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New - will do what it takes to improve, but how to do so efficiently?

instagamrr·1/26/2015, 9:09:44 AM·1 votes·611 views

Hey guys,

I'm new to LoL as in just started playing a week ago, level 7 currently. I'm generally a good gamer and very competitive but brand spanking new to MOBAs. Games I previously played competitively were chess (tournaments) and WoW (raiding) - I was very good at both.

I'm coming into this knowing that I want to be really good and willing to take the time to practice, learn the champions, etc but don't know how to do so efficiently. I'm still too new to understand what's going on in streams though I recognize good teamwork when I see it.

Not even sure what champs will be my play style yet but so far have really enjoyed Ashe and Jinx.

I've tried reading guides and they seem to be either too basic or way over my head. I've tried "just playing", but without knowing what I'm doing wrong I don't know what to improve. For example I didn't know I shouldn't auto attack minions with Ashe, I thought that was part of last hitting, until a smurf gave me a few tips. I have tried a suggestion I saw somewhere of practicing last hitting in a custom game and that was super helpful for Ashe once I realized I shouldn't just auto attack.

I've played other games competitively (chess, WoW) but have always had someone to mentor me in the beginning to get me started. I'd kill to have that here, but I don't know anyone who plays.

What tips would you guys recommend?

Some questions to get started:

  1. Once you find a champ you like, is it better to focus on getting good with that champ, or to focus on learning several champs in different roles?
  2. I don't even know how to read the victory screen to see if I'm doing well aside from the kill/death ratio. Is there a breakdown of how to read it somewhere? Google didn't help.
  3. Any good guides or references, streamers to follow for different roles, or offers for friend requests greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

8 Comments

The Chin1/26/2015, 10:40:29 AM2 votes

Every time you die, think about what you could have done better/differently in that scenario - Ignore what your teammates may or may not have done wrong, you can't control them anyways, just focus on yourself and what you could be doing better. Look at what cooldowns were available, maybe you shouldn't have been that far out without wards. Stuff like that.

Doing this will help you improve no matter what skill level you are, level 7 or a diamond player you should always take an objective look at your mistakes, notice patterns and try to fix them.

And in the victory screen I usually only check the damage dealt to champions graph, I don't think anything else is useful info tbh. KDA is actually not that important, it's not a team deathmatch game - you can be 32/1 but if that 1 death was at 55 minutes and you died for free, you may have just thrown the game because of the long late game respawn timer.

Gromble1/26/2015, 11:54:02 AM1 votes

Youtube is a great resource for game play guides. The best ones will explain a champion or tactics in depth. Even if I know a champ pretty well I'll check out these guides for a different perspective.At this point you really just need to play a ton of games.

and i guess a few points would be

  1. dying is really bad :P
  2. playing ultra passive is bad
  3. you have to push any advantages you get
  4. taking objectives is the top priority
  5. things like vision wards are very good no matter what role you play. I like to buy one when i back for items if i can because vision wins.(also can find guides for vision ward placements on youtube if ya need it) i'm just a average player though
Leti the Yeti1/26/2015, 12:13:09 PM1 votes

1 this is what other people will tell you... that you should main a certain champ yeah, I never agreed with it,you let the champ you picked dictate your style on top of that, people complain about being bored of the same champ over and over... BUT WAIT THERES MORE! what if you get the lane you want? your champ gets taken?gets banned? well shit, you gotta git gud all over again with different champs in different lanes....

this is what I will tell you...dont let the champ you play dictate your style let your style dictate what champions you will play, lemme explain I shall now explain(lol), wat do you like doing? tanking,poking,passive,aggressive.. wutever style it is obviously you would play a champion that best carries out what you want someone who favors a passive style would play Nasus, not so much Darius see if you have a particular style.. its a constant that can remain the same no matter what role while your champion might be different

you wanna be aggressive? fuq up someone? balz2wal kill lane?oppressive mtherfker? your champions would look like top:Darius Pantheon Riven mid:Zed Akali Fizz jungle:JarvanIV Pantheon Rengar adc:Draven Graves Caitlyn supporrt:Velkoz Leona Annie if its what you like, you can have a whole assortment of champions that fit your needs

2 go to your match history go look at the graphs and statistics and pie charts... compare

easy!

