How do you break into playing other roles?

Lapis·Jan 15, 2017·4 votes·549 views

I'm a support main, and by that I mean I can only play support. I like it, and I have fun with it, and luckily I can get it most of the time. But every now and then when I'm queue up as support/fill, I end up with another role, and it never goes well. Like, I'm in bronze 5 and I play even worse than the worst, it's humiliating. So I'm thinking I should probably actually learn another role. Does anyone have any advice? Maybe some 'baby's first' champs? And what would be a good role to learn?

11 Comments

oSEXYPLATYPUSoJan 15, 20172 votes

well you learn by playing...

what champ do you play at support? are they viable in other roles?

say like Annie who can be mid as well

same for Lux Morgana

or if you play Nautilus he can top and jungle as well

start there...

practice other champs outside of your role in co op games... if you wanna try to learn vs real players create a smurf ... and play only that role i did that cuz i was horrible at mid ( still not great ) and i just played mid champs win or lose...

LapisJan 15, 20171 votes

I didn't think of making a smurf. I might do that! I play a lot of Lux and Orianna support, so mid might work. Thank you for your advice!

oSEXYPLATYPUSoJan 15, 20171 votes

no problem... best of luck

http://imgur.com/oZqut7q

JbelsJan 15, 20172 votes

I like to take advantage of the RGM we get every weekend. Before going into the role I want to try out, I take the champion I've got my eye on using into a few RGMs, and then I use them on Rift when I feel like I've mechanically grasped how to play them

Miror BJan 15, 20171 votes

One good trick I learned is to pick up different "playstyles" instead of actual roles. Instead of trying to "master the support role" or "master the midlane", try to "master tanks" or "master assassins". Start with the super easy ones/do normals, then once you get the hang of the playstyle it should just stick should you want to try them in other lanes (like how people who play support mages also tend to be good at mid-lane mages).

oSEXYPLATYPUSoJan 15, 20171 votes

good points... execpt im really good at squishy supports... bad at mid lol the lane dynamics are soo much different... and with out enough games you dont see all the match ups and so on as you do from maining a champ or "role"/"lane" mid by far is my worst...

im good at support and jungle i feel they are very similar however i play jungle with support-ish utility type of champs /tanks and try to support my team and laners as a jungler..

i also play top lane bruiser/tanks

i can adc cuz i understand the lane dynamics but mid is just my worst

Miror BJan 15, 20171 votes

[{quoted}](name=MrFawknSunshine ,realm=NA,application-id=3ErqAdtq,discussion-id=81uhVpGh,comment-id=00010000,timestamp=2017-01-15T14:30:14.506+0000)

good points... execpt im really good at squishy supports... bad at mid lol the lane dynamics are soo much different... and with out enough games you dont see all the match ups and so on as you do from maining a champ or "role"/"lane" mid by far is my worst...

im good at support and jungle i feel they are very similar however i play jungle with support-ish utility type of champs /tanks and try to support my team and laners as a jungler..

i also play top lane bruiser/tanks

i can adc cuz i understand the lane dynamics but mid is just my worst

Aside from being forced to cs, playing mage supports (squishy supports being a "general term" that kinda applies to like 80% of their meta) is almost exactly the same whether you play them in a solo lane or not. If you can put some pressure in lane (using autos to cs and mana to "poke" the enemy) and have a decent understanding of when to push waves (keeping a wave near the enemy tower w/o full vision of the enemy jg usually forces you to burn a flash) you're probably better than like 80% of the bronze mids, no joke.

As far as matchups are concerned, there really isn't much to it. Talon/quinn/kench counter yasuo, annie/kassadin counter the handful of ap-assassin mains, and syndra/swain/ori are just generally safe "blind pick" options. Having some knowledge of a few of those combined with the dozens of support-friendly options (like brand/morg mid) makes the lane surprisingly simplistic/easy.

5000000000000000Jan 15, 20171 votes

Do support/bot then? If you have a bursty/caster ADCs, you can play them mid as well. You'll still have to learn the lane, but at least you won't have to learn new champions for that lane.

oSEXYPLATYPUSoJan 15, 20171 votes

yea i support and play some adc ... adcs i play normally are Ashe Caitlyn MissFortune Tristana Varus

Risk of FateJan 15, 20171 votes

Let's see , when I started to learn jungle in season 5 around the time of Ekko's Release, I picked simple champions with a lot of safety like Sion, Evelynn and Vi before I did something like Kayle and Riven. I watched a lot of youtubers play in the jungle (I think at the time SolWolf and Redmercy were my current favorites) so I had a small idea of what the jungle was like.

After I got a feel for the area itself, I began to work on things as they came up like what to do on an invade, when to invade (which I can't do still, lol), and when's the best time to gank. I would focus on improving my clears before I did anything else to the point where, as Vi, I was confident enough to clear krugs/gromp with enough health to gank bot or top lane and get an easy flash or two.

Pretty much pick "safe champions" I would say; nothing with incredibly high skill ceilings or multiple passives to work on. Watch how other people play the lane to at the very least get a feel for what you should be doing. Work on things specific for that role like top lane TP ganks, Mid lane Roams, jungle ganks, or ADC farming.

Fail as hard as you can because that's the best way to learn. I didn't learn roaming patterns as Lux by doing it amazing the first time, I studied my opponents, checked the map, and took risks when I felt I could because I went through a laundry list of what I could/should be doing.