Where should I abuse my lead as midlaner?

Question

I often get ahead when playing a control mage such as Veigar, Xerath or Morgana. With the first two I usually don't get a huge lead, but it's enough to win in the long shot with my damage.
However as Morgana I'm usually getting far ahead over my laner. Meaning I kill him and the jungler upon a gank. But usually my lead there doesn't transition into ending the game, it mostly ends in a loss, since Morgana scales a bit off.

Given I had fb on the tower in mid, all my lanes and jungler are even or a bit on the loosing side, how can I abuse my lead as control mage to close out a game? Notice I'm Gold V, there is room for imporvement. Where am I supposed to be and how can I figure it out in game?

I usually think of Nexus > Inib > Tier 3 > Nash > Tier 2 > Drake > Tier 1 > consistent CS > Kill

Answer 1

The Scenario

Given I had fb on the tower in mid, all my lanes and jungler are even or a bit on the loosing side, how can I abuse my lead as control mage to close out a game?

I will take this as pre 10 minutes for this question as items, team comp and current objectives all matter. I will run through a couple of obvious choices and then expand on your objective priorities.

Prioritizing lane

Simply put, you got the kill but kills do not mean much (300g for a kill vs 200g for a cannon wave). What is more important is not dying as you gain experience and the ability to assist in objective control.

Now, your alone in lane, good job you have an advantage to push for about 45 seconds. Push your wave into their tower, assuming it is a full wave the opposing mid laner loses 200gp, 400ish tower health, and a good bit of experience. This is perfectly fine but the goal is to win game.

Jungle Pressure

Assuming your healthy enough (remember, don't die) assist your jungler or abuse their jungler. Junglers are early game power houses, on their whim your team gains neutral objective control (Dragon, Rift Herald, Baron) and can push lane advantages in one way or the other.

In solo queue you often have unreliable teammates but you could have a decent jungler.

1. Follow him to a lane gank, this prevents an enemy counter gank and greatly improves the success.
2. Assist in an invade, just follow him in, leash the camp and drop a ward. Keep him alive as being alive is good.
3. Pressure a neutral objective, just take whatever your given since the jungler is the one in control of the jungle. Just keep him alive as he does his job

Don't want to help your jungler? Thats fine, abuse their jungler.

1. Take rift scuttle, a camp, or just the honey dew fruit in the river. Rift is 150xp they just lost. A raptor camp is 150gp and a ton of xp. Not to mention you waste their time.
2. Drop a ward at their buff, and return to contest that. The jungler just wants to take those buffs because they are massive advantages(10% cdr and mana regen is worth 900gp, same with 15 damage and hp regen). you may get lucky and take the buff, get a summoner spell, or even force a back/kill
3. clear out wards, vision is king. when a jungler is invisible he scares the whole map, when you know where he is someone has the chance to turn up the heat in their lane.

Ganking

Your a strong independent mid laner who don't need no jungler, just do their job if they are not doing it. Go bot lane and force their summoner spells, take health, and damage turret. Really, just give another lane the same advantage you have.

First Tower

Towers give about 1k gold to your team, that is a free wave for everyone (Think Oprah on the rift). You killed your opposing laner, just sit in that lane and auto attack the tower. Mid tower is the most important tower as it opens up both top and bottom jungle. That means he has no where to hide after you take it.

Words of encouragement

You just won lane, literally just say "good job" to the next person who does something half decent. League is a game, help make it a bit more fun and your team may reward you.

Priorities

I usually think of Nexus > Inib > Tier 3 > Nash > Tier 2 > Drake > Tier 1 > consistent CS > Kill

Yeah, just no. Every game is different, every team member has different priorities, every comp has disadvantages. Leaving this in your mindset is a detriment as it assumes priorities are static every game. The only goal is to destroy the nexus, all other objectives are secondary.

My suggestion, your a smart cookie, find another smart cookie and do their objectives. the objectives do not matter, only how fast you take them does just like @instict said.

