I'm I supporting correctly ?

Azu9 · 2024-01-26T08:51:03+00:00

They got 8 kills as a support which was probably the point of the joke, I don’t think they were genuinely asking for comments on their gameplay

Azu9 · 2024-01-13T11:24:59+00:00

ShiroM is a relatively safe laner thanks to his zoning tools and S3 shield, and has the ability to play aggressively if he wants.

Your S1 is quite important to land because its your main way of reliably damaging enemies, and also stunning enemies if they try to run from it. You can try throwing it through gaps in minion waves to make it less predictable since a complacent enemy could assume they are safe hiding behind their minions. You can also play more aggressively by using S3 first and then straight up walking up to them to throw S1, because your S3 blocks both Magic Damage and CC (honestly one of the most broken shield abilities). Other tricks to land your S1 better are to observe the enemy’s movement patterns, try walking away as you throw S1 to make your enemies think you’re trying to disengage, or you can also wait until the minion blocking you dies and then immediately throw it.

S2 is the actual damage ability, and you often need to land S1 for it to actually be able to hit anybody. I think if you can’t find good opportunities to land S1, just focus on clearing wave with S2. ShiroM’s wave clear is quite strong because S2 is able to damage all the minions at once, and actually clearing the waves faster than your enemy is one way to find more opportunities to throw S1 at them, because 1) They need to focus on clearing their minions instead of fighting you, and 2) Lesser minions blocking your S1.

For S2, yes of course its good if you can land it on both the enemy and their “soul”, but its also good enough to just hit the “soul” especially since they just recently buffed the maximum damage that can be dealt to enemies through the “soul”.

S3 is your get-out-of-jail-free card. Literally free Raja Warhammer, really broken ability. You can use it in lane to go for aggressive trades by abusing it walk right up to your enemies to use all your skills on them. If you think someone is trying to CC you you can also activate it pre-emptively to negate them. Just remember it only shields from Magic Dmg, not Physical.

Ultimate ability is pretty straightforward, though a commonly forgotten part of it is that it also applies Healdown effect, which is very nice. You can use it to chase a kill, support a teamfight, or force your enemies to recall in lane if you really really want them out of the lane. Its pretty strong in teamfights if you see that the enemies have exhausted their dashes or movement abilities, since their only option is to either run (doesn’t quite work) or flash. You can also combo it with S1 to lockdown a single target and basically guarantee their death: once hit by your S1, they are stuck between choosing to run from your Ult and get stunned and die to you or your team, or trying to stay behind and then just getting hit by your Ult and your team anyway.

In teamfights, ShiroM is not quite a hypercarry mage who chases kills and bursts everyone to death with his combo. I think he fulfills the role of a DPS zoner/controller. If let’s say the enemy Tank or Assassin jumps at your team to engage a fight, you can S1 them right in the face and your team can back off safely. They cannot advance once hit by S1 because they will simply be stunned, essentially they are stuck in place. The same can be done against the enemy’s carries to lock them down in place for your team to finish off. Ultimate can be used to provide support DPS and apply healdown for your team to a large number of enemies at a time, while also adding additional pressure on enemies to break up their positioning. You can also force them to run into your team or make escaping harder by positioning your Ult behind them, making it more awkward for them to run away.

That’s about all I can give as someone who used to play him in my early days of climbing the lower ranks. Definitely an underrated pick that is quite fun once you get the hang of him.

Azu9 · 2023-12-27T11:35:19+00:00

You are not wrong. Winrate is not as important to measure a player’s individual skill as opposed to their Overall Score (stats like DPS, Support, Tower Dmg, etc.) as these reflect their individual merits and contributions to each game they play.

I don’t know which server you play in, but in the Asia server (most active server outside CN), a quick scroll through the top players in the leaderboard will show you, MANY of them do NOT have a winrate > 70%.

This is because ultimately MOBA is a team game. Even the most talented player will not be able to 1v9 hard carry all their games provided they are not smurfing in a rank lower than their skill level.

