lose a game is sloppy resource management. Many players get so caught up in attacking the enemy marksman that they ignore the wave of minions dying right next to them.

During the 10 to 15 seconds you spend chasing a low-HP enemy to the river, you can miss an entire wave. What you should be choosing here is not the poke damage in front of you, but the gold you are guaranteed to collect. In the early game, damage alone does not win, and whoever completes their items first becomes stronger. Make securing your farm your top priority.

Once you get comfortable farming, the opposite mistake tends to appear: fighting too much. This is the state where you treat every moment the enemy steps into range as a signal to fight.

What you should re-ask here is not "Can I fight?" but "Should I fight?" These are two completely different questions. A good marksman commits not because a fight is available, but only because they have the advantage. Avoid engaging just because an enemy is present, and hold to the principle of taking a trade only when you are clearly ahead.

A major reason for dying early is not paying enough attention to the map. Almost every time you get ganked and think "Where did that come from?", you simply missed the flashing warning signs.

When the mid laner disappears, move carefully, and when both the mid laner and the jungle are off the map, assume you are the target. If you have no vision, accept that you can be collapsed on by multiple enemies at any moment. A great marksman does not react after seeing danger; they read the minimap like a script and move ahead of time, before the danger can reach them.

Another misconception is thinking you must always rush over the instant a clash begins. When a fight breaks out in mid but a wave of minions is pushing into your lane, the decision is not so simple.

If you abandon the wave and head over immediately, the fight may already be over by the time you arrive, and you will have lost only gold and experience. But if you first clear the wave quickly to secure the gold and then rotate, you will be stronger even if you arrive a few seconds late, and you will not actually fall behind. Do not move just because there is a fight; create the conditions to move on your own terms and then rotate. Only after you have cleared the wave do you earn the freedom to help your team.

What separates an average marksman from a great one is not mechanics or hero pool, but positioning. Many players push too far forward trying to reach the enemy marksman or mage, overlook the assassin, and die before dealing any meaningful damage.

The principle to remember is to hit the nearest safe target, not the highest-value one. If the only thing you can safely attack is the tank, then attack the tank. A marksman who survives through the clash and keeps dealing damage is far more valuable than one who dies chasing the backline. Once you become strong, you will be the priority target, so stay behind your frontline, let teammates check the bushes, and never walk alone into fog where you have no vision.

Teamfighting & Map Pressure

Positioning, engaging and side-lane pressure

Menki is known as one of the most obnoxious assassins in the game. He excels at instantly deleting the enemy's squishy heroes, and his high damage makes him a major threat to the enemy backline.

He's an extremely powerful hero, especially from the early to mid game.

A key trait of this hero is his all-or-nothing playstyle. Once you commit, his escape tools are limited, so you have to fully commit to the gank.

If the enemy survives the gank, Menki is left completely exposed. To maximize your impact on the match, it's important to close out the game quickly while you're in your strong window.

In the late game, his effectiveness tends to drop, especially against high-rank enemies who know how to deal with him. When playing Menki as an assassin, your main goal is to identify and eliminate the highest-priority threats on the enemy team.

This creates crucial space for your team to push forward and achieve their objectives. All in all, he's a fun hero to play, but he's described as a real pain to play against.

In this video, I break down the split push strategy. Taking the enemy team composition into account, I picked Milady.

The enemy has high damage in team fights, but they're weak when picked off one by one, and they're a very strong team when they move as a group.

Against this kind of enemy composition, there are basically two options for winning. The first is to split the enemy up and take them down individually, or to ambush them and win with a numbers advantage.

The second is to run a split push strategy.

Your job is to split push a side lane and put pressure on the enemy. This easily draws them to you, letting your team take advantage of the now-divided enemy team and create a favorable situation.

Keep pushing your lane and apply constant pressure on the enemy.

What world-class clash lane players commit to is not forcing kills on the enemy. Rather than landing a combo to chase a 1v1 kill, they clear the minion waves cleanly to take lane control, and once they've built an advantage they back off instead of overchasing. The goal is to not die, and to keep holding the lane advantage.

By contrast, a player who spotted a squishy mage passing by and couldn't resist going for a full combo wasted their flash, got killed themselves, and nearly dragged their teammates down with them. Not going in even when a tempting target appears, that discipline is the foundation of strength.

The stronger the team, the more carefully they finish off small objectives like a minor jungle camp or a single cannon minion. When taking down a tower, this player deliberately waited for the cannon minion to be cleared by the tower before starting to hit it, forcing a full cannon minion's worth of advantage onto the opponent.

Each of these may look small on its own, but the gap snowballs faster than you'd expect. Across the whole match, the awareness to collect small camps and secure last hits directly translates into a difference in fundamental strength.

The iron rule in a clash is to focus only the same target your teammates are focusing. Even when the signal to dive is given, this player first watches the tank stick onto the target, then commits to that same enemy, and never lets their eyes drift to someone else.

Don't rush in on your own; always wait on the flank of the formation and join the moment your team commits. Once you've dived in, disengage cleanly with your ultimate or a mobility skill. Don't stay behind alone trying to grind it out, and once the objective is taken, everyone leaves without lingering. This consistent focus is what makes clashes that don't fall apart.

The clash lane player never takes their eyes off the minimap. If the enemy moves to another lane by teleport, they immediately teleport to follow and defend the tower that would otherwise have been pushed in. Conversely, if one side is split-pushing another lane alone, teammates can always be teleported back into a clash whenever needed.

Using this mind game, there were also moments where they gathered numbers the instant the enemy pushed the lane out and landed a numbers-advantage dive. It's important to understand that portals are not just movement, but a powerful tool for creating a numbers advantage across the whole map.

When taking the neutral objective Tyrant, first secure control of the bottom lane, then swing around to the far side of the Tyrant and lock in a position where no one can come steal it from the side. It's positioning that physically prevents the enemy's steal.

Also, in a clash, don't dive into the center; stand on the flank of the formation and keep applying pressure onto a tower in a different direction. If you can force the enemy to defend the center wave, that side becomes 5v4 and is easier to pry open. If you see you can't take it, don't force the play, and only go for it when you spot an opening. This judgment of when to pull back is another mark of a top-tier player.

You generally put a fighter or a tank in the clash lane. The reason is that this role fills one of two jobs: the "split-pusher" who pushes a different lane alone, or the "teamfight initiator" who starts fights. The split-pusher type chips away at a tower solo while teammates fight elsewhere, securing free objectives. The teamfight type initiates rather than runs, using strong CC (crowd control) and decent damage to focus down the enemy marksman or mage. Being aware of these two goals as you pick your hero is the starting point.

Even when your team is at a disadvantage in a teamfight, having one teammate split-pushing a different lane means the enemy can't just ignore it, because leaving it alone gets a tower taken down. But sending only one player to stop the split-pusher gets that player killed, so the enemy is forced to send at least two to defend. That reduces how many the enemy can bring to the teamfight, and even in a 4v5, if your team can hold, you can effectively turn it into an even or better fight. The essence of this role isn't creating an advantage by fighting directly, but drawing the enemy's attention to help your team indirectly.

You can make sense of lane matchups more easily by thinking in terms of build direction rather than memorizing hero names. A fighter stacked full of attack items is strong in teamfights, but can't win a 1v1 against a fighter who has stacked heavy defense. In a full-attack versus full-defense matchup, the tankier defensive build wins by tanking through the items. So instead of asking "how do I counter this specific hero," think in the broader frame of "match a defensive-focused fighter against an attack-focused clash laner," and it will apply even against opponents you're seeing for the first time.

An opponent who has stacked full defense into a tanky build can't be pushed over even by an attack-focused hero. Against this kind of opponent, don't try to 1v1; the correct play is to clear the minion wave quickly and move to another lane. Instead of stalling in your own lane, quickly go pressure the enemy mid or jungle laner and create your team's win somewhere else. However, if you're slow, your own tower gets chipped down by the time you go help and come back, so this play is easier to pull off the faster your hero's movement speed.

Even a hero strong in 1v1 has a timing when its true power comes out. Some types are fragile early and show unmatched 1v1 strength from mid game onward, so until then it's important not to overextend, to clear waves and play safe, and to stay alive until the time you get strong. Also, if you're stalled against a tank, don't fixate on a matchup you can't win; push the wave through and go hunt the enemy mage or marksman. The advantage gained by choosing targets you can kill ends up being a bigger contribution than the stalemate in your own lane.

If your support tank has CC (crowd control) and helps clear minions early at level 1, your mid marksman or mage must never drift too far from the minion wave. If you're out of position, the moment the tank engages and locks someone down, your damage dealer is out of range and the opening you worked for goes to waste. In the video, an ally strays too far and the opening engage falls apart. The CC unit and the damage dealer need to sync their spacing from the very start of the game and hold a position that lets them immediately focus fire the instant a lockdown lands—this is a rule that applies across the board.

When you engage as a CC tank, first confirm with your own eyes that your CC is actually up. The hero in the video leaves a circle under the feet of a target it has locked down, and it can't re-lock them until that circle disappears. Diving in while the circle is still there won't stop the enemy, and your allies' damage won't connect either. On top of that, even when your cooldown is up, the lockdown isn't guaranteed to land—it can miss. So build your engage on the assumption that there's no guarantee your CC will connect, and keep a retreat path open for when it whiffs. Not throwing out your ability in a panic and hitting nothing is the foundation of being an engage tank.

