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Think you suck? The story of my improvement.

SecretAgentHulk·11/12/2014, 6:28:21 PM·41 votes·44,407 views

This originally started out as a reply to this question from a level 29 about why he sucks (his words, not mine). I started a reply but figured maybe it would benefit more people with a little more exposure.

Everybody's got their ideas and secret sauce, and they're all probably better than me, so I won't make any pronouncements. Instead, I'll share my experiences and maybe you can get some ideas.

I have three friends that play LoL. If they were ranked, they'd probably be low silver, high silver, and gold. I downloaded LoL because they didn't like to play Halo, and I just wanted to play a game with video-game-loving friends. My gold friend made a smurf and tried to teach me how to play. The learning curve is real, and I sucked. Eventually I became a decent enough fill that my team could at least win sometimes with me on it. (This was still playing almost exclusively with my friends.) I liked Kog'Maw and Annie at the time; Kog's ult and passive were a lot of fun, and who doesn't like dropping a ten-foot-tall angry teddy bear on their enemies?

One day, around level 20, I tried playing alone, and found that experience playing against higher-level players made me really good against people my own level. I started playing more on my own, and tried to notice what the slightly-better players were doing differently. I wasn't very good at that, but it's something I don't think I was capable of processing with my higher-level friends. I started trying the champions that annoyed me and looked interesting. I learned Teemo. I wasn't very good with him (shrooming is hard) but postmortem poison kills were oh-so-satisfying. I also picked up Garen, Nunu (support), and Vayne, but I'm still not very good with them. I'm slightly better with Cho'Gath.

My gold friend moved away and stopped playing with us as frequently. One night we were both on at the same time and he invited me to an ARAM game. I rolled Sona. I'd never played her before in my life, but I absolutely wrecked face. I was the best player on the team, better even than my gold friend. I was hooked. I'd never supported (except with Nunu, but we will not speak of that here) but I wanted to play more Sona. I learned how to position, rudimentary warding (the extent of which was the bot-lane river bush), when to heal, how to coordinate with the ADC and jungler, when to go all-in and when to retreat. I became a support main.

URF happened. I noticed a lot of champs were OP there, Blitz in particular (to me). I bought him and learned to play support with him too. I quickly learned that a tank with a pull does not synergize well with some ADCs, and learned when I should play Sona vs Blitz. At this point, having been level 30 for six months, I stopped considering myself a new player. Don't fret that you're not good right now. You are still new, and there's no shame in that. You'll get better.

Braum was announced. I almost died. This was a champion made for me. I became a god. This is also where I started learning about situational buys. On Sona you want to rush AP almost always, and on Blitz just buying all the offensive items worked pretty well, but with Braum I learned when to build Aegis vs Randuin's vs Warmog's, the difference between armor and MR and just how valuable those two things are, and the true value of CC.

Having the support role under my belt and knowing that I could fall back on that when I needed to (because who calls support?), I started learning jungle. I quickly learned that I was terrible and moved to top lane. I started wrecking with Jax after learning he was one of the most OP top laners. I tried jungle again, this time with Trundle. I liked his mechanics, so I started watching YouTube guides and learned how to jungle. I learned to jungle Malphite when my team needed a tank. I started watching pro games when All Stars happened this year, and quickly found out that warding was much more important than I'd thought. I learned to rush Sightstone when supporting, and learning to ward quickly improved my shrooming when Teemo top became a thing.

I almost made it into Silver this season, and have a stretch goal to make Gold next season.

So that's my story and maybe you can use some of those things to help you find a role or champ you like. There are really only three things I'd absolutely say to do/not do:

