I'm fairly new to the game, been playing a few weeks and have been playing only against bots. I was wondering if I should dive right into pvp or wait a while longer to grap some more knowledge of how to play my favorite champions. Any and all advice will be appreciated!😃
The short answer is as soon as possible.
The long answer is it depends. Do you feel comfortable with the possibility you might let four other people down? If so charge into some normal matches and get some experience against a possibly smart opponent. If you do well fantastic! If not you'll be matched against less skilled opponents that should offer a better learning environment.
If you're not comfortable with that possibility try and find a nice premade to play with. Actually knowing the people you play with can do wonders for both your skill level and your enjoyment of the game. I'm ranked gold 5 right now and I still hate playing by myself.
If you can't seem to find people to play with, or they are just not online, I highly suggest playing ARAM. It has it's flaws, however very few people take it seriously. it's a perfect learning environment if you're not trying to focus on one particular champion. It does have a minimum champion requirement, however there should be enough cheap champions to get you to that number quickly.
Experience is always a good thing, so don't be afraid to make mistakes. It's a large part of the trial and error learning method after all. With all of this said, however, avoid Ranked play until you are comfortable with every lane and have a rune page that can fit every role. Three pages should do it (AD, AP, and Tank), so it should be fairly easy to pull off. Obviously you're not level 30 yet, but please don't make the mistake of jumping right into ranked. People doing this and expecting Ranked to be the best learning environment due to it's competitiveness is why we have so many bronze players.
I played bots exclusively for 1 and 1/2 years. I recommend staying in bots for a while longer but not as long as I did. By the time I came into PvP I was actually better the my competition, which is weird since I played bots for so long and I play on a freaking touchpad when I play. But I digress. The bots will teach you important things if you don't exploit their programming. The bots have Korean like reflexes and know precisely when to lock you down and burst you to oblivion. And Karthus bot is a complete asshole. Speaking of which, are you playing beginner or intermediate bots? There's a pretty big skill gap between those two AI programs. If you struggle against the intermediate AI then stay in bot games. When you can get through multiple games on different champions where you die less than two times, don't lose more than one tower and find that you know how to counter the bot's techniques then you will be ready. But while in bots practice warding anyway. It's a useful skill and if you make it a habit now it will serve you greatly later on.
The sooner the better! The game should match you with people with the same skill level as you so it should be a very good learning experience. Bots tend to make all kinds of mistakes like not chasing. Bots are good to play against if you're trying to get used to a champ but once you think you are comfortable enough with them, go for pvp! Trust me, you'll learn a lot more when playing against people!
Hey man in my opinion PvP should be done earlier rather then later because it differs from bots quite a lot. AI is a good learning curve and teaches you how to play the game quite well and there are others there with you to help you understand some of the games mechanics but experiencing how actual people react to your in game actions can be much more helpful then bots. Sorry if this didn't help I'm currently waiting for a game and wanted to keep it brief. :p
The time you should start Pvp is really up to you, but i'd recommend doing it around lv 15-20 to start getting experience against other players. While bots don't challenge you quite as much as players can and will later on, its important that you feel confident in how you play. Getting used to the level of difficulty intermediate bots bring is a good way to help you practice your mechanics and get prepared to deal with other players, with far less stress for failure, and let's be honest here, Less smurfs. Thankfully a lot of smurfs will lose interest after the first level grouping, so by the time you get around level 16 or so, they're less of an issue (Since let's face it, most people who want to pub-stomp, will end up having retarded win-rates by this point and will end up facing other smurfs as a result).
This all said, the most important thing is to be comfortable. Pick a champ you like, test em out in some intermeds, if you like them, or are considering buying them, great! When you feel like you have a good grasp, try out normals! Blind pick is generally easier to get your champion, though by this point you'll see more structured metas popping up, but it shouldn't really be until around level 20 (When tier three runes are accessible) that nitty gritty meta hags should impede your playing a champ for experience.
It is recommended to try out your champion in their native role as much as possible during these learning stages, but its not pivotal, at least not until higher level gates, where your teammates will expect you to provide, or at least attempt providing specific roles. If you're scared of not having a champ for a particular role, grab a 450. They're cheap, mechanically simple, beloved by many, and fairly strong, and can tide the gaps for when you can't play that champ you're dying to learn. Likewise, team builder is a thing now, so if you really want to dedicate to a certain champ and have enough time, you can use that to structure parties.
Once you feel a little more meta-wise (Top,Jungle,Mid,ADC,Support), you can start testing your mettle in draft pick. It lets you ban out all those pesky champs you hate playing, and provides the structure that most upper-level play, and somewhat more importantly Ranked play (If you desire) is centered on.
Last tip Take your time, especially for ranked once you get to 30. Its better to come into ranked with a solid groundwork, than to rush into the gates looking for skill validation. When you're just starting the game, its fairly easy to overestimate your abilities, or just not be as solid with the framework as you think you are. Having a small cluster of mini-mains to fill other roles is recommendable as getting your role in ranked is not guaranteed, (Solo lanes are highly contested). Likewise if you're a pretty competitive person, ranked is probably going to cause you a lot of stress, as people are much more serious, and its really the cesspool for some of the best and worst aspects of the league community.
Pvp is like a cold water pool. You just have to dive in, get it over with, and sink or swim.
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I would recommend jumping right in, as long as you have the basics down. (by that I mean knowing you need to CS, how skills work, etc). Might be rough at first, but just keep at it.
If you can beat intermediate bots with no hassle, you should move on to pvp. If you need to grasp a new champ's mechanics, practice more on bots. Bots don't rage and curse at you if you do bad, so it's easier to practice until you feel you got the mechanics of whatever champ your playing than to practice in pvp and get your felling hurt
The ideal time to start playing pvp is between the time you have learned all the basic mechanics of the game and the time you start developing bad habits.
Jumping right into pvp before you have learned all of the basic mechanics means you will likely get dumpstered in just about every game you play. Which is okay because you still learn more about the game when you lose than when you win, and winning only matters when you start playing ranked, but it can be discouraging when you start playing pvp and start losing every game because you don't quite have the basic mechanics down.
However, when a newer player plays bots for too long, they will likely develop habits against bots that don't work against actual players, primarily with abusing the bots' behaviors. Players don't have set behaviors that work every game because no player plays exactly the same, but creating bad habits from playing bots too long leaves you vulnerable to getting bad habits that your opponents can abuse.
I recommend starting pvp between levels 10-15, but you should only start when you feel comfortable with the idea of playing pvp.
Glad to have someone enthusiastic about playing. Just as a general tip, try learning Ashe first because she has a simple kit but lots of mechanics to make you better at the game.
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Immediately. Bots do not punish you for mistakes and teach you very poor habits, or atleast worse ones than you would develop in PVP.