If your main engage ability has short range and a slight delay before it activates, approaching head-on lets the enemy escape before it reaches them. In the video there's roughly a 1.5-second delay, described as an awkward weakness in the laning phase. Heroes like this need to close the gap quietly with an ambush from a bush, or use Flash to instantly cut the distance before firing. Standing still and swinging from out of range simply won't hit, so before you engage, always be aware of whether your CC can physically reach this particular enemy right now.

A CC tank with no damage shouldn't try to secure kills itself—its job is to lock the enemy down and let your marksman do the hitting. If you know your own damage is low, land the lockdown but don't overextend; just drag the enemy into range of your damage dealer. In the video, in a spot where they could have wiped the whole enemy team if the ally damage dealer had been nearby, the player judged their own damage was insufficient, avoided a reckless dive, and retreated. If there's no guarantee of a kill, pass on the engage—drawing that line is what keeps your allies safe.

When there's no opening to engage, don't sit idle—collect whatever resources you can. If your mage has gone back to the jungle or clash lane to clear and there are minions no one is taking, grab them yourself to bank stacks for your abilities or items. But watch the minimap: if the ally who owns that resource comes back for it, back off and don't steal their share. And if you read that the enemy is about to start a clash around the Tyrant or the Overlord, rotate to join it. Not wasting your downtime and instead spending it preparing your next move pays off across the board.

Fighters and assassins who excel in 1v1s will get punished if they force their way into clashes while heavily behind, since gaps in range and mobility let the enemy kite them and attack one-sidedly, killing them before they can do anything. This is where split pushing shines: pushing a side lane alone. When the enemy groups up to push, you push the opposite lane by yourself. If only one enemy comes to stop you, a strong duelist won't go down easily. If two come to gank you, that leaves your team with a numbers advantage at the main fight. The core plan is to disrupt the enemy's tempo while dragging the game out toward the late game.

While applying pressure with a split push, keeping your eyes on the minimap at all times is the top priority. Always confirm where the enemies dangerous to you are. The mantra is: push when the enemy is visible, hide when the enemy disappears. For example, if a threatening enemy is shown on the bottom side of the map, you can push the top lane without hesitation. Conversely, the moment an enemy vanishes off the map, immediately leave vision yourself and retreat to a safe position. Once the enemy reappears up top, clear the minion wave again, then rotate down to push. This vision mind game is the lifeline of split pushing.

During the macro tug-of-war, steal as many of the enemy's jungle monsters as you can while pushing. By accelerating your own farm and stealing the opponent's resources at the same time, you can gradually close the gold gap that has opened up. Think of split pushing not merely as taking towers, but as a fight over resources across the whole map. Keep pushing and pulling back to steadily narrow the deficit and recover from an early disadvantage.

Once you've stabilized the game with split pushing and clawed back even a slight lead, prioritize securing neutral objectives next. In most cases, taking the Tyrant first is recommended. The movement speed and damage buffs the Tyrant grants help you take control in clashes. After securing the objective, catch out poorly positioned enemies to create a numbers advantage and roll that straight into your next push. If there's no good catch available, don't force it; just steadily take towers and extend your lead.

Once you've created a numbers advantage, keep pressing that edge without letting up. Strip the map's resources quickly and take enemy towers back to back. Fast tempo is the key. The faster you push, the more the enemy panics, and a panicking opponent is prone to misjudgments. That makes it easier to catch them one by one, letting you keep attacking while always maintaining a numbers advantage. This flow completes the comeback from behind. Even without relying on fine mechanical skill, the foundation for turning a losing game around lies in this macro playbook.

Draft, Comps & Counters

Picks, counters and team composition

Many players and coaches can feel whether their comp is good or bad, but often can't put it into words. A good comp starts with a foundation of drawing out the strengths of all five players and fitting the current patch and pace of the game. On top of that, ideally it aligns with your own team's playstyle and can also shut down the opponent's core strategy.

A bad comp, by contrast, is one that ignores each player's best heroes (their hero pool) and forces a build that doesn't match the team's playstyle, drifts away from the current meta, or has its very win condition countered by the enemy. Meeting every condition in a single game is hard, but if you can cover most of them, you can call it a strong comp.

There are four pillars to think about when building a comp: each player's best heroes, the strongest heroes in the current patch, the team's overall playstyle, and the enemy's comp strategy. On top of these four, the coach's own philosophy and way of thinking gets added in, and the final draft plan is decided.

Rather than leaning on just one of them, combining these to paint the full picture is the premise for building comps consistently. From here, we'll look at these four in order.

Top teams have players with rare and powerful signature heroes that only they can play. When a player has a hero they're known for, it heavily shapes how the entire comp is built.

For example, if you anchor the comp around a scaling hero that grows strong once fully farmed, you need resources early. So you pair heroes that can easily seize lane priority in the top and bottom lanes to set up that hero's farming environment. Once the core player scales, they become a threat capable of taking on multiple opponents alone, turning individual strength into map-wide pressure — an advantage for the whole team. If you have a player with a signature pick, optimizing everyone around them to maximize it is effective.

With so much data available now, anyone can see which heroes are strong and which are weak. Powerful combinations with especially good synergy tend to get picked or banned. That's because when strong heroes mesh well, you get synergy where 1+1 exceeds 2.

An advanced idea here is 'take it first instead of banning it.' Rather than banning the combination the enemy wants to complete, you pick one of its component heroes yourself and take it away. This breaks up the enemy's plan while also boosting your own comp's synergy — killing two birds with one stone.

The stronger the team, the clearer its playstyle: the core lane may shift depending on the situation, but the 'true core player' stays constant. Once the core player takes their signature hero, the rest of the draft revolves around supporting that pick and filling in the missing roles.

For example, if you take a main-carry marksman, you add a support that maximizes that lane's pressure and speeds up their farming, plus heroes that create an environment where they shine in team fights. Early on, other slots may fall behind in gold because resources are concentrated on the core, but by mid game the core pulls ahead of the enemy, and that single point of focus turns into an advantage for the whole team.

If you can read the picks or signature comp the enemy is likely to take, you can prepare in advance and build a comp that directly cuts down its influence. Matching strong picks against the enemy's key heroes in lane or team fights is the essence of counter-drafting.

Furthermore, if a specific player has a signature hero with a high win rate, removing it with your first two bans is the most effective. The more the enemy depends on that one hero or a specific comp, the more targeting it early breaks their entire plan and denies them the shape they're good at. If you're targeting the core player, the earlier the ban, the better.

In formats where the hero pool is narrow and strong heroes and personal signature heroes are limited, two extreme strategies emerge. One is the all-in type, pouring all the strong picks into a single game. But even gathering four or five strong heroes won't work if their roles don't mesh — for instance, one geared toward river skirmishes and another toward jungle invades — making it high-risk.

The other is deliberately throwing one game to make the enemy spend their strong picks. If you can bait out the enemy's main comp, you can counter it with safe picks in later games. However, in short formats (like BO5), dropping a game early is hard to recover from, so it's a gamble suited to longer formats.

The most stable path is the balanced one, without swinging to extremes. Based on your players' strengths, prepare two or three practiced comp styles and build them into your plan ahead of time.

To build comps systematically, the coach must understand each player's hero pool and have team-fight patterns practiced until everyone's intentions align. No matter how strong it looks on paper, you must never bring an unpracticed comp into a real match. It only works once hero understanding and coordination are in place. From there, stacking up signature picks and counter comps, and accurately grasping what your comp is strong and weak against, is the key to staying a step ahead.

How a match plays out is heavily shaped by the draft (hero picks and bans). At the draft stage, the overall pace of the game and much of the advantage or disadvantage are already determined.

My team includes an assassin and a hero specialized in burst damage, and since the mid laner can't provide burst, the jungler supplies the burst so the team can build an advantage from the early game.

The enemy team, on the other hand, has many late-game scaling heroes like Allain, Marco Polo, and Wukong, with a healer or a durable hero in the support slot.

Since the enemy's early-game damage output is relatively low, my team is set up to make good use of its early-game strength.

In this match, my team got ahead in the early game. However, my team lacked a heavy frontline (tank) who could soak the enemy's damage for long stretches, while the enemy team had a healer and durable heroes, so there was a real risk of falling behind if the game dragged into the late game.

With an early-game-strong composition, you have to close out the game quickly or you'll be in trouble.

In the late game, the draft advantage matters much less, and individual skill and macro (overall strategy and decision-making) decide the outcome. The late game in particular is about isolating and killing enemy heroes and ambushing them.

Even though my team had the draft advantage, if the team doesn't understand how to play its composition, or if it can't coordinate in the late game, its chances of winning drop dramatically.

Every team composition has strengths and weaknesses; there's no such thing as an ultimately superior composition. Often a single wrong move leads to a loss.

To win, it's important to play with consistency and discipline all the way to the end of the match, and above all not to neglect regrouping with your team in the late game.

Supports are tanky against each other, and even with a full six-item build, taking one down in a straight 1v1 is difficult. Counter-picking still works, though, because the outcome isn't decided by "can one hero kill the other" but by "how much can your skills neutralize the enemy's skills."

In other words, you look at whether your skills can shut down the enemy's core moves. Can you nullify their crowd control with immunity or a cleanse? Can you interrupt the skill they build their plays around? Stacking up these matchups is the mindset behind picking a support.

By the rules, the support tends to lock in a hero before the rest of the team, which conversely means that if the enemy support is already revealed, you can slot in a hero that's strong into them on your turn. The moment they show a specific support, options that hunt it start to become clear.

Simply being aware of this last-pick advantage makes it much easier to seize control of the support matchup. Deliberately stacking a skill kit that's favorable against the enemy's playmaker is the basics of drafting.

