Views: 931 Musings on the Jungle 2: Effective Duo Ques
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So the topic for today's blog entry is Effective Duo Queuing. What I mean by effective is that you're queued up with a player who is going to have a positive effect on your win/loss ratio, and vice versa of course. With that being said here are the 5 "rules" I've learned about how to make a duo worthwhile.
The one rule that I don't like putting on this list is to play with someone you actually like. I think that's something pretty self explanatory. Back to the list now. Rule #1 is something that most people overlook, and that's why I put it first on the list. If you're going to duo queue with someone, you need to be playing complimentary roles. You should both take: Solo lanes & Jungle, ADC & Support, Mid & Support, but not: Mid & Top, Jungle & Support, or ADC & anything but support. What you're looking for in a duo queue is to create an unfair advantage in play making potential.
These duo queue pairings are almost always guaranteed to pack a punch because they emphasize the strenghts of the duo players' roles, while also doing a lot to mitigate their weaknesses. Mid laners sometimes lose lane because theyre afraid they have no backup. Whats that, your jungler is dedicated to winning your lane before anything else? Goodbye sheepishness.
Other than the Mid & Top lane pairing I don't think that I have to explain why the other duo queue combinations are less than great. The reason Solo lane duo queues fail is that they're usually going to be too focused on winning lane to actually have an impact on the game. Top lane has a huge ramp up time compared to other lanes (since you're usually playing someone a bit tanky) so other than the occasional
Teleport they don't do too much before towers start dropping everywhere. Mid lane has a tendency to snowball towards one player for the simple reason that everyone there is a glass cannon. Unlike putting a Solo laner with a Jungler where there is a good potential for the Jungler to spread any gank related gold advantage around to the rest of the team (in the form of much harder hitting ganks), two Solo laners don't really do too much other than help each other, if at all. Have you ever seen a successful Teleport play to Mid lane before both towers fell? Nope, didn't think so.
Okay that was long and I'm sorry, but onto rule #2. Always use some kind of voice communication software. Skype, TS, Crs, Axon, it doesn't matter what it is, but you reaaaaaaally need to be talking when you're in a duo queue. Although I admit playing without voice chat helps you get better at reading your duo's decision making for those times where you can't even get a word out in time, you can save that for playing normals games. If you're duo queued for ranked you need to have the ability to communicate without having to type things out. I can't even begin to tell you how many games I've won with Kaanon (check out his Lux guide if you're into that weird Mid lane stuff) because one of us made a quick quick decision and told the other to go in on it in the course of a second. You just can't make fast, coordinated plays without voice chat.
Rule #3. This is another one that I think people don't understand, but its not as important as having voice chat so alas, here it is. When you play with someone at the same tier as you you're able to help make each other better players. When you have a skill imbalanced duo it creates a number of problems that will firstly keep you from winning and more importantly, growing as a player.
Rule #4 is an oldie and a goodie. Treat others as you would like to be treated. If you treat your duo like ****, guess what, they're going to treat you the exact same way. If you do this there's also a chance that your duo might tell you that you made a good call but your team sucks, so it helps expedite the learning process.
Finally Rule #5. This one is all about learning from your games, so its not quite so much about winning as it is using a duo queue to improve your play. You always want to spend at least the time it takes to queue back up and do champion select to reflect on the last game with your duo queue. Its a lot easier to identify things that you both need to do better, or think about what went wrong (or conversely what went right) if you try to address it immediately after the fact. Actually, I should probably change the rule to constantly reflect on your play. You're in voice chat afterall (HOPEFULLY if you've been reading this post) so why not use the quiet time when you're just farming or basing to talk about how you've been doing. Every little bit of reflection helps, because lets face it, you can't get to perfect if you don't know what you need to practice.
I know this post wasn't very jungle specific, but a lot of it comes from my experience as a Jungler. I think that most of the rules have the most bearing when one of you is playing Jungle, for the simple fact that most of the play making before late game involves the Jungler creating an advantage somewhere on the map. For those of you who actually read this rant, thank you, and happy ganking.
Love
- Always duo with someone who plays a role that compliments your own
- Always use some kind of voice communication software
- Always duo with someone at your skill level, not one above or below you
- Always be gracious and take the blame for your mistakes
- Always discuss your games after you finish them, watch them later if possible
- In my opinion Solo lane & Jungle duos are by far the most effective of any "favorable" pairing, simply because they create much more global pressure than anything involving bottom lane. Junglers are expected to pressure every lane at some point, and with the Teleport Top lane meta, Solo laners also do a lot of roaming around the 12-20 minute mark. If you can get both players in a Solo lane & Jungle duo ahead, you're chances of winning go up quite a lot.
- The next most effective duo queue pairing is the duo bottom lane. This one probably doesn't need too much detail, if you go in with an ADC and Support who know each other and can read each other non-verbally you're probably gonna have an ADC who won't suck, and therefore a late game that won't suck (too much at least).
- The third best matching is Mid lane & Support. I know this one sounds kind of silly but matching a Mid laner & Support together creates a ton of catch potential for your team. Mid laners nowadays play champions who have at least one good hard cc skill, or enough burst to 100-0 anyone without 4k hp. On top of that, meta supports on 4.11 are either cc bots, or have one skill with such a long duration (here's looking at you Morgana) that it might as well be a suppress, as well as some crazy hard 5 man cc ult. Like literally every good support has one of these, Morgana, Braum, Thresh, Leona, hell even Nami. When you have a Mid laner & Support know each other they can coordinate to get the vision they need to catch enemy players and force big plays. It also helps when you can time a Glacial Fissure with a Last Breath perfectly for an easy fight.
