What are the lanes and what are the rules?

Hello there!

So I know there is a Long lane, a Short lane, Mid and Jungle. It seems they are also called left and right lanes BUT here is the problem. The mini map to me looks the same and I can't tell which line is shorter.

Does it has something to do with the color? If you are blue then the left line is the short one?

And what are the rules for lanes. I know the jungler just clear jungle and support the solo laner.

Who is suppose to solo lane? A hunter? A mage? In general a ranged? Or anything aside from assassin?

Who is to duo? A tank and a support mage?

For mid it seems the fashion is a mage.

cheers!

The actual distance from phoenix to phoenix is no shorter between either of the two outer lanes, but the first towers are closer together on the right side of the Olympian defenders (left side for the invaders), and that is where the soloer goes.

Basically, a support (usually the tank) and a hunter head to duo lane, and the support purchases Hand of the Gods and Eye of Providence, keeping vision for the two and getting the blue buff for the ADC at the start.

The mage will go middle, and solo lane is anyone with good sustain. Generally they purchase Teleport to Towers and farm waves until the Jungler ganks.

So, generally:

Duo - support and Hunter(ADC)
Mid - Mage
Solo - high sustainer
Jungle - assassin

I know you said that the lanes don't look much different, but i think a map will help.

If you pay attention to the placement of the foremost towers on the outer lanes, you should be able to notice a difference in distances. In the map below, the distance between the foremost towers on the right (white lines) is longer than the one on the left (black lines w/ white outline). In this case, the solo would belong in the Right Lane because it is the shorter of the two.

Mid lane is almost always a mage. In the duo lane, you will want to have support tank and the ADC hunter. The solo is usually anyone with high sustain, being the warrior class. Some solo laners also prefer to be a mage. As for which lane is which depends on what side of the map you spawn at. When i first started i also found it confusing on who went where. An easy way to remember is looking at fire giant and gold fury locations. The solo goes in the lane nearest to fire giant as it is the shorter lane. Hope this helps.

There aren't really any "rules" to speak of. What everyone is describing is called a metagame, a supposed setup that is assumed to be the most favorable arrangement for your team, and they are often based upon what works in higher level play. The meta assumes that if you're a mage, you should run mid or solo, while if you're a hunter, you should to be in the duo lane, etc. Keyword: Should.

In lower levels of play, a lot of players just follow the meta like sheep without any real understanding of why it is, and just do it because everyone else said so (it's where we coined the phrase "metasheep"). There are certainly reasons why some metas exist: you cannot tell me with a straight face that Ares would ever be a good mid lane pick against Ra. But there are no rules that say you can't do that, but it should be common sense that matchup is horribly one-sided.

Don't be afraid to challenge the meta once in a while. If you can succeed with Ne Zha in the duo lane, by all means keep doing that! If you can make jungle He Bo work, keep it up! The meta is only as restrctive as you lead yourself to believe it is, and the only way for the game to evolve is for players to try different things. You might lose, but it's better than leaving questions unanswered, right?

^

Hunter mids fell out of favor a bunch of patches ago (not entirely sure why), but they're one example of an alternative tactic working well. Neith is probably the easiest to do it with, but Anhur also works well.

Ah, and I also have seen a mage-support/physical bruiser duo lane, rather than the traditional ADC/Tank lane. Of course, that means the tank must either jungle/mid/solo.

If you are good enough, you can do all kinds of crazy things. (But make sure it's the good kind of crazy, not the "Bacchus Jungle" kind of crazy.)

Part of it has to do with the fact that hunters have always had smaller mana pools to work with compared to mages, meaning they can't push as consistently as a mage. A hunter may go with an early Transcendence to solve this problem, but fact that a hunter often needs to expend more of their mana just to not get pushed under their tower is certainly one thing working against them.

Another reason could just be flavors of the month. Ao Kuang and Zeus have been getting nothing but buffs for a while, and both went from being bottom-tier picks to top-tier threats (with Zeus often getting banned in ranked/tournament play). Chang'e is still a solid pick, along with Agni. He Bo got an awesome remodel. Then there's the reworked Vulcan who went from being a complete joke to an actual threat.

Meanwhile, hunters have seen very few changes these last several patches. No buffs or nerfs for them in quite a while. Ah Muzen Cab was released as an overpowered god, and got squished with the nerf bat the very next week.

Hmm. IF all hunters had their mana costs reduced, would that affect anything too drastically? In most of the games I've played, the hunters get the blue buff in duo lane, unless you're a mage-support like Hel or Aphro.

If mana costs were reduced, more tanks would get the blue buff.

If more tanks got the blue buff, most duo lanes would stay in lane longer and recall less.

If more duo lanes stayed in lane more often...? That would probably change some things, but would it be better for the game? I'm considering posting this on reddit. It would certainly increase the viability of hunter mids, which would introduce more variability in the meta, which is a good thing, right?

A guy on reddit asked for lowered mana costs on Artemis' abilities, and it was actually implemented. This could be similar.

I was only familiar with LoL since this year and I've seen from an old youtube video that hunter/marksman used to go mid, what happened to this?