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It's time to build an advice thread.
I'm primarily interested in questions from under 1600 players who want to know how to become 1600+ players. 1600 is not hard to achieve. You do not have to be an amazing player to get to 1600. At this point in time, GETTING TO 1600 is a reliable indicator that you understand the basics of the game. 1600 is about where you start seeing decently consistent reliable players that can play nearly every role (jungler, carry, caster, tank, support with subcategories of top solo, mid solo, and 2v2 lane). If you put a 1600+ player into a 1200 game they will tend to CARRY THE SHIT out of it just because they understand the game better.
What seperates 1600+ players from under 1600 players? What separates the really good players from 1600-1800 players? How can I improve my skills to this point?
I'm especially interested in specific advice from players on the higher end of our community. Smash, Ezpz, Spud, Aaerox, Uta, Good, Red, Shake, Neo, Yiruru, Loci, Phrost, INEPT (forgot, sorry lol), Chrispy, Shiroi, Smgzy and anyone I'm forgetting--you know if I'm talking about you.
To start the discussion off, I'd like to ask you how you got out of under 1600. What allowed you to do this? What champs did you play? How early in the season did you do this? Did you drop down below 1600 at any point? What seperated you from the players who couldn't break 1600? What advice would you give to someone who is trying to get out of 1600?
I am personally looking forward to responses from all of you, and I'm assuming many other people are, too.
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How do you break 1600? How do I become a 1600+ player?
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United States37500 Posts
On December 01 2010 10:54 Southlight wrote:
How do you break 1600? How do I become a 1600+ player?
Uh, probably the latter? Former seems more like a milestone than an achievement. Just talk from personal experience and what you did to get to the level you're on.
In additional, probably mention what you're currently focusing on in order to take your game to the next level.
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the short answer to this is that up to 1400 you play carries who can singlehandedly win games (kayle for me, back when she could just insta-gib towers), 1400-1600 is Warwick time, getting out of the 1600s is all on the characters you actually feel most comfortable with (pantheon). Duo queueing helps but isn't necessary.
Knowing players and thus knowing when to hog the solos and when to let lower elos solo is important.
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Being a Jiji smurf makes you 1900 automatically, true story.
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On December 01 2010 11:26 red_ wrote:
Being a Jiji smurf makes you 1900 automatically, true story.
same with being a bear
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How does a person carry in the 13/1400s with a carry? I can out farm and wreck middle and still get dominated because my team will just let me get focused every time. Especially when the enemy team has heroes like Kassadin, Rammus, Xin Zhao, etc etc who's sole purpose in life is to charge in and kill you the carry and then your team is a car without wheels, especially when that hero got fed at top or bottom and so they have just as much gold as you and an entire team who wants you dead.
I played a bunch of MF, but have recently been playing more Ashe since I can kite people better with redbuff/ice arrows and gank very effectively with ECA. Played a bit of trist when she was free, but I like wrecking my lane with MF's Q.
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This thread seems very similar to the other one started by oberon...
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try not to pick heroes you are absolutely not good with or don't have runes for (this is kind of obvious but I dont know how many times i've played with people who say they can pick a tank and just are absolutely bad at it). communicate with your team if you can't fill a certain role if you're 4/5th pick.
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Well, here, I'll give you an example:
The biggest things that separate me from 1200-1400 players is my mechanics and game sense. I play a lot of champions and if you put me into a game with pretty much anyone I will have a basic understanding of how to play him. For example, last night I bought Sion and jungled for my first game and my basic understanding of the jungling role and how to build junglers allowed me to go something like 5-1-10 with him as we dominated the other team, even though I didn't really know exactly how all of his skills worked.
I also feel like my evaluation skills in teamfights is spot-on. I generally know when a fight is in our favor, when it's in their favor, and when it will depend on a factor like who engages first or the timing of the creep wave. If I'm on vent or if my team is aware of this as well, we can pull off really impressive, "risky" things like two tower dives for an ace. This effect is amplified when playing with good players. I feel like I have a good idea of when I will be able to escape from something and what I have to do to get out safely--knowing the limits of flash/ghost/tower aggro and how to bait and evade skillshot snares/grabs/stuns.
If I am in a lane, I know what to prioritize and how to do it. Should I harass? Should I focus last hitting? Should I focus on zoning? Is it safe to push the wave? Do I have time to bluepill and be back by the time the wave pushes? How many creep kills does the jungler have? Where does that put him on the map? Can I dive for a kill? Can he dive me for a kill? All of these things run through my head when I'm in the lane. I also notice that the better the player, the more farm they tend to get in lane. This isn't true for champs like Janna or Morgana but in general the player is good at last hitting, i.e. getting them when there's no reason not to and not getting them when there is a reason not to.
I know exactly why I'm building what I'm building and have different builds for different situations. My prediction skill is good. I know who's becoming dangerous, who is dangerous, when they will stop being dangerous and generally how dangerous they are. I also know when I am dangerous and try to exploit this to the fullest of my ability. Higher level play is predicated on pushing the smallest edges over other players in an attempt to make them play defensively and passively. Sometimes it's necessary to play passively. It's also important to know how to best defend against these types of tactics (zoning for example--if they're strictly zoning you and you can't get any exp, try to get them to hit you once to draw creep aggro from your wave. That will make their lane push.).
