As Pos 4, Explaining When and How to Play to Prioritize Your Mid Instead of Your Offlaner

I played a game recently where it made sense to me as the Pos 4 Earthshaker to play for my mid storm instead of trying to help my offlane LC who got 10th pick hard countered by a Monkey King.

When and How to Enable Your Mid as a Pos 4
https://youtu.be/KwVtfgISIUk

Typically I would recommend to pos 4 players that they prioritize securing the game of their lane partner. That doesn’t mean you can’t do bottle refills or rune securing in that scenario, but in terms of the emphasis and what you’re willing to let your offlaner “put up with,” you’d typically want to favor your offlaner rather than mid.

However, in circumstances where, whether by blind pick or 10th pick, your offlaner gets super hard countered and you have a really weak lane, it’s important to shift your mindset and be ok with letting your offlaner have a hard game, without making desperate attempts to remedy this that are beyond your capabilities to do.

So in this game, I prioritize securing runes for my mid. I take the enemy mid’s water rune at 4 minutes, then I also show up to the 6 minute rune. I also get to take my mid’s lane for a while while he jungles, which really helps my own game.

I will still go back to my original lane for a save if needed, or go over there if nothing else is happening.

In the early mid game, I constantly play around my mid who is strong instead of my offlaner who is weak. I use arcane boots on him constantly, and focus and smoke plays around him. I will also typically follow him with TPs if it looks at all reasonable.

The net result this game is that even though my pos 3 is down 2100 gold at 10 minutes to their pos 1, my storm has a really good game, and through him we are able to shut down the enemies hard enough to give time for my LC to recover. By 20 minutes, the LC is only 300 gold behind their MK.