League of Legends New Map & Best Gank Paths

Checking out the best ambush spots for Junglers in League's reworked map. Read all in our League of Legends New Map & Best Gank Paths guide

Riot's competitive MOBA has gone through plenty of visual reworks over the years. The most notable of these was the major overhaul done to the game's main map nearly a decade ago. Since then, small graphical improvements have been put into League of Legends to keep things interesting.

Riot has totally rebuilt Summoner's Rift for Season 14. Along with meaner jungle camps and a terrifying new look for Baron Nashor, several points on the map have been completely altered, changing the look of all 3 lanes as well as the current jungler meta.

With all these changes, it can be confusing to know where to position yourself for the optimal gank when your allies are getting hard pushed. And as with every major update, you can make a lot of mistakes if you're not careful.

Secure high-value targets for your team with our best gank paths guide for League of Legends' new map!

League of Legends New Map & Best Gank Paths

In their patch 14.1 dev blog, Riot Riru dove into the new terrain changes to the Rift, providing context around the new map design. Primarily, the changes sought to improve side-to-side travel for laners and give more protection around Red-side buffs. Secondly, the devs wanted to protect laners more from early ganks, thus the shrunked river bushes on either sidelane.

Top Lane

The river bush on top side has been moved to a more optimal warding spot, incentivizing both toplaners to focus on their 1v1 brawl while getting river vision early on. This small but effective change has made top river inhospitable for slow-moving junglers, especially during the laning phase.

That said, position yourself near the jungle camp closest to the river, and only go in when the enemy's pushed up.

Middle Lane

On the other hand, the mirrored gaps in midlane provides the highest ganking potential across the newly-reworked map. However, it also gives slow-moving mage champs a new means of escape: the new side-path next to turret.

Midlane players are slowly moving away from assassins, so control mages will likely see more use in 14.1. The new path under tower is the safest way to retreat/get to river at the moment. And since river bushes were pushed farther from the lane, they're less optimal as a gank spot. Instead, keep your eyes on the new side exits for opportune moments to ambush an isolated enemy trying to roam. And only come from river when you're planning to go all in.

Jungle

Red side has a few advantages when constesting drake, so vision is vital around the 2 new chokepoints in front of dragon pit. Immobile junglers won't get much out of the fights around the jungle either, as the new side paths give laning champs plenty of avenues to join the fight.

Fast engage comps fare better in the jungle in 14.1, so plan your picks accordingly if you want to zone your enemies out of key points. Bard, Yi and Lux are especially potent. See where your favorite champion fares in the current meta with our complete LoL Winners and Losers list.

Speaking of neutral objectives, the new partitions that spawn with Nashor can work with or against your team. And from what we've seen in pro-play, you get better chances of bagging a big team buff when you try to steal.

Bottom Lane

Lastly, Riot has added a couple of small yet impactful additions to botlane. Besides a more accesible bush, red side will have a side path near turret that leads to a tri-bush. Friendly junglers can use this to deter an enemy dive or lay down some major crowd control. In either case, it's a double-edged sword since roaming enemy champs can also use it to flank your bot duo. Red side botlane is also more vulnerable when you consider that their new tri-bush is just slightly away from the dragon pit, giving blue side more time to respond when a champ pops out.

And that's everything you need to know about the new League of Legends map and its best gank paths. Obviously, things seem a bit more skewed towards the blue side's favour, giving the opposing Jungler more responsibility in the duration of the game. But future changes have been teased in the official dev blogs, so follow along to check for the latest updates on the new Summoner's Rift.

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