Tips and fundamentals for new players
Hello summoners!
This thread is for players who would like more of an understanding of roles, lanes, or fundamentals. I honestly can't tell when I first started to play the game, but I do remember udyrs ultimate skin being on login (probably about 3 years or so). Aside from starting there, I've tried to study preferences set in place before even that stage in the meta. So ideas like twitch or Quinn top, annie mid (still around), or nunu jg are still making a difference in how I choose my play style for the current patch. Notice how I focus on patches/meta and not personal preferences. When I say relevant (which is a term I believe to be extremely subjective) I am talking about a certain time or space In the game ex: Azir's relevance towards team fights in jg is high due to his ability to pressure, or zone people out from the fight entirely.
I will cover lane roles, then go on to meta preferences, and end with my opinions on the game itself (at which point you could ignore completely).
Top: Do you like being papa bear? Well you're papa bear. At this point in the meta top lane is one of the more relevant lanes for mid/late game in general. In higher Elo's top lane can even use teleport to become even more relevant in early skirmishes. In most games top is like the prodigal child of adc's and support. So not only do they need to farm, they also need to pick up the slack of other lanes with teleport, tank, or sustain in general. Look at gangplank for example. Not only does he have potential to farm well, he also can pressure any part of the map with his ult, and stay safe under his turret with barrels reserved for any tower diver. There are plenty of players who treat top like mid lane, and begin to pressure or even fight the enemy top laner. That's well and fine if you can do it safely and successfully, but you are also risking a throw due to how relevant a fed top laner can be off of 2 kills alone. So in my opinion it would be more prudent to farm enough to become someone your team can rely on at any point in time with use of teleport. Teleport isn't necessary for top lane, but you should first know that people call it an island, and rush homeguards because of how out of the way it is. If your jg needs to help you become formidable, then you are already taking away a significant amount of resources from mid and bot lane. At one point in time champions who could gather enough dps (damage per second) were more useful. As I said before, twitch and Quinn used to be relevant due to their ability to not only farm well, but also to disengage from scary champions like renekton or kassadin. In that respect, the role of the tank could be designated to another role like jg, sup, and the top lane could farm enough to make as much of an impact as another adc.
Jungle: "Wildcard... Yee-ha!" -Charlie kelly
Do you like to be the answer to your teams problems? Do you like to be the cause of your enemies problems? Then jungle is just for you, because jungle is the role that is always relevant. Not only do they help lanes with kills/assists, they also have free reign to mess with the other jg. A good jg knows his position, his teammates position, and more importantly the enemy #039;s actual position. With that in mind, sightstone is your buddy. If you're new to jg I would suggest lee sin. Not only can you practice some of the more harder champion mechanics, but you also have to build sightstone. It might be just to jump walls, but even that is a blessing. Good champion picks for jg have good engage (ability to start a fight without resistance), crowd control (because everyone runs from you), and move speed or teleport to get to a lane in order to counter gank the enemy jg or to make a trade since the enemy jg is already ganking somewhere else. Ex: Elise is a great jg not only because her spider form is fast and her cc is long, but also because she can tank then rappel out of lane to jg monsters (just be careful if you have Sunfire) in many respects jg is like a support for every lane, but they have the potential to carry a game if need be. The path you take around jungle may be very technical, or it could just be whatever is closest. I don't like to play that role simply because of that fact, there are simply too many factors to consider and if you aren't very methodical in that respect then champions like ww,fidd, nunu might be good for you since their relevance is usually high with enough farm.
Mid: Do you like the world centered around you? Well it is now. Mid lane is a popular pick because of the champs that go with it. There are hard carries like yas, kat, or akali and then there are control mages like lulu, ryze. Your job is to fill in the role needed more. You also need to focus on not dying. It might be obvious, but a fed mid laner is the last thing that you want. Jg also has easy access to mid, so you need to keep an eye on the mini map, and even place offensive wards to anticipate the other jg. If you can manage to push in your lane and gank another lane then try it because your enemy mid will probably do the same eventually. With that in mind, try to pick champions with good wave clear. You should notice by know that almost all mid laners have some ability that could go through the entire minion wave. I like to mid like anyone else, but I always prefer control mages. Syndra was my first main because of this, now I realize she is even more op with rylais since she can cast spells while retreating. A good position to be in is retreating while slowing/damaging the enemy with q's and following up with ult then e to stun an entire team if possible. Lulu was my second main much for the same reason, but she had more engage/poke potential along with the ability to tank with shield/ult/zhonyas. Basically people would focus me, and all I had to do was ult the group and wait in zhonyas while my team cleaned up. Ardent censer on lulu is also powerful on with an adc since your shield also deals pix's damage per hit.
Attack damage carry: I really feel like I have to spell that out, but I should first say that the "carry" shouldn't rely on the players skill alone. The adc's simply needs to farm until leaning phase is over(enemy team sieging mid, bot turret taken, 20 min in at the most). The Adc should always be given kills. They are the main source of dps in almost every game, and should be expected to be so. Keep an eye on lanes that you could farm in, but make sure your team doesn't really need you first. To every other lane, keep an eye on your adc and know that you should wait for them before attempting any engage since the enemy adc might be ready to farm off kills while yours is still farming a lane. Make sure that your support wards, and be careful when walking through jg blind (especially late game).
Support: Do you like people relying on you? Does crowd control take your fancy? Support should be for you then. Aside from rushing sightstone, a support should always look after their adc. There are supports in higher levels that occasionally gank mid, but know that it leaves your adc open. Remember to always get sweeping lens when you get sightstone, but pink wards, and destroy the enemies wards that watch out for ganks. Good places to ward as blue side sup are between reds blue/gromp, the river bush,tri bush, any bush or spot upriver, and any place that could anticipate a gank or reveal the enemy attempting to make a play, on red side you could place one behind drag, tri bush, river bush, and even close to krugs. Champions that have move speed are useful to ward with, cc/tank is also very important since you are playing for two. Ex:Shen is one of my favorite sups because he can help anybody with his ult, tank, and taunt the enemy (causing them to focus him for a couple seconds).
The current meta is centered around tops tank/sustain for the most part. With zoning, map pressure and cc coming in close by. Granted, I'm taking this solely from the worlds patch due to champs like fiora, and anivia coming in strong. That and the fact that tp was picked up and is now a popular choice for most mid laners. I'm also considering the upcoming patch with changes to almost every ad item, while the ap items like rylais simply becoming more expensive.
As I said before, I think syndra is becoming more and more relevant for team fights and the game in general since she can use rylais and have more cc for the enemy group. That and the ability to make plays while retreating is a good showing of her ability to make Parthian shots/kiting. If you can time your q-e you could even manage an instant stun. Not to mention the many uses of your w (against heimer especially)
I'd like to hear what you think, or any disagreements you might have since it's all for the greater understanding of this great game! Happy summoning!
