The #1 tip I can add, is to always try andwin your lane. It is probably the most important determining factor, especially in "solo queue". Try and start in a lane where you have a favorable match-up or where you feel confident you can win (if you don't feel confident and no one else can take the lane, be sure to communicate this to your team so they can help as much as possible with ganks, etc). Try and deny your opponent of last hits and experience when possible. Try and force them out of lane by harassing them. Try and kill them when you can. Try and get their tower as quickly as you can. At the very least, try and out-farm your opponent. Do this while preventing your opponent from doing the above to you, and you've won your lane.
Towards this goal, it's important that you know the strengths and weaknesses of as many characters as possible so you can be aware of the match-ups and use that knowledge to your advantage (this is not a very skill intensive game so knowledge is everything). As a game is loading, alt-tab out and check out a site like http://lolcave.com/cl/. It'll help you learn the abilities of your opponents or just refresh your memory of what they can do. Learn their passives! People always forget about passives which can lead to thinking they have an advantage when they don't and end up doing things they shouldn't (chasing a Nidalee, 1v1ing a Sion, etc).
It's also a good idea especially if you're a newer player to try out every free character each week (even just in a Custom game or Co-Op vs. AI) to get a feel for their abilities and their mind set. This will help you tremendously when you have to face them later.
@Vision said:
" If you're in a solo lane and need to leave it (for shopping, healing and ganking etc) it is wise to push the lane before you leave. That way you'll lose the least amount of creeps and your opponent will lose the most."
Don't be afraid to use cooldowns and mana to push the lane faster before shopping. The faster you do it, the more pressure you put on the lane for when you're gone and the more time you'll have before you need to return. All your cooldowns and mana will be back by the time you return anyway. Also, as it gets into the mid-game, pushing your lane hard and fast is a good thing to do often as it frees you up to go do "something else", which could be get a buff, help with dragon, gank a lane, etc.
@Vision said:
" Say you're in top lane and you see an enemy 3 man gank bot, chances are you should be pushing top hard, since it's safe. (pull out once they disappear of course)."
This is why map control is so important. It gives you options. If you know their jungler is getting a buff on the other side of the map, you are free to push as hard as you want for a minute or so because you know it's safe. Without map control or awareness of what the enemy is doing or where they are, you have to play more conservatively and safer. The above advice also goes for lots of situations when you're across the map from the action. It's often best to just push as hard as you can rather than run all the way across the map to try and save a tower, a teammate, etc. You usually won't be able to save them anyway and you'll have sacrificed a possible gain (like taking one of their towers) in exchange for gaining nothing. As it gets to the mid to late game, being off on your own away from the team is generally a bad thing anyway (unless you are a champion who excels at pushing or the "split-push strategy).
@Vision said:
"
- If you're mid and your jungler is starting at blue remember to leash it. You basically take two shots at the golem over the tree wall making it go after you. That will give your jungler 2-4 free hits off, before it attacks him."
It's usually best to group up in the jungle at the start of every game to protect your jungler. You rarely see this at low level games but you see it in every high level game. It's a common strategy to try and gank the jungler at the very start so get into the habit of protecting him at the start. Minions don't reach the lane until the 2:00 mark and you don't gain anything by just standing at your tower anyway. Also, "leashing" blue buff like this will speed up the junglers route and save him health. If 2 or more people attack a couple times before going to lane, it speeds it up even more. The faster your jungler clears the jungle, the faster they can gank. Always help them (without stealing experience) when you can.
@Vision said:
" WARDS, WARDS, WARDS AND MORE WARDS."
It's usually best to try and buy a ward every time you go back to base to buy. If you're playing a jungler or support, try and buy 2 every time since map control is part of your job. As a rule of thumb, at the end of a game if you have more deaths than wards bought, you're doing it wrong. Wards are cheap and give your team such an advantage that can save you from death or even get a kill.
@Vision said:
" If you've got teleport as a summoner or you're playing a champion with teleport such as Twisted Fate, don't use it to go back to your lane cause it takes the fear factor of a tele gank away."
Teleport is on a long cooldown so if you're using it just to return to lane faster and get an extra 2-3 creep kills, you're wasting it. If you pushed the lane properly before shopping (see above) you won't need to Tele back anyway. Tele is best used to protect a tower that will fall without using it or to gank. This is true of many other summoner spells. Don't use them if you won't gain something from it. Too often I see people waste Ignite or Exhaust on someone that they couldn't possibly kill or use Flash to escape when they were going to die anyway. Summoner spells are extremely valuable. Treat them as such.
@Vision said:
" Towers wins games, not kills."
Also, farm wins games ("farm" being your total minions killed, or "creep score", also called "CS"). If you out farm your opponent, you will be stronger than they will and even with a weaker team comp, can easily win the game. Top players are masters of this. It's not uncommon to see a player like Chauster (one of the best players in the world, plays for CLG, the #1 team) get 200 creep kills in 20 mins. Meanwhile, at low level games, players struggle to get many in 40 mins. The more farm, the more gold; the more gold, the more gear; the more gear, the stronger advantage. A good goal to shoot for is 80 CS per 10 mins. Remember however that if you're playing a champion that doesn't rely much on farm to still be effective (Taric, Janna, Alistar, for example) and/or laning with someone who is more reliant on farm than you, it's best to let your teammate get the majority of the farm.
@Vision said:
" The best times to do Dragon is when A. You just killed the enemy jungler, B. You see 2+ enemy champions top and C. You get a pick(a kill), making it a 4v5."
Same goes for Baron. Baron spawns at 15 mins and from then on, you should be keeping tabs on it (with wards and CV) to make sure your opponent does not get the Baron buff and also to take any opportunities you might have to get it. Don't mindlessly go farm bottom lane when their whole team is MIA. They could be at Baron and you would be out of position to help your team stop them. This is another reason why why map control is so important.
