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Noob looking for ARAM advice

AkureiSoul·12/20/2019, 8:45:29 PM·3 votes·5,364 views

I'm new to the game and have been playing for about 4 months now, however the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. While I have great support and teachings I still find myself struggling to overcome issues that I know will make me a better player. And I acknowledge what they are, so I wanted to see how other players overcame these similar issues for improvements. Much appreciated for any help provided, and sorry in advance for the long post.

Tunnel vision: I read this is a common thing for noobs such as myself but I find myself zeroing in on the one champ with low heealth or another who is close to me (regardless of health) and try to get that kill. Often times I'm so invested that I forget the towers and either get killed by it or other players. This also cost me when my team starts to engage in huge battles and I can not pin point who is attacking whom (a lot of time it's me getting attacked) and I end up dying.

I've realized my thought process is: Enemy low health (yes, you're dead!) -- tunnel vision triggers (I'm going to get that win) - go for the kill no matter where located (I'm high health, I got this) - gets killed (what the f happened??!). Tower or champ claims victory.

How do I correct this? Or how did you overcome these thoughts?

Mouse clicking/animation: This should be simple right? It is simple. But when I'm attacking or casting spells it feels like I'm not landing anything or the animation is not processing as fast as I'm clicking and thus I end up cancelling the whole attack process and get killed. I've read about auto attacking and attack move but is there anything else that can help me land better attacks or skill shots?

Damage: I try to remind myself that damage is not always important. Especially with tanks. But there are times when I get a good amount of kills and hits and think "Damn, I played an AMAZING game". Fast forward to the ending roll calls and WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP what do I see? 5k damage???!! What?!! How?!! I got the kills and I contributed. So why/how am I'm so low? I'm attacking minions/champs and building items. There are other times I'm getting 10k, 15k or even 20k (once). What am I missing that's making me inconsistence and not steady at 20k + damage every game?

Dying: This is THE most frustrating thing for me. No matter what I do I'm usually the first to die or the one with the most deaths. I either stay in the back or I see a potential hit and rush forward for some damage and TRY to rush back but end up getting caught and executed. Or sometimes I'm just randomly killed and I have no idea why. You can imagine how frustrating it can be when you have 1/18/6 in a game with 5k damage. How do I stop getting caught and killed so easily during team engages?

Map: This is a big part of the game. I know. I admit that I neglect this 98% of the time and often it costs me and my team. However we have so many things we have to multitask on, I think in my mind I feel it's not as important in ARAM even though I know it is. I tried having a video play that repeats the word "map" to remind me to look at it, but eventually I just galance and not analyze what's going on because I'm so caught up in the moment. TUNNEL VISION. Any other methods?

Movement: Often I find myself getting stuck in this. I'm clicking and clicking and next thing you know I'm in the middle of the playing field getting targeted (and killed) or my champion is hitting a minion/ champion I do not want to target. Even more embarrassing I will sometimes, accidentally, run directly into an incoming attack. What tips do you have to prevent this?

I realize it's a game, and I'm new, and that it takes time, however I am a person who is competitive and the lack of fast progression or corrections of things I forget in the heat of the moment is not something that sits well with me. Definition of insanity. I come from a console gaming back ground that includes a lot of button mashing or running headfirst into battle with hopes (or some skills) that you survive the waves so it's a little more challenging for me. I know sometimes I just click away while looking for that one GLORY SHOT and I see that it costing my team the win at times because I can't stay alive and give the other team that gold. Luckily I play with some great teammates but they shouldn't be carrying me all the time.

3 Comments

Beteljext1312/20/2019, 11:20:40 PM1 votes

Okay typing this out bit by bit as a read... Being that I only play aram only I understand what you are asking here.

Tunnel vision: okay I would try to employ different strategies, like try being on the other end of that and baiting people to attack you, it's pretty easy to get 2-3 people to burn ult/flash on you just because you are sitting at 25% but be mindful, be ready to counter flash... The other factor that will help with tunnel vision is watching your feet work, positioning is huge in aram especially for adcs and this one shot meta. Each type of role will have different positioning, tankyier will want to guard bushes, range adc usually will thrive better opposite bush side unless you got a mundo chunking cleavers at you etc. If you are a mage or have hard cc, try focusing on waiting for them to make that ONE mistake and toss a hard CC out there. Once you do this a few times you'll understand the mind of your enemy better and possibly see the flaws of your previous logic.

Damage - Get your licks in when you can, like I said in the previous paragraph, if someone makes a mistake, pop them auto them once or twice, this helps big time if you are running some kind of attack speed/rage blade build, you want to get as many autos off as possible. Think about it like a window of opportunity and you can punish them for taking cs, or not being mindful of their positioning. Another thing is figuring out your builds and what you can get away with.. Like for example i've played enough mundo in the past to know I can run meteor with him and that nimbus cloak also works really well with his ult, where as almost all the tank masteries are pretty sub par in aram, Like on paper the grasp of the undying is great but you aren't gonna last 4 seconds in a teamfight for a good 7-8 minutes and by then the game is half over...

Also keep in mind, you pretty much want to rush ludens echo on just about every AP champ you can, the splash is unreal and will artificially boost your numbers as well as actually add a huge amount of pressure/burst, take that with meteor on just about every AP champ... Another great example of knowing what you can get away with, take Maokai, I usually run meteor on him as well because his pressure with the saplings is insane and will usually out damage other champions.

