05/03/2015: Entire guide updated. Many tweaks still need to be done, new video expected in a month or two once I’ve finished the Updated version of DoTA 2 v LoL Differences.
Video companion - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QR4bib2IaUo
1 Ranked IS for tryhards -- If you don't want to try hard or play competitively, Stop Playing Ranked. Simple as that. Its where you go to try improve yourself, prove your worth and hone your skills. Having fun comes second, and that’s why you have plenty of other game modes where there is less pressure to perform well.
Sure you can have fun playing Ranked, but you don’t go into a Ranked game expecting to have fun. You expect to have a difficult match as you try to prove your worth and climb the ladder.
2 It doesn't matter what game you played before -- This is League of Legends. Sure some games can give you general tips on how to play, give you skills, but its not the same game. Even switching between DotA 2 and LoL you'll find huge differences. (see this handy video for more ;) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpHQHpu0sPU) So no-one cares if you were a Starcraft Master or in the number one CS:GO clan, that rank doesn’t transfer to League. You need to acknowledge this is a new game and be willing to learn it so you don’t hinder yourself.
3 Pay attention -- Someone should not be able to have a fight within the size of your screen without you noticing. Yet in Bronze I’ve witnessed people ignoring their allies being straight up being killed right beside them and only noticing after being auto attacked themselves.
If you aren't actually aware of your surroundings you aren't playing seriously enough to play Ranked, go play something else or don’t complain about being killed due to your lack of awareness.
The mini-map is there to indicate where people are. It’s handy for people to call 'SS' and ping out what they are doing, but its your job to be aware.
4 Don't panic -- AH THEY ARE FIGHTING WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO I DON'T KNOW HOW TO HANDLE EVERY SITUATION!!!
Stop.
Don't know how to deal with harass, think about it. How do you avoid it? When would you use that champions harassing abilities? Can you fight them? Is there anywhere to go?
If Darius just seems to beat you over and over again when you're Teemo - despite people telling you Teemo hard counters Darius - go find out why, and stop running away from him every time he acts big and scary. If you don’t know the abilities of certain champions then go look them up, watch a couple of videos of people playing as them.
If you panic every time something happens, you'll get nowhere.
5 Ensure you know the basics (Best masteries, items, runes) -- You think you are super pro right?
If you're in bronze I can promise you the first 9 points in the offensive tree you have in your masteries, are wrong.
Go have a look, at the one you use for an aggressive solo top.
Back?
1/4/0/0
0/3/0/0
0/1/0/0
Right? Well those are the wrong ones to have actually.
5% AS is worth nothing. Syndra actually gains 5% AS from getting from level 1 to 3. That’s how little 5% AS is worth. 5% CDR however is worth much more. Not only that, CDR becomes more gold efficient the more of it you have, so gaining an early boost makes any other CDR you buy worth more. (Until the 40% cap ofc.)
A quick way to check what you should be running on your champions is to look up www.probuilds.net and enter the champion you are playing and compare the stats there.
6 Actually learn to last hit -- Go play Vlad and last hit with auto attacks only, no AD runes. How many creeps do you have killing that wave at about 10:30? Because that was the 114th creep that just died.
No-one expects you to get them all but Froggen reached over 300 CS by 23:10.
By 10 minutes you should have about 70+.
If you're not getting that, you won't get to Platinum nevermind Diamond.
But I get so many kills that- NO! Learn to last hit. One kill is worth 15 last hits. If you kill your opponent 3 times and he out farms you by 50 CS they are actually ahead in gold. Not only that you can’t rely on killing champions to gain gold, because the more skilled your opponents get the harder it will be to catch and kill them, causing you to lose games simply because you are unaware of how to play that champion from behind.
7 Learn every role -- You don't need to be a pro in every lane, but this ties into learning how to not panic and dealing with fights. Once you know how every lane works, you'll have a better understanding of how the game works and what to expect in general from your opponents. The general rule of thumb for ranked is to know 5 champions super well in your favourite role, 3 in your second favourite, and 2 more for each other.
Go and try make that list right now, see if you’re prepared.
