Role Tasks and Teamfight Approach

After seeing how useful a previous guide about how to start learning the game from external sources I recently made has seemed to be for people, I've decided to also do my part making another one for newer players that specifically want to go a little further into roles and how they face a teamfight, since I think many of them don't come to finally get and idea of what everyone has to do in a game and how to approach teamfights not to be a complete disaster. The best way to master this though is to listen and watch how pros have it done, but I've acquired some valuable knowledge through years that will help you with this if you are less experienced than I am. I don't intend to go extremely deep into details here so it is too heavy to read, but rather give these players a better outline of what they have to do. To the point.

They start in the duo lane with the support.

The most common class for this role is hunter, although you can also play some mages and even assassins. If you're new to the role, I would stick to hunters and maybe Sol, which is in my opinion the magical hunter with the easier-to-handle early game.

As an ADC, you are the team's investment for the late game; you don't need to be constantly fighting or roaming, just make sure you are OK in farm and don't die. Except for some picks like Ullr, your strength lies on the later stages of the game, being too aggressive early is not usually going to work out.

You are going to be farming with your support for a while, try to focus on that. If you clear the way faster than your enemy counterparts, you can go and steal the purple buff after making sure that you are going to be safe while doing it and not ganked by any foe.

A time later, your support will start to rotate, to the mid lane for the most part. Try to start warding for your own by that time if you can afford it, it will be better for all if your support is allowed to ward another spots and not only your lane. If you die, it will probably be due to you going too far or staying too close to more numerous rivals without respecting that danger. Don't go too far alone, specially if you don't know where everyone is and don't blame the support for not going to help, he doesn't have to always stay with you so it might be your bad for not being careful enough (play under tower or even safer if needed).

As the time goes on, you will start to do some roaming, not crazy ones though. The soonest one might be that when your team ganks your lane and their team counterganks but you win the fight; rotate to help do Gold Fury, your DPS damage is the most valuable here. When the ADCs already have some items bought, they sometimes roam to mid for fighting and trying push the middle. If you're even in farm with the other ADC, make sure to rotate after him. If not, try to make sure that your team knows he is on the way and keep farming, but go anyway if you think you could lose too much from that, like a tier 2 tower or the Fire Giant. Another option is to stay and try to take all the enemy structures that you can as they do the same with yours.

Regarding builds, you need a solid mixture of power and attack speed, and you are most likely going to need some lifesteal and penetration too. Don't be that ADC that caps attack speed but deals a joke of damage per hit or starts with an expensive Deathbringer, many type of items are important on ADCs and you need to build them at the right time. The reason not to go for a 3.000 gold price item for the first slot is that really their tier 1 and 2 aren't that good at all, and that's the only thing you're going to have for a long period because the tier 3 costs a ton of gold. You will earn more gold late game, it is a lot better to get some cheaper tier 3 items early and go for that hot expensive item later, when you can afford it. Also, specially for ADC, a sole item, even a good one, is not going to provide much by its own. Taking the example of Deathbringer, it gives a decent bunch of power, a high amount of critical strike chance and a really strong passive, but without the bonus critical strike chance and the attack speed of other items, you're not really making any profit of it. You just spent 3.000 K gold to be getting very few crits out, at a really slow rate and they are not even going to hit hard because you just got +40 power. Get it when you already got a solid amount of power, crit chance and attack speed from other cheaper items so it actually may become a nightmare for your enemies. You should be starting with some stacking item as such as Devourer's Gauntlet. They are not the cheapest items out there, but early game slow pathing and farming focus make it the best moment to stack. After that you pick your boots and start finishing your core build, searching for items that provide one or several stats from the above mentioned. When you feel like you hit at a decent rate and with enough forcefulness, you can go for those sexy expensive items. In addition, sure crit builds are fun, but realise that they are also easier for tanks to counter and make you just kill yourself every fight without a chance to get your job done. When they have too many tanky gods or whether you feel that the few ones they have are going to make you live in hell, forget about crits and invest in other antitank items like Executioner, Qin Sais and Titan's Bane. This is specially crucial if you start seeing Thorns and Hide of the Nemean Lion being built.

