How do you carry?

Velasan·Oct 4, 2014·3 votes·661 views

I've just been playing the game for a few months now and still learning how to carry. I'm not sure I understand how people do it.

I check runes and masteries after game and find sometimes they are running sub par runes or masteries (for example a mastery that really isn't helping their character) but can carry anyways. In the last day I saw a couple people go 20+ kills with katarina and diana this way. I checked their history pages and I'm seeing like 10 games where they have kills that all are up in the double digits (sometimes as much as 25+).

So, what I want to know is how do each of you carry? What's your technique?

8 Comments

redniwediSOct 4, 20144 votes

Carrying is all about knowledge. You have to know what your character can do, and what all enemy and allied characters are capable of. Not just skills but also what each individual player is able to pull off.

Actions you can take to start carrying, however, depend on your lane. For top lane an early experience advantage is far more important than gold in many matchups. Once you have a level advantage you can zone your opponent from farm or force them to trade a significant portion of their health for a few minions. With smart wards you can do this for the entire laning phase and snowball yourself into being able to easily 2v1.

From your post it sounds more like you're talking about snowballing than actual carrying. You can lose a game after going 40/0 if you do nothing with your advantage. Use pings to get your team to rotate toward objectives, either in an effort to protect you and your damage or to use your split pushing as a distraction. Kills are fun, but taking towers and other objectives actually get you closer to ending the game in your favor. If your team listens to you and you make some smart calls you should find yourself with an easy win. Just keep in mind if your allies don't listen to you it's up to you to listen to them. Five people following a bad plan is typically better than four people following a bad plan with one person doing their own thing (unless solo pushing is part of the plan, distractions can be quite helpful).

VelasanOct 4, 20141 votes

Hmmm good point. So what is an effective way to snowball in order to carry?

redniwediSOct 4, 20141 votes

Get an experience advantage and zone your opponent from gold as best you can. Snowballing is no longer about building your advantage, but rather denying your enemy theirs. ADCs are a little different in that gold is just as important as experience, maybe even more important, but since I'm not an expert I'll let someone else lay out specifics for an ADC.

Depending on both your character and how well your team is doing you can either group and push down towers/dragon/baron or push on your own and split the enemy team. Spam wards and if you can stay one step ahead of the enemy team you can easily guide your team to a win.

EMOFRATPARTYOct 4, 20142 votes

Maining Ashe will upset people, because they'll say she is no longer viable, but Ashe is one of the most mechanically sound Champions in the entire game. Sure, you can easily dash around with Lucian or get all the resets you want with Tristana, but with Ashe you have to learn patience and understand when to strike. I only bring this up because mechanics make a great carry, not necessarily the carry itself.

On the other note you brought up, I'd cater your runes/masteries to the champions you play the most using a given set. I did plenty well before I even knew anything about runes, so just work on how you carry and the rest will follow.

aGentleGrabnFistOct 5, 20142 votes

1 do nothing as support crank for 30 min 2 grab carry 3 ??? 4 collect lp

utDOOMOct 4, 20141 votes

In mid, if your ahead use the advantage to roam, and try not to get caught if you are the strongest on your team.

How to carry depends on the champion you're playing. Basically what redniwediS said.

12talesOct 4, 20141 votes

I get a sighstone and oracle's lens. It's tough to lose when you've got 2-3 wards for every one of your enemy's.

Jamatrix666Oct 5, 20141 votes

From my experience, you need to adjust to the opponent's behavior. This will give you better chance of having better scores and winning, and maybe even carrying. Here is what I can share:

Analyze your opponent's team comp, your lane opponent and his/her jungler. Think about what your opponent needs to do to harass you out of lane, and think about how the other jungler is going to gank you. When it's done, you must ward the right places and adapt your laning phase into consideration. If your champion is strong on early levels and their jungler has low ganking power, take the advantage by harrassing your opponent out of lane. This will make him lose experience and gold and will allow you to outlevel him at all stage of the game. If your opponent has a strong early game and has a strong ganking jungler (Lee Sin, Elise, Xin Zhao, etc.), play more passive and focus on CS.
Adapt your build to the other team comp and their item choice. Too many times I see players making the mistake of always choosing the same items in the same order no matter if they are losing. LoL is about analyzing, adapting and countering.
If you're doing good, don't let yourself become cocky. Even if you're strong, always think about the possibility of getting ganked, of going into a 2vs1 instead of what looks to be a 1 vs 1. To make sure you don't do this mistake, use lots of wards when you're ahead. Better vision on the map will help you better, especially when you're ahead and trying to take objectives and make plays.

I know this things sounds easy on paper but hard in reality. But if you take your time to do your best, when you will have a super great game where you carried, you can notice that you unintentionally (or intentionally) executed the 3 points I mentioned above. Good luck my friend!