8 Learn every champ in the game -- Yes. I'm deadly serious. Not learn to perfection, but play at least two games with every champion in the game, and make sure you know how EVERY ability in the game works and what type of damage it does. You can’t expect to beat your opponent when you don’t even know what they can do.
9 Ward -- Map hacks for 75 Gold. Literally. You should always buy a ward no matter your role. Late game even Marksmans should get wards so they can farm safely. If there is no vision on the map, its not the supports fault. Its your fault. And if there is no vision of the map, you can’t move around safely, and if you can’t move around safely, you’ll die.
10 Don't use the same item build each game -- Tab is the most powerful button in the game. It tells you who has the most kills and farm in each team i.e. who has the most gold, as well as the items and summoners of each champion. If the enemy team is full AD, then you drop your Banshees Veil build and get a Randuin’s Omen or a Thornmail. Learn to adapt to the situation. To do so also requires you to have an understanding of what every champion can do. That's why point 8 was so important, you need to know what type of damage your opponent does.
Quick note whilst talking about this, keep track of your enemies summoner spells as well. Before you engage press tab and make sure you know what you are going into, it might save your life.
11 The mini-map always tells you where everyone is -- You can see the enemy on the map, you know you're in no danger. You don't see them, then they are in the bush next to you.
Now this might sound like paranoia, but its true in a sense. You should never be caught off guard by someone appearing in your lane, and you should know when its safe to take certain actions if you watch the map.
Enemy jungler shows bottom lane, then its fine for you to tower dive top as long as you have an idea of where the mid laner is.
Their mid and jungler are ganking top? Then try force dragon because then its 3v4 and you'll have your smite. Map awareness also prevents you from letting creep waves grow too large or from being back-doored, which is a common threat late game when players aren’t forced to lane.
12 Objectives matter -- I don't care if you're 15/0/10. If you never take a tower all game you won't win. This is insanely simple. Learn to push for Dragon, take turrets and then apply pressure further forward. Warding as you go.
Pressure pressure pressure.
Having a nice K.D.A is worthless in ranked if you don’t win.
13 Ban according to level -- In Bronze Twisted Fate will get flattened and be useless. In Diamond however, the players have a high enough skill level to position and abuse his skill set and a ban might be worth it.
Don't feel you need to ban certain champions. Bronze, no-one can play Elise, Shen or Jayce to save themselves. But Fiora, Amumu and Rammus are all scary and easy to play effectively. Ban what you feel is scary at your level.
But don't ban foolishly, just because you don’t think Malphite is that good a champion doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ban him if your entire team is begging you to. If anything it will put them more at ease.
14 Learn whats OP -- This follows off the last tip. If something is apparently OP, learn to play them before you try them in ranked. Watch a couple of pro players using them, read several guides. That way if you get a chance to play them in ranked you'll a) know why they are OP and can abuse that and b) actually be able to play them
If you can't play them. Don't pick them. Simple.
Have a look at Tier lists as well to get a good idea of what other people think are good champions, but don’t take such lists as gospel.
15 Watch the pros (At least keep track of pros) -- Even if you just watch a weekly highlights reel or read articles on what is OP etc, then it will drastically increase your level of play. The pros play what they play for a reason, I'm not saying copy them, far from it. But if every pro team starts running Heimer jungle, you better stop and find out why. Pros play the game day in and day out, so chances are they’ve a damn good idea of what they’re doing.
16 Stop arguing -- Don’t rage. Who cares what they did? Who cares if you're right? Just play and shut up.
Stop reporting people over nothing all the time. I've played on a few Bronze IV & V accounts - mainly to see how bad it was - And I was shocked to see how willing people are to straight up report whoever lose their lane, or disagrees with a baron call, misses a smite, takes blue, doesn't ward etc etc the list goes on.
This.
Is.
Pathetic.
It helps no-one. You don't feel any better, the person being yelled at doesn't feel better, and the tribunal has another point case to deal with. Stop reporting people over nothing because by getting caught up in your frustration and annoyance you’re negatively affecting your own play.
17 Do communicate -- Imagine an army of soldiers. Imagine they were all deaf. Well that would be stupid huh? So is sitting silently playing as if you are an island. You see the enemy jungler - ping him. Gank heading bot - ping it.
