League of Legends: Top Lane Wave Management Guide

League of Legends wave management is the most beneficial and crucial part of learning League. Minions are in each lane apart from Jungle however we are going to be super specific about Top Lane today since Top Lane is just a lonely island where nothing happens usually which can give you a huge advantage if you just know how to set up your minion waves.

There are many guides out there, but this guide will be in as much detail as possible so even if you are in iron you will understand waves in the top laner after this since afterward, you will know when to push, freeze, crash, thin out the wave and much more!

This top lane wave management guide is aimed at anyone willing to understand as well as learn how minion works in more detail to gain a huge advantage that will transfer into a great gold lead which is awesome but what we will aim for by controlling the wave in detail is the XP lead that is crucial to Victory.

You will need to stay focused in the game and make an effort in terms of what you will want to do with each wave but don’t worry we got you covered so let’s get into it.

First Minion Waves In The Top Lane

We all know that minions spawn on the map on both sides at 1:05 and then onwards spawn every 30 seconds until the game has ended, so if you are going for an invade and you are the top laner always try to recall at 0:55 – 0:59 so you have some spare time to walk from the fountain to the nexus to walk to your lane along with the minions if not quicker.

Never but ever go into an invade and be super late in top lane since then if you miss the first minions’ worth of XP you will be in big trouble if the opponent understands the advantage, he just got from you not being present in the minion XP range during that time.

Plan Your Moves In The First 5 Minion Waves

First thing before you load into the game you will need to ask yourself a few questions that will determine what you will do with your first 5 minion waves:

Can I walk up level 1?

Can I trade [X] champion?

Do they counter me?

How do they counter me?

Where can enemy Jungler start?

Do I win 2v2 with my Jungler if their Jungler comes?

These are some of the questions that you will need to answer yourself but for the most part, if you play against a range champion as melee then ideally you want to buy “Doran Shield” + “Second Wind” in your runes to gain the maximum value from the healing during the laning face to sustain the poke. There are many more factors to this, but this is going to be the ideal one most of the time.

Next, if you can’t walk up level 1, then ask yourself why? Are they simply stronger level 1? Well, if so, maybe taking an ignite will change that since then you will have a lot more kill pressure when you play ignite rather than teleport. If you can’t trade with the given champion learn to do so, maybe it’s Jax starting with E and you are playing Riven, simply don’t use your Q into him just chill and wait for him to use his ability first so you can easily disengage.

If the given champion does counter you, then ask yourself how does it counter you? If they hard counter, you or just one of your abilities. Most of the time counter matchups can be won by wave management so don’t worry too much about it.

When Jungler Paths Towards Top Lane

The most crucial part is where the Jungler starts, yours and theirs. If your Jungler starts in the bot lane and he is going to come to your lane then you will want to set up the minion wave in a way that when they are in the top laner you be getting pushed in, which is an ideal situation for the Jungler to then well gank you.

To achieve this, you will need to push first, when the first minion wave arrives you can give 2 auto attacks on 1 melee minion so it will slowly push, then only last hit enemy minions until 3rd wave. When 3rd wave arrives which is the cannon wave, you should use all your abilities if safe and possible as well as auto attacks to crash the wave into the enemy tower as fast as possible. Then you have 3 choices to make:

1st Recall – To buy items to gain item advantage, the enemy will not be able to go back since he has to farm the wave and also crash the wave making him weak since he doesn’t have an item advantage same as you, so you can then just go back to the lane ASAP, and just tank some minions before they hit turret to create a freeze in which the enemy will recall it’s pretty mad gg from him since of the lost XP and gold that the freeze will do.

2nd Go into the enemy Jungle – You and your Jungler will go to enemy Jungler if they start bot lane to try and kill them on their blue buff. .

3rd Ward - Go ward enemy Jungle and wait for the enemy to push the wave back, as well as spam ping your Jungler for help to achieve the ideal outcome since they should finish the crab in the top side by this time, and the way should be super close to your turret for ideal gank situation that we try and achieve. .