As already mentioned, you will start in the duo lane and farm with the ADC for a while. You have to be specially careful in this, because you have to clear waves against two enemies and protect your partner during the process, but you aren't ranged like him or tanky enough for the task yet. Try to soak damage for your carry only if he is in true danger, and don't go far to push if you think you will be punished for it. Even just let the ADC hit the wave alone if getting closer is too dangerous. This is specially important if you got some passive support like Geb, that hasn't got too much damage or utility early. If you are a more aggressive support like Ymir, you could get away with being more careless (not much though) and you should be looking to outclear them, poke them and invade their jungle.

Try to let your ADC get those last hits, so you both get the most benefit to your roles and items. Do not farm almost anything solely, specially the wave if you're ADC will get in time to farm it. You can get away with soloing back camp harpies, but only if you can do it fairly quick, or you will be wasting time to do more important things for your team.

It is not always clear when you should be starting to leave your ADC alone, it's more like a matter of the circumstances, but I'd say you can usually start making some roaming once you're level 5-7. It also depend on your god and what the enemy team is doing. If the other support started to roam already or your mid is having too much pressure from the enemy team, you should follow and help relieve that pressure, unless you have planned to camp the enemy ADC and commit. Also roam to contest camps and ward the map; the duo lane at the very beginning, but leave that to the ADC and focus on mid, enemy buffs and Gold Fury or other objectives later.

Remember than more than two players sharing farm is not the best thing to do and think of how to better help your team.

Some games you might even need to focus more on the solo lane, because he is being camped really hard as the rest of your teammates are doing perfectly fine. Think of those things too and don't doubt to die for a teammate, but only for a good reason. Sometimes your carries will be stupid and will put themselves in danger for no real reason, and sometimes you will not be able to save them even if you try and you will only die with them, helping your enemies and harming your team more even if that was the opposite of what you tried to do. You can't save everyone, sacrifice yourself only when it's worth.

Also, share all the farm you can to keep up with the rest; supports don't get a lot of farm otherwise.

When it comes to building, look to have a good mix of health, physical defence and magical defence. Items can be very game dependant, you will build better the more you know about the game but, in general lines, buy things that have more than one from the mentioned stats along with Cooldown Reduction, Crowd Control Reduction or Movement Speed as secondary assets, with passives that directly or indirectly affect your teammates and also cost-effective. You can never go wrong with items like Sovereignty, Heartward Amulet or Mantle of Discord.

They usually start at speed with the jungle in this meta. This is very season dependent but I don't expect it to change in a long time. However, I've seen many mid laners wait on a corner of the jungle to see if the enemy mid had planned to start in lane to outclear them thus getting early pressure, so this is something you should have in mind to do or be careful about. After helping clear that camp, go mid to hit level 2. You will be sharing farm with your jungle quite much, but try not do so always that it's possible. I say as directive example that mids are halfway between ADC and jungle: you have to focus a lot on farming to make sure you are always in a good spot but you can't usually get away with being a lane bot like ADC.

As mid laner, you are closer to anything than anyone, make sure you roam to contest camps and help or gank other lanes. Also, your solo laner will be usually a warrior, what means that the enemy solo laner will start by building physical defence thereby being more vulnerable to you early on. A good early gank from a mage over the solo can be very annoying to deal with. I can tell because I've played a lot of solo.

These are the positives of being in the middle of everyone, let's talk about the negatives: everyone is going to gank you. Even Trump could be thinking of ganking you too. It is very important that you have always enough visions around your lane by placing wards. Jungle and support should help you with that though. Jungle will want to kill you to snowball and invade camps. Support will want to help jungle snowball. Solo hopes to outclear the rival and rotate to invade the jungle or kill you. ADC will want to eventually come to take your towers. Learn to have a good map awareness and play safe.

About builds, most mages can start with some stacking item. Warlock's Stuff is better for immobile characters and Book of Thoth for the mobiles ones, but they two are very good and you could even build them both. Bancroft's Talon provides a stronger early game spike and sustain. This is particularly good on gods like Anubis or Sol. Chronos Pendant is a must-buy for most mages and Soul Gem or Soul Reaver are very good on many of them. Also don't forget about flat pen items (Divine Ruin against healers) and percentage pen items (Obsidian Shard) against tanks. Unless you're playing Sol, Chronos or Freya (which are better in the ADC) stay away from rings, except for maybe Shaman's Ring. Ao Kuang is a jungle, not a mid laner, and Chang'e, Aphrodite and He Bo mid aren't a good idea neither.