You want to go in - ping it. Think Janna should focus on warding instead of trying to harass - tell her.
But for your teams sanity don’t spam ping everything.
Helping make your team aware of something is smart, but spamming a loud pinging noise in their ear irritates people and will make them annoyed and more likely to make rash decisions.
Remember, please and thank you exist. People like to be thanked and asked politely in reality, it should come as no surprise that this works in-game too.
BUT WAIT. In Point 16 you said I shouldn’t rage at people! Every time I try to say something positive in chat the other person snaps back at me! Well ignore them then. If they don’t want your help just leave it, and if someone starts complaining or arguing tell them to stop. When or if they don’t, mute them or ignore them. You waste time and energy complaining with someone you won’t ever see again in twenty minutes. So don’t.
18 You start feeding, BACK UP-- You are losing your lane. Figure out how to fix that. Don't continue to do dumb things over and over. It won't help you at all. Even if you must sit and farm at your turret to avoid dying, do that.
See point 10, is there something you can do with your build to help weather the storm? Calling for assistance might be a solution but don’t blame your team if you lose your lane due to you failing to handle the situation.
19 Don't sit pushed -- Sitting pushed up to your opponents turret, especially without a ward screams -I’M VULNERABLE. GANK ME-
You struggle to kill someone under a turret (Unless you’re some like Ryze or Vlad) so if you are dominating your lane, let the creeps push out and zone the enemy from experience by standing near or in front of their creeps, making them afraid to come near. If your creeps do push up to the enemies tower then back up to the middle of your lane and wait for the tower to push the wave back out. This will keep you safe and alive.
20 Learn to teamfight -- AD carries generally focus the tank. This may surprise you but its true.
AD Carries need to shot whatever is closest and keeps them safest.
AP Carries need to blow their CDs - hopefully - on the most important target, but if they can't get close enough then they should hit whatever is closest.
Tanks/bruisers/junglers need to start a fight then either peel enemies off their carries or dive onto their opponents carries.
Supports should go forward, use their abilities, then become a hat for their carries.
Every situation is different however. You can lose teamfights burning all your ultimates on one person because now you’ve an enemy team with four ultimates left and if they spread their damage better you lose. Being at the front of a fight as an ADC is dumb and not using your spells and dying cause you were waiting for the perfect moment is dumb also. Perfect moments rarely come, so take the chance to cast your spells when you can and if you’re about to die just drop everything.
No point holding that Orianna ultimate if you’re about to die to Zed.
21 You have won a team-fight, don't recall – This drives me insane. You have just beaten the enemy, you have an easier time doing what you want. GO DO THAT. You can recall and buy afterwards. Example; you aced them and your team is lvl 18 with full HP and next to Baron. Do it. There is a tower in mid that you could push. Push it.
If you are in a good position to take objectives, take them. Don't recall to buy items to help you take the objectives you AREN'T taking. You should be careful of any enemies respawning and finishing you off but teamfights are fought to give you a chance to impact the game, so take that chance.
22 Avoid inconsistent or generally bad champs in ranked -- I'm assuming you're not exceptional at certain champs. “But what if I don’t like playing what is OP?”
You pick the best masteries and items possible, so why gimp yourself picking a bad champion?
There is always an exception to the rule, but there is a reason that Kalista is a top priority pick in the League Championship Series but has a low win rates game right now (05/03/15 - Win rate 46.25%)
23 Timers are now visible using Tab, so use that info -- Buffs are 5 minutes. So generally blue buff will respawn at 7:10, red buff at 8:30. Dragon spawns at 2:30 and has a 6 minute timer. Baron spawns at 15 minutes and has a 7 minute timer.
Whenever a buff is about to die try get vision of it so that you can keep track of its time. If you fail to get the timer, then stick it in the chat.
That way you can tell your team to ward a minute before dragon, get them all down there. You can invade and your team will know what you're doing. If your opponent does not know when things respawn you can assert map control and take them away before they even notice the skull on the map is back.
24 Don't throw a won game -- You are winning but act like you are perfectly equal as we've all seen the comeback videos and we've all seen even Pro teams throw. If you are ahead then aim to finish the game, not improve your K.D.A. Stop doing dumb stuff and just finish. You can mess around in a normal, but you're trying to prove something here.
