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The Seeming Impossibility of the Climb (just looking for advice)

panexin·7/3/2017, 3:11:46 AM·5 votes·423 views

Hey y'all. I've read some responses to posts like these that have been pretty helpful, so I wanted to try making one of my own. I'm trying to climb out of bronze right now. Unfortunately, I tried my placements just about as soon as i got 30, then took a long break from ranked, and now I'm trying to remedy the situation months later after having learned a lot. Easily just dropped into silver in flex when I did my placements for those a month later. The people I have to play with in bronze 4 are so much worse than the people I get to play with in norms (I played norms in the ranked interim)-- and I don't think this is a subjective statement. My teammates in norms cs better, die less, and position better than my teammates in ranked. I think there is a difference between how the game perceives your skill between norms and ranked. I wish that weren't so. I don't understand why there are more troll picks in my ranked than in my norms (recent examples: aatrox support, ahri tank top, doran's xerath support, doran's lux). I'm ending most all of my ranked games with the highest cs on my team (often higher than the enemy team's top earner too), and I am always coming out of the laning phase with a positive KDA. I try to transition my lead by roaming after I take mid tower, but by that points it seems that most other lanes are too fed for me to actually assist without risking a triple kill for the enemy team. I also try to roam early, knowing I can still handle my own lane, but despite every ping and every notice, bot lane / top lane are sometimes even unresponsive to my gank attempts, no matter how pushed into our turret they are. I like to play Lux, Orianna, and Vlad mid. Fiora top if I must, and I love playing support. I like to think that I can climb. I am just looking for some extra tips or advice. I know these types of posts come as cheap as pennies, so I appreciate you if you read this ^^

6 Comments

Subject 57/3/2017, 3:36:44 AM4 votes

If you're in bronze, you just need to learn basic mechanics of the game and understanding how vital it is to position around the map. In bronze, people will ALWAYS do stupid shit - and if you step on a ward, 99% of the time you can just ignore it and assume the enemy didn't see you. You should be using wards as a means of killing as much as possible as well. In bronze, you don't need to necessarily pick a champion to win - meta picks are for later on, but you should always pick a champion that you are comfortable with.

Looking at your match history - you have a very good winrate with: Sona Lulu Lux

Some champions seem to have, from my experience, better effectiveness than others in lower elo. These champions are easy to dodge hooks and snares like Lux Morgana Taliyah if something is easy to dodge, people won't dodge it in bronze.

Are you quick casting? You need to set quick cast if you want to get anywhere - don't use an ability - aim it - then use it, that's unreliable.

Your creep score on MOST of your champions is absolutely awful. Needs work.

Stop playing Ahri in ranked, you lose most of your games with her. Stop playing Morgana, stop playing Ori, stop playing cassio, don't play Soraka if you want to climb. You WON'T climb with Soraka, you need an actual good carry. And no, if you have a duo partner that says "I'm a god" don't. That person is in the same elo as you.

Also: In bronze, I like to say that there is a hotspot of champions; this hotspot is: MasterYi Pantheon Fiora AurelionSol Azir Gnar Vayne Jayce Syndra Camille Caitlyn Lucian JarvanIV Irelia Kayle Quinn Tryndamere Trundle Volibear Warwick MonkeyKing XinZhao Yasuo Veigar Velkoz Taliyah Sejuani Zac Poppy Zed Yorick Why are these champions 'hot spots?' Because for the most part - MOST - of those champions are awful later on into the elos but in bronze you can pretty much ALWAYS apply pressure and kill a bunch of people without actually relying completely on your team. Yi in particular, get 3 kills - just steam roll the enemy team. Don't even farm - just go into the enemy jungle - kill that person, roam top - kill that person - roam mid maybe get a kill or summs - go back top, if they aren't there yet then just wait in the bush and kill them.

Other than that though? Well don't rely on your teammates. Seriously, your teammates are always going to be garbage no matter what - they won't do you any good and they won't be good human beings to you. Just /muteall in ranked. Oh and cheese tactics are god tier things in lower elo, too - Like full lifesteal. Because nobody builds the right items.