Early on, before hitting level 4, the gold gap is still small, so the skill damage of supports and mages is roughly even. In this window, 1v1s between supports happen easily, and counter matchups actually matter in the trades.

Put another way, if you have a matchup that wins early trades, you can zone the enemy support one-sidedly, intimidating their mage and support and helping your own team's early game get going.

Supports come in two broad types: the kind that catches an isolated target and picks them off one-sidedly, and the kind that excels at CC (crowd control) or damage absorption that engulfs multiple enemies in a clash. The pick-off type is strong when it can split enemies apart, but in clashes where your team moves as a group, it tends to have its skills go to waste.

Honor of Kings sees frequent clashes, and the later the game goes the more everyone groups up, so a support that can engulf multiple targets at once does more work over the course of a match. Against a pick-off type, slotting in a wide-area CC type that doesn't go dead in clashes tends to land well.

A win condition that keeps coming up in the chain is nullifying the enemy's trump-card skill with immunity, a cleanse, or an interrupt. Against types that catch you with a hook or a pull, you break the capture itself by latching onto an ally or with immunity. Against an ultimate with area crowd control, you slot in a cleanse before allies get caught and strip the CC off.

On top of that, if the enemy's powerful ultimate has a lockout or a charge-up time before it fires, you can time your own stun or interrupt into it and stop the entire ultimate. It's best to pick based on what the enemy's single biggest weapon is and whether you have a way to dodge or stop it.

There are two guidelines for when you couldn't pick early in the draft. One is to pick a support that's strong against the enemy's paper-armor carries, especially assassin types with multiple dashes. Heroes with lockdown-style CC that won't let a target escape once caught tend to land well.

The other is to mesh with your team composition. If your team can deliver area burst damage, pairing a CC-type support that clumps enemies into one spot maximizes that damage and pushes up your win rate across the whole match.

This team composition excels at picking off enemies individually and at split pushing. However, in the early game, partly due to your support hero's traits, your ability to force fights aggressively is low, so you should avoid team fights.

This is especially true if the enemy team is strong when they move as a group.

Team fights where the enemy team clumps together are unfavorable for you, so avoid direct clashes. Instead, split the enemy apart and take them down one by one.

If this succeeds, you can build a numbers advantage and play from ahead.

If the enemy is pushing the farm lane hard, it's important to steal their jungle monsters for gold and punish their movement. Actively split pushing side lanes forces the enemy to spread out, applies pressure across the whole map, and creates confusion about which lane they need to defend.

Different team compositions call for different ways of playing. Understanding your own team's and the enemy team's composition and building a strategy accordingly is the key to victory.

A strategy that worked with other heroes may not fit this composition or this matchup, so flexible thinking is required.

Objectives

Tyrant / Overlord / towers — take or trade

This game has five epic monsters: the Tyrant and its upgraded form the Shadow Tyrant, the Overlord and its upgraded form the Shadow Overlord, and the Storm Dragon, the ancestor of all monsters that spawns in the super late game.

Many players don't understand when to take them, what buffs they give, or which to prioritize in a given situation. That's usually because people skip over the long descriptions, so let's sort it all out here.

Tyrant (4 min)：The regular Tyrant and Overlord spawn at 4 minutes. Killing the Tyrant grants the whole team a chain lightning effect that deals magic damage to enemy heroes.

At the first spawn at 4 minutes you're roughly level 8, and at the 8-minute respawn about level 13. If you take it at level 10, the chain lightning is worth about 120 magic damage, which is like handing out a low-tier item (a spark-type dagger) to your entire team for free.

Simply having something the enemy doesn't is value in itself.

Shadow Tyrant (10 min)：It spawns at 10 minutes alongside the Shadow Overlord. Its effect is the same type of chain lightning as the Tyrant's but greatly enhanced: at level 15 the chain lightning deals about 510 magic damage.

On top of that, it grants a movement speed boost of 10% in combat and 15% out of combat. Considering that squishy heroes have about 4,000–6,000 HP, an extra 510 damage every 3 seconds is enormous, and combined with the movement speed it's extremely strong.

Overlord (4 min)：Killing it replaces the next two friendly waves in all three lanes with minion dragons. Minion dragons take 50% reduced damage from towers, making them strong at pushing towers.

They also give only about 120–180 gold when killed, less than a regular minion (about 240–250), so they chip away at the enemy's economy. There's no direct team-fight buff; it's an objective for gaining a strategic advantage.

Shadow Overlord (10 min)：Like the Overlord, it replaces waves with minion dragons, and it also grants an active skill to whoever lands the kill. When activated, it summons a massive 15,000 HP dragon in a lane of your choice (if you don't choose, it spawns automatically).

Enemy minions in that lane die instantly, and their gold is distributed evenly to the whole team. On top of that, the dragon and allied heroes in that lane gain 10% damage reduction and deal 10% increased tower damage.

It's extremely strong for sieging, for forcing rotations and movement, and for late-game map pressure.

The ancestor of all monsters, spawning at 20 minutes in the super late game. It combines the effects of both the Overlord and the Tyrant, made far more powerful.

Killing it replaces waves with Storm Vanguards (mini Storm Dragons), which not only deal damage to towers but disable them for 5 seconds. It also grants the whole team a passive that zaps nearby enemies with lightning; this is true damage that ignores defense (5% of max HP against enemy heroes, 20% against non-heroes).

5% every 30 seconds up to 50%. With true-damage lightning, a huge shield, and tower-disabling vanguards all combined, it's the single most impactful objective in the game.

A team that takes it in the late game almost always wins.

Tyrant First by Default：The Tyrant and Overlord spawn at the same time, and normally you can only take one of them. The priority is the Tyrant.

It boosts the whole team's damage and movement speed (rotations and movement) and also helps the economy. That said, the Overlord has its uses too: if you win a team fight after being pushed in and losing a lot of towers, you can immediately take the Overlord and reclaim map control by pushing towers.

The Storm Dragon spawns on its own and gets heavily contested, so if you get the chance, always go for it or try to steal it.

Watch Out for Primal Bond：Taking a monster applies a 90-second debuff called Primal Bond, and if you try to take the other one right after, you take increased damage and deal 50% reduced damage.

That's why it's hard to take both early monsters back to back. If it's safe, split into two groups and take them at the same time so no one carries the debuff and you secure both.

Another trick: leave the second Tyrant at 8 minutes untouched until 9 minutes and then take it; you'll get the debuff, but it disappears the instant the upgraded monsters spawn at 10 minutes.

The refreshed Tyrant buff remains, so you can use that extra damage to quickly kill the Shadow Tyrant at 10 minutes. This is an advanced read, though, so it's for high-rank players.

The red buff (Crimson Golem) and blue buff (Azure Golem) aren't just for farming experience; they're objectives to protect and to steal. The red buff adds a 15% slow (stacking up to 2 times) and true damage to your basic attacks, which helps a jungler with early clears and ganks, and helps a marksman kite and whittle enemies down from the mid game on.

The blue buff gives 20% cooldown reduction and a large amount of mana regen, and it's more important the more a jungler relies on spamming skills to fight, like Luna.

It directly affects clear speed and farm speed. Both last 70 seconds after being killed and respawn at 90 seconds.

If you can track the enemy's respawn timers, you can plan invades and read where the enemy jungler is pathing. If they started from the bottom, they'll finish at the top, and so on, so you can read the flow.

It's also handy to remember that a timer appears on the enemy buff 15 seconds before it respawns.

The clash lane has a Primal Portal, and the first team to kill the Space Sprite inside opens a teleport portal. It lets you teleport to allies, lanes, or the jungle, and even to minions and towers.

It respawns in 60 seconds, so before 4 minutes there's a fierce fight over this area around the clash lane. The farm lane has a one-time bird, the Firehog; killing it gives you gold plus 100 gold shared with the whole team (once killed, it never spawns again).

The roam and mid should clear their first wave, then rotate to the farm lane and secure it if they can win 3v3 or take an advantage. Alternatively, the roam can start a 2v1 with the marksman from level 1, push the wave quickly, and take the Firehog.

Also, with the recent tower shield mechanic, destroying towers before 4 minutes has become very hard. So the basic way to build an early lead is to secure your own jungle resources while stealing the enemy's jungle monsters.

Be mindful of the triangle areas on the clash side and the farm side; once you finish clearing your own, gank the enemy or steal their camps.

As for whether to take the Tyrant or the Overlord at 4 minutes, the answer is that the Tyrant is always the priority if your team can win a 5v5 or take it down fast before the enemy notices.

The reason lies in the difference in their effects. The Tyrant grants a damage buff, greatly increasing your combat power and letting you push waves faster.

The Overlord, on the other hand, is about wave control (the ability to push out side lanes), which you don't really need in the early game. So the Tyrant, which strengthens team fights and lets you push waves faster for rotations and movement, is the priority at 4 minutes.

The exception is when the enemy is stronger in an early team fight. In that case, don't force it; instead, steal the enemy jungle monsters (like buffs) on the opposite side of the map to claw back gold.

For a tank jungler the priority is Tyrant → buff → Overlord. An assassin jungler powers up later, so it's better to take the buff first, then the Tyrant, then the Overlord.

At 10 minutes, the Shadow Tyrant and Shadow Overlord spawn. In high ranks and tournaments, where team fights are the essence of the game, the Shadow Tyrant is preferred.

On top of a powerful damage buff from its lightning strikes, it also grants mobility—movement speed that rises when you enter and leave combat—giving you an edge in contesting buffs and the initiative under towers.

