Need advice on getting from Silver to Gold

3lue·Oct 17, 2014·3 votes·1,730 views

Good afternoon all,

Currently I am playing on a new account and I plan on leveling it to 30 as soon as possible. I do know once I get it to 30, I will be placed into at least Silver 4 (If not I'll most likely climb there without a hassle).

TL;DR : What I need help/advice on is: What can improve on to play at a Gold 3 level at the least (my goal is to get Gold V w/in a month)?

I am a Yasuo main, and I was a Wukong main last season (Wu Jungle got me from Bronze 4 to Silver 4 in 40 games). Should I continue to be a Yasuo main? I understand he was somewhat gutted in Patch 4.18, but he is my best champ alongside Wukong. Those 2 champs I usually never lose lane (If I do lose lane I am able to get back in the game). Am I not climbing as fast out of Silver 2 because I jump around 3 roles too much (Top/Mid/Jungle)? I have tried improving my creep score skills and I think I have upped my average quite a bit. I also always encourage teammates to get dragon, buy at least 1 pink ward, get a turret, get an inhibitor, etc. I am also trying to improve and be less toxic as I can. My toxicity can definitely explain my match history on this account, that's for sure. The following are champions I can play well with (Of course not as good as a Diamond..) mechanic wise and are champions I have a great deal of knowledge about: Zed, Kha'Zix, Ryze, Lucian, Vi, Wukong, Yasuo, Jayce, Syndra, Leona, Thresh, J4 and Lee Sin. Here's a link to my champion winrate statistics: http://na.op.gg/summoner/champions/userName=chevy%20malibu ~ If I didn't mention, Kassadin got me from Silver 4 to Silver 2 quite quickly. Should I be playing different champions perhaps? What role should I try and stick to?

Any advice/tips/helps you all give me will be greatly appreciated.

12 Comments

ZydicoOct 17, 20144 votes

Contrary to popular belief, no matter the elo, you can carry any game with any champion in any role. It all depends on your skill in contrast to the enemy champion in the same role. Even if your mechanics are not great, and simply average, having better decision making or making calls for your team will increase your win rate in the long run. One thing that separate people from silver to gold, or even gold to platinum, is simple:

Map Awareness.

That's it. That includes warding to get vision on the map (It's not only the support's job. If you do think that only the support should ward, I do hope you never get out of silver) and predicting where the enemy is in the fog of war. If you see that the mid laner has come from the blue side of their map by leashing, or that the bot lane has done the same, chances are, the jungler has started there and you can expect to see a gank on the opposite side of the map within a minute or two. Make sure to tell your team that, such as "jungler started blue" to make your team aware and careful in a few minutes.

You should also learn to read the psychology of the enemy player. It's the little things that can win or lose a lane for you. Were your lane opponents playing aggressively and now started to pull back for no reason? Don't get baited too hard, cause chances are that the jungler is waiting somewhere to pounce on you.

Also, do dragon more (make the call if you have to). If the enemy jungler is top, enemy jungler died, won bot lane fight, or enemy mid died, it's a free dragon for you.

3lueOct 17, 20142 votes

Contrary to popular belief, no matter the elo, you can carry any game with any champion in any role. It all depends on your skill in contrast to the enemy champion in the same role. Even if your mechanics are not great, and simply average, having better decision making or making calls for your team will increase your win rate in the long run. One thing that separate people from silver to gold, or even gold to platinum, is simple:

Map Awareness.

That's it. That includes warding to get vision on the map (It's not only the support's job. If you do think that only the support should ward, I do hope you never get out of silver) and predicting where the enemy is in the fog of war. If you see that the mid laner has come from the blue side of their map by leashing, or that the bot lane has done the same, chances are, the jungler has started there and you can expect to see a gank on the opposite side of the map within a minute or two. Make sure to tell your team that, such as "jungler started blue" to make your team aware and careful in a few minutes.

You should also learn to read the psychology of the enemy player. It's the little things that can win or lose a lane for you. Were your lane opponents playing aggressively and now started to pull back for no reason? Don't get baited too hard, cause chances are that the jungler is waiting somewhere to pounce on you.

