If you want to gain gold in League of Legends – and you do, because you like winning – then you need to know how to secure kills. It’s one of the most crucial parts of the game, so even new players have to get good at it. You can be great at map control and pressure, but if you aren’t able to kill your enemies, the game will drag out. Instead of it having a fun time murdering other players, you will end up getting bored.
So let’s learn how to secure kills, shall we?
How to secure kills
Let’s get something clear before we head on to the actual guide. In League of Legends, killing and enemy laner requires a ton of things. If you only do one out of the things we list here, it won’t guarantee success. You will have the best chance if you take every single piece of advice and use it in the game. But even then, it might not be 100% effective. Some things just come with lots of practice.
Trading
The act of exchanging auto attacks and spells while laning is pretty complicated. It seems simple at first, as all you need to do is land some damage while your enemy is going for a minion kill. But timing that while also making sure you don’t miss last-hitting minions can get overwhelming.
Nonetheless, trading is absolutely necessary if you plan on killing someone without any assistance. It lowers their health bit by bit, so you can eventually go all in. Just make sure that you don’t take too much damage either, because that way you might just turn out to be the victim. Always keep an eye on your own health bar.
To summarize, trading is mostly about consistency and attention. If you want an in-depth guide to trading damage in League of Legends, we highly recommend The Strategy Professor’s guide.
Be realistic
That half HP Illaoi with a 500 gold bounty on top might be tempting. But let’s be honest for a second here, you aren’t sure you would be able to take her on, even at half health. A skilled Illaoi can quickly kill anyone, even if she’s at 10%, so now might not be the time to try your luck. Instead, try to go for the enemy support, who you should be able to actually kill.
Sure, it won’t give you as much gold, but it’s a guaranteed kill. When you go up against someone who might be able to kill you, you are not only risking your life, but also potentially missing out on both minion gold, and time to influence the game. Make sure to leverage the risk and reward before pouncing. Staying alive and farming is still much better than dying and having to wait around until you respawn.
You can stack the odds in favor of you at the start of the game, by following our League of Legends champion select guide.
Learn how to bait
Baiting is the simplest way to secure kills. There are a couple of ways to do this, but if you want the kill for yourself, then it’s best to use a pink ward. Simply hide in a bush, place it somewhere around you, and if an enemy comes to destroy it, begin attacking them. Pretty simple and effective.
A much more difficult and risky way to bait in League of Legends is by lowering your HP to dangerous levels, and letting the enemy believe they can get to you. If you coordinate this right, your teammates can swoop in and grab the kill. The downside to this is that you might die.
The third way is the least common. It’s mainly used in higher ranks, because players there can actually get their team together to bait very effectively. The goal is to force a fight over the Baron or a Drake. The enemy either has to come and defend the objective, or let you take it. If your team is strong enough, then it’s a win-win.
Vision
First of all, it doesn’t matter what role you’re playing as, you need to ward. Vision is the absolute minimum prerequisite to killing enemies in League of Legends. Buy your pink wards and don’t be afraid to use your trinkets either, they will come in handy.
This goes double for every laner (sorry junglers). With a couple of wards put in the right place, you can catch the opposing team in very vulnerable positions. This is especially the case when they are trying to take an objective and sacrifice a significant amount of their health. For that reason, you should never fail to keep the areas around the Drakes and the Baron warded.
Final thoughts
League of Legends isn’t only about killing your enemies. Keep that in mind. Sometimes it’s better to leave them alone and take other objectives, because that will either help you kill them later, or push their towers faster. Your end goal should always be victory, by whatever means necessary. Don’t let that go just because you want a better KDA.