  1. DO NOT PLAY RANKED until you have a champ and role you like and are good in. Preferably two decent champs each for two or even three roles. Ranked may only require level 30, but really it's closer to level 40 or 50 skill (if you kept levelling up instead of capping at 30). Learn to counterpick too before you go in, or have different enough champs that your teammates can tell you who to play. (I don't play Normal Draft, especially since that's where banned players have to play to reform. This is probably a #bronzelyfe thing, but it works for me. If the situation doesn't call for Braum, Sona will probably do just fine.)
  2. DO NOT READ MOBAFIRE/LOLKING GUIDES until you are comfortable with a champ. You're still trying to figure out 120 champions; don't throw 200 items into the mix too. Limit yourself to the in-game recommended item set at first. Learn how to buy offensive vs defensive items situationally. There's a reason these items are recommended, and I find they're generally not broken. Mobafire IMO is for learning how to do niche things, and you should have a handle on generalities before you focus on that. Learn what the items do and how they influence your power; this will take you farther than any Lolking guide ever could.
  3. I wouldn't worry about runes yet. This is in pretty stark contrast to what everyone says, but I think it's more important to find a role, find a champ or two, and then worry about it. If you have more than 10,000 IP—enough for a couple champs, even the more recent ones—then go ahead and start buying a few runes. MR glyphs and armor seals will never hurt you. I'm still filling my first two rune pages per this guide, but you're a noob playing normals. Nobody there cares if you have runes or not (and I got into Bronze I without them, too).

69 Comments

RiotCall me KT11/12/2014, 10:01:43 PM18 votes

Thanks for sharing your story. I also played with higher skilled friends while learning. It was rewarding to feel like I'd been training in hard mode when I went back to solo play!

I started trying the champions that annoyed me and looked interesting.

Good technique. Reminds me of Dunkey's quest for The Best Champion:

http://youtu.be/OelHPDBSiJg

PentaSho11/12/2014, 8:34:21 PM9 votes

This is pretty good advice. You seem very self aware for a new player. I managed to hit diamond this season, and my advice is to keep a positive attitude. Does wonders for maintaining enjoyment of the ranked grind.

LuckyBags11/12/2014, 8:22:22 PM7 votes

I think your point about not playing ranked right after you hit lvl 30 is good advice. I started to play ranked right after hitting 30, got placed into bronze 2, and immediately dropped to bronze 4. I was pretty bummed. I think one of the best ways to get out of bronze (what worked for me) is having a main solo lane/jungle champion that you really strive to master, since I found bot lane to be quite toxic most of the time, as well as unpredictable. (I would also recommend having a secondary main champion that you can support with since it seems like I often get stuck with it in low elo as support mains are extremely rare)

In bronze I felt like I had to carry quite often and basically be a one man army. This led me to Nasus, the champion responsible for getting me to silver pretty much in the past month. As a champion that can 1-Tank, 2-Do carry level damage, 3-Split push, and 4-Team fight, Nasus seemed (for me) to be the solution to all the problems I was having. He also thrives in low elo where games tend to get drawn out (in my experience) due to throws or neglecting objectives, giving him extra time to farm heinous amounts of q stacks. The only problem is when you encounter strong early laners, but thats where the value of mastery really shines, because it allows you to win matchups that you have no right to.

Contrary to what has been said I think that runes are actually really important. Its not that hard to fill out a complete page for a main, and theres no reason to play with a stat disadvantage against other players, especially if the lane is tough early, you will really notice it.

Wheatloaf11/12/2014, 7:53:03 PM4 votes

I decided I like you. Any new players who make their way onto the Boards will probably find this extremely useful! Good luck getting to Gold next season. Heck, with any luck, I might run into you while climbing my own way up there.

AYD Ankrauser11/13/2014, 5:36:53 AM4 votes

I started off pretty badly, myself. When I started playing it was because of a good friend of mine got me into it. The first couple games I played with was Garen who was free at the time and my matches were horrible without landing even a single kill but a mountain of deaths. I would tank turret and not stay behind minions, I didn't even grasp the concept of the game for a long while. At level 6 I stopped playing entirely for about a year. I got back into the game more of renewed interest and played with Riven who was currently free. I fell in love with her kit and wanted to improve, my skills. Instead of playing other players, I decided that I'd play as many bot games as it takes until I get confident enough to play against players.

I played against the easy bots, then progressed into playing Intermediate bots until I was beating them consistently (which became easy since they're very predictable). I played every role aside from Jungle in that time frame but found my home with Top lane playing Riven, Garen and Shyvana and Mid lane playing with Katarina and Ahri. My first game against real players, I won my lane playing Riven against a Tryndamere but the rest of the game was disaster. I didn't look at the map, I didn't know anything about warding or team fights or even what to do after the laning phase. Hell, I didn't even know there were phases to League.

