Why can't I win? No matter what champ I play.

Niyumi·Sep 9, 2015·1 votes·2,599 views

So, I recently started playing ranked (finally got enough champions and fleshed out my rune pages a little better) and placed silver 2 (I think that's way too high for me, honestly), but I'm just not doing very good.

My first issue is that, no matter what champ I use, how hard a counter I am to the enemy, whatever, I just can't win lane. What usually ends up happening is that I'll be facing someone who can just push a button and delete me (In what world it's fair or balanced, I don't know), so I farm from a distance if I can, and just kind of play really safe. Whenever I do though, they let the lane push close to their tower (even if I do nothing but last hit) so that they can kill me, or they freeze the lane out in the middle of the lane while I'm hiding under the tower. I just don't understand if I'm missing out on some kind of secret boost or something, but my damage compared to most people is just abysmal. Say I hit for 200, they hit for 450+... I just don't understand it. And before you say runes, I have a few armor/MR runes, and 2-3 more on either value is not going to make that much of a difference in damage -- Plus, I have much higher AP/AD than most people. So, the laning phase usually ends with me at maybe half the CS of the other person with no kills, no roaming, nothing. How can I improve my laning? How can I not spontaneously explode while doing nothing more than tickling people? For mid lane, I play Ekko, Ahri, Azir and Syndra (Not often, because she does even less damage than the others). Top lane, I play Fiora, Jayce and Ekko. My go-to ADC is Lucian. Supp I play Annie, Tahm or Lux. And for jungle, I play Tahm or Nidalee.

My second issue is that, during teamfights, I'm just next to useless. It's the same issue I have in laning, really; Where I do next to no damage, the enemy team (and my team) just blows me out of the water. All I really do is slow people down or take a bit of health away so my team can finish them off. Very rarely do I get any kills. If I'm in a winning game, my KDA is usually something like 4/0/18 or something silly like that. No matter how perfectly I play my champions, I just can't compare to anyone else.

And now, this isn't really related to the rest of the post, but I've been losing game after game after game today... I've lost four promo series in a row today, and I went from 92 LP to 0 (lost ~10 each game, and I lost a game while at 0)... What usually happens is that I get into a stalemate at my lane (though I'm always way behind in farm) and all the other lanes just feed like crazy. So I'll end up with <5 deaths while the rest of my team has 10-12+... is there anything I can do to make that not happen? I'm just sick and tired of losing. I want to reach gold for the end of season rewards, but it looks like I'm going to be stuck in silver 2 for the rest of my life, if I don't drop lower. T_T

So, what can I do better? Why can't I win any lane? Why do I do no damage at all, but spontaneously explode at just the slightest touch? I just don't understand this.

17 Comments

SEKAISep 9, 20151 votes

Main a champ until you win more, beating around the bush does no one good.

Miror BSep 9, 20151 votes

Yeah, practicing in team builder helps A LOT. Back when I first started playing ranked, I played champions I had some experience with who I thought were pretty decent. Then I began to lose quite a bit (silv1 to bronze 4), and rather than blaming my team entirely for my losses (even though there were a bunch of games I s ranked yet had my entire team lose lanes around me) I decided to focus on champions that not only countered lane matchups I hated but also ones that fit my playstyle (like karthus into yasuo, and jungle olaf into skarner/pretty much all other jg'ers). Don't get me wrong, I still lose about 60% of the ranked games I play, but my overall stats/ranks in those games is up waaay more and my positive impact on the game is way bigger. Oh, and if the enemy in your lane is constantly letting the waves push them, then buy a sighstone and visit other lanes/the enemy jungle. In the lower ranks of silver/bronze, people rarely ping when the other person in their lane goes missing. One roam can often impact the other lanes and/or starve the enemy jg if you choose to steal jungle camps like I constantly do.

CrowgunSep 9, 20151 votes

How is your itemization? That could be a part of it.

I'd also wager a guess that your lack of damage might just be a perception. If you build a standard burst build on Ahri you do damage, plain and simple. You just might be lacking poke, comboing, or missing opportunities for dishing your damage out.

I agree that focusing on one champ for a while is a good way to get really good at said champ, but for working on upping your damage I'd focus more on exploiting power spikes/enemies weaknesses.

