Boards›Player Behavior

Frustrating Beginning for New Players

0ctavia·6/26/2017, 3:56:41 PM·9 votes·4,218 views

I started playing LoL around a month ago. I am taking time deciding what champion I will bring into PvP games and learning the abilities of other champions. I am methodical about learning each champion skill in order to make my self more competitive. My parents are pro-gamer. I grew up playing MMORPG style games. Now I am a busy working mom, an analytical chemist to be precise and still an avid gamer as an adult.

The biggest problem I have with this game is while I am trying to learn a particular skill combination in AI, older ranked players or assassins zip in to kill from out of no where, they teleport in and interrupt my kill. Not only does this interrupt my practice but they get the points and coin from the kill I set up, so at the end of the game I end up with 0-7 kills and 5-20 assists and they have all the kills and level. I am trying to learn and I get that some times it is unintentional but this is a consistent problem. I could create a practice scenario for zero IP (I know); however, I do not think this solves the real problem.

The problem riot games has is that they give the kill to the last person hitting the mob or champion. I can spend 5 minutes (because I am new) working a champion solo with Caitlin or others and I finally get the champion down and set up my Ultimate skill (4 on my Razor Naga) and an assassin jumps out of the weeds and kills it while I wait for the my shot to go through. At first I thought maybe this is my fault and I need to learn to more efficiently set up my killing (and sometimes it is unintentional by the team mate - I do expect it occasionally). Last night I flawlessly executed the full combination for Caitlin with no pausing and Katarina runs in from killing monsters in the jungle as I set up my final kill shot and took away my kill. The worst part is as I am getting slaughtered by 4 champions her and other team mates are in the jungle I can see them ignoring me dying and killing monsters... They are happy to take my kill and can not bother to help if I am dying... I an trying so hard to learn this game but I am too busy in real life to use my spare game time not progressing.

I spend money on games, possibly too much money - I work hard and I don't party... I like this game and I am bored with AI portion but my issue is that if I am already having issues in AI that PvP will be worse, more emotional and nerd rage will be super common. I am easily annoyed by ignorance and immaturity. I have a dilemma... I actually do not mind trolls or any of that those are easy to spot but the ones I always get irritated with are the pros and elites / wannabe elites and so on... I don't like to play the easiest roles and my favorite champion so far is Leblanc but as I mentioned the only way I can really learn and master is by earning zero IP in custom games. Should I commit more time and money toward this game? Is this the type of game I will enjoy in competitive PvP? Or will it be the same situation as I see in AI or worse?

TL/DR: As a new person it is very difficult to learn the game because the veteran members in AI games are so efficient, often impatient, sometimes hypercritical and rude. I played games for nearly 20 years and this game by far has the widest variety of people and attitude. In a sense that is a good thing. For me, trying to learn meticulously as a scientist this becomes frustrating. I do not care about rush through the game or kill count but I care about learning my combinations effectively and getting the kill at the end if I earn it.

Side note: there is no parry or strafing in this game which is irritating to me as a gamer... SO much more interesting to actively dodge and parry out of attacks and defense). I use a Razer Naga... Is there a way to set up this game more like MMO style with my movement keys (WASD) (ER parry). I have 10 keys on my mouse don't need the keys on the board for skills and I do not like click to move its antiquated.

95 Comments

Jo0o6/26/2017, 4:32:47 PM3 votes

I don't envy you. This game is brutal to learn.

Note that the current mission event is encouraging more veteran players than usual to play AI games for easy rewards, so once that's over you'll have fewer experienced players in your bots games. That may help matters.

Note also that many champs will get bonuses from those kill-steals. Katarina, for example, gets a cooldown reduction/reset when she secures a kill, which lets her combo through the enemy team. Plus, as an assassin/damage dealer, she'll generally put the gold she gained to better use than you as a supporting tank champ. Choosing who gets the kills is a big part of league, and the less pride you take in your score compared to the team's success, the better. Of course, the Kat in your scenario was probably just stealing the kill for the hell of it, but such is life =P

People ARE dicks in this game. It's a reality of the MOBA setup, I think. I'm guessing you've played WoW, where the battlegrounds are much more casual by definition and arena PvP by definition is with teammates that you know and can communicate with. Plus, there's solo/PvE content. League forces folks into constant PvP with strangers, which is conducive to toxicity. Whether or not that's an environment you'll tolerate is up to you.

