League of Legends (Old)

[Brandi]

Just when I had given up on lulu...
Won my series with a 70 minute game of turtle turtle turltle wait for zilean to fall off turtle

I look forward to my games in gold 2. On the road to plat~

[TheIrishPope]

Thoughts/general advice on jungling with Vi?
Also, when I jungled with Amumu, I couldn't keep up with Nocturne counterjungling; can anyone give me some tips on that or a guide? I find it really hard to keep up

[PJ.]

You can sneak into the lane brush from blue ramp. dodge wards with your gapcloser, then wait. other than that she's pretty basic.

[notscience]

I max Q first then E @TIP

Q to gapclose

Counterjungling is kinda how you beat amumu, the best thing to do would be ward and ask your team to help kill him when he does

[Trevor]

Vi is an adc's nightmare. Pick against Twitch Draven or Ashe and they will stay away from you all game. I think it's really important to stay relevant levels wise so you don't get blown up instantly in teamfights. I don't like playing her that much because her E is pretty difficult to use efficiently at range and and peel or slows will kill her if she doesn't have ult

[CF Riot]

shaco kinda fun. I never ult

[Glork]

As Amumu, keep your jungle warded. If you see the other jungler in your jungle you have three options:
1) If you have a friend nearby, kill the enemy with their help.
2) Take his camps while he's trying to take yours
3) Gank gank gank, especially if he's far away

People counter jungle Amumu because they feel they have an advantage over him 1v1. Don't play to that advantage by trying to farm or fend him off.

[Ankamius]

Thoughts/general advice on jungling with Vi?
Also, when I jungled with Amumu, I couldn't keep up with Nocturne counterjungling; can anyone give me some tips on that or a guide? I find it really hard to keep up

Start red.
E > Q > W
Start with W at level 1, though.

I asked my Vi-main friend. If you need more specifics, tell me and I'll ask him.

[Saki]

Take E at level 1.
Slightly better than W.

[BROseidon]

Use E on minions to last-hit champions behind the minions if you can't reach the champions.

[AngryPidgeon]

If I had to describe the new Janna skin I would describe it like so.

worth.

I love how shes PSA janna.

"Lets take a look at the minmap"
"Stock up on wards for low visibility areas"

Watch people Janna win rates go up because her new soundset reminds you to look at the minimap. Every time she tells me I just kinda smile and say "Great idea, Janna!"

[AngryPidgeon]

Thoughts/general advice on jungling with Vi?

Play Nautilus instead.

Same usefulness, better all around.

[IH]

Thoughts/general advice on jungling with Vi?

Play Nautilus instead.

Same usefulness, better all around.

Nah she fufills a different role than naut.

Naut is a giant cc bot, while vi is more of a backline diver. She brings ALOT of early game damage, and unless your lane has cc she kinda relies on it for ganks pre 6.
start w for faster clear times, and max either q or e. (q for sticking power, e for damage and clear times). Pre six, you want to hit your q, auto, E. It is alot of damage early game, and guarantees a fight win in a gank for you pretty much. Post 6, you have alot more options, you can use your q to get around wards, or do a straight up lane gank zac style by charging up a q, flashing, and then ulting when in range. Careful because other people can draw you under tower maokai style.

I find she functions better as a bruiser than a straight up tank, and late game her w makes her a monster in most duels. She works best with picking off someone, such as an ashe arrow, a gap closing top laner, or an assassin. Just recognize whether you need to tie up their backline, or use your ult for some monstrous peel (Such as Qing in to initiate, and when your backline gets dove, you can ult in through the rest of the team to knock them aside and tie up whoever is fucking up your carry).


In other news, I finally made time after an awful weekend of dragoncon shifts to go gold. Silver II was a black hole, especially promotions. I kept finding that I'd stomp through to promotions, lose twice, and then stomp through to promotions again. Silver I was a breeze, even though I got clamped. I think I lost 3 out of like 10 games? Probably gonna try to go for plat before the season ends.

