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Not All Fingers Are Thumbs

by - 8 years ago

All thumbs are fingers, but not all fingers are thumbs.

This little nugget of wisdom comes to you courtesy of the Big Bang Theory. In the episode they were discussing the difference between a Jacuzzi and a hot tub, but it could just as easily apply to the difference between pushing and laning.

All pushing is laning, but not all laning is pushing.

These two things are similar, but they are not the same. Many players confuse the two, and end up doing one when they intend to do the other. What makes these two things different is what you are trying to accomplish by doing them.

When you are laning, your objective is to soak experience. When you are pushing, your objective is to advance the lane. You cannot advance a lane without also soaking experience, but you can soak experience without advancing a lane.

This subtle difference is lost on many players. They are incapable of soaking a lane without also trying to push it. They either don’t realize what they are doing or they don’t know that there is a difference. This is not a mistake that is limited to new players, or even bad players. Even experienced players who play well often fall into this trap. The problem with inadvertently pushing when you are supposed to be laning is that it can actually cost your team experience.

Lets look at a few examples of how this can happen:

Marshal Raynor

 

In this example, you have Raynor laning in the bottom versus Valla. Raynor charges out to the center of the lane and as soon as the first minion wave shows up he hits them with Penetrating Round and then pops Inspire. He proceeds to use his abilities as soon as they are off cooldown in an attempt to clear the minion wave as quickly as possible. In the meantime, Valla mostly auto attacks with the occasional Multishot thrown in. By the third wave of minions, Raynor is getting low on mana and is probably missing some health as well. He decides to hit the fountain, but in doing so he misses out on half a wave of experience. More minion waves come and Raynor continues chaining abilities to clear them. Now the Tribute spawns and Raynor is once again down a significant amount of health and mana, but now his well is on cooldown. He is forced to decide between hearthing or going to the Tribute low on resources. Neither of these is a good option. If he hearths, he will be late to the Objective. If he goes straight there he isn’t going to be able to contribute much, and will likely be forced to fall back if a sustained team fight breaks out. By focusing on auto attacks and the occasional AOE ability, Valla is much better prepared to head straight to the Tribute, hitting the fountain along the way if necessary. Once the Tribute is over, both Heroes return to the bottom lane to resume soaking experience. Both play the same as before, but this time Raynor has learned! He estimates when the second Tribute is going to spawn, and hearths back shortly before. He is pretty pleased with himself because now he can arrive on time and at full health and mana. In doing so, he misses out on a entire wave of experience in addition to the two half waves that he already missed while going back to drink from the fountain. So during the laning phase, which is supposed to be all about gaining experience, Raynor has managed to soak two entire waves less experience because his actions were more geared towards pushing than laning.

What does Raynor have to show for all of this missed XP? Probably nothing. Even if he is able to clear waves faster than Valla, which is unlikely since she has better wave clear than him, all it gets him is more time to wait around between waves. Even if he is able to do some tower damage and deplete some ammo, Valla will be able to do just as much if not more whenever he hearths or goes to the fountain.

jainaweek

Our next example takes place on the Battlefield of Eternity. Jaina takes the bottom lane and quickly finds herself on the defensive against ETC, Thrall, and Uther. She almost dies and is forced to go back and drink from the well. On the way she starts spamming assist me pings and types ‘3 bot’ in chat. After another close call she is forced to hearth, and she gets angry at her team because no one has come to help her. Why is she upset? Because she is too focused on pushing instead of laning. Rather than soaking XP and doing what she can to harass the enemy from a safe distance, she is all worked up because they are out pushing her. Her instinct to try and push back against three other Heroes not only causes her to miss out on XP, but it also allows the enemy to push harder during those times when she has to hearth back. Again, trying to do too much instead of simply focusing on soaking has actually cost her team experience.

Who cares if they out push her? The important part is that she soaks experience while the rest of her team generates an equal or stronger push in the top lane. As long as this happens it is a win for her team, even if all she does is sit on her horse at the edge of XP range. Some players don’t seem to realize this, or just don’t have it in them to not try and push back. As a result, they end up dying repeatedly and turn what should be an advantage for their team into an advantage for the other team.

Targeting Banner

 

The last example involves mercenary camps. As tempting as it may be to capture a mercenary camp, you have to consider what you give up in exchange. In the early game this means soak. Leaving a lane empty while you attempt to solo a mercenary camp is almost always a mistake. This mistake is compounded if you are playing a Hero who isn’t well suited to solo a merc camp. It will take you that much longer to capture it and you will probably have to hearth back and heal up after. All of this is time that could have, and probably should have, been spent laning. The reality is that the push the merc camp ends up generating is probably not going to be worth enough to make up for the soak you missed out on in order to capture it.

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Pushing when you should be laning is primarily an early game problem. As the game goes on experience goes from something that you intentionally seek out to something that you get in the course of doing other things.

Almost everyone understands the importance of laning and soaking experience in the early game, but they underestimate how much value there is in a single wave of minions. The numbers change as the game progresses, but early in the game a wave of minions is worth more than killing a Hero or taking down a tower. Think about that the next time you are tempted to abandon your lane to try and gank someone in a different lane. These numbers are why you should always make a concerted effort to soak experience early.

As experienced players we all think that we have a great understanding of the game and that we don’t make the same mistakes that the noobs we get matched up with do. The reality is that we all make many more mistakes than we realize, including things we know better than to do. Just for fun, watch a few of your replays and look for situations where you carelessly missed out on experience in the early game. You might be surprised by what you find.

Good luck and have fun!


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


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