I.E Ahri vs Yas. His windwall is down and you just popped his shield and he doesn't have 3rd Q ready. Go aggressive and land the E-Q combo. You'll notice more damage being dealt because you're keeping it consistent is essentially what I'm getting at

NiyumiSep 9, 20151 votes

The items I use are fairly common and "normal" builds. So I don't really think that's part of it.

I mean, if I build a full burst build on Ahri, sure, I do damage, but that amount of damage is just pathetic. I could land an E>Q>W combo, and I'd take maybe a third of someone's health away, while another Ahri can nearly kill me with the same combo. The same applies for all the champions I play; when I play them, just the raw numbers is much lower, and when someone else plays the same champ, they just destroy me and totally blow me out of the water.

When I buy a new champ, I spam them in normals until I get rank 5, and then I start filling roles again. So I learn how to play the champion, and I feel like I can play them all, but I just can't do anything to anyone.

In that situation, I would run in and try to land my E (it's really easy to dodge, but let's assume I did land it), and I hit all my abilities on him minus my R. He'd be at half health or higher, and then he'd just E to me and start spamming Q and autos, and I die before I can get away from him.

OhBoyItsaMegamanSep 9, 20151 votes

Doing poorly when your MMR is too high is to be expected. There's no single forum post that could fix that. If you put me in Platinum, I too would lose every lane and be useless in teamfights. Even if people could tell me what I was doing wrong, I'm not ready for that level of play yet.

If it seems like people are always stronger than you, it may be a matter of cooldown. You have to understand that every ability has a cooldown time where it can't be used. When you use an ability, you are temporarily weaker for a short time. When your opponent uses an ability, he is temporarily weaker for a short time. If you don't take cooldowns into account but your opponent does, it will feel like he is much stronger.

He will poke you and then fall back so you don't hurt him while he's vulnerable. He will wait for you to use an ability, then get aggressive while your ability to fight back is diminished. You will get aggressive on him at random times instead of at smart times, and he'll retaliate full force to punish you.

If you have replays, go back and watch a game where you lost lane and pay attention to both players' cooldowns. Then try to view the same matchup in a plat or diamond game.

If you have a problem with the minions staying too close to the enemy tower even when you're only last hitting, watch a tutorial on lane freezing. There are a lot of videos about this, and it is a very important concept to grasp in order to be a good laner.

NiyumiSep 9, 20151 votes

Well I mean, it's not just ranked play. Even in normals, I'm just vastly outclassed a lot of the time. It can even be a mirror matchup, but I just pale in comparison. Every now and then, I'll be able to do well, but the majority of the time I just kind of tickle people and then drop dead as soon as they look in my direction. I can even do the same combos with the same itemization, and it just doesn't do as much.

I know how almost every champion works, and I know about their cooldowns and all that, but even then, I can't really do much. If I go in after someone uses all their abiliites, sure I could probably do 1/4-1/3 of their health, but then they'd just turn around and near instantly kill me. Earlier today I was laning against a Diana with Ekko. She would throw her Q (I would dodge it), and I'd roll in and throw my Q and proc my passive, but then as I run away, she'd ult to me and just instantly kill me. I laned against an Ekko with Jayce, and I knew everything he could do and what to look out for, but he quite literally just instantly killed me from level 4 (I just don't know where the damage was coming from). I just don't know what I'm missing out on that makes people hit so much harder than I do.

I mean, I know how to freeze a lane, but the enemy will just farm until the cannon minion spawns, and somehow my minion wave just totally pushes all the way to the turret, and I can't get the lane back away from it.

But, speaking of minions, I just have a horrible CS in ranked queues. In norms, I can easily out-farm someone by a mile, but in ranked I'm usually sitting at ~40 CS when they're at ~90, and I'll be at 100 when they're at over 180. This is usually because I have to play safe or get deleted, so hang back a bit and try to CS from a distance, but usually end up dying anyway, and lose all my CS in the process. In norms, I'm a lot more aggressive, but I can actually hurt people without instantly exploding the second I get within their range. : /

OhBoyItsaMegamanSep 9, 20151 votes

Earlier today I was laning against a Diana with Ekko. She would throw her Q (I would dodge it), and I'd roll in and throw my Q and proc my passive, but then as I run away, she'd ult to me and just instantly kill me. I laned against an Ekko with Jayce, and I knew everything he could do and what to look out for, but he quite literally just instantly killed me from level 4 (I just don't know where the damage was coming from). I just don't know what I'm missing out on that makes people hit so much harder than I do.