The Shadow Overlord is equally strong, but its role is different: it specializes in map control and siege power. Killing it produces two waves of dragons that push all three lanes; they're strong against minions and take 50% reduced damage from towers.

Furthermore, the one who kills it gains a Shadow Vanguard similar to the Overlord's, which can be summoned to a lane of choice. For example, summoning it to the clash lane wipes the enemy minions in that lane so you can push freely, and it also grants your team 10% damage reduction and 10% bonus damage to dragons, towers, and the crystal.

In short, take the Shadow Tyrant if you can win a 5v5 and want to fight, and the Shadow Overlord if you want map initiative and siege power. When you can't choose, commit to whichever is closer to your team's position and secure at least one of them.

The Overlord, Tyrant, Shadow Tyrant, and Shadow Overlord all have a mechanic called Primal Bond: while afflicted, you deal 60% less damage to each of these objectives and take bonus damage in return.

That's why it's a bad idea to immediately go for the next one right after killing one; if you absolutely must chain Shadow Tyrant → Shadow Overlord, do it as a group of five rather than solo.

Doing it solo takes too long, and Primal Bond can get you killed in return. The final objective is the Storm Dragon.

It spawns around 20 minutes (from about 19:30, randomly at the top or bottom—a small icon appears, so watch for it), and around 19:30 the Shadow Tyrant and Shadow Vanguard disappear and the stage is set.

Killing it grants a thick shield that absorbs physical and magic damage and regenerates out of combat, a lightning strike that deals true damage to enemy HP every few seconds (very strong against tanks, minions, and monsters), and dragon waves that spawn in all three lanes to stun towers and the crystal—power that decides matches in the 20–25 minute range.

One caution: the objective can knock you up and deny your smite, which is also an opening for a team trying to steal it. Also keep in mind that being attacked by the Storm Dragon reduces your healing and lifesteal by 50%.

At the 4-minute mark, the Tyrant spawns on the lower side of the river and the Overlord spawns on the upper side. At the same time, the towers' early-game shields and the jungle protection expire, so neutral objectives now hit back harder — but siege minions (catapults) join the waves, making it easier to push towers.

Killing the Tyrant grants every ally's attacks a level-scaling chain of lightning (magic damage), while killing the Overlord replaces the next two minion waves in all three lanes with "Overlord Vanguards" that push towers hard (Vanguards also take 50% reduced damage from towers). The experience and gold from the kill go to the entire team.

When you take one objective, the other gains the "Primordial Bond," which reduces damage taken by up to 50% for a set duration and makes that objective hit back much harder.

So if you try to take both back-to-back, the second one is extremely tanky, and forcing it often means losing the team fight and giving up your lead. As a rule, choose based on the situation whether to prioritize the Tyrant (a team-wide buff) or the Overlord (pushing towers), and only go for both when you have a big lead and can secure both safely.

At the 10-minute mark, the Tyrant and Overlord evolve into the Dark Tyrant and Dark Overlord, with their chain lightning and Vanguards upgraded and a movement-speed buff added.

In particular, the hero who takes the Dark Overlord gains an active skill that summons a "Shadow Vanguard" to any lane of their choice. It emerges from the crystal (base) and clears minions in a straight line, leaving a path that reduces allies' damage taken and increases damage to structures. The siege minions that join push towers even further, letting you grind down the enemy jungle and squeeze them out — this is a key mid-to-late-game moment.

One way to take both at the same time is to split your team into two groups and work on them simultaneously, but spreading out your numbers makes you more vulnerable to being ambushed by an enemy with a numbers advantage. Treat it as a gamble that only works when you have vision on the enemy's positions — in other words, only with good macro.

At the 20-minute mark, the Dark Tyrant and Dark Overlord disappear, and a Tempest Dragon (Storm Dragon) spawns randomly in one of their pits instead. The entire field turns into a storm, and minions are replaced by Tempest Vanguards that can silence towers (disable their attacks) for 5 seconds.

The team that kills it gains "Storm Awakening," which automatically strikes nearby enemies with lightning (true damage equal to 5% of the enemy's max HP, or 20% against non-heroes) and grants a shield that absorbs 20–50% of max HP. It's the biggest objective of all, capable of completely turning around a late-game team fight in an instant.

When you see the enemy place a ward in a bush or in the river area, you can turn that vision against them. The player who placed the ward gets a false sense of security, thinking "this spot is covered, so I'm safe here," so deliberately taking a wide path around from outside their vision to launch an ambush tends to land well. On the way in, avoid giving off any signs that reveal your position, and only signal your teammates once you've closed in right next to the enemy. Many players won't stop moving even when their teammates warn them, so simply coming in from behind often lets you pick them off one-sidedly.

When the minion wave is pushed toward the enemy tower, diving in is difficult, and forcing the play will get you turned on. If the enemy is warning each other about your position, or is properly warded and prepared, it's better to skip the play that time, back to base to complete your items, and wait for the next opening. While nothing is happening, do a full jungle clear to farm back up and prep the neutral objective, so it's not a loss. Making a habit of deciding whether to engage or back off based on "whether the enemy has secured vision" reduces mistakes.

Even when the Tyrant or Overlord has spawned, starting to hit it right away is dangerous. If the enemy laner pushes their wave and then rotates in, or the enemy jungler arrives, you'll get pushed off it. What you should do first is take priority in a nearby lane. If the enemy contests the wave, you can pick them off with a numbers advantage; if they don't contest it, you can push the wave in and pin them to their tower. Only after you've created a state where you win either way should you first put your hands on the objective — that's the safe order.

The real aim of an objective is less the objective itself and more forcing a favorable clash. If you've cleared the enemy's vision, they won't understand the situation and will wander into a bush. Wait for them there, burst their health down instantly, build an advantage, and then start. If your team is lined up to dive in first, you can commit alongside them without holding back; even if the enemy jungler hits back, your team's pressure forces the enemy to retreat, and you can keep chasing their backs to win the skirmish. If the enemy comes to contest, abandon the objective and fight; if they don't, take it quietly. Commit fully to this two-way choice.

The faster the game develops, the more the jungler is tested on grasping not just their own responsibilities but the situation in every lane. Openings when your teammate is away recalling, states where the enemy has gained an advantage and can roam to other lanes, moments when your teammate is letting an advantage slip — being able to read the movements of other lanes greatly changes the quality of your play. When a teammate breaks down mentally and stops warning those around them, the wound spreads all at once from there. That's exactly why it's important to grasp "how your teammates should move right now" and to communicate it. When you take an advantage, share the next objective to target ahead of time, and prompt teammates to make the call to pull back early from unfavorable fights in spots with nothing to gain.

Closing Out Games

Turn a lead into a win without throwing

Right after winning a team fight or building up a lead, a lot of beginners freeze up, unsure what to do next. What top players do relentlessly is convert every advantage into buildings and neutral objectives. The moment they win a clash, they take the tower, secure the red buff, and move straight onto the Tyrant. The plan is to shove the enemy off a small, easy objective first, then roll into a big one.

When you're ahead, keep the mindset of going for both the Tyrant and the Overlord. Chaining objectives one after another to stack up map resources is the fundamental pattern for extending a lead.

Once you secure the Overlord, the next few minion waves are replaced by Overlord vanguards, which boost the damage that lane's minions and your whole team deal to the tower and push it hard. A common beginner mistake is to let that wave push into another lane alone and abandon it while heading off to a different lane. That way the wave gets cleared easily and its value evaporates.

Top players always move the entire team to that empowered lane, protecting the wave while applying pressure to the tower. They time their skills to land exactly as the wave reaches the tower and open the team fight there. Treat the pushing wave as the place to invest your biggest resource.

Teams that can't close out a tower despite being ahead tend to stall the moment there's no minion wave. Top KPL teams keep chipping away at the tower's HP even without a wave, and when it's time to take it, they force it down.

The other key is to clearly designate one initiator when you apply pressure to the tower. A tanky frontliner throws out CC with their ultimate to shove the enemy back, creating the opening for allies to slip into the tower they're defending. The worst outcome is everyone hesitating and waiting to see what happens — decide in advance who dives in and who follows up. The initiator stands in front of the tower and commits their body to keeping the enemy at bay.

When sieging the bottom lane, securing vision in the bushes on the way to the objective decides the outcome. One player, after farming stacks off minions, immediately walked into that bush and held still, monitoring enemy movement like a placed ward.

In fact, in a past community tournament, a team that was ahead got carelessly caught in that bush and hit by an ambush, and that became their loss. Before forcing your way in, first take vision and information at the key bushes. Just having someone slip in and wait shuts down the enemy's dive before it starts.

Top teams secure the Tyrant and the Overlord back to back, with almost no gap between them. Even with the Overlord's 50% damage reduction active, if the enemy is pinned in their base and can't move, they'll just force it down. These two major objectives are the neutral heart of the river, and since there are no other standalone objectives like a dragon or a baron, the map's resources concentrate on these two.

What you must not do, on the other hand, is push a lane for no reason the moment you get the double buff. Pushing needlessly only hands the enemy experience and gold and melts your lead away. The further ahead you are, the more you hold back on pushing and concentrate resources on objectives and team-fight initiative.

You get a big early advantage in kills or gold, yet somehow you end up losing the match. More often than not, the cause is throwing: making bad decisions after taking the lead and handing your advantage right back.

The key to closing out a win isn't going for a flashy, all-at-once finish. It's stacking up small advantages and grinding out the win slowly. Especially when you're ahead, staying in the right spot without overextending translates directly into wins.

