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Some advice on how to play like I'm in Gold?

DeloricVI··2 votes·610 views

So, I think it's about time I look for some more tips from a different angle, as I do fairly often, and will while I'm stuck. It's become clear to me that the only way I'm going to get out of where I am is to play like I'm 2 leagues ahead.

Don't believe me? I've seen some people in my elo with truly abysmal scores at 20 minutes. People going 2-12 by 20 minutes, people that don't know much at all about this game. I need to find a way to carry the game by myself, because I can't rely on anyone in Bronze 5.

Now, don't misunderstand me; I do make a fair share of mistakes. What I want to do is learn how to play near perfectly on a champion that doesn't get stomped by a large number of champions.

That being said, I'm looking for advice from people in Gold and up about what they see people doing wrong in Bronze, and how I should play this game. Recommend me a role and champion good for carrying a game, please! The ones I'm currently good with are just countered way too often, and no one in bronze pays attention to pings or tries to help me... that or they're so inept they just feed my enemy laner when they try to help.

Here's what I usually do in different roles:

Mid

Veigar, 90% of the time. If I pick before the enemy mid, Veigar. If I don't get countered, Veigar. Otherwise, I play Annie. If my match history is any indication, I barely ever pick after the enemy mid when they pick a hard counter. This is the primary role that I queue up as.

Top

I usually play Teemo, but not always. If I have a really bad matchup like Ryze or Teemo gets banned, I lane swap if I can, if not I play either Tahm Kench or Sion. Tahm Kench I'm a little shaky on, and I feel like the lane I won as Tahm was against someone who really wasn't good at playing his champion or role. With Sion, I barely win top. This has been my secondary role to queue up as.

Jungle

I main Sion jungle; he's got good CC, gets tanky, so when top instalocks Fiora, and support insists on playing Morgana, I can tank and keep the team comp from going without. However, I just can't be everywhere and jungling is just too much of an undertaking for a champion that can't really "carry." Sure, if he gets ahead he can become a tanky monstrosity, but that barely ever happens. His ganks rely on the follow-up way too much to be useful. I used to have jungle as my secondary, but now I've just let top take its place because of how much the jungler is expected to do, and what Sion doesn't do.

Support

I try to play Lulu support, and I feel like her kit kind of clicks with me in a way, but I barely ever get to because the team comp usually needs a tank, in which case I play Taric. I never queue as support in the new dynamic queue system because it's so hard to carry as a support. My ally is usually just dumb as fuck, and I can't save them. Blow all my cooldowns, but they still die.

ADC

I barely ever play ADC, as it's my worst role. I don't know why, but I always do badly as adc. I used to play Twitch, but then I picked up Jinx whom I did better with more often, but still didn't do very well with any consistency. My enemy has to screw up real bad, or my support/jungler has to be freaking legendary for me to do well.

I should point out that I simply can't wrap my head around playing a melee-range assassin. I have way too much trouble just farming as Katarina, Ekko, and Zed (when I tried him a LONG time ago in unranked) and I just don't get how melee range squishy champions do well at all, despite getting destroyed by them regularly. Remember, I'm playing Viegar, so when last pick is a Talon main, I get fucked up. Bad. Last time I faced off against Talon, my jungler tried to gank and he killed the both of us. It's not because I don't know what Talon does; it's because I don't know how to beat him, at least not as Veigar.

Speaking of, my problem seems to be that Viegar is just too easy to counter right now. Talon and Zed are really bad matchups for me. Yasuo and Ekko are manageable, but probably wouldn't be if my enemies had good skills with those champions. Seriously, most of these Ekkos forget that they have an ult that can restore most of their health after the burst damage I do. I can win lane against a Lux, but her cc and zoning is too much for me. Fizz is another counter that I lose to more often than not. Because, his troll poll already makes him immune to tower shots and he already has great mobility, so playful/trickster might as well be unaffected by Veigar's Event Horizon too to make the counter so oppressive that I lose unless someone else gets really strong and helps me out. Sometimes, I do come across a bad fizz, but they're a lot more rare than bad Ekkos and Yasuos.

I feel like I need a different champion to play (even though I love playing Veigar) so that I can climb... at least to a place where my teammates actually work together with more consistency. A lot of my champions either get countered or rely too much on my allies actually being competent or following up. People say, "you should tower dive more," but they don't realize that, in bronze 5, no one follows up and you're very likely to die, especially when playing Jungle Sion.

