Quick guide on how to improve at League of legends About me I started playing League in Season 1 (2011) and made my way up to Diamond without any help (Scripts, Assemblies or whatever). In total I played over 8000 games since I began playing League. Sadly my main got banned in the 4.20 banwave, I'm now playing with a new account that is currently in Diamond. My main positions are top and mid and I play them quite successful. About this guide This guide is made to help you improve your overall game play. It isn't made for a special champ and will get into every role. However, this is just basic knowledge which I collected over the years. It might be help you understanding the game and your teammates better so that you can carry games more easy. So far I think that the guide also could help some people playing in higher elo. Before queuing up There are a few things you should do before queuing up or if you're testing a new Champ. Game Settings : Check your game settings. It's recommended to use smart cast on almost every spell, if it is any skill shot and you fear missing hit you can turn on the range indicator settings. This will show you the range of your skill shot while holding the key also it won't shot it instantly. (This stetting can be found in the 'HOTKEYS' menu) Somehow I also change the trinket key (this might is affected by playing league for years before the trinket came into the game), for example if you're using the blue trinket which is very situational to use you need to use it fast. However I bind my trinket to T so I'm always ready to use it. Assembly settings : This is probably one of the most important things you should do before queuing up. Make sure to bind your assembly keys so you can change the modes (Combo, Harass etc) as fast as you can. Best would be if the escape/flee key is near to the combo key. For example I'm using a Logitech G19 keyboard and a Logitech G600 mouse. If you have any mouse/keyboard equal to this you maybe want to use the different extra keys and bind them so that you can use your mouse for all the assembly keys. However, if you find yourself struggling by orbwalking (your assembly doesn't shoot out every attack or just walks without shooting) uncheck the 'Auto Attack' box in the 'GAME' settings (League settings) this will maybe help you out and improve the orbwalk. New to a champion? NEVER try out champs in ranked. You're maybe going to win the game but most of the time you will find yourself losing your lane and the game what will most likely make you be upset. It's recommended to just read a guide for the champion you bought and want to play before going with it in a game. Also you should try it out in a normal, team builder or what ever so you get used to the damage/tankyness. Masteries and Runes : I often find myself changing any runes and masteries for different champs that's why I always have 20 mastery pages and as much rune pages I can have with different settings. You maybe want to create sections for your runes and masteries. As I'm using standard masteries and runes I also have a 'Champion' section. That means I have champion specific runes and masteries but I also have runes and masteries made for every champ. Know which position and champion you want to play : Well, most of you want to go ranked and win them, so do I. First of all you should get a main position and on this position you should've at lease two champs you know how to play. But keep in mind that it's Solo or DuoQ so you won't get the champ or position you want every game. However, you also should look for a second lane you want and can play on. Be relaxed : This sounds dumb, I know but hey, it's SoloQ and you're fighting for LP. You should always make sure that you're not angry, mad, upset or in any other bad mood since it'll make you play worse. Well, that's not the onliest thing that can go wrong by playing while being in such a mood. You're probably going to start flaming your team which result in a even worse game, will get you reports and you probably get chat restricted and/or ranked restricted. What do we get from it? Exactly, we've to play Normal Draft with all these mad kids which are leaving, trolling and flaming cause it's only normal. So, think twice before playing while being in a bad mood. Listen to music you like : Probably everyone is doing this anyhow but I can't say it often enough. Music you like and enjoy makes you feel better (even if you don't realize it). Now, I can't say listen to X music or to Y music since everyone likes different music. If you find yourself not enjoying the music you're actually listen maybe just take a look into the top list on Spotify or what ever. Maybe look for an online radio you enjoy? For some people it's better to listen to a specific music style but they don't know which song so that should help out. DuoQ or SoloQ? Well mate, that depends on yourself! I actually don't enjoy DuoQ as much as SoloQ cause the enemy teams are getting stronger as well. However being in DuoQ can also be a motivation. You maybe want to show a friend how hard you can carry games which is a good motivation to always give your best. Flaming team mates : Please, never do this. Neither in champion selection nor in game! Even after the game Riot logs the chat so you probably don't want to flame at all. Anyhow, not only the restrictions you can get by flaming are annoying also the lose of LP. Everyone is just