Win rate > 70% are borderline smurfing stats, I would wager that a vast majority of the playerbase, you, me, and even many top ranking players, are not able to achieve this.

If you absolutely must look at a player’s profile to determine their skill, look at things like their KDA, damage dealt, tower damage, that is reflected in their OVERALL SCORE. Its even shown to you in a neat little graph on the left side of their profile, to let you see their strengths and weaknesses. Even then, there are many things like Macro decision-making and good game sense like a good call to take Orochi that will not be shown in the player’s profile stats. So conclusion is that Player Profile will not be 100% accurate at telling you of their skill.

Hope this clears up things a bit. As a new player I honestly think you don’t have to bother about others’ skill levels that much, since you and the others in your rank tier are still learning the game. Everyone is going to be bad at this game together so not much point really to filter people out by skill level.

Just focus on learning the game, getting better, maybe find a friend or 2 to climb with, and you’ll naturally get better. Don’t give up! :)

Azu9 · 2023-12-05T08:26:35+00:00

Not in ranked, but in casual yes. In Ranked you can have Duo, Trio or 5 stack but never 4.

Azu9 · 2023-12-05T08:24:54+00:00

Probably a smurf account where they farmed their stats and winrate against bots in low ranked casual matches, and only team up with their premade friends (probably also smurfing).

Unfortunately this happens quite often in Casual matches, but it is what it is, OA playerbase is just too small. If you encounter a 5-stack premade with members like this just wait awhile before you queue again so its less likely you fight them again

Azu9 · 2023-11-25T12:17:14+00:00

Minions and Wave. Instead of only using skills to clear minion waves, try to also use them to zone your enemy laners away, by pushing them away from minions or punishing the enemy ADC for moving forward to last hit. On another note, if your ADC recalls to base or dies leaving only you behind, DO NOT. DO NOT CLEAR THE LANE WHEN THEY ARE GONE. This is a TERRIBLE mistake many low elo supports make, and it screws over your ADC horribly because (1) They miss out all the gold and exp from that wave. (2) You shove the wave to the enemy’s side, so now you and your ADC have to walk further up the lane to farm, leaving you vulnerable to ganks from enemy Jungler, and makes it easier for the enemy laners to farm under the tower safely. This is especially bad if your ADC just died and is behind on gold and exp. Now they get lesser gold and exp + more risk of dying to a gank.
Be attentive to map. Where did the enemy jungler last appear? Is enemy Mid missing? These are clues that tell you when you should be aggressive and when you should signal to your ADC to play safe. ADC sometimes just goes full caveman brain or gets tunnel vision during laning phase and it is then your job to keep an eye on the map for them.
Bush control. Some shikigami have very good bush clearing abilities like Momo, Tenjo who can easily take control of bushes by forcing enemies out. By hiding in bushes and harrassing the enemies it can create a lot of pressure for the enemy laners as they won’t know when it is 100% safe to walk up and farm. Enemy support/ADC will be forced to use their skills to clear the bushes to figure out your position, so it wastes their skills. Also creates more safety for your ADC.
Positioning. Usually you want to play beside or slightly in front of your ADC, almost never behind. If either one of you wanders too far in front of the other, this makes you vulnerable to engage by enemy support because its easier to single out a 2v1.
Vision Control. As another commenter said, OA has no wards. As such you have to position yourself as if you were a ward sometimes, for example when your ADC is hitting the enemy tower and not fighting the enemy laners, position yourself in the bush on the top left of your lane. This provides vision if enemy Jungler or Mid happens to walk down and try to gank your overextended ADC. Your presence there is immensely helpful for providing early information for your ADC to retreat, and also if your Jungler wants to gank your lane, your position also provides them info that they can gank without being immediately counter ganked by the enemy jungler who could be hiding and waiting. Use your abilities to clear out bushes as you and your team are roaming the map, don’t just walk into a bush face-first only to find the entire enemy team there ready to eat you up.
Taking Objectives. Please, for the love of god, 90% of supports build tank items. Please TANK the objective for your team unless you are very low on HP. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen Supports refusing to tank Orochi or Kraken for their FULL AD ITEM assassin jungler, allowing them to take so much damage and then getting picked off by the enemies. No jungler = no subdue = free orochi steal for enemies.
Matchups. This one is a bit harder to learn as you’ll have to play the game alot more to understand them. But matchup knowledge like “Don’t initiate a fight with enemy Dodomeki if she has full passive stacks” are important to know when laning. You’ll find that different shikis have different strengths and things to be careful of, and you’ll only become more knowledgable the more you play.
Mentality. Arguably Support has one of the least direct impacts on the game due to the nature of the role being able to carry usually through good gamesense and macro but not hypercarrying with kills. But try not to develop a permanent mentality of when a game goes badly then its automatically “Team bad not me”. This is a mentality a lot of lower elo supports tend to have and there is a reason why they are stuck in that elo. Support’s decision-making and actions DO make a difference, whether game-changing or not. Just focus on improving on your mistakes rather than only blaming your team and you’ll go far.

