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Help with champion pool for climbing the ladder!

Wyenot·1/9/2015, 11:04:50 AM·1 votes·4,949 views

So I am trying to refine my champion pool a little more and I wanted to hear other's opinions, particularly higher rated players who know how to easily climb.

Right now my strategy is to tell my team that I prefer Top Mid or ADC. If I get top I play Riven (My Favorite Champion), if I get mid I play Orianna, and if I ADC I play Jinx. I have above 50% win rate with all of those champions on my account and they are champions that I enjoy. In theory, reducing my limiting factors in ranked, if I continue to play those champions I should eventually climb. I should mention that I do have back up champions for Top, Mid, and ADC and I also have champions picked out for Jungle and Support just in case. It is not an issue of only being able to play one champion.

I've just recently made it to around Gold 3-Gold 4 and I feel like I've hit a wall. My question is, should I start to focus on one lane and the small pool of champions I have there or continue to develop my 3 preferred lanes equally? I would simply main Mid lane because I feel like I have more influence over the outcome of the game from there, however my favorite champion is Riven and she plays top lane and I have a personal goal of using her a decent amount on my journey to higher elo. So I'm kind of stuck there too! I could shrink down to just top and mid, but then I still feel like I am somewhat limiting myself by not focusing on a single lane.

Any helpful advice is appreciated!

14 Comments

Leti the Yeti1/9/2015, 11:17:59 AM4 votes

Easy, mid Riven! in cases where you can SEE what the other laner is picking, you are no longer limited to standard mid champs you know gangplank who is not normally a mid laner... is suddenly a viable mid laner if the other team picked Zed

you can kinda do the same thing with Riven

RiotRiot 10YearSanta1/10/2015, 12:29:26 AM3 votes

I do this:

1.) Try a whole bunch of champs in every role/lane. 2.) Pick out the ones I like and practice them until I'm competent. 3.) Spam the ones in my preferred role/lane that I like the most.

This way you get exposure to tons of different champs, and because you're spamming champs that you like you won't burn out.

Apex Citavista1/9/2015, 5:22:55 PM1 votes

Your case is different from most top laners, because you are playing riven. So you should focus on your riven play, because a fed riven can literally change a game by themselves. Also if you remember back to season 3 worlds, even professional teams played riven mid, and I still see it from time to time. So you have 1 incredibly powerful, hard carrying champion that you could play in 2 rolls. That's what you should stick to.

rth21/10/2015, 9:17:54 AM1 votes

Advice for climbing the ladder. I would play the champions in lane that you feel strong/comfortable with. If you feel very competent at Riven, then take her mid if you feel the option is there. Just know that mid riven (especially against mostly ranged mages) is a different play-style than top riven against mostly melee's.

However, to climb out of low - mid gold (and most elo's) and move up to plat, diamond, or beyond I would work more on my game outside of lane phase. Knowing where and what to do around the map and how to spend your time and power in a meaningful manner will help you climb the ladder while also giving you tools to turn games around even if your lane goes poorly.

The main idea is that you can still win games when you lose lane by knowing where to go and what to do. However, you can easily lose games by winning lane and not knowing what to do or where to go afterwards.

Hope that helps and good luck with the climb!