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Mechanically Proficient Champions and Maining

Emtech·8/1/2015, 9:42:22 AM·1 votes·972 views

Hi, just a innocent question for those who might know what I'm going through or what I'm talking about. I've been playing League for about a year now and I have always wanted to learn and/or do certain things, but find myself unable to do them. Those are:

A. I've wanted to main a champion B. I want to master a champion to the point of having high mechanics with them or making "plays"

The problem I have is that with A., I cannot find a champ that holds my interest long enough before either their flaws bother me or I just get bored of them. The problem with B. is that high mechanic champions are like that for a reason, which mean they require a lot of either inborn skill or lots of practice. I know I don't have the innate skill, so practice is what the next available option is. Problem with practice though is that it takes quite awhile to get to that place where your very mechanically proficient with that champ. I have a lack of patience that's very detrimental to my quest to reach this Nirvana of Mechanics. It's why practice is a very lackluster approach to me, though I still do try. Frustration makes it very difficult to keep going though.

The funny part about all of this is that these goals are both means to the ends that I want to see. If I main a champ, I will eventually get to the point where I become mechanically proficient and aware of what my champ can do and if I master a champ, I'll be "maining" them by that point. The closest that I ever got to "maining" a champ was Olaf, of which I became aware of what he was capable of (you know that feeling that you get when you meet X champion and can either kick their butts or get wrecked, like how Diamond players seem to know). He's literally the only jungler that I have felt comfortable invading with and I hate invading. Problem with him I found out is that a lack of gap closers really sucks, so he fell off my radar.

This problem has been plaguing me for quite awhile and I sometimes bury it, seemingly giving up, but it surfaces later, gnawing at me like always. I think I just have a fantasy of wanting to make plays like you see in the montages. Seems cool in my opinion.

I'm just a dirty casual, so this has nothing to do with climbing. It's just that seeing streamers and pros just pick up a champ and seem like they are masters at it inspires me to try (mostly in bot games) to attempt to practice at it, but I start feeling like I could never reach that height. I'm currently warring with myself with trying to master Lee Sin, so maybe that's a good place to start if you wanted to give any tips. Problem that's frustrating me with him is that I dont ever feel, except on very rare occasions, that my ward hopping is getting any better. Again, maybe it's my lack of patience (more than likely) that might weigh me down. I'm just wondering if there was anyone who could give me an idea of either where to start or how to proceed in this ignoble quest of mine. I may just not be cut out for doing something like this, but I think as long as I keep playing LoL, I'll keep trying as the feeling keeps resurfacing.

P.S. I have never used a forum in my life for anything, so I'm wearing my desperation on my sleeve. Any help would probably just get me to keep going, so thank you for those who respond. And sorry for the wall of text. Just a very personal topic.

Edit: Thank you for all those who responded. Though I haven't found my main, I took a break from league for a bit and when I returned, I found my niche. Early game, decent to high damage junglers. So the likes of Pantheon, JarvanIV, and LeeSin. It feels better to know what I like to play then to just play everything and not enjoying it.

5 Comments

Deep Terror Nami8/1/2015, 9:50:05 AM1 votes

If you get bored of playing the same champion, just pride yourself on being a jack-of-all-trades and becoming proficient at a wide variety. Knowing how to play more champions provides the knowledge to play against them as well, so it isn't a bad thing. It also prevents you from counter-picking yourself or getting banned out.

Otherwise, just keep looking for that champion you find awesome and don't tire of :3

Myself, I main Nami and play her exclusively in Ranked; outside Ranked I make it a point to not use her though. That lets me keep my options open.

Ra1d8/1/2015, 10:22:57 AM1 votes

you dont have to main a single champ, i do, but you dont. what i see from your post is that youre looking for the right champ. the thing is all champions have a weakness, if they didnt they'd be op so what you really should find is a champion whos weaknesses you can live with, for its garen, yes ewww garen but still i dont mind that he has no gap closer and is a more duel based champion rather than a teamfight based champion. it goes well with my playstyle and thats why i main him. im not pulling plays but i do well and i enjoy my time using him i hope you find the champ you really want to main

Jester of Quebec8/1/2015, 10:38:28 AM1 votes

The thing you need to know when you want to main a champ is : What is your game style? 1 - Do you like to be an assassin who can delete his ennemies, a bruiser that will go in and try to kill the carries, the support who's gonna make the plays to save his carries, the ADC who will have to do the play to survive and kill the assassin and bruiser that will try to kill him, the tank who will go in frontline and CC the other team as much as he can while his carries are trying to take down the ennemy team? 2 - Now you need to know, where do you like playing the most? In the jungle, mid, bot, top? 3 - Now that you have chosen your game style, you will have to establish what kind of champion in yor category you want to play, for exemple, you have high mobility assassin like LeBlanc and Ahri, on the other hand you have sneaky assassin like Evelyn, you have poke ADC like Varus and you have all in ADC like Graves or High mobility ADC like Ezreal. You have High damages Bruiser like Xin Zhao but you also have high mobility bruiser like Lee Sin. 4 - Now you should have an idea of what you want to play, you should be able to have a pretty small pool of champions that fit your game style, the only thing left to do is play them all approximatively 10 games and see which one correspond the best to you and your game style.

For me it ended up beeing Vi, I wish you good luck on finding you soulmate.

Aevo 558/1/2015, 5:39:15 PM1 votes

These seem to have worked for me, but I doubt they'll work for everybody. A. Play each of the free-week champs at least once. It may take a while, but eventually you'll find a champ or role that you really like. I only realized I wanted to main Orianna after the third time she was free since I started looking. B. Play high-skill champs. I suck at riven, but whenever I'm bored, I just pick her and slowly my mechanics have been getting better and I'm able to make #LCSBigPlays more often.