3 well there are streams if you wanna see more about specific champs I guess i know trick2g's a popular one or udyr,top,jungling... mostly udyr cowsep is good tier master yi who knows all sorts of shit...mostly master yi gosu and doublelift and watever shows off their mad adc skills, alot of corki,vayne,graves idk, theres alot but i watch streams often

as far as guides go, I only ever need an item guide for that, I go to probuilds rather than telling you 1 single viable build, it presents me with various items that are found to be popular on this champ based on buy rate from high tier players... I simply pick out some popular items for my champ that suits my needs

mvargus1/26/2015, 4:28:59 PM1 votes

Some questions to get started:

  1. Once you find a champ you like, is it better to focus on getting good with that champ, or to focus on learning several champs in different roles?
  2. I don't even know how to read the victory screen to see if I'm doing well aside from the kill/death ratio. Is there a breakdown of how to read it somewhere? Google didn't help.
  3. Any good guides or references, streamers to follow for different roles, or offers for friend requests greatly appreciated!

Some good questions here.

  1. There was a time I was completely against this as my understanding is that once you get to ranked games and drafts you have a chance of not being able to play your chosen champ/position (bans, other team picks earlier, conflict with another on your team in same position.) However, it does make sense to choose a champ and position you like and concentrate on it. Just make sure that you are familiar with 2-3 other champs for your favorite position and 2-3 other positions just in case you can't get your first choice. I do know that to play draft you have to own a minimum of 6 champs and realistically need to be proficient in at least 10.

  2. Open up the match history screen and there is a grey button for "statistics" this will give you a deeper breakdown allowing you to see not only KDA, but kill streaks, multi-kills, damage done to and against, healing, wards placed and minions killed. It's a good way to see how you compared to the others on your team. But be aware that there are 2 factors. The position you played and the overall team performance. I've had games where I put up very good numbers, but the team had 1 or more people who "feed' the other team and in the end my team lost despite my score. Other times I had a terrible score, but had held my lane while another teammate split-pushed for the win. LoL is a game where it really takes time to understand just how subtle some of the plays are and that the statistics don't show everything all that well. Best I can suggest here is find someone to coach you and perhaps watch you play as that can help.

  3. I don't watch too much, but I have found "Scrapcomputer" has some good guides for ADC and for choosing someone as support/jungle/mid/ADC (I don't remember seeing one for top lane). "gbay99" was also recommended to me as someone who has some good videos.

You can friend me in game, but I'm just level 14, so not sure how much I can help.

FHMarshy1/26/2015, 5:09:31 PM1 votes

Just added you on my smurff, chodath :)

AirOwl071/26/2015, 6:13:21 PM1 votes

Some questions to get started:

  1. Once you find a champ you like, is it better to focus on getting good with that champ, or to focus on learning several champs in different roles?
  2. I don't even know how to read the victory screen to see if I'm doing well aside from the kill/death ratio. Is there a breakdown of how to read it somewhere? Google didn't help.
  3. Any good guides or references, streamers to follow for different roles, or offers for friend requests greatly appreciated!

1: First find the role you enjoy the most, ADC, Support, Mid, Jungle or Top. Then find the champs you enjoy for that role, you should have around 3 or 4. Then you need to find at least one champ for every other role that isn't your main role. So I Support and ADC. I know multiple champs for Support/ADC and know at least one or two other champs for Mid/Jung/Top, in case I am forced to do those. But you should really focus on learning your specific champs for your specific roles. So my two favorites are Sona and Ashe. I know them inside and out and play them often but in the case that they are banned or taken or just don't work with our team comp I know other champs in the same Supp/ADC role. That how I play at least ^.^

2: The victory screen is useful, sometimes. Look at how much over damage you did to champs, turrets and minions. Look at what the other team built if you lost and see what you could have built to counter them (did they build all AD? AP? Armor?). Did their ADC build item 3102 or item 3026 and how could you have countered it. I find the item sets page in your profile very helpful to learn what items are and how they work.

