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Unfortunate Oversights: The Worst Common Player Mistakes
With its high complexity and team-based gameplay, it’s easy to overlook mistakes in League of Legends. It’s common for game-changing errors pertaining to teamfighting, objective control and item selection to go unnoticed. This article will discuss some of the most crucial blunders frequently missed or brushed off by players.
“Don’t Focus the Tank”
This is a massive misconception often spouted among low-ranked players, which implies that tanks should be ignored and carries (usually the Marksman) should be focusing other carries. This makes little sense, and instead players should typically be looking to break through the frontline before pushing into the backline. It’s cringe-worthy to see a fed Vayne flashing into a pack of champions, only to be locked-down and burst by both the front and backlines. It doesn’t matter how ahead you are if you’re making dangerous decisions based on this naive, reductive principle.
Unless the enemy carries are terribly mispositioned, durable front-line champions (typically composed of top-laners, supports and junglers) should be recognized as the walls between you and the backline because they’re the ones looking to initiate, protect their allies and dive the opposing carries. While it makes sense to focus a carry if they’re vulnerable and positioned aggressively, be sure to pay close attention to the enemy frontline and to not over-commit. In the current meta, it’s more important than ever to remain wary of tanks since they’re such massive damage threats.
Fishing for Vision by VegaColors
On the contrary, most mid-laners (‘nuke’ casters and assassins) should be looking to save their major spells for vulnerable, high-value targets. It makes sense to conserve burst spells for the enemy carries, but to disregard tanks is ignorant. Teamfights cannot be simplified easily, but teamfighting as a Marksman with an ‘ignore the tank’ mindset is almost always incorrect. Marksman players should be looking to DPS targets effectively and consistently, while closely monitoring enemy threats. If you find yourself unable to decide on who to focus as a Marksman, a broad rule-of-thumb to follow is to focus the highest priority target (whether it be a tank or carry) that you can safely attack during any given moment of a teamfight, and adapt from there. While this is simple advice for such a complex game, better performances and understanding of teamfighting intricacies will come with experience. Just be sure to acknowledge the threats that tanks pose.
Concrete Build Paths
A champion’s impact on a match is largely influenced by their item choices, so it’s important to choose wisely. A common mistake among players is building in a non-adaptive, static way ill-suited to the battle at hand. Following a single item path every game will not maximize your build efficiency, since each match will vary greatly. You'll find greater success through building in a way that adapts to the tides of battle.
A few factors to consider when evaluating your build include:
- Enemy damage output (Mostly AD, AP, or a mix? Who are the main threats?)
- Enemy composition (Lots of tanks, or mostly carries?)
- Your team composition (Does your team require more damage, or tankiness?)
- Your playstyle and purpose (ie. Do you need sustain, pushing power, survivability?)
A couple of specific poor itemization decisions include forgoing Zhonya’s Hourglass and Quicksilver Sash/Mercurial Scimitar. The actives on these items can determine the outcome of a crucial teamfight, as they provide you with very powerful safeguards against assassination and focus. Furthermore, both of these items offer excellent combat stats, so there’s little reason to not purchase them as AD or AP carries.
It's Teemo Time by Tvonn9
While it’s impossible to outright say which items are best due to the unique factors of each match, you’ll discover the effectiveness of various item paths through experience with different champions. Good starting points for builds include op.gg, champion.gg and ProBuilds, which showcase various itemization options used by high-elo and professional players for each champion. While pro player builds are beneficial for discovering item options, remember to build accordingly to the match at hand!
Wasting a Lead
Failing to recognize opportunities to secure objectives, punish mistakes and capitalize when ahead can render early leads and fed champions obsolete. It’s common to see players failing to effectively make use of gold advantages by missing chances to deny farm, apply pressure and siege towers.
Being able to make use of leads is crucial to winning. It doesn’t matter if you’re 4/0/0 as Lee Sin by 10 minutes if you’re forgoing opportunities to pressure lanes and secure an early Dragon, only to focus on farming your own jungle instead. Make your presence known with gold leads! Learn to deny CS, pick advantageous trades and take the initiative to be assertive. Merely farming away while you’ve got a notable item lead is pointless, be sure to tailor your playstyle accordingly when playing with an advantage or disadvantage.
On the other hand, keeping a firm grip on a lead can be difficult, even for high-ranked players. While it’s beneficial to capitalize on gold and experience margins, you need to be wise as to not push it too far and throw your leads. This includes forcing risky tower dives and making dicey baron calls, which open windows of opportunity for your opponents to make comebacks. Being smart with a lead is an art of its own, and striking the perfect balance between playing assertively and conservatively is a skill that even professional players struggle to achieve.
I hope this article has opened your eyes to some of the most common player mistakes across League of Legends. Be sure to consciously consider these points when making in-game decisions. Knowing and doing are two different things, and improving in the aforementioned areas will enable you to close out leads and climb the Ranked ladder with greater success. Good luck on the Rift!
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