Played this for 4 or 5 years, finally made it to diamond. Here is my guide for people like me.

Immediately I’d like to preempt anyone who wants to comment that diamond V still sucks and that I’m a noob loser, welcome to the true elo hell blah blah blah. I think there are many people out there like myself, who have getting to diamond as a realistic goal, and one that feels pretty good and rewarding, regardless of whether or not swaglord masterchallenger pro considers it good. Also, I have read similar guides but I haven’t seen one in a while, forgive me if you think this is repetitive or old news, I just think it might help a few people.

So, for a little background, I started playing this game and I think I remember the first champion coming out for me was Talon, so about 4 or 5 years ago. Each year or so I moved up roughly one tier, from unranked/bronze until diamond. I have played a good bit in every role, and it is a little crazy to me to think it took me maybe 3 years to figure out the role I now main. The purpose here is to show that for those of you that aren’t climbing, perhaps you haven’t spent enough time and/or tried out different roles to see which one you actually enjoy playing, which I have found crucial to climbing.

Now for the guide. I’ll begin with some general comments and then move onto some rules I set for myself that I found really worked. Main points are bolded or italicised.

1. Like I mentioned above, spend time playing different champions and roles to find out which really suits you. For me, this took something like 3 years but was also affected by circumstance. For those first 3 years there was only blind and draft pick and endless arguments over who got what role. In the hopes of ending most arguments and smoothing over the team I often would volunteer to support. a. Volunteering to support sort of began as a “fine, ill do it” type thing, but I quickly realized that having a team hating each other from champ select was pretty much a lost game. The mental game and positivity is important.

2. Accept that you will lose nearly half of your games. Over many games, if you are able to hold a win rate above 50% this is climbing. If your win rate is 55% you are really good. Very minute, but I got the impression that throughout all the tiers I have played in, people go into matches with this sort of expectation: “I am good. If I win my lane we will win the game.” This is the part is not the whole fallacy or whatever, and assumes you are good, and that you will win your lane. It is better to assume you aren’t that good, and that you will get ganked a lot making you at least not win your lane. How will your game go then?

3. Try your best to not die in lane. This is important for you and the rest of your team. Obvious right? On the surface it definitely is obvious (gold, items), but the mental aspect of this is important as well. When you die in lane you begin to get down on yourself, get frustrated, start not to care about the match, and of course your team will quickly pile on the flame. Are those few cs really worth staying out and probably giving over a kill, some map pressure, and the mental upper hand? No. Recall, get back to lane, and make up for whatever little you may have missed.

4. Laning is for CSing, poking, and (small) trading. People in all tiers that I have played in are far too focused on shitting on their lane opponents, asserting some sort of solo Q dominance over there counterpart in a** team game**. Killing your lane opponent feels good, I get it, but in the macro game that in and of itself does not mean much. Laning is about getting CS first and foremost. Second, it is about poking your lane opponent to make them miss a few CS here and there, and to not let them get too comfortable. Poke so that when your jungler ganks your aggression is not obviously different behavior. Third, it is about small time trades, and maybe, just maybe, a kill without a gank. Poking your lane opponent out of lane and making them recall is nearly as good as killing them early game and will net you roughly the same advantage. a. “But Swiggety, in your last point didn’t you say that recalling and missing those few CS isn’t that bad?” Yes and no. If it happens to you, you will miss some CS and will be a little bit behind, but no, it is not as bad as dying mentally/atmospherically for both you and your team. b. As a support main, and a Leona main within that, countless times I would have plat ranked players tell me to take ignite so we could get the kills. I pretty much always took exhaust because the kill isn’t the most important thing.

5. The kill isn’t the most important thing. It is what you do after the kill that matters. From silver into high plat, players will kill their lane opponents, maybe push the wave that’s there, and then recall to buy something with the gold they now have. Sure, that got them a small advantage, and then they would get back to lane and look to assert that feel good solo Q dominance in lane to kill the enemy and recall again. Everybody wants to drag out laning for as long as they can. If some players had it their way they would be full build before taking their lanes first turret. When I realized this, I began to push the lane and at least make sure I got some damage on the tower after forcing opponents out of lane or killing them. This is especially important now with the first turret gold.

6. There should always be map pressure somewhere. Another observation from silver through high plat ranks was that coupled with players recalling after killing opponents and not creating any pressure, often times after tier 1 turrets are down and the match transitions to a much more open map, it often breaks down into what is essentially an ARAM. Just because tier 1s are down does not mean you are locked into a “teamfighting phase” of the match. Perhaps your team has an obviously weaker teamfight and you’d be better off continuing to push your respective lanes. If you draw the jungler to one side, there should always be map pressure, somewhere else. That is, your team mates are now free to be more aggressive in harassing and/or taking a tower. a. As a support, this often meant going off on my own to get a lane pushing on the opposite side of the map than the next objective we were planning on taking (tower, dragon, baron) much to the chagrin and pings of my team mates, but it was worth it. This way, when you go for that next objective, win or lose the skirmish over it you have not lost everything. In the win scenario minions begin to do work on an objective for you and you can possibly rotate to quickly take that tower. In the lose scenario at least your opponents will have to counter push that wave/lane to get it back to your tower, taking up their time and showing you where they are on the map.

7. Inhibitor>Baron>Elder Dragon. Yes, pushing inhibitor turrets can be pretty hard (remember how there should always be map pressure somewhere else?) The inverse of this is defending inhibitor turrets is pretty easy as long as you don’t have another large wave of minions crashing into a different tower. As a general rule that I set for myself and tried to get my team mates on board with, if your team is not strong enough to take an inhibitor, most likely baron or elder drag means a wipe when the enemy team shows up. Create pressure elsewhere until you can get that inhibitor. Once you take an inhibitor, you now have a good window of guaranteed map pressure (somewhere else) with which you can take baron. Once you have baron, push objectives. Do not fuck around with taking elder dragon. Sure, taking elder drag will take something off the map from the enemy team, give you a burn dmg buff and give you that feel good solo Q asserting dominance, but its buff is conditional on you having taken previous dragons and is maybe(?) harder to kill than baron. Baron buff gives you a bit of fighting stats, but is far better used pushing towers/inhibitors with the buff to minions.

These are just some observations I have made over time and tiers of ranked play, and just what I could put into words right now. I may add more later. Hope this helps those people who are like myself, just trying to get that border ;)