AlienPrimate7/3/2017, 4:19:23 AM1 votes

I disagree with what most people say about climbing in low ranks. Most people try to tell you that you need to pick a champion that you can carry every game with and don't need a team. Everyone in bronze thinks the same way. Most people in bronze want out and try every game. Pick champions that can support a team and you will destroy in team fights as long as you can take charge and be a leader. I started in bronze in season 4 and easily climbed getting almost 30 lp per game and only losing a couple games until I was in silver. This was done by using unpopular champions who could easily carry by assisting their team, not solo carry the game. Those champions were Galio, Sion, and Rumble. Rumble and Galio both have (had in Galio's case) ultimates that can easily turn a team fight and Sion was basically a second jungler in mid lane. I don't know if you played before Sion's rework, but he had 180% AP scaling on his Q and W combo with something like 700 base damage. W was the same as it is now except way stronger because the scaling. He could walk into lane, blow up the entire wave, then run to top or bottom lane with mobility boots and the highest base speed in the game. This would get his team a massive lead before anything happens and it was usually a surrender at 20.

If you like support, that is a good roll to climb with. As a support, you don't have to worry about csing allowing you to pay close attention to the map which allows you to ping your team whenever you see something. Something can be the location of the enemy jungler, respawn timers for both jungle camps and champions, teleports, and missing champions. Ping whenever someone isn't on the map to warn your team. This also allows you to predict jungle movements once you get used to it. If you see the enemy jungler gank top lane at level 3 with 1 buff then you can assume that they will take about 2-3 minutes to clear the other side of the jungle and get their buff before doing anything. You can then time this and play safe when that time comes in bottom lane.

Control wards are important. No matter what your roll is, you should always get one. Supports and junglers should always have one both in their bag and on the map which is something I actually need to work on as a support main. I usually place one and then I don't buy a replacement preemptively to immediately replace a destroyed one. I sometimes wait until it is gone to get another one. I have noticed that when i queue for normals with my bronze friends, I will have 4-6 control wards and almost everyone else will have 0. No control wards ever is a big no-no if you want to climb the ranks. To give you an idea of what warding is like at higher ranks, my last ranked game had 173 wards and 15 control wards between both teams with 37 wards destroyed and this is only in gold elo. Your last ranked game had 103 wards and 2 control wards placed with 2 wards destroyed.

You don't have to actually be mechanically better than people to win. You just have to make smart choices and become a leader to make choices for your team. If you are out numbered, don't fight. If you are by the enemy tower, don't fight. Never chase someone for more than about 5 seconds because they likely are running to a teammate. Finally is the biggest problem people have in low elo. This isn't team deathmatch in CoD. Kills don't matter. Don't fight if there is nothing to gain from it but kills. Always ask yourself if you can take towers, enemy jungle buffs, baron, dragon, or inhibitors or have to fight to defend one of those from the enemy. If you are in the middle of river with no wards around to see what is going on, no minions pushed to towers, and baron and dragon both have 2 minutes before they are up, why are you fighting? You are fighting to get kills in this situation which won't win the game. By time you get to a tower you will be low health from the fight, the enemy will respawn before you can take anything, and they will kill you to turn it around.

That brings up the next point. If nothing is happening, don't do nothing. There is always something to kill to get gold. If you are walking by krugs and there is nothing happening, then take krugs provided that you have a champion who can. If there is a minion wave that is just sitting there, kill it and then rejoin your team. A minion wave sitting in the middle of the lane doesn't help your team. You need minions to take towers after fights as I said in the previous section. Push a tower, join your team for a fight that you can actually do something with, then go back to the lane that is pushed to take a tower or two. Don't just sit in middle lane staring at eachother's parts waiting for something to happen then do it again a minute later with the minions still in the same spot they just were. Make sure your team is aware that you are not there when you push lanes though because they likely aren't paying attention to notice they are outnumbered.

I hope this guide that got longer than I was planning on helps. I will link a video to the game I talked about with 173 wards in it after it is done uploading to youtube. I thought it was a good example of how a support can control the flow of the game.

AlienPrimate7/3/2017, 2:16:26 PM1 votes

Here is that video I mentioned before. https://boards.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/c/skin-champion-concepts/PHdVXH0Y-good-taric-gameplay-gold-elo