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Some questions regarding Mid lane in SoloQ (Silver)

Very Sashimi·8/20/2015, 2:57:46 PM·1 votes·651 views

Hiho,

first of all, sorry for this bible of text I've written down. I hope somebody will have mercy and patience and read through it.

Anyway, here goes. I've been playing for about half a year now and mostly Solo Queue in ranked. I started out playing all lanes equally often and I've now "settled" comfortably into mid as my main lane, followed by sup and jungle. I've constantly tried to improve myself both mechanically and game knowledge wise but I'm still having trouble rising in rank, even though I feel personally, that I have improved quite a bit compared to when I started. I watch a lot of strategy and tutorial videos, I somewhat follow LCS and I have some high ranked buddies (high gold to low diamond) who'll sometimes play normals with me and give me hints or spectate my ranked games and tell me what I'm doing wrong / right. Now, I don't mean to be saying I should be in a severely higher rank or anything, but it's getting increasingly frustrating that, even though I play a lot better than some months ago, I still can't seem to get at least one or two ranks up. When I started I got placed in Silver 3 for some unfathomable reason (at the time I think Bronze 3 or 4 would have been more accurate.) I then proceeded to fall down to Bronze 1 and had recently gotten myself up to Silver 2 with the help of some very good teams and some luck. But for the past 50 games or so, I've been falling again (am now at Silver 4, almost Silver 5) and it's getting frustrating because it feels completely random. Some games I do horrible and we'll still win because somebody else got fed and carried us, but some games where I do exceptionally well in my laning phase and end up doing twice or even three times the damage of anybody else in the game I still lose because I have no idea how to use my feed to my team's advantage and carry the game. To stop this from happening and finally being able to rise in rank a little (my goal is to hit gold 5 by the end of this season) I have compiled a little list of questions that I hope you guys can help me with.

Before I get started, here is a list of my champion pool. The champions are listed from most favorite (will not pick only if banned or if the enemy team has picked a very strong counter) to least favorite (will only pick if it's a really good counter pick, works exceptionally well with the rest of my team or everything else viable has been banned). Also note that while the champion pool seems relatively large, I would say that I play 80 to 90% of my games in each lane on the first two to three champions listed:

I. Mid Lane

Ahri Annie Leblanc Lux Cassiopeia Zed Orianna Ekko Fiddlesticks

Furthermore, I recently picked up (in customs and normals) Swain Swain for mid and top lanes, but I have yet to play him in ranked.

2. Support

Leona Morgana Annie Janna Malphite Lulu Lux Kayle Blitzcrank Thresh

I also have Sona Sona and Soraka Soraka whom I both tried in normals and didn't particularly enjoy and I've been meaning to pick up Nautilus.

3. Jungle

Amumu JarvanIV Sejuani MonkeyKing Malphite Rengar Shaco Fiddlesticks

I have also practiced on XinZhao Xin Zao and Vi Vi but have yet to play them in ranked.

4. Adc

I only play adc when I'm absolutely forced to and I can't seem to get the positioning in teamfights right, meaning that I'll usually end up being quite useless in mid to end game, even when I do well in the laning phase.

Ashe Jinx Caitlyn Vayne Kalista Sivir Graves MissFortune

5. Top The same as with adc applies. I have trouble deciding when to leave my lane to roam, when to split push and when to stick to my team. Furthermore, I have little knowledge about most typical top lane match ups.

Garen Maokai MonkeyKing JarvanIV Rengar Nasus Ekko Heimerdinger Malphite Pantheon

Now for my questions:

  1. Are there any particular champions I should pick up that would compliment or round out my current pool? If so, please explain briefly how or why they would work well.

  2. How do I know (especially when playing mid lane) when to roam and try to help my top or bot lane and when to stay? Should I always prioritize protecting my turret over ganking bot / top, even when I'm doing very well but both my top and bot lane are losing terribly? Let's say the enemy jungler is about to gank bot and our bot lane is behind while I am fed. I know the gank is about to happen and have enough time to get down there to help our bot lane and maybe even get a kill or two, but in exchange I will have to let the enemy mid laner attack our mid turrets freely for one or two minutes. What do I do?

  3. When there is a teamfight going on around the drake but my lane is pushed into my turret and the enemy mid laner is staying in their lane, do I sacrifice the turret to help with the drake or do I stay and defend the turret?

  4. If I am the only member of my team who has enough money to go up against the enemy team and we keep losing teamfights and my team mates still keep initiating them, do I stick with them and try to keep the damage to a minimum or do I try to ignore the teamfights and split push as fast as I can? I've been in several games where I was so fed that I could duel anybody on the enemy team 1 on 1, sometimes even 2 on 1, but in teamfights they would instantly focus me and kill me before I could help my team in any way. How do I avoid this?

  5. I prefer playing mid lane and jungle because you have the opportunity to roam a lot and really get the teamwork going. However, I have often heard that adc is the best position to carry a game. Is this accurate? Do I need to play adc to really carry or is it just a matter of preference?

  6. When I am jungling and one of our lanes is feeding really hard while the other two are relatively even, do I babysit the losing lane in an attempt to slow down the feed or do I try extra hard to give our other two lanes kills so they will be able to fight the fed enemy lane in mid to late game?

  7. If my team is losing due to lack of vision and our support refuses to buy sightstone or even upgrade their trinket, do I sacrifice the money and item slot to buy a sightstone on my top or mid laner?

