Macro LoL: a complete and free course on timers, dragons, herald, baron, shifts, split push and safe zones!

Timers

Here are the important timers of the game. If you play jungle you must know them by heart, if you play another lane I advise you to at least know those of dragons, baron / herald, blue red buff and carapator.

• Piafs et loups - 1:30, reappears +2 minutes
• Blue and red buff - 1:30, reappears +5 minutes
• Frog and Golems - 1:42, respawns +2 minutes
• Carapateur - 3:15, respawns +2 minutes 30
• Dragon - 5:00, respawns +5 minutes
• Herald - 8:00, respawns +6 minutes if killed before 13:45 p.m.
• Nashor - 20:00, respawns +7 minutes
• Ancestral dragon - after the 4 slain dragons + 5 minutes

The Dragons

Each dragon killed will bring you a buff, once the team kills four dragons you will collect the dragon soul, corresponding to the type of the last dragon killed. From this moment, the next dragons that will appear will be ancestral dragons. Note that as soon as a team has 2 dragons, the next dragons will be strictly identical. Also, the buff given by the ancestral is the most powerful in the game, it is strongly discouraged to fight against a team with this buff. Conversely, force a fight if you have the buff!

• infernal dragon:
  • all team damage buff
  • soul: every three seconds your next attack or spell deals bonus damage
• cloud dragon:
  • team ultimate cooldown reduction
  • soul: 10% movement speed increase, increased to 40% after using the ultimate
• ocean dragon:
  • increased life regeneration over time
  • soul: healing when you hit an enemy
• mountain dragon:
  • full team armor buff
  • soul: shield when out of combat
• ancestral dragon:
  • if you hit an enemy with less than 20% of their health, they die after 0,5 seconds

Who should do what

Here are the roles of each:

• Blue Buff: the first for the jungle, the rest for the mid with the help of the jungler. At lower elo, you can optionally give this buff to mid after level 10
• Red buff: for the jungler, up to level 10, then for the ADC (who can do it on their own)
• Dragon: the jungler with help from the support if necessary, the ADC and the mid must be ready to shift if there is a problem
• Herald: solo jungler, top and mid must be ready to shift if there's a problem
• Nashor: the complete team or adc jungler duo if sufficient equipment and good map vision
• Ancestral Dragon: The Complete Team

When to do the goals

Here are the opportunities to be seized to make the dragon:

• The best timing for the dragon is when you take a kill in the face, the dragon will not necessarily be free, but you will have some advantage in initiating it.
• You can also do it "discreetly", if you have the vision of all the enemies in front and you see the jungler on the opposite side, ganking the toplane for example. In this case, your allies must continue to put pressure on the lanes so that the opposing team does not suspect something.
• Remember to always have a smite available before making the dragon.

Here are the opportunities to seize to be the herald:

• It can be done by anyone, it does almost no damage and by tapping its eye you will drop it very quickly, even if you have little damage. A punishment (smite) is still recommended to also prevent it from being stolen from you.
• The opportunities are the same as for the dragon, except you can do it if you have low HP.

Here are the opportunities to seize to make the Nash or the ancestral dragon:

• The baron and ancestral dragon will be done later in the game, note that the damage of the team will be much higher than at the start of the game.
• The best cases to do it at 5 are if you have one or two kill in front, if the enemy base is push and they are defending (loss of an inib for example)
• You can also easily duo the nashor after 25-30 minutes of play, with an ad and tank. The rest of the team must put pressure on the map to prevent the team opposite from suspecting it. It is of course more risky but doable in certain situations.

The shifts

Shifting is leaving your lane to help an adjacent lane, or even a jungler invade or an objective. Here are the shift possibilities of each lane. It will be important to push your lane as much as possible before shifting, in order to avoid losing creeps. Conversely, if you see that the enemy opposite pushes his lane, warn your friends that a possible gank is coming!

• Top lane: to gank the mid, help on the herald if necessary
• Mid lane: gank the bot and top, help as needed on the dragon and the herald
• Support: gank the mid, help as needed on the dragon, ward and de-ward
• ADC: I do not recommend the ADC to shift at the start / mid game, to prioritize the creep farm and the turn push

Use of the Herald

It will be fully useful before 14 minutes, where the tower plates are still present. The principle of the Herald is that he rushes on a tower to take away half of his life. In the procedure he will also lose half of his HP. Be careful, enemies can easily kill him. Here are the conditions to use it at best:

• Your creeps must be at the level of the enemy tower, so that the Herald rushes directly on it
• If you can take the kill on a lane, put the Herald on it
• The Herald will give your laner freedom if you take the tower, so consider giving this freedom to a hero who needs it more (for example a Nasus, not very useful, but a TF yes)

Using the Nashor buff

The Nash when dead will give a buff to all living allies, regardless of their position on the map. This buff boosts your power and ad, so it will be useful to spellcasters as well as to bruisers / adc. The buff also boosts nearby creeps. I therefore strongly advise you to push with this boost.

The best strategy is to push on a lane with everyone except those with TPs. Once you get near the enemy base, mid / toplaners with a tp use it to regroup and push to 5.

The split push

In many situations you will see 5 people in the middle poking each other. The interest of this type of situation, if there is no objective to dispute, is totally useless. In general, I advise you to always be active on the map, ie to kill creeps and farms, and only group for objectives.

You will therefore be able to push a line completely, that is to say by killing 2 or even 3 waves of creeps, which will force the enemies to go and defend and give you gold / xp. Be careful though that your allies do not engage at 4v5 for no reason, so warn them and play teleportation if you are mid / top.

Safe zones

I often see people over extend, that is to say going further, too far in relation to their turn, get caught and die. Below are the areas telling you where you can be safely. Obviously, this will not save you from everything, but will significantly limit your deaths.

The idea is to imagine a line passing through the towers alive. Do not exceed this line by half a screen if you want to stay safe! Once you've lost a tower, move that imaginary line back.

On the other hand, use this trick to kill a target that would walk in a risk area!

Safe zone on LoL

Macro Map on LoL

The macro should no longer have any secrets for you! Remember to always keep an eye on the playing time, in order to better manage these objectives! That's quite a bit of information, so if you have any questions feel free to post them in the comments!

By Alchemists, January 2021