Roaming is an amazing strategy that players use to exploit weaknesses around the map to create pressure and get kills. Sometimes you can follow roams and prevent them with ease. In other cases, you’ll need to understand how to make the best out of a bad situation by staying in lane or denying enemy resources.

However, it’s not always obvious how or what you should do to counter a roam in League. In this Mobalytics guide, we will discuss several tips and tricks to help you counter roams in League!

This article is brought to you in partnership with our friends from ONE Esports, check them out for more awesome LoL content!

5 Tips to Counter Roams in League of Legends

1. Maximize Pings When Enemies Roam
2. Match Teleports
3. Push the Minion Wave
4. Punish Them for Leaving
5. Keep Them Pushed In

1. Maximize Pings When Enemies Roam

Even if you’re prepared to follow the enemy, you must spam ping the enemy laner when they leave your lane. Spam pinging generally attracts the attention of your allies, and it will hopefully give them enough time to react and back away.

What you do next is up to you, and we will discuss various options in the following tips, but failing to give a heads up to your allies can lead to massive momentum swings if the enemy team coordinates a tower dive.

For champions who have insane roaming potential like Talon, ping any unconventional routes that they might take. When in doubt, it’s better to be safe than sorry, and timely warnings will often result in your allies trying to return the favor when their lane opponents leave the lane.

2. Match Teleports

Teleport is a very good Summoner Spell that can help you impact different lanes from afar. Until a recent patch, you could Teleport anywhere on the map, but now, you can only use it on allied towers. However, don’t let that change disgruntle you from helping your allies.

If you see that the enemy team is using their Teleport to help another lane, you should try to match it and use your Teleport to make the fight more equal. Pre-14 minutes, you might have to Teleport far away, but you can still be impactful.

Post 14-minutes, don’t be afraid to Teleport close to the action. Literally Teleporting in the same spot as the enemy can be very helpful, and you’ll be amongst the fight as soon as you get in.

However, keep in mind that these situations are always contextual to factors like the champions that are being played, your experience level, and purchased items.

Suppose you cannot match the enemy’s Teleport, but you have a CC tool. In that case, try to interrupt the Teleport play with that spell (such as Malphite Ultimate) as trading an Ultimate for Teleport could be highly valuable and work more in your favour.

3. Push the Minion Wave

Another option for when you know that the enemy is planning to roam around the map is pushing your wave into their tower as quickly as you can. By doing so, you can deny them minions, gold, and XP. If their roam results in a failure, they will fall behind.

In addition to denying enemy gains, pushing the minion wave into their tower can lead to destroying the enemy’s tower, gaining gold from tower plates, and preparing for objective control.

If you choose to take this route instead of following them or matching with a TP, as soon as you see the enemy leave the lane, throw your abilities and auto-attacks at the minion wave. Getting it pushed into their tower as quickly as possible offers you a variety of options that we will talk about more as we go through this guide.

Champions like Syndra, Anivia and Orianna can quickly push the minion wave thanks to the AoE abilities they have in their kit.

Generally speaking, you would do this in the mid or top lane. You may wish to do this in the bottom lane, but more commonly, it will be a 2v1 lane rather than a 2v0 lane. However, if the ADC is gone too, don’t be afraid to push.

It’s important to note that you need to make sure the enemy has actually left lane before pushing, as they could be baiting you into pushing and then all-in you.

4. Punish Them for Leaving

You’ve decided that you can’t follow the enemy laner, so you need to push the minion wave into their tower and start applying pressure to it. Pre-level 14, you can earn a ton of extra gold which will help you get your items quicker. Post 14, you’ll still deal a ton of damage and take the tower.

From LoL Wiki

It’s pretty simple actually. You just need to watch the map while pushing the minion wave and auto-attacking the tower. Be on the lookout and fall back if you see the enemy laner returning to the lane. Also, keep an eye out for the enemy Jungler as they may try to gank you while you’re overextended.

5. Keep Them Pushed In

We briefly touched on it already, but keeping the enemy pushed into their tower will make it near impossible for them to roam around the map. This is a very good strategy that is the preferred method against champions like Talon and Twisted Fate as they cannot leave the lane while an enemy is knocking at their tower.

This might not be possible in the very early game as you may not deal enough damage to the minions with your abilities. However, you shouldn’t have too much to worry about once you’ve completed your first component item and put a few points into your main damaging ability.

A good tip for you is to try and aim your abilities, so they hit the enemy and the minion wave simultaneously. This could also potentially allow you to get kills if you deal enough damage to them while trying to push the wave.

Keeping the enemy pushed in with your superior wave clear is highly favourable and will make it impossible for them to roam. Furthermore, it may even allow you to set up your Jungler for tower dives.

Summary

Roaming in League of Legends is a very strong strategy that gets teams ahead. You need to learn what to do to counter it, so make sure you use everything we have discussed in this guide to make the best out of a lousy roaming situation!

The post How to Counter Roams in League of Legends appeared first on Mobalytics.

Yone is one of the latest champions to hit Summoners Rift. Yasuo’s brother was one of the most anticipated champions of the year and shocked the community with how unique but similar he was to his brother.

In this Mobalytics guide, we will discuss some ways you can handle “the unforgotten” champion called Yone. Take note that we will mostly be providing advice for lane Yone, but the information will work in all roles.

If you want to see which champions counter Yone or want to learn how to play him for yourself, check out Yone’s Champion Page where we have information for him in the Top, Jungle, Mid and in the Bottom lane.

1. Soul unbound will return him to his cast location

We all tunnel vision at times. It is one of the main reasons players die during the laning phase or get caught out of position. Unlike many champions, Yone has an ability that sends him back to his original cast location. His E can be used to gain or create distance, be used to all-in the enemy champion and escape sticky situations, but it ultimately always puts him back to where he started.

With this in mind, think twice before chasing him into the unknown as he may be trying to run to his Jungler or another ally to bait you in. Alternatively, he can use it to force you to overextend and move away from his cast location before quickly reactivating it to fly back to his original spot and escape via a different path with ease.

If he activates his E and you’re 100% sure you can kill him, don’t bother chasing him into the unknown. Wait for the timer to run out- which is 5 seconds after the initial cast, and kill him once he returns to his E.

Take note that if you’re able to lock him down with hard CC, he will be unable to reactivate his E and recast this ability. Locking him down with assistance from your team will make killing him easier.

2. Armor is your best friend

As Yone is a champion that builds AD items and deals predominantly AD damage, it’s important that you buy defensive items to tone down some of his damage output in team fights. In particular, you will need to invest in armor items if he is fed. It is important to note though that his abilities deal mixed damage- in particular, his W and Ultimate.

Obviously, the more armor you have, the harder it will be for Yone to kill you and your teammates. He will also need to adjust his build path accordingly and invest in armor penetration to break through your defensive stats to make killing you easier.

Additionally, as he will need to find time to buy this item, it will either delay his core power spike or at least make it really difficult for him to kill you until the mid or late game. Traditionally, Yone’s build is Phantom Dancer (or Shiv) followed by Infinity Edge. He doesn’t build any pen items until he’s almost full build.

Here’s a breakdown on defensive LoL items and when you should build them. Alternatively, you can head over to our champion pages to see what situational items your champion can buy.

3. Pick champions with CC tools

According to the Lol Wiki, one of Yone’s roles/playstyle is as an assassin, and one thing that all assassins struggle with is disengage and CC. Picking champions with CC is a good way of countering Yone as it will make it harder for him to go for aggressive plays and get in and out of skirmishes easily.

While we must keep in mind that Yone is incredibly mobile, you would be better off picking champions with easy to land CC rather than champions with CC that is hard to hit. For example, CC with small hitboxes like Ahri’s E would be harder to land in comparison to Lissandra’s W or R.

If you know which role Yone’s playing, try to adapt your champion pick to someone who is slightly tankier or who has CC abilities to increase your chances of beating him. Don’t pick champions who are squishy against him if you can help it.

4. Avoid grouping too closely

Yone’s Ultimate is pretty strong. It deals a considerable amount of mixed damage and can also CC the enemy. As it can hit and damage multiple champions at once, it’s important that you do not put yourself in a position where he is able to lock down your whole team. This can be achieved by not grouping too closely and putting yourself in chokepoints where your team would be grouped close together.

Avoid fighting in areas that force your team to be bunched close to one another. For example, avoid fighting inside the jungle as his Ultimate will cover the jungle path. Avoid fighting around the Dragon or Baron pit if Yone is nearby as your team will also be grouped together.

Instead, try to fight in the open or when Yone is not nearby. If your team can play slightly apart, it will make his Ultimate less effective as he will be unable to lock down your whole team. Splitting up slightly will make his Ultimate only effective against one or two champions which will provide time for your team to take him down.

5. Use your range advantage to bully him

As Yone is played in basically every role, it’s inevitable that he will be played against a ranged champion. Ranged champions can bully him down to make it very difficult for him to play aggressive and secure CS and farm.

To make it hard for Yone to be able to play aggressive or close the gap (with ease), you should try to harass him down with your basic attacks and abilities from a safe distance: while avoiding being overextended too much as he will still have strong all-in potential and may use your over-extended positioning to look for a turn around fight.

Good times to harass him are when:

• He walks forward trying to secure a last hit.
  • He will be more focused on auto-attacking the minion than looking to fight.
• When any of his abilities are on cooldown.
  • He will be unable to trade as effectively with you if you look to fight/ harass him when one of his abilities are down. When either of his main abilities are down could be the trigger for you to fight.

Avoid over-committing to harassing and poking Yone down though as he does have good turn around potential. Additionally, you shouldn’t try to harass him when there is a cannon minion in lane as the cannon minion will focus you as soon as you auto-attack him. This works for normal minions too. The more enemy minions the enemy has around them, the more damage you’ll take in return. Do not try to auto-attack the enemy Yone if there is a huge wave surrounding him.

Here’s a separate guide on how to master retaliation trading.

6. Ward your flanks

Yone is a strong skirmisher and will look to assassinate targets or get a surprise engage off to ensure he can deal damage and kill the squishier members of the enemy team. One way you can reduce the chances of him doing this is by warding your flanks when you’re attempting to team fight or when you’re sieging a tower.

Yone is an assassin and should be treated the same as the likes of Leblanc, Akali and Talon. Ensuring that your team has vision to the side of you as you siege an objective will give your team enough time to back away in case Yone shows himself and tries to flank your teammates.

Wards for sieging Mid tier 2 turret as blue team

When trying to take the Baron or Dragon when Yone is nearby (which isn’t recommended by the way), you need to stay as far away as possible from him and avoid getting too close to your allies so he is unable to get a good Ultimate off. Be prepared to disengage or reposition if Yone shows himself.

Here are some good warding locations where you can ward to help you spot him before it’s too late. If you want to know more about how to ward against assassins, check out our indepth complete warding guide for Season 10.

Conclusion

Yone can be easy to beat, you just need to stay at max distance at all times and avoid dying to him! We hope that some of these tips will help you throughout the game and help prevent him from being a handful in the later stages of the game. Remember, you should treat him as an assassin and avoid grouping too closely in team fights!

Watch live video from PicklePantsLOL on www.twitch.tv

The post How to Counter Yone (6 Tips) appeared first on Mobalytics.

Samira is the 151st champion Riot Games have released. The champion has definitely lived up to the hype around her name. If you’re struggling to play against her at launch, or haven’t had the fortune of playing against her in-game yet, you’re not alone. This guide will increase your chances of winning against the newest champion to hit Summoners Rift

In this Mobalytics guide, we will talk about how you can play against Samira and truly shut down the 200 year-interactive experience Riot Games has given the pleasure of playing against.

If you want to know more counter tips, her build or how to play as her, check out our Samira Champion Page. Keep your eyes peeled for more Samira guides coming soon.

Note that Samira was hotfixed but the information in this guide will still hold true.

1. Pick hard engage champions against her

In my experience of playing against Samira, she struggles against all-in and CC. I’ve played numerous games against her with a variety of Supports like Zyra, Taric, Senna, and Leona and I’ve done the best when playing as Leona.

