Sincerely, a noob

Turtl3M··23 votes·3,040 views

So I've played a ton of games against bots, and even played quite a few blind pick games. Then I reach level 10 and discover draft pick. I think, this is great! I've read up on different positions and watched Youtube videos about the characters I want to play. This will be fun! And suddenly, I'm thrown into a game full of people who have played for a long time, know all the game acronyms and lingo, and have their own preconceived ideas of how I should play my position. Where can I go to find out how to play characters and positions (because apparently everything I've been told in the past has been wrong) and where can I find people that will help me learn? It's hard to learn when you are only good enough to do a blind pick but always end up with people who either don't have a clue what they're doing or are more interested in insulting you than helping you grow.

Any advice?

TLDR; Im a noob, please help!

52 Comments

Around999People6 votes

I main Thresh, and I get called out of my build all the time. I used to score an S+ every other game with him.

Don't listen to people, do what fits you and you'll be a boss at it. Try to do what people tell you to do and you'll do bad because that doesn't fit you.

You learn what fits you by playing. I started out as a Wukong main and I built 5 Phantom Dancers on him. You'll learn how to be better by playing and thinking Ahead.

QjTHqo3RTq1 votes

Maybe zzort on thresh isnt the smartest idea, but other than lacking cdr, your builds seem fine

Around999People1 votes

Oh you looked? Nice ^^ ty ty.

QjTHqo3RTq1 votes

Yeah I have plenty of time inbetween ques, so not much like I much going on, I really would suggest more cdr though, you're building him full tank, which is fine, but it's not as effective as 45% cdr

Around999People1 votes

Imma have to look into that then. Thanks for the tip!

QjTHqo3RTq2 votes

Yeah, I recommend locket and frozen heart rush if you wanna stack defense on thresh, that way, along with your support item, you have 45%

Spinning Axes5 votes

I think the best way to learn is to play games, and learn what is good by yourself. Don't listen to anyone else in your games, and try to follow the advice of high tier players.

Don't fall into the trap of making assumptions based on what other people tell you - find what's strong by yourself, and you'll soon understand the core mechanics of the game, and will be a much better player for it.

TheHurricaneGamr3 votes

You can add me if you like (My in game name is TheHurricaneGamr), and i'll try to help you. Either way though, some great youtube resources are: Jungle: Stonewall008, does gameplay commentaries on jungle champions, talking over strategies, balance issues, and plays you can make. Top: I recommend watching some of Dyrus (His channel is named TSirDiesALot) commentaries, as he was a former pro top laner. I watch him sometimes to get better at my main, Gangplank. In addition, there is a channel where many of the Professional player's streams are recorded and posted on youtube called Tekk. It has videos of streamers who all main different roles and play a multitude of champions. Use this when trying to learn a specific champion.
If you want to know which champions are good right now, look here, there are list for which champions are just good in general, which champs people think are powerful, and which champions are strongest when mastered.

dragon1xx1 votes

nightblue3 is also a good jungler. I legit learned how to play Rengar well off of him. :P

The Magyk2 votes

i can help with everything but jungle, im a terrible jungler item 3070

Miror B2 votes

Yeah, much like magyk I'd be willing to help as well. I'm not too good a jungler, but know my way around the other positions. If you also wanted to get a "Feel" of how to play but want to do it in parts, watch a few of the LCS people (iwdominate, alex ich, sneaky) while they're streaming. It's what I did to better my map awareness at least.

Syruponrofls2 votes

You learn the more you play. Watch videos, lots of videos of high elo games. Especially for champions you like to play alot. I would play with you but the match making would be bad. Ofcourse I could play on my low level secondary account

Mr Broken Wings2 votes

the " dont suck at this game anymore guide": 1.Play custom games without enemies and fokus simply on farming ( I know its boring but this will help you a lot, trust me), 90 cs in 10 minutes 180 cs in 20 minutes. You have to learn to get as much farm as possible when you are not under pressure, because it will automatically increase the cs you get when you are under pressure as well. I cant stress enough HOOOOOW important this is, imagine if you have 2000 gold more EVERY game just because you farm more effectivly. Thats huge and really important. 2. The right core builds are really really important, dont buy mercurials as first item on ashe for example, its horrible and quicksilversash got nerfed a lot. The general site you can use for current pro builds and good builds for certain champions ( 99% its correct) is http://probuilds.net/

What role do you intend to play? It is really important to get mapawareness in this game, the right decisionmaking makes the difference from a silver scrub and a diamond 5 scrub. You can simply improve a lot ( even if you cant play your champion mechanically) if you understand the basics of warding and enemy jungler positions. You have to know that at 7:19 most enemy junglers will be at the side of the map they started jungling, if they started blue, they will probably be at blue side, so you have to play save on that side for example. You have to know when exactly its most effective to ward as toplaner to avoid getting destroyed from the enemy jungler as well. Generally speaking, you will learn mapawareness with a lot of ingameexperience. But you have to analize ever death of yours and NOT , I repeat NOT blame your teammates ever. Its always your fault if you die and you have to learn how to avoid these deaths in future games. League is pretty hard to learn for new players because people smurf a lot, so dont get discuraged if you get stomped a lot, its just how the experience is as a newbie. It will be get better after a while when your mmr is low enough, it may seems frustrating but youll start to win more and more games in the future ;).