They start on their lane right off the bat in this meta.

Early on, there isn't really a duty you have towards your team until later, except for perhaps holding your lane without many issues. This means that if you're new to the role, it's better that you focus on not dying much and not losing your tower quickly rather than killing your opponent and taking his tower. As I say, there are no many tasks you have to accomplish here, it is all about learning what gods do to know if you're in a position where you can do certain things or must restrict to others, like being aggressive or passive in lane, and how to build and counterbuild. This is called 'to know the match-up'.

Many different gods can be played in the solo, it is depending mostly on the meta. Pretty much every warrior can go there, but also some guardians like Xing Tian or Athena, mages like Chang'e or Hel and assassins like Fenrir or Ne Zha. More experienced players could also make some hunters work, but they are the worst option of all here. If you're learning, I would stick to warriors, Ymir, Sobek and Zhong Kui.

Solo laners have in common with ADC that they are the roles that focus on farming the most, but their power spikes and job in a teamfight are very different. When you have learnt to play safely, start trying to clear before your enemies to roam and invade their jungle, specially the blue buff, or gank the mid to get a lead. There are many advanced gimmicks related to the solo like proxy farming, freezing or baiting that I don't want to address here, so for now just focus on holding the lane and learning to back at a proper time so you farm efficiently and don't lose tower. Teleport Glyph helps with it, but try to back when they do or make sure that you pushed the lane far up before, what is also applicable to rotations.

Respecting to builds, solos and supports are like opposite faces of the same coin; as supports focus on defensive items with utility for the team, solos focus on defensive items with utility for themselves. This is called a 'selfish build' and solos have to be selfish for the most part when it comes to this. Breastplate of Valor is the most common option to start against physical gods and Genji's Guard and Pestilence the most common against magical, although there are many more being viable. If I am against a physical god and they also have some dangerous magical jungle, I sometimes start with Hide of the Urchin or Spirit Robe right away. You can also do this if you're being camped by their mid. Looking back to selfish utility items, this means they will help you tank more damage, survive more or deal more damage. Some of this items are: Void Shield (some tankiness and more damage for you and also your surrounding allies), Ancile (some tankiness against mages and some CC against them), Bulwark of Hope (strong tankiness against mages and more survivability), Winged Blade (some tankiness and invulnerability against Slows), Mystical Mail (decent tankiness and passive area damage). Cooldown Reduction is also a pretty selfish stat. To know more about this or how to build more inusual picks, search in the internet or take a look at my other guide.

Finally, as the solo laner, people expect you to be tanky and jungle is probably not going to focus on you a lot, but they might do so (Nemesis, Ao Kuang and Serqet are specially good at this) or they could also decide to invade your jungle, what is going to affect you, so warding your lane at a minimum can only be for good.

They start at speed, pick it up and keep a route of farming from there to the blue buff, usually. This can vary from speed to mid camp harpies, leaving the blue for later or even going straight away to the red buff or starting invading their speed buff instead of doing yours. There are many possibilities, but I would stick to the first I said at the beginning, staying away of early invades specially, because they are pretty much high risk versus low reward now. After blue, go to the mid lane and farm with your mid a little bit, clearing the wave and going for a mid harpy camp, then clearing the wave and going for red. Try not to fight the enemy mid and jungle during the process if you can, going to the opposite harpies rather than the very same, unless you are sure you can come out on top.

Do not take buffs away from your allies, even though you won't be able anyway if you already picked your speed: solos pick the blue buff (mana and CDR), mids pick the red one (damage) and supports the purple one (penetration for the team). Sometimes ADC does pick the red, specially if he's ahead from mid, and sometimes he picks purple if support is too busy to take it. As you don't have a reliable source of farm like other laners, you'll have to be always drawing a mental route of spots to farm in the jungle, while taking a little of farm from lanes and ganking the enemy laners.