All-in champions like Leona and Alistar can lock Samira down with CC which makes it incredibly hard for her to escape a skirmish and trade back with you. Even with her E, she struggles to escape or reposition in the fight (which can be capitalized on).

Champions with lots of poke like Zyra can be good too as you can use your range advantage to poke and harass her in the early game. However, when Samira is paired with a Support that empowers her kit or buffs her damage like Lulu, it can be difficult to survive against her once she has some levels behind her.

At this stage, it’s difficult to say what the best champions are to play against her, but hard engage and CC seems to be the go-to pick to make killing her much easier. If you happen to be playing with Samira, hard engage champions work well with her and so do enchanters with abilities that heal and shield.

Champion is balanced.

Bonus tip: Try to keep the minion wave closer to your side of the map to allow the hard engage champion to do their thing and engage. If you constantly push, it gives the Support a much harder time to look for picks and go in as the tower will protect the Samira.

2. Play around Samira’s E

Her E is her only real mobility tool. If she uses this ability aggressively, you can capitalize on the cooldown and look to play aggressively in return. When her E is down, she is rather immobile and easier to kill, so you need to play around this cooldown to gain a lead.

Samira E by LOLWiki

In team fights in particular, if she uses her E to close the gap, you should try to collapse on her to take her down. Taking her down at the start of a fight will make it difficult for her to use her Ultimate to deal lots of AOE damage to you and your team.

Playing around certain abilities is key for every champion and more so champions with dashes or dodges. When playing as a hook champion like Blitzcrank or Thresh, make sure you play around her E to maximize your windows of opportunity.

3. Avoid grouping too close with your team

One of the most obnoxious parts of her kit is her Ultimate which deals a ton of AOE damage to champions who are within range. Thankfully, this ability can be countered in a few different ways. First off, avoid fighting when she has maximum Style points as she is unable to activate her Ultimate unless it’s maxed out, so try to keep an eye on its indicator.

Samira Ultimate by LOLWiki

This isn’t always a viable option though, but you can counter her Ultimate directly by not grouping to close together. By splitting up slightly, it will reduce her AOE damage and prevent her from skinning your whole team alive.

You can do this by grouping but not standing on top of one another. Having appropriate spacing between everyone will make it hard for her to get a good Ultimate off. Additionally, you should avoid team fighting inside the jungle or around the Dragon or Baron pit as champions will usually be grouped close together inside these areas of the map.

During the laning phase, try not to stand too close to your ally in lane. Having appropriate spacing will reduce her damage and make it harder for her to gain a favorable trade. Stand in line but not next to one another if possible.

4. Lock her down as she engages

Samira is very similar to a lot of other champions. Once she engages, she is overextended and vulnerable. You need to ensure that whenever she goes in that you and your team take her down as quickly as possible.

If she moves forward, try to lock her down with CC and get inside of her W so you can deal damage to her. You shouldn’t let Samira jump in and dish out damage for free. You need to focus her and take her down so she is unable to deal tons of AOE damage.

5. Invest in an Executioner’s Calling

It’s still the early days for Samira right now and there are tons of builds being tested by the community. In its current state, Death’s Dance seems to be a great item on her. This item, among others, will increase her sustain in fights and allow her to dish out a lot of damage while remaining relatively healthy.

Healing is incredibly strong in League of Legends right now. It feels like basically every AD champion gets an item that increases their sustain which can make them hard to deal with. One way of countering Samira’s sustain is by purchasing an early Executioner’s Calling. Dealing damage to her will reduce her sustain and make it easier for you to kill her.

When paired with a healing or shielding Support like Soraka or Lulu, you need to get this item as quickly as you can before she becomes a huge problem. If you do not get this item, she will out heal all the damage you do to her in a trade.

For AP Supports, you may need to get a Morellonomicon even with its terrible gold value, especially if you’re playing Brand or Zyra.

6. Ignite as soon as you can

Taking Ignite when playing as a Support is common knowledge right now. It’s by far the superior secondary Summoner Spell over Exhaust. Did you know that Ignite inflicts Grevious Wounds similar to Executioner’s Calling?

When trading with Samira and committing to the all-in, make sure you Ignite her as quickly as possible. This will reduce the healing ability from her kit and the items she buys. In turn, this will make her easier to kill. Do this in team fights and in trades during the laning phase.

7. Play around her W

Samira’s W will block all projectiles that enter or are in the vicinity of her W when it’s active. This means auto-attacks, skill shots, and most importantly, CC like Hooks or knockups (like Nautilus Ultimate).

Samira W by LOLWiki

Using these abilities from range is not recommended as she can easily dodge them. Instead, you should try to get as close to her as possible to make it easier for you to land them. You can also use the bushes in the bottom lane to your advantage to sneak up on her and take her down.

In general, playing around her W is crucial as it can block a lot of damage. Whenever it’s down, try to abuse the cooldown to gain a health lead and set her behind. If you can bait it out before initiating a trade, you will make it so much more favorable.

8. Ban Samira in ranked (for now)

As a side note, if you’re wanting to climb right now, make sure you ban Samira in every game so your allies cannot pick her and the enemy cannot play her. Samira is very strong right now even with her nerf, so it’s best for you and your team to not have to deal with her period.

In particular, if your bot lane doesn’t know how to play against her and the Samira has some games under her belt, she will be able to draw circles around your allies in the bottom lane and snowball a lead.

For the first patch, I recommend banning her in every ranked game you play to increase your chances of climbing in patch 10.19.

Conclusion

Riot keeps creating new and unique champions with complicated and difficult looking kits. We hope this guide has given you some information to help you play against her when you face her on Summoners Rift.

Most popular questions about Samira (Patch 11.15 updates)

Who counters Samira?

The best counter against Samira is Kog’Maw, and two great ones are Draven and Miss Fortune. Click and check all counters for Samira.

Who gets countered by Samira?

Samira is strong against Akshan as well as Kai’Sa and Aphelios.

How to play Samira?

• Try to use unique attacks by using different abilities often to gain style points. Keep as many style points as possible.
• In team fights, avoid going in unless you have at least an A or something close to it. You will gain max stacks if you use your Wild Rush E to close the gap and then activate your Ultimate Wild Rush E in the fight.
• You can use your Wild Rush E to dash to enemy champions and minions. This can help you reposition in a fight.

What is the best matchup for Samira?

The best matchup for Samira is Akshan with 64.1% win rate over 1090 games played.

How to build Samira?

• In Champ Select, you’ll want to choose Precision for your primary tree and Domination for your secondary tree.
• Choose Flash and Heal as your summoner spells for most matches.
• As you level, you’ll want to prioritize Q->E->W as your skill order.
• For your starting items, take Doran’s Blade, Health Potion, Stealth Ward. During a standard match, you’ll want to target Vampiric Scepter, Boots during your first back. If this is the case, you should be able to hit your core build of Immortal Shieldbow, Plated Steelcaps, The Collector around mid game. Once you hit late game, you’ll most likely want to have Immortal Shieldbow, Plated Steelcaps, The Collector, Infinity Edge, Lord Dominik’s Regards, Bloodthirster but you should also consider using Guardian Angel, Mortal Reminder, Mercurial Scimitar, Spirit Visage, Death’s Dance, Randuin’s Omen based on the context of your match.

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Illaoi, or the Tentacle Queen as I call her, is one of the best lane bullies in League of Legends. One hit by her E, and it seems like you lose half your HP. Due to her overall strength in the later parts of the game, any lead she gets can quickly snowball out of control.

In this Mobalytics guide, we will break down 5 champions that are good against Illaoi in the top lane. While she isn’t that popular right now, playing against a good Illaoi or an Illaoi one trick can be devastating and make you hate playing top lane more than you currently do!

If you want to learn how to play Illaoi, check out Illaoi’s champion page. It has tips and tricks, runes, builds and much more to help you learn Illaoi.

5 Champions That Counter Illaoi

1. Urgot
2. Tryndamere
3. Kayle
4. Heimerdinger
5. Lucian

The best champions that counter Illaoi are Urgot, Tryndamere, Kayle, Heimerdinger and Lucian.  You can find all the matchup tips we use in this guide on the Mobalytics App. For plus members, you can get specific matchup tips for the champion you’re playing versus the enemy laner at your fingertips while you load into the game. We have tens of thousands of different, highly specific matchups curated by our challenger level players to help you lane against the enemy champion.

1. Illaoi vs Urgot

Urgot can beat Illaoi thanks to his Ultimate. He will be able to execute her from high health and also be able to actively trade with her throughout the laning phase. Urgot can also adapt his build to get an early Executioner’s Calling to reduce her sustain in lane.

4 tips to counter Illaoi as Urgot

• When trading with Illaoi, make sure you proc as many legs as possible, and get her to the point when you can execute her. Since she can heal a lot of your damage, you need to give Illaoi no time to react.
• Due to Illaoi’s aggressive laning, you need to create a freeze in front of your tower and thin out the wave with your Q. Also, try to stay behind your wave at all times, so she cannot use her E on you.
• An Executioner’s Calling will help you beat Illaoi. She has a lot of sustain and will be buying items that increase her healing, so opting for an Executioner’s Calling will help you against her.
• Illaoi has a lot of pressure on the lane due to her Tentacles that can zone you away from the farm. Try to use your range to kill the tentacles when you can, but do not over commit to doing so as she may be able to land her E while you try to destroy them.

2. Illaoi vs Tryndamere

Tryndamere’s Ultimate works great against an Illaoi. As soon as he gets low enough, he can pop his Ultimate and make it near impossible for her to kill him. Tryndamere also does well against immobile champion such as Illaoi.

4 tips to counter Illaoi and Tryndamere

• Before engaging, make sure her E is down and that you have a lot of Fury. This will make the trade more favourable. Doing one or the other and not both may mean the difference between winning and losing the trade.
• Trading can be difficult with Illaoi. Bait out her E before dashing in or looking to fight, so she cannot trade as effectively back with you.
• Keep the minion wave closer to your side of the map when possible. This will allow you to run her down the lane and fight her when she walks forward. Keeping the wave here will also reduce her kill pressure on you and prevent her from zoning you away from the wave.
• Invest in an Executioner’s Calling to reduce Illaoi’s healing and sustain in lane. She gets a lot of sustain thanks to her kit and the items she builds, so getting an early Executioner’s Calling will make killing her easier.

3. Illaoi vs Kayle

Kayle is a safe pick into Illaoi. She should win this matchup as long as she watches her positioning and stands behind minions to block the Illaoi E. At the end of the day, Kayle out scales Illaoi, so as long as you don’t fall behind, you will win the game!

4 tips to counter Illaoi as Kayle

• Avoid fighting Illaoi in close range scenarios as she will have a massive advantage; try to maintain range from her so you can easily disengage if necessary.
• Illaoi is capable of constantly pushing the lane without much worry as she excels in 1 v 2 scenarios, so try your best to get as much as farm as possible and avoid having your Jungler ganking unless your Jungler is massively ahead.
• Try your best to destroy tentacles on the wall as they will make it much harder to stay in the lane if you have to both dodge Illaoi’s tentacles and the ones on the wall.
• Illaoi’s main source of damage comes from landing her E on you so do your best to dodge it or stand behind your allied minions.

4. Illaoi vs Heimerdinger

Heimerdinger’s has the range advantage, which allows him to bully her down and set her behind. Heimer can also be incredibly frustrating to deal with as a melee champion. If Heimer rushes Zhonya’s, she will have no chance to beat him.

4 tips to counter Illaoi as Heimerdinger

• Always hide behind your turrets in this lane. It will give you a lot of protection from Illaoi’s all-ins and will let you turn fights quickly.
• Your E and W are used frequently in this lane to CC and burst down Illaoi. This will allow you to completely shut her down in the lane.
• Getting some Grievous Wounds will help you a lot in this lane. It will help you, especially when Illaoi decides to use her Ultimate.
• Keep the wave in the middle of the lane and keep an eye out on the enemy Jungler. This is vital towards dominating the lane.

