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League of Legends (LoL) Question: How viable are these champions for climbing low elo?

Posted in Champions | Tags: Caitlyn Lucian Lulu Miss Fortune Nami Soraka Xayah 15,528

How viable are these champions for climbing low elo?

Asked on June 1, 2018

Hi, sorry if this is a bad question or anything. I've just started league and I'm ok at it, not that good though. I'm close to being able to play ranked (level 28 now) and I was wondering what the best champions to climb low elo are as of right now. I think I'll be put in Bronze and my goal is to climb to Gold 5 or Silver 1.

I want to ask about these champions:
- Soraka: I like her, I like playing support, she's easy to play and I like endless healing and poke. She's starting to get a little boring because of her passiveness though
- Xayah: I can't carry with her but her kit is very interesting; I'm not that good at her but by all means if she's good at climbing Bronze to Gold, I'll improve on my skills with her
- MF: I like her art, I like her kit but my friends say she's horrible for climbing. I just want more opinions on her. Is she okay?
- Nami and Lulu: I haven't tried them yet but they sound cool and they're support, so...
- Caitlyn: her kit is safe, she has an escape but her mid-game is average (I think) but I like her because she's safe, is she ok to climb with?

If there are other good champions to climb low elos with, please tell me! I just don't like melee champions or jungle.

Thank you!

Answers (7)

(140) |

Well, I don't know why your friends say that is bad for climbing low elo.
She is actually really good for that purpose. Because in lower elo there tend to be more situations where you can just ult a team that is clustered together and kill them all.

I agree with @ orrvaa that you should stick to adc for now. Learning macro is also very important, BUT you should learn how to cs properly as this can get you ahead even without kills.

Yes, I was confused a little since there are more positioning mistakes in low elo that you can punish. I'm not that bad at getting cs but I was wondering how more cs gives you an advantage. Is it because of the gold?

(140) |

Yes, it is very important that you learn how to cs.
You will get more gold and be able to get to your key items faster!
You should be aiming at 70 cs around 10 minutes as a starting goal! ^^

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Oh, ok. Thank you :) I'll try to aim for that.

I suggest you give a chance, if you like healing champs like and .
She has a pretty straight forward kit which is very easy to master once you have played a handful of games with her. Also she has a lot of poke potential and depending on the item build, she can dish out a ton load of damage, winning most of your games and helpful for climbing lower ELO too.

On a personal note, I started playing ADC main, then switched to support and played ALOT of games as , then got little boring with passiveness as you mentioned... so I opted for a similarly easy play style champion and has been my main support ever since. :)

Goodluck.

(12) |

I didnt read any answer you received for this question, there is just to many, But my opinion is that you should play - if you enjoy playing her you will learn to play her much faster and easier, + this is a game, your priority should be having fun, not climbing (so if is boring to you, dont play her). But, if you really cant climb with , and you really want to climb, just pick up -easy to play, easy to carry with, not completely boring (in my opinion).

(953) |

I think MF will work great in lower elos. Just build lethality and try to get a support with some peel or someone aggressive and snowball lane if you can. Caitlyn would have worked really well, but I'm not sure if she's still strong after all her core items got changed/nerfed. Same with Xayah I think.

And like Psiguard said if you do play Soraka learn to apply pressure with her autos and Q, don't rely on your heal a lot since passivity won't get you anywhere if you want to carry. Nami and Lulu are better at applying pressure though imo and both deal more damage and have great utility/peel so I'd go with either of them over Soraka personally.

AP supports, namely Zyra, Brand and Morg, are in good spots right now if you're looking for other options. They're not like Soraka/Nami and the like but with a few games I think you'll be able to play them just fine. You just need to learn how much damage you do, so that you know when you can take fights and when you have to back off.

Also you say you will get placed into Bronze? Why do you say that?

Right now I haven't really played with any supports that synergise with her (Leona, Braum, Thresh and stuff) but I'm hoping that will change soon.

I was thinking the same, but I'll stick to Soraka for now so I can get even better at her. Do you think Nami is a particularly hard champion to play or anything? What about Lulu? I was also thinking about Morgana. I tried Zyra and she's not really my type, Brand is melee so he's already out of the question (but he is pretty good). I'll definitely try them out when they come in free rotation.

I just feel like my skill in general would put me in Bronze and I don't think I'm that good because I get carried by my team a lot. I also read some things (I took it with a grain of salt but it's still in the back of my head) about the placement matches; the number of games you have to win to be put into something above bronze (I think above 5?) seems a little daunting.

(953) |

Nami isn't hard to play at all. She's very squishy but if you're used to playing Soraka that won't be anything new. I think you'd really like her, I don't think I know a support main who doesn't love playing Nami.

Lulu might be a little harder to play since some of her abilities have dual use, depending on whom you cast them. Like your E is useful for the E-Q combo but you also want it for the shield etc. You'd need to play her a bit before you figured out when it's right to use which ability etc. But she's very fun and rewarding to play :)

Morg is pretty easy to play as well, you just need to learn how to time her E, hit her Q and get some experience with using her ultimate. She's one of my personal favourites but I think some people might consider her a bit boring.