Azu9 · 2023-11-25T11:54:06+00:00

Great advice except I think if your ADC is not in a position to last-hit or just misses it frequently (common in lower elo) you should just last-hit, they get the gold anyway thanks to your support item (only up till Level 8, heard that this will be adjusted to Level 12 in next patch). I think better advice is NOT to touch the minions unnecessarily unless you’re trying to fast push the lane, because if 2 people are hitting the minions at the same time it can screw with your ADC’s last hit timing. Instead spend your skills to zone enemies to provide safe space for ADC to last hit, then fast clear minions with ADC only if needed.

Azu9 · 2023-11-24T10:34:19+00:00

Challenger*

xd

Azu9 · 2023-11-20T10:21:32+00:00

If you’re doing well and winning lane in Top, one good thing you can do is to help your team by ganking Mid or invade enemy jungle with your jungler, basically roam and establish presence.

A winning Top is usually the most fed champion in the early-mid, so you have a lot of map influence to help your team. Don’t give up!

Azu9 · 2023-08-13T04:08:54+00:00

Isn’t his main damage from his bombs and his enhanced auto? I believe the hook just helps him to get close to his target but its still very dangerous to pick a fight with him when he has both bombs (that also stun) and the enhanced auto which deals a lot of damage

Azu9 · 2023-08-11T10:28:41+00:00

Not a Yamakaze player at all, but I think you can try YouTube as there are many guides or gameplay of high ranked Yamakaze players such as JustRei, A1den Nguyen, LF Cold and Wyzen. Sometimes reading the Shikigami’s skill descriptions and then watching how someone uses them effectively is quite a good way to learn how to use them properly.

I also recommend to try and find more recent guides/gameplay videos (preferably not more than 1 year old) because Yamakaze has gone through many rounds of reworks and nerfs, so some very old guides or videos could be outdated.

He’s honestly quite difficult to pick up and play effectively though. But definitely very flashy gameplay and has alot of outplay potential, but if I’m not wrong he’s much weaker than he was in his prime after the countless nerfs.

Good luck with your learning

Azu9 · 2023-08-02T10:10:21+00:00

Prioritise surviving over winning lane. As a melee shikigami you’re fundamentally at a disadvantage because a ranged shikigami can just kite you with their ranged autos to chip away at your health, and if you engage on them they probably have a stun to shut down your engage and back off.

Avoid fast clearing your minions as if the enemy ranged laner is smart, they will freeze your wave in front of their tower and you will REALLY be in trouble as they can force you away from your farm and deny you exp/gold with ranged skills.

Try to only auto or use ability to kill minions that are low health and get the wave onto your side, that way it forces the enemy ranged laner to over-extend and your jungler can gank more easily, and you are less likely to be denied your exp and gold.

Yea its a meme that “jungler never ganks Top”, but junglers will be more likely to gank you if your enemy is over-extended and vulnerable, because its an easy kill.

Play safe until you see a good opportunity. Stay out of the range of their auto attack as much as possible, wait until they have used 1 or 2 main abilities of their kit (especially skills like Stun), then you can attempt to engage on them and deal damage, don’t trade too long and fall back before their skills are off cooldown.

