Which skill is the most helpful for climbing out of Bronze/Silver? (Poll/Discussion)

DrCyanide·Apr 3, 2016·5 votes·1,761 views

It dawned on me the other day, after having a teammate who's performance was frustrating me as much as mine was frustrating them, that many in lower ranks have one or two skills they're good at, but fall behind in other areas.

For example, I feel like my Positioning and Objective Focus generally good, but that I fall behind in Last Hitting and Map Awareness.

So the question for higher ranked players (and hopefully an explanation of why in the comments), if you had to pick a single skill to improve to climb out of Bronze/Silver, what would it be?

32 Comments

AlwaysByMySideApr 3, 20163 votes

Everything.

TrídentApr 5, 20163 votes

Psychology

BroreliaApr 5, 20161 votes

{quoted}

your mom

Fixed that for you. But getting in someones head or knowing they are having a rough time as of late is a mean but often effective way to win.

Apostle of LightApr 3, 20162 votes

I think that simply learning to take responsibility for your mistakes and figuring out what you did wrong after each bad situation will help improve ALL of those things and get you out of bronze/silver. The natural tendency is to blame your teammates for everything but if you just get rid of your ego and acknowledge and improve your mistakes, you'll climb fast.

mogonkApr 3, 20162 votes

None of the above.

The most important skill that low ranked players are missing is GOLD AWARENESS. They don't know how to play from behind, they don't know when they're behind or by how much. That's why you see people going 0/10 in bronze, they die once and go back to lane and nothing about the way they're playing changes. Players just give away way too much gold and have no idea how to get it back.

NoPaxtApr 3, 20162 votes

Not dying...

Amélie CauchemarApr 4, 20162 votes

I made it to plat just using basic predictions and knowing champion abilities/timers jungle camps.

I didn't learn how to cs until about plat 2. I'll let that sink in for a moment.

MysteriousBootieApr 4, 20161 votes

{quoted}

I made it to plat just using basic predictions and knowing champion abilities/timers jungle camps.

I didn't learn how to cs until about plat 2. I'll let that sink in for a moment.

I guess when you got to plat ranked was just hilariously easy back then because in my experience keeping a high winrate in silver is hard asf, even when you get fed.

EndlessSorcererApr 4, 20161 votes

Looking at na.op.gg, they were Platinum in S5 and have reached it again.

Honestly, that sounds about right for Platinum. It doesn't really take much more than decent decision-making, game knowledge and wave management to hit Platinum.

Heck, two of my last three ranked games ended up with our jungler dying to a buff camp on their first clear (without the enemy jungler interfering) before going on to carry the game.

The sad thing is that I was the jungler in my second game...

Virgin RayApr 3, 20161 votes

I'd go with team fighting mainly because if you can win the teamfights your entire team will snowball from those kill leads resulting in the easy time to deep ward and take objectives.

PhantomGGApr 3, 20161 votes

I would say fuse map awareness with objective focus, for they kinda go hand in hand.

But anyways i feel keeping a aware mind that focuses on objectives is the most important part to climb in any elo, cause from low elo all the way up to profesional play, all the best teams and players were the ones who could stay focused and take the objectives. So many times in both low elo and pro play, people will ruin leads by, focusing to hard on kills and then not knowing what to do with the gold they earned. This gives time for the team that is behind to farm up and close to gold gap, and it is now in the gamble of a five v five team fight where the winner is the team who didn't have that one guy who fucked up. If you can keep it objective focus you can avoid the late game 50 minute 5 v 5 gamble.

DrCyanideApr 4, 20161 votes

I kept them separate because I view map awareness as knowing where teammates/enemies are, while objective focus can be a determination to take an objective, even if it was a bad time to try and do so because of enemy positioning, team HP, etc.

PhantomGGApr 4, 20162 votes

{quoted}

I kept them separate because I view map awareness as knowing where teammates/enemies are, while objective focus can be a determination to take an objective, even if it was a bad time to try and do so because of enemy positioning, team HP, etc.

yeah but let me bring up a play style "split pushing" to correctly split push means you are focusing purely on objectives, but the only way to correctly splti push is to be very map aware so u know when u can push lanes, or when ur teamates need u

LongHair FoxApr 3, 20161 votes

It depends a lot on the player. But if you have 150 cs after 20 minutes in every game then you are not going to be silver for long. Also while map awareness, positioning, and so on are important, they are just parts of a big picture and cannot carry you alone but last hitting can.

