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Ranked Advice

AveAveCaesar·7/22/2016, 7:02:01 AM·3 votes·647 views

Hi, so I'm a fairly new player (~200 normal wins, just started playing ranked recently) and I'm looking for some advice on winning ranked games, which I've been having trouble with lately.

Before I say anything else, just know that I'm not looking to complain or receive sympathy or whatever, and I'm honestly just wondering how I can improve from where I'm at.

I'm currently in Silver V after being demoted from Silver IV, into which I was originally placed. In most of my games so far, I generally have had a good kda (admittedly, the number of games I have is a small sample size). I don't main a position, but of the games I've played in ranked, I think I fed in one or two of them (one game was as jax top lane vs yasuo......which I wont be trying again.....and I forget if there were more). I've been playing adc recently and I haven't fallen behind early in cs except for one game where we tried an invade and it went horribly wrong (I still didn't feed the enemy laner, but the game kinda spiraled out of control).

I usually find myself even or ahead by the conclusion of the laning phase, but that "success" rarely carries over to mid/late game. Sometimes it's that my top laner went 0/5 to an akali or something, but most of the time, it seems like my team just can't win fights as the game goes on.

Is there any advice you can give me in regards to improving? Even the most basic stuff could help (#buyingmorewards). Gracias!

Here's a link to my match history if you want to see a reference: http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/51033167#matches

13 Comments

megajip7/22/2016, 10:22:31 AM4 votes

Looking at your matches, you seem to be doing well in terms of KDA, farm, correct masteries, runes, optimal summoner spells, efficient items, and buying/placing wards.

So, you might be lacking some game knowledge and mechanics. Since I see you're fairly new, you'll later on develop better decision making skills, know when to take objectives and turrets, look at the map more often, and finding the best time to engage based on enemy mistakes during lane/team-fights. This isn't something you can understand quickly by only watching streams and reading guides, so you have to play more games. (This is why players who started playing in early seasons are usually a higher rank than newer players who started recently with less games)

Also, I can see some of your teammates are completely getting wrecked in lane and aren't playing safely even though they have a few deaths (I see a Darius and Talon jungle and a lot of less than average teammates). This seems like the reason why you're losing the games. Most of the time, you can't help them get caught up unless you're jungle, or maybe a roaming mid or support. No matter what, don't rage at them because they usually feed more purposely, afk, or start trolling. Everyone gets these players on their team, so you have to try your best to cooperate with them. Sometimes, if you see someone trolling with a 10% win-rate in ranked in champ select, it's a good idea to dodge although you lose some LP.

Next, as Ninja Swaggy has said, your champs may be a problem. Personally, I have a lot of trouble contributing to my team even if my champion is OP because I don't know how to play them well. One thing to remember is that if you find a champ that you consistently do well on, spam that champion in ranked. At silver (which is where I am so I know who is strong), Blitzcrank Shaco Nasus Volibear TwistedFate are pretty dominant if you learn them (they abuse silver mistakes). The champions stated by Ninja Swaggy are great to try out (never play them for the first time in ranked though).

Anyways, good luck.

five oh tree 7/22/2016, 7:59:40 AM3 votes

I can't give a bunch of advice as I didn't actually see you play through the matches, but it looks like you're a pretty solid player from your match history. I mean, there's the usual advice of focusing more on farm than anything else... Objectives are MUCH more important than kills. prioritize towers over dragons and rift heralds. taking an inhibitor is better than taking baron, if you have to choose between one.

If it's just your team really struggling to pull it together, it could be that the champ you're picking isn't helping your team comp, or that your team is just generally inexperienced. if it's the latter, try pinging important objectives so they know where to go and what to do.

Other advice: play silver stompers. MonkeyKing comes to mind. Annie too. MasterYi Fizz Jax are all great.