In general my map awareness isn't as solid as better players. I try to consider things like "if I was trapping, where would I be?" and know the probability that an enemy team is trapping a bush. This is something I need to work on, because sometimes I'll still chase for a kill to start a 5v5 that ends in an ace. I was listening to a stream of CLG once and they were like "don't ever chase", which kinda opened my eyes a bit. I chase too often.
In the jungle, I abuse holes in the enemy's jungle based on the paths they take. Counting creep kills and knowing jungle paths allows you to do things like steal creeps and jack buffs. When junglers have a certain amount of CS, I call out that they're probably going to gank and where the gank is likely to occur and try to be there to support it. I know when I need to gank and I know when I need to cover, and basically it's a matter of forcing myself to time it right. I still screw up jungling in high level games because of how much of a poker game jungling is.
Anyway yeah, these are the things that I'm thinking about during a game that I think set me apart from other players. Hopefully the better players will expound upon this.
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Tbh...... what makes a good player is not just knowing everything about the game but being able to make decisions on the fly by using your understanding of the game "in the game". I feel like there are a lot of players that "know" what to do, but when the time comes to do it they either panic, choke, make the wrong decision, etc. I sometimes do this myself.... actually I do it a lot and I am not to happy about it.  Your understanding of the game isn't enough, you need to be able to use that understanding in split second decisions in game. A lot of people basically fuck up a lot and make stupid mistakes that they know that they shouldn't have made, but under the circumstances, whether from stress or whatever, just mess up. To fix this you just got to play a lot of games. Experience is key. The thing is you can't mess up. SO don't TALK the TALK, but ACT.
That's one thing that I see as an area people need to improve on. Also one thing that pisses me off especially about some higher level players is in their lack of trying to help people and telling them what to do or to put it in a nicer way make "suggestions" for people on their team. You need to take charge or people will play their own game and not the team's game. After a certain while you no longer can "carry" a team but you sure as hell can "lead" one.
Yet I am sure there are many of you who would say that many people don't listen or are just arrogant. Well first don't sound like a dick, which is tough for some of you I understand, and second show them the desire that you are playing to win. I myself have the experience of playing with some bad junglers who don't do their job of warding and such. When I tell them "GO BUY WARDS idiot" and such they don't listen and then they get pissy and such. What I find effective is to take charge as I said before, buy wards yourself even an oracle if you have the cash and show the ignorant players that you want to win and that your not trying to boss them around but trying to win. If that makes any sense lol. I hope that helps.
However the most important thing is to always have fun even while losing. If you rage and get pissed you won't get anywhere. You got to lose to win. 
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Everyone should buy wards not just jungle.
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On December 01 2010 13:25 mrgerry wrote:
Everyone should buy wards not just jungle.
Yea but jungle should as well. Also the fact that its solo que and you take on the position of the jungler in the beginning its mostly one of your objectives, but later into the game yes everyone should by wards.
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United States37500 Posts
On December 01 2010 13:25 mrgerry wrote:
Everyone should buy wards not just jungle.
This.
Bottom lane Garen, you have to b and find out you have exactly enough gold for your Sunfire Cape. What do you do?
Buy that Giant Belt and Chain Mail and a few wards. That's the right play to make. Not the Sunfire. Doesn't matter if you're the only one buying wards. At the very least, it makes sure you can't be ganked.
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Knowing where to ward is almost as important as warding in the first place. The very first ward your team buys goes at dragon. It won't help prevent the bottom lane gank but it will alert you to dragon attempts and a dragon is a HUGE advantage early game. After that it's bottom lane's grass (I like to ward the bottom team's jungle grass on the left of the river because the dragon ward provides sight of the river and the bottom ward provides sight of any attempts to get into the river grass from either side) and then usually the top grass. Keeping wards up throughout the game is something that people really tend to forget about but it's almost vital to do. ANYWHERE the enemy could hide is a good spot to ward. It's also useful to get oracles and vision wards to ward hunt and counterward large objectives like dragon and baron and sometimes buffs.
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When the ladder first started I carried almost every game with Nasus up to 1600. 1400's was actually easier to carry because I could get my team to group up. I'm not 1600 anymore and I think a lot of it was luck. Would like to get there again.
I can tell you how to get from 1200 to 1500 since I had to do that twice now lol.
Duo queue. You and a friend take turns between jungle warwick / mid ashe. Try to end it as fast as possible. Gank a lot and don't count on your team. In fact count on them feeding and losing their lane. You have to keep the ganks rolling to keep the pressure off the baddies. Once mid game rolls around push all the lanes as hard as you can and take all the jungle in hopes that your team will get bored and try to push the nexus.
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Oh yeah and I like what yazu said. A lot of it is innate ability to analyze the situation and almost instantly know if you should fight/run, kill golem right before enemy gets there and escape/die and give away golem.
There's a lot of players that read strategy and think they're doing the right things but end up doing it at the wrong time or place. Psychology is a huge part of the game.
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Marshall Islands3404 Posts
basic knowledge of the game, being able to play every role, being able to work well with others
as far as 1600-2000 goes its almost entirely luck besides the tip top of the ladder. played with some absolutely horrid 2000s and some amazing 1600s.
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Germany8679 Posts
I wonder what EU rating 1600 US compares to...
How to become a 1600 EU player: Read TL, buy wards, understand that Janna is a tank and Morde is not.
Learn that killing champions is not the goal of the game.
There is no need to be able to jungle.
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Wtf do you guys do up there with no junglers? Are you just seriously way better at the 2v1 lane game than us?
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EPT