For awhile I was horrible, I understood my Champion's kits but since I never bothered to play other champions aside from the 5 mentioned above I started losing lanes a lot against other champs I never played against. I didn't know Swain was basically immortal in a 1 v 1, I thought rumble was AD and not AP, or what Zac's passive was. It would take another year of playing to even become decent. In that time frame I took a break and came back. I played Ahri a lot more and actually became good with her, I played Mid a lot to learn more about the importance of warding because of all the ganks, roaming when you're ahead and when to and not to go in because of playing a squishy champ.

After while I learned I wasn't actually good but I wanted to improve upon my skills and learn more. I tried to rely on my friends that first got me to this game who are Plats and Golds now but that was a bad idea. They're fun to play with but most of the time now I get made fun of for playing certain champs or laning against them in a custom match. I wanted to hear from them what I could work on and improve rather than hearing negative comments that were not helpful at all.

After awhile, I found a group of LOL players that were looking to grow their community and now I found myself improving more now than when I was with my original friends. I managed to get into Silver this season and I'm shooting for Gold next. Time and practice will make me better and now I know what I have to work on and with that I have a renewed interest in playing again.

--My league story

Cuoco Diavolo11/12/2014, 8:32:24 PM4 votes

I remember when I started playing this game I really liked the champ sona for her concept of using music and as a musician this appealed to me. Anyways all my friends that played were already lvl 30 and at a minimum of gold tier in skill we are all now gold play tier. Well going back to when I started I found the best way to learn this game and later on when I read a guide to supporting by xpecial I was verified in my play style which was go balls deep. Always pus yourself beyond your limits and be punished because you learn what you are and aren't capable of a lot faster. When I started playing with my friends I would average 1/25/4 usually as a kda I really sucked at the game. But as I kept at the grind expanding my champ pool with the goal of owning every champ (almost done with that 2 champs left) I learned so many different play styles hell I ended up starting new ones that that didn't catch on till a pro used it on their stream ie godyr I was playing this before since way before it became a meta thing it was to the point of I got flamed and probably reported for trolling. Well I have been playing this game sine 2012 and still love it after casually playing ranked this season I got gold so I think I am going to go serious this next season and hit plat or diamond best of luck to all you guys that are new pre 30 and in silver and bronze if you play enough and learn from your mistakes then you can easily climb the ranks.

RiotRiot 10YearSanta11/15/2014, 12:43:42 AM3 votes

Congratulations on getting better (and enjoying it). Keep ranking during preseason so you can be placed more accurately during season 5. I'm sure that with even more practice you can get silver for sure.

One of the things I started doing somewhat recently in an attempt to get better is to look at all of the different lanes and roles and pick out the champions whose kits enforce the good fundamentals for that role.

Iron Viking11/12/2014, 8:41:59 PM3 votes

Looks like solid advice.

EMOFRATPARTY11/12/2014, 7:53:30 PM3 votes

I wouldn't worry about runes yet. This is in pretty stark contrast to what everyone says, but I think it's more important to find a role, find a champ or two, and then worry about it. If you have more than 10,000 IP—enough for a couple champs, even the more recent ones—then go ahead and start buying a few runes. MR glyphs and armor seals will never hurt you. I'm still filling my first two rune pages per this guide, but you're a noob playing normals. Nobody there cares if you have runes or not (and I got into Bronze I without them, too).

I definitely agree, at least in part. I didn't even know what runes were until I hit 27. I'd say if you are comfortable with a single Champion in a given role, like one genuine main, you can build runes for them and just build up IP until you figure out what else you'd like to do.

It allowed me to keep my main (Ashe) slightly more relevant as my level climbed while still giving me plenty of opportunity to learn other Champions and roles.

DeynaTaggerung11/12/2014, 9:54:40 PM3 votes

Thanks SecretAgentHulk for creating this thread and talking about how you learned to play League of Legends. I saw the post you wrote this in response to a little while back as well and I think this is a really great idea for a thread. In fact it would be really cool if Riot stickied this or a similar thread for people to post their experiences and what was important for them learning to play. In light of that idea I figure I'll post quickly on myself.

