Why Junglers Push Lanes

If you've ever had a jungler come to gank your lane, and end up pushing it instead, you'll know the fury of having your perfectly frozen lane ruined in an instant by some creep stealing jungler. You might even yell some obscenities at him.

But really...is it so bad?

As a laner I used to think so, and believed junglers like Saintvicious were the bane of my creep-killing existence. However, after switching to a jungling role, I can definitely see some great reasons why a jungler (and the laner) might prefer the lane pushed.

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General Reasons to Push:

Even if you have the entire area warded and every entrance has full sight, 

pushing a lane also denies your opponents creeps, gold, and experience if they leave the area. 

This means that people with heavy farm-mentalities may end up late to team battles since they're busy farming creeps. This is a major advantage.

Along the same lines, if you've ALREADY killed the enemy laner, pushing the creeps to the tower forces their jungler to come out and defend.

For the same reason that mid-lanes can push through and take the enemy wraiths, pushing the lane is also crucial to give your jungler a safe counter-jungling experience.

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Mid Lane

When counter-jungling, you want as much sight as possible on the enemy team in order to know if either the enemy knows you're coming, or they happen to be walking in to secure their own buff. 

By pushing mid lane like so, you gain full sight to not only the mid-laner's movements, but also gain the possibility of seeing if the enemy jungler happens to be walking through from blue to red or vice versa. 

As a counter-jungler, you should always ward the small bush next to their second tower just in case the enemy jungler hugs the wall on his way through though. (He'll be safely within the fog of war)

As you can see here, there is very limited vision of the enemy mid lane at this point, and he could be doing a myriad of things, giving your jungler diminished time to react to any ambushes, even if you've warded the wraith area like a good mid should.

It also gives your allied mid (you) a much further distance to travel to the aid of the allied jungler.

Bottom Lane:

In the case of bottom lane, this not only gives you the ability to see if they run through river (which is usually warded) but also gives you ample time to see if they loop around the back to kill your jungler as he invades the enemy blue. If the bot lane is pushed in, your bot lane also gains the ability to run past the tower and join the fight in ample time without taking turret damage.

In terms of ganking, pushing your bot lane also allows your jungler to sneak in through the bushes for a lane gank on either side if the river is warded.

Not the best screenshot, but gives you an idea of what the sight looks like. Generally you'll want more than one of your own creep there :P

Top Lane:

Pushing top lane is the least justifiable lane, since it's the easiest to control via a single ward, and there are no objectives nearby save for red (and baron late game). By warding the tri-bush, you give your jungler ample time to respond to top lane coming in. Good lane control for top lane is crucial for farming, so you might not want to push your lane in too deep.

However, the jungler may be justified under certain circumstances, such as if the river is warded and the jungler intends to loop around for a lane gank, but your hero doesn't have pushing power.

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What to Do if Your Lane Gets Pushed By Your Jungler:

If your lane gets pushed, know that the enemy jungler will be coming for you soon. As a jungler, you're always looking to gank a lane that has enough opening to come through. If your lane is the only lane that's pushed, you KNOW that the enemy will be making a beeline for you, since you look TASTY.

This means YOUR jungler can counter-jungle safely, knowing that the enemy jungler is heading for your location, if not already there.

This means...PLAY SAFE! Yes, this situation your allied jungler put you in is DANGEROUS and you WILL get ganked. But since you know this, you can waste the enemy jungler's time and farm. This means that even though you're missing out on CS and EXP, your other two lanes are safe from ganks, and your jungler is free to roam through the enemy jungle.

However, if you rage and continue playing like you were doing before your jungler came and messed up your plans, you're sure to die and lose the intangible lead that pushing your lane might have given your team.

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Conclusion:

Don't tunnel vision, look at the bigger picture. On the other hand, your jungler COULD just be an idiot or an ass who feels like taking all your farm before he heads back to base :)