You can't play with keyboard movement that I know of, but there still is an element of dodging and micro that you can get used to with practice. Have you played Fiora? She mechanically has dodges, dashes, and parry built into her kit, which you may find appealing.

woodvsmurph6/26/2017, 6:35:07 PM2 votes

There will always be trolls, people who ks (kill steal) (and leave you to die), and intentional feeders (run it down mid go 2/25/0) in pve. I tried to find your rank, what level you are and stuff but couldn't find it. I assume you are not lvl 30 since you are mainly doing pve. As someone who has played this game for a few years now and leveled up 2 accounts and helped a few others learn some basics about the game:

  1. Try out different roles - which you seem to be doing - and find which ones are most appealing to you. Pick 2 or 3 max to focus on. Sure you can play the occasional game in another role for fun, but focus on 2 or 3 (support being one of them since autofill).
  2. Learn a few champs well. Sure you could practice every champ in every role and a few thousand years later you would be Faker (pro player). But it is better and easier to master a few champs for each role, learn the micro (laning, trading/dueling, etc.) and macro (map rotation, neutral objectives, etc.) on the few champs you are mastering. As you learn these champs, you will learn micro, macro, and how to play these champs vs a VARIETY of other champs. You will learn what other champs are strong or weak, how to exploit them, how to avoid being exploited by them. Which also means you are gaining an understanding of other champs in the role you play - even if you have not played AS that champ yet.
  3. As you master a champ, you can build up your champion pool; learning more champions in that role or finding other roles for that champ and similar champions. You will begin to see how some champions have similar playstyles and be able to pick up those champs more easily. Like if you understand morgana, lux (who also has a binding) might be easier to pick up than say malzahar. Or if you master jax (who kinda has a parry), you might be able to pick up irelia faster. Not that these champs play out exactly the same way, but they have overlapping skills.
  4. Use websites to get some build ideas; although once you start to understand items and champs well, sometimes you can come up with a few better builds on your own or adapt based on how the game is going. Op.gg is a decent one - although there are others. Also, you need different runes - unless you want to wait until next season when they rework them.
  5. This game will never be CS GO or COD or Halo - it's more like 3rd person Chess with every piece having unique moves. If that isn't appealing to you, you would be better off finding a different game.
  6. Find some good streamers who can teach you about champions and/or roles (bot, sup, mid, jg, top). I am a toplane main - I started off as support - so the only really solid streamer I've run into is SoloRenektonOnly. He's better than other streamers in that he teaches some fundamentals (creep/wave manipulation to get cs leads, rotations, map pressure, theory behind different builds, how to trade vs different champs) more consistently than other streamers that I've found. If you just want to know what's strong on a particular patch, try redmercy for a midlaner perspective or phylol for an adc perspective. I'm sure there's some other better ones out there, but I don't have the time to look always. Perhaps others in the boards can recommend other streamers for each role - ones who TEACH rather than just entertain. Also, there's websites that teach you everything from basics to advanced techniques and theory for each champ and charge a small fee for it; I just prefer not to pay and learn on my own or via streams for free.

Finally, you can look for someone like me who you run into in your matches, friend request them post-game, and they might help you out. Get a few people as friends on your level or who would play to your level and then you can do a custom pvp with enough HUMAN players that you get ip for it.

ScantyXKneesocks6/26/2017, 4:24:07 PM1 votes

I am seeing the issue but it just sounds like you're getting "those" junglers. But as said before in one of my comments. I wpuld suggest sesrching for a club. Ones that could join in with you to help you learn and play. Most of the time if you find a good club or a group of players no one tends to kill steal. I have that frustration as well. As i play cait a lot too. That ult takes time and its kind of frustrating when someone jumps in to steal the kill

FreeVolibear6/26/2017, 6:53:08 PM1 votes

So basically you want the validation for your current skill in the form of a kill, you don't want to put in the time that just about everyone else does to be competitive, and you want the game to change to suit that... am I close?

