I've locked/archived this thread/blog and have started a new discussion over here: http://forums.demigodthegame.com/454943/
Please join me if you like.
Am I streaming?
Well, I started a thread back in August (https://forums.joeuser.com/411269/) that's seen a lot of activity and actually had quite a few good bits of information for new and old players alike. I figure it's time to start a new thread and perhaps keep the OP up-to-date with useful information, etc. Feel free to use this post for any LoL discussion, etc.
Super fast background: I played a lot of Demigod as pacov/cheesuscrust. Back in August 2011 or so, I started getting heavily involved in LoL and folks have been kind enough to chime in with tips and links to various sites that have been quite useful to me. In addition, I've been able to keep up with folks that I've played Demigod with in the past and meet some new folks that play LoL and frequent these message boards.
Here's some of the things I've learned in the previous thread:
New Player tips
Great site I visit every day for LoL related news - http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends
pacov's misc info
Here's a guide I made
pacov's Guide to Improving at League of Legends and Moving Up in Elo
k - so I'm just going to put down some of my thoughts. I'm not amazing at this game, but I do certain things that improve my odds of winning in ranked and so far its panning out just fine (bronze 5 to gold 5 in about a month or so). We all have varied skill levels, so some of this might be useful and some not. Caveat complete.
Prerequisite- you need to know how to play every single role. You don't have to be a god at every single role (more power to you if you are - I'm certainly not). You need to be able to play at a serviceable level in every single role and excel at least at 1 role (preferably 2). In my case, I'm good at support and adc. I'm not great, but have serviceable mids and jungles and so so tops. Knowing what you are good at and bad at is very important. If you don't know, I can probably tell you - but you really should know... Anyway, you need to have enough champs to make solid picks in any role and you need to be able to cover any role if it comes down to it. I'll talk about how to get better at specific roles in a bit.
Champ select advice - Don't be the "fill" guy unless you really feel like you are awesome in all roles. Call your preferred role immediately when you hit the lobby. Say "adc pref." Do this as soon as you hit the lobby. Some people believe that if you call a role you magically get it. This is stupid, but if you call something out, folks will often accomodate your request. If you are feeling wishy washy for whatever reason, call out multiple roles in order of what you want to play - "adc/mid pref." In my experience, you generally do not want to call support. It's a very important role, but you want to be in a position to carry every single game if possible. If you aren't calling out a role, you are hoping that other players can carry you. If you are hoping that folks will carry you, you don't deserve to win. You need to know your best roles and you absolutely should request them.
Solo or duo in ranked? - Well, my 1st thought here is that you should solo. If you solo, you have to rely on yourself. IMO - its a much bigger test of skill to play solo and win than to duo. Do you want someone to carry you or do you really want to know that you are actually good? That said, provided you have the right duo partner, you can increase your odds of winning quite a bit. The simple math is that instead of having 4 teammates as unknown quantities, you only have 3. If you have a good duo teammate, you know what you can expect. When you duo, you get the most bang for your buck by having complimentary roles. Support/adc is good; jungle/mid also works. Even if you don't have direct symmetry in roles, if you are an amazing mid and I'm an amazing adc, our odds go up quite a bit if we both get those roles. Our odds go way down if we can't get those roles and are forced to play out of positions that we are weaker. For example, Bryff is a good mid. If he duo's up with me, the only way he will get to play that role is for me to call mid, take it myself, and then put myself into a position like support where I can't carry out of (I'm always 1st pick, Bryff is always last pick when we duo)... that and I have to show the mid I'm picking at the start which means Bryff gets hard countered. In short, we can expect that we will be a disadvantage when duo queuing. Now, if Bryff queued up with someone at a lower elo than himself that was solid, he'd likely be 1st pick and be able to get mid and have a better chance of carrying the game. Anyway, you need to keep in mind where you end up in pick order when duoing if you aren't looking to go adc/support. If you want that, you can usually get it.
How do you get better in roles that you are not good at? - Well, here's what I do. And this is really what I do on a regular basis. I think about what I'm good at and what I'm not good at. For instance, I realized that I don't play any hyper carry ads. So, I read up on hyper carries like vayne and kog maw. I look for guides on how to build them (most adcs are the same btw ), I look for vids on how people play them (eg how do I all in with a specific champ - is there a combo - when do I all in - what's the best way for me to burst - how should I behave in lane with this champ). Then, I fire up a custom game and try out the mechanics of whatever champ vs AI. Usually I learn a few tricks during that custom on how to position myself, etc. Then, I'm off to normal games where I'll request the role or character I'm trying out. Now, people still report your for being awful in normals, but it really is where you need to try out characters to see if you are any good or not as the bots are useless for proving your skill level to yourself. So, fire up that normal and ask to play a role (again - after you've tried out the champ against bots). If you don't know anyone you are with and you are quite awful, I suggest muting everyone at the start of the game. Then, do your best. Continue with this until you feel like you have a serviceable skill level in whatever role. And keep in mind what you need to work on. For me, I noticed I didn't really have alot of mids for ranked, so I started practicing some with gragas against and karth. That way, I'll be able to get the job done if I need to play mid. The next thing I need to do is put more time into being better top lane. Again, because while I prefer adc/support, I might need to play top for the team. So, best to be ready for it. Put your time in and practice roles.