Brand is actually ranged, I think you must have confused him with someone else! So you could give him a go next time he's free. He can be really fun to play considering how much damage you do. You can really carry a lane with his DPS, especially in low elo.

If you think your skill level is at bronze, why not wait a little while before jumping into ranked? I know people are really excited to start ranked at level 30, but there's no drawback to waiting and the likelihood of getting placed higher drastically increases. Plus, there are so many people in bronze/silver (roughly 65% of all league players) and it can be very frustrating to play in that elo and quite challenging to get out of it.

I would wait at least until you are comfortable on two roles and with a handful of champions in each. Do you play normal draft or blind? If you still play blind or bots, be sure to get in a few dozen draft games before getting into ranked since, while definitely more lax, the environment is a lot closer to ranked than blind games are.

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Oh, looks like I'm getting mixed replies. Some people are saying Nami is the most difficult support abd Lulu is easy but I guess I'll havento see for myself. Thanks.

Yeah I only realised I mixed him up with Braum when you pointed it out. I've also seen Morg and Brand go mid sometimes (and Zyra) is that common among AP supports? Are they really good in mid too?

Yes, I still play blind. Draft intimidates me a little bit but I guess I'll have to try it out soon. I'm most comfortable with adc and support right now. Completely unrelated to the topic of the question but do you have any tips for playing draft?

Thank you!

(953) |

It really would depend on the person, but I think that Nami has a less challenging kit than Lulu. I don't find either particularly difficult to play though, and I think you won't either after a couple of games :)

Yeah they sometimes go mid. Karma and Morg are decently strong mid lane right now. Brand's always been fine, but more popular bot lane. Zyra might be better now since she got buffed, but I haven't seen her mid lane in a long time.

When playing draft it takes a little longer to get into the game. Outside of that I think every part of it is better than blind pick. There's less arguing because everyone's gotten their role assigned to them. You can ban out really annoying champions like, if you play Nami Lulu and Soraka, Blitzcrank or say LB, Zed, Yasuo etc. You tend to play against players of a slightly higher caliber and who are more serious, so you'll improve more through draft than blind pick.

It can be a bit of a transition, but I think you need to get comfortable with draft before you move on to ranked for sure. I think after a dozen games or so you won't feel intimidated anymore.

Ok, thanks for all the help! I appreciate it :) Also I used your guide for Miss Fortune lol

(953) |

hope it was helpful :)

(1495) |

: You need to learn to play aggressive, especially in low elo. She's actually quite lane dominant in a lot of cases. Take Q at level 1 and E at level 2 (unless your AD is already low on health) and bully people really hard in the early laning phase. Some Soraka players even max Q or E first to bully harder.

: A bit challenging but great for carrying. Not sure how 8.11 changes to crit affect her power curve, as her core build is likely different this patch.

: No reason why you can't climb with her. Practice early aggression because her laning phase is really strong. If you don't win lane, you'll need to set up good ultimates later in the game because she doesn't have as much right-click DPS as other carries.

and : Nami is strong early so she should be fine. Lulu is decent but I'd only play her if you're duoing with someone you can enable, like a , or player.

: Also extremely good early game. The traps can be a bit tough to learn how to use optimally.

Ultimately you should be able to climb with any of these champions, you'll just have to practice the picks you want to play. I recommend focusing on one or two champions per role as you'll learn a lot faster than if you play 3-4 champions per role.

Perhaps a good place to start would be practicing and and trying to win the early game as hard as possible. Be sure to find some vods or streams of high ranked players playing those champions and see how and when they push advantages. Good luck!

Thank you for the detailed response! I will definitely keep all of that in mind.

I also think I'm starting to get pretty decent at Soraka, should I start practicing a new support once I master her? I was thinking about Nami but I'm not sure since I heard she's a difficult champ, her cc is hard to land and she can run out of mana quickly in lane.

(1495) |

If you want to climb, stick with as few champions as possible. If Soraka's working for you, then keep playing her.

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Ok, thanks a bunch :)

Id say that for climbing you would want to play champs which have a huge impact on the team and can help out a lot, like a tank cho gath or xayah with rakan, those picks are very strong and you can climb easily if you learn then. This is just my opinion tho

Thank you, do you think Xayah is viable on her own with a different support though? Because I don't have any friends who play Rakan and would duo with me.

yes ofc, she can be played with other supports but you guys need to be synergized well. Xayah works well with supports who have solid cc so ask your freinds to play a support who can put out good cc like taric etc.

(41) |

i would suggest you to not play as support until high silver as you depends more on the team then you influence the game at least if you not a poke champion or a god with your champion.

i would suggest you to stick to the adc until then, just try to practice 1 to 2 champions so you will be able to learn more about the macro (when to roam, when to take objectives) game and less worry about the mirco (farming, knowing what you champ can and cant do)

Thank you! I was thinking the same thing about not playing support in low elo, since a lot of people just pick their best/favourite champ instead of something that contributes positively to team composition; I just needed some confirmation.

I will definitely take your advice, thank you!

(41) |

Good luck,
But just one thing, don't take a champion that you play not good just to take a champion that contribute to the team combo, better to have a champion that you good with.

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