Also, do dragon more (make the call if you have to). If the enemy jungler is top, enemy jungler died, won bot lane fight, or enemy mid died, it's a free dragon for you.

I can vouch for the Map Awareness. I went utility on Lee one game, rushed sightstone, bought tons of wards. Twice in the game I was blamed for not helping my teammates and that I was a crappy Jungler. The vayne kept shoving bot on blue side, and she claimed that I sucked because I didn't help her (I was warding around dragon) when she got jumped 4 v 1 after the enemy team passed two of my wards to get to her. That's another reason why I feel so useless playing support. Yes I get my ADC fed with 5 kills, but they tend to go in and fight 1 v 3 or 1 v 4 and ask why I didn't peel (obviously I didn't want to die so I just threw a couple of flays, my ult, and flashed on thresh). A support can only do so much when an ADC such as Graves dashes into an Amumu and Morgana ult with a Mao and Syndra nearby.

Regarding getting Dragon, most of the time I never get help. If I gank and help kill their bot lane (sometimes their Jungle too) and get the tower, the ADCs usually stay around to get 3 more farm and back immediately with half health. Many times I get ADCs that claim the reason why they backed was because they were oom. And if im not yet able to solo drag, how am I supposed to get it after im oom myself and have 1/3 of health left because I have to tank everything? I have no choice but to back if bot lane backs, especially if there is no ward coverage, so how can Dragon be obtained if a person is low on hp/mp and isn't playing someone like WW or Yi or Fid? Im not raging or anything, but I am saying people are completely useless, so I have to back and just jungle clear, while the enemy team (who has a cooperative team and bot lane for that matter) revive and take Dragon. Then I get bitched at for not getting Dragon too. Sorry if im not making any sense, kinda in a hurry gotta go and see a play for intro to theatre..

EwokSoldierOct 17, 20143 votes

UP VOTED TY! I love when people realize this for themselves. It does not matter what champ you play. It matters how you cater to your champion pick and your decision making in game. My most played champ was the old sion top lane and I hit platinum 2. RIP old SION. Anyways pick what you know whether it is Urgot or Poppy and you will eventually get gold if you are good enough champion picks don't matter its how you play your champions.

Z StatisticOct 17, 20144 votes

You can climb with any role. Solo lanes give clearer feedback because it's clearer that you messed up and not your non-existent partner. Towers > dragon. If you think you can dragon, check if you can take a tower first.

Ur little sisterOct 17, 20143 votes

You can climb with any role. Solo lanes give clearer feedback because it's clearer that you messed up and not your non-existent partner. Towers > dragon. If you think you can dragon, check if you can take a tower first.

Just gonna quote this cause I really disagree with it, but maybe only at a higher level of play. Maybe at low ELO this is true, because globally the impact of a turret IS higher than that of a dragon. HOWEVER, the advantage of Dragon is that it respawns. You kill a turret --> you open up the map, limit vision and safety on the ennemy team and create deeper pressure. However, turrets are pockets of gold and XP that are going to stay there for grabbing and can never be taken by the enney team. Dragons are going over to either you or the ennemy, so taking one swings gold rather than just unlocking it.

Anyway, for my hints to OP:

It's true: you can essentially carry from any role with any champion below high diamond.
However, I feel like some roles are easier than others. In low elo, IF you're significantly better than your opponents, I feel like ADC is the best role to carry from, followed by mid, then top.
Ranged champions are the key when you can't trust your allies. Melee's are inherently ally dependant.
Just getting better at the game in general. This can entise A LOT of things. At your ELO, you pbb don't CS properly yet. You also pbb don't trade properly, position properly, have proper map awareness and decision making (both macro and micro). Improve any of the above for results.
In my experience, try to be a one trick pony. Learn 1 or 2 playstyles really well and work from there. Keep playing the champions that you get good results with. Find a champion that you like AND that you win games with. Most importantly: keep a learning mindset and always look for your own mistakes, no matter how high elo you get.