If you have any questions about certain champions, ask, we can help. Hope my english is good enough for you, its late around here, sorry if you dont understand everything!

TheEvilQueen1352 votes

youtube is a great resource. also feel free to add me on this account and my smurf(eevee135) i can even help with jungle if that's what you want to learn

ZT Xperimentor2 votes

Sadly this has been a growing problem over the past few years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZR3eDzXniw He's a humble teacher having plenty of videos, though he's been around longer than most, he's also getting frustrated at the self destructive culture the league community has become.

Personally I blame the sheep mentality of 'meta', in other words that is the team composition that is statistically the best; sounds good in theory but there's plenty of problems that can occur (player disconnects, enemy counters you, ext) and ruin such a 'perfect' team. In practice you'll do better with champions that you enjoy, not the ones that 'win most'. It's also a side effect of people over/under reacting to changes each patch; for example say character A has their power lowered so they are not annoying to fight, players that were only playing A since they were strong will stop playing them and claim that A is no longer meta. The reverse is also often true when a champion is noticeably buffed that a bunch of people start playing them; but anyway I'm rambling.

Though Stonewall008 primarily focuses on jungle & top laners, he points out some things that can be applied to any position or champion (such as paying attention to the minimap) and often plays a variety of champions. He occasionally explains some lingo but I couldn't find a specific example.

While I don't play as much as I used to, I wouldn't mind running some bots or customs if you want to try out something. Either way good luck!

Wheatloaf2 votes

A lot of players tend to forget new people do join the game every one in a while, so I hope you can forgive their rudeness. A lot of the people responding to you here are good guys, and if any of them offer to play with you, take them up on the offer. It's easier to have someone walk you through the basics until you can stand on your own (well enough that only the real assholes will bother to flame you, at least). I'm not around often enough to offer my services there, but if you have any specific questions, I'll answer them as soon as I can.

I wish you fun and luck in the future! We're not always nice, but we're a community that is very passionate about the game we play, and would love to have you join~~ the collective~~.

CheftoniFTW2 votes

Everyone has their way of seeing the game and learning. A good video that taught me well and changed my way of seeing the game is this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBbwYhp_J4Y Trick2G isn't the best thing out there, but his guide videos are somewhat in-depth and gives you different perspectives, his newer videos are meh.

If you want a trick I picked up to compare yourself to your opponent is as follows: Read and learn the items. Reading is by far the most important factor in League of Legends, and I don't mean just literally reading, which is also something you need to do (Read that fine print) but being able to read the flow of the game and reading your opponent.

Say you play in a lane, look at your items vs your opponent's items. I see it as follows: I categorise items into tiers: starter, 1st tier, 2nd tier, finished item. tier 1 boots, tier 2 boots, utility items. Compare yourself to your opponent and figure out who is more useful. Say on you play top lane, both you and your opponent back for the first time, you have your starter item, you buy a long sword (tier 1), a chain vest (tier 2), boots (tier 1 boots), 2 wards and a potion. Your opponent has their starter item, cloth armor (tier 1), long sword (tier 1), 3 potions. You both hurt the same, but you can take more punishment than your opponent, ergo: you are more useful than he is. It's sounds odd in text, but that's how I compare teams. Let's me see who to look out for, who to ignore, etc.

Also, the biggest tip I can give you: Minions are key. They are the only tool that consistently move you towards your goal, they are your source of income. Rely on them more than kills. Learn to control minions, to deny farm (by leading your minions into the enemy towers) and avoid dying. If your opponent's focus is to kill you rather than focus on his farm (cs) and you don't die, you are denying him income, therefore, you are denying him progress (items).

This game is a strategy game, play it as such, don't play it as team deathmatch. :)

CheftoniFTW3 votes

ALSO WARDS ARE YOUR FRIENDS! ALWAYS BUY AT LEAST ONE PER BACK!!! (Regardless of position)

Papa Slothy1 votes

I agree, trick2g might be a bit of a rager with a huge ego, but his "gates" style approach to the game helped me understand how to snowball games out of control

General Esdeath 2 votes

Level up more in blind/bots, right now you're running into people mostly banned from their 1st account for toxicity and making a new account. Good luck with leveling man :D

purplekun2 votes

First you should learn the abilities for every champion, the best way is to watch the champion spotlight videos on youtube(beware that some of them are outdated, out of which ryze, cassiopeia, viktor, brand, fiora, veigar, xerath; I might have missed a few but even if you watch the old videos some of their skills are still there).

