Ranked tips?

Moistyyy·Apr 19, 2016·2 votes·314 views

So I'm Bronze IV, was Silver V last season. I'm having an issue trying to climb and I am really in need of some tips. I don't think I'm a good player, but I don't think I'm that bad either. I have issues with applying map pressure or positioning but I am trying to get better at that. But sometimes I do really well in a game but a teammate prevents me or another teammate from carrying. Usually the issues range from them getting caught out or trying to 1v5, etc. Is there any way to actually play around that? It really sucks when your team does well but one player either isn't playing all that well or is having a bad game and you just lose because of it.

5 Comments

EndlessSorcererApr 19, 20163 votes

Only so much you can do to to direct a teammate who refuses to listen. All you can really do sometimes is work around them or use them as you would a mildly intelligent bot (i.e. distraction or bait).

If you want some general tips, I do have some I had previously written up.

[1] I would highly recommend narrowing your selection down to two roles. This will let you get a better handle on the general mechanics of that role at all stages of a game.

[2] I would recommend you focus on ~3 champions per role (for a total of 6). This will let you focus on learning more about that champion's play-style, build paths and role at various points in the game and as the situaiton varies.

[3] I would recommend you play mechanically simple champions. It will let you focus more on learning the fundamentals of the game instead of having to worry about playing your champions optimally.

[4] Prioritize farm. Farming is the most reliable source of gold and experience in the game and it can make you far stronger than you appear to be. This is true on every champion and especially early-game; a difference of 100G can result in you returning to lane with Phage instead of a Ruby Crystal, Long Sword and Boots of Speed.

This is especially important when you realize that ~15 farm is equal to a kill. Take the free gold from minions; killing your lane opponent is often secondary (and much easier when you have an item advantage from better last-hitting.

Just remember that gold you haven't spent does nothing for you. If you are a couple kills ahead of your opponent but are sitting on 2k Gold while they have just bought, they are probably stronger than you are.

[5] When necessary, build defensively. If you want an example, I'd honestly rather a 0/2 Darius with Phage and Sunfire Cape than a 0/5 Darius with Black Cleaver. The early durability helps you survive the laning phase even when you are losing; you can finish your core damage items after when gold is more plentiful and you are less likely to be bullied off of farm.

[6] Learn to control the minion wave. This is especially important in top-lane, where a proper freeze can result in the enemy laner missing several minion waves worth of gold and experience very easily. If you get a lead, use it to deny your opponent; it lets your free-farm and puts them further and further behind.

[7] Learn to farm efficiently. This is especially important when jungling, since you have to keep up in gold and experience while having access to less farm than laners, controlling objectives and (counter-)ganking. If you are playing a jungler who relies on being ahead of their enemies, learn when and how you can take lane-farm without denying your allies.

Several examples of good opportunities to soak farm are:

holding the minion wave when your ally is recalled, dead or roaming
pushing the wave under the enemy tower after getting a successful kill (then proxying the next wave if safe to do so)
split-pushing or wave-clearing during the mid- and late-game.

[8] Know when you can trade with your opponent. While this is often up to experience, you have to watch for when your opponent wastes a cooldown (either because they used it to farm, missed it, just used it to trade, or you baited it out) and take advantage of its CD window.

Know when you have an advantage in (live) minion. Those little guys really hurt early-game.

Know roughly when champions hit major power-spikes and try to take advantage of yours while avoiding theirs.

I also happen to have some tips prepared for jungling. I'm not sure what roles you main, so just let me know if you happen to want those too.

MoistyyyApr 19, 20161 votes

Ah, thank you for the tips! They are extremely helpful! When I play ranked, I am comfortable with all roles, but if I solo queue I prefer Mid or Jungle - usually only go adc/support if I'm duo. Regardless of what role I do play, it often ends with one lane doing really bad. Even if i roam or gank a lot, the lane still loses hard and can't end up doing much. If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you drop those tips for jungling? If you also have any tips on manipulating minion waves, I would be extremely grateful!

EndlessSorcererApr 19, 20162 votes

No trouble. I've saved some of my longer and more informative posts in Evernote so that I can just copy-paste them when necessary.

Feel free the ask if you have any other questions.

I don't have anything written up for manipulating minion waves at the moment, but I did take a quick look for some decent videos:

Minion Wave Control (Episode 12) L2P: League of Legends, Tutorial Series
LoL - Minion Control | Season 6 | Quick Tips | Episode 1 | Tips by Cruiser
League of Legends Wave Management Lesson - Rather long, but it should be a good source

Keep in mind that I haven't watched these videos in their entirety; I just skimmed through them quickly. I mostly picked up the concept and technique through osmosis.