This can also be achieved after the 1st choice “The Recall” However if it’s a Garen that just pushes really fast then this may not be possible and he would probably push in the wave super-fast and recall as well, living no gank as an option. Also, remember if you win the 2v2 just in case the enemy jungle is near the top lane so always think of these kinds of things to make the right decision.

When Jungler Paths Towards Bot Lane

Sometimes it will happen that you will have to help your Jungler with his buff and you then be “weak side” which is the lane that the Jungler paths from across the map so you will have to be more careful then. Also, when you give your Jungler help with the buff always do between 5-6 auto attacks and then imminently leave to go to your lane, so you won’t lose crucial XP from helping your teammate too much, so you won’t be behind as much.

Usually, you will be then pushed in which is fine however if you win the match up really hard then you should be contesting the push, a good tip to have in mind at all times is to always crash your wave on the 3rd or 4th wave under enemy turret. Then you will have again 3 options but most of the time you will want to recall, buy items, and walk ASAP to the lane.

When it happens that you can’t contest the push then just let the enemy push and pay attention to the first minions as well if he is late to the lane too or if the bot lane is to find out where the enemy Jungler started so you then will know if he is pathing toward Top or not. You will also have to identify the champion in the enemy Jungler in terms if they can gank you level 3 just after 3 camps like Xin Zhao, Nunu, Kindred and others.

if the answer is “Yes” and you are pushing the lane then you should ward around 2:20 to 2:30 to have some vision for father decisions on the map such as to hide in the bush so the enemy will think that you recalled while you are getting all the XP in the bush but no gold which is fine, it’s better than death and no XP and gold.

Then when you think the enemy Jungler left you can come out of the bush and try to crash in the minion wave to get a recall off but always be careful.

After The Initial First Waves

By this time, you should had a good top lane experience in terms of getting a nice advantage in XP and gold if you cs’ed well. So, let’s imagine a scenario that can happen to you if you have crashed a 3 or 4 wave and have recalled to the base, what’s next?

Freezing in the Top Lane

Well, at this point, you are just coming back to the lane with an item advantage and your opponent is in health points disadvantage as well as item disadvantage which creates a perfect option right now for you to tank the minion wave on your face if it’s close to the turret around here like in the picture below:


This is an ideal wave freeze zone in the top lane for a really good reason that is quite simple, it’s close to your turret, and your opponent will have the mental pressure of feeling that they are going to get ganked soon if they don’t put vision down as well as you can make them miss CS by not allowing them to walk up to kill your minions.

Sometimes you can even make sure that they are not even in the XP range which is a total disaster for them already however freezing isn’t always a good option since it doesn’t pressure the enemy team, what does that mean?

It means that if you are winning it’s a perfect time to try and freeze forever, sometimes freezing a wave like in the situation above is great for the enemy to just lose XP and when they return to lane you should start to make a slow push from the minion wave which is again making sure it’s pushing but you are only last hitting until cannon wave, so when cannon wave arrives you just auto attack minions all the time to crash the wave under enemy turret.

Pressuring as Top Laner Enemy Team to Victory

This is more of an advanced trick since it involves a good match up one, two a good champion that can do proxy super easily, in this example that I will talk about I be using my champion that I always do this with which is Riven.

So, when you are playing in the top lane as Riven against a tank such as Malphite or Ornn and you just don’t want to interact with them you can. This style of pressuring is frustrating for the enemy jungler, mid laner, and top laner since all of their eyes will be focused on you which is a good thing since if you manage this play style well you give your team a tone of breath space where they will not die since the enemy will be focused on you.

The way this works is that you will play the lane as normal like we stated above with the wave crashes however when you come back to lane and you know for a fact that the enemy jungler is pathing towards bot lane with for example a ward on his top side, you see him doing camps and that the is pathing to bot lane you will have a lot of room to mess with that Malphite in the lane.

