MOBAFire Blog Feed

I think I may have the Ryze.

Still in the button mashing phase, but I've been having a lot of fun mashing allthebuttons.

Still haven't managed a stylish activate Zhonya's Hourglass and

This is a relatively complicated medium to high level topic.

If you've got the time watch this VOD review by Wickd of Jax vs a Yorick as he explains some of the thought process around pushing early.

Play Video


One way to think about it is if you are Top and your jungler starts Bot side then you don't want to push your lane early because your jungler is going to hit level 3 while they are near to your lane.

By holding back on pushing the wave this gives you another tool for setting the course of your lane because it forces the enemy laner to overextend making them a ripe target for a gank.

However if your jungler starts in the top side of the jungler and moves towards bottom side on their jungle clear you may want to push the wave in so you can get a ward in to spot a potential gank from the enemy jungler. If you crash the wave into their tower then you can just wait for it to push back to you knowing you should be reasonably safe from a gank since you have a war…

Count towers, farm, kills, and look at the scoreboard to see which team has the most completed items.

If you are behind play like it.

-Avoid fights where you can
-Let caught out team members die
-Just farm
-Keep as much vision on the map as you safely can
-Buy items that let you wave clear


e.g. Statikk Shiv instead of Phantom Dancer if you don't have a lot of wave clear built into your kit.

Your job when behind is usually to stall and wait until your opponents either make a mistake or until you get get caught up in items and can then take an even fight (though you never want to take an even fight if you can avoid it).

Knowing when you are ahead or behind is a key to getting better at the game. There are things you can look at to tell even though you can't see the actual gold count while in game. Use that information to determine how you play the lane and the game.

;tldr If you are on the wrong side of the level, gold, and/or item mismatch then play accordindly.

Maybe. This is an awkward moment for laners for a number of reasons:

-You probably can't clear minion waves quickly, yet
-Even if you can it will probably cause you to burn a lot of resources such as mana, which might make helping awkward
-You may not have access to all your abilities, yet
-Blowing all your abilities to clear a wave may open you up to attack by your lane opponent
-Your lane opponent may move first to support their invading jungler so you have to be careful about getting ambushed on your way to support your jungler
--you may not win the 2 v 2
--you may not win the 2 v 1 (if your jungler dies before you can intervene)
-If you are in a position to help the enemy jungler may be able to quickly escape, which means you get nothing except providing some moral support to your jungler by showing that you are paying attention and will move to help (this is actually worth something to your jungler).

Like most things in League you have to balance out the equation of do I get mo…

I've had a number of games of late where my teams lacked in the basic fundamentals of doing head counts and setting up proper vision which lost us those games.

If you decide it is a great idea to siege at turret in X lane and don't have any wards out on your flanks and haven't swept for wards behind you then you are taking unnecessary chances.

In your map awareness checks do a head count. Generally you want to be 5 unless you are losing 5 v 5s and you have a strong splitpusher with Teleport available. In the later scenario you are trying to win by creating two points of pressure on the map. Both points of pressure are necessary to split up the enemy team. If either point of pressure is caught and dies your 1-4 strategy will cease to work. Back off and reset until you can get your other pressure point back out on the map.

Very occasionally you might be able to run a 1-3-1 if you have two strong splitpushers and a small squad with good disengage. But this is hard to coordinate e…

I get this **** - we'll call it every 5 games or so.

"Are you just going to farm your jungle?"

No, but I am going to prioritize guaranteed gold and XP HIGHLY!

If in the process of farming a

-gank
-countergank
-tower crash dive
-counter jungling
-warding to get vision on the enemy jungler

Opportunity presents itself and I recognize it then I will take it.

The problem is that laners are really asking you to win their lane for them and that is not strictly a jungler's job.

I have a lane. It is called the jungle. It is guaranteed gold and XP that is super low risk.

Once upon a time I had, what I assume was a smurf playing in one of my games. They noticed that I was two levels behind the solo laners. They told me to stop trying to make plays and farm. Thank you Mr./Mrs. Smurf.

Be efficient with your time. Try not to die while you have camps up. Clear efficiently.

You know why an early Tiamat is highly prized by a lot of jungle champs? Because it lets them farm efficiently…

Thinking through something that has been a problem for me.

Nothing looks like a surefire gank opportunity.

You still have choices of what to do:

1) Take scuttle crab
2) Get wards down at probable locations where their jungler or laners will walk through.
3) Invade the enemy jungle
4) Force* a gank

I'm not much for #4. But.

Think about what you might lose for getting some damage or blowing a Flash or Ghost on an enemy laner.

*don't be stupid about it. Don't gank into a huge minion wave. don't gank if your laner is really low unless you are sure you can kill the enemy champion yourself (baiting is tricky when you aren't on comms together).

So you don't kill them, but it potentially puts your laner in an advantageous position that they or you and they may be able to take advantage a little later.

Sure you need to think about things like:

1) If I show Top can they take Dragon?
2) If I show Top can I lose one or more camps on Bot side?
3) No presence at all, unless you are know…

I win more when I'm able to focus on what is important.

Watch the mini-map at all stages of the game.

For finer detail, get in the habit of using the F keys to watch your laners while they lane. (It takes some practice if you are not used to doing so). Watch for summoner usage and ward placement. This is easier if you use a jungler you are very familiar with so you have more attention for paying attention to what is going on in the map or to put it another way, you are going to miss out on a lot if you try to first time Nidalee jungle and all your attention is taken up trying to clear the jungle without dying.

Where did the enemy jungler start?

Think about where the enemy jungle started. See which laners come to lane late. Check their mana and health bars.

If their Top and Bot laners come to lane at the same time with no obvious mana loss, then their jungler probably started Raptors.

Keep in mind you can be tricked. Their laners can purposely come to lane late and use some …

I don't know you. Until proven otherwise, you are all automatons that are programmed just well enough to get to lane and attempt to CS.

How do you prove you are not Bots so I want to help you?

When the game starts run out to the jungle and take up a position to protect OUR jungle. If I lose our Blue buff and then you get cheesed at level 2 by their jungler wearing OUR blue buff, I'm probably going to be tilted and you are probably going to be tilted. Save us the trouble.

You get +1 human point if you run out and protect OUR opposite buff without me asking you to.

When protecting the jungle ward out in front of you and know your escape path! I smack my head every time I watch someone on my team setup in the river bush between the two paths back into the Blue side jungle and they get collapsed on and they die because they have not planned a retreat path.

If you are a lazy sluggard and don't make it out off the fountain at the 14 second mark, treat the damn jungle like it might ha…

What is working for me? 4 Aug 2017

First things. I have a good computer that can easily run league. I have a speedy internet connection that stable most of the time. I'm close enough to the servers in Chicago to tend to hover around 21 ping. I have a decent desk chair that lets me keep my mouse and keyboard in a reasonably comfortable position.

I've been playing since late in Season 2. I own all the champions so I can trade people in champion select in needs be. I can play a lot of the those champions with some facility.

I've watched a lot of videos and read a lot of posts/articles on how to play league and I've gotten some coaching and I've done a little bit of coaching. I watch streams or youtube videos of high level players that explain what they are thinking, such as Edge and SoloRenektonOnly.

I keep a running list of my games here in my ranked post, generally with some comments on how things went and possibly how I could have done things better. I also try to blog about …