After that you should play blind pick to try champs and get a feel for the game, look at what the other people on your team are doing and learn from them, for example if theres a garen in your team or the enemy team look at the way he plays and what items he gets, also what lane he goes to. At low levels you will probably get a lot of people that dont know how to do these things correctly so if you really want to know the right path from the beginning then go to probuilds.net, its a website that records the build path, masteries and runes for when a pro player picks him in ranked. You can type the name of the champion you want to play in the search box and you will get a lot of matches, choose from them and look at what they are building.

You should at the same time also watch streams of good players, you can also watch funny videos like videogamedunkey's old ones and you can still learn some tricks from what hes doing if youre paying attention. Overall what you should do is just keep playing and always try to improve, if you just spam matches without thinking about what youre doing wrong, or if you focus on others talking sh!t to you then you will just end up in bronze and silver with the people that think the same way(bronze and silver are the lowest ranks you can get, they also are the majority of the playerbase).

If someone tells you that you are shit, then accept it cause its true and ask him what you should do instead, if he doesnt answer then just block him he was only trying to get into a fight, theres no point in giving attention to people like them that hinder your improvement. Also dont watch lcs and expect to get good, its probably the worst thing to watch if you want to improve I could go into detail but there isnt much point to it, one of the reasons would be that they are playing in a completely coordinated environment which you will not have in random matches with random people. I hope that helps!

Taeseuk1 votes

{quoted}

Also dont watch lcs and expect to get good, its probably the worst thing to watch if you want to improve I could go into detail but there isnt much point to it, one of the reasons would be that they are playing in a completely coordinated environment which you will not have in random matches with random people.

I disagree, whilst you shouldn't rely on LCS to get better (that is a terrible idea) watching them can give you a perspective on the game that you didn't have and can help you improve, I'm not saying you should blindly follow the way they play or try to play the same way because as you stated it is a different environment but it doesn't mean you can't learn from them and you can improve by watching them.

purplekun2 votes

I didnt actually answer your exact question so I'll type some more haha. There isnt really much to it, there are some basic concepts such as: There are 5 roles:

Top: usually for tanks (garen, malphite), bruisers (fiora,gnar) or riven players - They usually get flash and teleport Mid: usually for mages (ahri, annie), assasins (zed, fizz) or yasuo players - They usually get flash and ignite, if you are playing mage vs assasin then get exhaust instead of ignite ADC: usually ranged champions that build AD and attack speed (vayne, twitch) - They usually get flash and heal Support: usually champions with high utility such as stuns, slows, grabs, heals (blitzcrank, leona) - They usually get flash exhaust but sometimes also ignite instead of exhaust Support and adc go bottom lane Jungle: you can see champs from every role here and if it isnt obvious they go into the jungle (a standard path they take in the jungle is if you are starting on the blue buff side: take gromp>blue buff> red buff. or if you start on the red buff side: golems> red buff> blue buff) ofc this jungle path isnt near the best but it works really good for a beginner - They usually get flash smite, rarely picking ghost instead of flash depending on the champion youre playing.

You can obviously get any champion into any role but expect to get raged at, especially if you dont pick a ranged champion as an adc. The bans in draft pick are usually flavor of the month champs that destroy everyone else, you will probably see a lot of the same bans and some personal preference bans from the players. Oh and lastly the most important tip I can give anyone is learn to farm and dont miss minions, you might think its cool and all if you go for the kills but a guy that has spent his time farming instead of chasing kills and sometimes ending up dying himself will have a lot more gold, dont do unecessary things.

DevlinCrow2 votes

I was in the same boat when I first joined. I found a champion I liked for each role, watched tons of vids/read guides about them then just practiced from there :) Never had to get advice from others on those specific champs!

Also watch vids on objectives, vision, CS'ing, items etc they seem confusing but you'll understand them very quickly!

Taeseuk2 votes

{quoted}

This will be fun! And suddenly, I'm thrown into a game full of people who have played for a long time, know all the game acronyms and lingo, and have their own preconceived ideas of how I should play my position.

This is because a lot of people are sheep and see that "this set up works well this is what we should do to win" they don't take into account the skill level of the player and how said player plays Players do NOT all play alike, even if you just look a pro gamers you will see each one plays slightly different even in the same team take Blank and Bengi from SKT T1, they both play jungle and are both great at it but they both play extremely different games as a jungle. Bengi focuses more on the jungle and taking out the enemy jungle whilst Blank focuses on roaming the map and helping snowball Duke (top) Faker (mid) and helping Bang and Wolf (ADC and Support) push, he initiates team fights and sets up plays for them where as Bengi will help win the team fight so they are very different styles of play. If people are telling you that you need to play a certain way don't listen (to an extent) you need to play the way that fits your style, if you are a aggressive jungle/adc/mid/top then you need to play to that strength. It's no use you usually playing aggressive jungle (setting up kills, taking out the enemy as much as possible etc) then playing as passive because you won't do well. You will be use to getting tons of kills/gold and then suddenly you will find you can't build up your items because you have gotten enough kills.

