Diamond 2 ADC/Jungler Main. AMA about League of Legends

Really? I feel like with all the recent changes Xin is stupid strong. Devourer, and then a couple patches ago Black cleaver and Blade. they basically made that ultimate Xin build. I personally don't play him much, but I'm incredibly surprised you feel like he has gotten weaker.

I can't comment much on xin zhao since I really don't see him getting played often at my elo. From my experience with him this season, hes picked main to skirmish/duel and its pretty tough to utilize the CC in his ult in the same manner as a lee sin ult (to push an enemy towards allies) against skilled players.

In terms of top carry jungles right now, I would say nidalee and shyvanna are pretty good contenders. Elise is going to become a top tier jungler because of her buff this patch. Lee sin (my best and favorite jungler) isn't strong right now because if he doesn't make an impact in the early game, he becomes really weak against scaling junglers. Champions that scale well are the safest to pick in the current meta. And here are some other junglers that are pretty good right now: rek'sai, gragas, evelynn (despite her recent nerf to Q). Master yi can be a really good devourer jungler if he gets to farm and has opportunities to get more gold from ganking. Rengar is a pretty good assassin jungler and can easily snowball if you're able to play him (funny thing about rengar: he simply fell off the radar because of popularity. He is still pretty strong if you can play him)

Again, this is my own tier list. Theres alot of good, viable junglers now because of all the different jungling items. I suggest you test out alot of champions to build your own top tier picks. This will matter more to helping you climb the ladder.

Heh, another person asked me this same question in a previous AMA and i personally find it interesting so prepare yourself for a wall of text.

So I initially picked ADC back in season 2 (once the meta developed into our current standard of 1-1-2 lanes) because ADC was the strongest role back then. You could snowball off of one or two kills in laning phase and due to overpowered amounts of lifesteal, you would never die. Over the 5 seasons, ADCs were heavily nerfed to what they are now. The reason why I still play ADC is because I love it and I can play the role so well. Sure, its alot weaker now but I enjoy the challenge of playing 2v2 (or 1v2 sometimes jokes) and learning all the different mechanics. In terms of skill, I'm currently at the point where I know and can execute all the key aspects of ADC. The hard part of climbing as an ADC from this point on is outplaying the enemy with mind games and skillful use of champions.

I officially picked up jungling as a role at the beginning of this season because I felt , with all the buffs to jungle and nerfs to ADC, that this role would allow me to make a bigger impact on the game in the early-mid phases. And this is true. Jungle is one of the strongest roles to carry in the current meta because of how important objectives are in the game. One or two well timed ganks will lead your team to taking a key objective on the map, increasing your chances of winning the game. I am able to play every role so in the previous season, I played quite a bit of lee sin when I was filling in roles. I simply carried my previous jungling experience to the new season and expanded my champion pool. My knowledge of and experience of playing every champion helped ease me into this role.

So ^ I just explained the history and main reasons that brought me into playing and deciding to main both roles. In terms of mechanics , there are very few that can be applied to both roles. I agree that it is a weird pairing of roles. I believe both the jungler and ADC understand that being able to kill the enemy bot lane or at least, force them to recall will lead to free dragon stacks. Both roles understand the important of denying the enemy CS so you will notice that, sometimes, the jungler will help their bot lane shove the minion after a successful gank. Also, I think both understand the importance of communicating to your allies about enemy wards and summoner spells. Letting your jungler know where the enemy wards are will help him coordinate better ganks and clear out wards efficiently. Letting your jungler know what summoner spells the enemy has will help him decide if this lane is worth ganking.

I've asked a few different high diamond and master players about and they said something along the lines of "you gotta get snowballed in laning >phase, and it's worth taking the risks of being really aggressive because simply not feeding and having average cs will not always make you strong >enough to have a big impact on the game." What do you think about this approach/mentality?

This approach/mentality is not always the best one. In my opinion, here is how to you should interpret this idea and i'll replace that concept with this: "If you have less to lose but more to gain, take risks"

This makes more sense because if you're playing a match where your team isn't doing well and losing their lanes very hard, you should play aggressive in your lane and try to gain an advantage by making risky plays. Having average cs and not feeding means you're not guaranteed to make a bigger impact than you in teamfights. Sure, you're even with your counterpart but once you factor in the other enemies that are stronger than your teammates, you're at a disadvantage. And obviously, this applies outside of laning phase as well. If your team is consistently losing teamfights and objectives, you need to take risks like rushing a desperation baron or forcing base races to create an opportunity for a comeback. HOWEVER, if your team is doing really well or is far ahead of the enemy in terms of gold/objectives, its much smarter to play the game safe and controlled, avoiding risks. Why would you risk throwing away the win?

In regards to snowballing in laning phase, I believe this is an important skill to have. If you can master the art of winning lane/snowballing laning phase, you can get very far up the ranked ladder. The wonderful thing about snowballing lane is that you're accomplishing two things:

1. You guarantee that you become a threat in the game. You speed up your build because of the extra gold and levels you're getting .

2. You are actively weakening the enemy that you're snowballing off of. When teamfights happen, you're going to be stronger in terms of levels and items than your counterpart. Naturally, you should have a bigger impact in the teamfight.

I also feel like I don't have as much control of how fed I can get in laning phase because bot lane is decided by ganks by jungle/mid/top TP, the >2v2 matchup or the performance of my support. The lower the rank the more I feel i can simply just win by out trading mechanically and forcing kills >or fights. For example, I could out CS a draven as vayne and get kills in lane regardless of the support matchup. Now I feel like I get punished or >lose aggressive trades / all-ins when I force them instead of my supp; it is safer to just passively farm and react. What do you think about this? >What can I change to come out of laning phase stronger?

