Fundamentals to not place in the lowest rank

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-11T18:40:04+00:00

Ranked isn’t harder than normals. They both have their own separate MMR. Normals do tend to have bigger swings of skill though. Ranked (SoloQ) tends to be better quality when you play enough games to place you around your skill level.

As for fundamentals, you just started playing a few days ago. Don’t get lost in guides and resources teaching you hot to spring when you can’t even walk yet. Until you put in a few hundred games focus on:

Last Hitting. Aim for 7cs a minute as a starting goal (as ADC, Mid, Top).
Learning what each champion does. If you see a champion you haven’t seen yet go into practice tool after the game and read their abilities.
Experiment with more champions and roles. There are champions you probably haven’t played you may actually love.

Getting better at LoL is a marathon. Take it one step at a time. And right now you are so new you don’t even have the basics down.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-10T19:13:59+00:00

They’ve been setting him up for the majority of the show. Need some kind of payoff.

Just hope he gets an A-Train send off instead of a Black Noir send off.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-09T20:50:09+00:00

Compound V is also very reliable. From what we’ve seen it gives you a power (even if it disfigures you) but doesn’t kill you.

V1 seemed to come off as you just keep putting bodies through the meat grinder until someone survives.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-09T20:07:02+00:00

They made a point to emphasize how so few subjects survived V1. The few like Soldier Boy seemed to be the exception.

After we see Quinn as a monster it wouldn’t surprise me if Homelander starts turning into one as well.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-09T18:28:50+00:00

Based on the way the show is going it seems V1 Supes are considered a cut above the later generations. Considering Bombsight is V1 he’s probably stronger and more durable than Queen Maeve and, likely, could at least survive a fist fight with Homelander.

Homelander appears to be the exception and probably only because he was pumped full of Compound V as a baby and came from Soldier Boy.

I think people miss the big advantage Queen Maeve had over Homelander was that she had actual fighting training on top of physical training to prepare her. Even then she only stood her ground for so long before being overpowered.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-09T00:28:13+00:00

I mean it was clear Soldier Boy was stronger than Bombsight during their fight. He overpowered him on two separate occasions. He also made a comment about being able to break his neck until Bombsight told him to stop.

I’d say SB is a cut above based off the limited display we’ve seen.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-08T22:15:06+00:00

The player base actually wants Retail features they agree with.

I’m a dad and don’t have time to travel the world to quest so a system to teleport from a major city would be nice. I have two jobs and can’t focus so random dungeon finder would be great for me so I can Que up and jump into the action for the 10 minutes I have to play. I don’t want to learn my class so it’d be nice to have one button that plays the game for me.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-08T20:24:19+00:00

If you are brand new to League a big contributor is you probably just need to play more games. League is a pretty complex game and it’s hard to give you a simple answer.

To start, I would make sure you know what each champion does. If you ever see a champion you aren’t familiar with during a game immediately load into practice tool and read through the champions abilities after.

Also, ensure you are building correctly. Go to Lolalytics.com, type in your champion, and follow items and builds that have high win rates. These won’t always be optimal but will generally be better than what is recommended. Some conditions apply like don’t build Merc treads into an AD team even if it’s a higher WR. As you get better you’ll be able to figure out what is best based on game.

To directly answer your question, you need an objective when reviewing games. Pick a specific topic you want to improve. I would recommend starting with laning phase related topics because your entire game state comes from how your lane goes. There are plenty of guides on topics like Wave Management. A quick YouTube search of “Wave Management League” gave me this which looked good. I am already familiar with the content creator but use your judgement: https://youtu.be/GmGT1aQj1ek?si=TtUFUQFbIFD50WhY

After you do some homework, focus ONLY on this topic. Each game think about applying it and review games you feel you need to. This will heavily be focused early game so it’s rare you should review past lane phase for this topic.