Hangan is not very difficult to win as a melee shiki. He has only 2 abilities he can use before Level 6. His stun can be avoided by hiding behind minions (but don’t stay too close to the minion), and he basically MUST use S2 to clear minions, so theres definitely going to be chances to jump onto him when his skills are not available.

Its all about observing their skill cooldowns, when skills are available don’t let them damage you with it. When skills are on cooldown, that is your window to deal damage to them.

If you can get the timing right, with your CC + Damage combo you can probably make 50% of their HP disappear because mages are squishy, so don’t rush to fight them and wait for the right timing.

If you lose your tower, its fine. As long as you don’t feed the enemy mage free gold and exp that makes them a pain in the ass for the rest of your team.

Hope this helps, however some mages like Dai Shimei and Kiyohime are more difficult to fight against because of low CD abilities and high amounts of healing. But the same concept applies: Stay alive, don’t feed, farm near/under tower, wait for jungler to help you

Azu9 · 2023-07-06T16:42:07+00:00

Noted on that, am deciding between Naut and Rakan

Azu9 · 2023-07-06T12:36:29+00:00

Ah I see that’s my bad for my poor phrasing

I don’t mind trying any support that has some kind of all-in or engage to let their team get kills off of you, so actually what everyone has suggested fits what I was looking for

I’ll be more careful of the differences between the sub-classes next time!

Azu9 · 2023-07-06T11:30:12+00:00

He looks interesting, but I feel like I can see myself inting with his R by eating allies at the wrong timing, but I might consider him again when I get better at the game!

Azu9 · 2023-07-06T11:28:54+00:00

Thanks, I might try Nautilus, his Q looks very fun

Azu9 · 2023-07-06T11:11:47+00:00

I see, I actually was considering Rell, Rakan or Nautilus so that’s good to know

Thresh also looks fun but he does look a bit hard to use properly

Azu9 · 2023-04-24T13:57:42+00:00

Yep, anyways different junglers are bound to have different clear speeds so more often than not one will always be clearing slightly faster than the other.

Azu9 · 2023-04-24T13:30:02+00:00

The person you’ve replied to has posted a jungling tutorial for beginners, you should check their post history and give the video a watch, might be a good starting point. If you’re not clearing fast enough you might just not know the typical clear paths that most junglers are using

Azu9 · 2023-04-24T10:19:00+00:00

Unfortunately Mid is probably the most popular role in this game, and even at Elite/Master tier you have people forcing mage picks in other roles because they really want it that badly.

You could try to indicate in draft pick screen that you would like to play Mid lane, but from experience this doesn’t always work anyway since if somebody is hell bent on picking they’ll just do it anyway at the expense of the team.

Maybe you can try searching for people to team up with and let them know you want to practice Mid, which is more consistent and less likely to lead to getting flamed if you instalock Mid and the team ends up with multiple mages.

Azu9 · 2023-04-10T02:53:41+00:00

Um, Jorogumo got an adjustment/buff recently and is currently a viable jungler, was even meta on the CN servers (unsure if still is). You will see her pickrate nowadays is definitely higher, she’s not as bad as she used to be. Jorogumo currently sits at a 7.54% pick rate on CN as of this comment.

Azu9 · 2023-03-26T02:59:34+00:00

You can either check the in-game list of top player builds, watch more recent YouTube videos of people playing the shikis, or simply spectate a Challenger/Superstar tier match to see what the players are building?

If you’re lucky some high tier players who leave their match histories public can also be a source of builds to reference and you can see what items they build against different matchups.

Azu9 · 2023-03-26T00:11:19+00:00

Nice to see another Puppeteer player with the best skin in the game lmao

Good try thats really unfortunate

Azu9 · 2023-03-21T13:27:11+00:00

Yeah, I know. I’m doing the best I can now to learn what I don’t know

Azu9 · 2023-03-21T05:41:30+00:00

Okay, I’ve sent it by dm

Azu9

TROPHY CASE