Two key mechanics of bot lane especially at higher elos are:

1. Minion Wave control. Are you able maintain a bigger minion wave than the enemy? Having at least 1 extra ally minion up means the enemy has to spend more autoattacks on the minion wave so you can use that opportunity to get in free harass. Being able to zone the enemy bot lane from the minion wave is also key for building up cs that can lead to item and level advantages.

2. Abusing cooldowns (this refers to everything; summoner spells, abilities, enemy autoattacks, turret autoattacks). When the enemy has a major summoner spell or ability on cooldown, you have an opportunity to get favorable trades or teamfights. When the enemy spends their autoattack on last hitting, you have an opportunity to get free harass on them.

You DON'T need the other lanes to do this effectively. There are always exploitable weaknesses that the enemy laner has. In general, it is always better to be the aggressor (more advantages to gain and you really learn more about the game). Don't play passive unless you absolutely have to. I think you have more to learn about the mechanics of bot lane. There are more factors to bot lane than other lanes ganking.

Do you try to intervene when someone is flaming / being toxic to another team mate? When someone starts typing a lot irrelevant comments or >blaming I feel like it drastically lowers my chance of winning.

Sometimes I'll post something along the lines of "Just mute each other". I try to stay as neutral as possible. In my experience, if you try to intervene and take one person's side, it makes the situation worse. This is why I usually try not to intervene. I've seen other people do it and fail horribly. I choose not to bother with it.

I have two accounts in plat 3. Recently, I have been playing on a third account which is in high gold now. I have been tilting and getting frustrated on my high rank accounts with my lack of progress/improvement. At this point in gold I can consistently carry and win games, although I have the feeling it may almost be counter productive for trying to get diamond. I think I may BE intimidating myself when playing in high plat. For example, if I didn't know or didn't care about the ranks of the other players, I might even play better. Is there something I could do to change my mentality regarding this?

Alright so first off, I don't recommend that you continue playing on the gold 3 account. Last season, I had 3 diamond 3 accounts and I admit the time spent grinding ranked to get each account up to that elo was a waste of time. I could've focused on one account and potentially climbed higher. I suggest sticking to 1 account and grinding it out while focusing on improving your own gameplay. That is time well spent compared to making a smurf and getting it up to the elo you already know you're capable of reaching. This season I've focused on one account and continuously focus on self-improvement and it really paid off. In terms of mentality, I feel I can watch any higher elo player and break down every thing they do right and differently from me then incorporate that into my gameplay. I encourage you focus only on your individual gameplay because that is the best mentality when trying to climb.

Alright so some general tips to pick champions better suited to most solo que team comps:

1. Always aim to strike a balance between AP and AD damage. It costs alot more gold for the enemy to itemize defensively against both magic and physical damage. So if your team already has alot of magic/physical dmg, pick a champion that deals the opposite dmg.

2. Teamfight-oriented champions are always great. Pick something with alot of AoE damage, CC, intiation.

3. If your team doesn't already have some form of hard CC/initiation, try to pick a champion that provides it (if its within your role and power to do so).

Despite these tips, ALWAYS pick a champion you're able to play and are comfortable on. Its not worth it to pick someone you can't make an impact on for the sake of the team. Your ability to perform well is more important to winning the game.

There are three key mechanics in order to effectively harass with your autoattack:

1. Have good minion wave control. This means try to maintain 1-2 extra ally minions up on the enemy minion wave (Example: your ally minion wave has 6 minions while the enemy has 5 minions). By accomplishing this and maintaining that difference, you guarantee that the enemy has to spend more autoattacks on the minion wave than you do so you get more opportunities for free autoattack harass on the enemy.

2. Attack the enemy when they walk up to cs. Pay attention to the health bars of your minions so you can anticipate which minion the enemy will walk up to cs and position yourself to attack them right before they attack the minion. When the enemy attacks a minion to cs, they put their autoattack on cooldown at that moment and they lock their character in the attack animation. Also I realize that on some champions, the enemy may cast their abilities to get cs. You can use this opportunity to force a favorable trade with one of their spells on cooldown.

3. Know the respective attack ranges on both your ADC and the enemy ADC. A caitlyn (650 attack range) will be able to harass a Sivir (500 attack range) more effectively with her autoattack than a Lucian(500) can against Vayne(550). Keep in mind that these attack ranges represent the maximum distance the target can be from the champion in order them to attack that target. So in the case of caitlyn and sivir, sivir needs to gap close 150 range in order to be able to attack caitlyn. In regards to harassing the enemy when they walk up to cs, caitlyn will be able to get more harass off. Always try to abuse your attack range if you're playing an ADC with superior attack range to the enemy.

until I realized that carrying yourself out of bronze doesnt mean shit unless you have a great adc to support

Not true at all......I'd say that carrying yourself out of bronze through support is a good accomplishment. Support is a very vital role in bot lane as many adcs cannot do much in the lane without their support.

In regards to improving your jungling, keep playing the champions you perform well with and get better with them.

As for your goals every game as the jungler, always strive to:

1. Pressure the lanes with ganks (especially if you're playing a champion with more early game presence such as reksai and gragas)
2. When you pull off successful ganks, rotate to an objective like dragon or turrets.
3. Improve your smite skills so you can immediately smite kill the dragon/baron the moment they're at a health amount below the smite dmg.

If you want to climb out of any elo , you need improve to the point where you're consistently performing well in every game and grind ranked OR improve to the point where you can carry at least 80% of your games. Jungling is a great role for carrying in the current meta. I recommend playing power picks like nidalee and shyvanna. Picking the strongest junglers in the current meta will increase your winrate but only if you're able to play them. Otherwise, stick to the champions you perform best with.