Firstly, you will want to crash 2 or 3 waves into his turret so he will be focused on that and then just when he is last hitting under turret, just skip him and go between his tier 1 and tier 2 turret where you will just chill and wait for the minion wave to come in. As Riven you will have a very easy time in clearing that wave ASAP when tanks such as Malphite or Ornn will tank quite a lot of damage over time from minions due to them not having great wave clear as you do.

This will create pressure around top lane that is unbearable for the enemy top laner and he will beg as well as cry for a gank to kill you since he can’t play the game that’s when you know that you have achieved exactly what you wanted, you are in their head. This kind of frustration will play a big role since pressuring someone that hard will give your team an advantage if you just ward enemy jungle, focus on the minimal to know if their support is for example still in the bot lane that’s good but if you don’t seem them just run away and maybe start to lane again a bit normally.

To do this kind of pressuring you need a lot of vision, practice, and awareness that’s why you need 2 to 3 wards in this position when staying in pressure zone 2 to never ever die from a gank by the mid laner, jungle or support however always make sure that you champion can escape in some kind of a way from Riven is super easy since she can just jump through walls.

Also, when you will be pushing the wave while tanking minion damage between 2 turrets, you can just kill full wave and try to make gank mid lane or even dive mid lane if you can with your mid laner or you could also farm enemy jungle camps to take their gold out of their wallet to yours which gives you even more advantage.


As you can see top lane is a super strategic role if you just know what to do and when. Now that you know such things exist, I would highly recommend you purchase a LoL elo boost with one of our Challenger top laners that can explain these kinds of concepts even further while you will have fun playing duo and gaining all the knowledge as well as getting some LP in the meanwhile!

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take for minions to get to lane?

Minions in League of Legends start to spawn on the map for both teams at exactly 1:05 and keep appearing every 30 seconds until the game just simply ends. In the top lane it takes exactly 32 seconds for minions to complete the journey from the nexus spawn point to the middle of the lane in the top lane and bot lane however for mid lane is just 22 seconds since the lane is a lot shorter.

How to slow push a minion wave?

To slow push a minion wave on any lane is requires you to match the damage that the enemy is dealing to your wave in a way that it’s still pushing but not in a super kind of fast way. This achieve this if you are both range champions as an example, you need to pay attention to the enemy and when they attack your minion once you have to do that as well but twice, no more, no less because if you will equally match the damage to minions such as one auto attack for one auto attack the wave will become still and will stay in the same place.

What champion should I pick for top lane?

To answer this question there are many factors however, in short if you are below diamond just play what you enjoy however if you are much more after the grid and the LP always have a 3 champion pool that can carry any game by itself. An example of such a champion pool for top lane would be 1 or 2 blind pick champions that you are always comfortable with against any champion in the top lane and 1 or 2 champions that you just play when there’s a good match up for you just are so skill full and super confident that you just take hundreds of hours into this champion to smash everyone.

When should I roam as top laner?

It depends If you run teleport as a summoner spell or not. Let’s say that you are and it’s before 15 minutes in the game then you should crash a big wave in the top lane, recall, and go straight to bot lane if your bot lane is getting pushed and your champion can do something in there or mid lane, run there try and kill someone even using your ult and then afterward just quickly recall and use your teleport back to lane. If you don’t run teleport you should do the same, crush a big wave but then try and kill the enemy jungler in the top lane if you can or do deep vision In there to gain vision advantage as well as awareness of where the enemy jungler is, also you could most likely gank mid.

Can you climb elo as top laner?

Top Lane is one of the most snowball roles since you can play champions in there such as Fiora, Jax, Riven, Camille, Tryndamere, and so on but the most important part is that for the most part, it’s a 1 vs 1 or 1 vs 2. All of them have 1 v 2 potential and if you just know your top lane minion wave management, when to push, freeze, proxy, gain XP & gold advantage as well as roam as we presented in this guide you can easily climb as a top laner up to Challenger since most people don’t know even the basics of the game.