5. Illaoi vs Lucian

Lucian is one of the best solo laners in the game when he is playing vs a melee champion. Lucian can constantly bully her down and set her behind. If he focuses heavily on early trades, he should win this matchup easily.

4 tips to counter Illaoi as Lucian

• The best time to trade with the enemy is once they waste one of their abilities. This reduces their damage output in the trade, which should give you the upper hand and the health advantage afterwards.
• Try to aim your Q on the enemy and the minion wave at the same time. Try to line both targets up so you can push and deal some damage with one Q.
• Keep in mind that the enemy does have a ton of kill pressure if they can get on to you. Think twice before using your E aggressively, and always try to keep your distance so they cannot close the gap and trade autos with you.
• Use your range advantage to poke the enemy out of the lane. Constant harassment through basic attacks will make it much harder for them to survive the laning phase and scale. But as the enemy has a lot of all-in/ burst, do not over commit to poking them.

Conclusion

Playing against Illaoi can definitely be hard, but picking the right champion into her will make the laning phase a lot easier to deal with.

For more tips and tricks, check out Mobalytics!

If you have any questions or want to learn more, check out PicklePants’s stream.

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The post 5 Champions That Counter Illaoi appeared first on Mobalytics.

Learning to attack move like a pro is one of the best in-game concepts you can learn as a player. No matter what role you play, orb walking is something that everyone should learn how to perfect.

In this Mobalytics guide, we’re going to teach you how to orb walk in a simple manner that will help you master this in-game mechanic.

Please note that this guide will only cover the basics and is not an in-depth guide. This guide is aimed towards beginners and players who want to learn the pure basics of orb walking.

1. What is orb walking?

Orb walking is where you auto-attack a target but cancel or finish the animation early by entering a new command that interrupts it. Every command has a start, an active and a finish- we’ve just made up these terms, but it gives you an idea of how orb walking is achieved.

When you issue a new command, any previous command will end. For example, if you’re standing still and walk to a new position, the start command would be your first positioning. The active command would you be moving, and the finish would be where you stopped. Every command overlaps to some extent with a previous command and a future command, and this is how orb walking is achieved.

By ending the finishing command early through issuing a new command, you can cut out a small but noticeable downtime in between actions. In this case, the active is an auto attack, and when the damage leaves the champion.

2. How to orb walk

Using the above analogy, how to orb walk is pretty simple. As soon as the projectile leaves your champion, issue a new command with your right mouse button. This prevents the finishing part of the command and allows you to kite, stutter-step, and orb walk more effectively.

For example, your keyboard entries may be: X (auto-attack) > right mouse button away from target > X (auto-attack). You then reissue the next command as soon as your auto-attack is ready again and rinse and repeat. It’s that simple.

You should try to issue another command as soon as the projectile leaves your champion. If you do it too early, you will cancel the auto-attack, too late and the animation will begin. It’s hard at first to find a happy medium, but it is required to make orb walking or stutter stepping work.

Be prepared to mess up, and try your hardest to get it right. At the end of the day, practice makes perfect- especially when it comes to mechanics.

Orb walking is easier the more attack speed you have. In the early game, getting the rhythm down and not standing still can be quite challenging, but in the later stages, or once you have more attack speed, it will be much easier. Definitely head into a practice game to give it ago. I would recommend starting off with no extra attack speed and then gradually work yourself up with more AS.

There are two forms of orb walking. The first is offensively and the second is defensively.

The two are very similar and unless it is obvious, you’re probably going to use both of these kiting methods during the same skirmish. What we mean by this is you may start off fighting aggressively, and then need to turn tail and orb walk defensively.

You may start off orb walking aggressively if you are trying to close the gap between you and the enemy or deny them from escaping. If you position yourself closer to them, it will be harder for them to escape as you will remain in range of them and be able to deal more damage to them- which can result in a kill.

However, if you’re trying to create distance between you and the enemy, such as a ranged champion vs a melee one, you may try to kite defensively so you can prevent the enemy from getting on top of you.

If they continue to run towards you, you’ll be able to deal damage to them which may force them to retreat- you would then chase them down by orb walking aggressively.

There are so many different scenarios where you would need to use one of the two orb walking methods.

But in some situations, you may not even want to orb walk at all as it can cause more harm than good. Sometimes it’s just safer to run and retreat rather than face and fight.

3. Comparisons to other attack moves

Comparing kiting to standard auto-attacking, your champion will stop dead in their tracks, auto-attack and then move off again once the animation has ended. You will then continue to do this whenever you come into range of the champion again. If you’re chasing somebody or trying to escape, this will choke up more of your time and prevent you from orb walking.

In fact, it will make the difference between you or the enemy surviving.

In these example clips, you can see that the difference between auto attacks is quite large. In the first video, we are demonstrating using player attack move on click and in the second we are using general auto attacks. You can see the difference, albeit that the kiting in the first could have been better.

Take note at how long Ezreal is stood still in the second; he doesn’t move off until the animation has finished- allowing Ziggs to gain ground.

Offensive orb walking

When you are on the offensive, you need to auto-attack, move closer to the target and then auto attack again. Preferably, move towards (behind the enemies path) to get as close as you can.

When comparing this to non-kiting or non-orb walking, you would just chase until you can auto-attack- auto and then run again.

Defensive orb walking

You either have two choices. You can either auto-attack then walk backwards then auto again. Or, you should just run and escape. Orb walking or kiting is not the answer to everything. It’s not going to magically allow you to escape any skirmish.

4. How to set up attack move in League of Legends

We must head over to the settings and options in-game. Preferably, do this in a practice game mode such as a custom game or the practice tool first so you can spend time getting it right, feeling what works for you and give it a try before heading into a real game.

First off, you’ll need to have everything on quick cast. Using normal cast is much harder to orb walk and kite because you need to aim the abilities and include additional tasks that slow down the process of kiting. Not only does quick cast enable you to kite more effectively, but it also has a range of other benefits outside of orb walking. As standard, I would always recommend this option.

Secondly, you need to head over to your game options and scroll to gameplay. From there, there is a small option called “attack move on cursor”. This is a very valuable option to have enabled. This will help you kite more effectively because you will be focusing on a specific target rather than the nearest champion.

For example, if you’re being chased by 2 enemies, the closest being a tank with no damage and the furthest away target being the one who deals the damage, if you have it disabled, you’ll be focusing the champion of less significance.

With it enabled, you should be focusing the champion behind (assuming you have clicked near them).

This is also very helpful when it comes to fighting inside a minion wave or near neutral monsters as you will be focusing on an enemy champion rather than the nearest target- which in most cases will make all the difference in a skirmish.

The final setting you need to adjust is within the hotkey section. Scroll down to player movement and look for “player attack move click” and “player attack move”. Both are vital to kiting, but you may find yourself favoring one or the other.

Player attack move will show you your range and will auto-attack the nearest target to your cursor if you press your right mouse button.

Player attack move click doesn’t show you your attack range, but once pressed you will not need to manually click again (only to move your champion).

The best way to show the difference is with two separate videos that show off these tools.

These are my personal settings

The first demonstrates the difference between player attack move where you have to right-click to issue the attack command. Left-clicking (which most of us are accustomed to) issues a move command, which forces you to move towards a target.

This can go very wrong if you accidentally mix the two up as you may walk into danger or lose momentum to kill the enemy. This doesn’t really make a difference if your accuracy is perfect, but it will if you make a mistake.

Take note that you should kite faster. This was just to show the differences.

On the other hand, player attack move click does it all for you but it doesn’t show the range. This allows you to kite without making too many errors and without walking within range of the enemy. This is because it will auto-attack the target as soon as you’re in range and ready. It is also somewhat quicker, and in my personal opinion and experience, easier to kite with.

Take note that you should kite faster. This was just to show the differences.

Each of the two-player action settings has its benefits and drawbacks and you can adjust your settings further until you find something that fits.

Here are just two main examples, but there is plenty of customization to make your kiting more effective.

5. Why you should kite, orb walk or stutter-step

Other than the reasons we have already hinted at previously, here’s a list of benefits that this mechanic or concept has once mastered.

• It allows you to gain distance when chasing or retreating from an enemy.
  • This will allow you to stay within/outside of the enemy’s range so you can continue to chase or escape. If you do not auto click auto, you will not be able to stay in the enemies range due to the animations.
• It allows you to dodge the enemies abilities.
  • When you stand still, the enemy has an easier time landing skill shots and damage. But if you’re kiting, it is harder for them to land skill shots. The damage missed can make all the difference in a skirmish.
• It makes you a better player.
  • If we compare pros to Bronze or Iron, among the obvious differences, pros are able to outplay or out trade the enemy due to orb walking and kiting. If they do it, surely you should be doing it too.
• It can prevent misclicks or mistakes.
  • Everyone makes mistakes when clicking and fighting. Maybe you auto attacked the wrong champion or you walked when you should’ve auto attacked. Player attack move click and other settings reduce this issue and can even help you when you miss click by focusing the nearest enemy target to your cursor.

The Nitty Gritty

We’ve tried to make this mechanic easy to understand. It is quite simple, all you need to do is auto attack, move, auto-attack. However, in reality, it can be quite challenging to orb walk successfully and it does take a lot of practice to master.

You really need to know your champion’s animations and attack speed inside and out for kiting and orb walking to be really effective otherwise you’ll make mistakes. But don’t worry, if you’re keeping your distance it will not be as damaging unless you’re standing still or in auto attack range of an enemy.

If you have any questions or want to learn more, check out PicklePants stream.

Watch live video from PicklePantsLOL on www.twitch.tv

The post Attack Move: How to Orb Walk in League of Legends appeared first on Mobalytics.

This article was written in collaboration with our Challenger Coach, “Morïarty“, and analyst “prohibit” These are techniques that they’ve taught to students during the coaching careers and techniques that they use themselves when playing high level Solo Queue.

A Meditation on Mentality

You can have all the talent and potential in the world, but if your emotions and thought processes are unstable, your path will be rocky and volatile. The common thread that ties together the best of the best in the world is their ability to use their mind as a strength. It’s a source of power they can harness in order to rise in the face of challenges and perform well while their peers crack under pressure.

We often hear about athletes “being in the zone” – a sort of mental state in which they are able to elevate their performances to almost inhuman levels. But what is the zone? How can we recognize it and try to find it ourselves?

A Case Study: Kobe Bryant
Take a listen to the Laker legend describe what its like to be in the zone (excuse the dramatic ambient music).

He explains being in the zone as having “supreme confidence”, where things “slow down”. A state of being locked in a super-focus, “oblivious” to external factors like thousands of spectators.

Kobe Bryant is a paragon of mental strength and fortitude. He built a career hitting clutch shots under immense pressure and against the best defenders in the NBA (often double or triple-teamed at that!). Teammates and rivals alike credited Kobe for his relentless work ethic and unquenchable thirst for improving.

However, Kobe wasn’t always the mental master that he ended his career as. Building this was a journey – a gradual process. Entering the league as a high schooler, Kobe as a rookie was known for being brash and cocky. Everyone knew he had an incredible amount of potential, he just needed a bit of discipline and focus.

In Kobe’s fourth year, Phil Jackson, known as the “Zen Master“, became his coach. Jackson was Michael Jordan’s former coach, a virtuoso of bringing together players of different personalities and temperaments. He became the ultimate mentor for Kobe in his youth – as his Kobe’s career went, on he became less known for feuding with teammates, and eventually picked up meditation as part of his daily routine. Together, Jackson and Kobe won five championships over their eleven years as player and coach.

How this applies to you and League
Like Kobe, you should strive to build a mental discipline that will help facilitate your improvement as a player. The right mindset may be the most influential factor in becoming the best player you can be. Nearly every factor is affected by it. Your focus, your decision-making, your Consistency. It increases your potential to improve, helps you stay composed in good and bad times, and makes you a better decision-maker.

If you establish this as your fundamental base, your climb will become more steady and inevitable. By the end of this article, we hope to equip you with some techniques to strengthen your mind and mental approach.

