A fast push (also called shoving the wave) is when you kill enemy minions as quickly as possible to crash your wave into the enemy turret. The point isn't the CS. The point is the time it buys you. Once your minions die under the enemy tower, you have a clean window to recall, roam, or contest an objective without losing farm to your own tower. The terms "fast push" and "shove" mean the same thing and players use them interchangeably.
Why Fast Push: The Gold and Tempo Math
A standard minion wave in League is worth roughly 115-120g in the early game (3 melee at 20g each, 3 casters at 14g each, plus a fractional siege share when one is in the wave). Past 25 minutes, when a cannon spawns every wave, the average climbs to about 148g. That's the gold you stand to lose if you walk away from a wave that hasn't been crashed yet, because the enemy laner gets to farm it under their tower while you're gone.
A fast push fixes the math. You spend the wave first, then leave. Your minions die at the enemy tower instead of under yours. The enemy laner can either eat the wave under tower (some CS lost to tower, some collected) or back off and miss the entire crash. Either way, you've converted lane time into:
- A recall window. You go back, buy items, and arrive on a fresh wave with full mana. The enemy laner is forced to choose between matching your back (also losing the wave) or staying.
- A roam window. The wave is gone. You can walk to mid or top and threaten a 2v1 while your opponent has nothing to push.
- An objective contest window. Dragon spawns in 30 seconds. You shove, your wave crashes, you arrive at Dragon with vision and tempo. Your opponent either contests with no farm in lane or shows up late.
Slow push and freeze both lock you into lane. Fast push is the only wave state that explicitly buys you the right to leave.
How a Fast Push Works Mechanically
Fast push is the opposite of slow push. Where slow push asks you to last-hit only and let small advantages compound across waves, fast push asks you to dump every ability and auto-attack into the wave to clear it as quickly as possible. The wiki defines it as killing enemy minions fast enough to maintain a heavy advantage until your minions advance into the turret.
Three things determine your fast-push speed:
- AOE waveclear. Champions with strong AOE abilities (Anivia E into Q, Karthus E, Brand passive spread, Ziggs Q) can kill the entire wave in a single rotation. This is the fastest possible push.
- Attack speed and on-hit. Auto-attackers (Tristana, Sivir, Kog'Maw, Jinx) push by stacking attack speed and clearing minions with autos plus a sweeping ability. Slower than AOE clear but more sustainable on mana.
- Push priority. If your opponent can't out-clear you and can't trade you off the wave, you have priority. Pushing the wave faster than they can stop you is what creates the window in the first place. Without priority, every fast push attempt becomes a contested clear that doesn't crash cleanly.
One important constraint from the wiki: once your minions lock onto the enemy turret, they cannot retarget incoming enemy minions until the turret falls. That's why a fast push that crashes cleanly resets the wave to neutral. Your minions die at tower, the enemy's next wave walks past uncontested, and the wave naturally bounces back toward your side.
Cannon Waves Are the Best Fast-Push Timing
Cannon (siege) minions are the highest-value target in any wave. They have more HP than melee or caster minions, take more turret shots to kill, and individually award 50g early scaling up to 69g past 30 minutes. They also have higher turret target priority (tier 2, behind only super minions and pets), so the turret kills the cannon first while the rest of your wave eats turret HP for free.
| Game time | Cannon spawn rate | Cannon gold |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00 - 14:00 | Every 3rd wave | 50g |
| 14:00 - 25:00 | Every 2nd wave | 59g |
| 25:00 - 30:00 | Every wave | 66g |
| 30:00+ | Every wave | 69g |
The fast-push implication: cannon waves are the best waves to shove. The cannon is the hardest minion for the enemy laner to deny under tower (it takes multiple turret shots to kill), so more of its gold goes to waste. The cannon also tanks turret aggro for your other minions, which means more of your wave dies at the enemy turret instead of being denied. Lining up your roam and recall timings to a cannon wave shove is one of the highest-leverage micro-optimizations in laning phase. If you only fast push once per minute of laning, do it on the cannon wave.
Decision Framework: Fast Push, Slow Push, or Freeze?