So, what do you think? I mean, there is so much that you don't know from this, so please ask me questions about how I play if you like. I won't be playing league for a while, because i'm tilting hard after my team started flaming me and the enemy played talon, where he could just burst me down and getting caught out means leaving the safety of your tower... yeah, not fun.

22 Comments

z14GaKI7TO2 votes

Play vi in bronze and carry every game.

Spaceman5pff3 votes

Agreed. The triforce path only got better on her with the addition of CDR. Also, Warrior -> Tanktanic build seems to be pretty good at the moment. Especially if you sell that warrior for a cinderhulk lategame

DeloricVI1 votes

I thought you would just go straight for cinderhulk? I mean, I have Vi (bought recently), but I don't have practice with her yet...

lofi n chillhop1 votes

cinderhulk doesn't really do damage with vi. she has a lot of burst on squishy champs, so it's important to build 1-2 damage items first before building straight tank. snowballing is the name of the game

WalkingInACircle2 votes

Well, my low elo experience tells me that the best way to climb those is to splitpush until 3+ enemies come after you without dying.

I advise you to think about the game in terms of controlling the map and its resources. Chasing kills and random fights are the hallmark of undisciplined players.

DeloricVI1 votes

I don't chase and I regularly have to pick up the slack when my carries don't want to take towers, so I end up buying lich bane a lot as Veigar. If my ADC is doing their job, I don't bother and build something more useful, like Void Staff against MR or Rylai's to get some extra cc out of my damage. I try to keep an eye on other objectives like Dragon, but when it's 3 members of the enemy team, including their jungle, I can't exactly take them all out when bot or jungle decide that they don't want to help me.

WalkingInACircle2 votes

Yeah Veigars not high on my list of split pushing mids. If you can't stop them from dragoning, you can push a tower while they do it though. This is what I mean by playing the map over focusing on fighting. You become too reactionary if you're always trying to counter what your opponents do.

lofi n chillhop1 votes

heres some tips to climb

  1. pick two roles and stick with them. stick to a handful of champs in each of these two roles, and the easier mechanically the better. if you are attracted to the complex mechanics champs, try to hold that thrill off to normals and when you get gold+

  2. make sure to get your farm. learn wave manipulation. be aware of harrass and zone, and be wary of ganks.

  3. be map aware. know when to help teamates, and when to try to danger ping them. know when to counter-pressure a turret if you can't get to the fight.

  4. play aggressive when you are low elo.. not stubbornly so, but getting fed matters most then. and in higher elo, you'll need to know how to be agressive, because what matters than is knowing WHEN to be agressive. and if you never learned, you'll have trouble then :P

DeloricVI1 votes

  1. Define "mechanically complex" because I'm not sure we're using the same definition.

  2. I know farm is really important; most of the time I hit tab to make sure I have a healthy CS lead on my opponent, and I actively try to stay farmed more than I try to kill an enemy.

  3. I usually have a pink ward that covers one river entrance, and use my trinket on the other (if mid). Anywhere else, I usually try to find a good place to put them, especially if I have to deal with someone like twitch or rengar.

  4. I guess maybe I have too much focus on farm and end up getting wrecked because the enemy is too aggressive... I'll have to work on it. I feel like I'm aggressive only when necessary, but I could be wrong.

lofi n chillhop1 votes

re 4) yeah it's a lot to learn, I'm still learning myself, and even top players are still learning lol! but it takes a lot of practice. a player can't just overfocus on last hitting... when I watch a high level streamer last hitting, it's clear they're also checking the map regularly, pressing tab for half a sec to check builds and gold leads and level leads, or clicking on the map to see what an enemy is doing or how another lane is going. just briefly, not watching the creep take damage til it dies basically. and also, what you can't see directly but you realise they're doing in addition, is watching the enemy in their lane while they cs, bing aware of what's going on. they get a sort of "gank sense" that if the enemy is suddenly being over agressive more than usual, that they kite back and expect a gank. and, that they also try to position themselves while farming so that they represent a threat of damage. and stuff like that. it's too much to learn in 5 minutes, one post, one video, y'know? so I try to pickup information from vid's and streams and posts when i can, and otherwise try to think about what else I can be doing in game and why something went well or went ill, and learn and get better over time.