Probably not to this extent though

Establish a routine

Create a rhythm
Stick to a routine, this will allow you to find a rhythm and limit the factors that affect your play. If you keep changing what you’re doing, it can negatively affect your consistency and make it hard to isolate what’s causing you to play well or worse.

Find what works for you
Players have different personalities and play styles. What works for a pro or your friends may not work for you. If you find yourself improving (in your GPI and rank) try to understand what you can personally do to help keep at it.

Play at ideal times
Give yourself the best shot by playing when you’re the most active and alert. This depends from person to person, but for the most part it’s done earlier in the day (perhaps in the afternoon). You should also try to play in between meals, but not on an empty stomach. This sweet spot will help you avoid being distracted by hunger but also help you stay away from a food coma.

We all know that feeling after a big meal

Achieving a healthy mindset

Have a clear mind
Play when you have a clear and fresh mind. If you play after a tough college final or after staying up all night, you likely won’t be able to play at your best.

Stay in the moment
Give all your attention to the task at hand. Try to take care of business ahead of time so you don’t get distracted during your match and allow you to really focus on what you need to do in-game.

Expect the unexpected
Be prepared for the unexpected, have contingencies and situational builds (Versatility). The more prepared for the different situations you can face, the less it will throw you off your game.

It’s about your journey

We say this often at Mobalytics – it’s not about the result, it’s about improving. You can maintain a centered mentality if you focus on yourself and your improvement instead of wins and losses.

This is because there will be games where you play terribly and still win, and games that you play better than you ever have and still lose.

Know yourself

Being honest with yourself goes a long way
Be honest with yourself, your results. it will help you stay realistic. allows you to know your limits, what you can and can’t do. The more in line your decision-making is with your actual abilities, the closer you’ll be to truly contributing the best that you can.

Be confident, but humble
Throughout your journey, remember that there will always be players worse than you and players better than you. Be kind to those that are at a lower rank, you were once in their shoes. At the same time, don’t fear those that are ahead of you – soon you’ll have what it takes to meet or surpass them!

Stick to your guns
Save your experimentation for Normals, avoid experimenting in Ranked. Use champs you’re comfortable with. You’ll have more success on a champion you’ve played tens of times instead of one you just began learning.

Avoiding tilt

Should you really hit that button again?

In general, tilt is when your emotions negatively affect your game. This could be in the form of tunnel visioning, typing more than playing, or playing to end on a win. Prohibit says that tilt is like cancer, it needs to be cut off before it spreads and becomes uncontrollable. Here are some techniques that you can use to prevent tilt, deal with it when it’s happening, and use after it happens.

Preemptive-measures

• Establishing a game limit
  • Setting a game limit such as only 3 ranked games a day, will not only build a consistent routine, but also stop you from salty re-queues.
• Don’t use ranked as a destresser
  • If real life is stressing you out, avoid playing ranked. The external factors may have a negative effect on your thought processes.

In-game techniques

• Pretend your teammates are bots
  • When you’re playing with bots, typing in chat doesn’t make a difference, no matter what you say. If a teammate makes a silly mistake, pretend they’re a bot. If an enemy is talking trash about something you did, pretend they’re a bot.
  • This technique can help you avoid engaging in potentially toxic situations.
• Everyone makes mistakes
  • From Bronze to the pros, every player will inevitably mistakes from time to time.
  • Calling out a teammate for a bad play will likely cause them to play even worse and cause yourself to lose focus on your own game. Instead, stay centered on what you can control.
• Consider muting the chat
  • If you get easily distracted by chat, it may be beneficial to tune it out entirely before the game begins.
  • By communicating with pings, you can avoid typing and reading toxic messages from teammates/enemies.

Post-game evaluations
After a tough loss or dealing with a particularly toxic player take a deep breath. Here are some rule of thumb checks to understand if you’re tilted.

• Are you responding to toxicity?
  • If you cant stop yourself from responding to someone, you’re tilted.
• Will you be able to still have fun if you lose your next match?
  • If you cant envision yourself having fun, you’re tilted.
• How to deal with it
  • Take a break. Walk your dogs, grab a glass of water. If you come back and still feel the salt, just do something else until you clear your mind.

Ranked anxiety

There are two ends of the spectrum: people who keep spamming Ranked when they’re tilted, and those that become scared of queueing entirely. Ranked anxiety usually stems from either being scared of either not performing well or losing the rank you’ve earned. Here are some tips if this applies to you.

It’s a marathon, not a sprint
Climbing the ladder is a gradual journey over a long period of time. You aren’t going to become a Diamond player immediately starting as a Gold level player. Likewise, you aren’t going to fall to Bronze after a few bad games.

Embrace the process
To truly be considered a ranking (being Platinum for example), you need to perform at that level on a consistent basis. The only true way to maintain your rank is to play games. Otherwise your skills may get rusty and your true ability may not reflect where you’re at.

Judge yourself by your average play
Your peak play does not dictate your skill level – nor does your lowest. To stay centered, judge yourself by your average play and long term trends.

A parting reflection

“Mental bearing, not skill, is the sign of a matured samurai.” — Tsukahara Bokuden

Thanks for reading! We hope you found this article helpful. If you have any questions about building a strong mindset or want to find other player’s trying to improve, join our Discord community!

The post How to Maintain the Optimal Mindset for Climbing the Ranked Ladder in League of Legends appeared first on Mobalytics.

Tell me if the following events sound familiar. Picture a match where your early game goes pretty normal with all the lanes being relatively even. Once the mid game arrives, you end up getting into a messy teamfight with an unfavorable outcome and someone exclaims,  “What are you doing? Focus the [insert carry champ’s name]!”.

The next fight comes and your team does all it can to kill the enemy carry. However, while you all were trying to get around the enemy team’s crowd control,  your ADC was getting bursted down by a flanking assassin. A few team members get within striking distance of their carry but they simply aren’t able to do enough damage to leave a mark.

Tragic, just tragic

Your team ends up with few survivors who got away but despite your unified vision for what to do, you were collectively obliterated. So what went wrong? Well, the enemy team knew how to peel effectively while yours did not.

What is peeling?

Peeling is when you do everything you can to protect your vulnerable allied carries. Instead of focusing on killing one person, you try to maximize and extend the lives of your team’s main damage dealers by keeping them away from danger, taking hits for them, and of course, being a threat yourself.

This is usually the best approach in most team compositions – in a traditional teamfight you’ll want some form of engage, a form of damage, and a form of peel. It’s sort of like capture the flag (the flag being the ADC) where you’ll ideally have some people who go after the flag, others that protect and defend theirs, and some that try to do a little of both.

Another way you can think of peeling is in terms of protecting your gold investment. Your ADC spends most of their time farming gold, so why wouldn’t you do everything you could to protect and make sure it pays off.

It doesn’t matter what role you play, you need to know how to peel and how to play around being peeled for. In this article, we’ll be teaching you about how to peel, the different types of peel, and of course, how you can improve.

Types of peel

There are many nuances to peeling, the fundamental methods come down to using crowd control and positioning properly.

Crowd Control

This is the easiest form of peel to understand because it’s the most immediate and impactful. Whether you’re slowing, stunning, or knocking away your enemies, using CC to peel basically comes down to physically keeping your enemies away from your team’s VIPs – after all, it’s hard for an assassin to chase down a juicy target when they themselves cannot move or use abilities.

In Stonewall008’s video below, he explains that the abilities you can use to peel vary in terms of immediacy (how quickly you can use them), frequency (how often you can use them), and intensity (how strong the ability is).

It’s a great reference for how to understand which crowd control abilities are better used for engaging and which are better used for peeling. Be sure to understand this balance and know when you should be doing one or the other.

For example, Leona and Thresh are both tanky Supports that have abilities that allow them to either engage or peel. However, if we were to put them on a spectrum, Leona’s kit would make her a much better engager while Thresh makes for a better peeler.

Leona’s Zenith Blade and Solar Flare give her the ability to easily disrupt and reach a team’s backline from a distance. Sure, she can stay by her squishies and save her crowd control abilities to peel but it takes away the strengths of her ranged capabilities.

Thresh has options to engage with his hook or a Flay to keep a target within striking range, however, his Dark Passage lantern and his ultimate, The Box, are some of the best defensive abilities in the game. It can feel nearly impossible to kill a target that’s protected by a Thresh that knows what they’re doing.

The point here is to be aware of your crowd control options and what they can do, but most importantly, do your best to understand the context of when and where they’d be most effectively used.

Positioning

The next method of peeling is how you place and position yourself in relation to who you’re trying to protect and the threats that are going after them. In general of course, the less distance between you and your VIPs, the easier it is to defend them in a teamfight.

However, you should be adjusting your positioning according to the specific types of threats and compositions you’re up against. Let’s take a look at a few examples.

Area of effect (AoE)

When you’re playing against an AoE comp, the key to positioning yourself is to avoid getting caught by the same crowd control as your VIP. AoE engages often have very long cooldowns so if they only land on one target, they don’t yield as much value as they should.

If the Malphite lands his ult on the Ashe but misses Braum, Braum can lock down the Malphite long enough with CC for the Ashe to get away. Likewise, if the Malphite misses the Ashe and can only hit Braum, the Ashe may be able to do enough damage to either kill or force the Malphite to retreat.

Messy fights: Assassins and skirmishes

Team comps that are filled with assassins and skirmishers can create incredibly scary situations for a squishy carry because threats can be attacking from multiple angles. As a peeler, you’ll want to be as close as possible to your VIP so you can respond to the most immediate threat and give your VIP the chance to kill their pursuer

In the image above, let’s say that the Braum sees the Kassadin and knows Evelynn is nearby but cannot see her. The best Braum can do here is deal with the most immediate danger and be ready to react when others come from other angles. Since assassins and skirmishes both rely on isolation and thriving in chaos, being as close to Ashe as possible will give Braum the most amount of time to react from whichever side the enemies attempt to kill her.

Poke and siege comps

When you play against champions that rely on skill shots to poke and siege, they often won’t have as many crowd control options. The best way to peel for your VIP here is to stay in front of them and make it hard for the enemy team to land their shots on their prime target.

In the image above, Braum places himself where he can take the bullet for Ashe. Now, this may not be sustainable depending on how tanky the peeler is and how much sustain resources the poke team has, but it will allow your VIP to stay safe while your team finds a way to take a favorable engage.

Other methods and tools

Knight’s Vow has peel written all over it

Outside of crowd control and positioning, you can also peel by mitigating damage through heals/shields, providing movement speed to help your VIPs avoid danger, and by being a damage threat yourself.

If you need more tools than what your champion’s kit provides, you can build for peel through how you choose your runes, items, and Summoner Spells. As a reference, here are some examples:

• Items
  • Locket of the Iron Solari – instant shield for protecting your nearby VIPs from burst damage.
  • Knight’s Vow – Mitigates damage for a targeted ally and grants movement speed when you move toward them.
  • Twin Shadows – Provides two ranged slows and helps track down flankers.
  • Shurelya’s Reverie – Gives movement speed for you and your surrounding allies (very useful for escapes)
  • Redemption- AoE heal that can also be used as a zoning tool.
  • Zeke’s Convergence – Creates an AoE slow and helps your VIP burn down their foes.
  • Mikael’s Crucible – Allows you to cleanse most crowd control effects on a target ally.
•  Runes
  • Resolve
    • Guardian – shields a guarded ally.
    • Font of Life – heals ally who attack a target you CC’d.
    • Revitalize – Enhances your heals and shields.
  • Inspiration
    • Unsealed Spellbook – Allows you to switch to Exhaust, Heal, or even Cleanse to body-block crowd control.
    • Approach Velocity – Helps you reach your allies that are in trouble or stay on top of enemies that are chasing them.
  • Sorcery
    • Summon Aery – Improves your shields, buffs, and heals.

How to peel

Now that you have a good grasp on the different ways to peel, let’s break down the steps you should be taking mentally when a fight is about to begin. These tips were provided with the help of our Mobalytics analyst, Prohibit.

