Tips to be a better player.

I WOULD LOVE TIPS FROM OTHER PLAYERS TO ADD TO THIS LIST

If you cannot look past this seasons rank and take good advice when you read it, that is unfortunate. I could play much better than I do. Let's just say I don't always follow my own advice and I do make mistakes!

I want people to think critically about what is being said and decide for themselves if they agree. I have played this game since pre-season 1. It has evolved quite a bit. There are far more things for you to pay attention to, not just what I mention here. I am going to address some points I find important, things people do, don't do, or need to start doing more. I'll add as more come to the surface of my memory. There is no particular order of importance.

                                                                                                    **JUNGLERS**

Jungling is not my main role. It was season 2 when I was silver and Ill have you know my skarner stats were prettttty fancy. But I haven't been good at it in a very long time. I'll talk about a few things I do know though-

lane taxing is a normal thing, taking one or two minions after successfully ganking a lane is completely fine. However, there are times when taxing is not appropriate.

1. When you come to the lane, and get the kill, you do not tax the lane. You just received likely 300+ gold from a gank, there is no reason to take farm from the person you are ganking for. They will appreciate you giving them the lane, but you set them behind or keep them from gaining advantage by doing this.

2. If a lane is behind and you force the opponent out of lane, or you get nothing when ganking, you don't tax. That further cripples the lane you are "helping."

3. "pushing" do not push a lane without asking your teammate if they want it pushed. They might not be comfortable having the lane pushed, perhaps the enemy jungler is showing up more than you realize, or they are being outplayed or were out picked in lane. Not everyone wants to be exposed.

IF YOU'RE GETTING INVADED, ASK FOR HELP! OH...AND WARD! too often I see junglers getting rekt by invades. That dirty manbearturtletigerpheonix...and shaco....and lee...and...you get it. Well anyway, there are some simple ways to fix this.

1. Keep timers on your buffs. Rito made this super easy, use the timers to get to your buffs before they get stolen

2. prep your buffs. Let's say blues up in 30 seconds, sweep it and ward it. Or, ask for assistance from another lane. If you communicate most players will give you a helping hand!

3. GRAB HIM! if an enemy has been invading your jungle all game, and you know it, and you keep letting it happen, it's your fault. You need to ask your team to help you. "Hey garen, my blue is up in 30, can you be there with me to beat this shaco like the red headed step child of a rented mule?" If it's a success, you get your buff and maybe even a kill. If it's not, then you get 1v2d...at that point it's all ogre anyway.

PRESENCE IS IMPORTANT! a lot of junglers say "I can't kill them." or "they'll just kill me if we go in.". Not every gank needs to be an all out assault. Making a presence is helpful. My duo always yells at me because I have a bad habit of farming when I can't make a big impact. The truth is if you show up, you force the enemy to play with a bit of caution instead of being hyper aggressive because they feel safe not being ganked.

KNOW THE ENEMY JUNGLER It is important (and hey, it takes a while, you won't know it right away!) to know what the enemy jungler is going to do. If you are vs a warwick, you know that pre level 6 his ganks are lacking. So you are probably safe to cause some damage in enemy lanes, as well as farm without fear of your team being destroyed. Most warwicks start at blue and move towards red. If they are going to gank, they will likely go for mid/top first. Top lane is usually the most one sided lane. If your teammate is pinned to their turret, use that to gank! IF they are pushed too far towards the enemy, know the enemy jungler will likely take advantage and try to give their top the advantage. This could set you up for a good counter gank. Anyway, back to the main point, you can do a lot with knowing the enemies rotation, their abilities paired with the abilities of the lanes they are working with/against, and the speed at which they farm as well as many other things.

KNOW WHEN TO INVADE! There is a good and bad time to invade. It's only wise to do this if you know you're going to get something out of it, or stop the enemy from getting something out of their jungle rotation. Wards are immportant. It's pretty easy to ward over a buff and smite steal it. If you're fed, or sneaky, killing them at their buffs is also beneficial. IF you can get an ally to come with you, even better.

KNOW WHAT KIND OF JUNGLER YOU'RE PLAYING This is a huge deal. If you are playing nautalus, and you are 8 and 1 with 0 assists, you're doing it wrong. It is important to get your LANES as fed as you can. Naut is one of the many examples of junglers that can't usually carry. USUALLY. We all saw the cinematic...There are times when the enemy will escape if you don't kill them, but try to determine if that is the case. Kill secures are good, but spreading the gold is better. If you are someone like, udyr, it is still best for you to try and get your allies kills, but you being fed definitely isn't a bad thing..