One last thought - there are certain things you can generally expect in ranked. 1 - if you are 1st pick, you generally can call whatever you want. Common knowledge, I'm sure - but I'll add - CALL WHATEVER YOU WANT. 2 - if you duo queue, you generally can lock down both adc and support. It works best if your adc is 1st pick, ofc. I've bumped into like 10 random dedicated supports in all of my games of LoL. People generally aren't going to call support. So, if you are 1st pick and duo'd, just call adc and then your duo partner can almost always get support.
Lol King profiles for ranked tracking
I'm not going to update this regularly, so just consider it a snapshot (I'll add a date when I update them). Anyway, I enjoy seeing folks progress through ranked and keeping tabs on that sort of thing from time to time.
Snapshot updated 05/28/2014
Character guides
I am guilty of bitching more than my fair share tonight...I don't even think I was nice in the game we won :/
I actually do not think Karl's bitching is that bad. Sometimes it even helps me to see what I need to be doing, but as Karl pointed out we have 2 types of gamers and getting critisized and trying to improve with it instead of taking it personally is more often than not the more competetive group. I *should* refuse to play when I am sick and have a headache though. I doubt anyone that had to be with me in vent tonight was happy about it.
Ranked and un-ranked.
I accept blame for my horrible Darius play. I had about 250 ping for the first 3-5min and Xin got a level on me, then I died in a close fight. That's what started the Xin snowball. To be honest, the game where I was Graves and stayed bot when we lost, I just didn't care anymore. The games had been so negative, I really wasn't interested in helping anyone else. If I did, blame would have been thrown around anyways. Terrible for the team, but that's how I felt. I don't even really talk in the games, because I feel there isn't much point. I'm either talking over Peter, or over bitching.
I may just sit out the next team night and hopefully be in a better head space next week.
Possible next champ has been hinted upon.
Syndra.
She appears to be from the void and she has ability interactions with black holes that she places.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KUTbtYXxEs&feature=player_embedded
I can be a verbal punching bag. Actually I don't think I get raged on enough. In those fights people were saying to get corki, so when the fights broke out I went in and dazzled the corki. But nunu comes and ults and everyone dies, and I felt like I shoulda saved my dazzle for that. I think everyone should've been like OMG Bryff you suck what were you doing in that fight?! [no pun intended ]. Also it was funny when soraka used global heal and whoever it was thought it was me and was like I hate you Bryff
Void champs are insaner than those earthly target practice champs
Well, I know you don't play a ton of support with me, etc, so I'm much more likely to give you tips or tell you what I want you to do (if I'm adc). The odds of me raging on someone we haven't played a bunch with that's in voice chat with me are pretty low. Now if we have a bunch of history together and you are doing silly things, that's when I tend to be a dick. Even if you aren't perfect in various roles, I'm known you to be pretty responsive to suggestions and requests to handle things differently, so I really don't have any complaints about you at all.
So... if we were to call out the regulars that do the bitching - pacov, peter, karl, and jack. Jona would be on this list for sure if he joined voice chat. Am I missing anyone that's typically with the rage filled group? Jack's normally not that bad, but has been much worse lately, karl goes into broken record mode, pete is pete, and the majority of my bitching is just stupid. Karl and jack will likely reel themselves in a bit after this little thread discussion. I really have no idea how to sort pete, though. Will have to play that by ear.
Anyway, please do you part to try to help out and get us into a less bitchy atmosphere. The best way will likely be to directly (if you are NOT involved in the conflict) speak up and say that you think X person is being a little too negative and repeat yourself a few times. Some folks hate confrontation, but that will likely sort me out if I'm being a jackass in the future.
Meh, it was fine. I honestly don't mind if somebody just loses a lane every once in a while. It happens to everybody and there isn't any real correction much of the time.
What sets me off is mental mistakes over and over again. Basically, if somebody has bad CS, whatever. Thats a physical thing and the only correction is more practice. But if somebody keeps wandering around and getting ganked for no reason, I get upset after about the 3rd time.
So I honestly didn't really have a problem with your play.
