#micromap

[utahraptart]

Commission for @mike-chiltons-ass who technically donated $10 to my ‘buy me a new keyboard key’ fund with the prompt: 

It was dark and gloomy, green and black, withered but still intact.

It’s technically named Gloom. Got permission to post screenshots of it. Texture pack is Thistlepack’s Wolfhound Autumn.

[utahraptart]

Micromap-Prompt commission for @throwtheminthebrig!

I have ‘Hall of the Mountain King’ stuck in my head…

Made with Thistlepack’s Wolfhound texturepack.

[leagueoflessons-blog]

Map Awareness. It's a Thing.

     Have you ever been ganked by someone other than the jungler and thought, "Where in the hell did he come from?" Followed by a few heated words about people calling mias and then everyone moving back to normal play. While calling mia helps out a great deal, your death is still on your head. But why? Well it's all because of the minimap. It's that little map in the bottom right that displays the location of your team with the occasional enemy and it's really handy to always keep an eye on it. Now I'm not advocating never calling mia (it really is important to do so), but you should always be keeping track of them yourself too. Sometimes you can't always rely on your teammates to call every mia. Let's take a closer look at the minimap though.

Dem Examples

     Let's say you're playing top and doing alright. You know the enemy jungler could be anywhere, so you're playing safe and smart. Then you notice the minimap and see the enemy jungler at bot. Lucky you! You can now be aggressive against your lane opponent without any fear of ganks. If you're running Teleport and your lane is missing, you also have the chance to go help bot and maybe pick up a kill or two. At the very least maybe save your teammates.

     Keeping with the top example, let's say you notice mid is missing. This means two things: 1) They're roaming and you may be the target or 2) They've gone back and bought. Either way, it could potentially lead to you seeing them appear in your lane to take you out. So playing a little safer is probably not a bad idea until they reappear.

     If you're playing mid, keep in mind you you have to watch out for top or bottom in the off-chance someone decides to roam. For bot, you generally only have to worry about mid and maybe top if they have Teleport and aren't afraid to use it.

Sneaky Junglers

     Always remember that jungle could be anywhere. This is one reason (among dozens of others) why wards are important. Besides letting you know if a lane has started to roam, they can let you know if you can be aggressive without fear. Enemy jungler at wraiths? Looks like you can be aggressive at bot if you're confident. Jungler helping their mid grab Blue buff? Time to reign hell up at top. Those examples are assuming you're on Blue team and not Purple as well. Just keep in mind how long it will take them to come to help their ally if your aggressive play is working out really well.

That is the main importance of the minimap. It allows you to notice when you can be aggressive and when you may need to play it cool. In general it gives you an idea where the enemy is at, so you can make proper plays. So don't go ignoring such a useful feature. It's there for a reason. With any luck, you'll see me coming at you on the Rift.