Step 1. Relax and compose yourself

This first step is crucial because you NEED to make the right decisions and see the full picture. If you panic, you’ll likely tunnel-vision, misclick your abilities, or simply just make the wrong decisions.

Before entering your match, you already know that fighting will be inevitable. Mentally prepare yourself that the opposing players will be do everything from roaming, ganking, and setting up traps to kill you and your teammates (but hey, your team will be looking to do the same to them).

As the game goes on, watch the map and constantly absorb information. The more you see and know, the more prepared you’ll be when things get bloody.

Step 2. Identify who your most important team members are

By the end of pick and bans, you should have a good idea who your carries are. If you don’t you probably shouldn’t be playing ranked just yet. In general, these are usually your Mid laners and ADCs, but they can sometimes be your Top laners or Jungler if they choose champions like Fiora or Kindred respectively. Mids will also sometimes play assassins who usually work alone, so you may not have to worry about peeling for them.

Once the match begins, understand the context of how the match is progressing. Which of your carries is doing well? You’ll probably want to put more eggs into their peeling basket since they’ve been the more trustworthy of your team’s gold investment. Make sure they’re never alone or too far from help when they farm and fight.

Step 3. Anticipate the enemy plan of attack and execute

We touched upon this a bit earlier in the above Positioning section – you’ll want to change your approach based on the nature of the enemy team’s key threats and strategies. Similar to how you want to understand who your most important team members are, you need to understand who the big baddies are.

When possible, save your strongest crowd control for the biggest threat. If they’re an assassin, be ready for them to pop out from the shadows. If they’re a long-range mage or ADC, be ready to block some skillshots. You’ll have to hope your engagers and flankers do their job while you do yours.

Learn from the pros

Now that we’ve covered the different tools and mentalities regarding peeling, let’s watch and learn from the pros. The following examples will be from the same game, Team Liquid vs Flash Wolves from MSI 2018’s Day 5. As you watch, take note of what we’ve discussed in the article thus far.

Exhibit A: Good peeling will lead to victory, even in less favorable situations

1. In the clip, Flash Wolves slowly push towards the Baron pit to contest Team Liquid. The key thing to note is that TL has 5 players alive while FW has only 4.
2. FW establish a beefy frontline with Cho’gath and Swain and have their VIP, Kog’Maw, accompanied by his Support Karma.
3. Despite not having the engage ultimates of their Gragas, Ornn, or Malzahar, TL decides to look for a fight instead of finishing the objective.
4. Flash Wolves’ Cho’gath, Swain, and Karma hold the line and peel long enough for their Kog to burn down TL. They take 3 kills with 0 deaths and eventually take Baron.

 Exhibit B: If you don’t peel, your team will get massacred

1. Later in the match, TL and FW have a 5v5 stand-off at mid lane. The game is quite close in terms of gold with only a 1.4k difference at almost 36 minutes.
2. TL’s Ornn ults towards Kog’Maw and the rest of FW position horrendously and split on the opposite side, leaving their VIP alone and vulnerable.
3. Kog is instantly obliterated and a 5v5 turns into a sound defeat within seconds.
4. TL jump ahead and snowball their lead to take the match.

The difference between the two above clips cannot be understated. Even just one fight where your team forgets to peel or poorly peels can be catastrophic. Never lose sight of your VIP and just do your best with the tools you have to protect them. Even in the face of unfavorable odds, you can pull out a win!

Thanks for reading! We hope you found this article helpful in understanding how to peel (by the way, you’re welcome ADCs, you better thank your protectors).  As always you can find us in our Discord if you have any questions, and feel free to leave us a comment below.

The post How to Peel in League of Legends appeared first on Mobalytics.

Welcome to our beginner guide for Mobalytics, the ultimate gaming companion for League of Legends!

This article is designed for players who recently registered and will cover the main benefits of each feature, how it works, and when to use it.

That being said, stick around if you’re a Mobalytics veteran, you’ll probably still learn something new.

Although many of our tips will still apply to our browser version, we strongly recommend downloading the Desktop App to get the most use from it. This article will assume that you have it downloaded.

Note that we’ll have a ton of screenshots that highlight major features but we may not show each tool and widget that we mention in the text, so be sure to walk through each feature on your own!

Mobalytics Features for League of Legends

Click on a feature to jump there:

• Live Companion
• Gamer Performance Index (GPI)
• Profile
• Champions
• Tier List
• Items

Live Companion

The Live Companion is a powerful feature with one goal: to help you win your very next match.

It does this by sticking by your side before, during, and after your match.

By the end of this section, you’ll understand why many players will use it every single game.

How it works

There are a ton of tools and widgets within the Live Companion, but we recommend thinking of the feature as three main parts: the Pre Game, the in-game Overlay, and the Post Game.

Pre Game

The Pre Game automatically activates when you enter Champ Select.

Like your own personal coach or sensei, it helps you be as prepared as possible and nail down your game plan before your match.

To kick things off, it’ll recommend which champions you should pick and ban based on factors like the meta and your champion pool.

As your teammates hover their champions, you’ll be able to see badges and stats like win rate from the main Summoner Insights tab.

Meanwhile, as your enemies select their champions, you’ll see counter pick recommendations for you and your remaining allies to consider.

Once you select your champions, two things will happen. First off, the Summoner Insights tab will automatically switch to the Recommended Build tab.

Here, you’ll be able to explore different build options (based on win rate and popularity) and then import your runes and item builds directly into your client.

The second thing that happens is that your Cheat Sheet will transform to present information based on your champions, such as recommended combos, matchup advice, and much more.

Finally, once you see the loading screen, you’ll see the same insights that you saw for your team pop up for the enemy team.

This is a great chance to predict who the best and worst players will be, so plan accordingly!

In-Game Overlay

As soon as you enter your match, your in-game Overlay will automatically activate.

If you just plug in and play, it’ll give you pop-up notifications every time a player hits a big level spike (like level 6) or an item power spike (like completing a Mythic item).

However, if you press Tab in combination with either Q, W, or E, you’ll be able to see more useful widgets:

• Tab + Q  shows you the Summoner Insights for both teams from your Pre Game
• Tab + W shows an overview for the current state of the match, with gold leads for each lane and a history feed of all the power spike notifications
• Tab + E shows useful matchup info like cooldowns for every champion’s abilities and specific champ vs champion advice

Lastly, there’s also a fourth option, Tab + S, that opens up the Settings that allow you to resize the scale of your Overlay, change the transparency, and even change the position of your powerspike notifications.

As tempting as it may be, don’t let the Overlay be the cause of your death! Be sure to only check it when it’s safe, such as when you’re returning back from lane.

Post Game

Once your game completes (hopefully you won!), you’ll see your Post Game match details pop up.

The Post Game covers all the major stats for your match, highlights the top players with awards, and gives insight badges based on your performance.

You can easily see how well (or badly) each player played based on their 1-10 rankings.

By clicking on a role icon, you’ll see how the two players of that role compared in terms of their build paths, rune stats, and item completion times.

It’s a great idea to review your Post Game after a match, but if you’re tilted after a tough loss feel free to leave and check it out later in your Profile’s match history (which we’ll cover later).

Speaking which,  if someone really popped off and you want to learn more about them and their play, you can click on them to go straight to their Profile.

Live Companion tips and tricks

• Don’t get overwhelmed. You won’t have time to look at everything so focus on what you need and remember you can access it whenever you want with the Overlay.
• The Live Companion also works with ARAM! Try it out to find builds and other insights, similar to Summoner’s Rift.
• While at your Pre Game, head to the Customization settings to turn on auto-importing so you don’t have to press the button every time.

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Gamer Performance Index (GPI)

The GPI is designed to help you identify your unique playstyle as a player.

It does this by analyzing all of your matches according to 8 fundamental LoL skills:

• Aggression = your tendency to look to make plays and create action
• Consistency = how steady your performance is
• Farming = your ability to generate gold income
• Fighting = your fighting prowess in different types of engagements
• Objectives = your ability to help your team take objectives (turrets, Dragons, etc)
• Survivability = your ability to stay alive
• Versatility = how proficient you are in different circumstances
• Vision = your ability to contribute to placing and denying vision

Depending on your unique strengths and weaknesses, the GPI rate your Skills based on scores.

Based on those scores, the GPI will then illustrate your playstyle as a graph, sort of like a fingerprint!

How it works

While the Live Companion focuses on one game at a time, the GPI looks at the trends in your gameplay.

For example, let’s say you’re a player that’s normally tough to skill, so you have a high Survivability score.

If you have a bad game and die 8 times, it shouldn’t affect your GPI scores much since it happens to everyone from time to time.

However, if you being to die a lot more regularly, the Survivability portion of your graph will begin to shrink.

In general, you should see transformations in your graph every 10 games or so, so keep that in mind as you play your matches.

If you want to improve in a Skill, we recommend doing a few things.

First off, click on a Skill. Every Skill is made up of smaller sub-metrics, so if you improve those sub-metrics, the overall Skill score will improve.

For example, let’s say you want to improve your Fighting. By clicking it, you might see that your Dueling ability is much worse in comparison to your Teamfights.

By focusing on your Teamfighting and improving that score, you would then improve your overall Fighting score (if you still maintained your previous scores for your other sub-metrics).

The second thing we recommend is comparing yourself to other ranked tiers and comparing yourself to your past self.

To compare to other ranked tiers, click on the filter at the top right. Try to identify your worst score and bring it in line with other players at your rank.

After you do that, you can then try to raise your skills to the ranked tier above the one you’re currently at while you climb.

Within your sub-metrics, you can see how your specific scores compare to the average of each ranked tier and how your past 5 games compare to those ranked tiers.

Our third recommendation is to check out our expert articles within each skill, at the bottom of the page.

This is a great way to find advice, tips, and tricks to help you learn and change your perspective when you get stuck.

Lastly, keep an eye out for Challenges coming out in the very near future!

Challenges will give you in-game missions to complete while you play that simultaneously help you win while honing your Skills.

GPI tips and tricks

• You can check the GPI for other players by changing your Summoner name in the Settings.
• If you get lost, refer to your Skill to Focus. It will give you the most bang for your buck in terms of results if you improve it.
• Change your number of games to compare your growth. For example, check out the difference between your recent 10 vs your recent 50.

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Profile

The Profile is your go-to tool for tracking the stats and match history for any player, whether it’s you, an enemy, a friend, or even a pro player!

It’s a handy tool for going back in time to your old matches, researching builds, and studying champion + matchup pools.

How it works

To get started, just enter a summoner’s name and region in the search field in the toolbar.

At the top of the page, you’ll see all the basic information about the player, from their rank and GPI shape to their top 5 champions and average stats.

You’ll even see some badges below their name (don’t forget to hover for more info). Overall this serves as a snapshot to quickly give you an idea of who a player is.

In the sections below, you’ll find three main tabs: the Overview, Champion Pool, and Matchup Pool.

Within the Overview tab, you’ll find the player’s match history along with insights like the number of times they’ve played each role, the top 5 players they’ve queued with most, and even a “recent Activity” calendar.

This calendar shows all the games a summoner has played in the past 120 days, allowing you to hover each day to see their win/loss record for that 24 hour period.

It’s a unique tool that’s great for finding the best times for your personal climb!

As another reminder, don’t forget that you can access your Post Game analysis for any of your past matches by clicking on “Match Details” within your history.

The other two tabs for Champion Pool and Matchup Pool go hand in hand.

Within the Champion Pool tab, you’ll find all the champions a summoner has played along with their stats.

Clicking on a champion will give you more in-depth stats for the champions they’ve played against when using that champ.

The Matchup Pool tab does the opposite – instead, you’ll find stats for champions that the player has played against.

By clicking on the champion, you can see which of their champs tend to do best against that champion.

In combination, these tabs are very useful for narrowing down your champion pool and understanding which champs to use in specific situations.

Profile tips and tricks

• You can filter your match history by different game modes, roles, and even specific champions. Don’t be shy, explore!
• Hover items and Summoner spells to see their details.
• Check back to see how your playstyle badges change over time.