If you are a roaming support then keep roaming, do not leave your adc to be ganked/overpowered but if you are use to roaming and warding up the place keep doing it, if you are use to playing a late game top keep doing that, basically do not conform to what other people are telling you that you should pay like. However on the other hand figure out whether they are telling you to play a certain way because they believe that is how it should be played or if they are trying to advice you because the way you are playing isn't helping the team, example if you are the mid/jungle and you are setting up team fights but the team aren't able to get a result in those team fights (i.e they're not getting kills from it just wasting mana/sumn spells) and somebody suggests changing your play to a more passive role to let the team build up the they are probably telling you to give you advice rather than telling you how to play.

The only real way you can learn is to keep playing, you will get flamed for being bad it's just the way some people in league work, "you shouldn't be playing if you are bad" mentality they sometimes forget that new players are going to be bad and at some point they were too you just have to let it roll off you and keep trying under no circumstances retaliate it will just make things 10 times worse.

Keep learning, always keep learning. Know what items you want for how you play and for who you are playing against, know what runes/masteries you want for the way you are going to play. If you are running jungle you're likely going to want to build your damage, if you are running support you are going to want to build your armor/ability power/mana (depending on who you are playing and how you play them) example with Nami I drain her mana so quick that most of my builds are focused on increasing/refilling her mana with small cooldown and armor ( I don't focus on armor because of how I pay with her it's a personal choice that most others don't agree with but when I have 0 deaths and enough kills/assists it's kind of hard to argue.) Also learn the champions, a lot of people will use bot games to test out new champions once you find champions you like play them, play them and keep playing them. You should know your champion inside and out, you should know if it's better to fire your q/w/e first, you should know when to use your ult, you should know your characters passives, your cooldowns, how much damage they can take/deal, you should know your champion and that comes with playing them. A good piece of advice that was given to me just recently actually is to have 2/3 champions in the position you want to play that you know this well because chances are if you only use one and don't know the others well you're going to fail when that champion is already picked/banned. I main Kindred in jungle a lot ad if somebody else takes her I don't really have a jungle back up because I don't know the others where as in support I main Nami but I can play both Jana or Soraka just as well because I've played them to hell and back.

Constantly ask yourself what you did wrong and what you did right, what did the enemy team in your position do better than you. Even if your team is winning there is no way you played a perfect game (sorry to say but nobody ever plays perfect not even Faker who is considered by many the best in the world), did you over extend yourself and leave yourself susceptible to being ganked from behind? Did you not ward the brush enough? Did you set up team fights you had no chance of winning, or not communicate with your team that is what you were doing? Did you leave your lane at a time you shouldn't have and cause you to fall behind? Did you buy the wrong item on a trip back? Did you go for a kill that you should have let go? Did they play around your wards and surprise attack you? Did they farm better than you? Did they call there team to them and destroy you? Did they play passive at the right time? Did you ward well so your jungle could see theirs most of the game? Did you help your team when they needed it? Did you allow your team to get kills that would otherwise be yours when they need them to snowball? Did you secure a kill that would otherwise have gotten away from your team? Always ask yourself what you did right in a game but always know what you did wrong, if you did a lot of things wrong then make a list and focus on one at a time, if warding is your problem in your next games ward, ward, ward. Keep playing games and warding util it becomes second nature to you and you are no longer making the mistakes you made at the start, then go onto the next one and so on. If you look at yourself and think "I did nothing wrong" you need to deflate your ego, if you played exceptionally you will still make mistakes, even if it's just you pushed a little to hard or you carried your lane without helping the others and carrying your game over into theirs (it's great if you are mid and are destroying their mid but if you snowball whilst your team struggles you are still likely to lose because late game they will have 3-4 snowballed/fed champions compared to your teams 1.)

TL:DR -

  • Do not let others tell you how you should play, play to your strengths but keep in mind the team.
  • Do not be toxic even in response to people being idiots.
  • Keep playing, practice makes you a better player (no matter who you practice against though people are always good)
  • Make friends, if you come across a player that is nice/you enjoy playing with add them.
  • Play customs they help a lot more than people realize and practice the game (e.g how to last hit, how to flash/ward over walls etc)
  • Don't be disheartened being new at anything means you will suck to start with, you will make mistakes, you will get confused and you will die but it's not the end of your league gaming experience just because it happens.
  • Keep learning, never think you know everything because the game is always changing.
  • Ask yourself what you did wrong and improve, what you did right and keep doing it and what your opponent did better.

Most of all have fun! Your win/loss rate is irrelevant if you aren't having fun because you are focusing too much on it.

Weasel Kensei2 votes

Often what others tell you IN A MATCH you are playing with them is mostly wrong, or at the very least misguided often.