Right after the jungler builds an advantage, going off to take a far-away camp means you won't make it in time when a fight breaks out on a lane where your teammates are.

Wherever there's a minion wave, your laners will always be pushing up nearby. So if you position near the wave, especially around the mid lane, you can join the moment a fight starts. On the flip side, if you're rotating through the camp farthest from lane and your teammates push up and get killed, no amount of pinging them to back off will save them. The more ahead you are, the more you should stay on the same line as your team and apply pressure together.

Just before a major neutral objective (Overlord or Tyrant) spawns, the outcome changes depending on whether you go back to take your own two camps or invade the enemy jungle to apply pressure.

The side that's ahead prioritizes map control over the camps right in front of them. If you step into the enemy's side, they can't go hunt your carry, and with no vision they're forced to walk in blind just to check the objective. Punish that, and you get back more value than two camps. For camps far from lane, you sometimes need the resolve to just skip them depending on the situation.

A classic way to throw a lead is your pathing after recalling. If you clear camps on a long detour without deciding which lane you'll build your game around, you show up a step late to the fight that matters and let escapable enemies get away.

Before you recall, decide 'I'll build my movement around this lane,' then clear the camps on the shortest path accordingly and move so you make it to the next wave in time. Read the timing of when a teammate recalls and the lane opens up, and sync your movement with the wave and the tempo. Being in the right place at the right time is what lets you snowball your advantage.

Another major cause of throwing is fighting without counting heads. Check the minimap: the enemy has all 5 grouped, but your team has 4 with one pushing another lane. That's a 4v5, and it's not a fight you should take.

Even if one of you lands CC, thinks they've 'caught' someone, and dives in, you'll lose if you're short on numbers. Before you fight, always confirm how many you can see on each side and who's missing. If you're outnumbered, ping your team to back off and avoid the fight until you're all grouped. The number of losses you can prevent just by counting heads is bigger than you'd think.

Vision & Map Control

Brushes, scouting and fog control

The map is covered by the fog of war, so you can only see the area within sight of your allies, towers, and minions. Everything else is dark, and when an enemy suddenly disappears from view, it's very likely they're hiding in a bush or in the fog.

The Tyrant and the Overlord spawn on the river at 4 minutes, so whether or not you can secure vision of the bushes around them directly determines who holds the initiative in the match.

Once you're inside a bush you become invisible to those outside, but your position is revealed the moment you attack or use a skill.

That's why you must never face-check by diving in without confirming what's inside. Always scout the bush first, then enter.

The core of scouting is to reveal the enemy while staying in a safe position. Fire a normal skill in from outside and watch for a reaction; probe the interior with a targeted or recon skill; flush out hidden enemies with a sonic or echo-type skill; sense their presence with a skill that gives audio feedback; and if you're the roamer, use gear or skills with area scouting to reveal lurking enemies all at once.

In every case the idea is the same: don't step into dangerous range yourself, and take the enemy's position first.

Always watch the minimap. Once you clear a wave and your minions are gone, your vision closes and the fog spreads. If you get greedy and push into the tower without vision, you'll get ganked.

If you can't see, retreat immediately. Controlling the fog and the bushes, and staying hidden to keep yourself safe, is the foundation of the vision game.

Game Sense & Common Mistakes

Habits and awareness that win games

Beginners tend to attack minions mindlessly, but skilled players control the wave. First, "freezing." Early on, you deliberately hold the minions near your own tower and farm safely right there. Since you don't push up and expose your position to the enemy jungle, you can farm safely at any time.

Next, "slow pushing." By gradually shoving minions toward the enemy side, you make it much easier to take neutral objectives without forcing it. Third, "clearing fast." Some roles, like mid lane, clear their lane quickly and rotate to other lanes to apply pressure. As a mid, for example, you clean up your own lane and then move off to farm elsewhere. Whoever controls the wave controls the map.

Skilled players don't just react to ganks, they predict them ahead of time. If your teammate can hold their tower even when a gank comes, there's no need to rush in to help. Good players don't get jerked around by ganks.

As a jungler, you read the enemy's intent from their position. If the enemy is near the blue buff, they're likely going for a farm lane; if they're near the red buff, they're likely going for mid or clash lane. And every time an enemy disappears from the map, ask yourself "where are they NOT right now?" A hero you can't see on the map is always dangerous. When a gank suddenly lands on you, your brain can't keep up and your reaction is too slow.

Beginners try to fight every time they see an enemy. Even if you can win a 1v1, the moment a second enemy shows up, it turns into a terrible fight. Smart players check whether the enemy's skills are on cooldown. It's important to know the enemy heroes and the length of their cooldowns.

For example, if an enemy whose ultimate has a 50-second cooldown just used it, they're wide open for the next 50 seconds. If you strike into that window, you'll win most fights. Fighting around neutral objective spawn timings is also effective; if you can take down even one enemy, you can secure the objective with a numbers advantage. If the enemy marksman is already dead, that fight is basically won. When you're ahead, don't be afraid to engage and close out the fight quickly.

This is the truth that hits beginners the hardest. A player who takes neutral objectives with zero kills is stronger than a player who racks up kills but ignores objectives. Objectives make your minions and teammates stronger. A single fight in mid can change the entire flow of the game, and losing one fight in the mid game can swing all the momentum to the winning side at once.

Tanks and supports need to know when to back off. Death gives the enemy gold, pressure, and confidence, so don't feed them. Understand how each hero works, sharpen your mechanics, and pile up kills without dying.

Even in solo queue, you need role balance in your composition. First, check whether you have a frontline. If your team leans toward backline heroes and lacks a frontline, pick a tanky hero in the clash lane to absorb damage.

Next, damage. If not a single hero can deal burst, then your fighters get taken down easily when the enemy has burst dealers of their own. You need at least one burst hero. Third, CC (crowd control). If your team is all squishy heroes with no CC, the enemy marksman's ultimate will farm you for free kills. You need CC to stop teamfights.

Kills alone won't win the game. I've watched games where a team lost despite getting 25 kills. Your top priority is towers. Pressure on towers is the single biggest source of pressure on the enemy.

Next are the Tyrant and the Overlord. If your kills don't translate into objectives, they're meaningless. If you get kills but don't push towers and don't take the buffs, you gain nothing.

Every role has a core job that supports the team. The tank's job is to be a "wall," not to chase score. Push up front to create safe space for your damage dealers and secure vision. The assassin's job is to instantly take out the enemy backline, meaning the marksman and mage. If you're not doing that, you're just taking up space in the jungle.

The mage is the conductor of teamfights; if you can't lock down the enemy with CC and stop the enemies diving in, you're leaving your teammates to die. The marksman's only job is to survive. Positioning is everything, and if you charge at the enemy marksman you'll always get one-shot. Stay near your mage and melt the enemies in front of you. The support isn't just for healing; it's the lubricant that creates openings to escape or to engage. The fighter is the map's nuisance, keeping pressure on towers and maintaining the minion wave, split pushing another lane alone to force the enemy onto the defensive. The key is to do your own job and not do other people's jobs.

I've seen many players lose because they couldn't control their emotions. Blaming your teammates only makes things worse. It's better to keep your mic muted unless you're truly furious.

Frustration causes more lost games than bad teammates do. When you lose your cool, you throw the game yourself and can no longer win. Conversely, a single calm decision can save a losing game. I've experienced huge comebacks from a 30-kill deficit, and 45-minute comeback wins from a state where all of my team's towers were down while the enemy's still stood. Calm judgment is what gives you the power to grind it out and close the win.

A lot of players glue themselves to the same lane from the start of the match and never move. Once you've cleared the minion wave, you should show up in other lanes or the mid fight and help your teammates.

But the most important thing is to get back to your own lane before the next minion wave arrives. If you're late returning, you miss out on gold and experience, and only the enemy keeps getting stronger. Repeat the cycle of clearing the wave, rotating, and coming back to apply pressure across the whole map.

Winning requires destroying towers, but Honor of Kings isn't a 1v1 survival game — it's a team game. If your teammates are moving for teamfights, neutral objectives, kills, or map control while you're off endlessly hitting a tower alone, you won't win.

What you prioritize depends on your role. The assassin snowballs early and picks off enemies, the marksman farms safely and scales into the late game, the mage helps in teamfights and supports the side lanes, the fighter holds the front line and secures objectives, and the support shields, heals, and walls to protect teammates. Pushing towers gets strong after your team has built an advantage. Win the teamfight, take the neutral objective, and then push the lane.

Neutral objectives are powerful enough to completely turn around a losing game. Tyrant boosts your combat power, and the Overlord sends a wave of siege vanguards down all lanes.

What matters is judgment. If your team takes Tyrant, you have a combat advantage, so actively look for fights; conversely, if the enemy takes it, don't force your way in (you'll usually lose). If you take the Overlord, all three lanes get vanguard pressure at once and the enemy struggles to defend, so push your lanes.

Objectives are important, but they're not worth all five of your teammates dying to take. While you're forcing the kill, the enemy can steal it, or push the opposite lane, and you can lose the game because you took the objective. Sometimes the smarter trade is to take the opposite side when the enemy takes one.

Also watch out for the Primal Bond. When you take one of the objectives, your team gets a debuff that lowers your damage to the second one and increases the damage you take. The effect lasts 90 seconds, so don't try to take two in a row — wait for it to wear off. The only exceptions are when the entire enemy team is dead, or when your whole team is grouped and the enemy is far away. If the enemy is nearby, don't go for it.

