League of Legends solo queue tip: the objective order of operations
By Josh Tyler
Step 5: get Dragon (if it’s available)
Naturally, if Rift Herald isn’t available and there are no outer towers to be taken, the next objective you should focus is the Dragon. Now, certainly, you can take Dragons before Herald or outer turrets if they are free and available, but generally, you shouldn’t be putting massive priority around them (setting up for fights if you’re weaker than the other team, forcing fights around the objective, taking risks to get vision, etc.
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Some people will say not to prioritize certain dragons (Mountain and Air) earlier in the game or to prioritize certain ones more heavily early (like Ocean). Personally, I feel that Fire and Elder Drakes are the only dragons worth heavily prioritizing. For the rest, take them if they are freely available (for instance after a won fight bot lane) or there aren’t any other more important objectives (taking towers, Rift Herald, Baron, managing waves, getting vision) that can be done at the moment.
Step 6: get inner towers
If there are no dragons available, Rift Herald is already off the map, you’ve got your waves so they are at least not pushing into you, it’s time to look for inner towers. At this point, you should (hopefully) have vision around the inner tower you wish to take (mid, bot, top in priority) in that area of the jungle.
Once it’s down, you have to figure out exactly how your team will be looking to get it. If you have a great team fight comp, you want to coordinate that perfect engage.
If you have a split push comp, have that fed split pusher on the target tower while the rest of your team is elsewhere on the map, threatening another tower or objective. If it’s a poke composition, you want to do your best to whittle the enemy down so they can’t safely defend the tower. If it’s a pick comp, you want to use the inner tower as bait, deny vision around the tower, wait for one or two people to move away from the safety of the tower, get the pick, and then go for the tower.
The key to remember is taking an inner turret won’t be as easy as taking an outer tower, because at this point enemy players can rotate to a fight closer to their base much more quickly than you can. Be smarter with your engages and make sure those easier objectives in steps 1-5 are taken care of. It’s always better to get a less risky objective and set up another than just go for a risky objective that can swing the game.