My Suggestion

League is a team game, play it as such. Find someone you don't hate and help them do their job. It really does not matter what, but building that trust in a 30 minutes game is a serious skill in a team game with random people.

P.S. anyone can build this skill. It is non-role specific. It is not mechanically intensive. It is literally a skill you will use in all walks of life, build it up here where there is no pressure and every penny spent of skins will just be an investment for your next job.

Good luck on the rift summoner.

Answer 2

What you should focus on is your Tempo.

Imagine Tempo as having the need to generate as much impact as possible throughout the entire time.

The Problem

League is not only about making right decisions, but also about making them as fast as you can. Your priority schedule is clean enough, however, if you find yourself still having a small impact on the outcome of the match, the execution speed will most likely be the issue.

Especially applicable is Tempo when playing early-lategame champs such as Shaco and most other assassins, or in your case Morgana. As your strength decreases, you goal is to close the game ASAP, meaning that you want to execute your schedule as fast as possible.

Most lower tier players for example usually don't increase the pace, once they got an advantage. Quite the opposite, they usually relax down, thinking they already got the lead they need to win the game later anyway, which is why most assassins have such terrible winrates on lower tiers.

The Solution

A master tier player will throughout every second of the game try to play it as fast as possible (taking the camps as jungler fast as they can, optimizing the roaming routes to not waste any time, make fast decisions for the sake of speed, just to not lose Tempo, e.g. backing off of a gank as soon as an advantage is unprobable, just to not waste time, where you could instead take scuttler etc.)

IMO Tempo is one, if not THE biggest, determinatior of gamecarrypower and raw skill in general. It has a monstrous learning cap and a lot of impact, so it is definitely worth investing dedicated time into it, when trying to climb/getting better.

How to practise Tempo

When practising Tempo, a good start is to keep track of your gold. Always try to beat your @5 @10 and @20 minute marks, you will figure out where you can optimize your gameplay, if you just follow this tracking technique. Later on, you will have to integrate map control through objectives aswell, but that will be much more easy, since you understand the concept of tempo and how to estimate value each different decision has.

Later on, if you start to understand this "haste" mindset of Tempo, I recommend to watch professional midlaners playing soloQ, focussing on how they play their own Tempo. Especially take a look at what objecives are being taken, and how, and when.

Answers to generally asked Questions

Q: How does Tempo win me the game?

A: Tempo doesn't. You do. Tempo is the tool, that amplifies your impact in the game. If you are ahead, it will increase your positive impact, but if you are dead behind, it CAN make you feed harder. It is not simple at higher tiers, but straight forward at the beginning.

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Q: What about objectives?

A: Objectives are the main target for Tempo, as they tend to generate immediate impact onto the outcome of the game in form of map control, which can snowball. Consider, your own gold is (for you) an objective in itself. The goal is to get the most out of the time you spend during the game, no exceptions. If there is something on the map, that can increase the chance of winning, go for it, if it is the best option.

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Q: How to I teamplay with tempo?

A: Usually, the one with the best tempo, does the calls. If your tempo is much better than your teammates tempo, you will find yourself giving calls and/or initiating actions on behalf of your team very often. When practicing tempo, teamplay is very important, as you will have to figure out, how to get your team to work with you through correct pings and respectful communication.

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Q: Why not specific advice and tricks?

A: Because it will not get you anywhere as for now. In order to proceed to plat+, understanding the core concept of the game-pace is essential. Specific tricks can be useful later on, but a bombardment of tricks have never brought anyone a league higher. They require a lot of time to figure out individually, just to generate small impact on the outcome of the game. If you don't understand how to turn your gold into a win, then being able to get 10% more through counterganks, roams etc. won't get you anywhere further. If you choose tricks over practicing fundamentals, you trade in medium effort - high impact into low effort - low impact. Wether you are eager enough to go the slightly harder way or not, thats up to you.