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When is the best time to start ranked games?

Galewings·1/19/2015, 12:56:38 AM·1 votes·725 views

I've been a lv 30 player for a bit more than a month now and I've been wondering when a more experienced player than me would reckon is the best time to take a shot at solo queue ranked games.

Just from searching for champ guides and builds I've learned that the first mistake is to try ranked as soon as you possibly can. It was all a bit vague so I decided to set some standards for myself before trying ranked.

First I decided I should have at least 200 normal game wins before I went for it (I'm sitting at 174), then I decided to have two finished rune pages for ad and ap. My ad page is about to be finished while my ap page is about half way... I've been saving up ip for the upcoming rune sale to finish both of them off. Also I have around 20 champs which is what I thought was a decent amount to have a nice variety for ranked (though my only adc is Ashe lol). And I have general idea of how to do every role and I'd say I can do a decent enough job at all of them except for top which is my weakest role, I always seem to lose lane and die a few times there while having no top champ I'm all that comfortable with. I'm just not a very good duelist I guess. I have a general idea of freezing lanes but I am not very good at executing that knowledge in game honestly. Same with kiting, on a good day and with certain champs I can do it but sometimes I just can't.

Also, I always try to get at least a green ward whenever I back and a pink ward if I can afford it. (I place the green ward near drag and the pink ward by the jg entrances near the Raptors) But people tell me it's pointless since no one actually bothers with vision and minimap until high silver lol. I also try to never have less than 70 cs by 10 minutes (when not playing supp or jg) unless the enemy laner outclasses me.

Anyway, is there anything else I should consider before going ranked? Or any tips a more experienced player would say is necessary before trying to go for ranked? I'm not going to do rank until the new season starts though since wherever I place would be reset anyway

5 Comments

Mysticman891/19/2015, 1:30:26 AM2 votes

Well it depends on where you're comfortable ending up. It's quite possible to dive in as soon as you hit 30, but it would be unlikely you'd be playing above a bronze level.

I'd recommend having a completed rune page full of t3 runes for every role you'd play, which at a minimum is prone to be something like an ad page and an ap page, although obviously more is better (e.g. a tank page and a jungle page, or even more specific pages - 'ap versus ad mid' 'ap versus ap mid').

I'd strongly recommend you feel at home with at least 3 roles, and are at least 'ok' with the others. Obviously in an ideal world you'd want to play everything well, but with 3 competent roles probability is in your favour to get a role you're good at so you'd trend upwards.

Warding and vision is very much underappreciated at low elo, but even if the team doesn't appreciate it, then you should be at least warding for yourself, as spending 75g/100g to allow you to not die to a gank is well worth it. The time spent waiting to respawn and get back to lane is longer than it'd take to get 75/100 gold from csing, plus it stops the opposing team from getting the kill gold.

70cs at 10 minutes is fine, although cs difference with your lane opponent tends to be more relevant, as the absolute cs/min depends quite highly on how much poking/ganks are happening.

Below gold at least you can get away with being relatively poor at kiting, and l don't know at what level of play lane freezing becomes significant. Knowing how and when to let it push and when to do so yourself is probably enough to go pretty far, even if you never quite hold it perfectly frozen.

Another tip I would suggest is to mentally prepare yourself for a lot of frustrating players who are either unbelievably unskilled or unbelievably salty, and to resist the urge to comment on those things in game. Yell at your monitor if it helps, but in game try to stay polite and nice (or say nothing) to try to limit provoking people from actively trolling and otherwise keep up morale.

I also found that ranked felt like a different beast to normal draft pick, as people are mostly trying harder and using roles they're confident with unlike normals. As such I do think people should throw themselves at ranked and get the bulk of their practice that way, because it's a more 'real' experience to learn from. First time ranked people should completely expect to place bronze unless they've put in a ton of extra games/practice/are gifted/lucky, but I feel like climbing out of bronze is a rite of passage. 'ELO hell' may be a thing in that it sucks while you're there, but if you really are silver+, you will be able to carry yourself out eventually.

In any case, good luck.

The Chin1/19/2015, 1:03:10 AM1 votes

As long as you're comfortable with all the roles you can start playing ranked. I have a friend who doesn't use rune pages who got silver, it's not a good idea, but not having the perfect rune page won't hold you back too much.

IceKingChernobog1/19/2015, 1:04:27 AM1 votes

i say stick to norms for about 100-200 more games so you have enough time to practice with champs you want to pick up and get used to going all roles. Im serious about learning all roles because you're not gonna get the lane you want all the time

Xtremey1/19/2015, 1:05:23 AM1 votes

I'd first make sure I have 3 full rune pages: one standard AD, one standard ap, and one specific page for whoever you're playing a lot at the time (ex master yi, I'd have my third page with attsp reds and quints, armor yellows, and attsp/cdr blues).

after that, its just a matter of how comfortable you feel going into ranked. Everyone has a different opinion, but personally I wished I had waited until i achieved 250-300 normal wins and have a good champion pool.

Mysticman891/19/2015, 1:34:14 AM1 votes

I forgot to mention, I'd encourage having at least 2 or 3 champs per role that you're comfortable with, as you don't want to find your champ banned/taken and be left trying to figure out a new champ for the first time in a ranked game, as that rarely ends well.