You watch a skilled player dominate on a hard hero and try to copy them, and eight minutes later your score is 0-9-2. Among the 100-plus heroes there are easy ones all the way up to super-difficult ones that you'd need three hands to control.

Beginners should start with easy heroes and learn positioning, movement, and rotating between lanes first, then gradually move on to harder heroes. And practice hard heroes in normal 5v5, not in ranked. That's where you make mistakes and learn, and you bring the hero into ranked only once you're confident.

Just because it's 5v5 doesn't mean you have to fight every 12 seconds. Your early-game goal is to build up gold, experience, and items, and one bad fight can lose the entire game. Before fighting, ask yourself, "Is this fight necessary, and does winning it bring us closer to victory?" If the answer is no, backing off is the smartest choice.

On the other hand, ignoring a good fight is also a mistake. Your teammates are fighting around an objective but you're farming a side lane, or your team starts a perfect teamfight but you're off hitting an irrelevant tower alone — that's on you. Recognize the moments when your team is strong and the enemy is weak. One good teamfight can end the match, and the enemy might even surrender.

It's a small thing, but it loses a lot of games. Most heroes use mana, and by around 3:30 many of them have spent 70-80% of it. And at the 4-minute mark, the neutral objective spawns.

If you're 30 seconds before an objective spawns, recall to base and restore your HP and mana first — not after it spawns. If your teammates start fighting around the objective while you're the only one back at base, it becomes a 4v5 disaster.

Every role exists for a reason. The support isn't the one to split-push a side lane alone, the mage isn't the one to take down towers, and the marksman isn't the one to be the first to dive into all five enemies.

As a support, protect your teammates and be their shield and wall; as a mage, move around and help in teamfights; as a marksman, survive and deal damage; as a fighter, support your team by doing the front-line work; as an assassin, focus on early-game pressure. If your support is pushing a lane and your marksman is diving into the bushes, you have no chance of winning. Playing to your role is unglamorous, but it has a huge impact on your win rate.

The most important thing on this hero, it's said, is correctly deciding "when to fight" rather than how fast your fingers are. Misjudge when to join a fight and you get deleted in an instant, and as a result your farm slows down and you fall behind the enemy in gold. That's why constantly reading which situations are worth fighting and which to avoid is the foundation. It also includes accepting the judgment that, when no one is coming to help, your own tower is your best ally.

At the very start, the plan is to head to the mid lane first. The reason is that even if you can't finish off the enemy mage, at least half the time you can force them to burn Flash. Even without a guaranteed payoff, the idea is to stack up "small wins" that chip away at the enemy's resources. On top of that, if your mage or roamer is in the enemy jungle, you link up there to steal the buff, or push the buff out of the camp so the enemy can't take it. Since the fight ends the moment someone kills the buff, you deliberately drag out the finish to wait for your teammates, then combine damage to go for first blood.

Even when you want to go help a teammate before the next minion wave arrives, the rule is strictly to clear the minions in your own lane first, then move. The value of a single minion wave is equal to one kill, so any you miss out on is a straight loss. Don't waste skills or time on an enemy you can't kill, don't reach for enemies who are far away; just clean up the minions and pull back immediately. Continuing to protect your farm is the prerequisite for assembling the items you'll need in the late game.

On a build light on defensive items, misjudging a dive gets you killed easily. So the rule is simple: only commit when you can reliably kill the enemy marksman and are also certain you won't die yourself. If the target you want isn't the one who shows up, wait in the brush and don't move until the real target arrives. The restraint to not dive recklessly is the condition for surviving even as a damage-oriented hero.

In situations where going to help a teammate means you die too, you accept not forcing the rescue. On the other hand, when a high-damage teammate is far enough away from the enemy, it's worth supporting if your death lets that teammate finish off the opponent. Also, a play that looks pointless at a glance may actually be groundwork for pushing minions into a high-ground tower to take the tower down. The thinking is consistent: choose actions that lead to the "next move" across the whole map, not just the kill right in front of you.

In a MOBA, heroes grow stronger through levels and gear, so in the early game you have no items and no ultimate, which means your damage is low. If you force fights here, you'll just hand the enemy free kills. That's why the basic approach early on is to stay calm, prioritize farming, and wait until your hero is properly developed.

This doesn't mean you should always avoid fighting, though. If your jungler comes to your lane for a gank, that's a moment worth cooperating on. The jungler has the jungle buff and has their ultimate available, so two of you together can push the advantage through. Get into the habit of asking yourself once before a fight: "In this fight, is the advantage on our side or theirs?"

As you clear minions to level up from the start of the match, the enemy jungler reaches level 4 and unlocks their ultimate at around one minute twenty seconds in. If you're standing out in the middle of the lane at this timing, you're likely to get ganked and killed on the spot.

So until around one minute twenty seconds, play near your tower and focus on securing the last hit when the minions arrive in the lane. Doing this makes it harder for the enemy jungler to dive your tower, and if the enemy laner gets careless and pushes forward, that creates a chance for your own jungler to come in and finish them off.

Minions give both gold and experience, but you get the full reward only when you land the last hit yourself. Conversely, if your own minions or tower kill the enemy minion first, you still get experience but not the full gold.

What matters isn't whether you're chipping away at a group of minions, but whether you're personally landing the killing blow. In a MOBA, small advantages stacked up lead to a big gap, so always be conscious of securing the last hit.

Each role has a different job, and the jungler's role is to clear the jungle to level up quickly and finish off squishy heroes. Despite this, some players snatch their own jungler's buff the moment it spawns. Doing this only makes your own jungler weaker.

If you want a buff, take it from the enemy's jungle instead. The rule early on is not to touch your jungler's buff. That said, in the late game, if the jungler gives it up, the marksman may take the red buff. That's because it further empowers the marksman, who scales strong late.

Players who've just come to MOBAs from other games tend to neglect the minimap, but the minimap shows enemy positions, minion waves, neutral objective timings, and even your allies' movements. As a guideline, get into the habit of glancing at it quickly once every five seconds.

If an enemy has disappeared from the minimap, there's a good chance they're heading your way. You can choose to retreat or recall, and conversely, if the enemy is fighting somewhere else, it may be the better choice to push the open side and take down a tower. Especially in the late game, this judgment decides the match.

Brush is an ambush spot where you become invisible once you're inside. Opponents lurk here waiting to catch you off guard. If you walk into brush carelessly while low on HP, you're likely to get killed by whoever's waiting there.

There are three countermeasures: have your tank go in first to check, use a ranged skill to sweep the brush and probe inside, and move grouped up with your team. Especially when going for neutral objectives like the Tyrant or Overlord, always check whether enemies are hiding in the surrounding brush. This is a blind spot, and if one person dives in and gets killed, the situation swings heavily.

New players tend to sit in a single lane, but a MOBA isn't just a game of trading blows with your opponent across from you. To win, you need map control, joining up with allies, neutral objectives, and teamfights. Even if you keep pushing the same lane, the enemy won't just quietly allow it.

Once you've cleared your own minion wave, join another lane to help, then return to your lane before the next minions arrive. This is the correct way to play, and it's the basic for every role. Just keeping this up greatly improves your coordination with your team.

Neutral objectives like the Tyrant and Overlord aren't just decoration; they're the key to swinging the match. Taking the Tyrant gives your team a damage boost, and taking the Overlord replaces the next several minion waves with "Overlord's vanguard," strongly helping you push all lanes. As time passes, stronger upgraded versions spawn, and at twenty minutes the Tempest Dragon appears as the final objective, its benefits far exceeding those of the regular objectives.

What's important is not dying right before an objective spawns. While you're down, your team is at a numbers disadvantage and lets the enemy take the objective freely. During this window in particular, you want to play extra carefully.

Someone who always keeps fighting and someone who never fights at all are both wrong. Before initiating a fight, check whether your ultimate is available, whether your allies are nearby, and what the purpose of this fight is.

If this fight lets you take a neutral objective, break a tower, or push a lane, then it's worth fighting. If it fits none of these, it's just a battle of egos, so pass on it entirely. Winning the match matters more than your kill count.

This creator flatly states, "Even after 100 games, I won't recommend one single best build. You're supposed to adjust it to the match." This mindset applies to any hero. If the enemy stacks stun users, take resistance boots that cut crowd control (CC); if they lack CC, take boots that boost attack speed. Items aren't fixed. You re-pick them to match the enemy's threats. Players who keep their own preferred build while still judging each slot against the opponent in front of them are the ones who get stronger.

Luna's kit works by stacking basic attacks to charge her passive and marking an enemy, which is what enables her chained dashes. So the more attack speed she has, the faster her passive charges, and that directly translates into her strong moment. The principle is the same on any hero: it's important to first understand what triggers your damage or combo (stacks, a passive, landing a specific skill, etc.). The moment you can set up a state where you can pull that trigger quickly is the power spike where you should commit.

As a pro-level approach, the flow shown is: "Don't dive in immediately. First land two basic attacks to charge the passive, and once the mark is applied, chain your skills and dashes." In other words, dive into the clash only after you've set up your most mobile state. Charging in unprepared and empty-handed yields neither burst nor sustained output. That extra step of meeting the prerequisites, mark and stacks, before diving is exactly what separates a clash you win from one where you melt.

For the final item slot, pick by threat type: if the enemy has burst that can chunk your HP away, take an item that shields you at a certain HP threshold; if the enemy has heavy healing, take an anti-heal item that weakens their recovery. And if you expect to be one-shot, another defensive option raised is entering the clash with temporary invulnerability that negates both CC and damage. The more your hero is one that goes in to make plays, the more you should read ahead on what will drop you and reserve one slot for a survival tool. That's what makes the dive possible.

