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Silver Tier Ranked Play

RiotA1RD0G·9/19/2013, 4:04:49 PM·1 votes·693 views

It took me 650+ games to work my way up from Bronze to Silver. A lot of time was spent learning how to play all the different roles before I decided to focus on just Support and Marksman. Now that I am in Silver V it's become clear that I need to level up my game knowledge again to continue to progress. Currently I main Sona, Leona, Caitlyn and Vayne. My win rate on Caitlyn and Vayne are quite low 45% and 40% respectively.

  1. It's easy to find guides for individual champion builds online, but what sort of setups do you guys have once you have narrowed down a champion pool? For example, do I have a couple of different Rune pages for Cait and Vayne that I select based on my opponent and how do I design those page?

  2. I think that I need to work on my positioning during team fights, but I am not really sure where to being.

11 Comments

Admiral Penguin9/19/2013, 4:37:50 PM3 votes
  1. Rune pages for Marksman are pretty simple. In about 90% of your games you can use the same page and you'll do fine. For my marksman I run flat ad reds, flat armor yellows, flat mr blues, and 1 ad quint with 2 lifesteal quints. Now, see, here is where I diverged from most rune pages. Most recommend running 3 lifesteal quints, but I like running 2 with 1 ad quint for the extra attack damage. However, that isn't necessary if you're playing a Marksman with high enough base AD, like Graves or Vayne.

Which is actually another point. I recommend looking up whichever champions you are going to main on www.leagueoflegends.wikia.com . The lolwiki there provides a lot of detailed information about every champions stats, abilities, and how those abilities interact with other champions/items in the game. It's a very useful source of information for doing some research to come up with strategies.

Back to rune pages, the two marksman you mentioned (caitlyn and vayne) both do fine with ad/armor/mr/lifesteal rune pages, so if you have a rune page like that already then you should be fine for solo queue.

  1. Positioning as a Marksman takes practice. Mainly how you want to position in fights comes down to two priorities: A.) You want to be in the safest position possible. You're a squishy character and everyone wants to blow you up. As such, you always need to put yourself in the position where you'll take the LEAST AMOUNT of damage possible. Not that I say "least amount" instead of "none". It's unrealistic to think that you won't take any damage in a fight as any champion. As such, you want to position yourself so that any damage you take will be minimal or potentially avoidable. B.) You also want to position yourself so that you always have a target you can auto attack. As a Marksman, you always want to be doing damage. That's your role in teamfights. A common misconception is that you never want to damage the enemy tank or bruiser. Maybe for other roles in the game that's true, but as the Marksman you just want to attack whoever is the safest target for you to attack. Just by constantly outputting damage you not only do your job, but you'll probably win the teamfight for your team.

Those are basics that you need down for any Marksman when it comes to positioning. How easy it is to accomplish those goals depends on the Marksman you are playing. That's where descriptions like "safest Marksman" or "riskiest Marksman" come from. In this case I refer to Ezreal and Draven respectively. Ezreal has long range abilities with short cooldowns, allowing him to position himself safely from enemies during team fights and still contribute damage. Draven on the other hand not only has to get within 550 range to deal damage, he also has to constantly move to catch his spinning axes during teamfights, which might put him in a bad position if he isn't microing his axes effectively.

Out of your two champs, Caitlyn is the safer option. However, if your skill level with Vayne improves enough you can just as easily position yourself in team fights. It mainly depends on the game, your team comp, and who you feel more comfortable as when it comes down to which champion you're going to play.

Anyways, hope this helps!

Revali Vah Medoh9/19/2013, 5:28:48 PM2 votes

I have a very close friend that I went to high school with that is a Diamond elo player. He has been a sub support player for a Platinum elo 5's team, but mostly spent his time leveling up his smurf account to Diamond. I've discussed with him at length how to go about climbing in rankings. What he and I agree on is that playing adc is extremely risky to consistently level up in ranked.

I agree that playing adc is extremely reliant on what penguinoid mentioned about safe positioning. However, becoming a game-changing damage output relies heavily on how you do during your laning phase. Assuming you do well during laning, either trading kills with the enemy adc or out playing them, team composition may be a factor that goes beyond what you can control. If your solo laners cannot effectively engage the enemy team so that you can stand back and hammer down or peel for you so that you are not blown up by a dive of the enemy bruisers then the fight will be lost. I love playing Renekton top lane, and when I go into a team fight, my objective is to dive through the enemy tanks and lock down the enemy adc so that they are not putting out their high dps. When I do that successfully the fight is won for my team if I can survive the dive long enough for my own carries to overpower the enemy tanks. I love playing Caitlyn and Graves in ranked, but as well as I position myself, I cannot help feeling there are too many factors out of my control to ensure consistent success.

As for supports, I LOVE Leona's kit. I love feeling that I am making game-changing plays locking in on my bot lane opponents, stunning them for long enough to be blown up by my carry. :D Your support choices have very different styles though. I've noticed what is discussed by analysts when I watch LCS play, is that Sona is very strong early laning if you manage to not die while putting out extremely high poke with her passive power chords and long range Q's. Leona, when getting an early level 2 in lane, has arguably the strongest all-in on one level up. I have only purchased one extra rune page beyond the basic 3, so I have developed 2 for my physical damage champions and my supports. I probably don't have the best set ups, but I have G/P 10 Quints as well as MagPen reds, Armor yellows, and MR blues.