You were doing fine. Stunning Corki is OK - the ideal strategy was for me to stun Nunu with Bear stance since it doesn't use up my stun for Corki. But stunning Nunu isn't a bad play either. You were fine either way. The problem was a series of questionable engages by somebody else.
Those were some fun games. Sorry I had to leave quick.
Same here.
Thanks for all the games last night. So, bitching status report. Vlad was bitching up a storm starting in game 1 - I should have been more aggressive and told him to knock it off. He tapered off after a bit. I get the feeling good ol pete doesn't like me all that much. I think he was outright trying to insult me without provocation last night. I ignored him instead of tearing him a new one. And I was generally kind as a whole and managed to not be a jackass even though we had a few games where foolish, awful things were happening. So, for me anyway. I don't remember anyone else on my team being all that bitchy.
GJ with your taric last night, dax. Gems are quite outrageous.
I tried to do better...
thanks!
I didn't notice much whining from anyone, so good job to everyone!
Holy crap am I tired....
So, any thoughts on in house game team balancing? We doing a better job or are we still rot?
Anyone have feedback AFTER playing or kat and garen's remakes? I didn't get a chance to try either one out. I know vlad did not exactly have the best time with kat due to mad counterpicking in at least 1 game anyway.
edit - also... wtf with that &#*(@&#*$& recorder?
Just preordered guild wars 2 for $48. Deal ends today
http://slickdeals.net/f/5044542-Guild-wars-2-48-is-alive-again-at-Green-Man-Gaming
The new Kat is great. I am just really bad with her so far.
forgot to post this - very much worth a look if you ever top lane...
If I can get the chance to, I'd like to try Kat mid against people, and I want to try Draven top...
two things that I am afraid to try in normals...
I dunno actually how serious we are trying to be, as Karl wants our games to be more serious, but peter's frequent choices kinda go against that...
I'm game for trying many different strategies. What we REALLY, REALLY need to keep in mind is team composition. We can have an adc both bot and top if we want to give it a go, but we absolutely need someone tanky that can provide alot of cc, etc. There's lots of things we could try, ofc.
Most of the problem is our team comps seem to lack in CC in almost every game. So when I pick Kat and our jungle and top go Lee/Yorick then I will probably be unhappy. As long as the team comp is good though I am down for anything, and trying a new champion is always fine IMO.
I'd be up for some games if you're ever looking for other players in the future. I started playing again a few weeks ago, after a rather long hiatus. I last played sometime immediately after Sona was released. Right now I'm mostly playing bot games to while I get back into the swing of things and come to grips with changes to some of my favorite champs (I'm looking at you, Jax!)
that's my take as well. Specifically the lack of hard cc. We need to get in the habit of choosing champs for the specific team comp. We just don't consider it a high priority lately - hopefully we can fix that up.
Louist - you are welcome with us. Add me (pacov) and I'll shoot you an invite from time to time or if we are just goofing around playing an aram game.
Will do! I'm going kayaking for the next week, and honestly, I still need another week or two to practice and get to know all the new champs, but I'll be ready some time after that.
Louist, what is your in-game name?
pacov sleepy...
anyway, some thoughts. We actually floated around 5 folks total tonight for most of our games, so we were able to do a bunch of normal, blind picks. Good stuff.
If you haven't noticed yet, I'm going to be very direct re: bitching, etc. Please call me out with the same directness. I don't always directly reply to criticism of me here, but I assure you I'm reading it and try to alter my behavior if I'm being a dick.
Bitching status report - jack = none. Me = a little aggressive with dax as my support, but nothing that I think was rude or over the top. Karl - just a little bit, but I feel like i was able to easily diffuse the situation. Jona wasn't in vent, but bitched a very small amount in chat. Nothing over the top. Oh - and dax was on diffusing jona in case he got super riled up in the last game - so that was easily stopped before it was a problem. In short, it was actually pretty nice with just 5 of us without any obnoxious bitching storms. AND that was with all of the main bitchy players together (minus pete). Let me know if you played with us and think I'm wrong re: my impressions.
Anyway, things I picked up on. Bryff has a mic and could talk, but indicated that he is shy (and implied that he can't always speak on mic due to his environment). Translation to the 1st part - methinks Bryff might not want to hop in on chat because he doesn't want to get bitched out over this and that. I might be wrong, but my response is simple - join us whenever you feel comfortable. I'm aware of your skill level and I think you'll find I leap to your defense and try to provide useful feedback. I wouldn't make too big of a deal out of hoping on mic, though. Its really not a huge step - but please join us whenever you want. I hope you sound like Mike Tyson.