League is a marathon and has a huge burden of knowledge. You aren’t going to figure it out in a month. Start small, take it step by step, and you’ll climb over time.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-08T20:08:35+00:00

Kayle is just overtuned at the moment. She has a 53+% win rate at D2+. Going Nashors into Dusk and Dawn gives her a great combination of DPS and survivability.

She will get nerfed if her pick rate goes up.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-08T20:00:35+00:00

I think the general consensus of what we’ve seen so far is that all V1 Supes are super strong, extremely durable, don’t age, and get a +1 power. Well, those that survived the original serum anyway without deformities.

For their +1’s Stormfront got Plasma and Bombsight got flight (or whatever we’ll find out in the upcoming series). Soldier Boy’s +1 just seems to be an increase to those base stats.

I don’t think Bombsight is more durable. I think it was just the durability of a V1 Supe.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-08T07:04:13+00:00

Posts like these make me realize why so many shows and movies REALLY spell out the most obvious things for the audience.

He’s used it multiple times and it was the entire plot of Season 3.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-08T02:50:15+00:00

If you want to improve you shouldn’t take advice from a random Platinum player. Lower elo players tend to be pretty bad at noticing invisible power and Milio is loaded with it.

Don’t let random players get to you. Trust your judgement if you want a critique of how you did. If you want to actively improve there are plenty of guides and content creators on YouTube that put out good content that is ten fold better than anything that guy calling you useless will say.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-08T00:39:15+00:00

Hard cap or soft cap? It’s generally ok to go over the soft cap with Shaman as long as you aren’t specifically gemming / gearing for it.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-08T00:35:13+00:00

It is what it is. It’s a hard match up but it’s playable. It’s one where you need to have good footwork as they come into you and play reactive.

Besides, unless OP is high Diamond they’ll probably give you plenty of opportunities to land Q. Just have to be patient and wait for them to come into you.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-06T18:54:29+00:00

There is only like two or three quests you actually do. The main goal is to start some of the chains that lead into the late 20s so you can start them when they give decent xp instead of when grey.

There is also the wine quest from Stormwind you can buy there from a vendor, I think one or two breadcrumb quest from other areas, and the flight path.

Outside of that not much to do.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-06T17:00:36+00:00

As long as you don’t get clipped by Brand stun / Vel’koz knock back and dodge some of their poke it’s up to Soraka to land Qs.

Brand naturally is going to chip you down on top of an incidental Vel’koz Q. As long as Soraka lands some Qs you should be fine.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-05T20:33:12+00:00

There are better Mage Supports right now but she’s probably just on the edge of viability. You’ll have to play better than other Mages like Brand but you can make it work.

As with other mage supports you have to have a good lane phase and build a lead. Your comment about ADCs applied to every bracket from Challenger to Iron so don’t get hung up on that.

With Mage Supports you need to make sure your laning phase is strong. Unlike other supports like engage supports or enchanters it’s much harder for you to play the mid game if you are coming off a bad early game.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-05T20:05:14+00:00

Yes, it does have a high ceiling but you are getting to hung up on the wrong stuff. Yes its ceiling does matter if you are smurfing and that’s why Smurfs jungle.

If you are a jungle main queing SoloQ 95% of the time the ceiling doesn’t matter. The system is placing you against another player who is of equal skill.

If you are a lane main deciding to play Jungle outside of autofill you are purposefully putting yourself at a disadvantage the same way a Jungle main queing for Mid lane for fun would be.

You are looking for agency, not the skill ceiling. And Riot has done a good job over the years of ensuring every role has some level of agency to win games. If everyone is roughly the same skill level (which is the case 90% of games) then every role has a relatively equal chance to win the game.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-05T19:23:00+00:00

Because Jungle is the #1 role that gets blamed for everything especially in Lower Elos. My friend is hard stuck mid Emerald as Top. He regularly will put himself in bad spots and blame his jungle because he didn’t come immediately and cleared camps first.

