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I'm a Bronze solo seeking serious advice.

Tzi··6 votes·2,343 views

First off, Hi. Ive been playing league since around August of last year (2015). This year (2016) I decided I wanted to start playing ranked games and climb all the way to at least gold.

So, naturally, I started taking interest in the really good ranked teams that make it all the way to the championships and i've been watching the lcs lately. I'm really determined to start playing ranked but there are a fiew problems and concerns I have.

Before I get to that, I'll start by saying I tried one ranked game last night to see how it'd go. Wanted to ban Jax, but someone asked that I ban Fizz. Didnt want to make enemies and wanted people to have a positive attitude so I banned Fizz. Zoom to champ select - we get a Jax Jg. Great! My team was: Me (Corki ADC), Naut(Supp), Shyv(JG),Morg(Mid), and Cho'Gath(Top) . Their team was Garen(Top), Jax (Jg), Mf & Janna (Adc & Sup), and Viktor (Mid). I thought we had a pretty good comp. Thing is, I like to play more defensive and I'm a very patient person that doesnt mind waitng 5+ minutes for the right time to go in or never go in. My Naut was not like this. I would try to CS and he would Q MF, and then I would have to try and shimmy through minions as fast as I could to get an AA off. But like i said, I was trying to CS and had an easy enough time doing so as he was denying them farm. Janna was quick on her shields though so it was virtually useless. In addition, as soon as our ward went off and Naut never rewarded the bush, Jax came bot, flash stunned and got first blood off me. I bought and so did Naut and came back. After waiting Jax came back and caught Naut out warding (but Janna and Mf were pushed to our tower). I went to help and we got circled. Shyv came and I went to side 1v1 MF got her low, Jax came for me, he got a double and took dragon. It gradually went downhill. Janna and MF got our turret because Naut left me and went mid, we grouped mid, jax tower dove me and I died while Naut Q'd MF, they got mid outer tower and I think top, too, MF pushed bot while everyone chased people into jungles, we surrendered at around 30 min. Naut raged the entire time saying it was my fault because I do no damage (not true) and how I kept pussying out due to my natural patience and cautiousness and he spent more time talking about how bad we were than making actual plays. He kept saying he was catcing MF, but I'm like its useless if you do it when Cho is top, Shyv is in jg, and as soon as you get MF we get blind sided by Jax. I ended up 1/7 due to Jax just being ble to dove tower easily while Naut sat and spammed me with "fckin retard noob" 24/7.

With that said here are my concerns

  1. I don't know what rolls/champions I'm good at. I have champions I really enjoy but I feel like I can only make nooby plays with them. Things like babies can do. Like I really enjoy Kalista and I've been practicing her kiting, I've been practicing landing skillshots, I've been circling through lanes and find I like mid/adc/supp a lot, but sometimes I have a hard time landing thresh hooks leona E etc. I also only have few top champions and even fewer than I actually play, and I tend to avoid jungle completely because I dont have a rume page for it, only have a few vg champions I like, and am just really bad eith ganks. I know my strengths anf my weaknesses and use them to the best of my ability.

  2. I'm very cautious. I buy pink after pink after pink, farsight on adc at 9, oracles on support and I try to catch as many wards as possible. I dont push too hard unless I feel safe with wards. (Naut didnt care and I think thats why we were caught out so easily all the time). I usually wait for them to go in and back off until they waste everything, then go back for poke or engage but remain at the back.

  3. I don't play to get kills and carry, I just want to push them out of lane and get up on CS/get objectives. (Naut didnt seem that way by making me stop farm to help him).

  4. I'm scared of ranked in the sense that I see what kind of plays people CAN make and I don't think I'm as good/as fast a reactor I'd like to be. I'm bronze solo and silver 2 with my team so I was scared I would get silver players at first.

  5. I try to have a mindset of someone in a higher Elo as in like predicting where skillshots are going, trying to save flash for whats necessary, trying to make team comps with good CC and damage.

  6. Not worrying about counter picks because someone can literally go to counterpick.com just to counter you but not actually be good.

I've been reading and watching videos of ranked solo queue tips, how to get better at dodhing and lamding skillshots, reading up on simple but effective plays to make but I'm still so scared of ranked even if it is Bronze. Naut completely ruined the positive attitude I was givng out and after that game I just felt really sad.

Any advice for a semi new league player that just wants to win some ranked solos or should I try to play with a more coordinated team? Should I go out and buy more champions before playing ranked? I have the most champions for bot and some favorites for mid.

51 Comments

bvcderrttyyhjjjk3 votes

Personally, I think that you should stick to playing Normal Drafts until you get a good feel for the game. You should play a lot until you feel confident about your abilities and until you see that you can outfarm your lane opponent majority of the time. Also, you should practice until you can quite reliably win your lane.

Finding your best role can be tricky. Even after years of playing the game, when the meta has big changes I change my mind of what I should main, although I generally gravitate towards jungling as the role I prefer. I think the best way to figure it out is to play a lot of different things and find the best combination between what's effective in the current meta, and what if fun to play for you in the current meta.

With time you will probably try out a champion that you will feel really feels good to play. Their strategy should feel instinctive and natural to you. For me it was Kha'Zix jungle, a couple years ago. I tried him because I was curious and really understood and enjoyed his playstyle. But everyone is a different case so it really depends on what you like and perform best as.

So I would say you should practice CSing, find your favourite couple positions, and then make a list of your favourite champions to play in that positions. Get better to the point where you feel confident and outperform most of your opponents.

A couple tips to close off with:

ALWAYS try all champions in free rotation at least once. This will help you greatly understand every champion's playstyle, strengths and weaknesses. You will end up understanding the game a lot more if you played all champions at least a couple times.

Don't rush to ranked. If you just rush starting ranked while you are not experienced and confident enough, you will just end up stuck in bronze, which is a place that is quite frustrating to play in and will likely tilt you due to the prevalent negative attitude. Practice a lot in Normal Drafts. When you feel like you have improved a good bit, start playing ranked and see how it goes. Don't get frustrated if you don't succeed at first, it takes years to improve, and then again, LoL's ranking system is not very accurate, and you rank ultimately won't matter regardless of what it is.