Learning on your own is how you learn. Now when someone tells you something, consider trying it in a few matches. Still trying on your own will teach you WHY things are are actually bad, or good depending on what your trying. Listening to others bitch about what youre doing is the short road to failure. The vast majority of matches Iv played when people are worried about what Im doing/building, we lose.

Example, I dont care for ranked much, but I placed Bronze 3 this season, and for fun I climbed to Silver 5 mostly on support Karma without using Flashsummoner 4 .

Some people complained, lost their shit, made report threats, insulted me in all chat etc. I probably lost about half of those matches with whiners. Most matches where someone said anything and I responded "Thats how I run Karma" and they just said "OK I though you forgot" I won.

Those people who cry about what others are doing, are crying because they need someone to carry them, and they get mad youre not carrying them in the fashion they believe you should be. Ignore them. Some of them may even be right about your build, keystone, or some other factor. Listen, try that advice out, thank them if they are at least some level of polite, and focus on the match. If you have some advice from something youve learned, its OK to say something. Just say it once, and move on.

I hate being told how to play, and you are correct. Most things youre told are not friendly advice, but shouts of "STOP FEEDING FUCKTARD!" or all chat begging for you to be reported for trolling. Ignore them. Focus on learning.

Im not trying to plug my stuff but I did make a supporting basics guide for season 6. I dont tell people how to play, instead I went with "goals" youre trying to achieve.

The only one who can learn to get better is you. How you choose to learn can be achieved through multiple avenues. The things angry 9-14 year olds yelling at you over the internet wont be a good source. Try to consider the "advice" given, but consider that a master makes a thousand mistakes before ever being called a master... its ok to make those mistakes. Just be careful that you dont make the same mistake a thousand times.

Last note, youre not a noob... youre a newb. There is a difference.

Hinagiku332 votes

Honestly, I had that problem back in Season 2 so it's sadly not even remotely new...

I used to spectate high elo games to watch what the good players did but Riot removed that function for some baffling reason. So I'd recommend watching some decent streamers, preferably in Gold+ if you can. Just watch what they do and what they buy and try to see why they do things that way.

PRACTICE LAST-HITTING MINIONS. Treat every game in every game mode like a last-hitting simulator. Getting more gold and faster will give you much more options and is generally all you need to dominate a lane in lower levels. Unless you are setting up great plays and helping the jungler gank, there is nothing that matters as much as getting more gold...and you don't get gold for getting into fights with your lane opponent, so trade damage only when you need to or feel you can without missing CS.

As long as you know what you should be doing, then you can just queue up in Blind Pick or Draft Normals and ignore the idiots. Remember what you watched, remember the strategies and what you should be doing, and just do you best. Eventually you will level and as long as you practice good habits along the way your normal MMR will go up and you will be playing with competent and hopefully nicer people.

Best of luck :)

TheRealDonaldT2 votes

Personally, when I started, I wasn't the best. So instead of feeding a lane directly, I became a jungler maining Reksai RekSai because I loved to mobility and how tanky she could be built. Mind you im bronze so I dont expect you to listen to anything I have to say about playing tips (although I do have over 550 wins, I just dont play ranked much). I would just find someone who fits you play style, watch a few videos to learn tips and tricks and then just start jumping into games and practicing. Everyone had to start somewhere....

Dindrilvia2 votes

For me personally the things that helped me learn the game better were watching streams (Dyrus specifically because he actually goes in depth about something when someone asks him a true question about a champ or tactic). Also, and it may sound silly, but watching the LCS really helped me a lot too! You obviously don't want to try and copy everything that the teams in the LCS are doing as most of their tactics are used specifically for the LCS and not just a regular person playing the game but a lot of the times the shoutcasters will go into detail about a certain item or explain why certain things are happening and that seemed to help me understand the game a little better.

Also, I like redmercy videos and pants are dragons videos. However, redmercy mainly plays mid and pants plays jungle but if either of those positions are what you are looking for I highly suggest either one of them for informational videos! Good luck! Don't let anyone tell you how you should play or build and just experiment for yourself!

HyperZEROXL2 votes

To tell you the truth mate, and I highly do NOT recommend this. PLEASE don't. I had to learn League on my own because all I got were salty people who never wanted to explain stuff to a fresh noob...So I recommend you to listen to high tier players and follow what you'd be best at. Try various positions and see what you like best. Support could always use another victim er I mean...Player :)

[slayer-pantheon-thumbs]

Malfini2 votes

So which YouTube videos did you watched? Some of those are crap; no offense to others who gives the correct advise objectively without injecting their personal bias.