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Champions

The Champion pages are your ultimate resource for learning everything there is about, well, champions!

Whether you want to learn how to play a champion or against a champion, you’ll find what you need here.

To get started just click on a champion!

How it works

Once you click on a champion you’ll see six tabs.

Each one has quite a bit of depth so here’s a quick TLDR of each:

• Builds
  • Find item, runes, and skill order builds based on popularity and win rate for Summoner’s Rift
• ARAM
  • Basically the same as the Builds tab but for the ARAM game mode
• Counters
  • Find matchup stats, advice, and insights on playing against a champion
• Guide
  • Learn how a champion works based on their strengths/weaknesses, power spikes, and early/mid/late game plans.
• Combos
  • See videos and graphics that help you master a champion’s combos (sort of like a fighting game’s combo menu!)
• Pro Builds
  • Explore how pro players, streamers, and one-trick ponies from around the world are building their mains.

There’s a lot of info, so although you can use it on your 2nd screen while you play, we recommend sticking with the LC in most cases.

It’s more of a resource that you’ll want to use in between matches, such as during a break or while in queue.

Champions tips and tricks

• If you’re a new player, be sure to use the Free Rotation button at the main Champions portal
• As soon as a new champion is on the PBE (Public Beta Environment), we’ll add their champion page!
• If you find combos you like, try them out in the Practice Tool before trying them out in your match.

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Tier List

Although this is a beginner’s guide, there may be some of you that are already taking on the ranked ladder (or at least thinking about doing so).

As you probably know, League of Legends goes through balance changes every 2 weeks.

This causes champions to naturally rise and fall in power alongside those changes.

If you want to stay on top of the very cutting edge of the meta, the Tier List is the feature for you!

How it works

There are two tier lists curated by our experts, one for low ELO and one for high ELO.

We have a third one for ARAM in the works, so keep an eye out for its release soon.

If you’re wondering which tier list to reference, we generally recommend using the low ELO tier list until around high Diamond 2.

However, every player is different and it really comes down to your level of mechanical skill and macro knowledge so find what works for you.

The champions are sorted by role, tier (their strength in the meta), and difficulty (how hard they are to immediately pick up and learn).

Our experts designate one champion for each of the five roles as their Pick of the Patch – this is usually a dominant or rising pick that you should keep an eye on or try out yourself.

Keep an eye on the up and down arrows to track how champions are changing in placement in comparison to the last patch.

Below the tier list, you can explore additional stats like win rate, pick rate, ban rate, and matches played.

Tier List tips and tricks

• With enough practice and research, you can climb with anyone so don’t feel obligated to change your champion with every patch. Instead, you can use the tier list to predict which champions are likely to rise in popularity so you can plan for those specific matchups.
• Hover champion icons to see additional counter stats.
• Click on a champion icon to go straight to their Champion page.

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Items

The biggest change between Season 10 and Season 11 was the revamp of items in League of Legends.

Since then, most builds now revolve around powerful “Mythic Items”.

We created this Items feature to provide an easy reference for beginners and players returning to LoL after a long break.

How it works

Click on any item to immediately see its recipe or the items that it builds into.

There are a ton of filters to narrow down your search!

On the left side, you can choose specific stats, like Health + Attack Speed.

At the top, you’ll find filters by champion archetype (like tank or assassin) or item type (like Mythic, Legendary, or Epic,).

If you’re looking for ARAM items and other oddities, you can find them in the “Misc” section at the bottom of the scroll list.

Items tips and tricks

• The Items page is a great place to internalize your situational items. This will help you make the most of your Live Companion recommendations.
• Remember to not only research the items that you’ll be building, but also popular ones that your allies and enemies will use.
• Since Mythic passives synergize with specific Legendary items, be sure to factor that in when theorycrafting build paths.

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Closing Thoughts

Although all Mobalytics features can definitely be helpful on their own, they’re at their best when you use them together!

For example, here’s a routine that many of our players use:

1. Use the Live Companion to help you prep for each game and increase your odds of winning
2. Check out your Profile and GPI during your sessions to track your trends and progress
3. When a new patch goes live, consult the Tier List to see how the meta is trending
4. Refer to the Champions and Items pages to keep your knowledge up to snuff and maximize your building skills

As you can see from this flow, the different tools are most useful at different points in time.

But as always, everyone is on their own journey, so try out what works best for you!

GLHF and if you have any questions, just ask in the comments below and we’ll answer them as soon as we can.

Thanks for reading, we hope this article was helpful! Don’t forget to download the Mobalytics Desktop app to get the most from the platform.

The post The Ultimate Mobalytics Guide – League of Legends appeared first on Mobalytics.

Five Paths: One Climb

Throughout the history of team competition, roles and positions have usually been designated by physical attributes. In basketball, being tall usually means you’re going to be playing in the key, looking for rebounds and blocks – the shorter players are delegated to learn and specialize in skills like shooting, dribbling, and passing. In American football, stronger bulky players will be sent to the front lines to protect speedy running backs, while taller receivers are favored to flank the sides.

Sure, every once in a while, players pop up that defy these conventions (like 6’9″ Kevin Durant who plays like a guard with a big man’s body), but the safe bet is that you’re going to want to play to your physical advantages in traditional sports.

In League of Legends (and gaming in general), confines like height, weight, and strength don’t matter when it comes to deciding if you’re playing Top, Jungle, Mid,  ADC, or Support. Instead, factors like whether you like solo duels or sticking with a team, slicing foes up close or blasting them afar, and so on, define where you can find a place and successfully climb.

Why pick a main role?

There is nothing stopping you from jumping between roles but it’s hard to deny these benefits to settling down on one:

• Limit your variables
  • Every time you queue into a game of League, the factors you are presented with are different game to game. You’re facing different players, champions, builds…the list goes on.
  • By focusing in on a role, you limit these factors and can more easily learn what you’re likely to deal with and how to beat them.
• Discover nuances
• Improve positive consistency and results

Although Riot encourages you to play within five designated roles, the biggest decider is how you personally like to play.  

Reasons to pick (or not pick) each role

If you’re completely new to the game, you should probably play a decent amount of Normal games before jumping straight into Ranked. Play around and experiment to find out what brings you joy when you’re playing.

Remember that the road to climbing isn’t always fun and games – the journey is long and arduous. Picking a main role is about falling in love with the grind – embracing the fact that there will be adversity but you will inevitably improve as long as you stay focused on your goals. The following sections include pros and cons for each role in order from: Top, Jungle, Mid, ADC, and Support (so feel free to skip around).

Do you like operating alone instead of spending most of your time with your team?

Are you a 1v1 combat enthusiast who enjoys the nuances of dueling?

Can you lean on your own skill and strength to create undeniable pressure on your foes?

If these appeal to you, Top lane may be your place.

The Lone Wolf

Top is a solo lane set apart from other roles because it is the most isolated from the rest of the map’s action. Early on in a usual match, things tend to happen more toward bottom side due to Dragon contests. Sure, you may have the occasional fight at Rift Herald but even then, it is probably only one to two times max per game.

As the game progresses, Top laners often transition to being split-pushers so they are often still separate for much of the match until grouping for Baron battles and end-game team fights.

Outside of Teleporting to help with Dragon or flanking bot, Tops will mostly stay to themselves on their half of the map during laning phase.

You won’t have to worry as much about other lanes
Being isolated from the rest of the map means you won’t have to pay as much attention to what everyone else is doing, your focus is primarily on winning your lane. This applies in both a practical and theoretical sense.

In terms of other roles coming to your lane during the early game, here’s how it breaks down:

• Usually the Junglers (you can expect to see at least a gank or two from either side, but there may be games where there won’t be any if action leans heavily to Mid/Bot).
• Occasionally the Mid laners.
• Almost never the Bot laners.

Eventually, you’ll want to learn about the champions you encounter often in the other roles, but Top is a great main for starting players because there’s simply less champions to worry about since you’ll mostly be dealing with Junglers and enemy Top laners.

It’s like a fighting game

Junglers may come to visit but for the most part, you’ll be in a 1v1 situation during laning phase. If you enjoy 1v1 combat and all of its facets like mind games, trading, and zoning, this may be appealing – afterall, Top is the longest lane so you have tons of room to play. If you’re good, you may be able to single-handedly dominate a lane and turn it into a lead that you can carry the rest of the game with.

Isolated for better or worse

As a Top laner, it can often feel like you’re on an island – it’s probably the least proactive role in terms of map movement potential. You’re responsible for holding the fort of your First Turret and you shouldn’t expect help to come every time you need it. If you fall behind against your counterpart, it can feel like a survival game where you’re just doing your best to hold your turret up for as long as possible.

You also won’t be able to impact other lanes like other roles can. Top laners may roam to Mid every once in a while after shoving their lane but they almost never impact the bottom lane outside of the occasional Teleport (which has a long cooldown) to flank or help with Dragon.

So even in games where you’re doing well, you may feel helpless if your teammates aren’t doing so hot. The isolation can also turn into your favor if you’re able to dominate your opponent. If you get a few early kills, the enemy team will be forced to invest resources into keeping you in check, thus opening up opportunities for your allies.

Champion pool analysis: 

Top champs have decent variety but mostly leans towards melee tanks and fighters.

Overall, Top lane involves tanks and duelists with split-push capabilities. There are many melee choices and a few ranged champions, with AD and AP at your disposal depending on your play style needs. Here are some examples of the different guises Top laners can take:

• Tanks
  •  In almost every composition, there’s a tank or two holding down the front line as impassable walls protecting their squishy friends.
  • If you enjoy protecting your teammates, being nearly unkillable, and utilizing powerful crowd control abilities, consider champions like:
    • Maokai
    • Malphite
    • Ornn
• Duelists
  •  These champions excel in the isolated 1v1 conditions that Top presents – if you dominate your lane matchup, you can often have a good chance to carry the game yourself.
  • Duelists have high skill caps and usually have combos and tricks that you’ll have to learn to play to their potential.
    • Fiora
    • Jax
    • Riven
• Ranged
  •  If aspects of Top lane seem appealing to you but you’re not into playing melee champions, don’t fret! You have several options for either AD/AP depending on what your team needs to choose from. Here are a few examples:
    • Jayce (AD)
    • Quinn (AD)
    • Kennen (AP)
    • Teemo (AP)

The Bottom Line:

If you often worry about what is going on around the rest of the map and want to be able consistently help your allies, this may not be the right place for you. Even if you take Teleport, it has a relatively long cooldown so Top may not be the best role if you plan on duo-queueing with a friend since you won’t be able to help them much.

However, if you want a solo lane where you can really rely on your individual prowess as a player and don’t want to worry a ton about what happens on the rest of the map. It has a good amount of carry potential, decent variety in champion pool and play styles, and is beginner friendly since it doesn’t require as much map awareness/champ learning.

Are you a strategist that likes to plan your moves and stay a step ahead of your enemies?

Do you like traveling the map and being able to help all of your teammates?

Do you relish the opportunity to invade, ambush, and steal from your foes?

If so, Jungling may be your gig!

The Maestro

Jungling is quite interesting in that it is one of the most mechanically simple roles but may be the most mentally demanding. You won’t have to worry about last-hitting like other solo lanes but you’ll have to have an incredible amount of game knowledge and sense.

The Jungler dictates the pace of the game, creating action where you see fit. If you want to help snowball lanes, defend them, or ignore them, that’s ultimately up to you!

As a Jungler, the whole Rift is your domain. Where you prioritize going is ultimately up to you but your action will likely revolve around ganking the lanes and securing objectives.

Strategy and flow
As a Jungler, you are tasked with having the most planning to do but that also means you have the most freedom. The game begins at champ select and loading screen for you because you’ll be planning your pathing moves in advance. You set the pace and decide where you can make the biggest impact.

You can camp one lane all game, spend time trying to help where you can, or even focus on farming up for the late game. Having all the freedom in the world can also be a burden since you may have teammates that are begging for you to come. Junglers must have thick skin because you may be blamed when things go wrong in your allied lanes (luckily you have a mute button).