re 1) basically... annie, warwick, sivir are all known as pretty straightforward mechanical champions. what they do is pretty easy to do without messing up, and allows the players to focus on the decision making of the role a lot earlier as they try to learn the champion. but, nidalee, lee sin, riven, ryze are all mechanically difficult champions. being good with these champs requires a lot of champion-based skill, that you use the abilities right or land the skill shots consistently, know advanced tricks to the abilities, and know how and when to use the abilities. while maining these mechanically complex champs is possible, what it does is require you to take a lot of time learning both the champion itself on top of learning the game in general, and so wanting to raise elo is a lot more challenging because you need to learn too much before you actually can raise elo.

BadmoonBC1 votes

I was gold 3 this past season and I main mid lane. My champs, Leblanc, Diana, Syndra, Lux And about 14 months ago when I started this game I was placed in bronze 2. I climbed all year. I climbed super fast to silver but then it took a long ass time to get gold

My advice? The 2 main carry lanes in low Elo that I've witnessed is mid and adc. Get good at both. Mid especially. Annie is great for your Elo because people aren't good at realizing her range and damage/passive. Just some tips: 1)ROAM A LOT. If you're gonna play mid roam your arse off 2)harass a lot. People are going to tell you to stay back and farm and blah blah. But not in bronze. If your confident in your ability you need to be aggressive 3)ward a lot. This is super annoying now since rito took our green wards but you should always have a pink ward on the map. At level 9, get a blue trinket. 4)don't shit talk or be a Debbie downer. Is your top lane feeding? Is your jungle afk? Fuck it, you can carry. Tell the team to lean on you and rock. Even if you really think you can't carry lie and be positive. 5)farm farm farm. DONT MISS FARM. Biggest difference between bronze silver and gold? Farm. Bad decisions on all 3 Elos but gold Elo at least realized farming is super Important. 6)roam. Again can't say it enough. Push your lane opponent to tower and roam bot lane/top, but mostly bot. Bot lane is usually make or break by the mid roamer/jungler/top lane tp. Get them fed too. 7)like I said practice adc too. MISS FORTUNE is very good for low Elos because people don't respect her ultimate. If you enjoy the jungle, however, pick a more snow ball/carry jungler. Sion is a shit jungler right now and it's hard to carry with him. Try xin, yi, khazix, udyr, even Elise.

Veigar was a great champ for low elos but right now because the game is so snow ballish and he's such a late game champ, he might not be as good as he once was

DeloricVI1 votes

  1. I guess I should start playing champions that roam better than Veigar... at least early on. Near the end of the laning phase, Veigar can be terrifying when he roams, but early game... not so much.

  2. I try my best to harass, but I farm too much with Veigar and end up running out of mana stacking my Q... man, it seems to be a recurring theme.

  3. I do ward a lot. I'm the first one to remind everyone to buy at least one pink ward and have one down almost all the time. Although, are you sure about the blue trinket? I mean, most people on my team go crazy with the blue trinket, and I Feel like someone should keep the regular one for some stealth wards.

  4. I never do; I actively oppose surrendering, always try to keep everyone calm, and never really call someone out until the very end, if I do at all. Flaming people in chat is counter-productive so I don't do it.

  5. I sometimes take teleport just to keep myself from missing farm against those champions that can easily harass me; I'll miss some if I have to port back to base, but I can at least minimize the number and hopefully keep the tower from stealing my creeps :/

  6. Is Jinx a good adc, though? I feel like I have a good handle of her kit... but I did notice that she had very few changes when compared to the massive reworks that a lot of other marksmen got, most of which gave more power to the ADC's that got reworked...

Who Fed Ahri1 votes

I'm a midlane main, high gold S5, right now lower gold attempting to climb back up. The best roles to carry with is Midlane & Jungle. You have the most global influence around the map. Play early-game snowballing champions. Playing Veig in the mid in bronze is not the best as it will take you time to ramp up your stacks, especially since games are shorter and the meta is more focused on snowballing your lead. Lane phase is worth much more now then it was in the tank meta. Play champs like Leblanc or Lee sin (with a ton of practice obviously)

Another piece of advise I can give you is just CS. Don't even fight. Bronze/silver/gold players cannot farm. Get around 70-90 farm by the 10 minute mark, buy your power spike item and win.