Dying/movement - Okay Like I've hit on some of the other points, positioning is probably the main reason you are dying so much. You are over extending yourself and forcing your team to take bad trades, inevitably you get behind in gold and exp becoming the weakest link. Dying isn't also always a bad thing, if you are tanking or fighting apptly then its good because you SHOULD be backing your teammates up and to me, id rather you have 18 deaths then to have 2 deaths but only focus on kill stealing, you don't know how frustrating it is to constantly see people just literally sit on their spells till someone is at 10% health and they can kill them... Again, focus on your foot work..

Practice at using the A and S key, attack and stop. You don't always have to use attack but its still nice, the stop key is your best friend, if im gonna attack move ill hit <a>, target creep, then right click, try to find a rhythm... Like** dont right click attack and right click move, YOU WILL CONFUSE yoursel**f... draw a line until you get better and it will help you synchronize better because you are using left and right hand to have a distinction there. To further clarify, I'll hit </a><a> --> target minion auto, right click to move away, or ill right click auto a creep, hit , and then right click away... You see what im saying? I hardly ever JUST right click the creep and then right click move away. You will be able to create a more fluid motion in your head and eventually you can just right click--> right click etc...

If you want, i'll add you and we can play sometime and ill give you some in game pointers...</a>

Beteljext131/8/2020, 9:47:56 PM1 votes

I'll be off work in like 2-3 hours i'll add you and see if you are interested in playing, I usually play on my other account so I'll add you there. You got a discord? That'd be easier... Let me try to address some of your points.

Positioning - Okay this applies both ways, so if I'm a tank like ali star or someone with like mumu/blitz, I will tend to try and take control of the bush, the element of surprise is powerful. That also goes both ways, if you are an adc you probably want to stay away from the bush unless you are aware of where everyone else is, if 5 people are alive on enemy team and you only see 2 its safe to say they are waiting to sneak attack in the bush. This is what I mean by positioning, so in that regard, I would be on the opposite side of the bush attacking creeps. Another factor that comes into play is understanding aggression and what the enemy team has at their disposal, a champion like annie WILL flash stun/ult you if you are at 50% and kill you. So if you are constantly positioning yourself in a way to avoid their flash plays then you are doing good. Next I'll touch quickly on positioning in combat, so most fights usually start out with a hard engage from one team, leaving the person who engaged in the middle of the the enemy forces. That in turn means the assaulting team will need to move forward, so depending on which situation you are in, keep this kind of thing in mind... Meaning, as an adc, if the tank hard engages us under tower, yeah i'll attack him and try to whittle him down if its free damage, but I'll keep an eye on that orianna approaching the fight because I know 100% she will ult if she can and I will probably die. Once you do this enough you'll start to see their behavior and their intent more so, meaning that the person is consciously making a decision to approach the fight, use their spells etc. It's almost as if you can see them looking at you, if they are walking your direction then its pretty obvious what they intend to do and this is where tunnel vision comes in because in these huge fights its easy to forget they have an annie/ori whoever that will be trying to get their spells off so just be mindful.

Another thing i'd like to stress here is that not every champion should be attempting to csing every wave, this kind of goes along with positioning as well, I see people do this all the time, they attempt to cs EVERY WAVE, even if we have no cover and the enemies already cleared their cs, In turn this means that that person who choose to go up an auto attack that wave WILL get auto attacked, he has a HUGE target on his back. So someone like riven, you want to try to cs when there are both enemy and friendly waves attacking each other ( or if enemy is pushed far back ), this will bring less heat and afford you a better window to get a few cs. As a tank, I rarely cs, depends on who the tank us really but usually I will try to take control of the bush and wait for them to make a mistake. To give you a different type of example other then adc/tank/fighter... lets take ziggs for example, he is ultra squishy with an unreliable escape... But his strength is he is long range so you should try to be behind waves, behind the tank and IF you are going to go down one side, you need to set your minefield infront of you against the wall or a choke point to prevent them from freely engaging you. That mine field is really useful in creating choke points because people will either avoid it and take longer to approach the fight or they will walk through it and be slow, its win win and with 40% cdr you can pretty much constantly create those choke points.... His satchel goes really well with this kind of game play too, you can cut half of the bridge off between mines and satchel, if they approach you from that part you are sitting you can pop satchel and knock them back...

Damage - If you follow these points above, your damage will gradually improve. Who did you have 1k damage with might I ask? I mean 8-9k is about average for a cc tank like leona/ali/sej or even braum... A tip for landing skill shots though is trying to throw where they are walking, don't throw a skill shot at them they just move... throw it where you think they are walking too, takes some practice but it will increase your % hit and in turn increase your damage... Also what kind of runes are you running on these champions? Meteor is great for poke, dark harvest is good but you gotta focus on those early procs, once you get to 20+ procs in aram it starts to really shine. Electrocute is amazing for any burst champ... Try to stay away from grasp of the undying in aram, It is better suited for 1v1 trading in summoners rift and you won't really get much long term value out of it much less decent sustain. Aery is great for healing but I seldom take it on damaging champions, it has its flavor but you have to really focus on walking towards aery and catching it so you can proc it faster... For adc's I usually run fleet foot work because I rush crit items and forgo the life steal, however sivir thrives on press the attack and lethal tempo can be deadly for someone like twitch if they position correctly... Aftershock is great on blitzy/leona/alistar etc, I would pretty much stay away from everything else because they are niche and you need to know what you are doing and have a very specific playstyle in mind. All of these will give you a nice bang for your buck in regards of damage.

here add me on discord if you'd like Semajextah#4358