As a jungler, the things I've mentioned about map awareness here and in other posts are specially relevant for you. You should be almost looking more at your minimap than your character while not ganking to know where you should be or what you could be doing somewhere else. If you don't know where enemies are, then try figure it out and make plans based on that.

Here are some basic tips for ganking:

- Make sure they don't see you coming, the surprise effect is useful. For this, you will have to make sure that you're dewarding properly against more competent players.

- Always take the path that is going to bring you closer to your target's back so there is the less space possible between you and them by the time they see you, unless they are already really low, where you might be wanting to stay further as your teammate chases him waiting on your target to jump or dash into your fangs so they have no chances to survive after.

- Do not engage using your jump or dash firstly, try to silently appear behind them and use your CC to lock them down or hit them so they panic and use their escape ability; then, use yours. If you want to engage quickly, get Blink.

- Better players won't just run from you, they will also fight you back if they think they can call you and will try to dodge your CC and damage, so try to predict their moves and don't go in carelessly. Them fighting back could also mean that the enemy jungle is about to gank you at the same time. Remember that you're not the only jungle out there. Be aware! Wards and map awareness are a way to reduce this risk. Don't force the situation, if you see that they will handle to escape just let it be or things could get much worse. They probably had to use some relic or the ult, it is OK, come back later.

- If they are very low but took care and already went to shelter under tower, you probably won't be able to kill them, but they won't be able to contest a camp invade or an objective attempt, so you know what's next.

- Outside assassins, some warriors and guardians can also jungle, and some mages are directly designed to be magical assassins. Some of these are Achilles, Cu Chulainn, Ymir, Cabrakan, He Bo and Ao Kuang, respectively. I also like Chernobog jungle and you could try Ullr, but just like in the solo, hunters aren't recommendable here, start by assassins.

Regarding builds, it depends on the god as some of them are quite different, so I would commend you to search in the internet. Anyway, builds aren't much complex for jungles. For most of them, just build a lot of power and penetration and maybe some mixed defence item and you can't be that wrong. Forget about attack speed for the most part, except for Kali, Bakasura and maybe Arachne, Nemesis and Awilix. I would also prioritize the regular build on these last three though, maybe adding just some isolated attack speed item. It depends on the game too. Remember that DPS is better against tanks and burst against squishies.

Finally, try to focus on different lanes throughout the game depending of what you might get after a successful gank. Early, that would be invading a camp or taking the Gold Fury. Later, that would be getting the Pyromancer or the Fire Giant. Think of how to get a lead beyond kills, because kills aren't always so relevant on their own.

As initial thoughts, teamfight belong to late game, for the most part. In late game, most of the players should be level 19-20 already and supports over 16-17 as worst. Don't walk around much or far without the team. Late game, most of gods deal a lot of damage and losing one member before a teamfight easily leads to lose the teamfight and thereby lose the game, so you all need to stick together. Also, most of late game goals can be only be achieved by common efforts, so even if you don't lose the game, you're not going to get much alone neither. These goals are to do the Fire Giant, what provide a powerful advantage over the enemy through different buffs fused in one, destroy towers and phoenixes and finally the enemy Titan. Also, now is more important than ever to make use of wards, specially Sentry Wards to destroy those of the enemy. As everyone should have finished their builds already or being close to it, you should use your money now to upgrade the relics you didn't yet and buy Potions of Might and Elixirs of Power or Defense depending on your role, as such as trading the items you may think that aren't working well for others that help you more. Respect the Fire Giant buff; unless you have too much of a lead or know that you are way better, you most likely should retreat and prepare to defend your phoenixes and titan from them. Do it under phoenix so they have to get in to take it, don't give them the opportunity to make it easier by killing any of you before that. Always try to have the lanes fairly pushed for minions to quickly going into their tower when you need to take them. Tanks can get it as well and soak the damage themselves for carries to push, but don't forget that not only minions are expendable but also reduce structure protections, what gods can't, so try to always do like that, specially with the phoenixes and the titan, as they are tankier and deal more damage than towers. Phoenixes respawn with the time but they become squishier, so try to destroy straight away when they do that way they can't heal much. Titan heals every time anything hits it and then leaves the area without dying, so be careful about playing the fool too much. Finally, always focus on dealing damage to the titan when you got all-in to end the game; don't farm damage on gods or it could end up with you all dying and they killing yours. Let's now talk about positioning and fighting.