a human and humans aren't perfect! Flaming just will make your mates play worse cause they're busy writing shit what leads to an lose of concentration and a lose of the game awareness. If your team is flaming each other just tell them to relax. You maybe also want to start saying gj and wp after they did well so they get motivated. It's your own choice if you want motivated people or flaming school kids. Knowledge is might : In this guide you'll find the term 'Knowledge is might' two times and here I want to describe it. You maybe want to believe me this or not but if you know your enemies (checking their starts during the loading screen) can help you out by being prepared for them to be good. Of course this isn't 100% guaranteed since everyone can have a bad game but you should be aware of them. Never underestimate your enemies, this could end in a lost game. So you should try to take out people who got a nice win ratio on that champ or on this position as long as you can. Try to make them stay on your lane for ever so they won't get fed up by roaming. I find a lot of people forgetting their own lane by roaming that makes the enemy who's behind farming up. A farmed champ is still a danger in team fights. As for the players it counts for vision. Vision is a game changing thing that can be denied easily. You should always get a Sweeping Lens (Oracle's Lens) after about 15 - 20 minutes. if you're a champ like Kata or Lee which can use a ward jump to escape or pick up a kill you also can choose to either buy the Greater Warding Totem or the Vision Ward Totem (yellow trinket) so you can set up a bit vision (or take it with the pink ward trinket) while also being able to set them for escapes. However, it's important to take off the enemies vision so you get advantage. Also instead of only taking away the vision of your enemies to lower their awareness you should ward a lot. If you know where your enemies are you can better decide on what objectives you should take. You can find the best warding spots in the 'Warding' section. Patch notes : You always should read the patch notes, they probably look boring for you or you just watch for new champs/skins. But I've to say that it's worth spending half an hour reading them and understanding them. Maybe your most played champion got a nerf? However, reading the patch notes isn't only worth for your champ also for the enemies so maybe an match up got a nerf that it's easier to win for you. They also could've changed the global gold from objectives or the jungle buffs. If you know what they're changing you can understand the game better and can focus on things you need. (Objectives) Be a leader : A team together is much stronger than just a random team hopping around on the Rift. You should lead your team. Some people don't know how to do this but it's very important to make your life easier. Don't only ping on objectives when you want to do them also write it on the chat. If you think your team is going to do the wrong objective let them know it. Always be friendly while being a leader. Don't write shit like 'OMG WHY DID YOU DO THAT?' it's better to go like 'Mate, you should've done ... since it would've given us more advantage' or anything else like this. If you're a friendly leader your team will have a better time following you. I mean who wants to follow someone who's toxic? I don't want this. Early game trinket : I see a lot of people just sitting on their trinkets early. It's available for a reason! You should use your trinket before minute one (ward trinket) so you'll have it up again when you need it (around minute 3 when most junglers start ganking). Don't fear to use it. It can safe you from invades but it also can lead to a better invade by yourself. Also you can tell your team to use it as well if it's needed. More vision that early means that you can play way more safe. MMR (Match Making Rating) : Not everyone knows everything about the MMR. MMR just means Match Making Rating and is the thing that matches us with people in our strength. You can increase your MMR by winning a lot of games but keep in mind that ARAM, Team Builder, Normal (Blind and Draft Pick), Dominion and Ranked got a different value which will give you enemies which are equal to you. So how does my MMR affect my games and the LP I gain per win or lose? Well, first I've to say that the match making for normal games is also using your ranked division. That means, if you're Plat for example your enemies will be stronger than the ones from a Gold player. Keep in mind that the people you're playing with (friends) can change this value. However, so far I think that you guys want to know more about the ranked match making. It's a lot of stuff here. First you have to understand the winning and losing of match making 'points'. Let's say you're new to League and unranked. Placement matches are by far the most valuable games. Also it depends here on when you win and lose. Let's say you did well the first five games of the placement matches but you lose the other five which will end in a worse result than winning, losing, winning, losing, etc. The point here is that Riot wants to put you in the League you belong to. So the latest matches of your placement games have a higher value than the first of them. But how does it work if I'm ranked? That's kinda easy to understand. As I said above Riot wants to put you in the division you belong