Also, it sounds like MMO's are your thing. I would suggest that you play those instead if they bring you more enjoyment. Easier than trying to convince a MOBA to become an MMO.

My advice in bot mode is learn how your combos work and how to last hit minions (cs) for wave control. You can use practice mode to see how damage works against certain champions, but you will not learn all you need to learn there. You will have to play normals, watch videos, play play play hours worth of games just to understand not only how you fit in the game, but how the game fits around you. Warning, you will NOT be competitive at all in ranked play. You will have ten games to show where your MMR (match maker rating) is. You will start a game at roughly mid to high silver level, get completely dominated and lose (unless your team is lucky, or skilled enough to win a 4v5 with a crutch on their team). Then with each respective loss that follows, you will drop in MMR until you are ultimately placed in Bronze 5. You think you're having a hard time now? Kills are nice, but CS and how to get it should be your main concern. So many in bronze focus on getting kills that they forget (or care less) about closing out the game, or working as a team. As far as money spent, the only benefit you get from money is cool skins. There's no competitive edge to be bought.

Khâmul6/26/2017, 8:21:51 PM1 votes

Is there a way to predict the viscosity of a solution with polymers in it without measuring it?

Leonerdo6/27/2017, 3:52:45 AM1 votes

I'm not gonna try to give any advice on how to make the learning process easier; I think the other comments have that covered. But I do want to say that I think League of Legends is worth learning, even if it sucks starting out. (Obviously, I'm biased, but hear me out.)

(Editor's note: Some of my commentary is based on my assumption that you still play MMOs, since you mentioned them a lot.)

League is arguably the best PvP game out there, as long as you are looking for a third-person game with strategy AND action. It might be a bit of a stretch to say, but I think League is just a better version of the arena-style PvP you can find in MMOs. If those sound like some of your favorite things, then League should be right up your alley.

Although, I have to warn you that League tends to take up a lot of time (potentially as much as an MMO). So if you don't have a lot of free time, then I imagine it would be hard to keep up with both LoL and an MMO. or at least it's hard to be dedicated to both. I mean, if you have an hour a day for League, that's plenty for a casual player. But I know first-hand, second-hand, and third-hand that people can struggle to balance time between an MMO and League.

Finally, I doubt it's that big of a deal, but if the click-to-move style is really that jarring for you, then maybe you should check out Master x Master (a new MOBA made by NCSoft; it includes a lot of their characters), which has a WASD control scheme. I don't know much about it, though. It's probably not as good as League :)

VoraciousX6/27/2017, 4:00:14 AM1 votes

Here's the thing, whether they kill steal or not, the person is still dead and that's your time to put pressure. They can't come back for a while so you can take towers and whatever else. Even if you don't get the kill(even if you deserve it), the damage has been done to the enemy team so you're good. You're good to go on to PVP as long as you can avoid death and keep the enemy down.

Danjeng6/27/2017, 5:02:35 AM1 votes

0ctavia, are you planning commit to playing League competitively, or to an adequate level? If so, here are some basic tips:

  • Learn how to last hit minions. I checked your match history, and you have incredibly low CS. Last hitting provides you with gold, which you can use to buy items. Items (in your case), grant you more damage output, and therefore more kills. One of your recent games has 23 CS at 22 minutes. That's not enough gold to afford a single completed item, besides boots. If you want to have any impact in a game, you must have items that you buy using gold, which are gained through last hitting. 15 CS is roughly equal to a champion kill. If you had 200 CS, which is very feasible to get in a game, you would have the gold equivalent to 13 kills.

  • Don't die. Denying the enemy of gold is just as important as getting gold, You'll be surprised how much better you do when you don't die. Are you dangerously low on health? Go back to base. Is that bush unwarded, and you know that enemies are missing? Don't go into that bush. Is your opponent stronger than you? Don't fight. With this in mind of not dying, you can easily climb into gold with no problem. This is one of the best points anyone can give you.