EwokSoldierOct 17, 20142 votes

Tower> Dragon

I disagree with a lot of what you said. Everyone is entitled to their opinion though and I am not saying that mine is correct it's just what i think. Anyways.. Tower is better to take early on because one towers is more gold then dragon even though barely early on. When you take a tower you create pressure and you can now easily roam because some people will make the mistake of freezing lane once they lose their tower. This means you roam to other lanes to take more towers, gank or you can call your team to do dragon. Steps to take dragon , get vision shove lane with no tower they either shove back and are susceptible to ganks since no tower or they freeze and you get free drag since they cannot shove fast enough to contest. If they do contest without shoving the lane Your team can just stall and let them lose out on exp and gold since they are already behind from losing lane

Another thing i disagree with is ADC is in my opinion the worse role to play in low elo. It is most likely the worse roamer/ganker in game

If you get ahead it doesn't matter if you are 30-0 if mid top and jungler loss no one will be able to peel for you.

And actually ranged champions are more dependent on allies because they usually only have one escape and are easier to burst down. Hence you see the protect the adc comps in lcs because they cannot protect themselves. Hence dependent on their team.

In my opinion the best roles to carry from are Mid and Jungle first, then top, then support and adc last

Mid and jungler are #1 in my opinion because they are the more flexible roles on the team that can rotate roam and react to help or gank for teammates. They are also important for securing dragons. If you win mid or stomp in the jungle your ganks can be game changing. Even if the gank doesn't result in a kill it can result in an objective.

Top is second only because they do not have easy access to rotate bot lane without teleport early on.

Support is above adc because support can peel for the other teammate that did well or got ahead in lane. They also are very important for vision and can also roam to mid or jungle. Doesn't have access to top lane is the only downfall early on.

ADC is last because even in all the other roles if you at least did well you can have an impact while if you do good as adc by yourself is the team is at least somewhat competent they ignore everything else and just go for you. Also adc rarely can roam or get ganks off. ADC in my opinion is a very strong role and is very important but it solo que is the worse position to carry from in my opinion.

OMG i wrote so much P.S. Im just expressing my thought process some of what you said has value as well and I am sure there is some argument against some of what i said but that's what makes LOL fun so many options and strategies/ways of thinking about the game.

IMT DurantOct 18, 20142 votes

They say vision is op in the current meta, but i guess they are referring to higher elos where ppl actually look at their map, therefore half of that statement is wrong.

Pvt Yong TaiOct 18, 20141 votes

Mmm people have been saying some iterations of it but I'll be super blunt with you: you get to Gold by playing well enough to get placed there. Some things that help are playing a smaller number of champs. I went from Gold V to Gold III promos in less than two days with just Annie, Warwick, Caitlyn, and Sion. Fun fact, half of those games were with Sion.

StOrmysLIVEOct 18, 20141 votes

I feel adc and jungle is the easiest role to carry with. Jungles have global map pressure and you can set the pace, while adcs are objective destroyers. I AVERAGE 5 turrets a game, which is made possible because of the safety in range. While the rest of your bronzer silver teammates are diving in a bad team fight you can focus on the turrets and take them down, then finish off the stragglers that are still alive. Low elo is not good at focusing, and the entire team will be chasing a 40% health full tank support over 5 man diving a 100% health adc

Biggg OOct 18, 20141 votes

Ward and take dragons.

TehomCDOct 18, 20141 votes

I feel in silver, you're probably best off playing junglers who can solo dragon pretty easily at an early level so you're not dependent on your team actually doing it with you and can snowball the game by just sneaking it when the enemy team has poor ward control, and you're usually best off playing supports who contribute significant damage so that you can just destroy enemy carries if your own carries are worthless. Otherwise, you're usually left trying to make the best off of horrible, horrible decisions by your team and trying to salvage things from their mistakes.

The thing to be careful of, though, is that you don't acquire bad habits of not playing with your team when they're actually competent. You don't want to get the mindset where you're trying to burst out an enemy carry when your own carry is far more fed and just needs you to peel, or not grouping with your team when they're actually making good objective calls.

3lueOct 20, 20141 votes

I think im done with ranked this season guys. Just lost promos to get back into Silver 2. Keep getting feeders, disconnecters, and worst of all afkers. (Been getting tons of 3v5 games). So I think imma uninstall til after Finals maybe then ill return. At the meantime, its not worth smashing my monitor grinding to gold with constant noob and toxic teams