to. So, in your first 50-70 games you're playing (after placement matches) you're gaining more LP per game which makes it easier to climb the ladder. Anyhow, these games also have a high effect on our MMR. That means that you're MMR is increasing very fast as you win games but also you lose a lot of your rating by having a losing streak. What if I already played hundred of games? This makes it more difficult for you to get up in the League. Your mmr per win is decreased cause you already played a lot. But this also depends on how many games you did in a special league. If you just hit Plat your MMR gain per win is normal while having 100+ games in Plat is giving you less MMR per win. Keep in mind that the ratings decrease value still is the same which will end up that you lose more MMR than you gain. (That makes it possible to go up and down in Leagues) I now know everything about MMR but how does it affect my LP? Well, the LP gain per win depends on your MMR. For example you're Gold IV and getting matched with Plat people means that you've a much higher rating than the normal player so you'll gain a lot of LP but you'll lose less. This also counts the different way. Gold IV playing with Silver? Your LP per wins just suck now and you lose a lot. However, you now should watch out for a winning streak (normally about 10 wins in raw are needed to get a normal rating again, this depends on the rating you've at the moment). How can I skip divisions? So far you've to know that everything belongs to your MMR. So far I can tell you that if you're Gold III for example and you're losing barely you should be able to jump over Gold II now. If you already have a Plat MMR it's also possible to skip a division without doing the series. But keep in mind that this is only possible till Plat I. (Official statement about skipping devisions can be found on reddit.) I had a higher ranking in the preseason than during the last season, how does it affect my placement matches? Well, as soon as the preseason begins you can read some hints (made for the preseason) which tells you that the rating you get in the preseason is the important thing. So if you lose a lot or win a lot during this time you also will be affected by it in the next season. Don'tgo and play like 'it's only preseason, who cares'. (Can be read on the official support website and the 'help' function in the 'League' section during the preseason) I hope I could clear up some questions about the match making rating and that you understand it better now. Sorry for the long text here. Know your mistakes : A good way to improve your game play is to know which mistakes you're doing over and over again. Maybe the wrong positioning as ad carry or the wrong focus. Maybe you did a wrong call? Well, this all happens in every elo. We're just humans and we're making mistakes. No one will kill you cause you made a mistake. First of all you should start recording your games. (LoL Replay, op.gg, etc.) So now you need to collect data first that you can watch later on. For example you could watch for a few days per week which you're using intentionally to make replays. Than choose one day (maybe Sunday) where you watch all the replays. So now you need a 'system' on which you should watch. The most important replays are those which you lost. I don't talk about games where you went out of the lane with 0/100/0. I'm talking about close games you lost. Let's say the game already last for one hour that means the death timers are 72 seconds which can lose/win a game. Especially there you've to look which mistakes you're doing. On the other hand you can also watch close games that you've won and look what your enemies did wrong. If you're using LoL Replay make notes (rename the replays) so you know which are worth watching and which aren't. It's completely useless to watch games you won hard. Also it's useless to watch replays where you lost your lane badly. (You may want to watch the laning phase but not more) If you're using op.gg you maybe want to write down which replays are worth watching. (As Diamond V+ player you don't need to make the replays by yourself since lolking is making replays of every game which include a Diamond V+ player, at least that's the information I've about it) Now, as you can see your own mistakes, you can start criticizing yourself. That means you're not just watching them for the lulz, you're watching them to improve. You've to know that your doing mistakes, so do I but if you don't want to stand your mistakes you can't improve. It's important that you say to yourself 'STOP HERE! I do this mistake over and over again and I've to change it!' and be aware of it in your next game. A mistake a lot people are doing is that they're overestimating themselves when they're fed. That means they're going for 1vs3 cause they can and lose it. Such mistakes make you lose games. Enemies mistakes : So now as I wrote about the mistakes which are we doing we also should talk about the enemies mistakes as you can abuse them. Since we're planning to reach a rank that is high we should see mistakes when they're going on. Our goal is not only to deny our own faults also take advantage of the enemies bads. That means if someone got a disconnect, abuse it! They would do the same. Anyhow, not only taking advantage out of disconnects also seeing when your enemy is doing mistakes by having a bad positioning or is completely wrong on