So just practice to improve your own performance, and most importantly take it easy. GL&HF :)

Tzi1 votes

Thanks for the reply. :) I think that I'm gonna stick to N draft, yeah. Up until the champ select change I'd been playing Blind Pick, and I've only now started playing Draft when I accidentally chose it the day of the change. I've been meaning for sure to try all the free champions, I still worry I'll do bad though. I've been looking at some of those "harder to play champions" that will help impact the team greatly (Like Bard, Cass, etc) but I do have a constant underlying fear that I'll make one mistake, or several, and lose the game for my oh-so-skilled teammates. I think I really wanted to rush to ranked to try to escape people that complain about their team in all-chat kinda deal.

I do appreciate the reply though, and I'm going to try a bit harder at avoiding skill shots and dealing with other things like MF's Q. I always kept trying to get in a position where she couldn't hit me with it but I always ended up getting hit and it sucked. I'm not an aggressive player except when I KNOW I can be. Engage two or three times to see how we do and judge from that.

I find I really enjoy Draven, but sometimes I struggle with trying to catch all three axes. I actually didn't know up until like 2 days ago that his axes go in the direction you click x_x. I guess even now, I'm still learning, and it's just gonna take a good while.

thank you so much though!!

Envy Sin2 votes

I don't know what rolls/champions I'm good at. I have champions I really enjoy but I feel like I can only make nooby plays with them. Things like babies can do. Like I really enjoy Kalista and I've been practicing her kiting, I've been practicing landing skillshots, I've been circling through lanes and find I like mid/adc/supp a lot, but sometimes I have a hard time landing thresh hooks leona E etc. I also only have few top champions and even fewer than I actually play, and I tend to avoid jungle completely because I dont have a rume page for it, only have a few vg champions I like, and am just really bad eith ganks. I know my strengths anf my weaknesses and use them to the best of my ability.

Play the champions you enjoy, You'll be better with them. DO try and increase your champion pool. This will help. For example. A thresh Kali lane can be pretty brutal, But a Kali Janna lane is kinda lackluster. Try and stick with two roles. This new system let's you set yourself up that way. If you're having issues playing support i can help you out there. (I'v mained support since season 2) If you need help with ADC/Mid make a custom match and just go to lane and last hit every minon as low as you can. Get a friend to join in and do trades. Find the weaknesses of champions. And if a match up is really hard for you play the champion that's the issue. This should give you some insight on how to beat it.

I'm very cautious.
I buy pink after pink after pink, farsight on adc at 9, oracles on support and I try to catch as many wards as possible. I dont push too hard unless I feel safe with wards. (Naut didnt care and I think thats why we were caught out so easily all the time). I usually wait for them to go in and back off until they waste everything, then go back for poke or engage but remain at the back.

Don't spam pink wards, It's (Mostly) a waste of gold in yolo que. Just pick up sightstone then grab sweeper (if you're support)

I don't play to get kills and carry, I just want to push them out of lane and get up on CS/get objectives. (Naut didnt seem that way by making me stop farm to help him).

Make trades in lane. Don't just pressure nonstop for the kill but if you see a safe bet. GO FOR IT. Engage with your support and throw a few autos down. If you force the other laner out you win. Because now you can CS and they can't.

I'm scared of ranked in the sense that I see what kind of plays people CAN make and I don't think I'm as good/as fast a reactor I'd like to be. I'm bronze solo and silver 2 with my team so I was scared I would get silver players at first.

Stop playing ranked for now. Play draft normals until you really get the hang of things.

I try to have a mindset of someone in a higher Elo as in like predicting where skillshots are going, trying to save flash for whats necessary, trying to make team comps with good CC and damage.

This isn't really a issue lol.

Not worrying about counter picks because someone can literally go to counterpick.com just to counter you but not actually be good.

Counterpicks are good. If you have a champion in your pool you can use USE it. every advantage helps.

And finally add me in game we can talk some more.

IGN: Envy Sin

Tzi1 votes

If you force the other laner out you win. Because now you can CS and they can't.

That's exactly what I was thinking and getting from that I read. I remember watching championships last year, and I was shocked when they were ending the game with like 6 total team kills. Up until that point I thought it was about getting as fed as possible and then carrying your team. I've definitely noticed a change in my attitude since then, like I don't care if someone steals a kill of mine, as long as I get assist I'm completely cool.

Don't spam pink wards, It's (Mostly) a waste of gold in yolo que. Just pick up sight-stone then grab sweeper (if you're support)

I thought that the more vision on a map the better? With any extra gold I have I try to pick up a pink ward just in case they kill mine. lately I've been trying not to put them in the same spot every time so they wont expect it there then they go to re ward. as Support I always get sight stone/oracles (the one that doesn't move because I assume the JG will get the one that does). As ADC/Mid I buy far-sight and place it almost whenever I can wherever I think its most convenient. I'll remember this, though.

And I'mm definitely add you. :) All my friends have been playing league for roughly 4+ years and are kind of bored with it (They're only Silver/Gold), and don't play much anymore, so I don't have anyone I can make custom games with to test things out. Making you can help with that. I appreciate the reply.

Goosetard2 votes

Learn how to punish mistakes Pick a few champions to play and learn what mistakes the other player can make which you can abuse. For example, a go-to midlane staple for me for a few seasons has been Brand. Even if I don't know exactly how much damage my opponent will do, 9/10 times if they blow a mobility skill for no reason in lane, I can walk up and e-q-w and back off and I won the trade. Mistakes like that are made regularly and punishing them will get you ahead and teach you to avoid making them yourself. Learn who your champs beat in early all-ins and who they lose to. Learn who they outtrade. This is a lot easier if you have a friend to play with and you guys can just fight in lane opposite each other. You can watch challenger streams all day but you won't learn really, really important things, because there's a ton of mistakes their opponents AREN'T making, and you need to learn what to do when your opponent screws up so you can build an advantage.

Learn how to farm safely Sometimes shit is not going your way and you have to just farm it out and hope you'll be useful when your team starts to group. If you don't know how to farm safely in your lane, you're just going to feed and fall further behind. Being aggressive (like I said above) is good for learning, but that learning is going to be painful lol. If your enemy is bullying you, learn how to farm safely and avoid being forced out of lane so they don't continue to build an advantage. Learn which champs your champion can't farm safely against if they get ahead, and be very careful around them (hint: there's a decent chance those champs are counters).