KNOW WHEN TO GANK Ganking a lane when your ally would have to plow through a wave of minions with no mana and a limp is not a good idea. You need to check the lane to see the status of the player/players in it. If you ping usually the player will react in someway, with a reply ping or a movement, or maybe a message. Sometimes you can solo kill someone or pusht hem out alone, if this is the case, go for it! Just try not to feed peoples lane opponents...they dont like that.

                                                                                                       **SUPPORTS**

Warding is an extreme priority as a support. It has ALWAYS been that way. It isn't "your play style" it is something expected by all supports. It is not your job alone to ward, but it is your job to ward. If you are a support and you are not warding, you are not doing your job. I played support for 2 seasons straight receiving gold and platinum 2 respectively (not current ranking). I understand the frustration but you need have wards over everything else.

SIGHT STONE OVER ANYTHING ELSE YOU WERE GOING TO BUY It is PARAMOUNT that you build a sight stone. I don't care if you're going ad lux, as long as you have a sight stone. There is no logical reasonn for you to buy wards over buying a sight stone once you can afford it. SS gives you health, and re loadable wards. It is extremely inefficient to refuse to buy it, you will spend more money on wards than a sight stone if you refuse to buy one and ward correctly. When I mained morgana support, I rushed sight stone and my gold item. Then I built zhonyas. There is no skipping steps, vision is an incredibly important facet of the game.

TARGONS I see many supports getting this item and using it incorrectly. Try your best not to mess up your adcs farming groove. There is almost always a time where you can hit a minion that your ADC is not focused on. Unless their body language (yes, there is body language in league) shows you that they are waiting for you to last hit it, it is probably best that you find another minion to hit.. Try to save at least one charge for cannon minions, it's extra gold for you! Plus they are a little harder to last hit. Also...guys, please stop getting this item on thresh if you're not sure how to use it. :p practice it before going into ranked! Oh, and use your charges!

JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A SUPPORT, DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD BE FEEDING "Im a support" is not a real excuse for being 0/8/1. A supports job is to peel and do your best to help CC, do damage to enemies, and provide vision during teamfights. If there is a situation where you can save the 7/1 jinx by throwing your soft, supple body in front of her, then do it. If she is going to die anyway....then das be donya comrade...

YOU CAN ABSOLUTELY MUTE YOUR ADC I see many people saying "don't mute your teammates blah blah". This is true, to a point. If your adc, or any teammate for that matter, is being verbally abusive, it is your job to mute them and report after game. You do not need to perpetuate toxicity. Ask them calmly to stop, tell them they are putting you in a bad mood and going to effect your play. If they respond with "idgaf" or something else toxic, mute them. Watch the in-game body language, it really is enough once you figure out how to read it.

ASK YOUR TEAMMATES TO WARD A lot of the time people who arent supporting forget that they need to ward. Kindly reminding them that they can drop 75g to give the map some vision is a good thing. if they refuse, well they suck, but there are 3 other ppl that may step up and help you out. Bags can get full, but gguys, if you have 5 items and health pots at 40 minutes in....come on....

WATCH THE MAP! Do your best to pay attention to every lane but of course yours primarily. If your lane goes MIA, you need to use a ? ping to alert them. If you think your lane is going to gank another lane, a red !!!! ping is the appropriate warning. If they don't pay attention at that point, OH WELL!

RESPOND TO YOUR JUNGLER! it is incredibly important for bot lane to respond to a junglers gank. They are losing farm and XP when they gank. Getting summoners down, or a kill or even giving some good presence is worth it, but if you ignore them as they awkwardly walk into your lane, that's kind of on you. I personally give everyone 2 chances. If you don't react twice, Im focusing on other lanes or farming.

DONT FORGET ABOUT THE POWER OF MIKAEL'S This item is wonderful. VS teams with heavy CC your carries may have a hard time doing anything if they are stun locked. Buying can really help out when used properly. In case you don't want read the tooltip, it heals them and removes all crowd control. Kindddd of awesome.

UPGRADE YOUR SWEEPER! I always forget to upgrade my sweeper, and it's a nasty habit. Clearing vision in larger areas is very important. If they can see you, and you don't know it, it's really uncomfortable.

oh....GET A SWEEPER! After you get a sight stone you no longer need your warding trinket, trade it out for a sweeper for extra map control.

"Hmm...they might be at dragon." Saving a ward for dragon/baron is a big deal. If you think that some people have been gone for a suspiciously long time, and it's a time where their jungler could secure baron and not be shredded to pieces, you should probably give it a peek. The same goes for baron.

                                                                                                           **AD CARRIES**

mmm my specialty. Other than support that is. ADCs had it a bit rough this season with the tank meta early on and the crazy buff/nerfs happening every patch. But there are always things that stay the same.