When I started league I did a little bit of each champ on rotation but rather than trying a cheap champ I saved up to buy katarina. Why did I want to play kat so bad? no idea she just looked cool. I tried to play her and frankly I sucked. The whole melee diving thing just ended up getting me killed, in fact, I still can't play kat very well even though assassins are now my thing -.- In any case because that little phase I started to think of myself as a mid laner, also because pre level 20 I didn't like relying on another person in lane. I bought ahri and immediately fell in love with her kit. The ability to kite with the safety of an ult to escape and if you buy a rylais slows for days. The high risk high reward was really exciting for me and for some reason auto-attack reliant champs didn't make sense to me.

I had a friend who started a few months ahead of me and she played support or adc. Since supports were also very skill reliant and had an intriguing role I decided to try that out after my attempts at top and adc didn't work out. It went pretty well and I found the feeling of vicarious victory was also really satisfying. My mechanics still weren't that great but by playing ap champs I was focusing mainly on landing and using abilities without worrying about auto-attacking or positioning too much.

I finally reached lvl 30 and was really excited because I wanted to start a ranked team with my friends. So of course I immediately placed myself even though my internet connect was sketchy. I got placed in bronze IV and for good reason, I really didn't know what I was doing. Around this time I started watching pro league of legends and found it really really interesting. I don't usually watch sports but this was really great and the shoultcasters said interesting things all the time. It was there that I learned the true importance of warding (even though as a support I already kinda knew), I learned what places were important to ward and when. I learned that objectives are the most important things in the game (from watching c9 destroy s3) above kills and cs. I learned about the kits of champions I had never played as the commentators talked about the intricacies of particular spells that champs were using. So rather than just seeing it I also took it in and made it a learning experience. i quickly realized how bad I really was. In fact before that I thought "oh man I'm good enough to be in silver' which was complete bs. Seriously, admitting "I'm not that good and it's at least partially if not entirely my fault that I lose the games I lose. I make mistakes and there's areas I can be better in" is probably one of the best things you can do. So I worked on improving on that and my positioning on the map and in teamfights.

I bothered to learn a bit more about other lanes and now that I'd seen them executed properly and had a better idea of what I was supposed to be doing I did better and found if in a pinch I could play a bit of top or adc and not feed. I picked up diana (not the most complex champ but oh well) and found that to be really fun. I did more practice and tried to identify and focus on the areas I was doing poorly in (warding at the proper time, map awareness, positioning, csing, to name a few). There's a lot to League but when you understand what the parts are as well as what your are trying to do then compare that to what you're doing then it's a lot easier to try to improve.

Squirvizard11/12/2014, 7:20:32 PM3 votes

Congrats at learning the game. I agree with your three points, such as not playing ranked until you found a main role. No one wants a player in their ranked game that has no idea what they're doing.

You should also learning a couple more roles, if you're up for it. You may not get your role every game, but that's not all you need to play different roles for. Each role has specific skill-sets to play them efficiently. Master them, and you will be able to use these skills in the future no matter your role. Go mid to learn how to roam and learn about zones. Play the jungle and learn how to make good dragons, baron, or calls on other objectives such as towers and inhibitors.

Ad Astra per Asp11/12/2014, 10:52:50 PM3 votes

Good base of advice there man! As someone who reached their Gold goal last season and Plat goal this season let me say a few things I learned:

  1. Pick 1-2 roles to master and 1-2 champions to master. Doing this takes discipline and often isn't any fun but it breaks the upper limits and allows you to soar higher, then you can spread that new knowledge to the rest of your game and other champions, but always have a few champions you just master to the full extent of your ability to keep you getting better.

  2. Be able to fill all roles with at least 1 champion to a degree close to the role and champions you mastered. The game isn't just about your little area of the map and your strategies, the more game knowledge you have the more you can pick up on when the other team isn't doing a good job and the more weaknesses you see the more chances you have to exploit them successfully.