I think you have very good choices of champions to focus on that have high impact on the game when played well, so I wish you all the best in your climb and hope I've been some help. :)

Captain Alejo9/19/2013, 6:02:02 PM2 votes

Runes

  • AD pages usually focus on the same set of runes. You can get by with a single setup for many champions. Base runes would be ADP marks, AMR seals, flat MR glyphs, and AD quints.
  • As you buy more pages/runes, create pages for specific scenarios (move speed, pure damage, more defensive stats). These help you with specific counters for match ups. I keep additional pages based on the one above on hand as well. Lifesteal quints for Tristana, or movespeed quints if I am going against Blitz.
  • My rune pages http://www.lolking.net/summoner/na/19950526#runes. I am a support main, but you can see the same strategy applied to my pages. I have a page for when I intend to be on a spammy champion, or a page when I need a bit more defense against high poke, or a page when I will be dishing out a lot of auto attacks for harass, etc.

Team Fighting

  • Handy resource: http://www.youtube.com/user/unswlolsoc/videos. Special attention to lecture 3.
  • Understand the general role of everyone else in the game, and position accordingly. You want to keep yourself as far away from the enemy assassins and APs as possible.
  • Look for the enemies to use their primary spells on your front line, and then swing in from the back of your team and take out the nearest target. Move forward from there.
  • Be ready to switch targets at a moments notice if you see an opportunity to safely attack a higher priority target. The biggest mistake I see ADs make is to walk through a team in order to attack the enemy carry and in the process they are focused out.
A Dying Dream9/19/2013, 6:09:32 PM1 votes

Disregard runed sustain on Caitlyn, rune armor pen, buy Bloodthirster. Laugh at the face of your enemies when you do so much more damage mathematically with your superior runes.

jk

Bubble Butt Lulu9/19/2013, 6:21:46 PM1 votes

  • 2 LS Quints, 1 AD Quint

  • 9 AD reds

  • 9 Armor yellows

  • 9 MR blues

This is pretty much the only set up you need. I guess you could take two more damage quints if you had a support like Soraka or Sona.

RiotA1RD0G9/20/2013, 4:11:15 AM1 votes

Ok, lost my 1st game, but I had 16 kills, which might be a new record for myself. Used runepage #1 and build double dancer and a bt. Worked really well. We had a scion that trolled the team, but we almost pulled it out anyhow.

RiotA1RD0G9/20/2013, 6:22:15 AM1 votes

2nd game was a win, I did not have any kills in lane, but I had healthy farm and did not give up any kills. Once again built a BT first, followed by a PD and a LW. Never finished my IE.

Minimaul9/22/2013, 8:07:31 AM1 votes

As a support/adc main that just finally got out of Silver, I understand what it is to climb the endless ladder to Gold.

First, I would like to say that I personally find it easier to climb the rankings while playing support rather than adc.

My Reasoning for This:

  • I have found it to be quite hard to find a decent support while playing adc in solo.
  • While playing support,if your adc isn't the best, you can focus on helping others during team fights.
  • Good ward placement helps the entire team.
  • If you're having a bad game, your bad positioning in a team fight doesn't mean nearly as much as if you were adc or any other role.

As for runes on my supports, I have two different pages, depending on the type of support and your job during laning phase.

For Poke:

  • GP10 QUINTS (Standard on all supports)
  • MAGIC PEN MARKS (Very useful for poking)
  • ARMOR SEALS (Standard on most champions)
  • AP GLYPHS (Very useful for poking)
  • Examples of champions: Lulu, Sona, Nami

For Tanky Initiators:

  • GP10 QUINTS (Standard on all supports)
  • ARMOR MARKS (Standard on tanky supports)
  • ARMOR SEALS (Standard on most champions)
  • SCALING MR GLYPHS (Standard on tanks, I use scaling since you don't really need MR early game in bot lane)
  • Examples of champions: Thresh, Leona, Taric

For playing adc, I find that the best way to climb the ladder is to focus on your farming and your positioning. I feel that mastering these two skills is your best bet to playing consistently and climbing out of silver.

My Reasoning for This:

  • If you can farm better than the enemy adc, you will usually win laning phase.
  • If you can position properly, this will help you avoid poke in lane and will help you win team fights.
  • Farming and positioning better than the enemy adc will often win you games.

As for rune pages, I use the same rune page on all adc's. I find this rune page to be the most balanced and consistent out of the ones I have tried.

  • LIFE STEAL QUINTS (This helps you sustain in lane and if you don't know how to trade well, will keep you in lane)
  • AD MARKS (Standard on all adc's gives you the damaged needed in lane)
  • ARMOR SEALS (Standard on most champions)
  • SCALING MR GLYPHS (Since you don't really have to worry about magic damage in lane)

Now other runes may work for you, but I find these to be the most consistent for laning. If you are good at trading and poking, then you will always be at full health from the quints. If you are having a bad game and getting poked a lot, the quints will help keep you in lane. The other runes, I find to be standard on almost all AD champions.

Now to help you on positioning in team fights, until you learn how to do it properly, I found it best to wait before entering the battle. Let the battle start and the enemy divers to pick their target. I find in most cases in silver, the enemy locks onto a target and usually won't let up until one of them is dead. Now this is not always the case and won't always work, but until you get better at positioning, it may help.

For actual positioning, however, it is almost always best to just attack what is in front of you. Constantly dealing damage will often win you a team fight, no matter your initial target. Now there are exceptions to this rule, however, that is something you must learn through many games of practice.

When it comes to picking which adc you want to play, it depends on the enemy team and your pick order. If you are first pick, it is best to pick something safe like Caitlyn or whatever you are most comfortable with. If you are near the end in the pick order, pick what is best for dealing with the enemy team.

If the enemy team is full of dive potential and CC, pick a mobile or high range adc like Ezreal or Caitlyn. If the enemy team lacks those traits, then you can pick a more high risk, high reward adc like Vayne or Draven. If your team lacks any initiation, then you should probably pick an adc like Ashe or Varus.