[Elmo TeH AzN]

If I had to describe the new Janna skin I would describe it like so.

worth.

I love how shes PSA janna.

"Lets take a look at the minmap"
"Stock up on wards for low visibility areas"

Watch people Janna win rates go up because her new soundset reminds you to look at the minimap. Every time she tells me I just kinda smile and say "Great idea, Janna!"

I was looking into getting it. I wanted to know how it was though.

And I've noticed when you split push it works 50% of the time but you have to play with competence and that doesnt happen in bronze. Any advice for climbing? 90% is knowing i suck.

[AngryPidgeon]

Any advice for climbing?

I:

Find a few characters and get GREAT with them.
Be able to at least play any role passably and at least 2 roles very well.

II

Work on mechanics. If you do not reliably do any of the following, consider separating them out and focusing on them individually and assessing your performance in custom/normal games:

A) Last hitting.

If you are playing ADC/MID/TOP you hafta be able to last hit. And its still a valuable skill for sup/jungle too. This is something you can practice in customs, normals, w/e. Focus on your timing, try to avoid using mana to last hit unless you have to, and focus on keeping attention on the minimap and your positioning once your timing is falling into place. Try practicing with ZILEAN. If you can last hit reasonably with Zilean, you can last hit with anybody well.

B) Skillshots.

Whatever character you want to play, consider taking time out of ranked games to focus specifically on skillshots and self-reflect on if you are hitting them too early / too late / whatever. Alternatively avoid characters with difficult-to-land combos.

C) Positioning.

Once you have those basics ^^ down, try to actively think about where you are and why you are there in the lane phase. If you are supporting, where are you standing? If your opponent is Ezreal, you better not fucking stand in the lane bushes because he will hit you with every Q and you will wonder why you die so much when you are constantly at half HP when Lee Sin comes trolling around your lane.

This particular bit is less muscle-memory than the above 2 so I would focus on this once you are comfortable with those. Ultimately, you hopefully won't have to think too heavily about this.

III

Those feeders that you keep blaming.

A) Dont.

SOMETIMES it really is your teams fault and there is nothing you can do about that. But there is almost always something YOU can do better and you won't notice it if you are calling Fiddlesticks "Tissue Paper V" in all chat.

B) Liberal use of pings.

The new pings are great. Ping when your enemies are missing. Ping when you are running to join a fight your team is in. Ping Dragon/Baron/Inhibs when your team has a number advantage and make a move on them. Your team will respond if you make an effort.

C) Love your team

They will be more responsive and generally more likely to perform better if they are having an enjoyable time.

---

Other than that I can offer some role-specific tips or general strats that are often effective.

I think my golden rule is this. Every time you die, ask what, if anything, you could have done differently.

[Elmo TeH AzN]

I'm not blaming feeders. I offer advice. And tell them to relax and play passive. I went 0-5 with Udyr and got flamed because I wasn't with the team and I was split pushing and got a turret from it. And pulled 3 off the team fight to deal with me.

I have a decent top lane. I have some champs I can play top. Mid is my weak point as I don't know who I should look into and Adc I can play Ashe really well and support I can manage.

But my strength is jungling and I'm now learning counter jungling.

[DeathNote]

Disappointed in the new log-in screen. Janna's boobs don't jiggle enough.

[FakeGod]

Also her smile is creepy

[PJ.]

Not sure why everyone who is Gold+ offers the same bad advice to Low Silver and Bronze players. They've heard "Call MIAs, Place wards, position better and last hit" literally 1000s of times and that isn't working for them. Because they don't know how to gain and use advantages reliably.

A) Do not support, ever. In low elo play you are better off playing a non-support champ bot lane and trying to get fed without CS early in the game. Your team won't use the things you give them as a support, so don't put yourself in a position to be octopussed.

B) Prioritize objectives. Win a fight get an objective, Always. Clear out bot lane in laning phase? Get drag. Kill mid? get drag. This where you should empty out your pings, go back to the ping store, buy more pings and empty at all of those.

