Am I too scared to die?

Chalze··2 votes·3,148 views

I'm not overly sure where I should post this so I guess I'll just post it in Gameplay. The general jist is, am I too scared to die? Every time I die it feels like an utter personal defeat, even if the odds are heavily stacked against me, I always feel like in every death (ever), there could've been some way to prevent it. It doesn't actually so much as hinder my gameplay, I still play onwards as per usual, but the whole dying thing just feels like a personal failure to 'positively' impact the game for my team, even if it is to 'save' an ally from dying, I feel like there's always some way to prevent death from happening, no matter how far back it goes; e.g. my ally has a 1000G bounty and is low enough to be killed by an enemy Cait ult but so am I and I bodyblock and take the death for him/her, I always feel like I could've done something to prevent either me or said ally to reach a low enough health threshold to be killed by a Cait ult to begin with.

I don't know why this bothers me so much, am I just paranoid about myself/my own gameplay? Take note that I don't play ranked either, all this happens in normals..

[sg-zephyr]

5 Comments

TheUrbanKitsune1 votes

Well there are a few ways to look at this:

A. Are you a support main?

If you're a support main you'll probably spend more time dying for your team's mistakes than any other role-- and that's ok! Sometimes... By blocking that Caitlyn ult for your ADC with a 1k gold bounty or even blocking the Caitlyn ult for your 0/3/0 ADC you're accomplishing 2 important things:

  • If they have a bounty you are denying the enemy the extra resources killing that ally would've provided

  • Supports don't need to CS! If your ADC is alive because you died to save them, and they can soak up XP/farm waves, or even just back to get back to lane faster it's usually totally worth it-- the later in the game it is the more relevant this is, especially when death timers start reaching upwards of 30 and 40 seconds.

Of course the caveat here is that you shouldn't be yeeting yourself into the enemy team to 'save' allies. By which I mean basically just throwing away your summoner spells or life for basically no reason. Sometimes if a carry is in a bad position it can also be worth to run at the enemy team as a sort of distraction if you think it'll allow them enough time to get out. Identifying which situation is which comes with time/experience/game knowledge.

TLDR; Dying to save an important teammate? probably worth! Dying unnecessarily when there's no real threat? Probably not worth!

B.Are you not a support main?

Dying is still ok! Dying in League is typically inherently seen as a bad thing by the community-- but it's not always a bad thing! There are a few situations in which dying is probably the best thing you can do:

  • Trading one-for-one for another player if that player has a bounty, is a priority target, or if their death will provide your team with a significant advantage in the game can be very good.

To elaborate a bit: Usually if a player has a gold bounty on them and you do not (or yours is lower) the gains outweigh the costs in dying to ensure they are killed. If the enemy team has one particularly troublesome champion it can be worth to die to make sure they aren't around to participate in the fight-- especially if they're the only fed person on their team.

  • Dying to secure/steal certain objectives. Baron and Elder Dragon can completely turn the tides of a game. If you're already on your back-foot just trying to survive and the enemy team calls for Baron, it's almost 100% worth to yeet yourself in and try to steal it-- best case scenario your team gets Baron, a chance to come back, and you deny the enemy Baron-- Worst case scenario you were probably going to lose anyway.

There are probably other situations where dying is worth, but It's 4AM here and I've already typed up a lot and want to prevent this from becoming a novel, lmao. So some closing thoughts: -Minimizing your deaths is usually ideal, dying too much is bad as it provides the enemy team with a number of advantages. -Dying isn't always bad though, even if it feels bad. Not being greedy with your K/DA can win you the game sometimes. -If you don't play ranked/don't want to play the game for the competitive aspect try not to sweat your deaths so much, just try to have fun, it's really no big deal.

Hope this is kinda helpful.

Chalze1 votes

{quoted}

If you're a support main you'll probably spend more time dying for your team's mistakes than any other role-- and that's ok! Sometimes...

If they have a bounty you are denying the enemy the extra resources killing that ally would've provided

TLDR; Dying to save an important teammate? probably worth! Dying unnecessarily when there's no real threat? Probably not worth!

As an exclusive support player I know all this. All this is very basic knowledge.

My notion is that I could've done something to avoid a situation where I would need to choose between what's "less worse", me dying or my ally dying. My notion is that I could've done something to avoid anyone needing to die altogether (especially myself). I know if top dies to a gank in the early game its really not my fault, but knowing that if I die I'm directly negatively impacting my team just doesn't seem to sit well with me.

If I died in a 1v1, I shouldn't have participated in the 1v1. If I died by being caught out, I should've warded the area prior to the roam. If I died by a dive, I should've been able to prevent the dive entirely. If I died for the sake of saving an ally, I shouldn't have needed to do so in the first place.

Edit: I go through all these thoughts in normals, I don't play ranked outside of the first initial 10 placement games some time ago

TheUrbanKitsune1 votes

"As an exclusive support player I know all this. All this is very basic knowledge."

I'm aware this is basic knowledge, but from the wording of your post I couldn't really tell if you understood it completely or not so I figured I'd say it anyway. Your original post gives off the vibe that you're either a new player or a casual (neither of which are bad things, they just impact the way I respond to posts of this nature).

"If I died in a 1v1, I shouldn't have participated in the 1v1."

Probably, yes.

"If I died by being caught out, I should've warded the area prior to the roam."

Probably, yes.

"If I died by a dive, I should've been able to prevent the dive entirely."

Not always, sometimes the enemy team just commits so many resources to killing bot lane that you literally cannot avoid dying-- ideally in these situations the top half of the map does something in response. But there are obvious and avoidable dives. It's another situational thing.

"If I died for the sake of saving an ally, I shouldn't have needed to do so in the first place."

Not always, sometimes (again) it is unavoidable.

I restate the idea of my last post-- -Minimizing your deaths is usually ideal, dying too much is bad as it provides the enemy team with a number of advantages. -Dying isn't always bad though, even if it feels bad. Not being greedy with your K/DA can win you the game

Knowing/accepting that dying is a part of the game and isn't always bad comes with experience and game knowledge. Just try to not be so hard on yourself for deaths that are either truly unavoidable or worth for the outcome. And again, if you're not playing ranked/playing to improve then don't worry so much about it. Just have fun.

Magnesium141 votes

If you play support or a tank don't worry. Since riot can't fix their game your kinda supposed to die. I you play Karthus your kit is to die and deal massive damage all the while.

DOUBLE TAPPED E1 votes

It seems like you think a lot about why you died, and that's good. As long as you think carefully about what steps you need to take to prevent that same situation in the future, you'll improve drastically as a player each time.

The game is so complex with so many unique interactions and situations. The same 2 champions fighting in one area of the map could have a completely different outcome in another area, for example.

Also, if you sometimes forget that's also OK, it should just reinforce what you learned the last time it happened. For example:

My last game I knew that Veigar was trying to ult me. I knew that's why he was chasing me, because he knew he could kill me. I knew I needed to use my Zhonya's if he caught up to me to block the ult, but I wasn't ready to do it. He flashed on me, ulted, and I watched, drooling, as the giant green orb flew into my face and deleted me.

Even when I knew what I needed to do, and what my enemy was trying to do, and I had the tools to prevent the outcome, I didn't. It happens and you shouldn't beat yourself up over it.

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