Finally, he reflects: "In the first game I made one small mistake, and that alone lost me the whole match." Conversely, he cites a game where his team was falling apart but he kept playing according to the big picture (macro), and that let him pull off a massive comeback. Playstyle built on reading your strong moments and committing rests just as much on not collapsing on your own with an unnecessary move as it does on closing out the moments you should close. Carrying an awareness of cutting out one wasted mistake, weighted equally with the precision of your engages, ties directly to your win rate.

Basics & Items

Early/mid/late direction and item basics

Scepter of Reverberation：Grants magic attack and movement speed, and every time you land a skill an explosion triggers, dealing additional magic damage. It pairs well with burst mages who put out high spike damage, like Angela, Nuwa, and Mai Shiranui, with the extra explosion damage boosting their output even further.

Savant's Wrath：Grants magic attack and boosts it further with a passive. It works on all mages, but burst mages benefit especially.

Grand Staff：Has the highest magic attack and cooldown reduction, and raises damage by 12% per 100 magic attack (up to 12%). It's a late-game item for high-damage burst mages like Angela and Daji.

Mask of Agony：Grants magic attack, cooldown reduction, and max HP, and when you deal magic damage it applies a burn based on the target's current HP. It's near-essential for utility mages with modest damage, letting them deal reliable damage even to tanky heroes.

Twilight Stream：Grants magic attack, cooldown reduction, and max HP. Every time you deal magic damage, your magic penetration increases, stacking up to 10 times.

It's good for heroes who deal sustained damage with their ultimate—like Angela, Shangguan, and Erin—to grind down tanky opponents.

Void Staff：Has magic attack and max HP, and grants 45% magic penetration through its passive. It's a universal late-game item for all mages to cut through tanky heroes.

Insatiable Tome：Grants magic attack, cooldown reduction, and max HP. Its passive gives a magic version of lifesteal.

It's good for mages who deal heavy AoE damage hitting multiple targets to boost their survivability.

Splendor：Grants magic attack and cooldown reduction. Its active makes you temporarily immune to all damage (you can't move during that time).

It's one of the best defensive items for saving a hero who is constantly targeted from a dire situation.

Enigma - Moon Goddess：Grants magic attack and cooldown reduction. It's an upgraded version of Splendor, available after 20 minutes or once you've used up your Sage's Sanctuary.

After the invulnerability ends, it additionally grants movement speed and HP regen.

Ardent Dominion：Grants magic attack, max mana, and mana regen. When your HP drops to 30%, it grants a shield and movement speed and cleanses all CC.

It's another defensive item for heroes who tend to get targeted.

Holy Grail：Grants magic attack, cooldown reduction, and max HP. It restores mana, and once your mana is full it switches to restoring HP.

It's for heroes who burn through mana and want to spam skills, like Dun.

Golden Blade：Grants attack speed, magic attack, and movement speed. It has two passives: your basic attacks deal bonus damage, and each basic attack raises your attack speed.

At full stacks, your basic attacks convert to magic damage. Currently the magic-damage marksman Erin benefits from it.

Mystic Page：Grants magic attack, max mana, max HP, and movement speed. It suits mages with a passive that empowers their next basic attack, like Mai Shiranui and Shi.

Nebulon Wood：Grants magic attack, max mana, and max HP. On level up it restores some HP, and it grants both physical defense and magic defense scaling with your magic attack.

It gives dive-type mages like Luna and Shangguan the durability to survive after they jump in.

Breakthrough Robe：Grants magic attack and max HP. Your magic attack scales with your bonus HP, and likewise your magic penetration scales with your bonus HP.

It's a defensive item for dive mages like Luna, Shangguan, and Flowborn (Mage).

Frozen Breath：Grants magic attack, cooldown reduction, and max HP. When your skills hit an enemy, they deal bonus damage and reduce movement speed.

It suits utility mages who want to strengthen their CC.

Venomous Staff：Grants magic attack, cooldown reduction, and movement speed. Landing basic attacks or skills reduces the target's healing and lifesteal.

It's a situational item that shines when the enemy has a lot of healing to rely on, cutting their sustain so they're easier to kill.

In Honor of Kings you only get six item slots, so the closer you get to the late game, the more it matters to pick the most efficient (highest-value) items for those limited slots.

Early on, don't force yourself to rush finished items — deliberately stopping at an intermediate component and fighting with that is a valid tactic. For example, grabbing a penetration component early lets you deal heavy damage to the enemy's squishy heroes right from the early game.

Mixing in a small lifesteal component early to sustain in lane (heal HP) and keep farming efficiently is another classic move. Honor of Kings is a contest of how efficiently you can farm within the time you're given, so the foundation of good play is staying aware of your resources gained per minute and continually returning to lane while you heal up.

Penetration and damage core：If the enemy stacks physical defense (roughly 500+ physical defense as a guideline), push through with percentage physical penetration items. Split your choices by hero type: ranged AoE marksmen want a penetration item with range, while more melee-oriented ones want flat penetration items.

If the enemy stacks HP, use a percentage-max-HP-damage item to chew through their thick health pools. When you want to burst someone down, a high-cost item that deals bonus damage to low-HP targets is the finisher.

Crit builds：Heroes built around crit typically stack crit rate and crit damage items together. Pairing that with an item that combines attack speed and crit lets types like Marco Polo or Luara — who empower their basic attacks with skills — scale up all at once.

On-hit and sustain：Items where casting a skill empowers your next basic attack pair well with heroes who cycle skills frequently. When the enemy has lots of assassins diving you, combining an item that slows targets with your basic attacks and an active item that grants a big emergency shield lets you survive far longer in teamfights.

In Honor of Kings physical defense is easy to stack, whereas magic defense rarely gets built until late. That makes magic damage easy to land and highly cost-efficient.

Mages that hit frequently in quick succession (types that pump out repeated damage instances) love items that stack magic penetration with each hit — combine that with a percentage penetration item and you can melt even tanky targets.

Conversely, burst-focused mages want to stack high-power magic-attack items to blow targets up in one go. For mana management, the more mana-hungry a hero is, the more they benefit from mana-regen and cooldown-reduction items.

If the enemy has lots of healers, it's effective for a mage to pick up the magic anti-heal (healing reduction) item early.

It's worth considering at least one defensive item on any role. If the enemy has a high-burst assassin or mage, even a marksman or mage can dramatically raise their survivability by mixing in a single physical or magic defense item.

An active defense item that outright reduces physical damage is a versatile insurance pick when the enemy has heavy physical damage. Magic defense items come in two flavors — a shield type that soaks up poke and a type that boosts your healing — so choose based on how you're being targeted.

The trick with an active emergency-shield item is to use it after your HP has dropped; using it while you're still at high HP wastes its value. Grabbing a universal component (an intermediate piece that can build into any defensive item) first lets you look at the enemy's composition before deciding which finished item to commit to.

You can swap boots for free every five minutes. Skilled players switch boots to the situation: physical-defense boots against a physical laner, CC-resist boots when teamfights are full of flying CC, and movement-speed boots when you prioritize escape and mobility.

As for jungle items, the standard play is not to complete them straight to the final tier — stop at an intermediate stage, finish your other core items first, and only finish the jungle item afterward.

The final tier is expensive but adds little on top, so with the same gold you're better off progressing a Meteor or Axe-line item for better damage efficiency.

Also note that early on (roughly before the 10-minute mark) the jungle item reduces your damage to minions by design, so during that window you need to be mindful of sharing resources with your team.

The most important thing about Season 13 items is learning how to stack anti-heal. Failing to prepare anti-heal early makes it easy to get out-traded in early teamfights.

The tools differ by role: mages use magic anti-heal, tanks use burn (ignite) effects that scorch on the clash lane, and physical carries use physical anti-heal.

Mages in particular are the role that can land anti-heal on enemies most efficiently, so once you see one or two healers on the enemy team, the standard play is to build it early as your first or second item.

Marksmen struggle to land it and tanks have to get close to apply it, so the mage is the default carrier. The roam (support slot) should generally skip it — by the time it matters on the board it's too late, so leave it to your mage.

The headline of Season 13 is that clash-lane fighters and junglers can run two active items at once. This enables a two-stage plan: dive in and deal damage with your opening burst, then trigger an emergency-shield active once your HP drops to keep fighting.

For a hero that grabs and pulls, for instance, you combine an active that guarantees your combo lands with an AoE-stun active. Battle-tank types pick by purpose: a CC-lockdown type runs an AoE-CC active plus a shield active, while a lifesteal type runs a reflect-damage active plus a shield active — diving in to farm damage via reflect, then triggering the shield and rebuilding through lifesteal once low is strong.

The benefit of running two actives mainly applies to fighters; it matters little for farm, mid, or jungle.

In the current meta, opening with the classic burst-power item is weak. If the enemy has healing, an anti-heal item that also grants cooldown reduction, magic attack, and even movement speed is better overall.

In a heal-heavy meta, stacking burst rarely lets you finish targets off. You should flow from anti-heal into an AoE-damage item, then into an item that stacks magic penetration through repeated hits, which also brings your cooldown reduction to a high level.

Burst-type mages are more flexible and can pick their first item to the situation. If you're unsure what to build, the quick move is to open the hero's recommended-build screen and reference the 'hot builds' that high-rank-server players are actually running.

Outside of heroes that need a slow to complete their own combo, slow-applying items are lower priority.

