Despite the significance of every lane in MOBA games like Onmyoji Arena, the bottom lane is often one of the most important, since this is where the strongest DPS usually goes. Often referred to as the “hard carry” these important players are tasked with the toughest challenge of all: To farm enough so that they can easily destroy the enemy team in the team fights of the endgame. To this end, these carries must not only master the art of farming minions via last hits, but also out-farm their adversary in the bottom lane, surviving possible ambushes from the enemy jungler and mid, and sometimes even to secure a kill or two if the chance presents itself. But above all else, they must be able to survive and prioritize their farming at all times.

Luckily, the hard carry is never alone in the bottom lane, as there will always be another character to lend support, and Onmyoji Arena is not an exception to this. This duality creates a unique interaction in bot, where the DPS must toil endlessly to farm as much as they can, while their supporting comrade tries to disrupt the enemy and lends aid via healing or other useful effects. It is the role of the support, as well, to seize the opportunity and try to pick the enemy off if they get careless, either to secure a kill, or to make them retreat and ensure the safe farm of their DPS.

There’s quite a bit of nuance to playing the bottom lane, particularly since it’s the only lane that, in standard team composition, is manned by two players. In this sense, we’ve decided to create this brief overview of how to play the bottom lane in Onmyoji Arena. In the following paragraphs, you’ll find a few basic concepts of playing this role, and also a few tips and tricks to dominate your enemies in this lane and maximize your farming.

Bottom Lane Basics

Despite the middle and top lanes being often manned by solo players and making it easier for them to farm and gain last hits, the bottom lane is arguably the place in which this farming is the most important. This is because, unlike the Shikigami that often go to the top and mid, the hard carries are highly reliant on their gear and build in order to do their jobs. In other words, while the powerful Mages and stout Samurai of mid and top can do a lot of damage with just their skills and base stats, hard carries need a ton of items before they can eradicate the entire enemy team with auto-attacks.

The importance of farming in the bottom lane simply cannot be overstated, and as a hard carry, your focus should be devoted exclusively to this. And this focus could persist even beyond the laning phase until you get at least a few offensive items and your damage potential increases to the point where you can actually contribute significantly in team fights.

On the flip side, the DPS Shikigami in the bottom lane is always joined by their trusty support comrades, and these are usually either a proper Support Shikigami, or a Tank. Rarely, some supports can be of other categories, but the two mentioned above are often the better suited for this as they have defensive and utilitarian skills that can help their DPS to survive and persist in the lane for longer without having to retreat for healing. 

Conversely, some supports can be more offense-oriented, with skills to harass and ensnare the enemy. These are the only cases when a more aggressive tactic is viable, and the DPS-Support duo could be justified in prioritizing getting kills rather than farming minions, though this requires lots of coordination, preferably through voice chat.

Just like with the other two lanes, pushing the bottom turret too early can be detrimental to your entire team, or perhaps even more so. This is because while the Shikigami in top or mid can still be of use to their teams mostly through their skills, the hard carry absolutely NEEDS their farm in order to thrive in the late game phases. As such, it’s important that, even if you’re dominating your lane, you try to refrain from pushing overly and tearing down the turret too early.

 Bottom Lane Shikigami

As we’ve been mentioning so far, the bottom lane is frequently manned by two players rather than one: A DPS which is supposed to become the hard carry of the team, and a support champion to aid him during the laning phase. For the part of the DPS, these characters are frequently of the Marksman category, Shikigami who can deal tons of damage with auto-attacks, but that also have skills to deal some extra damage, or even to move across short distances either to engage the enemy or to flee from danger.

Meanwhile, the support Shikigami is one that doesn’t necessarily have healing skills or buffs, but that can aid their comrade either via harassing the enemy and keeping them at bay or being able to catch them off guard to secure a kill. Regardless, the most common and straightforward type of support is one that can actually provide tangible benefits to their DPS comrades, such as through the aforementioned buffs or healing, but that can also disrupt the enemy through other skills or abilities.

With that being said, here are some common recommendations for both support and DPS Shikigami, which can thrive in the bottom lane:

• DPS and Hard Carries

• • Enma (Marksman/Mage)
  • Kidomaru (Marksman/Ninja)
  • Hakuro (Marksman)
  • Suzuka Gozen (Marksman)
  • Youko (Marksman)

• Support Shikigami

• • Hako Shoujo (Support)
  • Momo (Support)
  • Kusa (Support)
  • Bakekujira (Support)
  • Ebisu (Support)

Tips for Winning in the Bottom Lane

While the general objectives in the other lanes also apply for the bottom lane (farm as much as possible and prevent your enemy from doing the same), the fact that there are always two players in this place makes the dynamic a bit different. In this sense, here are a few tips and tricks to help you dominate the bottom lane in Onmyoji Arena:

• Time Your Last Hits Carefully

If farming is important for everyone, it is more so for the hard carry of the team since they are quite reliant on gear rather than level and experience. As such, the most important skill that a player performing this role can have is timing their last hits correctly. In this sense, they will be able to farm minions without actually pushing the lane and unwittingly advancing toward the enemy turret. 

Download Onmyoji Arena on PC

Download Onmyoji Arena on PC

As a general rule of thumb, you always want to be farming, but as far away from the enemy turret as possible. In this sense, as a hard carry, you must farm only by last hitting minions, without actually auto-attacking and pushing the wave too quickly. 

Luckily, to aid players in farming, the HP bars of the minions turn yellow as soon as you can kill them with your next auto attack. This is your surefire cue to simply attack them once and nab the extra gold for yourself.

• Don’t Engage the Enemy Unless it’s to Secure a Kill

We’re sure you’re tired of hearing this by now, but your utmost priority as the hard carry is to farm. This means avoiding combat with the enemy Shikigami, even if your support seemingly manages to stun or catch an enemy off-guard. Unless the kill is certain, you should always focus only on your farm. 

Engaging with the enemy can hurt you in many ways. The first is the most obvious, as getting killed will give your enemy lots of gold and experience, even more so if your support dies alongside you. The second, more subtle drawback is that whenever you fight and use skills, it’s very likely that you’ll inadvertently hit the enemy along with their minions, potentially pushing the lane and putting you at a disadvantage.

And finally, even if you don’t die, fighting against the enemy might get you pushed off the lane and made to retreat to heal, which in turn will significantly impact your farming. In this sense, ONLY fight when you’re certain that you’ll get a kill without significant drawbacks,

• As a Support, You Should Harass the Enemy, but Without Pushing the Lane

While fighting is not often the best course of action in the bottom lane, one of your roles as support can actually be quite paradoxical, considering that you must actively harass and engage the enemy to chip away at their HP and make them retreat, preventing them from farming.

Whether through basic attacks, well-placed skills, or any other means, you should always try to harass the enemy when playing the support role. And when they’re low enough, and if they don’t retreat, you could even go in for the kill by stunning or incapacitating the enemy and letting your DPS comrade land the last hit so he can get the extra experience and gold.