Miku Lv99Apr 3, 20161 votes

I think it's most important to just know what beats what. As long as you know that, you can figure out when to fight, where to position, etc., and only pick winning fights or fights where you going in will help your team in some good way. I hate it when I have an 0-5-0 jungler that still thinks he can tower dive and win a 1v3. If you have that bad of an idea who will win such a fight, that's why you're bronze.

CatastropApr 4, 20161 votes

Definitely map awareness, I say it here because it's not allowing me to vote.

MysteriousBootieApr 4, 20161 votes

Map awareness, last hitting, teamfighting and objective focus. Not really an ULTIMATE SKILL between them, you need at LEAST those 4 to get out of bronze. If you're objective focused, split pushing but getting caught alot you need better map awareness, otherwise you will lose many games trying to take objectives. If you don't last hit, you obviously can't get your items which is pretty much GG right there, especially since most low elo games go late-game. You wanna go late-game as prepared as possible in terms of experience and gold.

Teamfighting? Well that's 70% of the game right there, and most games will come down to your teamfighting skills by the end of it. You get aced at the wrong time and GG. If you're an ADC or mage you need to deal as much damage as possible without dying in the process, really this applies to every role but ESPECIALLY these since you're going to be the crux of your teamfighting. If you're support or a tank, peel for your carries. Assassin? Kill the squishes, same if you're a mage. You actually need skill in all 4 of these areas to really get far even at a low level. League is very unforgiving, especially in a solo queue environment where you need to usually "carry" your shitty teammates.

mærkApr 4, 20161 votes

Spam a small pool of champions in a role that can carry the game early and or late. Jungle/ADC/Mid. Spam games with meta champions and you will climb a bit faster and more efficiently.

Slamurai JackApr 4, 20161 votes

CSing. Not last hitting; because that's only a part of CSing. I mean farming well. That does mean last hitting well in lane but it also means making time to farm during games and consistently clearing tons of minions at once without missing any. And that means doing things to make it easier for yourself. You think high elo players get such high CS because they just never miss? No. They get such high CS because they set up minions so they can't miss. For me personally, that means I get Tiamat on Darius, use the active on the wave, and then Q all the minions. Perfect CS every single time.

SasogwaApr 4, 20161 votes

Minion wave management and basic knowledge of snowballing. Small champion pool mastery. Understanding of the power level of champions by seeing their items and level (game knowledge) -> can i fight this guy, when can i? When do I get a powerspike and can/should fight

BroreliaApr 4, 20161 votes

In order:

Map Awareness Objective Focus Positioning ~~ Pinging~~ communication Last Hitting

While all are important to some degree knowing what is going on around the map and being able to in turn react and control what is going on is the most important in deciding if most games are won or loss. The first 2 go hand in hand together. Remember the final goal of the game is always the nexus or the enemy surrendering. Warding falls under these 2 since it is worthless if you have no map awareness and no interested in the objectives it can cover.

Positioning is next mainly because it is a matter of knowing where you can safely be or where to best be to be most effective. Yes this does apply to the 2/1/1 ADC who is wondering alone in the enemy jungle for no good reason among other things.

Communication of some sort can do wonders in setting up things and in turn allows for better objective control.

Last hitting while important doesn't matter much when you are getting killed for a lack of Positioning. It does make you more of a threat but being a threat matters little if you have 30 seconds on the death timer and the enemy team is pushing down mid. It is the last of these listed skills because there are times when you will not be able to safely last hit and getting killed is not worth the 20 gold from the caster minion. Just because you are down a half item because you are 30CS behind the enemy who counters you does not mean you are dead in the water and worthless but letting a need of CS control your decision making can make you dead or worthless.

Reaper SorakaApr 4, 20161 votes

preferring support role, I kind of put map awareness and warding together. Warding increases the likelihood of your team knowing when to not be dumb. They are very willing to run through complete darkness to try to get the last hit on Janna, but will occasionally stop chasing if they see they're going to die for it, or may just die without a trade.

Map awareness kind of ties to objectives to me as well, if they're all going dragon and you're all near baron....guess what? free baron. If a minion wave is pushing top, they're going to send someone to deal with it, so you can pressure mid, bot or dragon. You have to see these opportunities on your map to take advantage of them.

Map awareness also lets you predict enemy movement. If mid disappeared toward top, it'll take her like 20 seconds to get there to gank, 10 seconds to back, or she can be baiting a bush waiting for you to follow. If jungle walked across a ward, you know where he is and the direction he's moving, and through judgement you can predict approximately when and where he'll end up, and where he WON'T be.