Don't worry about counterpicking yet Counterpicking oftentimes only works by knowing your own champ and the enemy champion very well. Some counterplay is easier than others (Zed Kayle), but until you're at a level where people are really familiar with the champions they're playing, just stick to what you're good at and worry about counterpicking later. (That being said, try not to pick into counters, in case the other guy has half a clue what's going on)

Own up to your own screwups If you fuck up, say so. Say "yeah that was mb I should have done _____ differently." People will respect you and be less insecure if when they make mistakes. If they're dicks about it, say "sorry bud it was an honest mistake but you don't have to be a jerk about it." If they continue, mute them. Don't even tell them you're muting them, don't complain to anyone else about them, just click the mute button and move on. They are literally making you worse at the game, and if they make you angry, they're making you worse at life. Don't waste the time. Playing with this mindset makes you more likely to recognize your own mistakes and correct them in the future.

originary912 votes

I went into Ranked as soon as I hit level 30 which was somewhere near the end of Season 4. I was placed in Bronze 3 (I thoroughly did not believe that I deserved to be placed there, and looking back on it now, I still don't think that's where I should have been placed. I should have been Silver V at least, but I digress.) The point that I'm trying to make is that I was once, like you, a Bronzie. Last season I peaked at Platinum 1, might have even made Diamond had I made a concerted effort to climb just a bit more, but things happened. This season, even though I've sunk down to plat 5 I'll be looking to hit Diamond. Point that I'm trying to make is that I have experience climbing - at my lowest I was B4, at my highest I was Plat 1, that's quite the improvement and I managed to climb that far in a season and a bit.

So some advice; Find One or two champions and stick to them - this is the easiest way to gain LP and improve at the game in general. If you're trying to pick up and improve on several champions in several different roles at the same time you're just going to overload yourself and stunt your growth, it's easier to improve if you have a small champion pool for obvious reasons; A - Since you're spamming them every game you're going to figure out all the neat tricks and combos that you can do with them, basically your mechanics (How well you can handle the champion) will improve. B - Since you're spamming them every game you'll become more familiar with the champion, you'll be at ease playing them. Playing them will begin to feel like second nature, as such you can focus on other aspects of the game (Decision making, map awareness, etc etc) since the basics will have been ingrained into you already - I.e farming/trading/harass combos C - It's easier to be proficient at one or two champions than it is to be proficient at more than 3.

Personally I think you should avoid Botlane like the plague since you're in Bronze, simply because it's Bronze. You need to be on a Solo lane where you're less reliant on others and as such your performance is solely on you - it's not reliant on or interlinked with the performance or play style or others.

I'd recommend Mid or Top. Top because it's isolated, you can pick something snowbally like Irelia and Fiora and simply stomp lane every game once you get the hang of them. If you're stomping lane then chances are you'll also be able to stomp the game.

Mid because it's the central position - the ease at which you can end games is greatly affected by how good yours and the enemy midlaners is. A good Midlaner will; Hold Mid priority (Which is the first turret, very important as if it falls the map opens up for the enemy team and they gain significant amounts of pressure from it) Influence other portions of the map (Either by roaming or cooperating with their Jungle to invade/collapse) Take Mid Priority - Important for the reasons above Keep the enemy mid laner weak, or inversely remain significantly stronger than them.

Understand that the most important thing in Bronze is to continuously kill your enemy opponent over, and over, and over again. It's okay to have 50 CS at 10 minutes if your enemy laner is 0/3 and you're 3/0 by then, and here's why. 0/3 means that your enemy laner has lost EXP, making them weaker than you because of the level discrepancy. 3/0 means that you've gained gold. It'll be the equivalent of something like 30 minions, so your 50 CS and 3 kill is effectively equivialtn to 80 cs - not great, but it'll suffice. Bronze people tend to either Rage or Troll. If you make someone 0/3 there's a chance that his team will flame him, while it sucks for the guy, it also means that the enemy team is less likely to win as they've already devolved to a state in which they're spending excessive amounts of time on infighting instead of putting it to better use by focusing on winning the game. Trolling is self explanatory, if you make someone rage so hard that they decide to troll then chances are you're going to win. Sure, this isn't a nice way to put it, but we're not focusing on morality right now, we're focusing on climbing.

Understand that the second most important thing in Bronze is you DO NOT DIE. Dying is a waste of time. Dying means that you've missed out on potential EXP and gold. You can't afford to miss out on either, you want to be ahead of everyone on the enemy team so that you can carry the game. Dying means that you've just assisted the enemy teams effort to winning the game. Dying means that you've missed out on a potential chance to snowball the game.

Next is objectives and farming. If you're Mid then your primary objective is to take your Mid turret. Other things that you should look out for is Dragon or Herald Taking your turret takes priority over taking Dragon The exception to the above is if your team is in danger of getting collapsed on by the enemy if you do not go to Dragon, in which case high tail it there. If you're playing top and you decide to play someone like Irelia/Fiora, do not take the enemy turret until you're confident that you can consistently 1v2 your enemy laner and their jungler. OR until you're confident that you can dive your opponent under turret whenever you want to and get out alive. If you can accomplish both of those then take the enemy turret. If you cannot then consider whether you want to Roam - if you want to Roam a lot (Say it's 25 mins in the game) then make a concerted effort to take the enemies turret. However if you've just killed your enemy once, it's about 13 minutes in and you have a chance to take their turret, do not take it. Leave it up. This keeps the lane short, prevents you from having to over extend to get farm, keeps your enemy laner coming back to lane so that you can continuously kill/dive them, and basically prolongs your laning phase.

Next is farming, obviously try to get as many minions as possible. If you're playing top and you're fed then just split push a lane and rack up CS until like 30 minutes, at which point you can push to close out the game. But keep in mind that Winning the game is all that really matters. It's okay to have 110 cs at 25 minutes as long as you're currently last hitting the enemy nexus. Farming gets you gold, gold gets you items, more items gives makes your champion stronger and a stronger champion increases your chances of winning the game. Farming is a means to an end, but the end is what really matters. Honestly if I was in Bronze I probably wouldn't even have that much farm, I'd probably be consistently pull in 130 or less farm by 20 mins, as I'd simply be too busy killing everyone on the map to care about farm.

