How do I to get level advantage?

Question

I have noticed that two opposing players in the same lane usually level up at different times. By example, I get to level 3 and some seconds later my opponent level up to 3 too.

So, I want know what does my champion level up early than my opponent? I think a nice tactic get to level 6 while the opponent is in level 5, so I can kill him with a "ultimate combo". But wich actions contribute to level up? By example:

1. Masteries and XP runes
2. Kills
3. Spamming abilities???
4. Auto-attacking???
5. Farming???
6. Harassment???
7. Etc?

Answer 1

None of the above answers actually answer your question, although they do give a little bit of relevant info. There are actually a few ways to make sure you level before your opponent. I will not take into account Runes/Masteries that might make you level faster because by putting points into these, you are weakening your character to get these spikes slightly faster and therefore is not efficient.

1) This is normally taken advantage of early game to get an early level 2 spike. If you are top or mid lane, clearing the first full wave of minions + 1 melee minion will give you level 2. Laners will often try to push their wave hard at level 1 so that they reach the level 2 power spike before their opponent to attempt to zone them out. This can be applied to other levels except that often there are other factors involved. Generally, if you notice yourself less than 1 wave of minions away from a level you want to shove hard to get the next power spike from a level.

2) Ensure that more minions die around you than around your opponent. There are a couple of ways to do this. The main way to do this is to try to zone the enemy away from the minions. Normally, you need some sort of lane bully to do this. You put heavy harass damage on them and then stand between them and the minions only last hitting the minions. If you can manage to keep them far enough from the minion wave they will miss out on the exp from them. Additionally, you can force the enemy to go back to base allowing you to soak up exp and them to miss out on exp. You can do this either by heavy harass that puts them at a high risk of death, or simply killing them outright. Keep in mind that taking an enemy low and pushing out of lane is almost as good as a kill. Don't focus on getting kills, focus on zoning them. If you can get a kill without putting yourself at high risk go ahead.

3) If you can shove your lane VERY hard, it can free up additional time to go farm a little bit of the jungle as a laner. While your minions are at the enemy turret, and there are no enemy minions for you to kill, go clear a jungle camp quickly. (Keep in mind that in low ELOs some junglers might get upset by this. Just try to be nice about it and try not to take a camp your jungler is actually on their way to clear it. In high ELO it's actually expected and you shouldn't run into that problem.)

Answer 2

There are various methods to get experience:

Champion kills: Killing an enemy champion rewards a player with an amount of experience determined by the level of the champion slain. The experience gained is equal to 75% of the total experience required for a champion to go from the slain champion's current level to the next level up. In other words, if a level 7 champion is slain, the total experience gained is 75% of the total experience required for a champion to go from level 7 to level 8, or 705 (= 0.75 × 940) experience points. The experience reward will be increased if there is a positive level difference between champions (e.g. a level 5 champion killing a level 7 champion) and decreased if the level difference is negative.

Assists: A champion is given an assist after damaging an enemy champion that is then killed within 10 seconds. A champion granted an assist will evenly split the total experience reward for killing the enemy champion with all other players that received an assist or landed the killing blow or are within 1600 range of the killing blow.

Minions: Killing minions in League of Legends grants an amount of experience upon their death. The experienced gained by the champion is determined by the type of minion. Experience from minion deaths is split between all champions within 1600 range.

Turrets: Whenever an enemy inner, inhibitor or turret is destroyed, all champions of the team are granted experience depending on the turret. No experience is granted for outer turrets.

Neutral monsters: Each type of neutral monster in League of Legends gives a different amount of experience upon death. Experience points from neutral monsters are split between every allied champion within an 400-unit range. Jungle monsters grant 50% bonus XP per level to lower-level champions, up to a cap.

Teemo's mushrooms also grant experience if destroyed. Doesn't grant experience if they are activated.

Source

But mainly, during the lane phase being around a minion when it dies gives you experience. Also, care not to push too fast as then you will end up pushing the wave to their turret and then they gain experience faster than you. So last hit minions.

Answer 3

All these answers are correct in the practise of earning exp. But if you want to ding 6 before the other guy, regardless of lane- you just need to kill (or be around dying minions) more. So when the wave of minions that will promote both of you to lvl 6- push/kill minions and you get lvl 6 before other guy. (Same thing bot lane, push hard lvl 1 and get lvl 2 quick for some nasty harass)

Answer 4

You get experience from masteries (only if you're near a higher level champion), XP runes and nearby deaths of enemies' minions and champions. If the laning phase is aggressive with lots of kills, the side who has killed more tends to level up first.

If the laning phase is very passive with no kills at all, the side that is pushed further to the enemy side levels up first, because the enemy minions from the same wave reach the fighting point first and, hence, they also die first granting you the experience, while your enemies are left waiting for your minions from the same wave to get there.

A lane could also go get some jungle monsters to level up before their enemies. Especially the dragon should give a nice experience bonus.

Answer 5

One unmentioned way of gaining experience is by having Zilean on your team. That gives everyone a +8% bonus to experience earned.