All three wave states use the same lever (minion health and number advantage at the wave line) at different settings. The difference is what you want to do next.
| Wave state | Advantage | Wave moves | Use when you want to... |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freeze | Slightly negative | Holds near your tower | Deny CS, set up a gank, stay safe while ahead |
| Slow push | Slightly positive | Slowly toward enemy tower | Build a big crash for a dive, recall window, or objective |
| Fast push | Heavily positive | Fast toward enemy tower | Leave lane right now: recall, roam, contest objective |
The simplest decision tree:
- Do you want to leave lane in the next 30 seconds? If yes, and your opponent doesn't have priority to follow you, fast push. If yes but they can match the roam, fast push and roam anyway, or skip the roam and slow push to bank value for later.
- Do you want to stay in lane and build pressure? Slow push. The wave grows over 2-3 cycles, which threatens a dive or a future big crash without committing you to leaving.
- Do you have a kill threat near your tower, or do you want to deny enemy CS while you're ahead? Freeze. Hold the wave on your side, force your opponent to overextend for farm, and either deny their CS or eat them when your jungler arrives.
The most common mistake is defaulting to fast push when you have nothing to do with the window. Shoving the wave and then standing in lane wastes the push. The value of a fast push comes entirely from acting on the window it creates. For deeper coverage of the other two states, see our guides on slow pushing and freezing.
Champions Built for Fast Push
Some champions are designed around shoving the wave. Their kits include cheap AOE that clears six minions at once, which means they can fast push almost on demand and convert the window into roams or objectives.
- Anivia. E hits the back row, Q double-tap kills the front row. One rotation clears a wave.
- Karthus. Q at minion stacks plus E walks the wave dead. Best mid-lane fast pusher in the game.
- Ziggs. Q bounce kills casters; W finishes melees. Long-range shove from a safe position.
- Brand. Passive spreads ignite between minions. Every wave clears itself once Brand has mana.
- Sivir. Boomerang plus Ricochet clears bot waves faster than most ADCs can react.
If your champion has weak waveclear (Akali, LeBlanc, Yasuo at level 1-5), trying to fast push will instead push you. You spend mana, the wave doesn't crash, and you've achieved nothing.
Items That Help You Fast Push
Most fast-push power comes from kit, but a few items accelerate it:
- AP waveclear items. Liandry's, Luden's, and Malignance scale your AOE so a Q-E rotation one-shots casters instead of leaving them low. Stormsurge is the burst-shove option for assassins who want to roam.
- Attack speed. Runaan's Hurricane on Sivir, Tristana, and Kog'Maw turns every auto into wave-wide AOE. Nashor's Tooth does similar work for Kayle and Teemo.
- Mana sustain. Tear of the Goddess and Lost Chapter let you fast push every wave without going OOM. Mana is the real bottleneck on long-range mages after the second shove.
When NOT to Fast Push
Fast push is a powerful tool, but it's also the most exploitable wave state when you use it wrong.
- You have nowhere to go. Shoving the wave to gain a window only works if you use the window. If you fast push and stand in lane, you've handed the enemy a free recall and reset the wave for nothing.
- You're shoving toward your weak side. If the enemy team has vision in the opposite river bush and your jungler is bot-side, fast pushing top puts you alone, low on the map, with no escape. The shove turns into a free gank for the enemy jungler.
- You're giving the enemy a free recall. If your opponent is low HP and out of mana, they want you to push the wave so they can safely back. Don't reward bad positioning with a free reset. Slow push or freeze instead and force them to either die or burn TP.
- The enemy has stronger waveclear and you're trying to out-shove them. A Heimerdinger or Anivia will out-push almost anyone. Trying to shove harder against a better waveclear champion just gets your wave shoved into your tower instead. Match their push or freeze under tower.
- Your jungler is invading and needs you in lane. If your jungler dives the enemy jungle, you need to be visible and pressuring. Fast pushing and walking away leaves your jungler isolated. The wave state has to match the team's plan, not just your micro.
The Takeaway
Fast push is the simplest wave state to execute and the easiest to misuse. The mechanic is just "kill minions fast." The skill is recognizing when you have a window worth creating, lining up the shove with a cannon wave, and acting on the window once you have it.
For the broader picture, see our wave management guide, the patient counterpart in slow push, and the state that punishes a fast pusher who has no follow-up plan in how to freeze a lane.