Speaking of feedback... So, in our last game we talked about Bryff roaming as our mid. He did not and instead stayed mid quite a bit. I was of a similar mindset awhile back when I was learning the mid role. I'd get a little tunnel vision and just focus on CS instead of wandering from time to time. That said, a good mid will intentionally push their lane from time to time in order to gank lanes. The best mids for this are often the ones with extremely mobility (eg Kassadin, Ahri, etc). Any mid can roam ofc. Anyway, here's pointer number 1. If you are standing at your tower with a wave of creeps and no enemy hero is present, its likely because the enemy ap choose to push the lane and roam. Calling mia is step 1 (most of us watch the map, so that's not the biggest deal). Step 2 is more important. You need to roam as well. You need to decide where to go (eg do I try to go counter their ap wherever they went, or do I go gank a lane I don't think they are going to). A mid that roams DRASTICALLY increases the level of skill required.... but map awareness is key (and voice chat can help alot here). For instance, lets say you are mid a little over level 6 and after your first shop. You hear someone in bot lane say that the river/dragon is clear of wards. Boom. Now you know that you have an opportunity to gank bot. So, you have to assess the creep position bot, etc. Then you have to consider the situation top - is there a better gank there? And you have to consider the play style/dmg output of the mid you are against. Can you easily push the creeps and roam? A super annoying tip as a mid is to do the following (and keep in mind that if we are doing a 5 man draft game, we likely are against a 5 man pre made team that is using voice chat): keep moving either to the left or to the right out of line of sight. Anytime you do this, the mid will likely call mia. Then just go back to lane. Then, do this again. After a few times, the mid likely will get sick of calling mia (I mean think about it - if you call mia every 30 seconds... smeh). Anyway, this can often result in easier ganks. Just some food for thought.
WHAT WE NEED TO DO - we should try to help Bryff by keeping an eye on his lane from time to time and suggesting that he pushes and roams. Its semi-difficult to do because none of us (outside of the jungler) pay a ton of attention towards battles at mid, etc, as we are looking for our jungler + the enemy junlger. Anyway, while he's trying to figure out a good balance re: when to roam, we could suggest it to him.
Here are some basic tips on when to roam. 1st - you generally don't roam super early unless you just destroyed mid and you still have a good amount of health/mana - AND you see an opportunity for a kill (most likely top due to no wards at that point in the game. Top won't be expecting a gank from you at that point. After you hit level 6ish and have shopped once, this is when roaming really should being based on what's going on. 2nd - roaming and accomplishing absolutely nothing is horrible. You lose CS and XP. You should only roam when there is a clear opportunity to do so. If you want to roam, you generally want to push and kill the enemy creeps as quickly as possible and then take off. If you roam and your tower gets destroyed because of poor creep management (early/mid game), that's quite bad. So, push the creeps whenever possible. Other times to roam (defensive) - If your lane is missing a player and their creeps are pushing. It SEEMS like a great time to get CS, but there is a reason that good players push creeps into a position where you could free farm. It's because they are looking to kill someone. So, always keep that in your mind. If you are up against a good player and they are not there, they very intentionally pushed their lane. Just look for obvious clues. If they are close to full hp and mana the last time you saw them, it doesn't make sense that they are going to shop usually. Odds are they took off for a gank. That said, bad players just do stupid things and over push their lane unintentionally. In games like tonight, we were likely up against 1300-1500 normal elo folks to give you an idea.
Anyway, end of thoughts- off to bed. Thanks for the games tonight, fellas!
Hey everyone. I'd like to say that in the game I liked when people criticized me because I should have been helping the other lanes. I didn't consider it unfriendly or anything. I'm I don't know.....just weird. So if people are being rough to me I don't really notice. So whatever. I like the critizism or I'll never get good. I think that would make me the complete other side of the spectrum pacov? anyway, uh, yeah, um...And thanks for all this yummy roam advice. I do have tunnel vision literally kinda.
As for pushing...I need to work on that. I level up sphere first with only 1 point in pulse at 4 and a second at 8. And when I try to cs in the middle of the lane I have to melee and that lets the other mid kite me...so generally I like to let them push and get my cs at my tower because it's much easier with w. I usually just spam q at the other guy if the creeps aren't by my tower, and try to last hit while taking low damage. That said, I guess that means I won't notice intentional pushes as much. And with my pulse low, it's really hard to to enough aoe to outpush the other mid, and I don't use my r to clear creeps mid unless the other laner isn't there...that way I won't suddenly find myself stunned with a jungle on top of me with r on cd. Yeah pretty much my roam sucks and some direction is helpful.
basically pacov said,
mid's job is to win the other lanes. Even if they lose their tower, as long as they win both of the other lanes, they really won their lane after all.
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