I have started playing premade 5v5's (low elo) and can safely say that, without a good team composition, you will get beaten. No matter how good individuals on that team are, you are going to have a seriously hard time playing competitively. It is a lot more important in 5v5 than in solo queue.
Now me and my friends are starting to experiment with some different tactics (aside from solo top, jungle, solo mid and dual bottom – with AD carry, AP nuke, tank, off-tank and support).
Things we have tried:
- Double jungle – Solo lanes
- Solo top – Solo bot – Triple mid
- Solo top – Solo bot – Dual mid – Jungle
- Standard formation, all hard lane pushes with teleport and fortify
Now we have had some VERY interesting results. The last on the list seems amazingly effective. Take a Sivir, TF, WW, Panth, Nocturne ~ anyone that pushes FAST and has good mobility. One player would backdoor, put down a ward, all teleport and boom, tower gone. In fact this tactic is incredibly hard to counter.
The 'Solo top – Solo bot – Dual mid – Jungle' idea is our next venture. It involves all three solo players using EXP quints, masteries and a Zilean on the team. Basically, trying to outlevel the enemy and end games fast by putting hard pressure on mid, with the solo lanes still having jungle support. The champion composition would remain standard, although the AD arry and the AP nuke would stay mid together.
Are there any interesting alternative tactics proven to be effective, with examples, say videos or guides that I can refer to that are similar to the examples I posted above?
Best Answer
Roaming has become a popular addition to the metagame strategy, wherein one player does not lane nor jungle, but rather simply moves through the jungle/river to initiate ganks on lanes from level 1 and onward, until the teamfight portion of the game begins.
A roamer essentially guarantees that you're either running a solo lane, or two solo lanes if you have a roamer and a jungler. I've also seen a double roamer game played, though this tends to be less effective as enemies who are wise start playing defensively and reduce the effectiveness of your roamers, which put them behind in both CS and levels.
The qualities of a roamer can vary, but the general requirements are that they are mobile, can do burst damage, and have a strong stun or position altering (push, throw, etc.) ability. Taric, Evelynn and Alistar are all very popular choices for roaming. I've also seen Sion and Blitz play roaming effectively, but they were both out of a lack of a jungle spot on the team and normally suit better in a lane.
This strategy is similar to the "double jungle" mindset in that you get three solo lanes, with the exception that there is extra pressure on getting early kills to succeed. A definite risk vs. reward tossup, as successful roamers will quickly catapult your laners ahead in level / CS as well as demoralize your opponents, but unsuccessful roamers will fall just as far behind due to the lack of their presence in the laning phase.