User blog:StrategicMagic/Hugely Important, Hugely Overlooked

This random blog post of mine is gonna sound a bit like a rant. to an extent, it is. It's about one of those things we always forget, and that screws us over SO BAD in game, and someone rages, not seeing the main problem at hand. What is this thing of divine importance I speak? Minion vision, of course!

First off, it's story time:

3 of the enemy team or down bot, including the jungler and AD carry. Baron is up. You all decide to go for it. 4/5 of your team run straight accross mid lane with enemy minions there to see them. They don't kill the minions, or of they do, they all kill them at once. You take the long way around, cutting through your jungle (on blue time, I forgot to add) to reach Baron from blue buff, avoiding to be seen. Your team starts attacking Baron, while you stand at the sidelines, hesistant. You tell your team to back off because you are all about to get ganked, and start running away yourself. Someone in your team says "no we won't get ganked, they were all down bot." By this point, you are at the safety of the blue buff spawn. The enemy team turn up, slaughter your team in a few seconds and steal Baron. You are the only one to survive. You are also the subject of the hate of your team for not helping out in the teamfight. You resist the urge to say 4 simple words in 1 simple phrase:

"I told you so."

Has this ever happened to you? I'm sure it has, especially at low elo. It's one of those mistakes that infuiates me because it's so simple to avoid, but can be totally game changing. I've had similar situations up at top lane too.

I really need a gank, my opponent has pushed me right back to my turret and I can kill my foe off with a simple gank from my jungler, evening things out after they got first blood in a jungle invade. Then my jungler crosses right over mid lane, minions see him. Enemy top laner backs off and doesn't get ganked. Top lane continues to snowball against my favor. I ask for another gank. The jungler makes the same mistake, I still get no gank. I point out his mistake. Offering a solution and a tip. All I get for a reply is "do u want a gank or not? stop flaming noob! l2p and not lose ur lane".

There are other times when you WANT to be seen by minions. Imagine this:

Your jungle and top have done really well. It's late-game and they have their builds almost finished. They can duo Baron no problem. The rest of your team, however, decide to hide, or just go anywhere in general the enemy team cannot see. You've just respawned, so you can't get anywhere within vision fast. What does this look like for the enemy? "Oh, they've all gone ss/mia, they must be at Baron." So our duo get ganked and lose an almost-dead Baron to the enemy team. Why oh why couldn't anyone just stand somewhere they can be seen?

I should also mention that all the same can appy to Dragon or Ebonmaw on the TT. I also understand that good warding is a great way to counter making this mistake, because even if you make it, you know what's going to happen next with plenty of warning. At my 1.1k elo, that doesn't happen anywhere near as much as it should. And despite that, you get different players in normals and you can commonly see games where some people buy no wards at all.

If this has sounded like a rant, then damn it. I wasn't intending for that. I just hope that someone, somewhere will read this, learn from the mistakes I and other people have made and don't make them in the future.

PS: I might also make one on last-hitting. So often am I the person with the highest CS on the field because last-hits are neglected. So often to people go "Oh, enemy champion, must attack them!" They then get into a small skirmish that doesn't end perfectly and they lose 20 CS in the meantime to gain nothing. "Why do I only have 3 items? I got 7 kills!" "Because you have 7 CS, that's why." "Minions give less gold than champions, why kill them?" Sometimes, I really give up on the LoL community. I really do.

So, uhh... yeah. DON'T FORGET MINION VISION! Please?