I'm only a low gold though, so I don't know much better than you. :P

Athenes LuluApr 4, 20161 votes

Last hitting because I'm the garbage support main.

It's the closest thing to actual mechanical skill, which lets people make snowbally plays and get out of bronze/silver easily through hard carrying.

Though if I'm going to consider the general playerbase, then it would be either objective focus or map awareness. A very good rotation wins games, even if teams are behind, which is directly related to objective focus. Map awareness is just a given, and the number one avoidable mistake to prevent snowballing.

KodyackApr 4, 20161 votes

as a plat 5 scrub with bad mmr, map awareness fully; even if you don't have enough wards, just knowing what you MIGHT run into will help decision making a ton.

add to that the oh so delicious free ganks from over extended non-warded lanes and you got yourself a free carry.

YouPoroApr 4, 20161 votes

Rotations/wave control, they go hand in hand if you master them you will climb in no time, contrary to popular belief of lower elos not knowing how to cs, bronze/ silver cs are'nt that bad http://na.op.gg/statistics/tier/, you can select cs and it will show you at 20 mins/game, although they differ as the game goes on, just pointing out that the cs gap isn't as big as people think. There is no point in any of these if they don't earn you any sort of objective, if you can't transition your gold lead into ->towers, what is the point of the gold lead lol.

Angry MonsterApr 4, 20161 votes

understanding what the champion can do. Way to often i see my bronze and low silver friends dive right in thinking they could accomplish X.

The problem is when they fail at X, they say "unlucky" or "almost had it". They do not understand that they messed up. They think that luck was against them.

There is no luck, its all numbers.

LiveYiOrDieHardApr 4, 20161 votes

Objective focus, I'm pretty sure anyone could get out of bronze if they just played proxy Singed and did nothing but run down the lane forcing people to chase after them as their creeps beat away at the enemy tower.

Well... that's assuming your bronze teammates don't get you banned first, because you know every single one of them is going to report you for feeding every game.

Nagma is backApr 4, 20161 votes

1 try to be good at 3 , 4 champs only , learn to play 2 roles at least 2 have a good mental , dont flame dont tilt
3 learn the basic mechanics 4 learn the basic of the strategy of this game

Welcolm to diamond elo

Truly PridefulApr 4, 20161 votes

Objectives win games. I spectate friends in bronze a lot and they throw games so hard because they never take objectives. They chase kills for 20 minutes until the enemy team catches up then they lose. ( Map awareness kind of goes hand in hand with this )

Second place is farming of course.

Honeydew ZeklingApr 5, 20161 votes

As Someone who recently had to claw my way out of bronze 1, I'd say team fights. I had many games where we would be ahead and people would be going out alone and dying. Or fighting 2v4 or something.

With the current meta, sticking together is important I feel. I made it a habit to remind my team to stick together and "take a buddy" mid to late game.

When someone runs out solo, gets caught, and dies... That brings it to a 4v5 disadvantage for your team. Sometimes this can be very damaging and cause more deaths which lead to objectives lost and losing the game. This kind of ties in with map awareness I guess.

Objectives are important, but being a team is more important.

DrCyanideApr 5, 20161 votes

See, I find I'm leaning towards the exact opposite conclusion.

I've been a Mid Lane Mage for a long time now, so team fights have been my bread and butter, but I feel like they're the wrong way to go right now. Yes, it's bad to be caught out alone, but it's worse to have most of your team die and have the game end right there. I've found myself completely out matched by teams that never team fight, but constantly split push. We caught one of them out? Great, there are three more Mid and one on the far lane taking our inhibitor, and the one we caught respawns before we can rotate to deal with the others.

It's gotten to the point where I'm gearing up to take Nasus in Ranked so I can be a split pushing monster that ignores my team and leaves my enemies feeling helpless. Other lanes feeding? At least I'll be able to take towers on my own and they'll need to send two or three to stop me. Playing him one week and I've gotten a Pentakill in Normals and a lot of towers, figure I need to give it a shot.

DeloricVIApr 5, 20161 votes

Would vote last hitting if it would let me vote. You won't believe the number of people I crush because I out-cs them so hard, they just can't keep up. Some lanes, yeah, I should have the mechanical skill to dive them 7 ways to Sunday and end the game before 20 minutes, but when it's a battle of attrition, the one with the most cs wins, and that's usually me.