Learn the basics... have you checked the following?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1CBUeyV51M

Check the Basic Guide playlist,

Aeszarck2 votes

Hey, if you want to know where specific champions can go, I'd recommend you check out this page: http://www.nerfplz.com/2016/06/2016-champion-tier-list-ranked-dynamic_19.html

This is a general list of what champions can go where. Anything that is tier 3 can go in that lane but the champion might have a high mechanical difficulty or might not be intended to go in that position and requires additional game knowledge to make up for its flaws. Anything that is tier 4 is barely viable in that position and should probably not be played unless there is an extremely specific situation. Anything that is not listed on that list in that position probably does not belong in that position and will do very poorly. Anything tier 2 and above is fine.

Now, if you want to know how to play those champions, you can go to www.mobafire.com. This is a really great site and it has a lot of guides. Search the champion that you want to play, and a bunch of guides and builds should come up. Some guides are specific to one position (learn how to play Mordekaiser bot lane here!) and other guides can encompass multiple positions (LeBlanc top, mid, and support all-in-one guide). Some positions are less popular than others (finding a good, recent Cassiopeia top guide might be difficult) so you might need to find guides from previous seasons and discount or change non-relevant information. Most guides give information on how to play that champion (and give you a lot of important general game knowledge), whereas most builds just give skill orders, runes, masteries, and items. Guides are better than builds if you have time on your hands, and even if you don't have time on your hands, you can just look at the "cheat sheet" section of guides to get an idea of how to build and skill your champion.

Dediguise2 votes

As monotonous as Bots can be I recommend grinding xp and ip in bot games. In order to play draft effectively you should have a full rune page and a full masteries page. Any other set up and setting yourself at a serious disadvantage. Best case scenario you learn your champions limitations based on invalid stats, creating habits that get you killed later on. Worst case scenario, you get murdered in game over and over with no chance of coming back because you are mathematically weaker.

The 2nd Horseman2 votes

Figure out the two roles you want to main find the pool of champion you can enjoy playing in said role i believe Scrapcomputer does a lot of in general guides so he might help when your first learning a position.

DemainaNyx2 votes

Since you are new to the game, don't worry so much about losing/people raging. If you aren't a level 30, you haven't been playing the game for long. No one should expect a pre-30 to be a Master rank player unless they specifically say that they are a smurf. My first few normal games my team basically did nothing but rage at me and each other for not doing what they thought we should do.

First thing first is learn the meta.

  • Top lane is normally a Tank/Bruiser who has high health and resistances with generally few damage items.
  • Mid lane is normally the APC or assassin of the team. Normally they only have 1 or 2 defensive items but the rest is damage. AP characters build ap, cooldown reduction (CDR), and magic pen.
  • Bot lane is normally the only lane that consists of 2 players: an ADC and a support.
  • ADC is generally a marksman who does consistent damage through auto attacking. They build mostly attack speed, attack damage, crit, and armor pen.
  • Support is basically the position that is always underfed. This player generally doesn't take minions unless no one else is in lane. They generally don't take kills unless no one else can get the kill. Normally they build support items that either buff up the team or debuff the other team. If they are a tanky character, they may build some health/resistance items. If they are an AP character, they may build some AP, cooldown reduction (CDR), and magic pen.
  • Jungle is a special type of position. This player is meant to be a roaming threat. Laners focus on killing the lane minions. The jungler kills jungle camps and uses the buffs from the camps. They take Smite, which does a lot of damage to jungle camps, the major ones being Dragon, Rift Herald, and Baron. Junglers may also come to a lane to help their team try to get a kill on the enemy laner.

Second is learn to last hit (AKA CSing or Creep Score or farming). Last Hitting is the most important thing in the game, learn it early. It doesn't matter if a target has 2000 health and I take out 1999, if you do just that last 1 hp, you get the credit for the kill. That is what decides things in this game. It is also what will give you most of the gold per match. Based on your match history, you need to practice that. Don't just let your character auto the minions constantly, cause you will most likely miss dealing the last hit. Try to attack only when the minion is about to die, that way you kill it and are awarded the gold for that kill. Consider playing a custom game with no bots and just CS for the first 5-10 minutes and then quitting. Try to perfectly last hit an entire wave of minions. I think it's about 100 minions at 10 minutes. I don't remember the exact numbers, but I believe getting perfect CS gives you enough gold at 10 minutes to almost get a full item 3031, which is one of the most expensive items in the game.

Also learn to manage a wave of minions. Again, CS is the most important thing early in the game. If you can kill more minions than your lane opponent, that means you will have more gold, thus more items, thus a bigger advantage. Learning things like denying CS, pushing a wave, freezing a wave, etc is important. Let's define a wave. When the game starts, minions are spawn and both sides collide in the middle of the lane, half way between each tower. The spawning minions is generally a "wave of minions." However, what we need to be concerned with for pushing and freezing waves is this colliding point.

Pushing a wave is killing enemy minions faster than your friendly minions are being killed, generally by using an ability or autoing minions. If I attack the minions but my opponent doesn't, that's me pushing the wave. Eventually their minions will die and my minions will move up in lane until they collide with a tower, the enemy laner, or the next set of minions.

