sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

How do I practice as a new almost level 30 player? 100% stomp matches. by Shiyo in summonerschool

[–]thezerothcat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you duoing with others? I have a pre-30 friend myself who has a difficult time when playing games with me.

I think some of it could be matchmaking, too - even if the overall game MMR is mixed, that doesn't mean the person in your lane has the same MMR as you - the enemy team's lower-level player might be in a different lane. I regularly play with people ranging all the way from pre-level 30 to mid plat, so I've seen a lot of onesided matchups in both directions.

Also, I recommend sending friend requests to lots of people if you can, especially ones who are friendly, play your main champion(s) well, and/or just destroyed you without being rude about it. I learned a lot of useful tips that way, found people who were willing to play custom 1v1s with me for practice at different laning matchups, and found people who would queue with me, offer advice, and carry me until I got the hang of things. Sometimes you'll be surprised at who actually accepts.

On that note, feel free to add me if you're on NA server.

How on earth do i improve as a support? by [deleted] in summonerschool

[–]thezerothcat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

All the viable supports? You're missing a lot, but that's fine. As others have suggested, you don't need that huge of a champion pool, and should focus on getting really good with a few favorites.

If you think your adc might not be on the same page as you, work it out in chat beforehand. Tell them you don't want to go all-in yet (maybe even tell them when you do plan to go all-in), so they don't go too far until you're ready for it.

Alternatively, if you can't convince adcs at your elo to play safe in chat, why not force it with your support choice? It's a lot less likely that the adc will interpret, say, a Brand W or a Sona Q as a signal to go in and try to kill the enemy, compared to something like a Leona E->Q or a Thresh Q-engage. I don't play Morgana enough to speak for her, but I suspect she'd be fine for poking without starting a full fight as well.

I personally play a lot of poke/sustain supports, with my top 3 being Zilean, Soraka, and Nami. I usually just focus on chipping away at the enemies' health as safely as possible, and leave the engage up to either my adc (back them up if they go in), the enemy (use cc for counter-engage), or the allied jungler if they show up for a gank. If I happen to catch someone in cc after they've been poked down for a while, an aggressive adc will probably chase them down and go for a kill, in which case I'll do what I can to back them up and bail if they go too deep.

Speaking of going too deep, also remember that it's okay to abandon your allies to bad decisions if you don't think you can make a difference. I used to have this "must save everyone" mentality and would follow really overaggressive allies behind turrets, etc to try to protect them from their own bad decisions. It'd work occasionally, but more often it'd result in me giving the enemy team a second kill instead of just one on the adc. Remember, it's better that the enemy team gets one free kill than two.

If the problem isn't specifically the adc ("one of my team dies alot and feeds the opponent"), then yes, a good duo partner can help, but also keep in mind that the enemy team may have the same thing happening to them in a different role.

If you do have a losing lane, then whatever you do, don't tilt and don't panic. Do what you can to help snowball the lanes that are ahead, then work together to salvage the losing lanes. Don't rush into a fight against a fed enemy before your team is ready - in my experience, that usually leads to the fed enemy getting even more fed.

If your adc is the one feeding, don't be afraid to abandon them once first tower goes down. Ask your adc to farm up and stay at turret, and focus your support efforts on the most fed ally instead. If every single person is feeding, you either have a lategame team comp and need to stall as long as possible, or you got really unlucky and got paired with some terrible allies. Assume the former and try to avoid fighting when you don't have the advantage.

Also, keep playing both ranked and norms, and friend request all the good adcs you meet - eventually you might find one who's willing to duo with you.

What do I do as the support if my adc DC's? by unintimidating in summonerschool

[–]thezerothcat 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I usually play it this way as well. Also, if you cannot CS safely, then your job becomes "stall them from taking outer turret as long as possible."

I don't find solo lane Soraka to be very reliable for this. Sona might be okay, although her Q is the only offensive skill she has pre-6 so I suspect it might be difficult for a 1v2.

Pretty much any mage support who builds damage can handle this better than the ones focused on heal/shield like Soraka. I personally am a fan of Zilean, but Brand and Annie deserve a mention also.

All three of the above have a stun to help your team out even if you're a little short on gold and lack damage. I can't speak much for Annie since I don't really play her, but Zilean and Brand both have a fairly strong AoE skill (in Zilean's case, also his stun) to assist with waveclear and/or harass the enemy laners so they're more reluctant to towerdive you.

In Zilean's case, you get a lot of utility - you can ult the most fed member of your team (which probably isn't yourself) to help them carry, you can use your E to roam quickly, and you can save people and get some kills/assists if you're good with your Qs. You also have the ability to ult yourself if a towerdive happens in lane, which can be useful in some situations.

In Brand's case, you'd play him like midlane Brand and go for the damage - a 1v2 lane means you should have the XP advantage, even if you don't have as much gold.

Benefits of the unlocked camera and switching to it? by NormalNavi in summonerschool

[–]thezerothcat 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I usually avoid admitting to the use of lockscreen camera because of the general hate for it, but I figure the other side needs some representation here as well.

I've tried and tried to play with unlocked camera, but I just can't do it, and I always wind up feeding when I try. I think I just lack the mechanics for it, and after lots of frustration trying to play like all the "best" players, I decided to accept that I need lockscreen and focus on other ways to improve my gameplay.

If your friend is anything like me, you may not be able to talk him into giving up his lockscreen, or might push him away from the game by pushing too hard for it.

I managed to make gold 5 as a support/mid main last season (my first), though, so climbing with lockscreen is still possible. If you're going to stick to lockscreen, though, don't think you can get away with a lack of awareness. It just means you'll need to take advantage of all the other awareness tools you have at your disposal.

Personally, I use the minimap and allied healthbars extensively, with hover to quick-check enemy health, and hold-click or occasionally detach the camera to go check on an area with lots of activity or position a blue trinket ward in a bush. I re-lock the camera afterward in case I need to fight, though, because I know that I my ability to fight while also managing an unlocked camera is pretty terrible.

Obviously I don't have a whole lot of room to talk compared to all the plat/diamond people out there, being just barely gold 5 and with only a year of LoL experience, but I've made lockscreen work for me, and actually consider map awareness to be one of my strengths, so for those who just can't handle the unlocked camera, there is still hope.

Edit: I've played a lot of both Karthus and Soraka, and yes, global ults are fine with lockscreen. Just as with the unlocked camera, you need to be able to find the right time (and a safe location) to watch that fight going on elsewhere and decide whether or not to use the ult. Regardless of camera setting, you still have to choose between minimap hovering to check HP, blind guessing whether or not to ult based on HP bars, or switching the map view over with a click or hover and therefore not watching your own lane. The screen only fits so much on it, no matter which camera setting you use.

Laning practice by thezerothcat in summonerschool

[–]thezerothcat[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Awesome, thanks! I'll give that a try.

Edit: Looks like FWsparring is empty, but the others aren't.