  3. Be a leader. The best most solid quick way to win is take the lead. You can do so from any role some are easier than others however. There's do's and don'ts you learn. If you always push mid for example for lack of better things to do, you make the other team group up and that can then result in the other team being more organized than you as well as giving up free kills. You can use that to your advantage though to set up aces if your team is waiting in the bushes! Seeing how simple things you do will effect the decisions of those around you and of the other team is plat level play.

  4. Lane mechanics. Do you know how to stall your lane for 4 waves or more? Do you know how to push hard and harass while they try to farm under their turret even as a melee? Do you know how to play both sides of a scenario where you are a strong pusher, or being strongly pushed against?

  5. Map awareness. Do you show up early to prevent a counter jungler or late or not at all? Do you roam as mid or think that just farming if you do that better than the other guy is strong enough to win (hint: it isn't). How many wards do you buy (or place) per game? How many pinks? If you look at stats on op.gg you'll see that the total gold per game per champion goes DOWN and the total number of wards bought per champion goes UP the higher ranked players are. That means that you do more with less and that is the hallmark of a good player they are always ready to go and use all they have to their advantage not bank on farming all game or out farming their opponent. You should already be pretty farmed up by getting as close to perfect CS as possible when you have time to farm. Instead of thinking about getting gorged on gold, think of getting and securing objectives and outplaying your opponent while at a disadvantage or better yet just create advantageous circumstances consistently this will either surprise them and turn games around or overwhelm them and keep the game in your favor. Which brings me to a last important point:

  6. Know your champions power levels throughout the game phase and cherish and master each phase of their strength. For example, Katarina has a very strong early phase if she ganks bottom lane, but a very poor early phase if she tries to 1v1 mid. Her strong resets in multi person fights can really turn the tide of a game to her favor. From level 5 on she can gank very effectively. Sometimes even level 4. She has a fairly decent push so she can roam pretty consistently. However her mid game becomes more team dependent as she can be easily focused and taken out of the fight if she goes in early. And if your team isn't able to get anyone low or gets engaged on poorly she is practically useless. And it only get worse as the match goes on to the point where you can't 1v1 many ADC's in an even match and barely able to if ahead. So for this example: use your early game presence. Just do it. Cherish and know each phase and what you are good at in each point. Irelia has great mid game, Nasus great late game... use the power spike of your champion effectively and don't just farm farm farm. Delaying game outcome is a risk.

Meeks01111/14/2014, 3:42:42 PM2 votes

Another tip to instantly improve is to use quickcast. It'll save you a half second or so of mouse time in game to use an ability and that time will make the biggest difference. If you don't know what it is it pretty much turns everything into a Karthus or Urgot Q so that when you activate the ability it'll activate it right where your mouse is instead of having to click on someone.

Jaxxy11/14/2014, 9:55:59 PM2 votes

Wow, that was an incredible story. I thank you for sharing it with us. It really had me thinking about if i really knew how to play the game. Lol XD

Laddisian9/21/2015, 6:33:31 AM2 votes

I completely agree with you, for I have had a similar experience, I main Leona support and play with my friends who are mid bronze to low silver. However, after finding Leona, I went after masteries and runes. I finally ground through my placements this weekend, and ranked silver 2 (higher than all my friends). And so, thanks to Leona I had a six win streak with half of which random adc's, and my runes? Tank masteries, tank runes, except for 10% level one CDR off the runes

buneter11/12/2014, 8:03:34 PM2 votes

you got to bronze 1 without runes please I got into my promo's to gold without runes

The2ndBes111/12/2014, 9:16:59 PM2 votes

I Baron Obama , approve this message. But in all srs-ness, this story is inspiring. I only get to play a few times every month and I can honestly say i'm of the say skill level (if not , higher) then some people who play like 24/7 lol It's all in your head dude ~

llamasx11/12/2014, 9:38:54 PM2 votes

It's nice to read stories of different players' experiences, and while everyone's is unique, a lot of them have similar components.

It's unfortunate there isn't a board dedicated for newer players where more of them would see your story.