You need to accept and internalise that the only one you can rely on to carry games is yourself. If you lose a game then that means that YOU did something wrong, or failed to do something that was right. It's all on you. Play to win. Play aggressive. Be calculative and make sure that all of your bets pay off.

Watching Pros isn't going to help you much, because the people they play against are vastly different than the people you'll be playing against. As such the scenarios that you will face will be vastly different from theirs - most notably that your team is going to be far less reliable than theirs.

If you put idk, Bjerg in B4 his play style will be different to that which he uses when playing on his Challenger account. He'll be more aggressive and he'll do things that higher elo players would punish him for, but since he knows that these guys won't pick up on them he'll do them AND get away with it. Furthermore you'll see him punishing these guys for mistakes that other high elo players wouldn't even dream of making, as such he'll snowball much harder. Predicting Bronze is also pretty pointless. It's easier for an experienced played to predict what a master will do than it is for them to predict what a novice will do.

I suggest playing snowbally champions with strong Mid games that aren't too mechanically intensive but have a fairly high amount of outplay potential. Suggestions include;

Irelia + Fiora for Top Diana/Twisted Fate/Lux/ Vlad. Go for Lux if you're good with Skillshots - and only if you're really good with them Diana is a pretty solid pick, but I think they ban her a lot in Bronze/Silver. TF is a good pick, make sure that you're really good at micromanaging his abilities (I.e consistently picking the right card that you want, TF mains can pretty much draw the exact card they want near instantly - look into it a little) Vlad because he's strong, point and click, snow balls hard and would probably dumpster Bronzes. Could also be played Top.

If you're playing Irelia always rush Rageblade. Always. It's current too strong to pass up on her - it's a bit of a weak build path but the end result is well worth it. You can just stay top with her and split push until you've got a Rageblade, Triforce, Deadmans and Mercury Treads which should take you about 30 minutes. After that closing out the game should be easy. Watch how Irelacarriesu plays her to quickly understand her gameplay.

Idk about the rest, though for Diana you can watch S Diana 2.

Tzi1 votes

I really appreciate how in depth you went. I'll definitely save this and use it for reference in the future. Ideally I'd like to have more than 130 cs at 20min though.

I was thinking about making my main lane mid while reading through everyones comments because I have a lot of fun playing mid champs (Orianna especially). Only problem I have with her is timing her ulti but gradually I've been doing much much better with it.

I read somewhere that you should have champions from every lane you can play which is why I struggled with JG a lot as well as top. I thought about going as a support main but a lot of forums and videos said you can't "support yourself all the way out of Bronze/Silver/Gold". But I think Im just gonna stick to two lanes since the new champ select made it much easier to get a lane I would want, and I might just pursue becoming really good at Ori/Lulu/Lux/and Kalista as I enjoy them the most. Recently I started liking Illaoo a bit but I'm really not that good at her. Just need practice. Again, I really appreciate the help. I'll try some stuff out and maybe in a few months I'll try ranked again.

Swagimus Prime1 votes

Best advice i can give you for bronze level players is to be aggressive and take risks. You have to carry your way out of bronze, and its okay if you have games where you feed because we all do, but just be aggressive. Learn to not just win your lane, but crush it. Gotta be willing to take those risks, don't be scared, and the best way to be better at taking risks and coming out on top is to really take time to learn just how much damage you do at all stages of the game. Know your lanes, match ups, when you can win or not, etc. People in bronze don't know this stuff. So just know more about the game than them and be aggressive/take them risks, and you're deff shoot up in elo.

Tzi2 votes

I usually engage two to three times and base whether I should play aggressive or not on that. I'm never aggressive without wards, and obviously if I see I'm getting ganked I back up immediately. Sometimes I'll levitate in the middle of the lane to see if their Jg will waist time waiting for me to go forward instead of farming, giving our Jg a chance to counter jg. I don't really want to "crush" the lane, just get them out of it. I don't really play for kills as much as I used to and I've had a better outcome from that than the latter. If I get them out of the lane, like someone said in an earlier comment, I consider it a win, because I can CS and they can't. Taking risks usually ends up bad for me so I try not to.

Sevixys1 votes

Firstly: play normals Until you feel confident enough to play ranked. I played almost 1k normals before I started my first ranked. After landing in s5, skyrocketed to s1 with 50 ranked games. (now trying to concentrate on rankeds and climb to g1)

If you really are a relatively new league player, play normals :) they are just as fun and challenging but also more forgiving for your mistakes and learning (and remember - you learn from mistakes)

Tzi1 votes

Yeah, I'm definitely gonna stick to normals. ^^ I learned about the mistakes thing the hard way. Naut went in once, and I tried to dash over MF to get my W passive to do some damage. She ulted as soon as I used my only real source of mobility and disengage and bursted us both down. I think our mistake was just going in too early. Janna could just shield her and MF did more damage than me due to having more items because of more CS because every time I did try to CS, Naut would go in and it would end the exact same way. I'm not trying to blame Naut at all, I definitely made mistakes as well, I just don't think we synced very well.

So yes, Normals it is. x_x

Leadpaintchips1 votes

bot lane, in my opinion is the hardest lane, because you have to be able to read and adapt to both your lane opponents and your lane partner, and pray that your partner does the same.

xxxDogmanxxx1 votes

Using an attack damage carry, but not playing to get kills and carry was probably your first and biggest mistake.

Leadpaintchips1 votes

except that farm is just as important, if not more so important than kills. Someone did the math and it's ~15 cs to a kill. Granted when you kill your opponent, you can deny them some cs, but making it so you have that cs is much more important than risking it all to potentially deny your opponent theirs.

xxxDogmanxxx1 votes

See, that's where I disagree with the "Just 16 cs to equal a kill" argument for why farming should be prioritized over kills. 16 cs might not sound that much, but that's actually 3 waves of minions. That takes an entire minute and a half to spawn, and about fifteen seconds more to kill the last wave. Meanwhile a fight takes ten seconds at most and if you get a kill, you get 16 cs worth of gold plus deny your enemy cs and experience.

