Advice going forward.

Crate of Cobras·2/28/2015, 7:10:19 PM·1 votes·486 views

I've played this game on and off since the summer of season 3.

I'm not that good, I don't get to play much as a student teacher. I try to farm, play safe, etc. I did my placements in season 3, got gold, and stopped. In season 4 I did my placements, got silver, lost a bunch, and stopped.

I want to get better at this game, even though I don't have a chance to give it as much commitment as I want (school, job hunting, fiancee).

I once read something by Dyrus explaining that using 2-3 champions in all roles is how you get better. Like you focus on those champions and play a bunch until you're good, and the insight you gain from that will make you good at picking up other champions later.

I've been all over the place playing all kinds of champions. Should I just focus on 2-3 per role if I want to get better? I play all roles, I should mention.

3 Comments

rth22/28/2015, 8:12:47 PM2 votes

There is no real blanket answer. People learn differently and will retain lessons for different reasons.

Learning champions really well works for a lot of people. This is because if you only play a couple of champions in a role, than you will be able to learn the role faster due to knowing your champion. For example, lets say you play ADC. Let's say you play Draven. Whenever you play you try to go adc and if you go adc you play Draven. You will eventually know Draven so well that you do not have to think about his mechanics, you will be familiar with his damage, blah blah. All of the little mechanics, match-ups, and micro things in lane will be worked into you and you no longer have to think about them. Now you are free to wonder more about your lane, what you are doing in the big picture, how are things around the map going, you don't have to pay attention to your particular champions details consciously because you already know them.

This is why you can main 2-3 champs in a role (if you can overlap some of these champions it is easier) and once you become very familiar with those champs you can really start improving at the lane. Once you know the lanes great, you can translate that knowledge using any champion. So if you have a champion that can go between say jungle and top, then you can master that champ. Then master the role you are in, say jungle, then move that champ to top. You already know the champ so now you just have to learn top. Once you have mastered top, you can play any champ top and know how top lane works. Now you just have to learn that champ.

Basically, Champ Familiarity -> Lane/Role Familiarity -> Game Familiarity.

This is the most common route, which i believe is what you were referring to with the Dyrus reading.

freeformline2/28/2015, 10:28:08 PM1 votes

Learning two or three champions in each role is a good way to make you aware of what each role does, variations included, which should help you be a better strategist and learn to make better team compositions. Learning to play a bunch of different champions in this way should also develop your mechanical and tactical skills by teaching you how to respond to different situations and champion kits. I think learning several champions in each role is an important step toward being a better player, but as a teacher-to-be, you should know that you'll need to do more to learn the game. I recommend that you spend some time trying to learn general game strategy. Study guides, watch shoutcasted professional games, spectate high-level ranked games, watch youtube videos, and read up on the excellent posts made in the Tips & Tricks board (I am particularly fond of this post). Pay special attention to wave management (freezing, pushing/letting push, setting up large waves for split lane pressure), effective warding patterns (every player should buy wards and upgrade their trinket), rotation between objectives, and the advantages of split-pushing versus team fighting. Once you are comfortable with this knowledge, try to guide your teammates to employ it in a friendly, constructive manner. Note that kills at high level play almost always have a specific objective in mind, and that they rarely chase enemies into unwarded territory.

The most important part is, of course, the will to learn. After each game finished, play made, or death inflicted, try to take a moment and think about what you could have done better and what other players did well, then try to implement those changes one at a time.

Have fun, good luck, and happy farming!

The Chin3/1/2015, 12:13:06 AM1 votes

you should definitely narrow it down to the few champs you really like playing

once you master the basic mechanics and they become second nature to you, it frees up your mind to focus on other things. For example, if you're always paying attention to something as simple as last hitting, you might not notice a great opportunity to roam, but if you've played the champ 100 times last hitting will be completely on auto pilot and you can now focus on other things.

now let's say you've played 200 games with the same champ, seeing roaming opportunities is now autopilot for you, what are you now able to focus on?

now say for whatever reason you get screwed over in the pick/ban and you're playing a champ for the first time. You might be "bad" at the champion but you're good at the game. So you'll probably miss a lot of CS but you're still roaming and warding the same as you were before. That's why it's beneficial to play as few champions as possible.