25 Don't play angry or tired -- Its 1am, you've not played all day. Don't play. You've lost 5 games in a row. Take a break, don't play. Play a normal, dominion, TT, Aram. Anything before you play ranked. Make sure you're in the zone first.
If you feel you're just playing badly, don't play ranked. There is no point losing games you don’t need to.
26 Foolish diving =/= Aggression -- Learn when to dive, and when to back off. Learn when to stop chasing and when to finish someone off. You are not being aggressive tower diving at level 2, you're being stupid. People ask when they should stop chasing, generally, as soon as you ask yourself the question 'Am I chasing too far?', then you’re chasing too far.
27 Follow your gut -- You need to learn to make crazy plays that might or might not work.
This sounds like the polar opposite of everything people tell you but its true. You reckon Tristana is recalling in that bush without her jump, then skillshot it. Worst thing that happens is she isn’t. Best thing is you can kill her.
Learn to know the extremes of what your champion can do, what you can do. Otherwise you can't make plays to help win the game.
28 Don't give up -- Enemy gets first blood. So what? They got a couple of dragons? So what?
If you give up and let them crush your morale you lose. If you sit and scream at your team to surrender the game is already lost.
If you take a stand, get people to hold their chins up and play well you can turn around games. Sometimes the worse team gets early advantages which they can't capitalise on. Its very common. Never give up. Never surrender.
29 CC/AoE is OP -- Get some. The more CC the better. Damage/tankiness/CC/gap closers. The 4 things you should aim for to make a team. So the more you get of all those the better. AoE CC is OP. Get some.
In teamfights people usually all cluster up on someone, AoE destroys them. Simple as.
30 When picking a champion think how it fits into the team -- Nidalee won't work in a team that’s focused on heavy engages and teamfights. Jayce won't work if the enemy team has a very tanky team. Trying to figure out what your team needs and if you can play something that adds to that. Engage, disengage, different damage, CC, tankiness, etc.
31 Don't duo -- Unless you know this person inside out and you have played several hundred games with each other.
You may think I'm being rather stupid about this but trust me, you would be surprised how bad your mates really are. This is also a controversial one as people say ‘but my mate is so pro he said he can carry me.’ But what happens when they aren’t? What happens if you get put against the guy who is as good as your mate that match-making will pair your team with?
Ranked is about your score, your skill, so you may be your biggest limit. Learn to play alone, that’s why its solo queue.
Ranked is about your score, your skill, so you may be your biggest limit. Learn to play alone, that’s why its solo queue.
32 Don't take poke and don't go mid for no reason -- Simple but seriously, learn to dodge.
Every skillshot you dodge is health saved that might save your life.
Also don't group up in mid if you've no way of either a) poking the enemy down or b) forcing a fight QUICKLY. This is the reason I combine both these points. The longer you take poke the less likely you'll win the next teamfight. The more time you take to stand around in mid, the more you gimp your laners who could be off getting more farm or other towers as well as allowing your enemies to farm up also.
33 Learn when to roam -- You've taken both top turrets out. Don't go back top. Go elsewhere. Apply pressure on the other lanes. Stop farming mid as Ahri, go gank somewhere with your massive mobility. You always hate when your lane is turned around by some good player coming to gank other lanes, be that guy.
34 Innovate in normals not ranked -- Think you've found the new op champ? Think you've found a build that is off the beaten track but really strong? Go play it in normals. If you can't win with it in normals what chance do you think you have in ranked? Don't pick a troll pick in ranked if you want to win
35 Learn CDs -- Your opponent used ignite well after you, meaning that when your ignite comes back you've a window where they won't have ignite. That means you can win that fight. You burned flash fighting them and they didn’t, so be aware that they could flash out early.
GOLDEN RULE
You’re not good at the game. - Otherwise you would be plat, diamond or challenger by now. You aren't a pro, so stop yelling at your team-mates and raging over skype. Stop blaming your ADC for dying when you run away on 3k HP. Suck it up and learn you're fallible. Don't blame solo queue either, most pros have multiple accounts at high platinum/diamond. If they can do it on several and you can't on one, you're lying to yourself.
Have fun!
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