[serious] How do learn new roles?

APoxx·12/18/2014, 7:39:22 PM·1 votes·867 views

Hey there,

I have this situation where I am kind of a one trick pony. I have been playing since season 1, and have always top'd and occasionally went mid. Now that I am plat 1 / diamond 5, I feel like I am kind of stuck.

If I try to branch out in to bottom or jungle, I play at a low gold level.. If I go into normal games I still don't get the same experience as I would when I jump into ranked. Anyone have any advice for people that are very specialized into one role?

Thanks!

8 Comments

Dr Clueless PhD12/18/2014, 7:44:59 PM4 votes

Oof. Well, you certainly don't want to simply go learn it in Ranked. Your MMR and your teammates would both be very sad.

Do you have friends that play at a similar level to you? Your best bet is probably to get a 5 stack and play with them. They can help you fill in the gaps to get you up to speed, game by game.

The other option is to find somebody who mains the role you're looking for (at your level or above), and have them coach you.

TairuSzoola12/18/2014, 8:05:29 PM3 votes

Well, being a one trick pony as far as a lot of Diamond streamers say, is not really that bad. A lot of player find there niche and just stick with that role and secondary role always. That is of course unless you are not having fun doing Top or Mid? You can learn these other roles but may find that you do not like them near as much or that you are not as good at them as you are at Top or Mid.

Ultimately learning these roles I would suggest watching streamers which I will recommend some of my favorites that you can learn a bit from.

ADC does not leave too much room for situational builds as Top, Jungle, Mid and Support do because you team depends on you to farm and have a damage heavy build and carry. That being said you deal with quite a bit of harassment while farming from a support, adc and sometimes jungle. Also you are usually the one that will be needed to snag a quick Dragon or fend for it. It is a fun role, dealing loads of damage and just really being needed but a lot of people cannot get the hang of certain mechanics such as Kiting making it a very hard role for people.

I find Wild Turtle and Imaqtpie to be some of my favorite streamers when it comes to AD, they play it well and sort of teach you the role.

Support can be difficult for people, I honestly have not found a support steam that I like and found super helpful (If anyone knows one please suggest it) Support to some people is very boring, all about warding , healing and saving the ADC. In a lot of cases , that is what it is. I find the best supports should have huge amounts of map awareness, ward deep into jungles, watch over objectives and basically provide as much utility to your team as you can. A role that a lot of people underestimate but truly is very important and a lot of people still do wrong.

Finally Jungle, I love jungle but I love it for the sense that I feel like I have control of my team. It makes me feel like the leader. I say that because you choose the plays to make (ganking wise and objectives) and you really have a lot of roam to ward up on Baron, Dragon and maybe lanes that are getting ganked quite a bit. Also with all the jungle changes this patch, the jungle is just so much fun. The buffs you get from everything along with the different machetes to match each play style make it a lot of fun to jungle. Once again this role can be done wrong quite a bit because I feel with this role , you are pretty responsible for keeping watch over everything.

I could go in depth about it but I find that Trick2G does the best job of explaining jungle and teaching. If you are interested in jungle then I feel he teaches it the best.

Just some things I have picked up and been learning. I am no Diamond Player by far but still learning and helping anyway I can! :)

Good luck in your journey!

Cale01712/18/2014, 7:52:17 PM2 votes

Learning ADC is probably the easiest role in the game, so I'd start there. If you can right click and not get caught out you can ADC. In fact, barring a very aggressive enemy bottom lane, farming in the bottom lane is probably easier than farming top or mid as you usually aren't going to be constantly trading with the enemy, more just trying to farm from as far away as you can get. The hardest part about ADCing, for me at least, is trying to act in sync with supports but a bit of communication goes a long way. The build paths very rarely deviate from a handful of the same items, and even if they do it's usually just the odd Guardian Angel or maybe a Rhuunan's Hurricane in the late game. For the most part, playing ADC is just about staying back and making sure you stay alive long enough to make a meaningful impact on fights.

I'm a jungle main, so I can tell you for sure that it's difficult. It's a very strategic role, and while the laners have to worry more about just staying alive, junglers have to make sure that they're meeting certain benchmarks for time during their clears, while trying to keep up objective control and vision when they can, while also trying to make sure that they keep their laners alive at least, get them fed at most. That being said, quite a lot of junglers actually play like top laners once you get into teamfights or duels so mechanically speaking it isn't that hard. The hardest part of playing as a jungler is trying to balance three lanes, all of which might need your attention at one time, trying to set up good ganks, trying to apply pressure where it's needed most while staying on the move enough to not get punished for camping out a lane by the enemy jungler. It isn't a very mechanically heavy role, but it's very taxing from a mental standpoint. No one feels the pressure of a losing match more than the jungler, because that's who the laners are expecting to come to their rescue every three minutes.

Good news is, learning how to jungle will increase your overall map awareness, and I found that it helped me quite a lot when it came to understanding synergy between champions and kits. The jungler usually has to fill in for whatever a team needs most, something that the top laner has to do to a lesser extent so it shouldn't be a foreign concept to you. In addition, learning a jungler's perspective will make you a better laner in regards to working with your jungler, understanding when and why a jungler might like to gank and trying to set them up for an easy one ahead of time while understanding when you might be opening yourself up to an enemy gank based on what champion they're playing, things like that. It can make you a better teammate, and there's absolutely nothing us junglers love more than laners who work with us, not who expect us to work for them.

APoxx12/18/2014, 8:22:02 PM1 votes

Really appreciate all the comments. Thanks for the support! To one poster, no, I LOVE top lane. I just hate the matchmaking pressure and having to worry that I might be last pick and be forced into a role I literally have played a handful of times. It usually leads to a bad game or at the least toxicity.

DJ Hatsune Miku12/18/2014, 7:44:40 PM1 votes

Just keep practicing. If your normal mmr is lower than ranked thats probably good as it gives you some wiggle room. I'm more of a generalist but even after like 3 years i suck at top. Sometimes you just aren't cut out for more than 1-2 roles. I cheat and love utility mages and tanks so mid/supp/jungle were my perfect roles.

Terff12/19/2014, 3:06:58 AM1 votes

I started all lanes when I started playing, the hardest thing was figuring out how jungle works. But at that level people dont normally care as much if you do bad, so I didn't get flamed hard for my first few jungle games.

Suggestions for "easy" learning champs for each lanes Supp: Morg (fairly easy to hit skillshot), Taric(point and click stun), Sona(don't really have to do anything except press buttons and not die and your only skillshot is fucking huge.) Adc:(I started with draven... the high skill cap forced me to learn fast, but I dont recommend him as a first) Caitlyn (a lot of range and not too much risk of death) Varus (same reason, and a snare which is useful for securing kills, another one of my firsts) Jg: Warwick (soooo easy, he's who I learned off of, his ganks are all point and click without much skill involved)

marshal the pyro12/18/2014, 7:44:48 PM1 votes

it's better to get comfortable playing in normals with friends to get used to a new role, it's best with friends because they will understand if you don't do so well.

marshal the pyro12/18/2014, 7:45:50 PM1 votes

you might even find your good at a role you never knew you were good at.