How should I improve? (Details)

DarkHeadgear·Sep 17, 2016·2 votes·416 views

How much should you play and how much time should you spend reading guides or watching gameplays to improve? For example, if I'm playing jungle and I need to learn how to clear better, I can either try different methods in different games or go look up a guide. Or instead I could just play the game and understand it better myself. I have 250k champion points on Shaco and I can play him mechanically like a god but my macro decisions are still too poor to carry every game. How should I be improving? I expanded my champion pool to allow for AD/AP Damage and tanks. 4 champs per role.

I would really prefer open responses but here's a poll in case you're just passing by.

5 Comments

TehNACHOSep 17, 20161 votes

Okay for the Shaco specific example, that's a matter of just playing games mindfully. Macros change every game and you need to learn how to identify them more than anything else.

freeloader25Sep 17, 20161 votes

In my opinion its not the amount of games you play. The most important thing is that you realize your own mistakes and learn from them. Pretty much everything you listed helps getting better, but especially in jungle decision making is most important.

-after every death, take a second and think about why you died. Did you overstay? Did you misplay? Did you gank a lane where you shouldve respected the enemy jungler more?) By answering this question, youre less likely to do the same mistake again.

-when ganking, try to guess the outcome and compare it to what actually happens in the gank

-try to not gank lanes when it doesnt give you any benefits

-understanding the jungle matchups AND lane matchups is important aswell since you need to know if you can win a 2v2 situation with your laner against the enemy laner+jungler if you dont know where the enemy jungler is and theres a risk of a countergank (if you win a 2v2 you can instead look for counterganks yourself)

-try to guess where the enemy jungler is right now and try to guess his next actions (like ganking, drake, invade etc) and compare your guess with the real outcome

-as soon as the game hits the loading screen, develop an early game plan and jungle path (for example, which laners will push und which will be pushed in by their enemy, you can build gankpaths accordingly; can you invade the enemy jungler?; is the enemy jungler likely to invade you? etc.)

-NEVER, ever tilt, you will never learn while tilting and you learn more from losses (was the hardest part for me tbh)

Just some tips which helped me getting better, hope they help you too. I never played that much but i watched a lot of games, but everyone has his own way of learning, so do what you feel best with.

Edit: i wrote about jungle role because im far less familiar with the other roles

DarkHeadgearSep 17, 20161 votes

Since I had some type of role disorder I ended up maining each role at least once so I know the matchups of each lane very well.

As to not gank lanes when it doesnt give you any benefits, isn't every gank a benefit? Even if you only burn their flash and deal a little damage, the lane will be ahead then, right?
I never understood what people meant by jungle matchups. It's rare that unless I'm seeking out the jungler I will know where he is beyond 3:30 unless I had time (and it's shamefully rare for me) to deep ward with a pink or yellow. For example in silver, I see their red buff is coming up and they just respawned, that's a giveaway unless a fight is going on. But otherwise, there has never been any other way for me to tell. Tips?
How do you know which lanes will be pushed? Often I see very few champion pushing unless it's a tryndamere or agressive bot laner. Most lane bullies I see love to NOT push because they can control the minion wave.
What do you think about counter-jungling vs the risk of enemy bot/mid lane coming to kill you? As shaco I can slip away but not if it's 4v1.

Appreciate it!