DON'T BE A JERK...BUY A WARD. Early game it's hard for you to afford a ward (poet, didnt know it) but at about 8-10 minutes you should be buying a ward each time you back. I usually carry one or two for bush fights. I need VISION dammit. Your support can't read your mind. Take matters into your own hands and ward that bush so you can keep up the assault or...freak out and flash because wukongs waiting in the bush like that guy from "Hey arnold."

LAST HIT...PLEASE Failure to farm is frustrating for you teammates, especially your poor support. Watching all those yummy minions go to waste is painful. Have a heart, kill those minions with your own bare bullets, or arrows...or spears. Whatever. Harassing is not always the best choice. I really leave it up to my support early, early game to harass. I'd rather get a nice farm lead going before exchanging but that brings me to my next point

THERE ISN'T JUST "PASSIVE" AND "AGGRESSIVE" PLAY when someone asks me if im passive or aggressive in lane, I say neither, i'm opportunistic. You should be too. If you are all out agressive or all out passive, you're going to lose. It is important to know when to poke, when to trade, when to run, when to be careful etc. I prefer to wait until the enemy gives me a clear spot to take advantage. Im not a pro, but this is something i'm pretty good at. decision making is important, you need to know the champions you're against and if you can really handle a trade off.

AUTO PLEASE A lot of the time during teamfights someone will rage at you after saying "AUTO!" well this is true. You need to auto. As an ADC it is your job to attack the person that you can most safely reach that will make the biggest impact on the fight. Some adcs can take out other adcs in an all out brawl. This is great, DO THAT. Or APCs, But it is important for you to try and make an impact before going down in a blaze of glory. This doesnt mean kill that suppor then die. You want to do as much damage as possible. Be sure you need to run before doing so. If your team rages at you and you know you made the right choice, then just ignore it and move on.

BUILD FOR THE SITUATION We all have builds we gravitate towards. However, there are times when we need to adjust them. ADC builds are pretty standard. However I see a lot of people building BOTRK when they don't need to. BOTRK is a situational item on most ADCs besides vayne. Although I do sometimes build IE on her first if I reallyw ant to burst someone down quickly. Another big deal is armor pen. If you are vs a team with a lot of armor...what do you thhink you should build? Yep! Armor pen. I suggest building (on most adcs) , and then in cases where you need to rush armor pen. (You can look at my champion breakdown to see the adcs i'm likely referring to. I don't play them all so i'm aware I don't know everything when it comes to that). The point is. build accordingly! Oh..and you know those annoying pest champions like , , , you know...champions with a lot of health regen? Well I noticed a lot of people forget about this little gem of an item. It's not a super great item, but its on hit effect is what you're wanting..it is sometimes, very worth it to get executioners calling . I get it often and it really saves the game vs heavy healers. It's clearly not an "all the time" item though.

Also, defensive items. If you are getting constantly rekt by rammus taunting you, warwick ulting you, leona stunning you, etc. It's kind of your fault. There are items to help you. , and just to name a couple. You can peel for yourself and a lot of the time you need to. Thinka bout when you can do to help YOU survive.

POSITION YOURSELF Positioning is a giant problem in league. If you stand in the middle of a fight then scream for peel, uhm.....no. No one can peel that off of you...Standing on the outside of the fight and waiting for the enemy to blow any heavy CC abilities (or building like mentioned above to deal with it) and then going in to help out. You're supposed to be a ranged character, use that range!!!!

SAVE YOUR ESCAPES A lot of the time I see ADCs wasting their escape abilities. For example rocket jumping before alpha strikes and dying because of it...save your escapes for a good time. In that case, obviously wait for him to alpha strike (unless you can jump under a turret or something) before you rocket jump. The same thing applied to champions like , wait for her to ult before say using net. Simple things like this make a huge difference.

                                                                                                                        **THIS APPLIES TO EVERYONE!**

Everyone in league can get better. Accept that and you will improve! There are some universal tips that everyone should follow.

1. If you're getting ganked non-stop, and you keep dying, you need to ward. It is confusing to me when people complain about being camped and they haven't bought one ward. If you ward, you need to react to a gank. Doing this makes it so the jungler gets nothing out of it. You can /dance at the turret. If you know they can dive and kill you. LEAVE THE TURRET. Go back, run to the one behind it, etc. If you're dead you can't farm...so "im losing farm and xp" isn't an excuse. Cmon guys.

2. Don't be greedy....so many games thrown from greed. Chasing into the fog of war is not a bright idea. WHy do it? If you can't see everyone on the map, don't chase. Watch the minimap to see if you have threats before going on the hunt. Also, make sure master yi isn't destroying your nexus while you hunt down that taric.

