Top 7 Best Farming Mid Laners in League of Legends

Farm is a crucial thing in League of Legends. We often talk about various game phases on this website, and recently, we’ve spoken a lot about the Laning Phase. 

During the Laning Phase, farming is the primary thing you’ll be doing. Accumulating tons of gold and XP early on will give you an advantage that is hard to beat and divert the enemies into the sidelanes to try and catch up. 

Due to the importance of farming, we’ve decided to make a little series about it. You can check out our best Farming Top Laners list, and stay tuned for other Lanes as well. 

In this list, we’ve compiled the best Farming Mid Laners, comprised of Champions so different it simply wouldn’t be just to compare them. We will detail many of their laning aspects, both regarding farming and other things as well. 

To speak only of farming would be shallow and disinteresting, and thus I’ll be a bit broader when speaking about our entries on this list. So, with that out of the way, let us begin with our list. (As I’ve said above, this list is in no particular order, nor will I compare the Champions between each other.)

1. Vex

Vex is one of the most potent AP Champions in the game currently. Likewise, she is one of the most powerful Mid Laners, and farming is only one of the things she does well. 

Vex has a lot of range, meaning that she can safely farm with either her ranged basic attacks or her spells. Primarily, she will use her Q to farm (apart from the mentioned basic attacks) from a solid distance, keeping herself away enough from any potential gank and/or engage. 

Against melee laners, Vex will excel greatly. Able to zone and control the lane entirely, Vex can accrue farm quickly and efficiently without much threat for her life. Although if she does opt to use her spells for farming, she will often find herself with a shoved lane. This opens up the possibility for the enemy jungler to waltz in and gank Vex. 

Her squishy nature doesn’t help her situation there, although she has a powerful kit that can allow for an escape. At any rate, keeping yourself safe and controlling the lane is key to winning the lane and getting as much farm as possible. 

If you do shove the lane, do not follow it. Instead, crash the enemy tower with your wave and use that time to roam around or recall. You’ll come back stronger either way. 

Also read: Why Do League of Legends Streamers Hide Their Minimap?

2. Zed

Zed’s passive is what makes him one of the most satisfying farming Champions in the game. Besides having a cool, crisp, and fun animation, it also gives him extra damage on low-health enemies. This basically guarantees you to execute that minion with a last-hit, almost completely removing the margin of error. 

This will help you kill 6 minions per wave consistently. Of course, this doesn’t count outside intervention that may happen on behalf of your opposing laner. Against melee matchups, though, you’ll be able to survive and outtrade most encounters, so farming is a safe bet. 

Ganks are not an issue either, as your shadows are everything you need to escape in the blink of an eye. From level 6 and above, Zed gains tons of roaming capabilities. His Ultimate is a proper Assassin’s tool, and I recommend you use his powerful AOE spells to shove the lane and crash the turret.

Use your enemy’s downtime to roam and secure a few quick kills on either Top or Bot if there’s an opening. Naturally, if you cannot do either, a quick recall is the best option for you, as you will come back with an immediate advantage. If the opponent stays for too long and overextends, a kill is almost certain, and you just have to play your cards right. 

3. Annie

Annie’s Q has its cooldown halved after every minion she kills with it. The mana cost is also refunded. A powerful spell, it makes farming so easy that even a baby could do it. Annie is, by nature, simple and easy to play – and farming with her is no exception. 

She will quickly accumulate a lot of minions, and having AOE damage at her disposal; she can even clear waves in split seconds. Later in the game, as she gains a lot of AP, she’ll clear waves in a single W. The ones that survive can be picked up with her Q. It will, at that point in the game, have almost no cooldown due to CDR items. 

Other than that, well, you all know Annie. She can roam solidly, though she lacks mobility. Playing safe and getting strong is her best playstyle, and she starts scaling upwards from level 6. That’s when she unlocks the potential of her full combo, and it will only get stronger as time goes on. 

As I’ve mentioned above, Annie is simple and easy to play with. She is excellent for anyone new to the game altogether, but it is a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of an intermediate player. I mean, just look at Tyler1. 

Also read: Why is Pyke so Broken Right Now?

4. Vladimir

No list is quite complete without a no-Mana Champion. As you might have guessed, Vladimir has no Mana but instead uses his HP as a resource. This may sound scary at first, though it is pretty fitting for a Vampire character. I mean, who would want to use their HP, the source of their life in the game, as a resource? Well, there’s a catch. 

Vladimir uses his Q to heal, and that precise spell will also be one of his primary tools for farming in the early game. This spell is unique in Vlad’s kit, as it has two casts. You see, Vlad’s second bar fills up every time he uses his Q. After two uses, the bar fills up and rapidly decreases. If Vlad uses his Q again during this, he’ll do bonus damage and heal exponentially more. 

This spell doesn’t cost anything, and he can effectively spam it for the entire game, unlike the others. During the early game, he will use it to last hit minions, harass the enemy Champion and sustain himself. It is a great farming tool and works similarly to all the other Champions that use spells to farm. His basic attacks, though, also will do the trick. 