the map. For example drake is up and one of them is around and your team just group for it take the kill and after drake. Especially in late game you've to be aware of such situations since the death timer increases as the game is taking it's way. Maybe your enemy is doing a mistake you know (cause you do it sometimes as well) take it as opportunity and punish them for making it wrong. Champion selection Be prepared! You now should be ready for everything and you should be resistance. People already now start trolling, flaming, blaming. You part is to keep them calm, say a funny sentence or whatever but make sure that no one already explodes in champion selection! If it's getting too hard you probably want to dodge this game since no one wants to play with people that are already toxic like hell in champ selection. I'll bring up some examples for that : Sometimes there are people that just don't know what the pick order is. For example you picked adc and someone else picks adc as well. Don't flame him like 'OMG TROLL' stay friendly and try to make the best out of this situation. If you think you can't win, leave! A lot of people had a bad game before and there are two different ways of them. They are either going to flame the whole just cause their last team sucked balls or they're going to flame someone special simply cause he had a bad game before. Try to keep them calm. Tell them it's a different game now and a new chance, some people just need motivation. Instalockers.. yeah.. annoying people but well they exist. But since you're a friendly and relaxed guy you just gonna pick a different role. Who knows, maybe he's good with the champ he instantly locked in, let him his chance. But it could be completely different as well. For example someone says he wants to go mid and posts a lolking with 10 wins in raw, man just let him mid. Why would you refuse a nearly free win? Even if you have to go support for that the chance of winning the game is higher than when you're going mid. (This rule is nonsense if you're smurfing!) Team combos : So, we know what exactly is needed but which team combos are better? We're now going to take a look at ap and ad team combos. As you maybe know by yourself full ad teams are easily to counter by two tanks in the enemy team. The reason for that is that the armor items got a 'higher value' than magic resist items. Let's say someone is building tons of life and is going to buy a Thornmail. From now on it doesn't matter how much armor penetration you got simply because you'll deal more damage to yourself than you can do. (Thornmail can only get countered by 30% and more life steal while you still need a lot of armor penetration) Now we want to compare that to 'full ap' teams. Full ap teams maybe don't have such a great pushing potential but their team fight is really strong. Anyhow, since there's an adc in every game people can't just build magic resist against the ap champs or they'll get eaten by the adc. However, your goal should be to find a good combo which is made out of both for it but I recommend you not to pick a full ad team if you're not sure that you win the game early or they got at least two tanks simply cause you'll lose later on. Finding an equal combo is actually the best way to go. For example you already got only ad right now and jungle is left for you you maybe want to pick something like Amumu/Nidalee/Diana etc. so that you can still kill the enemies if they're only going for armor. You see, finding and equal combo is really important and you should communicate with your team who can take a special role if it is needed. So we now know the difference from full ad compare to full ap. Now we take a look at the cc of the team and which values cc gives us in a game. (For the people who don't know it cc means Crowd Control) I saw that very often and had the same situation very often. Games can be lost in Champion Selection, this isn't only a myth, it's the truth! So since we decided between the combos (what we should have) we now need to know which team is better. Is it the team with tons of cc or is it the team with a lot burst? So far I can say that the team with the high amount of cc is going to win if they're playing at least equal to your team, but why is cc such a value and can't we just buy qss (Quicksilver Sash) against them? Simply no you can't. Even tho you can buy a qss it wont have a that high value. It got a 90 seconds cooldown in this team the most cc ultis which are worth getting cleansed are up again. So, don't forget to pick enough cc into your team. Damage isn't everything what is needed! Invade or not? Invading is a trick thing, I saw invades going perfect and I saw the people invading dieing. Well, we now take a look at them team combos, if you see your team is much stronger early than the enemy team tell your team as soon as you're in game that you should invade. Your team is stronger early? Good, now you can go invade BUT never - really never - burn your summoner's (at least not flash, ghost) if you can make a kill without it. The fight still can change and you maybe need it to escape or safe it for a hard lane. If you can secure a kill with flash or ghost or which summoner's you choose feel free to take it but think twice if it is worth to flash for it. Are you hp already low? Don't flash! You're full hp and every other enemy already got away? Feel free to flash now. Objectives I don't