Art of Ganking – Top Lane

Welcome to this League of Legends guide series on the specific paths of ganking for each lane, how to effectively gank, farming, the best methods of ganking, and champion specific ganks. The main issues that lower elo players have when jungling are knowing when to gank and how to farm effectively so they're not underleveled early/mid game. Keep in mind that the ganks in this post are most useful when utilized in the early/mid game.

For the purposes of this post, we will be using light green to designate the jungler and red for the enemy laner.

In this article, we will look at the top lane in particular. There are a lot of methods to ganking top. We will discuss each path seperately.

River Gank

In this image, the jungler walks through the river bush to catch an overextended enemy laner. The X at the red side turret represents the laner if they were the blue side top laner. The X at the blue side turret represents the laner if they were the red side top laner. This gank is fairly easy to pull off, especially if the enemy laner has no vision and has your top laner pushed under their turret. The main issue with this gank is that any top laner worth their salt will keep that river bush warded or will ward deeper into the river.

Lane Gank

In this gank, the jungler just runs into the lane. Normally, the jungler will wait at their turret until your top laner forces a fight or gets engaged on by the enemy laner. Once that happens, the jungler immediately jumps in to participate. This gank is really dependent on the enemy laner forcing an engage and is best used for very aggressive laners.

Bush Gank

This gank involves the jungler getting in position for a gank in one of the three bushes in the top lane. You basically want to wait until the enemy laner overextends and allows you to jump on them. This gank is best utilized to help shut down an enemy laner shortly after your laner forced them to pop summoners/killed them. The only problem with this gank is that, sometimes, the enemy laner will be REALLY patient, especially if they're losing. It can turn out to be a huge waste of time if the enemy laner doesn't push up or if your laner pushes the wave to their turret instead. However, it's also useful to set up for a turret dive if your laner is someone who can harass them.

Flank Gank

This gank functions differently depending on which side you're ganking. If you're ganking the red side top laner and they're close to their turret, you want to walk through their tribush to get behind them for the gank. For maximum efficiency and to guarantee you don't get spotted by a ward, you want to walk through the red top side jungle. If they're pushed up that far though, it's unlikely that they have any river wards.

To gank the blue side top laner, you want to go through the blue side tribush and gank them under their turret. It's a little sketchy and more effective if the enemy has low health. You'll take at least one turret shot doing this gank though some champions are more effective at this gank due to wall jumps.

Turret Dive Gank

This gank is most effective if the enemy is at low health or if your top laner is someone who can tank multiple tower shots (e.g. Renekton/Mundo). For the most part, you want to make sure your laner pushes the enemy laner under their turret. After, you want to get into position as the jungler. It's best if you're unseen while the enemy laner is pushing the wave. For blue side, the best method of diving is to get into the top bushes or get behind them in the tribush. For red side, the best method is through the tribush for the flank or directly into the turret. Either that or through the top bush. The key rule is to just make sure you're unseen so the enemy jungler has no time to retaliate.

Tem Barak