Basic Laning Mechanics Part 1 - Last Hitting, Pushing, Harassing

Laning is three actions repeated for fifteen minutes: last hitting, pushing and harassing. Every lane you have ever won or lost came down to how you traded those three against each other.

League of Legends Guide

Basic Laning Mechanics

Updated August 2026

People ask how a high elo player would carry a low elo game. Counterpicks? Mechanics? Some secret strategy? The honest answer is that none of it is usually necessary, because winning your own lane is enough on its own. Build a gold lead and everything else has time to sort itself out.

And laning is only three actions. You last hit, you push, and you harass. Everything else in the laning phase is a consequence of how you balance those three against each other.

The Three Pillars

Last Hitting

You'll spend most of the laning phase doing this, and it's the safest gold in the game. Roughly fifteen minions is worth about as much as a kill, and nobody can turn a last hit into a death the way they can turn a greedy trade into one.

There's a difference between killing a minion and last hitting it. Wait until the minion is nearly dead before you hit it, or you'll damage the wave and push the lane without meaning to. The exception is when your opponent is out of range to punish you, in which case take the minion early and don't overthink it.

Pushing

Pushing is a tool, not a default. Shove the wave when you want something: to recall for free, to roam, to take a plate, or to relieve pressure somewhere else on the map by making your lane the thing the enemy jungler has to worry about.

Pushing with no plan is how you die. A shoved wave puts you further from your tower than your opponent is from theirs, which is the exact condition a gank needs.

Harassing

Chipping your opponent's health so they can't contest the wave, can't fight you, and eventually have to leave. Good harass is free. Bad harass costs you mana, pushes the lane by accident, and pulls the enemy minions onto you.

The rule that catches everyone: attack an enemy champion while they're standing in their own minions and the whole wave turns on you. Pull them out first, or accept the damage as part of the trade.

They trade against each other, and that's the whole game. Harassing usually pushes the wave. Pushing usually costs you safety. Last hitting perfectly usually means passing up harass. There's no configuration that does all three at once, so laning is really a series of decisions about which one you want right now.

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Mana: Spend It

A specific mistake worth calling out on its own. Players hoard mana as if it were gold, and then miss last hits under their own tower because they didn't want to spend any.

Don't do this. Mana refills when you go back. Minions you failed to kill are gone permanently. If you need an ability to secure a last hit, especially under tower where the timing is awkward, use it.

The exception is obvious enough: keep enough mana to escape or to answer an all-in. Beyond that reserve, mana you didn't spend is value you threw away.

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Last Hitting Under Tower

The one genuinely technical skill in this article, and the one that separates players who survive a losing lane from players who lose it twice over. Tower shots do fixed damage, so the timings are learnable:

Melee minions

Take two tower shots, then one attack from you. Hit it once before the tower does if you want the timing to work cleanly.

Caster minions

One tower shot, then one attack. They're squishier, so the tower does proportionally more of the work.

Cannon minions

Take many shots and need a lot of help. This is where using an ability is clearly correct rather than merely acceptable.

Practise it deliberately

Not in ranked. The Practice Tool lets you push a wave into your own tower and drill the rhythm until it's automatic, which takes about ten minutes.

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The Questions That Follow

Once the three pillars are habits rather than decisions, laning becomes a set of larger questions: when do you recall, when do you roam, and when do you commit to an all-in. Each of those is really a wave question in disguise.

Part 2 of this series takes on roaming, which is the biggest of those questions and the one that decides whether a won lane turns into a won game.

We've covered the rest separately: when to recall is about back timings and tempo, early game autoattacking is about getting full value out of every trade, and the Terms Glossary defines the wave-state language used throughout.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How much CS is a kill worth in League of Legends?

Roughly fifteen minions. That's why farming is usually the better risk: fifteen last hits carry no chance of dying, while going for a kill can cost you the wave, your position and a death if it goes wrong.

How do you last hit under tower?

Let melee minions take two tower shots before you hit them, and caster minions one. Cannon minions take many shots and usually need an ability. It's worth drilling in the Practice Tool, where you can push a wave into your own tower and repeat the timing until it's automatic.

Should I save mana in lane?

Only enough to escape or answer an all-in. Beyond that, spend it. Mana refills when you recall, but a minion you failed to last hit is gone for good, so using an ability to secure farm under tower is almost always correct.

Why do minions attack me when I harass?

Because attacking an enemy champion makes their entire nearby wave switch targets to you. Pull your opponent away from their minions before committing, or factor the incoming minion damage into whether the trade is worth taking.

When should I push the lane?

When you want something specific from it: a free recall, a roam, a tower plate, or to draw jungle attention. Pushing with no plan just moves you further from your tower and closer to a gank, so the plan is the part that makes it correct.

What finally made last hitting under tower click for you? Comments below.