C) This is optional, but using a late game scaling champ is preferable because it enables you to carry harder. But what isn't optional is understanding your strat. Are you Renekon? Then farming for 15 minutes and not killing the enemy laner isn't gonna help your stupid crocodile ass when the enemy laner outscales you. Are you Cho? Then don't fight before 3-4, you'll die so you can't dominate the mid game and tank through the late game.

D) Pick a champ with CC and encourage everyone on your team to do the same. CC dominates teamfights and being the better teamfighting team gives you the edge in low-mid elo.

E) Are you worse than your lane opponent? If no, play aggressive and put him behind. If yes, try to play safe and don't continuously die. If that means letting some farm go and trying to freeze lane near tower, do it. DO NOT DIE. Someone on your team is likely better than his laner and his laner won't play safe so your teammate will get fed. You being underfarmed but properly leveled makes you easier to carry then being underleveled, underfarmed, and your laner being ahead in those aspects. Nothing in this game is better than 0 deaths coming out of lane

F) DO NOT DITCH YOUR TEAM IN TEAMFIGHTS

G) IF YOU ARE AN ADC, SHOOT YOUR FUCKING BULLETS.

H) You're the most important person on your team because that's the only person you can make do the right thing.

I) Do not say deliberately negative things to your team, it actually does make them play worse. "I'm absolutely not supporting" is fine. "Fuck you, fuck your mother, I'm not supporting" is not fine. If possible, try to be clear if you give your teammates advice. "Sona, I need you to stand in front of me, instead of behind me, because it provides more lane prescence that way."
preferably don't give your teammates advice.

[Phillammon]

A there seems a bit off to me, but the rest seem pretty solid. If you keep botlane lit up like a christmas tree, and try to keep everything sighted, the jungler and adc tend to listen to you if you're explicit enough about what you want them to do- hence CV being more useful than expected at lower levels.

[Glork]

Yeah when I do support, I keep river bush pinked at all times, always have 2-4 wards around, and ping very liberally for exactly what I want if I don't have time to type a quick word or two. I've got an absurdly good track record of getting my ADCs fed and letting the jungler make priority ganks. The thing about League, esp in bot lane, is once you get a little early success, people will trust you. "My Support got me first blood, he knows what he's doing and I can trust him." Boom. Suddenly people are following your lead and you can snowball the lane and win from there.



As far as taking objectives... I've found that in low silver, most people will just go after whatever is closest if we win a teamfight. Usually that means, if we win a fight in lane we get a tower but if we win a fight in the jungle, the remaining not-me players will chase for a kill that they probably won't get.

Because of this, I try to coax my team into lanes for teamfights. Regardless of my role, post-laning I will push lanes relentlessly and draw the enemy team into said lane to force a fight, hopefully on their side of the map. We win the fight, people will stay to push down a tower. But if this happens in the jungle, unless we happen to be right on top of a dragon or buff, people will see one low-HP champ and waste 3-4 enemy death timers trying to chase down that extra kill.

The only role I actively avoid right now is actually ADC. I'm decent at last hitting but pretty bad at positioning and especially Bronze5 at orbwalking / using attack-move properly. I'm way more comfortable with my ability to know when to start skirmishes as a support than my ability to execute ADC mechanics. I know it's something I'll have to work on soon, but for now jungle/mid/support are paving the way through silver for me.

[Glork]

EBWOP: Do not die is best advice ever though. Playing with a survivalist mentally is the single biggest thing that helped me turn he corner from Hopeless Street to Competent Lane.

[TheIrishPope]

Thanks for all the advice on Vi! It's good that she counters ADCs because I fucking hate their guts
Although, Glork, Panzer; is going 1/0/9 better than going 20/25/0?

[Cephrir]

Yes.

[BROseidon]

Although, Glork, Panzer; is going 1/0/9 better than going 20/25/0?

Yes.

Each kill or assist you get increases your chance to win by about half as much as each death increases your chance to lose. Or something.

Reign of gaming had a post on the numbers, and the conclusion was basically "dying is horrible and you should never suicide for 1-1 trades"