  • Learn about the game. Get accustomed to what each champion does, by playing as, with, or against them. Game knowledge is key to playing League. It would be difficult to play it well if you don't even understand it. You must understand different matchups, how to use certain abilities, how to avoid those abilities, ability cooldowns, windows of weaknesses that champions have, etc. This is especially important if you play PvP. Judging from your champion pool, you seem to enjoy ADC's, or Attack Damage Carries. ADC's are usually positioned in the botlane, where they need to work with a support champion. You need to know what your support can do at various points of the game in various scenarios, if you want to beat your opposing botlane. This is a helpful site: http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/League_of_Legends_Wiki

  • Challenge yourself. You will not improve if you never stray out of your comfort zone. Playing with bots is nowhere near the real experience of PvP. Have you ever seen the Defeat screen yet? You won't have any incentive to try hard if your team mates win every game for you. If you lose, study what you could have done better and correct your mistakes. Also, kills don't mean as much as you think. Don't try to get the last hit on champions so you get the kill instead of your team, just maximize your DPS. Any kill for your team is a good kill. GLHF

Need Gold 4 Tent6/27/2017, 5:46:08 AM1 votes

I think it's partially because of the quest thing, some people are playing bots to get their 5 kills/15 takedowns/400 cs/15000 gold and w/e, so they aren't exactly playing to win per se, but more of playing to fulfill those conditions. In a PvP, everyone wants to win, and will try to do things to achieve that.

If you're complaining about intentional KS-ing in bots, be assured that in PvP, people will generally know that gold to ADC is a good thing and in fact, try to give it to you! Unless they are also a carry, in which case it's not really a bad thing either if they do KS. They will also understand that the loss of an ADC is the loss of a teamfight, and will also work to protect you if they have the kit for it (but don't count on a MasterYi to save you, he can probably only kill your attacker but he's not peeling/healing/shielding/buffing you in any way).

Besides, a trial by fire is the best way to learn champs, even if you do end up feeding. The bots do a lot of strange things not likely for a real player, and if you get used to that to perform your combos, you're in for a nasty shock when you bring that practice into PvP.

Nørse6/27/2017, 3:59:09 PM1 votes

You shouldn't be VSing bots anyway, you won't learn much if anything from them. Once you hit the appropriate level you should have just jumped into PvP. Grinding bots until level 30 is a really bad idea. Most of the players you are going to see sub 30 will be in your skill range, barring the odd smurf. You are really killing your growth as a player to test things out versus AI. Don't be afraid to take it straight to players, that is who you need to get experience playing it against.

As an aside, I'm not a super great player. However I can absolutely 1v5 intermediate bots. Just load up a custom lobby, toss 5 bots on the enemy team and role. This games AI is really terrible and it does a LOT of really dumb things players won't do that you can easily exploit.

Best advice for PvP is /mute all when you get into game. There is nothing you need to read, or type to your team mates. Everything you need to say, you can say with pings.

Dukues6/27/2017, 4:29:22 PM1 votes

All I can say as someone who has played this game for years is it's a pain in the ass to learn and people generally like it enough to fight through all the horrid games or they don't and move onto something else.

If you do pvp with people hit tab at the start of the game and just mute everyone. This can help make the game more fun and less tilt worthy. I do this a lot in my ranked games now. Or at least mute the negative attitude players.

As far as the kill stealing veteran players may do it to just secure the kill if they don't think you will get or maybe just because its bots so they don't care. If I played bots with you it would be because I am leveling an account and want to get the game over as soon as possible and know I can end the game quicker with the gold from kills than new players. Maybe use bots to learn basic combos but I think playing with people helps make you improve quicker since bots are really bad in this game and very predictable. Only problem is system for new players is pretty shit so you will probably play a lot of veteran players at the start :(. Just need to try your best to learn what you can and ignore flame.

Like others said it probably help to play with friends or try and meet some new players to play with. That way not as much flame and if you play with some veteran players they could help you learn the game quicker.

Good luck, hope you stick around.