know how often I said this and I don't want to know it. Objectives are more important than kills! Especially with the new jungle and and all the changes to to the towers it's now even more important to make the right decisions. Time for a little bit math : Let's say you're at the inhibitor tower and you can now choose between taking down this tower and the inhibitor or take a kill with one assist. Tower : 150 Gold for everyone on the map (your team of course) + 100 gold (split to everyone near this tower) = 850 Gold + 50 Gold if you last hit (or any other member of your team) for the inhibitor. That makes overall 900 Gold. (This does not count for laser turrets anymore (inhibitor and nexus turrets), they now only give 50 global gold and 0 global experience.) Kills + Assist : Let's say this guys is on a large killing spree which gives you a 500 Gold bounty and the one assisting you 250 Gold. That makes a overall income of 750 Gold. You now lose 150 Gold for nothing. As you can see objectives are just worth more at all. If you manage to get the kill + the tower gold it's even better but always focus on objectives. Not only the point that you get more Gold for it you also get near to the win with taking down objectives. So now we also have to be aware of Dragon and Baron. As I said above the changes to the jungle made Dragon and Baron a even bigger value and we're now looking into it. Dragon : Dragon gives every member of your team a decent buff. As more Dragons you can get as more advantage you get over the enemy team. You get +% ad/ap, +% damage to minions and monsters (jungle creeps) what makes you push fast. You gain movement speed which can be useful for chasing, getting faster to the place you want and makes your overall team fight more smooth. With the 4th drake you take you get +% damage to buildings what makes you an insane strong team overall. With the 5th stack of the Buff you gain a damage burst (true damage to enemies) and all the bonuses you got before are doubled. This is just insane. If you ever watched LCS, Worlds or any other pro players you see them taking Dragons as soon as possible (even before these changes came). You should make the same, drake is possible at around minute 6 for any jungler with the help of bot. But before taking it that early you should make sure to either kill bot or the jungler. Baron : As Dragon, Baron is now an insane objective. Not only you're getting a buff also your minions are getting buffed. Let's take a look what Baron's buff mean for you now. You recall time is reduced, you get healed (mana and health), a speed buff for leaving the base fast and a scaling ad and ap buff. Now that totally changed the value of Baron since now you can recall much faster if you're low hp and can't get caught easy by the enemy team as before. And don't forget the global money. Now we know what we're getting by doing all these stuff but which one should we get first now? Well, I can't say take this objectives than this. It depends on your game and all these objectives are game changing. So make sure that your enemy team isn't getting everything they want for free. Ward the objectives and fight for them, it's worth! However, you have to get the right timing for the different objectives to get the most out of it. TL;DR : The amount of gold given by towers maybe isn't correct, it should be more now. Farm TL:DR This section probably isn't worth to read if you're a main jungler! Well, farming is almost as important as objectives! Let's say you're adc and you win the lane with closed eyes. Now, if this happens a lot of adc's and support's just want to roam mid but be aware. Roaming mid means you're losing farm and changes our gold income. Don't stay mid for the whole game as adc or as midlaner don't roam 24/7, cs got more value than you even think. If you read the patch notes since patch 4.20 you maybe realized that they made cs gold more worth. So there are rules to follow : Don't roam if you can't get objectives or kills/assists. Don't roam if you're behind! That probably ends the way that you die and lose even more cs. Go roam if you can get drake or a tower. If you're playing a split pusher don't even think about roaming a lot and just kill your lane over and over again, take the cs and towers. Overall that means that minions are worth a lot. I saw people having 11 kills but a horrible farm what just make them useless in mid/late game cause they dropped a lot of gold. Also as jugnler you shouldn't stand a minute on a lane doing nothing just sitting in the bush and waiting for opportunities. It will make you more weak and a less danger. Early game Most likely is that in the early game won't happen a lot. Your goal is to get advantage over your enemy and get your core item faster than he's doing. This can work out two different ways. You either choose to farm safely and freeze the lane so you deny the enemy cs while you get everything or you ask your jungler to gank you and get advantage this way. Toplaner : Well, toplane is like a own game. Don't expect your jungler to gank you and farm your way up. Look for opportunities to kill your enemy without dieing. But be aware if you get advantage and ward your lane so you're resistance against ganks from their jungler and midlaner. Midlaner : Probably the lane where happens most. Talk to your jungler if he's ganking you early or not and decide this way if you're either playing