SOLO. As a genuine solo, you'll have to stand between the enemy team and yours, impeding them from passing (zoning) when your teammates are doing the Fire Giant or just ready to engage. When you think there is a good chance, use your Blink or anything you have to quickly get onto them, leaving short time to react. Your prior focus then will be to lock down some squishy, preferentially the ADC or mid for your mage to confirm some heavy shots on them and your jungle to get in and kill his target, as you made a distraction for him. Not always the solo will be the initiator, but he will always be one of them as minimum. Now the fight has been started, there are a few things you may do: help the jungle kill his target, try to kill another by your own, do only annoy them with your CC to impede them from dealing damage to your teammates or go back and help (peel) some ally so they can survive to any threat. As a bruiser (aggressive tank), the amount of damage you can deal is limited, so disregard the enemy tanks unless they become a real menace to your carries. You're tanky, but not invincible, try not to take every attack against you and retreat when you're low, unless there is a very good chance to win the fight if you take the risk of keep going in or you can save your carries with it, specially the ADC. If you got upgraded Teleport, back and quickly return to the battle. If not just try to play safe and heal for a while if you can then go back, or just go to base and come back as soon as possible if you can't. If you win the fight, you can help hunt down those who are trying to escape or make sure no one in your team dies in the last moment. If you lose, consider peeling for an ally so you can escape together or just escape alone to see if you are able to defend.

SUPPORT. Some supports are good to engage and others not so much, whether your case is just make sure that you're close to your ADC and mid to peel for them once it gets done. This means that even if you're the initiator, you won't usually stay punching people in the face like solos do as you'll have to go back with your carries once you have used some of your CC on the enemies. Jungle will be larking around to kill your proteges and their tanks will also engage on them for their team to take them down. Use your abilities to support them and control their attackers as well as your body to stop everything that can be stopped from landing on them, like basic attacks and certain skills. Also pop your relics for them. Teamfights can get a little crazy with people splitting in all directions and you might have to choose between going to help one ally or another. Prioritize the ADC or whoever is playing the best from your carries, but it's up to you. When the fight is over, use your bigger hitbox to stop enemy survivors from running getting right in their way if you have no cooldowns or rush to save your allies if you lost the fight. Take less risks for the solo and as always if you can't save someone, don't try to, but die for them if you really think you can do it.

ADC. As the main DPS damage source for your team, you will be the prior target for your enemies, as you're the most valuable character to take any objective or structure after the fight. Make sure to position behind your support, but not behind to breath on their nape, fairly far behind, so you're not that close for the enemy tanks to Blink or jump on you but also not that away so you won't be able to rally in time to overcome an assault from the enemy jungle. Also place yourself near to a wall you can leap or a path you can run down if you are forced to escape and play around your mid. Many times the ADC and the mid laner will end up in being standing together with no allies close to help, and you'll have to fight back to back to try and come out victorious. If any enemy is at range, shoot them unless it is a tank with Nemean and Thorns and you built crits. Your battle is going to be trying to deal all the damage you can to anyone as far as you're safe. It's better if you can hit some squishy, but you're not likely to be allowed at the start. Also, trade-offs against jungles are not the best idea unless you already have nowhere to run or you're fairly ahead of them, because jungles are usually faster than ADCs at killing squishies. Save your escape ability if you have it until you need it to survive or you're completely sure that the escales have turned in your favor, as sometimes you could think after a little of poking that going all-in will make you win the fight faster but what is really going to happen is that their tank is going to lock you down and their mage is going to oneshot you with the ultimate thus coming up on top, even if they were almost 1 hit. Remember that your job is to deal damage, not necessarily to finish people, specially if it's risky. After the fight, focus on taking objectives and structures or live to defend. If you're the only survivor and they are going for phoenix, gift it if they are too many attacking and try defending the titan. It will be a really hard task, but phoenix will be harder and if you die then you won't be there to protect your final wall before the loss.