3. STOP FIGHTING OVER STUPID STUFF. Arguing loses most games. That is a fact. Try calmly explaining to people why they should adjust something. Don't argue and call them noobs whent he do something that annoys you> Again, i'm no saint. I sometimes can't help letting it slip. It's a constant struggle, just try it. Long arguments, dying while you're typing..yeah. Kind of an easy way to lose. When my duo partner and I see someone on the enemy team raging about their team in all chat, we high five. It's easy to beat down a team in disharmony.

4. BARON DOES NOT MAKE THE NEXUS INSTANTLY EXPLODE. If you can contest baron safely awesome, do it. If you can't, don't throw your body to the enemy team. You simply move toa turret and wait it out. Also, don't do baron and throw the game by dying to the enemy team during it. Golden rule, iif you can't withstand significant damage and baron isn't below 25% hp, STOP HITTING HIM, RUN, OR FIGHT. That rule will almost never fail you. If it does I am not legally responsible for any losses blah blah blah.

5. STOP FIGHTING WHEN THE ENEMY HAS BARON. Patience my young grasshopper. Waiting for the buff to fade is not going to kill you. Farm safely, ward around so you don't get 5 man baron ganked, and wait it out. They have extra regen, and damage with that buff...if their ahead and you fight them, god help you. If they're behind and you fight them, remember, they are a lot harder to deal with then they were before. So only engage the fight if you know you can handle it..

6. DON'T GO BOT FOR MORE THAN A FEW SECONDS ONCE THE ENEMY CAN TAKE BARON. This gives the enemy a go ahead to do baron. Sometimes they arent strong enough to do it with interference from a few of your teammates. But it is imporant for you to be aware that they may get that global 300 gold and huge buff if you don't keep them guessing about your location relative to baron.

7. JUST BECAUSE A TEAMMATE MAKES A BAD DECISION, DOESN'T MEAN YOU NEED TO. if someone goes in 1v5, and you join them to make it 2v5, then you complain about them being dumb...well...I hate to tell you, you're no better. Do not support bad decisions. Sometimes it's necessary to leave someone behind....

8. BACK IN A SAFE PLACE! this accounts for sooo many unnessecary deaths. It takes only a few seconds more to get back to a safe place to back. If you think someone may try to dive and kill you at low HP, you can walk back to the inhib turret or even the fountain. It takes a few more seconds..i mean you could always get killed and get free backsies, but that death timer probably isn't worth it.

SOME RULES OF ETIQUETTE

1. If a player is verbally abusing you, mute them. This seems to be really hard for people to do. I don't understand why. I get angry very fast if someone is talking smack to me in game. Arguing loses games. If after a time or two they don't stop, you hit the mute button. It is your responsibility to your team to ignore the toxic person so you can play your best and then report them after the game. I don't want that "but communication" excuse. If they aren't being constructive, ignore them.

2. Do NOT verbally abuse someone who dcd/went afk. When I dc, im already mad. When I come back and someoen starts verbally abusing me? That makes me more angry. Most of the time it isn't the persons fault. They had to do something their family needed, an emergency happened, computer issues, bugsplat. But being a jerk when they reconnect does not make for a good game.

3. It's not what you said, it's how you said it. If someone did something really wrong and they didn't realize it, it;s smart to let them know. But you need to be constructive and not abusive. If someoen goes in 1v5 and dies instead of saying "wow you f**king noob. You suck." try "Try to wait for us please. You can't 1v5 yet!." or "please wait for the team, lets not throw."

4. LEARN WHEN TO STOP SPEAKING Just had a game with an udyr who was a perfect example of what not to do. All game, he was directing bot lane how to play. What to do, when to do it, over and over. This is a form of toxicity. Just because you aren't outright verbally abusing, you are harassing another player. At a certain point, you need to stop trying to direct players, and start playing your role. Commenting everytime someone dies or makes a mistake, is not going to win you the game. It's just going to make people angry and throw them off their game. You shouldnt need to give advice more than once. If they take it, great if they don't you move on and take your hands off the keyboard! at least to type...

5. DON'T "TEST THINGS" IN RANKED This is an extremely bm thing to do. Especially to announce it. If you are trying ad leblanc, don't do it in ranked. If you do things like this often; trying a champ for the first time, or playing one you really aren't good at or have experience on etc, and you wonder why you're not in a higher elo....hmmmm. You're ruining other peoples games. Just because it's "more challenging" in ranked, doesn't mean you intentionally do silly things or risky things to ruin the game for others.

6. YES, IT'S JUST A GAME But some people care. Actually, many people care. Ranked queues are there for a reason, they are there for people who want to work their way up in a competitive environment. It's not kind to do things to ruin the game for others because YOU don't care about the game....Just don't be a jerk, you'll probably feel better about yourself if you don't.

So I got al ittle tired at this pooint. I don't know much about top lane but I do know some things about it and mid. Ill write more later. Feel free to add any tips you'd like and if i think theyre' important i'll put them in. Thanks!