Vlad, however, can clear a wave in mere seconds with the press of, quite literally, a single button. His E is insanely powerful, and shoving waves with it is as easy as it can be. He’s a roaming Champion, relatively mobile and potent, so shoving the wave and then proceeding to visit Bot is a welcome thing. 

He is not too complex of a Champion and can be very fun and unique. One thing I do have to say is, be watchful of your HP. It can be strange to play a Champion that can use up to a quarter of his HP to cast a single spell. This leads newcomers to the Champion to lead themselves into situations with no HP left to fight. 

If you are wary of this and play your cards safely and right, you’ll have tons of fun with Vladimir, as well as get some of that juicy LP. 

5. Gangplank

Gangplank is one of my favorite Champions ever to grace the Summoner’s Rift. His farming is also one of the best, which has led me to have a 250 CS average with him. And that, I believe, is on the lower side when you compare all Gangplank mains out there with each other. 

Your primary farming tool early in the game is your Q, which acts as a ranged attack. He is usually melee, but Gangplank shifts from a Bruiser into a control Mage as the game progresses, casting barrels and gunshots from a reasonable distance and dealing obscene damage. 

With each minion killed with your Q, you will get bonus gold and some Silver Serpents that accumulate separately. This currency is then used to upgrade your Ultimate, and each upgrade will cost 500. As you level up the ability and the game progresses, you’ll get more and more bonus gold from minions killed with your Q.

This extends to minions you kill with your barrel that was blown up by your gunshot. The spell applies on-hit effects, and the same goes for barrels exploded with it. It will give you the ability to clear an entire 6 minion wave in one single gunshot and barrel. The remaining cannon minion can be dealt with immediately afterward, as the spell will have next to no cooldown later on. 

Recent changes to Gangplank made him carry around 5 barrels instead of 3, significantly improving your aggression and barrel expenditure. Gangplank can obliterate minion waves, but also Champions alike. With enough damage and a critical strike, people are known to be teleported back to the fountain with a single barrel. 

I may be rambling too much about Gangplank, likely since he is my favorite. And though I may be biased towards him, I still objectively see him as one of the strongest Champions ever made. He is underrated, and you should try him, master him and dominate with him into oblivion. I always kept a 60%+ win rate with him, and for a good reason.

You can, too, just with a bit of practice. 

Also read: Dark Harvest Jhin – The Ultimate Build Guide

6. Fizz

Fizz might be the uncanny valley entry on this list but bear with me. His W resets if he kills a minion, and the mana cost is, naturally, refunded. This makes last hitting the same as Zed or Irelia (check out the best farming top laners to see that). If the enemy doesn’t zone you, last hitting is easy and satisfying to perform. 

Fizz can use his E to clear waves, and since the spell does get pretty low on cooldown by the late game, he can also nicely push. Though he may not be the best at what he does, Fizz can still accumulate a lot of farm since he is a lane bully. He will zone and likely obliterate his opposing laner at level 6, giving him apt time to farm safely and alone. 

Fizz will also roam a lot, probably taxing other lanes for his ganks as well. Whatever he does, he will rack up a ton of gold and XP, as he is a powerful AP Assassin. However, some might not classify him as such. 

Fizz is not too easy, nor is he too challenging to play. Learning him is not a convoluted process, and you should check him out. 

7. Corki

Corki is the simplest of them all on this list. He uses his basic attacks to farm. Yeah, that doesn’t sound intuitive but bear with me. 

Corki does magic damage with his basic attacks rather than AD. His basic attacks are also super satisfying to use, which alone takes him to the top of my favorite Mid Laners to play. He is exceptionally mobile and does a crap ton of damage if you allow him to get strong. And I don’t just mean in the regular “he’s fed” strong; no, Corki becomes godlike if left unchecked. 

If he opts not to farm with his basic attacks and chooses a more aggressive option – he’s got it all covered. His E is an AOE spell that does solid damage, and his Q rapidly shoots bullets in front of him, which can clear an entire lane in a moment. I recommend you clear and shove whenever you have an upgraded W waiting for you in base. 

This downtime will allow you to roam and effectively gank other lanes using the high speed that the passive provides. You will get a guaranteed kill, if not an assist, and be back at your lane in no time to get even more farm and XP. 

Corki is an excellent marksman Champion that has wild scaling and snowballing. He can, however, be frail if he doesn’t do things correctly, so keep that in mind when playing him. 

He’s otherwise simple and unique in many ways, so I recommend you give him a spin and see how it goes. Mostly, he’ll play like an ADC. However, some things in his kit will give you a different experience. 

Conclusion

Farming is crucial in League of Legends. It is the primary source of XP and gold in the early game and later on. Having a farm advantage over your opponent can be as substantial as having a kill advantage. Fifteen minions are worth as much as a kill, so be sure always to keep yourself above the enemy in terms of farm. 

XP is another thing vital to your winning the game, and having a lot of minions under your belt will certainly help you stay above the rest in terms of strength. 

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