freeloader25Sep 17, 20161 votes

getting flash is definitely a benefit but only for doing some damage its mostly not worth it, especially when you climb. Just an example: yesterday i decided to lvl 3 ganked botlane, we got firstblood for the adc, but then i move to my topside jungle and not a single camp is left, so it comes down to me choosing between farming or giving one lane a lead. In silver, im not sure if enemy junglers are aware of this and counterjungle you as soon as they know where you are, but when you want to get better its good to know. (AND: you can use stuff like this against your opponents aswell ;) ) in general: especially if you want to carry its important that you have a lot of gold and xp and with every gank where you dont get a kill youre giving up on both
warding is always good, but only go for deep wards when youre sure they cant catch you if they see you on a ward or sth. most of the time you can tell where the enemy jungler is according to his ganks and his buffs. The easiest way is warding and counterjungling tho, since you know what camps are left for the enemy. Example: When i see that the enemy jungler is ganking botlane and i dont have to fear getting killed by mid or top, i might counterjungle him on topside jungle (if its not a safe kill on top/mid). So i can assume he cleared his botside jungle before ganking and he has no jungle camps left on topside. Now there are basically 3 things the enemy jungle could do next: Counterjungle me on botside, take drake or recall are most likely (the first 2 only are likely if our botlane got killed or forced out of lane). If he recalls, he will go for his topside jungle, but there is nothing left. Now you can just think about what you would do in that situation :) Going for a top or mid gank in 90% of cases. So just by taking those 2 camps i can tell you what the enemy jungler will do in the next 1-2 minutes.

As for jungle matchups: its really important to know what junglers you can fight 1v1 early on and which you should avoid. Its important for countergank situations too since you want to know if you+your laner can fight the enemy jungler +laner if youre not sure where the enemy jungler is. I often dont gank a lane that on first sight would be a perfect target, just because i consider the enemy jungler being around.

Well, if you see something like taliyah or lissandra etc you can be pretty sure they will push, even if they dont really want to. And by knowing what lanes will be bullied you will know what lanes will need help most likely. If there are lanes that will push hard on your own team you can assume the enemy jungler might go for an early gank and look for a countergank. But yes, there are people who dont push even if they could.
Counterjungle is pretty safe when the enemies cant leave their lanes, when they are pushed in for example. If you are not sure about counterjungling: better take raptors buff so you can be sure not to step on a ward. The best moments to counterjungle are: Pushed lanes in your favor so your laners can follow and the enemies cant; after killing someone; when the enemy jungler is on the other side of the map. You sure will die sometimes while counterjungling, but that happens, you will learn from it ;)

Brutalitops01Sep 17, 20161 votes

What I would suggest for the jungle is to go into a custom game, pick any jungler(s) you choose, and do your full clear with them and see what the minute mark is when your first clear is done. Some, like Nidalee and Shaco, take a bit of setup to do properly, but if you can figure that out you'll be golden.

Another thing you need to learn is where you can gank to do it efficiently. For example, if you have a 0/4 Fiora top lane begging for ganks, you'll likely be doing all of the damage in that gank. Take a look at the enemy top laner. Do you think you could take them, say a 4/0 Illaoi, in a 1v1? If not, which you probably can't unless you're already like 10/0 on someone like Kha'Zix, you shouldn't go there. Also, take a look at the map. Do you see the enemy mid laner? The enemy jungler? Where do you think they would be in their clear? How fast would they be able to come top if you decided to gank it? If you see the enemy jungler bot side, and you know you could take that Illaoi, go for it. The assist/kill on the Fiora would help her catch back up a bit, while the kill/assist on you would help soften any wounds from the gank bot lane, especially if you could chain that into a turret and/or a Rift Herald buff for one of you. But, as I mentioned, even solo the Illaoi will probably just double kill you. The mid laner is there, do you have a mid laner that's fairly easy to gank and the wave is in a spot where you could? If so, going there instead might be a good idea. If not, just take all of your opponent's camps on that side and you'll make the jungler sacrifice a lot of their gold and experience for that gank. Is this a big dragon (infernal, mountain), that's worth you dying for if you could steal it? Don't worry about their camps for now and try to steal that dragon, if they get it their chances of winning skyrocket and yours drop. If it's ocean or cloud, just take the camps. It won't be entirely worth giving them bot lane and a dragon, but it will be a lot more worth than giving it all to them without punishing them for it.

Here's what I want you to do for your next game: your challenge is to use the map a lot, and any time the enemy jungler appears on the opposite side of the map from you, go take as many of their camps as you can. If they're on the same side of the map as you, assess if you can attempt a countergank, then if you can, do it. Jungling is all about paying attention to the map and seeing what you know and what you don't know about your opponents, and using that to create an advantage for your team or to have map pressure where the enemy jungler's pressure isn't so that you can lessen the enemy jungler's blows to your team.