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How am I supposed to play with unlocked camera?

Zacsper·3/13/2017, 12:59:56 AM·2 votes·16,352 views

I've been playing with locked camera ever since I've started league, and decided that I should try and learn how to play with unlocked, since that's apparently the better way to play. However, everything just feels so weird. I've played unlocked screen for 20 games straight now, and I still don't feel like I have the handle on it, nor that I'm good with it. Ill either fuck up with moving the camera fast enough to catch up with who I'm playing, or I'll lose track of my character or health bar sometimes as well. That, or I can end up accidentally clicking on the mini-map and screwing up where I'm trying to move to, which has happened multiple times now. I've tried adjusting the camera move speed, I've tried using the mouse click drag thing, I've tried just moving my mouse on the borders of the screen, I've tried holding down space-bar when I go in on enemies (that one seems to work the best, but it feels like its just locked camera, so whats the point of doing that?) and I just don't really know what to do with it. I'd expect to see at least some improvement with it by now, but I've seen nothing. Just me getting annoyed by it and really wondering if it's worth it to try and learn it if I'm so bad with it.

19 Comments

P0IS0N IVY3/13/2017, 1:05:37 AM3 votes

I have a button for locking and unlocking the camera. I actually played locked the majority of the time. When I want to look around, I press the hotkey to unlock it and then lock it again to make it snap back to my champion.

Reaper Soraka3/13/2017, 1:05:09 AM1 votes

you can press f1-5 to center your camera on your team, F1 being yourself.

Personally, I set my self-camera lock to ~ so I can turn it on and off as desired.

ExHentai3/13/2017, 1:09:57 AM1 votes

Try out semi-locked camera mode to get used to the camera panning without flying too far away from your character.

Randomonium3/13/2017, 7:39:49 AM1 votes

The longer you've played with locked camera the longer it will take for you to get used to unlocked camera. If you're losing your character a lot hitting space centers the camera on your character. You can also hold space to basically keep your camera locked when you need to. I also turned on the option that makes my character's health bar yellow to differentiate me from everyone else (I think it's color blind mode but I may be wrong.) Just keep practicing with it you'll get used to it eventually.

Surr20plz3/13/2017, 7:44:46 AM1 votes

I use the press down mouse wheel button to pop and lock as needed.

BLACK REALM GOD3/13/2017, 7:46:30 AM1 votes

i play with locked camera and click drag my screen on the minimap. i have a shorcut for just about every command on my keyboard and i have everything set to instant cast so i can usually negate any negative side effects of having a locked screen - which arent really that many.

if you're completely adamant about wanting to play unlocked then you should start off by turning the move cursor to edge auto scroll feature off and just use the directional pad or drag scroll. space bar and Y are the shortcuts for unlocking/locking and auto centering.

Balderdash10003/13/2017, 8:47:44 AM1 votes

As a general rule I'll lock the camera when I'm traveling somewhere and unlock it when I'm going to be in one place for a bit. In my experience having the camera unlocked gives you more accuracy when doing stuff since you don't have to compensate for a moving screen while you're aiming. At the same time, I don't have the fastest hands in the world, so when I'm moving around the time I save by not having to manually move the screen to cover what's going on can be a life saver.

Honestly, it's all a mater of what works for you. Instead of just listening to people saying something is always better without any reason, think about what you want to gain from switching things up and what gives you the best value.

Calabok3/13/2017, 9:14:49 AM1 votes

just play unlocked for another 100 games and you will get it

Frightning3/13/2017, 9:23:58 AM1 votes

If you've played RTS games much, than unlocked camera should feel pretty familiar, if not, then I can see where you're struggling to get used to it. That said, I highly recommend learning to use it. It will help you immensely later on with becoming good with skillshots. Not to mention the usefulness of being able to 'screen-check' important things happening elsewhere on the map. As for the issue of losing track of your champion, use Spacebar to recenter onto your champ. This can also help you keep an enemy you are chasing within your viewing area so you don't lose track of them. (I've actually rebound spacebar and don't use this feature, but I'm very experienced with the unlocked camera and usually don't have issues with keeping the screen where I want it in fights; i.e. keeping everything important in view).

Crett3/13/2017, 1:01:39 AM1 votes

hold space to center back to your character

Zacsper3/13/2017, 12:27:16 PM1 votes

Thanks for your help and suggestions. What I've got from this is that I think what I'm going to do is just rebind lock/unlock to space-bar, because holding it down is honestly a little annoying, and whenever I'm running somewhere/escaping, fighting, (with close range gap-closing/dashing champions, with ranged which I'll test on Xerath I'll probably keep it unlocked more) going in on teamfights after looking at them (once again, following the same champ criteria earlier) and when I'm not checking on other lanes. It's kind-of the same as what I've been doing, except I've got more of an Idea when I lock my camera and not. I might also try semi-locked simply so that's I can still look around further when locking in the camera.