We all know the best way to get an answer to a question on the internet is to give the wrong one so here we go.

I'm grinding up the ranks again after the season reset (Platinum II before the reset) and the one thing I see consistently going wrong (besides 3 junglers and the like) are the lane setups. Even if everyone goes in the "right" lane, they don't do jack shit objective wise. So let me give my version of what your job is in lane. As for context, I'm a jungler mostly in ranked but I do play some solo and mid lane as well when someone instalocks their waifu Butterfly.

So, the basics. The classic distribution is as follows:

• One Solo laner in the Slayer lane, mostly Tanks and Bruisers.
• One midlaner, mostly Mages
• A jungler in the jungle (saywhat.meme)
• A Duo in the Dragon lane, mostly a Marksmen with either a support or Tank.

Edit: Marksman are also a popular Jungle pick these days, the MM who can jungle effectively are Moren, Slimz, Lindis, Rourke and Violet.

Another distribution especially at higher ranks would be to have the Marksmen solo in the dragon lane as well, so that the support can roam with the jungler to assist in ganks. That said, this post is aimed at scrubs who have no idea what the macro game is so roaming would be a pretty bad idea.

Let's see why this is the standard distribution. To answer this, let's first look at the lanes themselves. Remember, this is all about the laning phase not the mid or late game.

The Layout of Lanes

The Slayer lane is long, with a lot of distance between the tower and the middle of the lane. Besides that, the Dark Slayer is present nearby. This means that when you retreat after spotting an incoming gank it takes a long time before you're back in the safety range of your tower.

The midlane is short with very little distance between the middle of the lane and your tower. Retreating takes less time, but there are two long bushes next to the lane in which a jungler can hide for a gank. It's of course also easier to roam from mid to the other lanes compared to bot and top.

The Dragon lane is the same as the Slayer lane, but with the Dragon nearby instead of the Slayer.

So why do bruisers/tanks go Slayer, mage mid and duo Dragon?

Tanks and Brusiers can take some damage, meaning they won't need to be in tower range all the time to be safe from dying. When a jungler ganks them, they can get back to the tower before they die. Mages however are waaaay squishier in the early game, should a mage play slayer lane and you get ganked, you'll be dead 9 times out of 10 before you're back in tower range. The MM/supp duo are with two people, making the distance to the tower less important as they can help each other out.

With that said, why does the Duo go dragon lane? Suprise suprise, it's because of the Dragon and the point of this post.

Kill the Dragon, the giver of Freelo

When the enemy duo lane gets pushed back with a gank from your jungle, suddenly you have 3 people in the dragon lane. The Dragon gives XP and gold to everyone and is very valuable. Taking down a tower can only happen once, taking the dragon can happen whenever it spawns. When you have succesfully pushed back (or killed) the enemy duo, take dragon before the tower. Taking down the tower will also make farming harder for your own ADC, as they will have to push further in the lane to get farm, or wait for the enemy to be near your team's tower. This gives the enemy free farm as you don't want to push to far into lane, and counteracts the entire point for taking down the tower in the first place (map control).

Laneswaps, intentional and unintentional

So what if your enemy puts their duo lane into the Slayer lane? That means you have a free Dragon to take whenever it spawns (looking at you fellow junglers). The only job the Solo laner has in this situation is to stay alive. They'll get as much farm as the enemy solo laner, but they'll also get the bonus dragon xp and gold. Taking the dragon is free in this case as you have 3 people to chase away one (the duo jungler against the enemy solo laner). Do note that time is of the essence (still looking at you junglers) as the Solo laner won't be able to defend the tower forever. Sooner or later that tower will fall and the duo lane will start to look for farm elsewhere, mostly mid. In mroe coordinated play, taking down the Slayer tower quickly with a lane swap is actually a good thing, as not every matchup can guarantee that the Slayer tower will go down during laning (think of situations like a Thane solo VS Wonder Woman solo, WW will celebrate International Women's Day with him easily). When the tower is down, the duo will instantly swap back to the Dragon lane to be able to contest Dragon earlier. You'll never see this in solo queue, especially lower ranks but it's a viable stragety nontheless and is in the spirit of this post.

Take a second to look at the map which lane is which when a game starts, choose the right one and do your job once there. Here you can see the spawns. The positions may be swapped, but the icons always match. The laning phase is not about kills, it's about the dragon. The late game is not about kills either, it's about Slayer and towers. Getting kills are a means to an end. Dead opposition means free objectives. Free objectives means a bigger lead. A bigger lead means more kills. More kills means more objectives.

Peace, now leave your dirty ADC hands off my Red before level 4 pls thx.