The Season 13 item rework let certain ultimates carry on-hit (triggers on basic attack) item effects. As a result, on-hit items that previously didn't apply to ultimates now do, buffing the marksmen who use them.

On-hit builds (the chip-damage type) spike hard in the early-to-mid game and also gain farm speed and movement speed, so they tend to shine around the 10-minute mark.

Crit builds have the strongest sustained DPS in the end, but they take time to come online, and once you die you fall behind on items, slow down, and become easy prey for assassins and mages.

In a premade, crit is plenty strong, but solo you'll be steadier with an easier-to-pilot on-hit build.

Clash fighters increasingly open with an active defense item that's strong in 1v1s and grants defense and cooldown, in games where they can't one-shot the enemy. The old damage-first opener isn't wrong — you can now choose by purpose: damage first if you want to assassinate, defense first if you want to create space for your team.

Another option is a hunt-oriented defense item that reacts to area skills; this patch it triggers reliably on skills, not just basic attacks, so it pairs well with fighters and battle tanks that have AoE attacks.

There aren't many big changes on the roam side, but the key point is that roam active items can be swapped for free every five minutes. Switch to the optimal active for the situation — a team shield, area slow with vision, ally healing, an instant group teleport, and so on.

Honor of Kings has over 100 heroes, each with a different feel and role. The best start is with an easy-to-play role.

There are six broad roles: Assassin (high mobility, quickly takes out priority targets), Marksman (deals sustained damage from range), Mage (a magic user spanning everything from CC to burst), Fighter (a well-rounded melee with balanced offense and defense), Tank (soaks damage and protects allies), and Support (backs up allies with heals and shields).

Beginners should start with a hero whose movement is easy to understand — like a Marksman or Fighter — and branch out to more complex heroes and roles once comfortable.

Every hero has a passive and three active skills. First, read the skill descriptions and understand their effects, damage, and cooldowns — this feeds your in-game decisions.

Many heroes have skills that synergize, so learn the combos that pair well to maximize your damage and ease of use. The most important thing is knowing when to engage and when to back off.

Once you understand your skills' range, cooldowns, and area of effect, you can judge when it's safe to press an advantage and when to retreat.

In a MOBA, coordination and executing the game plan decide wins and losses. Use voice chat and pings (signals) to relay key information to your team, like enemy positions and objective status.

Each hero has a role within the match, so understanding your own role and fulfilling that responsibility leads the team to victory. It's also important to adapt your play to the strengths and weaknesses of your team's composition.

Farming gold and experience is the foundation, just like in other MOBAs. More resources means you level up, unlock skills, buy strong items, and gain the advantage.

There are three key tips. Minions give bonus gold on the killing blow (last hit), so prioritize landing the final hit.

Neutral jungle monsters give gold and experience and sometimes buffs, so coordinate with your team to secure them. And killing or assisting on enemy heroes gives gold and experience, so get actively involved in teamfights so you don't fall behind.

Check the minimap frequently to track enemy movement, and use that to inform your positioning and objective decisions. If you can read enemy rotations (movement between lanes) from that information and preempt ambushes or respond ahead of time, your play improves a whole tier.

Finally, the importance of objectives: destroying a tower earns gold and map control and lets you pressure the enemy base. Killing powerful monsters like the Tyrant or Overlord grants strong buffs and bonus gold to the whole team.

And the ultimate objective is to destroy the enemy base crystal. Prioritizing the objectives that lead toward it is your path to victory.

Mainly handled by fighters and tanks. The terrain is rugged, so careful farming is required.

Early on you gain a lot of experience by killing the ranged minions, and you look for chances to coordinate with the jungler or mid laner to ambush enemies and attack from the flank.

Mainly handled by assassins and fighters, this role excels at roaming and supporting teammates. Early on, kill lots of monsters to earn large amounts of gold and experience, leveling up faster than the other positions.

After leveling up quickly, work with allies to ambush enemies and strike from the flank.

The lane mainly handled by mages, and it has the shortest distance between minion waves. Minions have high physical defense, but mages can clear them efficiently with high magic damage.

After clearing minions quickly, it's recommended to rotate to other lanes to support your teammates.

Mainly handled by supports and tanks, with low gold needs and high survivability and support ability. Buying roam items doesn't affect your allies' experience or gold gains.

Early on, cooperate with the jungler and marksman, protecting them to enhance their offensive output.

The lane mainly handled by marksmen, and its relatively safe terrain makes it good for farming. Early on you can earn a lot of gold by killing the ranged minions.

After assembling two or three core items, roam to provide support and look for teamfight opportunities.

In Honor of Kings the game is divided into phases as it progresses. Official in-game information puts the game start at 0 minutes, the disappearance of tower shields and the appearance of the Overlord and Tyrant at 4 minutes, the empowerment of the Overlord and Tyrant plus the appearance of the cannon minion at 10 minutes, and the appearance of the Storm Dragon at 20 minutes.

However, as a strategy geared toward junglers, this video proposes its own phase classification: 0–8 minutes as the early game, 8–12 minutes as the mid game, and 12 minutes onward as the late game.

This classification is based on the team's gold and experience gains, along with combat frequency and item completion.

The early-game goal is to clear jungle monsters as efficiently and quickly as possible to earn experience and gold. Players with high farm ability can even reach level 15 by the 8-minute mark.

Actively invading the enemy jungle to disrupt their farm is also an important strategy. Killing monsters to earn gold and experience for the whole team is extremely helpful for building an early lead.

In the mid game (8–12 min), farming and fighting remain important. From this point the powerful shadow monsters (Shadow Overlord and Shadow Tyrant) appear, and securing them brings big buffs to the team.

Teams with strong early-game heroes aim to use the shadow monsters in this window to close out the game. In the late game (12 min onward), almost every hero (except supports) completes their final item build.

This is when late-game heroes shine, but early-game heroes need to be careful. They can contribute by split-pushing side lanes alone or by soloing epic monsters (except the Storm Dragon) to provide buffs to the team.

However, in late-game teamfights early-game heroes become very fragile, so careful play is required.

Jungler heroes each have a phase they excel in. Strong early-game heroes include Athena, Butterfly, Han Xin, Musashi, and Sima Yi.

They deal high burst early and gain the upper hand while enemies lack defensive items. However, once enemy items come online in the late game their impact drops, and they get targeted in teamfights.

Kongming is cited as a strong late-game hero. Although a mage, he thrives in the jungle and can still deal high damage late, giving him better late-game scaling than Sima Yi.

Heroes like Li Bai, Wukong, Nakoruru, and Menki struggle to deal damage until certain items are complete, but once assembled they can hold their own even late.

Heroes like Luna, Zilong, Lam, Yang Jian, Arthur, Kaizer, Agudo, Dian Wei, Charlotte, Ata, and Li Xin are well-balanced and can contribute from early to late depending on the situation.

These are the points where heroes spawn at the start of the match and respawn after being defeated. The crystal in the base and each lane's towers (high-ground tower, inner tower, outer tower) have an active-defense feature: when attacking an enemy hero, damage increases with each hit (ignoring defense).

Destroying the enemy's high-ground tower replaces your team's melee minions with powerful super minions from the next wave onward.

The jungle contains various objects, each with different strategic value.

Primal Portal (Magic Circle): Activates when you kill the Space Sprite that appears in the clash lane at 2 minutes, granting a teleport skill and experience.

It only appears once.

Inner-Tower Vision Sprite: Appears when a side lane's inner tower is destroyed and provides vision for 60 seconds (reappears after 120 seconds).

Jungle Sprite Protection: Early on, reduces the damage enemy heroes take within your team's jungle.

Healing Dew: Appears behind the outer tower at 1 minute; taking it restores HP and mana (reappears after 75 seconds).

Bush: When a hero enters a bush they become stealthed and lose vision from enemy heroes.

Regular monsters: Task Boar, Lizard, Spiketail Beast, Cheetah, Mountain Macaque, Fire Beak, and others — the main sources of experience and gold.

Azure Golem (blue buff): An important target for junglers. Killing it grants a buff that increases jungle speed, reduces skill cooldowns, and increases mana regen per second (lasts 70 seconds).

Crimson Golem (red buff): Useful for ambushes and jungling. Killing it grants a buff that adds a slow and extra true damage to your basic attacks, raising your ambush success rate (lasts 70 seconds).

Powerful monsters that can greatly swing the course of a match.

Tyrant: When killed, its arrival (summon) slows enemies.

Shadow Overlord: When killed, it summons a Shadow Path that can temporarily freeze enemy heroes in the chosen lane. The summoned Shadow Vanguard has high attack speed and HP, and its basic attacks apply a slow.

Storm Dragon: When killed, the homing mark you gain slows enemies.

Minions push down each lane and are an important source of experience and gold for heroes.

Melee minions: Minions with high HP and average attack, appearing two per wave.

Mage minions: Ranged minions with low HP and high attack. They appear two per wave and, from the start of the match until 4 minutes, provide extra experience and gold in the clash and farm lanes.

Ballista: A minion that appears from 4 minutes, far stronger than the ranged minions. It reduces damage taken from towers and is excellent at pushing the lane.

Cannon: Replaces the Ballista from 10 minutes and has higher attack and HP. It continuously attacks towers within range, making it a powerful tower-destroyer.

Super minion: Appears from the minion wave after the enemy's high-ground tower is destroyed, replacing all of that lane's friendly Ballistas and Cannons.

It has even higher attack and HP than the Cannon and is extremely effective at pushing the lane.