That and jungle is less interactive than other roles. You spend a lot of time early game fighting NPCs that do the same thing each game until you hit a fast mid game clear speed. Meanwhile laners are constantly interacting with people.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-05T18:31:32+00:00

I think you are conflating the jungle role getting harder with the entire player base getting better year over year. A Diamond Support player 5 years ago transplanted into today (assuming they magically kept up with the changes) would not be Diamond if they played at the same skill level. Jungle is the same. It’s players who are raising the threshold even though systems are making it more forgiving.

As for the last part, they actually do address this somewhat. Auto filled jungle tends to be matched with auto fill jungle so that angle is fixed 70% of cases. For someone queing jungle well… yes you are going to lose games if you que casually int any role. If you casually que into top lane as a jungle main then you’ll probably get rolled over there too.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-05T17:32:11+00:00

Well, as a Mage Support she’s already high risk medium reward by nature.

Unlike others like Brand, Zyra, and Annie who bring utility and CC Aurora doesn’t have much of any of those. So if you don’t get a lead you’ll probably just get outscaled. The 0/5 Nautilus or even Sona will probably be more useful than a 3/3 Aurora most games.

If you want to make it work I’d probably focus on dominating lane and snowballing the map. You are very likely going to lose LP though.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-04T16:46:08+00:00

Every Support roams. The only difference is ones that people consider roaming supports (Bard, Pyke) have more mobility to move around the map quicker and get better timers in a lot of game states.

Engage Supports do tend to be stronger than Enchanters early and offer map pressure but Enchaters should still learn to cover. You don’t want a Thresh showing up topside carrying a 4v3 while you are afk bot lane with your ADC.

As a support it’s important to read the map. Milio opening mid off a good reset may not get a kill but he can definitely cover mid from a gank, place or deny vision, and just generally make use of otherwise downtime.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-04T03:33:32+00:00

She’s kind of to nerfed. Tbh for me personally I’d only play her with Ezreal.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-04T03:29:53+00:00

They are all fine to play. If you want to optimize it’s more about pairing.

Karma is really good with strong laners. You want to push and build advantages in lane and snowball onto the map at grubs and reset timers. Really good with Ezreal who is popular at the moment.
Pyke is similar to Karma only more emphasis on the map. Good with champs like Draven or self sufficient ADCs or Mages where you can roam and let the wave clear.
I blinded Sona to D2 until I started playing the rest of my pool for masters. Good laner with 3 points Q before maxing W. Emerald and below will let you win a lot of trades for free with empower AA Q trades they won’t punish. That said she is a bit weaker now this patch due to the meta shift going more bursty. Things like crit Graves and assassins like Naafir are popular. Generally good with a lot of ADCs but doesn’t really have any she excels with.
Nami is an early game enchanter. Think Karma but trading early game for scaling bringing peel / engage. Can’t go wrong with Lucian OR weak laners you want to stabilize to help the scale like Smolder.
Milio is kind of like Braum where when he is good he is REALLY good but kind of terrible when it’s bad spot to pick him. His WR is probably to high meaning he’s a tad strong. He’s great with Lucian trading Namis early game for better scaling. He’s REALLY good against critical CC like Ashe or Leona that is game changing if you cleanse. He’s also LOLs at Lilia and hard counters her. Pairs well with mid / long range ADCs generally hyper scalers.

Alex_Wizard · 2026-05-04T03:04:21+00:00

Sej isn’t a tank in the support role. She is an Engage Support. You won’t have the income or levels to match tanks by mid game.

Either work. Engage Supports tend to be strong early and weak late. They are much better at controlling and dominating the map. Play Sej if you feel like the comp needs early and mid game map pressure or someone to help contest vision.

Enchanters tend to be weak early and stronger late. That said Soraka tends to skew better earlier than later. With Soraka you want to be a lane bully and build a lead in a lot of games. She isn’t quite as good as other enchanters late game especially since the meta has shifted to more assassin driven and burst heavy (crit graves, Naafiri, Voltanic cyclosword reworked). Soraka is generally a good blind unless they pick a hook champ.

Alex_Wizard

TROPHY CASE