MistyKiss11/12/2014, 11:09:29 PM2 votes

Nah I just suck. back to counter-strike :D

Inner Squid11/13/2014, 1:53:58 AM2 votes

Awesome post, The only thing missing is attitude. I started ranked 10 mins after hitting 30, did really well, placed silver 5, was holding my own until some RL frustration set in. Because I let the RL stuff intrude into my game I became toxic and dropped to bronze 5 so fast it would make your head spin. Since then I've chilled and my play has become better.

Chief Zenkko11/13/2014, 3:05:02 AM2 votes

Lucky. among my friends, I am the pioneer of League...... and they had a bad time in dota so they seem to have sworn off all MOBA games but still.....

Angry Monster11/13/2014, 3:05:10 AM2 votes

I think the rune statement is a bad one. Your advocating losing game and losing them hard.

What i can get behind is a general rune page if you still do not know. Mix reds(dual pen), AD quints, Yellow AR, MR per level blu. These runes will always be useful and can be used on every character (even if they are not super optimal).

The AD is for last hitting in any role and auto trades.

MR and AR at least one set is 95% of pages and i would say both together is at least 50% used.

The mix pens are a grab bag of safty. Will help with last hitting and champ trade with teh AD pen. The AP pen is in case you end up in the mid lane as a AP mage. The mix reds have only 3 less MR pen than normal pen reds.

Again this is what i would call a general or starter set for those who do not know exactly what they are going to be doing. None of these are trap runes and the power spike is quite big compared to not running runes at all.

ChaoticPinecone11/13/2014, 3:41:47 AM2 votes

i dont agree with the guides part. if they are good - im thinking as good as invertedcomposer's singed guide - it really tells you some tips on how to play certian champions, skills to level up first, where you get free autos, highest burst, etc.

this was my first moba, and generally solid advice. i take breaks from ranked for a couple months, and i always find i jump a division or two every time i come back

ADShooter11/13/2014, 5:05:14 AM2 votes

I think many people completely underestimate how much runes and masteries mean in ranked games. If you want to start off on even footing with your opponent, you HAVE to have at least decent runes/masteries. Plenty of times I've had no armor against an AD, and been punished severely. Spend IP on runes, it is worth it to have certain roles that you can play in ranked. Don't play ranked until you have runes for whatever role you want.

Squarefighter11/13/2014, 2:23:04 PM2 votes

There's a reason these items are recommended, and I find they're generally not broken.

*Builds Talisman of ascension on poppy

*Fuck yea best build ever

Glimmer in mist11/14/2014, 1:17:21 AM2 votes

Wow~~ Thanks for sharing ^^

Stryker6711/15/2014, 11:39:49 AM2 votes

Thanks so much for this. Im still starting out (lvl 13 currently) and Im really glad to see Im not the only one who feels I dont know what the heck Im doing most of the time..lol.

FinancialSmurf11/13/2014, 9:32:07 PM1 votes

Honestly I would have to disagree with not playing ranked to start with. because yes, I dropped from B1-B4 but then I got so much better cause of the high level of play and ended up destroying later.

dEAdbUs4/10/2015, 5:40:10 PM1 votes

I still recommend to read some guides, because there is good advices for matchups. And sometimes you're losing lane and don't know why - have ok farm, ok items, but still can't do anything. And this where good guide can help.

Understanding of what to build and what not to build will come with a habit to read champion numbers.

Ptarlorr11/15/2014, 5:20:27 AM1 votes

This is exactly what I've had issues with. There must be a ton of tips and tricks to decipher where to ward along with what and when to buy. But I have no clue how to go about learning any of that. I've been pretty concerned over which runes to get and where to put my mastery points. I used to look up guides a lot, and felt following them wasn't getting me any of the results.

After coming to the conclusion that I suck, I've been playing almost exclusively bots for almost a year and still feel like I haven't learned anything aside from other champions' kits. I'm almost always in last place when it comes to k/d/a ratios, gold, etc. and I don't know how to improve.

Also, I probably come off as really whiny in-game since I complain a lot about how stupid some of my actions are. In hindsight, I can pretty clearly see how I could've not died half the time, but I'm never sure how I could have stripped away those last 60 HP and got myself a kill.

On the upside, I'm very objective focused and dedicated to making sure my lane doesn't fall down, although I overextend too frequently and feed sometimes.