Junglers must have good intuition and feel for the game because there are so many things they have to keep track of. They have to track the enemy Jungler’s movements, understand the health states of the laners, the timers of camps, and so on…

You better know your stuff!

Junglers have the luxury of not having to learn last-hitting mechanics, but they’re going to have to learn much more than the other lanes. As we mentioned earlier, you are tasked with understanding the game state and knowing the best place for you to be.

Ultimately, you have to not only understand what your enemy Jungler is looking to do, but also how all the champions on your team interact with their opponents in order to make the best decisions possible.

Power-spikes, crowd control, and damage potential are all factors you must understand across the map. If you know less than your enemy Jungler, you’re basically going in blind and putting your team at a disadvantage.

Smite-wars and invasions

The one time where getting the last hit matters for a Jungler is with Smite. Smite not only helps you clear you clear camps, but it’s where you can shine for your team when you’re fighting for objectives. If you have quick reflexes and a good feel for timing, clutch Smites can win or save a game for your team – it’s like a sort of mini-game. At the same time, if you don’t have the nerves or a good feel for damage rates, you may want to consider another role because missing a Smite can also cost you a match.

Another unique facet of Jungle is the invasion game. As action happens around the map, and either you or your Jungle opponent make a gank, the other player will often have the opportunity to make a gank elsewhere, try to set up a counter-gank at the lane they’re targeting, or try to enter the enemy territory to take their camps. If the ganker fails, the invader denies them gold and experience and may be able to gain a lead. Invasions can also create 1v1 duels in the Jungle, so you must be prepared to be the hunter and the hunted.

Champion pool breakdown: 

Junglers have a wide variety of play styles ranging from aggressive to passive

The Jungler pool is full of engage and mobility options, and has choices whether you want to play as a carry or supportive. There’s a good mix of tanks, assassins, fighters, and even a few ranged like Graves/Kindred. Junglers like Kayn, Zac, and Nidalee have some unique movement options that allow you to hit from different angles while Junglers like Evelynn, Shaco, and Rengar thrive on chaos.

• Initiators
  •  These Junglers excel at starting the fights with game-changing CC. They can often engage from afar and at tricky angles to catch their opponents off-guard.
    • Amumu
    • Sejuani
    • Zac
•  Snowballers
  • If you want to snowball the game through relentless ganking and invasion, these sort of champs are your gang. This is a riskier type of play but can pay off if you have the skill and the nerve.
    • Kha’zix
    • Lee Sin
    • Rengar
• Disrupt/Supportive
  •  The Jungle role offers some very unique/off-the beaten path options. These champions offer interesting ways to disrupt the enemy’s Jungle while giving their teams tons of utility.
    • Ivern
    • Nunu
• Farmers
  •  Want to carry the late game without having to worry about last-hitting? These farm-intensive Junglers may cost you the early game but will become monsters as they accumulate resources.
    • Kindred
    • Master Yi
    • Shyvana

The Bottom Line:
If you want to play League like a game of chess, Jungler is for you. Forget the nonsense of having to last hit and trade in lane, you take control of the game with your decision-making and simply outsmarting your opponents. You have the responsibility of keeping track of objective and camp timings to be at the right place at the right time. It’s also one of the best roles to play with your friends since you can coordinate with them and stay in-sync.

Keep in mind however, that being out of lane will often mean that you’ll end up with potentially less gold than your other solo counterparts. If some ganks don’t work out and the game starts to turn against you, it can be hard to keep up in terms of items. This is probably the highest pressure position, so be aware of that.

Are you jack-of-all trades who enjoys doing a little bit of everything?

Can you easily execute spell-combos without missing a beat?

Are you a team player that also enjoys solo play?

If these appeal to you, find your center at Mid as your role.

The Balancer

The Mid laner pretty much does it all, it’s kind of like the sample platter of all the different roles. You’re a solo 1v1 lane like Top, you can influence many parts of the map like a Jungler, and you’re expected to be given gold and carry like an ADC. You have to worry about last-hitting and farming but you also have to be ready to react to help other lanes by roaming, aiding in taking/defending objectives, or participating in action in the Jungle. You can even play similar to Supports with champs that have shields like Orianna or Lux.

Like many other games, the middle ground is the most strategic area and sought out (ever heard of Mid Priority?) You are the literal center and gravity of the map around which everything happens, so you’ll have no shortage of fights, sieges, and grouping in your lane and you can expect plenty of Jungle company.

Mid laners have a large domain, often roaming to take part in jungle action and to help side lanes/objectives

Shove and roam

The Mid laner is second to only the Jungler in terms of being able to impact the other areas of your map. You’ll need to be a master of wave control and timing in order to properly shove, help a side lane, and return in time before missing too much farm.

A well-timed roam can seize the early-mid game by enabling a First Turret or First Blood in a side lane. Your game sense must be sharp however, because if you leave your lane for too long, you may be missing out on experience or even risk giving up your own turret.

Blow stuff up with your abilities

Whether it’s with assassinations, spell combos, or long-range artillery, Mids have tons of access to explosive damage that may be able to one-shot enemies at times. Unlike the ADC who outputs high damage with auto-attacks, Mids tend to duke it out using QWER rotations to maximize their effectiveness.

You’ll be using your abilities so often that you should expect to be given Blue buff by your Jungler to help you out – just make sure you don’t die with it and give it to the other team or else it will probably be the last one you’re gifted.

Be sure to have a secondary

Mid is the most sought-after role so don’t be surprised if you don’t get it every time you queue. If you plan on climbing ranked, be prepared with a secondary that you enjoy and can play proficiently to keep your climb consistent.

In our Versatility Skill Decompilation, we discussed how learning “flex champions” or champs that have the flexibility to play multiple roles, can be helpful in these instances. For example, from the sample Mid champion pool below, Diana can be jungled, Lux can be played as Support, and Zed can be played in the Top lane.

Champion pool breakdown: 

The Mid lane brings a mix of assassins and mages with options for high damage potential and mobility.

Here are some examples of different champions at your disposal:

• Assassins
  • These Mid laners dominate 1v1 combat in order to win their lane and snowball before helping others. They often have tricky movement abilities to mechanically outplay their foes.
    • Ekko
    • Katarina
    • Leblanc
• Control mages
  • Control mages are able to manipulate the battle with powerful area of effect spells and can hold down a lane with their incredible wave clear. They make valuable team fighters due to their ability to influence space.
    • Anivia
    • Orianna
    • Viktor

• Ranged poke/artillery
  • The champions blast their foes from afar with some of the longest reaching abilities in the game. If you enjoy sieging and sniping, these are your picks.
    • Lux
    • Vel’koz
    • Xerath
• Map impact
  • If you want to help your side lanes often, high map impact champions like these are awesome choices. Their abilities allow them to travel to almost any part of the map nearly instantly – just be aware that you’ll be giving up some fighting power in lane.
    • Aurelion Sol
    • Taliyah
    • Twisted Fate

The Bottom Line:

There’s a reason why the Mid lane is the most popular role, it can often feel like you’re the star of the show. You’re expected to do a little bit of everything and you’re able to participate in the activities of any of your teammates. You’re able to impact the map as much as your Jungler while being able to enjoy the 1v1 subtleties of solo combat. Just be aware that if you fail in your duties and lose your lane, you’re conceding a very strategic area.

Do you like sniping your enemies from afar?

Want to be able to carry your team singlehandedly in team fights?

Do you prefer to be protected by your teammates?

The Firepower

The ADC (also known as “Marksman”) is a role traditionally dedicated to the long-ranged carry. As an ADC, you’ll be expected to focus on farming up to get your items as fast as possible. You’ll be squishy and weak early on, but in exchange, you’ll be extremely powerful later on in the game.

The ADC is so important that a Support will be with you for most of the time – if you don’t play well with others you may be better off playing a solo lane. If you have a friend to duo queue as Support, you may have a better time climbing in the long term than having to adjust to the different play styles of Supports you’re matched with.

ADC has the least amount of map impact during lane phase, you have the comfort of focusing on farming outside of Dragon contests.

Farming fever

Make no doubt about it, playing ADC is a farm fest. Early on you’re going to be quite weak compared to the other roles since you need the most gold and items to scale and really hit your stride. If you don’t enjoy the grind of farming and last-hitting this is not the role for you.

The positive trade-off for having to be the most farm-focused of the roles is that you are expected to invest lots of time into powering up for the late game. You can often get away with grabbing a big wave for yourself instead of attending to other matters – it’s part of your job.

The downside is that you probably have even less map impact than the Top laner. You’re pretty much tethered to farming the waves because if you leave, you’re giving up precious gold.

Be the VIP

In lane and in team fights, your allies will be protecting (and even dying for you) to keep you alive. At the end of the day, you’ll eventually be the biggest threat on your team, so your enemies will be prioritizing you as their optimal target.

Besides, farming, surviving will be one of your top priorities. Dying can be devastating since missing out on gold and experience, as well as delaying those crucial item buys, so you’ll need to be able to position yourself well in fights and balance caution with damage output.

You’ll carry hard (if you’re patient)

Once you’ve paid your dues and have farmed up to hit your big items, it’s time to party! If you’re good, don’t be surprised if you rack up Triple-kills, Quadra-kills, and perhaps even the rare Pentakill.

ADC is the most mechanically intensive role because you have to balance your movement with being able to maximize your auto-attacks and abilities. If you can walk the line, however, you’ll be able to carry your team in fights with your incredible damage output. If you can’t handle the pressure you may want to reconsider your role – if you die too much or don’t put out enough damage, your team will have great difficulty in finishing off enemies.

Champion pool breakdown: 

Despite being all-ranged champs, ADC has a surprising amount of variety in how you can play.

• Lane bullies
  • Some ADCs do not need to hit their three item power-spikes to begin carrying. These champs won’t scale as well as some of their peers, but sometimes they can snowball the match to an early end due to their lane dominance.
    • Caitlyn
    • Draven
    • Kallista
• Engage
  • Although ADCs are often the role that cleans up at the end of the fight, there are options if you like being able to help your team start fights with engages.
    • Ashe
    • Sivir
    • Varus
• Hyper-carries
  • If you want to just farm up through the early game to 1v5 later on, this are your picks. These champs have incredible scaling and ratios that spike with items but you’ll have to deal with playing relatively passive until then.
    • Kog’Maw
    • Tristana
    • Twitch

The Bottom Line:

If you love ranged combat, last-hitting farm, and carrying hard, ADC may be your match. You’ll be dominating with precise movement and mechanics to outplay your opponents at every turn, weaving in and out of the battle behind the protection of your allies, and rushing to your power-spikes. Don’t forget that you have to work well with others because you’ll always have a Support with you, so embrace the camaraderie. Be collaborative and able to read the play styles of your partners and you will thrive.

Do you enjoy the laning aspects of League but don’t want to worry about farming?

Does working with others bring you more joy than working alone?

Are you a player whos sees the big picture and excels at controlling the crucial areas of the map?

The Glue

The Support is the ultimate role player for a five-man team. They are in charge of controlling vision, protecting the ADC, and just doing all the little things to help their team win. As a Support you won’t be getting the glory of high kill scores but you can make big plays with clutch engages and by enabling your carries.

During lane phase, Supports will mostly be alongside their ADC. Every once in a while, they may leave to get a deep ward into the enemy Jungle or even roam for a gank on Mid lane.

Do all the little things

The Support role is all about making sure things run smoothly for your team. You help facilitate vision control, protect your ADC, and provide game-changing crowd control. You won’t be the one carrying your team with kills or clutch Smite steals, but you’ll be the one who enables your ADC to get that Quadra-kill and you’ll be the one who sets up the vision that let’s your Jungler make that steal.

If you won’t enjoy the game if you’re not getting a high amount of kills or farm, you’re probably better off picking another role. If simply winning is enough Support is a great choice.