@Vision said:
" While it is almost exclusively used in higher ELO, Clairvoyance (also known as CV) is one of the best summoners in the game. It is best used on a support "
I couldn't agree more. If you like playing support characters (Taric, Sona, Janna, Zilean, Soraka, etc) get in the habit of taking it (and taking the Mystical Vision and Presence of the Master masteries) and using it as often as it's up. While not a suitable replacement for wards, it is fantastic for keeping tabs on the enemy jungler throughout their route in the early game and checking on Baron, Dragon, and enemy buffs (in that order of priority) as the game goes on. It also reveals what's in the brush, even if placed outside the brush (as long as the brush is in range) so it can be very useful when someone on your team is ganking top or bottom lane to prevent the enemy from "juking" or getting out of line of sight. CV is also practically a requirement for level 1 fights (when protecting your jungler, as previously discussed) because it can reveal the enemy team waiting in a brush to rush your jungle.
@Dejkrigeren said:
" It might be worth mentioning that when you've got a jungler on your team top is the second solo lane. "
For anyone wondering, the reason for this is to have better control over Dragon. Having 2 champions in the bottom lane, close to dragon, makes it easier for someone to help the jungler get dragon or fight the enemy off of Dragon.
@nywt
said:
" I know this is elementary stuff, but make sure you call any missing opponent you are laneing against. I can't count the number of times where my teammates fail to make a call that results in someone else getting ganked. I would prefer if people abused it and called more than was required instead of not at all. "
This is actually one of those weird things that many players think is so important and yet high level players don't do it very much. It's not a bad thing and you should definitely call MIA's when you notice them, but learn not to rely on MIA calls yourself. High level players don't actually call MIA's very often simply because they are all in the habit of constantly checking the mini-map and being aware of any MIA's themselves, and so it's not necessary.
Lower level players are often not skilled enough to focus on what they're doing in their own lane while also being aware of what is going on elsewhere on the map, which is why the MIA system developed. Too often however, lower level players become so used to the "crutch" of MIA calls that they end up blaming their team when they overextend and get punished when they should have been aware of the situation themselves. Certainly call MIAs when you notice them, but don't rely on them and expect your teammates to forget and learn to be aware of it yourself. Think of the mini-map like your rear view mirror in a car - always be checking it. Blaming your team for not calling MIAs is a little like blaming the driver of a car you steered into because you didn't check your blind spot. Remember, map awareness is your own responsibility.
@Demyx
said:
" @floodiastus said:
" I don't really agree with last hitting, in HoN this was a much bigger deal because of denies. But in LoL you almost always have a ward up to save you from ganks and pushing the creepwave into their tower means THEY have a harder time last hitting the minions and let's you get in a few hits on their tower as well. "
Depends on ward placement and the ganker. If it someone like Ww for Rammus for example, you could die no matter what. And if someone places a vision ward in the same area with your ward, they could actually bypass it completely if they are careful. I wouldn't keep a lane pushed for too long. "
It depends on the situation. It's usually best to only last hit for the first few mins of the game when jungle ganks are the most threatening and you want to set your opponent up for ganks. As the game goes on, it becomes less necessary for your opponent to be pushed to your tower to still have a successful gank and you also have wards and more levels and abilities to help you survive an opposing gank attempt, so you can more safely push. Some champions are better at this than others, hence some champions being better suited to a "push" strategy. Teemo, Nidalee, Shaco, and Singed are all good examples of champions that can push a lane with near impunity with little fear of ganks, especially in the mid game as they are all excellent at 1v1 fights, mobility, map control, and "kiting".
Also, don't rely on wards to save you. Too often players feel safe because they've placed a ward, but smart players who know you've placed one will be able to guess where you placed it to avoid being seen and still gank you. It's best to ward when returning to your lane before the enemy has spotted you (and so they don't know what items you bought) so they don't know you've warded or where you might have placed it.
@TheMustacheHero
said:
@Vision: Also, no one uses the term "leashing" "
I do and so does everyone I play with. Rarely have I ever used the term and have someone not know what I meant.
EDIT FOR MORE TIPS:
Team Fights and Capturing Objectives
"Winning" a team fight is not limited to wiping the other team. Sometimes it's just gettng everyone low enough to have to base or getting a kill or two. "Winning" the fight really just means you have forced them to retreat or to turtle in a defensive position.The important thing to remember about team fights is that after a win (which again, does not mean killing everyone) is not to over-chase or over-extend to get that one more kill. You're better off falling back and capturing an objective.
The objectives in order of priority are: Nexus > Nexus Towers > Inhibitors > Towers > Baron > Dragon > Buffs
If at any point in the game, your team can safely capture one of those objectives, do it. And do everything you can to prevent the enemy from capturing them.
Often times, players will chase to get that one last kill and then get caught once the retreating enemies cooldowns come back up and will immediately give back any advantage you just gained by winning the fight. Remember, once you've won a fight, fall back and capture an objective. It's ok to chase a little bit if it's for a sure kill (to make the advantage even greater), but be careful when you do it and take notice when the rest of your team is falling back and not with you.
Team mates getting caught
This is not the Marines. Sometimes it's ok to leave a man behind. I know it's really hard to resist the urge to try and help but when someone gets caught or does something dumb, sometimes you have to just let them die. They might rage at you for abandoning them or not helping, but far too often someone gets caught, one or more team members try and save them and end up dying as well.
It takes experience and knowledge to know when it's a good idea to try and save someone or to stop running and turn and fight. Better be safer and defend 4v5 rather than 3v5 or 2v5. But nothing is worse then getting baited by your own team mates.
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