MID. Similar to ADC, stay back with a escape way in mind. Many mages are also very useful after map walls, casting ranged spells to poke and burst the enemy team. When your initiator engages, you could want to use your ult here if it was good enough, as your job is to get as many enemies low as quick as possible, specially the carries. If the other team did engage on you, retreat to a new safe position and keep on doing your stuff. If the ally engage wasn't that good, you might save your ult to finish somebody or defend yourself from the jungle. As opposite to ADC, your capacity to deal damage is not limitless. Focus on being safe when you're out of cooldowns and keep firing when they go back. Something I didn't mention with ADC is that you have to make use of your relics, which should normally be Beads and Aegis. Pop Beads right off the bat when they put CC on you and save Aegis to become immune to most threatening attacks. This means you don't always have to save it so you can last 2 seconds longer once you're already 1 hit, you'll do better by popping it on something like a Poseidon's kraken that way you won't have to need it later.

JUNGLE. They normally are on charge to flank the enemy and kill the prior targets, which are going to be the ADC and the mid. Hide in the jungle, making sure you're not stepping on an enemy ward, and find you're towards the enemy lines to be ready for the assault. It is perfect if you can finish a target before the fight starts, but you don't always need to rush and you could just end up by putting your team in a disadvantage if you just die, what they all are going to try make happen if they spot you soon. You need to be on their faces but you're as squishy. Don't go in carelessly. A way to make sure you find success is to wait a little for your initiator to soak some damage and force some abilities and relics so you can do your job more easily, as targets and supports won't be able to use all the skills they'd like against you to escape or stop you. Once you've killed your prior target, choose the next one if you are still healthy to commit or look to back to base or do some split pushing if not. Die to kill your target if you think it will work, but try to escape alive if the opposite. You're also very good at chasing and finishing enemies, so another thing you can do if you had to leave the fight for being low is waiting in the jungle for other low enemies leaving the fight and kill them all of a sudden. Just like other roles, remember to use your relics at the given time. As jungle, you could also be the initiator if you're playing some Thor or akin. You will have to build a little tankier for that purpose. When you engage, follow the steps of the solo role, but more from the jungle perspective if that makes sense. Aside that, due to your high mobility your the best option to hunt down running survivors after a teamfight, but let it be if they are going to make you waste too much time on that while you could be helping your team get any objective or structure. It is better if they die, but they won't be able to easily defend anything from you regardless if they manage to live while their full team could be already respawning by the time you decide stop chasing to get your trophy.

Let the tanks get in and hit the enemies first so the phoenix doesn't attack you when you do. Mage must poke all he can from distance so rivals have to retreat to heal up and your tanks can find the opportunity to engage. The ADC must focus the phoenix or things are hardly going to end well. Jungle can split to push another lane meanwhile so you have more pressure going onto them and they have to make a hard decision about what to do, or find a way to flank them without being noticed to quickly get in, kill your target and get out for your team to have it easier to push. Even if you die, it is OK if you get the job done, as you're not as useful as their mage can be in these situations, for example. Remember to go with the wave if possible. Tanks should take turns to soak damage and everyone must leave if all of them got too low to tank and you couldn't take the phoenix. It will fall sooner or later if you do right, but you will have losses if you rush things. When you go all-in on the titan, make sure you're using every relic and skill you have to success. If you do, you most likely won't need them later.

Extra tips in case you want to play alternative gods in the roles, you have an idea of what to have into consideration:

ADC. Basically go for high DPS damage, better if ranged.

Support. High CC/utility and tankiness. Class base stats have a lot to do with this, don't think you will be super tanky with an Aphrodite just cause you built some defense.

Mid. High area damage and wave clearing attached to good range. Sometimes people pick ADC with good wave clearing but poor area damage. If you got the area damage somewhere else, it can be OK.

Solo. High wave clearing and early pressure along with good sustain and tankiness if possible. Or high CC/utility for the late game fights. Mobility is also valuable.

Jungle. High single target early damage and camp clearing. Also high mobility and decent CC if possible. Sustain is valuable too.

If you're into flex picks, read god abilities and check this list to see if they fit.