Operate under the radar

As a Support, your play will often fade into the background because you aren’t personally responsible for a solo lane or for farming and hitting your items. Your actions sort of fade into the background so if you play poorly it won’t be as noticeable as other roles. The flipside is that when you play really well, your teammates (your ADC may), probably won’t notice as much in comparison to when another role pops off.

You’re basically guaranteed your role

Support is easily the least popular role, so it makes it easy for mains to consistently get it in solo queue. You won’t have to worry as much about being well-versed with a secondary role and you can really focus on mastering your champ pool and play.

Champion pool breakdown: 

Typical Support choices

• Shields/Heals
  • These champs fulfill the traditional tropes of the Support class in gaming. They shield, heal, and buff their teammates, so if you’re used to playing the healer in other games, these champs will fit in naturally with the nuances you’re used to.
    • Lulu
    • Nami
    • Soraka
• Tanky
  • These champions break the mold of the fragile Support – these are beefy frontliners who make ideal bodyguards or engagers that have a huge presence on the Rift. They won’t output a ton of damage, but instead they’ll use powerful crowd control to initiate or protect their allies.
    • Braum
    • Leona
    • Tahm Kench
• Damage/poke
  • Just because you’re a Support, doesn’t mean that you’re not allowed to dish out heavy damage! These champs have long ranged AP spells that can bully the enemy bot lane during the early game.
    • Karma
    • Sona
    • Zyra

Cheatsheet Rankings

If you like to farm…

1. ADC
2. Mid = Top
3. Jungle
4. Support

If you don’t like last-hitting…

1. Jungle
2. Support
3. Top = Mid = ADC

If you like to watch the minimap

1. Jungle
2. Support
3. Mid
4. Top
5. ADC

If you like working alone…

1. Top
2. Mid
3. Jungle
4. ADC
5. Support

If you like teamplay…

1. Support
2. Jungle
3. ADC
4. Mid
5. Top

If you want to be able to get your role every time…

1. Support
2. Top = ADC = Jungle
3. Mid

If you like killing things…

1. ADC
2. Mid
3. Top = Jungle
4. Support

If you like being unkillable…

1. Top
2. Jungle
3. Support
4. Mid
5. ADC

If you don’t like being blamed…

1. Support
2. Top = Mid = ADC
3. Jungle

If you like hard-carrying…

1. ADC
2. Top = Mid = Jungle
3. Support

If you’re a beginner…

1. Top
2. Mid
3. Support
4. Jungle
5. ADC

If you love learning about champion knowledge…

1. Jungle
2. ADC = Support = Mid
3. Top

Thanks for reading! We want to know – why do you personally play your role? Let us know on Discord and feel free to ask us for how to improve in playing your role in our #coaching channel. 

The post How to Choose Your Main Role for Ranked League of Legends appeared first on Mobalytics.

Neeko is a fan favourite champion in League of Legends, who is played in multiple roles. She is a tough laner as she has sound wave clear and trading potential.

In this Mobalytics guide, we will discuss 5 champions that are good picks into Neeko. If you know you’re laning against Neeko (whether in the top or mid lane), try and pick one of these champions to deal with her a lot easier.

If you’re interested in learning how to play as Neeko, check out Neeko’s champion page. You’ll find their latest builds, runes, combos and much much more.

How to Counter Neeko

• Stand outside of her range
• Opt for 1 armor and 1 magic resistance Rune
• Avoid grouping too closely in the mid and late game
• Stand outside of the minion wave
• Respect her level 6
• 5 Champions That Counter Neeko
  1. Lissandra
  2. Anivia
  3. Pantheon
  4. Vel’Koz
  5. Sett

1. Stand outside of her range

When playing as a melee champion, you need to stand as far back from her as possible when you’re not looking to play aggressively. This is because Neeko will use her range advantage to bully you down and harass you.

If you are low on health as a melee champion, you’re going to find it near impossible for you to kill her or go for favourable trades. You must stay back so she can’t abuse you with basic and empowered autos.

2. Opt for 1 armor and 1 magic resistance Rune

Neeko is a pretty flexible pick. She can be played in multiple roles, including top, mid and Support. She can also go either on-hit AD or full AP and burst you down. Most Neeko’s will go AP, though, but some players love to go on-hit Neeko.

When in a losing matchup, don’t be afraid to change your Rune page to opt for armor and magic resistance minor Runes to help you survive the laning phase. Some champions cant do this, however, but if you’re playing as a tank, the assorted defensive items will be beneficial at stemming down her harassment in the lane.

On a different note, if you cannot opt for double defensive Runes, make sure you switch your one armor Rune to the magic resistance Rune instead to protect you from her poke and burst damage throughout the lane.

3. Avoid grouping too closely in the mid and late game

Neeko has a lot of AOE damage with her Q, E and Ultimate. However, her Ultimate and her E are the biggest threats to you later in the game. To make her Ultimate and E less effective, it is a good idea to split up slightly and avoid grouping too closely.

When you’re grouped closely as a team, you’re putting yourselves at a disadvantage as it could allow her to land a multi-person CC chain which could win her team the fight. While you’re CC’d, the enemy can dish out damage for free.

Similarly, you mustn’t fight in the jungle, as teams will usually be grouped closely together in these tight areas of the map. That also holds true when fighting around objectives like the Baron or Dragon.

4. Stand outside of the minion wave

Neeko will often use her Q and E to push the minion wave. With this in mind, try your hardest to stand outside of the minion wave so she cannot bully you down and push the wave simultaneously. By standing outside of the minion wave, you will force her to choose between pushing you under your tower or poking you.

Furthermore, Neeko’s root duration on her E is increased when it hits more enemies, which means you’ll be rooted for longer. This could allow her Jungler to gank you or enable her to go for a favourable trade.

5. Respect her level 6

Neeko’s level 6 power spike is very good. When playing as a champion who wants to get onto Neeko, it will be very difficult for you to kill her because once you go in, she will cast her Ultimate and turn around the exchange or protect herself.

When playing as a melee champion, you need to bait out her Ultimate or reposition to get out of her Ultimate’s range. If you can bait out this ability, then she shouldn’t be able to turn around the exchange.

If your Ultimate offers you a lot of kill pressure, but it’s too risky to use it against her, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to roam and help your team to make use of your Ultimate. Helping your allies get kills with your Ult will be highly beneficial for you and your team.

5 Champions That Counter Neeko

5 champions that counter Neeko are Lissandra, Anivia, Pantheon, Vel’Koz, and Sett.You can find all the matchup tips we use in this guide on the Mobalytics App.

For plus members, you can get specific matchup tips for the champion you’re playing versus the enemy laner at your fingertips while you load into the game.

We have tens of thousands of different, highly specific matchups curated by our Challenger-level players to help you lane against the enemy champion.

1. Neeko vs Lissandra

Lissandra has good range on her Q and E. This will allow her to poke and push from afar. Neeko does have a lot of all-in pressure, but Lissandra can counter it with her Ultimate. If she casts her Ultimate on herself when Neeko goes in, she will not take damage from her Ultimate.

4 tips to counter Neeko as Lissandra

• Keep poking Neeko with your Q every chance you get, and try to hit some minions with it as well. Be very careful about getting CC’d by her E though.
• Your all-in combo is devastating, but you will need to know which target is Neeko. A way to mitigate this is to make her bait out her W before going for an all-in.
• Neeko is really jumpy and will cause issues for you if you don’t pay attention in the lane. If she is about to Ultimate you, consider using your Ultimate on yourself to both save yourself and slow Neeko down for the continued all-in.
• Keep the wave in the middle of the lane and the brushes around your lane warded. Another thing that you can do is use the fog of war to catch Neeko off-guard when she tries to roam.

2. Neeko vs Anivia

Anivia has good wave clear and good survivability in lane. Post 6, she can keep the Neeko pushed into her tower. Furthermore, most of Neeko’s damage is burst damage. It is impossible for her to kill Anivia twice in a row. Her Passive offers her a lot of extra protection in this matchup.

Learn Anivia’s best runes and builds by checking out Anivia’s champion page.

4 tips to counter Neeko as Anivia

• Your Q > E combo is going to be devastating provided you manage to catch Neeko. A good time to do so will be when her W is down or when she is about to auto-attack a cannon minion.
• Getting your Ultimate will be a huge power spike. You can completely block off Neeko’s escape now and will be able to burst her down quickly.
• Never let Neeko get too close to you. This is mainly because Neeko can decimate you if she manages to deactivate your Ultimate with her CC and then turn you into an egg amidst the enemy team.
• Keep the wave in the middle of the lane for as long as possible. This will let you farm and scale up quickly, while proper warding should prepare you for any ganks.

3. Neeko vs Pantheon

All-in champions are pretty strong into Neeko, and that includes Pantheon Pantheon can all-in her frequently, and use his shield to protect him from Neeko’s damage.

4 tips to counter Neeko as Pantheon

• The best time to fight Neeko is once she uses her Q on the minion wave. This will make it harder for her to trade back with you. Ideally, try to go in when her E is down as well though as it will be easier to chase her down as she cannot root you and escape.
• At level 6, fighting Neeko is going to be difficult because of her Ultimate. Do not commit to a fight with her unless you can bully her down prior or unless your Jungler is nearby. If you can bait out her Ultimate you can play aggressively while it’s on cooldown. Take note that she also gains a shield on her Ultimate. Take this into account when using your Ultimate.
• Keep the minion wave closer to your side of the map early. This will protect you against ganks and will making farming much easier as she cannot use her superior range to harass or zone you away from farm
• Try to keep the minion wave closer to your side of the map early on. This allows you to chase her down the lane and fight her. Don’t let her push you under Tower if you can help it.

4. Neeko vs Vel’Koz

Vel’Koz has good wave clear and a lot of burst damage. Neeko’s E is also a root, which means Vel’Koz can use his Ultimate without fear of her cancelling it. However, she can still use her Ultimate to interrupt it.

4 tips to counter Neeko as Vel’Koz

• Keep the wave in the middle of the lane and make it a point to harass her regularly. If she tries roaming, don’t follow and warn your laners while you shove the wave into her tower.
• Her E becomes empowered if she passes it through enemy minions before hitting you. Don’t try to hide behind minions or else you will lose a lot of HP. If unavoidable, try to ENeeko before her E hits you so that she can’t follow up on the CC.
• While laning against her, make sure that you don’t get hit by her E. CC is your worst enemy and will make you take a lot of damage from her follow-up Q, auto-attacks and Ultimate.
• Try to play a bit aggressively when Neeko’s E is down. Also, keep a track of her in the lane as she may use her W to disguise as a melee champ and then all-in you with her Ultimate.

5. Neeko vs Sett

Sett is similar to Pantheon to some extent. He has really good all-in, a strong laning phase and he can chase the Neeko down if she overextends. While Neeko does have the range advantage, most players will not be able to kite away from the Sett running full charge at them. Bonus points for the flexibility of this matchup!

4 tips to counter Neeko as Sett

• Be prepared to sacrifice CS for XP. If you get chunked down, you’ll find it hard to trade or fight the enemy. Do not let them bully you out of lane otherwise you’ll fall behind and you’ll not be able to kill them.
• Wait for the enemy to use their crowd control ability before engaging. If you go in when they have it up, they will just interrupt your combo and trade back with you. Try and bait it out first and then use the cooldown to play aggressively.
• Extended trades work in your favour so try your hardest to go for long trades when possible. Wait for the enemy to use an ability and then go in for a trade.
• The enemy does have the range advantage so they will probably try and auto-attack you frequently. Stand back and out of range so they can’t auto attack you for free. Try to constantly adapt your positioning to reserve health. If they walk forward, walk backwards if you’re not looking to trade.

Conclusion

It hurt me writing this guide because I absolutely love Neeko. But, we hope that this guide will help you play against Neeko in the future. Try and pick one of these champions to make it very hard for her to snowball and win the game.

For more tips and tricks for Neeko, check out Neeko’s champion page on Mobalytics!

If you have any questions or want to learn more, check out PicklePants’s stream.

Watch live video from PicklePantsLOL on www.twitch.tv

The post How to Counter Neeko appeared first on Mobalytics.