  8. Last but not least, when my team is camping one of their towers and we have been poking each other for several minutes, is it ok to leave my team for a few moments to get accumulated cs from another lane or do I absolutely have to stay in case the teamfight breaks out?

If you actually made it through and take the time to answer some of my questions you get a free cookie! Thanks in advance :D

1 Comments

NIghtcrawlerzero8/20/2015, 4:19:18 PM2 votes

Well more longer I think I would of made this a H.W for college or something. Anyways im not the best player in the worlds im currently in s5 I started out in b5 but during every game I played I learn something and I hope I can help you out with anything.

  1. There is no particular champion you should pick, yes there are champion that counters other but it all depends on the player. You can go lets say a teemo and your up against a gnar. Now teemo counters gnar hard but if the player using gnar has more experience than you it doesn't matter how you try to play gnar will beat teemo its all in how you play, what you build and how quickly can you analyze the battle. There is no special champion or anything just take one champion and learn all there abilities all there weakness, what to build it all depends on you not just the champion always remember that.

  2. I know it's hard to know the right time to help your other teammates but what I currently do is I talk with my jungler. I tell him to cover my lane while I gank another lane or if I see my jungler is in top and bot needs help and im pushed to my tower what I do is I check the health of my tower and then check botlane see how they are doin one of the things bot lane should always remember is to ward the map especially there side because bot lane currently gets the most ganks. If you got a bot lane and you can't see and you gank to help what makes you so sure that there jungler won't just appear and gank all 3 of ya and get a triple or help there adc get a triple. You have to pay attention of the map that's one of the most important thing if you wanna gank communicate with your team especially your jungler cause if you know you will need help bot of ya can go bot that would be a 4 man fight vs 2 champion after ya kill them take dragon. But don't gank if you are weak, if you know you don't have kills that you losing mid lane and hardly have farm don't gank cause you are just gonna make it worse. So my advice talk to your jungler to see if he can help or not because remember you are mid you are not a jungler you need to pay attention also to your lane.

  3. Always remember this, LoL is a team game if there is a team fight and it's close to your lane the enemy that has you pushed into tower will make it hard for you to leave your lane. He will make the minions gather up in your tower push a little hard and then he will go to the team fight since you are occupied saving your tower. I usually just lower enough health of the minions and run off to the team fight because if you can get in there and help your team and 4 of them dies that means you still have enough champions in your side alive that can help you gank mid or where ever you are and take a tower so easily you can help get a ace and take towers. Sometimes you have to sacrifice a tower to be able to advance.

  4. If you are feed, if you are the strongest one in your team and every time ya go into a team fight and they focus you, easy, stay back, let your team lower enough health from the enemy while you in the back throwing a few dmg to them. If you go in its when you see enough health taken away from the enemy team that you are able to ace them. Tank is suppose to initiate in the team fights, then in the back you have the adc shooting, the support helping the whole team and if you are a mage and are feed you are suppose to be around the adc because you have long range also, so you need to also stay in the back only leave the center of the battle to those that are with lots of health and are strong enough to handle a hit or two.

  5. Adc is a matter of preference, Yes lots of adc carry but if you prefer mid you can destroy a adc with like 2 hits if you are mage since they don't really have MR, most adc carry in the matches but a tank can destroy adc with thornmail, and warmog with omen. Adc can get last whisper but doesn't matter to be honest with you. I main adc, and jungle and trust me adc are great champs but its a matter of preference so if you wanna try adc go ahead but it's all the same to me it depends on how you play the champions.

  6. If you are jungler and theres a lane feeding you also have to take a look on the enemy build, your team mates build and your build. You can't gank if the enemy has more defense and more health than you or more damage. You have to take inconsiderate your damage and your teammates damage you can't just jump in there thinking you can kill the guy, dive the tower and just come out fine you have to plan it out with your teammate. You should babysit that lane until atleast the enemy tower is gone if you see the other two laners doin great. When I jungle and theres a lane I don't even need to gank I help the other two lanes until I see there doin great thats when I gank the one thats bein doin awesome the whole match but thats just me.

  7. There is 5 players on your team including you, each player can buy 3 wards plus one purple one thats in total of 20 wards. As I always say to my team the support can't ward the whole map the whole team has to put there part to be able to have vision in there map. If you don't want to keep wasitng money on wards easy upgrade your trinket ward and it will always have 2 wards available. But if your support doesn't wanna buy wards convince your team to buy it or upgrade theirs and you do the same it's a team game so everyone has to put there part. If you watch LCS you can see even the adc buy wards to help ward the map everyone wards especially on red and blue side.

  8. No you do not have to stay with your team to keep poking but you do have to stay close enough to help if a team fight is close, If you are poking mid lane with your team and the enemy team is no where in sight and you have there red warding all around you can take there crow, there red and if a team fight starts you are right there to jump in and join the fight, it all depends on how feed your team is and the sync they have. You can not and I repeat can not leave them if there in bot and you wanna go top and farm. By the time you come back most probably your team already dead. Like I said if you wanna CC and your team is around the enemy jungle or yours and you know you can engage quickly if necessary then take a few jungle monsters out and you will be fine.

I hope I could help in anyway like I said I am not a pro, I am currently in S5 but I have bein playing for a year and a half now. But I have learned alot threw my time and I watched videos and I looked up info. Wish you the best and really do hope I helped in anyways.