The reasons you push a wave are:

  • You want to get to a level faster than your opponent, thus giving you more available abilities/damage than them which means more kill potential for you (rushing level 2 for instance or getting level 11 for that second point in ult)
  • You opponent isn't in lane (recalled, roaming, or died), so you want to deny them CS by letting your minions die to the tower which is the quickest way to have friendly minions die
  • You want to leave lane (recall, roam, or get an objective like another lanes tower/inhib/dragon/baron/rift herald) without worrying about losing too much CS or your towers being under threat while doing it
  • You want them to farm under tower in hopes that they miss CS

You want to be careful about pushing a wave though because:

  • It leaves you susceptible to ganks from the enemy jungler because you are further away from your tower
  • Your enemy laner has a longer distance to attack you because you are away from your tower
  • Your enemy laner is safer because they are close to their tower
  • You may miss CS if you are constantly pushing.

Freezing a wave is trying to let the minions die at the same rate (while last hitting), thus keeping the colliding point in the same spot. If you are the only person in lane and you only last hit the minions, the collision point will mostly stay in the same spot.

The reason to freeze a wave are:

  • You are weaker than your laner, thus freezing near your tower allows you to farm safely to catch up
  • You are stronger than your laner, thus freezing near your tower allows you to farm safely while positioning yourself to deny CS from your enemy laner (AKA zoning)
  • You are building up a large wave of friendly minions so you can take an objective while that wave naturally pushes (AKA slow pushing)

You want to be careful about freezing a wave because:

  • You are stationary, thus easier to kill.
  • You are visible on map, thus giving them more information about what your team is/isn't doing.
  • You aren't applying pressure (threatening to take a tower), thus allowing them to roam to other objectives.
  • The enemy can come push the wave (AKA break the freeze) and get to your tower more easily.

Denying CS is causing your friendly minions to die to something besides your enemy laner. They can die to the enemy tower or to the enemy minions, both ways prevent your opponent from getting the gold. If the enemy laner isn't in lane, then they miss out on both the gold and the experience from the minion death, both bonuses for you. You use the idea of pushing waves, freezing waves, and zoning to deny CS.

Eventually you will be good enough at last hitting to learn how to read your minion wave while still getting most of the minions. With this knowledge you can:

  • See when the enemy will go to last hit which allows you to deal damage to them without taking too much if any damage in return (trading)
  • See when they will level up first, giving you time to back off and avoid getting all in'd or taking a bad trade
  • See when they are behaving oddly, thus anticipating a gank without vision of it happening

All this knowledge mostly just applies to the laning phase of the game, but it is crucial for surviving the early game with as much gold and fewer deaths.

Third thing is that playing against bots is NOT anything like playing against regular people. Even intermediate bots are too easy for me compared to people. Granted, they can still overwhelm if they target one person out, but they aren't going to flash crowd control (CC) lockdown someone like a normal team might. But, bots don't focus Dragon or Baron, which are big power spikes for your team. They also don't jungle, so your top lane will be 1v2, but they will be splitting the experience/gold and thus giving your team more of an advantage. They also don't gank really. I've never had a random bot wander into my lane and 2v1 me in bots. They may rotate to the losing lane, but they generally don't hardcore try to shut someone down.

Use bots to practice last hitting minions, trading in lane, learning abilities and cooldowns, understanding items, learning timers, understanding your champs power spike, dodging skill shots, landing skill shots, etc. Try every champion at least a few times so you know the basics of what each champion can do. Long ago, I played a game with a Braum support and had no clue about any of his abilities, which greatly hurt our ability to work together since I didn't know what was causing our enemies to get stunned randomly (Braum passive) or why my teammate kept telling me to "STOP RUNNING AWAY" when we got ganked and he got grabbed (one of his abilities allows him to jump to allies). I started playing ARAM for a while and that helped a lot cause it forced me to play champs I never would've picked and learn how they interact in a team fight.

Fourth is to figure out what places you enjoy playing. In your history, you play a lot of Ashe and Teemo. Ashe is normally an ADC and Teemo is generally a jungler or top laner. Being the ADC means you will be focused out in most games, so you have to play a lot more perfectly than most people. Getting gold and CS is most important for you since you'll build mostly damage items. Teemo can be played in many different ways though, so you can figure out what your team needs to fill in the gap.

Fifth is look up some guides on how to build characters. Ashe, for instance, normally you pick up a item 1038 or item 1037 first item, then get a item 3085, and then finish an item 3031. item 3139 is a good item, but not as a first item.

Sixth is work on lowering your death count. Learning to play passively is a big part of the game. If you are ahead in gold/items vs your lane opponent, then don't be afraid to use that to make them fall behind more. But if they are ahead, play further back. It's better to give us CS and get experience than to give a kill and lose both gold and experience.