Leadpaintchips1 votes

It's the whole risk/reward that's attached to the going for kills. Overall it's a better choice to focus on cs, and take the kills if they come, then to focus on kills and try to get the cs in between.

Tzi2 votes

Well i mean, I'm playing for kills but I'm not going to chase them for 2 minutes through every jungle because I really want that kill ya know? Just getting them out of lane is enough for me because I'm farming and I'm getting xp and they arent. If I see a free kill though obviously i'm gonna take it, but what I mean is I'm not gonna break my back and overextend just to get one kill and miss so much CS in the process.

Restless Slumber1 votes

Here is what I do. I play jungle and mid, and you said you are bad at jungle. I recommend learning mid then. My recommended champions to learn are utility wave clear champions like Orianna, Lulu, Anivia, Viktor, Azir, etc. Of course some of these are hard to learn so I would recommend playing Lulu. She's easy to learn and I always ban her if I'm not playing her. Ok, onto how to play the lane. My mid champion of choice is Orianna. Almost every single game I achieve 200 CS in 20 minutes and maintain my perfect CS throughout the game. I achieve this by managing my waves and pushing and going to farm jungle camps. I also put pressure on my laner and will kill them at least 2 times in lane if there is no jungle pressure at all. Remember to buy pink wards and switch to blue trinket at level 9. It is imperative that you keep yourself alive and continue to farm. If you keep this mindset and are able to get 10 CS per minute you will be much much more strong than the other players in the game, which remember are bronze. You may be bronze, but remember that they are too. They're just as bad and if you listen to anything I say about playing your lane you will notice how much better you are than them.

You don't need mechanics in bronze, so don't put yourself in the situation of playing mechanically intensive champions. Assassins may carry on bronze, but mages can carry too and can actually carry stronger. Think about it this way. On Orianna you can 1 shot the entire enemy team given the opportunity. Have I don't me this? Yes. Can you do it? Yes. Just farm farm farm and scale into this beast. From the sounds of it, you didn't like playing in that bit lane because the guy was too agro. If you want a less action packed lane, just play a control Mage and you will learn a lot.

Tzi1 votes

Yeah, Orianna is someone I also really enjoy playing. She has a lot of range in her ball and in her auto attacks, her W works as a good gap closer or disengage, and if someone tried to trade with me I can just E through the attacks I know will do the most damage. Same thing goes for when I play Lulu. I've thought about playing Azir, aniv, and Viktor as well, but one of my anivia fears is doing that thing we all hate: cutting off an ally with our frozen wall of death. I'd like to get a little more practice out of that.

I'm gonna start making custom games where I just practice getting CS, and then I'll take that to N games and see how well I can do even with the distractions. I appreciate this and I'll remember it. :] Thank you.

Gated D Latch1 votes

Anivia is a very strong champion. Don't be worried about cutting off teammates with the wall since you'll get the hang of it pretty easily. She tends to bully people out of lane at lv2 with her q e combo chunking the enemy health. She also scales incredibly well, being able to achieve higher crits than adc's.

Tzi1 votes

Ah yeah, I've definitely seen what a fed Anivia can do. You're having a blast chilling in bot lane and you go all in with your jg and then suddenly Aniv comes and blocks everyone off and does her combo and you're running back to tower x_x. I've been thinking about her a lot, so maybe I'll take a closer look at her when I have enough IP.

Gated D Latch1 votes

She does take a while to get used to however since her playstyle is relatively different compared to other mages

nëzumi1 votes

Add me if you'd like and I can try an help you out as much as I can.

I'm only a baby gold 5 but I can try if you'd like.

Tzi1 votes

Anything higher than bronze is good enough to me. I sent an add. :)

Meep Man1 votes

While I'm no wizard, I can help narrow you down some champions to play based on what you have said.

I don't know what rolls/champions I'm good at. I have champions I really enjoy but I feel like I can only make nooby plays with them. Things like babies can do. Like I really enjoy Kalista and I've been practicing her kiting, I've been practicing landing skillshots, I've been circling through lanes and find I like mid/adc/supp a lot, but sometimes I have a hard time landing thresh hooks leona E etc. I also only have few top champions and even fewer than I actually play, and I tend to avoid jungle completely because I dont have a rume page for it, only have a few vg champions I like, and am just really bad eith ganks. I know my strengths anf my weaknesses and use them to the best of my ability.

From this, we need to find you a champion who is Mid/ADC/Supp and isnt extremely reliant on "That one skillshot".

I'm very cautious. I buy pink after pink after pink, farsight on adc at 9, oracles on support and I try to catch as many wards as possible. I dont push too hard unless I feel safe with wards. (Naut didnt care and I think thats why we were caught out so easily all the time). I usually wait for them to go in and back off until they waste everything, then go back for poke or engage but remain at the back.

You are a safer player who wants the enemy to come to him. You likely would more like a Peeler champion/Healer champion/Poke ADC. This makes me say you likely want to stay Bottom Lane. That lane also benefits the most from wards due to it being a prime meal for a jungler.

I don't play to get kills and carry, I just want to push them out of lane and get up on CS/get objectives. (Naut didnt seem that way by making me stop farm to help him).

Safe lane then. Better late game. Gotcha, that is decent.

I'm scared of ranked in the sense that I see what kind of plays people CAN make and I don't think I'm as good/as fast a reactor I'd like to be. I'm bronze solo and silver 2 with my team so I was scared I would get silver players at first. I try to have a mindset of someone in a higher Elo as in like predicting where skillshots are going, trying to save flash for whats necessary, trying to make team comps with good CC and damage.

You are learning basically.

Not worrying about counter picks because someone can literally go to counterpick.com just to counter you but not actually be good.

From all this information, you probably want to major in playing as a ADC and Support. Knowing both of these roles is extremely valuable since knowing one instantly makes you better at the other since it makes it to where you know what the other should do, will do, wants to do, etc.. You like to play it safe, poke is better then flat out trading (although you will have to learn to at least deal with enemies who WANT to trade). You are more focused on objectives than kills (great, this is key to learning the game). I would likely recommend these champions for an ADC role: Corki Ezreal Kalista KogMaw Varus And these champions for a Support role: Alistar Bard Braum Janna Karma Nami Sona Soraka TahmKench For ADC, you want immobile, poke champions that have a safe early game and for Support you want more passive healers/peelers. Some of these are more aggressive, but you can try them only if you want.