3: I love streamers! Foxdrop and Solwolf are two great ones, both have Youtube channels as well and I have learned a lot from watching them. Another thing I do (personally) is watch the tournaments and the World Series. I can't tell you how many tips and tricks I have learned from watching those, since the Shoutcasters have been playing this game since it came out they know all the in's and out's of the champs and drop tips here and there about their passives and ratios. Plus you can learn when a game goes south and what triggers a loss or a win.

I find watching others helps me better than trying to figure out what went wrong in my game. I have a hard time figuring out my mistakes and I don't have the hardware to record my games at the moment.

For some background I have been playing for 2 (??) years I think and am in Silver III ^.^

JØJł1/26/2015, 10:37:36 AM1 votes

What my friend always tells me... Pick a champion. If you like them, stick with them and learn how to play them. Pick one champion for each roll (adc,support..ect) til you think you do well with them, and keep playing with them, but it's always nice to try out new champions as well. He said to me, it's even better if that champion can do multiple roles.

I main support, and for the longest time I'd only play one champion, and I played them so much that I couldn't really get better with them since I maxed out my "skill" or "level" with them. My friends encouraged me to try other champions, and I did. I enjoyed the other supports they introduced me to. I also looked up guides on mobafire which shows me suggested builds, runes & masteries and sometimes comes with a little guide on why those things are good on those champions. I don't copy the exact builds on mobafire, because I also like to adjust it to the items I like and that fit my play style. But when I try new champions, that's my go-to website.

I used to ONLY play nothing but support. But I've been widening my knowledge with the other lanes and roles. I still mostly play support. Recently I've been thinking that I need to get better with other roles. I like to believe that I'm decent in other roles, but I know they need practice. I would always go into team builder to make sure that I'd get support, but now I've been going into blind pick and getting the last role that's being thrown at me. My weakest roles are ADC and Jungle. I know the basics of ADC, and I do okay with it, but my jungle just isn't good. (So I am learning)

Don't be afraid to do a bot game and test out a new champion or build, but the best way to keep learning is keep doing PVP matches. You learn a lot from them. You need to know how to last hit with basically every role except support (since your ADC needs the minions) Keep playing Ashe if you like her.

At the result screen/victory screen where you see your K/D/A, at the top where it should say "Victory" or "Defeat" Look to the right and there should be a button called "Advanced Details" http://i.imgur.com/IM9lG1i.png If you click on that button, it should open up your browser and give you something that should look like this: http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/1708457426/227153799?tab=overview Scroll down a bit and click on "Statistics" That will show you how everyone did. How much damage you did, killing sprees, and more.

Sometimes It's good to look at the other champions abilities and see if you'd enjoy playing them. I don't really have anyone to "follow" for videos, since I just type in the champion I want to learn more about and click the first or second video listed.

Also I just want to say... If you have the ward trinket, use it when needed or as much as you can.... wards can save your life.

EmittingXs1/26/2015, 7:59:07 PM1 votes

I was in the same boat as you, new to MOBAs and nothing ever made any sense. But it takes time to catch on to what's going on, or rather, it did for me.

One thing's for certain though, I'd say you should pick a role you want to be involved with. Do you want to go in it alone? Pick Top or Mid lane. Want to help someone nab a kill or heal them? Grab Support. Wanna deal damage and have distance but also have someone's help? Pick ADC (Attack-Damage-Carry, generally Marksman/Ranged champions.) Want to roam the map and sneak up on the enemy champions and nab a kill? Pick Jungler.

You won't know what you like until you give it a try. But once you do, play that role a bit and aim to improve. It would also be a good idea to pick a champion you like and look up builds for them. Don't worry too much about Runes and Masteries just yet, just look at the items you wanna be aiming for while you play.

You can play it safe but don't be afraid to take risks. If you see an opportunity, then take it. Relinquish fear and don't be afraid to die. Dying just creates a learning opportunity. Also, don't be afraid to ask for help. Most people will generally help you in game.

I'm still learning myself but feel free to add me in-game under the name Aemette. Happy gaming, and good luck.