This is why replays are useful. I can't tell you why the Diana was able to kill you so easily. I can't tell you why the Ekko was able to burst you down at level 4. But if you had a replay, you could see exactly what items, exactly how much AP, exactly how many enemy minions were on you, and so on. Go to http://replay.gg right now. Create an account and link it to your League name. The next time you have a bad game where you don't understand what caused you to lose lane, come to these forums and post the replay that replay.gg sent you. Or if you have a reddit account, go to http://www.reddit.com/r/summonerschool and post there. They even have a megathread that is exclusively for asking people to review your replays and advise you.

I mean, I know how to freeze a lane, but the enemy will just farm until the cannon minion spawns, and somehow my minion wave just totally pushes all the way to the turret, and I can't get the lane back away from it.

A minion wave cannot push out unless you freeze incorrectly. That's why I recommend tutorial videos. There is more to it than making sure you only last hit. A lot more. The freeze should not break just because a cannon minion showed up.

NiyumiSep 10, 20151 votes

That replay site doesn't work. Just times out. I think the issue is just me though, honestly. Ever since I started this game, I've been getting progressively worse the longer I play. I'll have one great game every few days, but other than that, I get absolutely carried or absolutely destroyed. I don't know what I can even do to fix that, I have over 700 games in norms, over 40 in ranked, and I've been playing four months. If I'm still doing this badly... well I think there's a reason for that.

I'll look up a video on freezing though, thanks.

OhBoyItsaMegamanSep 10, 20151 votes

The site's broken right now, apparently. You can try it again tomorrow.

It's pretty unlikely that you're getting worse at the game, but quite possible that you're not getting better. Some aspects of the game will improve just by playing, but there are certain things that you will not get better at even if you play 1000 games unless you're dedicating some time and attention specifically to improving those things. Do not take your lack of improvement as evidence that you cannot improve.

Jungling, for example. It's important that you know what time your team's buffs respawn, and it is beneficial to take them ASAP as soon as they respawn instead of letting them sit there to be stolen. You could jungle for thousands of games and never figure that out on your own. You would need someone to tell you, and then you would need to train yourself to keep tabs on your buff timers and prioritizing them.

Th3 ProfessorSep 10, 20151 votes

Is that replay site really a thing? I've never heard of it so I'm curious how it works.

OhBoyItsaMegamanSep 10, 20151 votes

It's real. They appear to be down right now though.

Reddit thread announcing the site's launch is here. You sign up, it automatically spectates you and then emails you after every game with a link that allows you to watch.

http://na.op.gg also allows you to request a recording of your game, but you must visit the page to click the record button while the game is loading or live. And I've had problems lately with it failing to record the whole game.

BlazinHot6Sep 9, 20151 votes

Not having all 9 greater seals of Armor (Tier 3 yellow) is hurting you a lot worse than you think. Check out some different masteries on mobafire.

Lord of VendettaSep 9, 20151 votes

It might be because you don't play any champs that are OP at your elo.

Don't care about what is OP in LCS.

Azir, Xerath and Kalista won't be OP in bronze no matter their banrate in diamond.

Yi and Udyr won't be OP in diamond even though they go 20/0/0 in bronze.

NiyumiSep 9, 20151 votes

Yeah, my first game ever with LB, I went 19/2, and my first game ever with Yi, I went 14/something (I don't remember, honestly)... but champs like that are just boring. I felt like I was cheating, just instantly killing people without even really trying. I just clicked on people and watched them fall over.

I enjoy more complex champs, like Azir, but I guess I'm just no good with them.

Lord of VendettaSep 9, 20151 votes

{quoted}

Yeah, my first game ever with LB, I went 19/2, and my first game ever with Yi, I went 14/something (I don't remember, honestly)... but champs like that are just boring. I felt like I was cheating, just instantly killing people without even really trying. I just clicked on people and watched them fall over.

I enjoy more complex champs, like Azir, but I guess I'm just no good with them.

If you're gold or lower don't feel bad for playing LB

she's a difficult champ for gold and lower

NiyumiSep 10, 20151 votes

I really didn't find her difficult though. : / The combination of targeted abilities and ground-targeted abilities that are near instant... it was just kind of... boring. Just hover over your target, mash a few keys, and walk away with another kill. But, it seems like all the boring champs are the ones that perform best. All the harder champs I enjoy playing just can't stand up to the facerollers / clickers.