My 10 Tips

  1. Never underestimate your opponent. Treat them always like they know what they are doing. Never go in relying on your enemy making a mistake. Assume they are an almost perfect player.
  2. Remember that, even if you are 0/2, if you have a large CS advantage over your opponent, you are doing better than him since you provide less gold on death and are at an equivalent gold level. From this, I think you can understand why CS is very important.
  3. Wards. Although you probably understand this already.
  4. Kills will only benefit your team when it is a time of action, meaning an objective is being contested. Otherwise, they matter a lot less since it is fairly easy to simply farm back up to a decent level.
  5. Try to only Dragon and Baron when their team is at a number's disadvantage. A Dragon or Baron when there is even numbers can go either way and most of the time is just a bloodbath. Try not to force these objectives and take advantage if your opponent does.
  6. Always know how much damage you will do. Don't go into a fight without knowing "I have the mitigation to deal with his damage, and the damage to beat him." Otherwise, there is little point in fighting since it's gonna be a flip of the coin if your opponent performs correctly. Not to mention fights such as that where the enemy is at an equal stand can go incredibly wrong with a gank.
  7. When the enemy deals damage to you, see if you can also damage them. Free damage ISN'T GOOD AT ALL!
  8. Research your champion before playing. It's best to go in prepared and know your exact combos.
  9. Wards. Again!
  10. The Red Trinket needs to be on a team majority of the time. One person usually should have it.
Tzi1 votes

This was actually really good and accurate. I thought about maining support, but that was much earlier when I first started playing, and all my friends that got me playing wanted the other rolls so I got stuck playing sona support 24/7 because I didn't have many other champions. I've been gravitating toward mid more because I really like playing Orianna, and I figured if someone needed me to go top I could always take Lulu. I read that Yorick is a counter to Lulu and I've actually played against a few Yoricks. Either I'm kinda good or they're kinda bad. :s

I own a majority of the supports you named. I've actually stayed away from Ali and Bard because I'm scared I can't hit their combos, and I'm always terrified I'll mess up Bard's ult and fk my team up. I remember I played a game where this bard's ults were??? Like Amumu would stun and then bard would ult everyone and everyone got really mad at him. for a second I did too but he said it was like his second time, and I remembered my first time playing bard and relaxed.

I appreciate the tips though, and I'll definitely consider buying the champs you listed that I don't own, as well as looking more into the ones I do own and want to play in ranked. :)

ZDrahgonz1 votes

Well looking at your history this was your first game since October so i dont think you should be rushing to play in ranked when you haven't played in so long. Secondly your Naut was right you didn't do much damage the MF did double the amount you did.

Tzi1 votes

Can't do damage when I'm dead. x_x & I figured now was as good a time as any with a new season starting. New season new start?

Silver3MMC1 votes

I can tell you a Secret my Senpai Foxdrop said once it has helped me get to Bronze III He told me "Git Gud" and now I'm "Gitting Gud" all you need is some "Git Gud" in your life <3

Tzi1 votes

Thanks m8! B)

Power Cosmic1 votes

Play Ashe Blitzcrank Brand MissFortune Warwick Garen Lissandra Pantheon Amumu Lux . They should cover all lanes and roles and are all easy and all are very helpful to almost all teams. I said all a lot, but its all good :-).

Tzi2 votes

I think Ashe was actually the first champion I bought. I prefer to not play tanky characters which is stupid because I own and love playing leona. I'm always so scared I'll mess up because sometimes I miss my E a lot but tbh games usually work out okay. i've never even played WW or Lis and I've only played panth a few times. if they roll around on free champ select i'll definitely give them a go, though. thank you. :)

Dukues1 votes

You just have to play man. Keep learning, pick some champions you comfortable with and play. Realize ranking up is a grind. If you are playing at a much higher skill level than bronze than you should rank up quickly. Assuming your not, it will take awhile. But if you keep getting better and keep learning you will rise.

BadmoonBC1 votes

Takes time man Just spam games. Only tip I can give is if your gonna play adc main remember the your gonna be relying on a partner you don't know. That can be very frustrating. If you do that it's a good idea to tell your support in champ select that you play passive and enjoy farming until late game

Tzi1 votes

I appreciate the tip! :) I've said it in a lot of replies now, but I have a silver 2 friend that left for two weeks and should be coming back late this week/early next week, and he mains supp. When he gets back I'm gonna ask him what he thinks since he knows how passive I play and we'll be using voice so it'll be easier.

Speeedwagonn1 votes

[deleted]

Tzi1 votes

Yeah I actually just remembered I have a friend in Silver 2 that mains support and actually is still kinda hype about the game. The people that made me want to start playing league have been playing for 4+ years and have lost all the hype and only get on when theres nothing better to do, and when they do get on they don't play ranked. When my buddy gets back I'm gonna ask him what he thinks and see if we can find a good comp and work together. It'll be easier since he knows how passive I am and we'll be using voice. :)

TekkenPlayer1 votes

Its because you are old money. This game requires much more risk than it did in other seasons. You can't be afraid to snowball your lane because snowballing is just as important, it sets the enemy on mental tilt and denies them CS. This does not mean play like a dumbass and use yolo philosophy but you have to be aggressive. Supports are stereotyped to be "caretaking" people but in reality as a support main I just want to fix bad mistakes my team makes and get my ADC so fed that he/she will be able to 1v5. Which I do not approve of but you get the point. For naut. You don't have to trade for 8 seconds. Get your damage off then back; literally his thunderlords will probably 40% him with one trade and cc lock. Every engage is supposed to pressure or zone them at first. From your care of warding and not really getting kills however seems that you fit for more of a support role. I suggest thresh since he has the harder skill shots to land and bard since no one dodges or lands her ult in low elo lol. My go to pick is Janna since people want to teamfight 24/7 in bronze

I'd say the best champions for low elo in each role is

ADC: Jinx/MF Support: Blitzcrank/Leona Top: Riven/Jax Jungle: Rammus/Zac/Vi Mid: Katarina, Heimerdinger, Brand

Tzi1 votes

It's just a lot of conflicting info I get. Some people say be defensive, wait, be patient, some people say go aggressive, get in their face ya know? I guess I'm just having a little difficulty finding exact moments to do both, especially when I have to worry about myself, and wonder if the person I'm in a lane with is on the same page as me. I figured I'm gonna stick to mid and go from there.

