User blog comment:Fistful of Force/Don't Die./@comment-3466579-20131021120748

There can't be a "don't die" statement good for every situation. I'm a "conservative" player myself, i rather don't die than get a kill and a death in the process, but i do know that this may not be always true. Besides the difference in the gold reward (my own death may be worth a lot less than my opponent's) there are a lot of other factors that matter in deciding when a death may be a good, or at least, a tolerable thing.

When you die though you're not only giving your opponent(s) gold and experience, you are actually hurting yourself too, since you'll be out of the game for a variable amount of time, thus losing money, experience and other objectives.

One thing is crucial in the laning stages of the game: if you don't die, you don't lose your lane. Even if you get a little outfarmed, you're not losing your lane. You're not winning it either, that's obvious, but sometimes it's much, much better (and possibly, the only thing you can do) not to lose to your opponent(s) rather than trying to win.

In the end, i'd say that it's much more likely to lose a game by dying trying to get kills or making big plays than by playing defensively.