Tuna In My Socks6/27/2017, 4:32:18 PM1 votes

playing this game for 4 years i can leave you with this quote "play as if your life depends on it " then you will find your peace after you start to feel comfortable with the game all the other things such flamers, kills, players , feeding will be irrelevant Tryndamere

Warning Shot6/28/2017, 11:46:06 AM1 votes

I feel like this guy is just trolling us all.

archerno16/26/2017, 4:06:09 PM1 votes

Create custom game, put 4 bots in your and 5 in enemy team and go mid to practice. Atm there are certain missions for rewards that can give u skin and other stuff which require person to get 15 kills or stuff like that. Its bad time to play AI. It ends in 3 days

leaugesbane6/29/2017, 1:19:57 AM1 votes

{quoted}

I started playing LoL around a month ago. I am taking time deciding what champion I will bring into PvP games and learning the abilities of other champions. I am methodical about learning each champion skill in order to make my self more competitive. My parents are pro-gamer. I grew up playing MMORPG style games. Now I am a busy working mom, an analytical chemist to be precise and still an avid gamer as an adult.

The biggest problem I have with this game is while I am trying to learn a particular skill combination in AI, older ranked players or assassins zip in to kill from out of no where, they teleport in and interrupt my kill. Not only does this interrupt my practice but they get the points and coin from the kill I set up, so at the end of the game I end up with 0-7 kills and 5-20 assists and they have all the kills and level. I am trying to learn and I get that some times it is unintentional but this is a consistent problem. I could create a practice scenario for zero IP (I know); however, I do not think this solves the real problem.

The problem riot games has is that they give the kill to the last person hitting the mob or champion. I can spend 5 minutes (because I am new) working a champion solo with Caitlin or others and I finally get the champion down and set up my Ultimate skill (4 on my Razor Naga) and an assassin jumps out of the weeds and kills it while I wait for the my shot to go through. At first I thought maybe this is my fault and I need to learn to more efficiently set up my killing (and sometimes it is unintentional by the team mate - I do expect it occasionally). Last night I flawlessly executed the full combination for Caitlin with no pausing and Katarina runs in from killing monsters in the jungle as I set up my final kill shot and took away my kill. The worst part is as I am getting slaughtered by 4 champions her and other team mates are in the jungle I can see them ignoring me dying and killing monsters... They are happy to take my kill and can not bother to help if I am dying... I an trying so hard to learn this game but I am too busy in real life to use my spare game time not progressing.

I spend money on games, possibly too much money - I work hard and I don't party... I like this game and I am bored with AI portion but my issue is that if I am already having issues in AI that PvP will be worse, more emotional and nerd rage will be super common. I am easily annoyed by ignorance and immaturity. I have a dilemma... I actually do not mind trolls or any of that those are easy to spot but the ones I always get irritated with are the pros and elites / wannabe elites and so on... I don't like to play the easiest roles and my favorite champion so far is Leblanc but as I mentioned the only way I can really learn and master is by earning zero IP in custom games. Should I commit more time and money toward this game? Is this the type of game I will enjoy in competitive PvP? Or will it be the same situation as I see in AI or worse?

TL/DR: As a new person it is very difficult to learn the game because the veteran members in AI games are so efficient, often impatient, sometimes hypercritical and rude. I played games for nearly 20 years and this game by far has the widest variety of people and attitude. In a sense that is a good thing. For me, trying to learn meticulously as a scientist this becomes frustrating. I do not care about rush through the game or kill count but I care about learning my combinations effectively and getting the kill at the end if I earn it.

Side note: there is no parry or strafing in this game which is irritating to me as a gamer... SO much more interesting to actively dodge and parry out of attacks and defense). I use a Razer Naga... Is there a way to set up this game more like MMO style with my movement keys (WASD) (ER parry). I have 10 keys on my mouse don't need the keys on the board for skills and I do not like click to move its antiquated.

don't be afraid to quit. you already know what to expect. it will happen. if you like the game and don't want to quit define the problem areas and quit playing until they are addressed.

for me its champions and runes. until these 2 areas are fixed I have no reason to play they simply cost to much and have formed a play wall. I simply don't have the patients to grind them both and I have no intention of giving money to support a company all in all I dislike and believe is incompetent.

save your self the pain and emotional trauma and be ready and willing to walk away you have probably had the walk down mid feeders I had in bots and the smurf remakes from banned players I saw.

ScantyXKneesocks6/26/2017, 4:18:40 PM1 votes

ARAM may be frustrating but its one of the quickest ways to learn a champion due to its fast (or very painfully slow) game times