I have a question though, what makes some champs the "best" champs for a certain elo? Is it just because of how complicated they are? Their kit? I really enjoy Orianna/Lulu/Lux/Kalista so I was going to make those the champions I play the most or possibly main.

TekkenPlayer1 votes

Lux is good. Huge snowball potential, can eliminate carries from huge ranges easier than xerath. People dont dodge skillshots in low elo.

Jinx is easy to play, same for MF but MF is a huge lane bully and people usually don't play safe in low elo; they answer aggression with aggression without knowing which trades will benefit them or not.

Blitzcrank is good, same logic as lux, people make many mistakes and forget to stand behind creep waves, also if they do know the matchup then they are so pressured they lose all of their CS.

Katarina can snowball really hard, and it is easier to snowball really hard with people lacking map awareness and vision. A lot of bronze supports are sometimes forced to support so they build full damage.

Rammus is easy to gank with and tanks with insane peel is always good. Bruisers are more popular.

Riven is a hyper carry if ahead and some top laners really do not know how much burst she pulls off with q animation cancelling.

Heimerdinger is very good. Junglers try to gank you and you get a doublekill. Guess what low elo junglers try to do if your fed. Gank again.

tldr carry yourself; try not to pick adcs that require too much micromanage and mechanics because 70% of the time the support determines the lane

6Piece McNobody1 votes

If you have a role that you like the most, try to stick to it. Play Normals on every champion that you can and once you find someone you really enjoy, practice with them. Try to find at least 2-3 champions you can do this with, in at least 2-3 roles. While still trying to be well-rounded. Which it seems like you already are.

Warding is great. I think you're doing fine with it. There's no such thing as being overly cautious and warding. Your minimap should look like a Christmas tree. Although I'd say to get Farsight instead of Oracle's as an ADC. Always have it on cooldown. Whenever its up ward somewhere.

Overall, don't let toxic people get you down. I personally don't even respond to them if they get out of hand. I try to explain things at first, but if they continue on I ignore them and remember to report them afterwards.

If you see your support is being overly aggressive, tell them to calm down and save the aggression for when they attempt to farm. And to go in if the jungler comes. Communication is key to a duo lane. Ping like mad, but without annoying the team. Try to chat as much as possible without screwing yourself over as well.

Tzi1 votes

Oh, nono I do get far sight as an ADC always, and I get the oracles on support obv.

I think I just can't handle trolls sometimes because I'm really optimistic all the time, and they're just a negative nancy from the get. I figure, keep a positive attitude the entire game, no matter how bad things seem. I remember one time I played a game and the enemy team managed to get every tower/inhib down and our nexus was bare and naked. We defended with our last breath, and they kept making the mistake of trying to sneak past us while someone else or a few others distracted. We just kept killing them left and right, and we eventually aced them. The game was an hour long, so their death was more than a minute long. We pushed super fast and won and I think ever since then I've held a positive outlook even as they're killing our nexus turrets/we're below in kills etc.

I think I'll focus more on playing mid because I can be as aggressive or defensive as I'd like until I receive help from the JG if needed. I have a Silver 2 friend that actually left for two weeks but he should be coming back either later this week or early next week, and he mains support so I'll probably ask him to duo with me. It'll be easier because we'll be in voice together, and he plays ranked much more than me (he told me he aims for at least two ranked games a day)^^

6Piece McNobody1 votes

{quoted}

Oh, nono I do get far sight as an ADC always, and I get the oracles on support obv.

I think I just can't handle trolls sometimes because I'm really optimistic all the time, and they're just a negative nancy from the get. I figure, keep a positive attitude the entire game, no matter how bad things seem. I remember one time I played a game and the enemy team managed to get every tower/inhib down and our nexus was bare and naked. We defended with our last breath, and they kept making the mistake of trying to sneak past us while someone else or a few others distracted. We just kept killing them left and right, and we eventually aced them. The game was an hour long, so their death was more than a minute long. We pushed super fast and won and I think ever since then I've held a positive outlook even as they're killing our nexus turrets/we're below in kills etc.

I think I'll focus more on playing mid because I can be as aggressive or defensive as I'd like until I receive help from the JG if needed. I have a Silver 2 friend that actually left for two weeks but he should be coming back either later this week or early next week, and he mains support so I'll probably ask him to duo with me. It'll be easier because we'll be in voice together, and he plays ranked much more than me (he told me he aims for at least two ranked games a day)^^

I can be negative myself at times, but I keep it to myself. I try not to get mad at my teammates. If they do something wrong, I try to let them know their mistake in a nice way. If they take it the wrong way I immediately say something like "Not bitching at you, just letting you know. It's all good. :D" I'm also constantly trying to let my team know if they're doing a good job. I've noticed that doing that alone actually makes your teammates play better. Just a simple "gj!" actually goes pretty far, from my experience.

Games can always be turned around with good teamwork, but if everyone's at each other's throats it's pretty much impossible.

If you feel Mid is your thing, then you just have to choose your play style. Do you like being mobile, playing mind games, bursting people down, soaking up damage, etc. I found that I prefer to be slightly tanky while being very mobile and also dealing damage. So I chose to main Diana. Are there better choices? Yeah, probably. But she actually does a very good job at all 3 of those. And I like that she isn't very popular. Meaning people don't exactly know how to fight her correctly in low elo. C;

Also, if you'd like to play together some time, feel free to add me! Although I usually play around 11PM-4AM EST.

BluePolarizer1 votes

I ended s5 as a plat 1 jungle/support main.

Always remember that Jax destroys uncoordinated teams. Do not be uncoordinated. Never waste your escapes. You need to practice Wing away while Jax is just landing, not too soon and not too late.

Tzi1 votes

Yep, I learned that the hard way. I honestly didn't expect him to flash from tri bush with a stun ready. I keep telling myself I should've expected it but as far as I was concerned at the time I thought he as still in Jg. I guess its one of those expect the unexpected kind of situations.