Athenes Lulu7/25/2016, 1:56:22 AM3 votes

Since some other people already posted really good advice, I'll just add in some more:

Try to specialize. Though with the shiny-new champ select this season, you can just narrow down to two, and try to play better in those TWO positions. Narrowing down and specializing your champion pool lets you improve on your mechanics/game knowledge faster.

Always have backup plans of anything. You want to play TF mid but some loser banned him or took it from you? You have to deal with it playing someone else that either counters him, you are comfortable with, or better, both. Or you want to play Jinx ADC but there's an enemy Leona that will rip your guts, so picking Jinx maybe... isn't a good idea and that you just don't want to deal with Leona as Jinx. Gotta have a plan and pick something else.

Swiftstrike47/24/2016, 10:46:15 AM2 votes

If you want to improve, win games, and climb the ranked ladder here are a few suggestions.

You should find champions you like in specific roles. Then you should narrow your roles and only play those 2-3 roles in ranked.

I am in Gold (III atm) and I can only confidently play two roles in ranked: Top and Support. I will occasionally have to play an "off-role" like mid or jungle but this is typically due to someone making a request on my team in champion select. Maybe someone's champion was banned, or they don't want to lane against xxx, or there is a one trick pony that got their secondary role and requests to play their main.

I can play mid (which is sort of my third role) but when I have to play it, I just try not to fuck up. I don't try to make plays. I don't over extend. I don't roam. I just simply try to farm and not die. That's it.

If your response is that you like playing other roles and champions I would say you can do that in normals. To win games more often and improve as a player you need to get good at specific roles and specific champions. I typically practice other roles in normals along with other champions.

I would say pick 2 roles you are OK playing and then a 3rd role that you can play adequately if circumstances call for it.

Pick 2 roles you DON'T want to play in ranked and simply never play them.

Then I would pick 2-3 champions per role and ONLY play those champions in your ranked games. If you get better with a small set of champions you will win more games than having a wider champion pool.

Although I have played maybe a dozen champions this season in ranked, I now am only consistently playing 6 : Nasus Morgana Leona Sona and or Lux if I have to mid.

I also suggest to just avoid the bot lane in silver. The bot lane is a mess down there and players are wildly inconsistent in that Elo. I would recommend sticking to Top, Mid, or Jungle.

Don't chase kills at all and if you kill opponents you should be looking to take an objective instead of backing.

On my silver smurf I notice people will back after securing kills instead of pressing a tower or taking a dragon. Avoid doing this.

Learn to farm under tower. That means if you are pressed under tower and a minion wave is crashing into it you should be able to figure out the amount of turrets and auto-attacks need to got through so that you can last hit the champion. Typically 2 turret shots and an AA for melee and an AA turret shot and then an AA for casters. I think if you run enough AD though you may be able to avoid priming the casters on some champions.

Recognize level discrepancies. I notice that Silver players have a tendency to not respect levels of champions.

One full level between 1-7 is really noticeable in terms of damage and stats. 2 full levels between 8-14 you should respect and avoid that champion. If you are level 10 and the enemy champion that you are laning against is level 8, you could probably fight and kill that champion pretty easily regardless of their kit.

Figure out what items to build and build according to the situation.

Farming is really important. Avoid missing farm to trade. A lot of silver players will miss farm to attack and then they get behind in gold and in items against their laner. I usually don't trade much in laning unless I plan to kill my laner very soon or I am last hitting farm while also trading.

I hate to say it but don't expect much from your teammates. Just focus on what you are doing and how you can improve. While the player quality did improve in gold from silver, my teammates will sometimes make really bad mistakes.

I can't fix those mistakes for the most part, so I try to just focus on what I can do to improve.

I can't stop my adc from dying 3 times prior 7 minutes from the top lane. I can maybe TP, but my TPing to a losing lane may put me behind my laner.

When you try to band-aid losing lanes you sometimes sacrifice a lot and this can effect your level of strength in the game. It is cool trying to help a teammate, but I typically only try to help teammates when it is convenient and they demonstrate that they can catch up.