I've posted the jungling tips below. They may be a little sporadic in order and I think there may be some repetition, but hopefully they will help.

I would suggest watching videos by high-ELO and/or professional junglers (i.e. Nightblue3, Stonewall008, Valkyrin, and foxdropLOL). They will typically provide a lot of useful tips while playing and you can often see or hear their decision process and some optimizations throughout the game.

Off the top of my head, some basic optimizations may be:

Use hard-CC when the monster camps are about to attack you to cancel that attack and delay their next.
Each of the smite buffs are quite useful in different situations. Be sure to take proper advantage of them.
- Raptor's buff is great for ganking
- Gromp buff provides extra damage during clears and fights, especially for champions with a lot of health
- Krug's buff reduces the damage you take while clearing and lets champions without CC kill Scuttle Crab faster
- Wolf buff is useful when you are being counter-jungled or invaded (or after your initial towers have fallen).
If you have a weak early clear, Krugs -> Raptor's -> Red Buff is probably the route that conserves the most health.
Kill the little Raptors and the little Krug first on single-target clearers. They deal a significant amount of damage for their health value, so you will be healthier if they die early.
If you think the enemy jungler will invade you early game, it can be safer to start on a buff camp rather than a little camp since you are less likely to be where they are looking.
Attack Speed is extremely efficient at clearing on most junglers. I'd recommend using about 15% on champions when you need to speed up their clear even if they don't use the stat much later (with a few exceptions, such as Nidalee and Evelynn).
Keep a pink ward out (or in your inventory) whenever possible. This is important for every champion, but I thought I should emphasis it. There isn't really a good reason not to.

As far as ganking is concerned:

When possible, conserve your gap-closer while ganking. If you can get to the enemy champion without using your mobility spell(s), then you can save it to catch them after they try to escape (Flash, dash, blink, etc).
You should should try to stay between the enemy and their escape route. You should be trying to move backwards (towards their escape) in-between attacks so that you can body-block them and slow their escape. This also leaves you closer to them if they try to dash on blink past you.
Use Raptor's smite buff to determine if you have been spotted by wards when ganking to reduce the risk of them escaping or receiving a counter-gank.
It can be risky to gank top-lane while Dragon is up since the enemy team can just group and take it 4v3. I'd recommend ganking top-lane early if possible (after your initial clear) and when Dragon is down; that lane can be quite snowbally due to isolation, so you want to get your ally ahead.
Learn to recognize the general times when buff camps spawn during games. If you see the enemy gank bottom lane while their top-side buff is up, you can go steal it from them.
Watch when top and bottom lane initially go into lane. If that lane has leashed for their jungler (missing health, mana, or showed up to lane a bit late), then you know where the enemy jungler has likely started and where they will end their clear (where is closest for them to gank).
If you have killed the enemy laner, you can either allow your laner to freeze or shove the lane into the enemy tower. If you shove the wave under tower and the next minion wave is coming up, it can be helpful to proxy it to ensure that the wave fully resets and the enemy laner misses as much as possible. This is very situational though and you will have to learn when through experience.

Other tips:

Whenever possible, walk up to the enemy champion during a gank and save your gap-closer for after they use their escape abilities.
Watch the enemy laners when they go into lane. Whichever lane shows up later and/or missing mana will likely indicate which side of the jungle the enemy jungler started on (which is useful for predicting gank paths and for counter-jungling).
When against aggressive early counter-junglers (i.e. Shaco) it can be a good idea to start on your buff camp and/or to start on a different side than you usually do. If he invades your buff, you've already taken it and/or you aren't there to be killed.
Watch the minimap to see when and where the enemy goes to ward, which laners are pushing, which laners are vulnerable
Know, roughly, how most laning matchups go so that you can prioritize which lanes are the easiest to gank or require an early gank to decide the matchup.
If you have blown an enemy's Flash during a gank but haven't killed them, swing back around immediately after an gank them again. Many people don't expect it
If you've killed an enemy during a previous gank in top lane, kill them again immediately after they return to lane. They likely won't have wards up yet and a second back-to-back death can be enough to completely crush any chance that opponent has to recover the lane.
Top laners rarely bother warding the lane bushes. As such, lane ganks can be quite surprising and effective.
When you kill an enemy laner, shove the minion wave into the tower so they miss gold and experience and so that the minion wave will reset to the middle of the lane. If you can get away with it, clear the upcoming minion wave as well to ensure the reset and maximum missed minions.

You will learn a lot through experience, but these tips should help you at the start.

MoistyyyApr 19, 20161 votes

Ahhhhhh thank you so much! I'm going to try my best at applying all these tips when I go back into ranked! I appreciate this very much, and I hope you have a wonderful day!