Either ranged or melee, I just adapt the type of poke. ANd I'm not talking about trading, I'm talking about trading stance which is basically giving me a free trade with no retaliation on them. I abuse this when their cooldowns are used or if their ability doesn't out damage mine. For example: I am zoning Zed off a minion as Ahri. I am forcing him to choose between using his cooldown to retaliate my poke or to get the CS. Either way, he's going to get an auto, Double Q, auto in the face for stepping up for either option. This normally can half health him as long as I position my Q for his retreat.
THe downside is that I'm not familiar enough with minion aggro and when / what causes them to aggro onto me. Because in the first wave I can do this two or three times with no punishment but then I do it once more after lvl 2 or 3 and I get chunked. Watching the replays even I'm not quite sure I understand it still. I can see it happening but can't find a difference.