Other than the Mid & Top lane pairing I don't think that I have to explain why the other duo queue combinations are less than great. The reason Solo lane duo queues fail is that they're usually going to be too focused on winning lane to actually have an impact on the game. Top lane has a huge ramp up time compared to other lanes (since you're usually playing someone a bit tanky) so other than the occasional
Teleport they don't do too much before towers start dropping everywhere. Mid lane has a tendency to snowball towards one player for the simple reason that everyone there is a glass cannon. Unlike putting a Solo laner with a Jungler where there is a good potential for the Jungler to spread any gank related gold advantage around to the rest of the team (in the form of much harder hitting ganks), two Solo laners don't really do too much other than help each other, if at all. Have you ever seen a successful Teleport play to Mid lane before both towers fell? Nope, didn't think so.Okay that was long and I'm sorry, but onto rule #2. Always use some kind of voice communication software. Skype, TS, Crs, Axon, it doesn't matter what it is, but you reaaaaaaally need to be talking when you're in a duo queue. Although I admit playing without voice chat helps you get better at reading your duo's decision making for those times where you can't even get a word out in time, you can save that for playing normals games. If you're duo queued for ranked you need to have the ability to communicate without having to type things out. I can't even begin to tell you how many games I've won with Kaanon (check out his Lux guide if you're into that weird Mid lane stuff) because one of us made a quick quick decision and told the other to go in on it in the course of a second. You just can't make fast, coordinated plays without voice chat.
Rule #3. This is another one that I think people don't understand, but its not as important as having voice chat so alas, here it is. When you play with someone at the same tier as you you're able to help make each other better players. When you have a skill imbalanced duo it creates a number of problems that will firstly keep you from winning and more importantly, growing as a player.
- The more experienced player might expect their duo to make a play instinctively, only to realize they don't have the same level of understanding. This is one of those things that can make you look really stupid in a ranked game. I used to duo with my fiance (bronze tier) before she stopped playing (I was still in low gold at the time), and I have had numerous times where we would lose a big fight or game just because I expected her and the silver players we got matched with to follow up on what I (as a pretty experienced player) knew would've been a good play.
- Throwing an unexperienced player doesn't actually help them get better, and putting an experienced player in a lower tier game makes them lazy and degrades them. Would putting a 5th grade basketball team in a game against the LA Lakers make them better players? They would get dunked (hehehehehehehehehe PUNS!!!!) so probably not. If anything, it would just discourage them from playing anymore, and frustrate them greatly... THIS IS WHY MY KATELYN WON'T PLAY LOL WITH ME ANYMORE). On the flip side, higher level players are used to their team doing certain things, the enemy trying to make certain plays, and everyone just having a level of skill that they wont find in lower tiers. In short, higher MMR players have a different expectation of waht "normal" is, and playing with lower tier players forces them to alter their perception of "normal" to win games. If you go for good plays but no one follows up (because they don't have the experience to know its all bueno) is it still a good call? Yes, but is it a good play? Absolutely not. And therein lies the issue.
- Do I even need to mention how hard it is for an unexperienced player to try and beat someone in lane???
Rule #4 is an oldie and a goodie. Treat others as you would like to be treated. If you treat your duo like ****, guess what, they're going to treat you the exact same way. If you do this there's also a chance that your duo might tell you that you made a good call but your team sucks, so it helps expedite the learning process.
Finally Rule #5. This one is all about learning from your games, so its not quite so much about winning as it is using a duo queue to improve your play. You always want to spend at least the time it takes to queue back up and do champion select to reflect on the last game with your duo queue. Its a lot easier to identify things that you both need to do better, or think about what went wrong (or conversely what went right) if you try to address it immediately after the fact. Actually, I should probably change the rule to constantly reflect on your play. You're in voice chat afterall (HOPEFULLY if you've been reading this post) so why not use the quiet time when you're just farming or basing to talk about how you've been doing. Every little bit of reflection helps, because lets face it, you can't get to perfect if you don't know what you need to practice.
I know this post wasn't very jungle specific, but a lot of it comes from my experience as a Jungler. I think that most of the rules have the most bearing when one of you is playing Jungle, for the simple fact that most of the play making before late game involves the Jungler creating an advantage somewhere on the map. For those of you who actually read this rant, thank you, and happy ganking.
Love
Poro <3
1. Always duo with someone who plays a role that compliments your own
2. Always use some kind of voice communication software
3. Always duo with someone at your skill level, not one above or below you
4. Always be gracious and take the blame for your mistakes
5. Always discuss your games after you finish them, watch them later if possible
1. All roles can compliment each other. My duo and I never stuck to any particular combination and we did not set out in particular during champ select to compliment the other's pick. I played support most the time and he played mid/top/jungle.
3. Again, no. I was Silver I when I started and he was Plat I/Diamond V at the time. We did duo all the way through placements and until I got Plat and he was Diamond II/III. That's around 200 games or so. Duoing with someone of a similar level will only ensure that NEITHER of you will climb in particular. By having a disparity in skill level, it ensures that at least one will actually improve enough to rise in rankings. It's a slightly bigger burden on the higher tier player, but if they agree and can do the job, there's no reason not to (other than the tier restrictions).
4. This applies in any queue, not just duo.
5. Again, applies in any queue, not just duo.
Other than number 2, there don't really seem to be any accurate 'duo rules' or advice in that list.