ARAM warrior looking for help

nvisibl·Feb 14, 2016·3 votes·892 views

Hey everyone,

I started playing last season around the time was released. As I was leveling to 30 I found myself gravitating towards ARAM. I'm pretty busy IRL and I really liked the short game times. I also found laning phase kinda boring so getting around it and getting right into fighting appealed to me. I'm closing in on 500 games played and I've been just a few games +/- 50% win rate. I almost always have a K:D > 1 and frequently carry. For instance just the other day, I went 29/12/29 on . And a couple weeks ago, while playing my first game I went 26/8/21. So I may not be Faker, but I do know how to play, at least with champions I'm comfortable with.

But when I try playing normals on Summoner's Rift, I often find myself getting dumpstered. I would like to main Jungle, and I try to watch a lot of streams (NB3, Valkrin, Meteos, TheOddOne, etc.) and watch quite a few educational videos (Scrap Computer, PantsAreDragon, Dark Mane (XD), etc.) to try to learn. I'm pretty sure most of my problems stem from a lack of map awareness and maintaining vision and not really knowing what to do next (Drag/Baron, split vs. team fight, etc.). Also, my last hitting and 1v1 skills could be better. Without fail, it seems like I get stuck in game with some toxic, try-hard Dbag who flames me if I'm not constantly ganking his lane or if I fail to secure a kill when I do. I know I shouldn't take it personally, but it kinda takes all the fun out of the game if I know my teammate(s) are pissed at me. Due to not having fun on Summoner's Rift, I've only played around 20 normal games in the ~9 months I've been playing LoL and I usually only do when I'm playing with RL friends.

So I thought I would reach out to the community for advice on what I should do to improve my gameplay in normals. I have a couple ideas:

Smurfing: I did start a smurf to play at a lower level against newer players for experience, but I'm not a huge fan of this idea. Only having time for 1-2 games daily, the time sink of leveling another account doesn't sound very fun or efficient.
Try a different role: Should I try playing a different role (probably would play top) to get more exposure and experience with map awareness and macro strategies before coming back to the jungle?

Any valid and legitimate suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

TL;DR What would be the best strategy as an ARAM warrior to increase my skills on Summoner's Rift?

13 Comments

ErockandrollFeb 14, 20164 votes

Support might be a good place to start. Works well with your skirmishing abilities. Also, getting a sight stone will help you develop map awareness, as you learn to place strategic wards.

Because the support is less worried about farming, or getting ahead of their opponent. I often find myself able to take a higher level view of the game from the support role.

But over all, you probably need more over all experience if your freshly level 30. A lot of the game is simply knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your champs and of your opponents.

nvisiblFeb 14, 20161 votes

Thanks for the tip!

I actually have had some success on SR playing support, mainly on Janna and Morgana (one of my favorites in ARAM too, btw). I have a couple RL friends I play with sometimes who duo bot lane, so I didn't even think of trying it in solo Q. I really like the idea, my only concern is my support pool isn't that big. I am comfortable with Soraka, Alistar, Blitz, and Annie, tho. I've been wanting to try the new Poppy support. I could also try Taric, Karma, and Vel'koz.

Again, thanks for the input.

ThePartyLeaderFeb 14, 20162 votes

Play support. It will use your skirmishing skill set more from aram than other positions. Let's you gradually get use to map awareness. You don't have to worry about cs. Will help you realize when you as a laner get caught by ganks and when you would like ganks. Then transition that knowledge into the jungle. Currently you are switching from teamfight simulator to map pressure/awarness and probably uses close to zero of the same skills until mid to late game.

nvisiblFeb 14, 20161 votes

Thanks for the input, I agree 100%. As I said in a previous post, I have RL friends that I play with occasionally that duo bot lane so I didn't even think about trying it in solo Q. I think I'll Q for support/top to see about getting some solo lane experience too.

Thanks again for the input.

