A gank is a surprise attack on an enemy laner by the jungler or a roaming laner. Gank a lane when the enemy is pushed toward your laner's tower, has no Flash or escape, and your laner can help with damage or crowd control. A gank does not need a kill to be good: burning their Flash, forcing them to recall or fixing your laner's wave all count.
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1. What makes a lane gankable
The enemy laner is far from their tower, so they have a long way to run. Their Flash or escape is on cooldown. Your laner has crowd control or damage to help, and the enemy jungler is not on that side of the map to answer.
The more of these are true, the better the gank. A lane with none of them is usually a waste of time.
2. Choose your path
The enemy watches the river. Come from the side they don't expect: behind them through their jungle, from a lane brush, or along the side of a ward instead of through it.
If you know they have a ward on your path, either clear it right before you go in or take a path it doesn't see.
3. Time it with your laner
Ping your laner before you arrive, so they keep the enemy busy or hold the wave in place. The best moment to go in is when the enemy uses their escape on a minion or on your laner, or walks up for a last hit.
Use your crowd control and your laner's one after the other, not at the same time, so the enemy stays locked down longer.
4. The three goals of a gank
A kill is the best result, but not the only good one. Burning their Flash makes their lane easier to gank again for several minutes. Forcing them to recall costs them a wave of gold and XP.
A gank can also fix the wave: if your laner's wave is frozen in a bad spot, a gank can let them push it and reset the lane.
5. When not to gank
Don't gank a lane pushed under their own tower, or a lane where the enemy jungler is close enough to counter gank. Don't give up a big part of your jungle camps to gank a lane that can't follow.
A gank that fails costs you time on the map, which the enemy jungler can use to take your camps or an objective.
Review your ganks
After a game, list every gank you made and whether it gave you a kill, a summoner spell, a recall or nothing.
For the ones that gave nothing, check what was missing: the wave position, the enemy's Flash, your laner's follow-up or your path. That shows you which lanes to gank next time.
Practice reading gankable lanes
MOBA Trainer turns real game situations into puzzles: you see the map, choose the play, and learn what the best players would do and why. Ganking has its own video explanation and training puzzles on the Pattern Map, made by top players and coaches, next to the other fighting patterns.
Frequently asked questions
- What is ganking in League of Legends?
- Ganking is a surprise attack on an enemy laner by a player who is not in that lane, usually the jungler, to kill them, burn their summoner spells or help your laner's wave.
- When is the best time to gank?
- When the enemy laner is pushed toward your tower, has no Flash or escape, and your laner can help. Many early ganks come right after the jungler's first clear.
- Should I gank losing lanes or winning lanes?
- Gank the lane where the gank is most likely to work and where the result matters most. A winning lane with a pushed enemy is often a safer gank; a losing lane may need help to stop the enemy from getting further ahead.
- Can laners gank too?
- Yes. Mid laners and supports often roam to gank other lanes, best after pushing their own wave so they lose little farm.
- Is MOBA Trainer free?
- The daily puzzle and the first lesson are free. The full campaign with every pattern is part of the Season Pass, at $9.99 a month or $69.99 a year. MOBA Trainer runs on Windows, macOS, iPhone and Android, in the web app and as the Discord bot Moti, in 12 languages.