Focus on those things first, then worry about everything else. If you want, feel free to add me and I can give some more advice, but I'm not that great at the game yet so don't expect any expert level advice.

Turtl3M1 votes

{quoted}

  • Support is basically the position that is always underfed. This player generally doesn't take minions unless no one else is in lane. They generally don't take kills unless no one else can get the kill. Normally they build support items that either buff up the team or debuff the other team. If they are a tanky character, they may build some health/resistance items. If they are an AP character, they may build some AP, cooldown reduction (CDR), and magic pen.

If you are ahead in gold/items vs your lane opponent, then don't be afraid to use that to make them fall behind more. But if they are ahead, play further back. It's better to give us CS and get experience than to give a kill and lose both gold and experience.

The importance of CS definitely makes sense to me! But does that mean that support isn't really supposed to level up at all or get a lot of items, since they don't really farm? Also, where can you see what items your opponent has? I've heard a lot of people compare their items with their opponents but I'm not sure how they know that.

NotSpecialDude2 votes

Xp is given regardless of whether you get the kill on minions. You just need to be near the minion that died. Supports are gold deficient due to not getting cs but they do get a few bones thrown their way.

Those bones come in the vital support items. item 3301, item 3097, and item 3303 are items that, while weak statistically have abilities that are really useful. In addition, they increase the base gold generation of the owner.

item 3301 Gives you gold for every nearby minion death you didn't cause.

item 3302 Gives you a unique passive that lets you execute minions at low health giving both yourself and one nearby ally the gold and credit for the cs.

item 3303 Gives you gold when you damage an enemy champion.

They also upgrade into really useful late game items that all have good use.

Turtl3M1 votes

That's really good to know, thanks! I didn't know that you could get Xp just by being near minions, and ill be sure to give those items a try.

One more position question: do supports typically ever help the jungler, or stay in lanes?

NotSpecialDude1 votes

Depends on play style really. Most agree that you should stick with your bot laner until mid game. Afterwards you go to where you think your needed most.

DemainaNyx1 votes

Since the other guy sorta covered it, I'll handle the other part.

The supports main job is to keep others alive and help them get kills with essentially zero items. That's why a lot of supports have abilities that are useful outside of the damage they provide. Normally they have CC, shields, heals, buffs, etc. Blitz hook isn't threatening cause of the damage it does, but rather the fact it changes your location.

To see your opponents items, either click tab (unless you changed it) to bring up a screen that shows both teams items or you can click the individual characters to see their items. I use tab a lot cause it gives me a good overview of what everyone has.

As far as helping the jungler, it depends. If you notice your jungler is getting attacked in the bot river, you can rotate up to help them. Or as Bard I may stun the camp he's clearing as I walk by or drop a health pack for them before I recall. Or you can gank mid with your jungler if you ADC isn't in a bad position. Other than that though, you mostly want to stay near your ADC otherwise you are leaving them to 2v1.

CerealBoxOfDoom2 votes

youtube mostly

just type in your champs name and look for gameplay with commentary or "how to play"

Sona Hertz1 votes

I'm working on teaching my spouse how to play currently. If you want to join our duo anytime just add me in game as "Enema Bot". We'll help you and we're nice!

OneExit1 votes

I can drop a few tips on just about anything, but im a terrible mid laner

billxx1 votes

I learned through just playing and YouTube vids. If anyone is toxic just be clever and make them realize that they are the bad guy. Also, when I was new and only playing bot games, I saved up for Darius. (Pre-rework) He was the first champ I played pvp. Try learning champs like him with amazing laning. It can really help you learn a role.

Spôôked1 votes

You can add me and play with me if you want :P

In game I`m ReinhardHeinrich :)

M Dragon141 votes

Watch twitch/twitch vods of pros/high elo players that play the role you want to play. Feel free to add me, if I have time, I wouldn't mind teaching some basics of adc roles/champs.

For adc streams, I watch mostly C9 sneaky, as he is the player that made me main adc.

emreecheek1 votes

Play Normals. Use draft instead of blind.

Upon entering the game, mute everybody. Pretend it's a bot game with really smart bots.

People will argue with me about this, but honestly, as a low ELO, recently-LvL-30 player, I can safely say that at our level, nobody has good advice. People barely have good advice or understanding of their own role. Nothing they say will be worth dealing with the inevitable flaming another player will give you. There's more chance of somebody tilting you than helping you, so why bother?

Just insta-mute. My games have been better, and I've been playing better too.

Turtl3M1 votes

Thanks guys! Its nice to see people on here who actually care, I was beginning to think there weren't any... I'm definitely looking into all the stuff you guys have talked about and it has been super helpful!

EWBS Mithilesh1 votes

youtube. ill give you some links but finding good youtubers is a nice step https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ7HBjWGU6I help with your developement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyieJmULF60 help with your decision making https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4EWkuSbmLc dito^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8BtklaSWl0 this video willl help allot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ7HBjWGU6I this video will help allot

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