aggressive or passive. Also keep in mind that the enemies got a jungler. Don't overextend as it can lose your lane hard. However, depending on the match up and the junglers you've to decide what you're going to do. Bottom : Just farm, farm, farm! Don't expect too many ganks early bot. Your way of winning the lane is just pushing the lane out as far as you can or freezing the lane. This depends on the match up. For example, if you're Lulu and Vayne against Ezreal and Sona just push the lane out as hard as you can and tell your jungler to do a early drake. Jungler : First of all you should take the buffs and than start ganking. Your ganks depends on the lanes. If it's a Riven top try to make her snowball or if it's a full tank top just ignore it and let him make his shit by himself. He'll get his items sooner or later and since you won't get a lag of damage if he's falling behind it doesn't really matter. Well, if the enemy top is a carry lane such as Kayle and pushing all day you can help your toplaner shutting him down. However, your goal now should be to feed or midlane first. If you made a successful gank bot don't forget to take drake. How to set up a gank (basics) : So now we talked about the behavior on the lanes and I now want you to know how you can set up a gank correctly. Remember that every lane is gankable from different points. Let's say you're going to gank top (your team is blue side and the enemies are at the red side) and both are equal pushed (at the middle of the lane) so you now can go and gank from behind the enemies over the tribush. But why should I set up my gank over the tribush instead just walking up the river? If you're coming from behind you got an advantage cause you won't need your gap closer to get to your enemy and you can safe it for the moment he flashed or used his escape. Before setting up a gank you should make sure that you got enough cc to put the enemy down or at least get his summoner spells. If you want to gank mid it's fairly easy here. Let's see we got the same situation as above for ganking the top lane. The lanes are equal pushed that means you now got 4 different points from where you can set up a gank. Same as on the toplane you should prefer to gank the enemy from behind that makes him an easier target. Don't fear going through the enemy jungle to set up a gank. But be aware if you got a Ahri for example and she fails her Charm to make your gank a bigger danger and you don't have that much cc forget about the gank and go try to gank a other lane. But, we also want to gank bot! Yeah, sure. Bot is probably the most tricky lane to gank, a support who's almost every time warding. This can be really annoying. Anyhow, if you're going to make a early gank on bottom you should try to get the best position you can get out of the situation that means you're trying to go behind your enemies even tho it's not always possible. But since the bot lane is 'weak' we still can burn summoners even when we aren't coming from behind. Overall the best way to set up is gank is that you're coming from behind. That's almost every time a surprise for the enemy laner and will get you into a nice situation. Don't forget that it isn't needed to kill the lane all the time. It's enough if you get summoners and they have to back so you can take objectives for free. Mid game This part of the game totally depends on the different team combos and the advantage of your team. Let's say your team made it good so far than you should now group to take down a few objectives but as I said above in the Farm section don't forget to take your farm as it's still a lot of gold. If your team wasn't that good just keep on farming your lane or as jungler make ganks and try to get objectives so you can get your advantage. If you're playing a split push champ it's time to abuse this since you'll drop in late game. For example your team is actually grouping at mid and you're playing Shaco. Don't think about helping them out mid. Probably all the enemies will go mid as well that means you can take down objectives on the side lanes for free. (Drake, towers, inhibs) Anyhow, if your team made it well but your team combo is just worse you all should group and try to push mid. But don't overextend it. No matter how fed you're or how much advantage you got a better team combo still can be game changing and completely ruin your game. Well, you also can just go roam now (no matter which lane you're playing) and take objectives by killing enemies in 2vs3 situations. If you make the right decision here you probably won't need the next section. Late game In my eyes this is the most annoying part of the game since you probably won't be able to carry solo anymore. However, every one should be full build or at least near it so it doesn't matter anymore if you had advantage or not. Now it counts who's getting more objectives, who did more drakes early and who's getting Nashor. As split pusher you should make sure to just split every time you can but keep in mind that you don't die. The spawn timers are just insane now and one missing champ can make you lose. Always be aware of the map and check if you're in danger. If you got a incredible strong team combo you should group mid and punish the enemy team for taking a weaker combo. Don't forget to change your trinket into Sweeping Lens (Oracle's Lens) to take off all the vision your enemies got. As we know, knowledge is might.