I still need a map. Every time I get coaching this becomes readily apparent to me.

If I were to give a map to a new player it would look something like this.

Play a few Bot games to familiarize yourself with the the map, the controls, and the very basics of laning.

But don't spend a lot of time on Bots.

Start playing PvP as soon as you know which direction the enemy nexus lies in.

And don't expect to win right off the bat. That comes later.

Play in all the lanes and familiarize yourself with the characters that typically show up there.

If you really like one champion's kit. Great. The next step is to pick 1-2 champions and a lane.

Ideally, pick something that is strong in the META but not so strong that it is banned often.

The simpler the better.

Just as examples:

Garen and Malphite for Top lane

Amumu and Master Yi for Jungle

Annie and Swain for Mid lane

Ashe and Varus for ADC

Blitzcrank and Leona for Support

Then play those champions exclusively while

A) Watching all the LoLSoc videos
B) Making notes

Now the notes part is probably the most difficult thing about this because if you are new to the game what the hell do you want to think about in order to improve?

For laners I'd say the most important thing to learn outside of piloting their character competently would be understanding minion wave management.

For junglers I'd argue that the most important thing to understand outside of piloting their character competently would be understanding minion wave positioning and how your or their laners are managing the waves in their lane.

For Top lane SoloRenektonOnly has some videos on minion wave management and also talks a lot about in his vidoes and I believe on stream as well.

But that is to some extent just the tip ef the iceberg. FoggedFTW often demonstrates how to crash multiple waves into the enemy turret so he can dive them.

LS has a fairly recent video on wave maniuplation. It isn't actually a good teaching video IMO, but it does contain the kernels of some concepts that I haven't seen anyhere else.

One of which is tethering, which I believe is maintaining the distance between yourself and your opposite number in lane and I believe it works best with a ranged into melee match-up.

He also shows a concept about autoing two melee minions and one ranged minion and then letting your minion wave work over the enemy wave while you focus on positioning and pressure the enemy laner through tethering and only last hit when your minions when an enemy minion gets them low.

Still trying to wrap my head around the implications of both.

But what about jungle and minion wave positioning and noticing how the laners are managing their waves?

This gets back into why we only play one or two champions. You need to get your farming to be automatic so you can spend your time watching the map and judging waves because this will be a key factor in where you want to be on the map.

Let's take an example of a recent match that I had. I didn't win this match partially cause I tilted off the face of the earth, but I did, with the help of a coach learn something that netted me a double kill early in the game and should have netted my team another double kill if I didn't near completely screw it up.

The scenario

The bad guys Thresh + Jhin
The good guys Leona + Ezreal

The thing to notice is that Thresh and Jhin can push faster than Leona and Ezreal. Basically because you have double ranged vs ranged + engage. Jhin also has more AoE than Ezreal so that is certainly another factor.





The plan

Ward the pixel brush on Top side of the map at 1:10 > Red with leash from Top laner > Bot Scuttle (Make sure not to show to the enemy minions while crossing through Mid) > Stealth Ward in the pixel brush to see if Lee Sin follows.

As I recall their Bot lane was pushed well past the river so I just walked into lane by hugging the tri-bush wall and got behind them.

Since you are behind them as Xin Zhao you DO NOT engage with E, Audacious Charge. You hold that and simply walk up to whoever is nearer to safety and AA > Q > Q > E > Q.

It probably does not matter who you go on at level 2 because Thresh will most likely not have skilled his Lantern yet (level 3 is when he most commonly gets it). Later if Thresh is hanging back you need to go on him first because he can just lantern Jhin to safety if Thresh can move far enough away.

This opportunity presented itself again not that much later in the game. The key was noting that our wave had crashed into the enemy turret meaning that it would bounce back to my laners. In this case they actually had a wave and a half of enemy minions stacked at their turret, so the enemy wave would push past the Mid point of the lane just on wave strength alone and not counting how Jhin and Thresh managed the wave. I used that opportunity to gank them again and managed to screw up entirely by pathing incorrectly or having some indecision in the matter, which ended up putting me in tower range and dying. Sad Zhao.

But the idea is there. If I played that more intelligently, My Bot lane is up some variation of 4 kills and I believe 4 assissts. Not a bad advantage to have in a game.

So in addition to my previous post.

You play around objectives and where you are strong on the map, but also based upon the positions of the waves in the lane and how they are being managed.

Does you head hurt yet? I know mine does. That was the part of the reason my brain exploded in that game and I tilted badly. I was trying to process more information than I had been previously and that interfered with my performance.

On top of the above concept about monitoring the position and how waves are being managed.

I need to

1) iron out my Xin mechanics if I want to keep playing him.

Stop laughing. Xin actually does have mechanics and doing things in the wrong order or indiscriminately on him will either

A) get you killed or
B) result in a target that should have died getting away

2) Stop looking at myself when heading back out to the jungle or a lane and when farming.
3) Use that time to pan around the map to where what opportunities are available now and in the future