League of Legends is not an easy game. And every season it is becoming more complex. Initially, you will improve simply by playing, but as with all skills the learning cuvve will flaten – if you don’t actively try to get better, that is. This is where this guide comes in. We provide 10 tips & tricks that will help you reach your personal goals. Welcome, to EarlyGame's LoL Guide 2021.
LoL Tips & Tricks for Intermediate Players
This LoL guide is for those players who have played for quite a while and have reached a skill-plateau. The guide will provide 10 tips and tricks you can easily apply. The tips were provided by our EarlyGame community, so if you have any more useful input on how to get better at League of Legends tell us in the LoL channel on our Discord
If you are a complete beginner, this guide probably isn’t for you. But fret not; we have more than one guide catered to newer players.
So, without further ado, let’s get started:
How to Improve in LoL — 10 Tips
- Using Flex-Picks, Counter-Picks and Blind-Picks
- Identifying Strong- and Weak-Side
- Using Lane-Swaps
- Preventing Invades
- Playing Around Objective Timers
- Punishing
- Manipulating Waves
- Using the Rift Herald Correctly
- Using Teleport Correctly
- Staying Up-to-Date
1. When to Use Flex-Picks, Counter-Picks and Blind-Picks
As you know, the battle to win it all starts in Champ Select. You have probably figured out the best runes for your favorite champions. But have you figured out the best Champ for each situation? There are three sub-categories to this tip:
- Flex-Pick: Champions like Viego, Karma, Cassiopeia,Diana and Gragas can be played in multiple roles. Picking a flexible champion, will make it harder for the opponent to counter-pick you.
- Counter-Pick: Especially important for top lane. Always ask for your ADC, Support or Jungle to trade with you if possible. The later you pick your champion, the better. Asking doesn’t hurt.
- Blind-Picks: Some Champions like Ezreal, Orianna or Camille just can’t be hard-countered which makes them great to blind-pick. Try learning one of them. Here is a great article on blind-picks.
2. Top or Bot — Which Side to Play Around
Every team should have at least one winning lane. If your Botlane looks something like Jinx + Janna, while your Toplane is a Darius vs. Singed match-up you know which objective to focus on early in the game.
Of course, strong- and weak-side can switch, depending on what power-spikes specific champions have, or how many kills a laning ally gets.
Did you know that League offers some pay-to-win skins?
3. When to Use Lane-Swaps
Now, lane swaps can have two different functions, the first being to escape a horrid match up. This is mostly used for Midlane and Toplane since they are kind of interchangeable. If you got baited and out smarted in champion selection you might need to swap with your Mid/Top, otherwise you will get your teeth kicked in.
The second option is to lane swap Top and Bot after taking an important objective like the first turret or dragon. If your Botlane is really strong and there are no objectives near them, it might be a good idea to use their power to take down the Top lane turrets or Shelly itself.
4. How to Prevent Invades
It’s funny how often people seem to get caught byinvades, because Midlane and Toplane either move too late or immediately walk to their tower to go grab a coffee or something. There are only four entry points to the jungle. This is where you should be standing:
5. How to Improve Objective Timers
By Pressing TAB you can see thetimers for all objectives. Just looking at them doesn't do any good though. If Dragon is up in 45 seconds it is already too late to go back and buy items. If you want to contest it, move there now. When playing jungle, you can use your own timers to track the enemy Jungler. There is so much information in plain sight. You don’t need to be Neo to read it.
- READ MORE: LoL Champion Guide: Diana, Scorn of the Moon
6. When and How to take Dragons
To add to the point above, let’s talk about Drakes and how to play around them. Now if are in a position to do so, try to set up your next Dragon in advance. Use wards around the Dragon-pit and push your lanes. Oh, and also clear the enemies wards with your sweapers, of course.
If you see the enemy Jungler killing your Toplane, try to get something in return. It might be your chance to take a free Drake. If you see the enemy Botlane port back and your Jungler is nearby — try to kill that winged lizard.
7. How to Manipulate Waves
OK, now this is a gigantic topic, and we can only scratch the surface of it in this article. Nonetheless, it’s something we need to talk about. Again, we will divide this into three categories:
- When to push: After you kill your enemy laner, only push, if you can get the minions under his tower well before he returns. Also, push if you want to create pressure and draw the enemy Junglers attention. Lastly, push before you roam or go to an objective.
- When to slow-push: Set up a slow-push in advance to taking objectives. If done correctly it will force the enemy team to either clear the wave and lose the objective or fight the objective but lose a turret.
- When to freeze: If you are ahead in lane you might want to consider a freeze to deny your enemy as many last-hits as possible. Unlike pushing, a freeze can potentially deny your enemy every minion in the wave.
8. How to use the Rift Herald Correctly
- READ MORE: Best Mythic Item for Every Lane in LoL
Shelly has her biggest impact when actually taking a turret. If she just bumps into it and the turret still stands 10 minutes later you basically wasted her. Here are a few ways to use the Rift Herald correctly:
- Get Platings: If nothing else, you at least want to get plating gold. This is a great way to help a losing lane to catch up.
- Get a Tower: Remember: the fewer platings a tower has, the less damage you deal. Shelly deals true damage with her charge. Thus, it is best to summon Shelly with the turret only having three plates left.
- Split Push: If you want to take an objective, it might be a good idea to summon the Herald on the opposite side of the map. It’s basically like the slow push we talked about earlier. Someone has to go and get that giant crab down.
- Multiple Charges: If you group up as a team, you can sometimes protect the Rift Herald from going down. This is the most effective way to use Shelly. Even if the herald has only 1 HP left, the true damage will remain the same. So try your best to defend it and get a second charge out of it.
9. How to Use Teleport
If you have Teleport it is very important to use it proactively. If you find yourself using it exclusively to get back to your lane you waste its potential. Use TP to do one of three things:
- Get Back to Lane: Do this only if you lose a lot of CS and experience otherwise. Try to get better back timings instead of using TP as an easy way out.
- Split Push: Whenever the enemy Team forces an objective, you need to be ready to join forces with your team. No TP = No Split Push. If your TP is on CD, just join your team immediately.
- TP-Plays: Whether you teleport behind the enemy team to flank them or use it or safe your Botlane from a gank. TP is great to suddenly create a man-advantage or at least even the numbers.
10. Staying Up-to-Date
I know this is a bit of a boring tip, but it is still a very important one. LoL is subject to so many changes. Every two weeks the meta can change drastically. Your favorite champion might be good one day and utter garbage the next. If you want to get better at the game, you need to stay up-to-date.
In case you need the latest news, compact and on an analytical level, Earlygame got you covered:
- LoL Patch 11.16: All Buffs and Nerfs [UPDATE]
- LoL Patch 11.17 All Buffs and Nerfs [Updated]
- Best Junglers in LoL Patch 11.16
We hope this guide was of help to you. If you have a tip that has helped you tremendously that is not on this list, tell us on social-media. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter and Discord.