Zero Skill TankFeb 14, 20162 votes

Jungle is not a good role for total SR beginners, mostly for reasons you stated: it's all about map awareness and controlling objectives. Which jungler are you playing? For jungle beginners it is nice to try someone like Pantheon or Amumu or J4, so that even with weaker map awareness you can make positive impact with strong early game ganks.

If that doesn't work for you, you can get some experience in other lanes as you said, until you get better grasp of what is going on on the map. ARAM is mostly about mechanics, and plain mechanical skill helps you with laning, but not so much in the jungle.

nvisiblFeb 14, 20161 votes

Diana, Vi, and Ekko are probably the 3 that I've played the most. I tried Udyr a few times last season with very little success. I've tried Rammus and did ok, failed once with yi and shyvana. I think I wasn't farming fast enough with the devourers. I've played Pantheon top a little and a bunch in ARAM but I've never jungled with him. I know Amumu is very noob friendly, I just can't get excited about playing him. I don't own J4 yet. I do think I'm going to try different roles (support/top) until I get a little more familiar with SR strats and objectives.

Thanks for your input!

FishtacoFeb 14, 20161 votes

I found playing bots to be really effective, and I found playing mid to be a familiar role, as that's technically what ARAM is. What I found that I improved on the most from playing ARAM, is the ability to All-In, and dodging skillshots (Especially those Lux and Morgana snares) But If you want to ease into your role as a Jungler, play some of your favourite Junglers as Supports in Normals. I find that this helps you get the feel of how the champions work in team fights, and individually carrying lanes. Good luck!

Also... The mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell Zac

nvisiblFeb 15, 20161 votes

I've played quite a bit of bot games, sometimes just to get a quick 1st win o the day, and I don't find them that helpful, honestly. Even on intermediate they're a little too stupid, even tho they juke like a mofo. Also, they don't really ever leave lanes or go for objectives which isn't helpful for the areas I need to work on. I do like the idea of trying my favorite junglers as supports, I might try that.

Thanks for the input!

One mitochondria, many mitochondrianoes :)

FishtacoFeb 15, 20161 votes

Possibly my favorite Jungler to take as a support has to be Maokai / JarvanIV Maybe try them out. Maokai has built in wards and huge CC, and Jarvan has his ultimate (works really well on full tank J4)

Avarosa Guide MeFeb 15, 20161 votes

Support is definitely the best place to start for an ARAM warrior like yourself. I used to be one and still play ARAMs when SR gets too toxic for me. I got into supporting and its best to work with support to get a hold on map awareness. Then I recommend going to ADC because after getting a pretty large number of games under your belt as support you start learning ADC mechanics from those that you support. If you discover you suck at ADC due to last hitting failures, then head jungle and take that map awareness you gained and employ it there. For supports to work on to help with map awareness, work on Shen support even though it isn't super meta right now it is great at learning map awareness.

nvisiblFeb 15, 20161 votes

I typically do very well when I end up with ADCs in ARAM, maybe I will try ADC after playing support and observing ADC mechanics for awhile. I really do want to end up maining jungle eventually, tho. Shen is a good recommendation because map awareness is such a huge part playing him successfully. Thanks for your input.

AmelieFeb 15, 20161 votes

Practice last hitting in bot games or custom games. You are gonna need that skill in any role.

I don't get why people are suggesting you go support - that position requires the MOST knowledge of the game, as well as map awareness. Support is not going to help your last hitting or 1v1 skills; they will stay about the same even if your supporting improves. I would play more top/mid/bot, whatever appeals to you most.

If you're still interested in jungling, you can watch what your junglers do (and enemy junglers), especially while you are laning. Then you can get a feel for what you and your team want from a jungler, and what ganks should look like. Good luck.

nvisiblFeb 15, 20161 votes

Thanks for your input. I do use custom games vs 1 bot to practice last hitting pretty frequently, and I've gotten to the point that I can get 70-80 cs in 10 minutes consistently. I think Qing for top/support or support/top might be best because those roles will force me to really watch the map closely and defensive warding is so crucial for top lane. Thanks again for the advice.