The Rewritten1 votes

Hi Maolinx! First of all, I want to congratulate you on getting to level 30. That's great! However, as a tip from me to you, the real learning starts right here, right now. Even Bronze V players went through the entire leveling process, so don't underestimate the amount of experience you will need in order to climb the ranks.

I'm looking through your post and match history and the first thing I notice is that you don't actually have any recorded solo queue matches. You have a Bronze III 5v5 and a Silver II 3v3 rating. But no big deal. Rating is nearly irrelevant.
The second I notice, though, is that you have 10 unique champions played in the past 20 games alone. If you have yet to try every champion, definitely go ahead and play everyone at least once before you get too comfortable. It'll be in your best interest not only in finding what champs you truly like, but also to get good hands-on experience of what each champion's major weaknesses are.

However, based on your post you seem to want to gear up for competitive play. My best advice for you in that case would be to get really familiar with a champion or two and I mean REALLY familiar. Looking at your Mastery scores, you have 117.1k mastery on Sona, 69.3k mastery on TEEMO, and 53.2k mastery on Ashe. That is very impressive! It looks like you're already on your way to getting very familiar with them. I would now like to suggest that you try to go beyond what you think is safe. Test your limits. A lot of learning is through trial and error, and while it is great to make a habit of staying alive, to improve quickly, you may want to play more aggressively to find out what kind of crazy things you can do with your champion.

I suppose the main thing I want to tell you is this:
Don't look too far ahead of you. There are some things you can take away immediately from pro play, but I would instead focus on bettering your gameplay at your own pace. Study yourself, and think about how you can improve yourself step by step. It's going to take a while, so don't worry about making mistakes and just keep trying stuff out.

Oh, and concerning counterpicks: Counterpicking really doesn't matter until higher rankings, so don't worry about it one bit. If you are truly confident in your champion, you can overpower any counterpick through sheer skill.

Tzi1 votes

Yeah, I have favorite champions and i just circle between them simply because I can't get enough of them. I've got masteries on a few other champs as well: Akali, MF, Nami (Who I love sososo much), and Annie. Sona has always been and will always be one of my favorites. I'm really comfortable with Sona, I think, to the point where I can switch up her build with confidence. occasionally i miss the ult, but its more of a rare thing. I was thinking about using her as a kickstart into ranked, which is why as of right now I think she's my most played champ for ranked. I plan on going into a custom game and seeing how well I can do on CS with the free champs this week over the weekend, and I've been thinking about downloading recording software so I can go back and watch the cs I missed, and use it to record games so I can go back bit by bit to see what mistakes I made along with my team that caused us to die/miss a drag/baron/etc.

I appreciate the second to last tip as well, I was so worked up over trying to think like I was Plat 5 or something in terms of champion picks/plays/etc I forgot that I'm still a bronze baddie filled with people that are relatively close to a N game experience, except they really do play to win. I think I've deinitely come a long way since I first started playing, and I'm still learning things as I go (I literally just learned like two days ago that Draven's axes move in the direction you click x_x. i thought it was random this whole time!), and all I need to do is take it one step at a time and really put forth the effort. :] Thank you very much! I'll remember all of this.

The Rewritten1 votes

You're very welcome. If you ever finish your ranked provisionals, let me know what rank you got and I'll add you on a comparable account (I have several with different ranks).

You can shoot me another message whenever. I'll probably see it (probably).

FioraWillCarry1 votes

{quoted}

I've been thinking about downloading recording software

Go to the website: Replay.gg. It will tell you what to do. After you set it up, you don't need to do a thing. It will record all your games automatically. All you have to do is play as normal. Best recording tool there is for this or any game I've ever seen.

rtbf2232199601 votes

Uno: Ban who you want, don't let someone else push you around. That's why they spread the bans over three people; so you could ban who you want.

Dos: Make a champion pool for your 2 best roles, like you said adc/mid and then take the champs that you have the highest winrate and best stats on, and start to main those and practice them. I try to play multiple champs (I'm a mid main that plays 20+ champs) and I never climb very high simply because I'm playing more champs worse than less champs better. Also, if you're to go adc, you need to help be one to carry. Very rarely will an adc help someone else carry and not carry themselves.

Tres: Don't worry so much about warding, focus on dmg output as a mid/adc and just use 1 pink. (farsight is best for both those roles anyways) and only really be so stuck up with vision as a support. If you're worried about a jungler ganking you, then pay attention to the map (tl;dr have map awareness) and know where they are so you can plan your lane accoringly.

Cuatro: If you don't want to run an aggro lane as nautilus did, tell him to stop engaging as you only want to focus on farming instead of skirmishing.

Cinco: Don't worry about the fact that you're playing ranked. Think of it as a normal game, cause that's all it is. If your teammates are super tryhard and be rude if you mess up or mess around a bit, ignore them. Ranked isn't just there to try hard. That takes the fun out of the game. Another tip I can give is to just play ranked, because that's where you're going to improve the most (normals aren't the best at matching up equal or as close as can be MMRs, so you'll likely have some people below your skill level and some people above your skill level.

Seis: Don't worry about counterpicks atleast until the platinum elo. 9 times out of 10 people are playing on the mistakes of their opponent and not actually about how they counter someone, simply just because of how low the skill level is in bronze and silver.

Ocho: Don't be afraid to mute toxic teammates. I myself have a toxicity problem, but that doesn't stop me from muting other toxic people. The best you can do is mute them and communicate with the league of legends smart pings. This also helps if your teammates are toxic and being rude, as it stops you from becoming upset/sad/angry/tilted.

Nueve: The best you can do in lane (if you're getting camped/farmed for kills) is to turtle (cs under tower by freezing wave/allowing it to push into tower to farm there, so you aren't vulnerable out in the open), and adjust your build so that if you do get dove you might have the means to survive.

Diez: If you honestly feel like you aren't good at a champ that you want to main/play/add to champ pool, play normals just to learn their mechanics and good ways to play/build them. It's never good to go into a ranked game (or any game for that matter, although ranked losses have a larger impact than normals [this also goes for emotionally]) unprepared.

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