DeloricVI1 votes

That's what I do, but i get harassed a lot in lane; I prioritize farm, unlike a lot of people I play with, but it just doesn't seem to matter because, again, playing Veigar and, like you said, the meta ends the game too quick, lol.

Who Fed Ahri1 votes

{quoted}

That's what I do, but i get harassed a lot in lane; I prioritize farm, unlike a lot of people I play with, but it just doesn't seem to matter because, again, playing Veigar and, like you said, the meta ends the game too quick, lol.

You wont be able to get better until you've been exposed to higher level of play. Lower elo players wont punish you for your mistakes, therefore logically speaking, you wont be able to know what you are doing wrong if nobody is telling you. If you want, you can PM me in-game, I can link you to our gaming community. We supply free-coaching if you'd like.

DeloricVI1 votes

Wow... I'd love to get some coaching.

But you raise a point that I hate about league of legends; you don't know when you do something wrong until it's too late, and it's not clear when you do make a mistake. And I feel like being at this level is preventing me from getting better as well, because, again, I'm only exposed to players that don't really capitalize on mistakes, or if they do, they don't do it intentionally.

xl Kirito lx1 votes

Bronze elo is fun.

  • One of the biggest things that stood out to me while playing at bronze mmr. Mid laners have no respect for another champions damage output. I'd have people staying in lane at 25% health against an assassin. They also tend to avoid roaming. If you want out of bronze, play Annie more then Veigar. She wins every lane at that mmr, and if played well can 1v5 carry.

As for top lane, I personally never liked Sion, but he's a respectable champion. Just make sure you aggressively roam. Teemo is... a lot riskier of a pick. He has very few positive matchups, and if he doesn't get ahead early in lane, he typically doesn't contribute much outside of a tryndamere style splitpush.

Honestly, if there's a specific matchup you dislike, or trying to practice, find someone high mmr, and just 1v1 grind the matchup. You might learn something new, learn weaknesses, strengths. Another trick is to play the champion yourself. It's easier to find someones weaknesses when you're trying to play them.

DeloricVI1 votes

I guess I should focus more on playing Annie. She is infamous for being good at all elos and easy to pick up.

How do you feel about playing Lux in bronze? I hear she's Freelo, and seems pretty simple... not to mention her damage scaling is ridiculous....

Then again, I also heard that Katarina is Freelo, but when I tried her, I did literally nothing because I couldn't get a kill to save my life.

BadmoonBC1 votes

{quoted}

I guess I should focus more on playing Annie. She is infamous for being good at all elos and easy to pick up.

How do you feel about playing Lux in bronze? I hear she's Freelo, and seems pretty simple... not to mention her damage scaling is ridiculous....

Then again, I also heard that Katarina is Freelo, but when I tried her, I did literally nothing because I couldn't get a kill to save my life.

Lux is pretty strong at all elos. She's not forgiving though. If your flash is down you gotta really be a good minimap watcher. Leblanc is also fantastic but harder to play. But once you start mastering her kit, you'll stomp most bronzies

xl Kirito lx1 votes

Both of those champions I don't really want to speak to, since I don't play them or against them heavily, but in general.

  • Lux is all skillshots. At bronze, it's akward. Half the time, people will overreact trying to dodge, wasting dashes / blinks. And the other half, you get people that don't move at all. Which means they dodge all of your skillshots. I know Lux is a strong champion, but I question her consistency, especially in lower mmr. Try her. She's def strong, and seems fun.

  • Katarina's strong. She's relatively consistent, but seems hard to pick up easily. She also doesn't have great matchups against common mids. I don't like the champion personally, since she survives on teams inability to work together. Which is most of bronze. It's a toss up.

DeathBurst1 votes

I'm only in Silver, and I can still carry consistently in Bronze 5, playing Sion and Garen. So not the more snowbally of champs, but quite safe in early games. Be careful and don't die, focus on objectives, not kills, wards save lifes.

BluePolarizer1 votes

The #1 tip for playing as a gold is don't suck.

Now if you want to play like a plat, the #1 tip is to never do nothing.

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