Buzz
1. Skill Shots
Stop randomly spamming your abilities and pressing Q, W, or E just to pass the time. Instead, jump into ARAM where you can play any champion – most of them have skill shots!
Be mindful and try to hit your abilities accurately, rather than just tossing them around aimlessly. You’ll find your experience much more rewarding if you focus on landing your abilities. Keep track of your accuracy rate – can you land 8 out of 10 skill shots? If you can, you’re on the right track!
Always remember that your resources – health and mana – are limited. Never pick Blitzcrank if your only goal is to hook minions or jungle monsters. Likewise, avoid playing Lee Sin if your Sonic Wave only hits jungle creatures!
2. Master Strong Champions
3. Mastering Team Fights
In team fights, marksmen often focus their damage on the enemy's tank. This might seem counterintuitive, but it's actually a crucial strategy. Marksmen should target the nearest and safest available targets.
Mid-lane mages should aim to eliminate high-priority targets to neutralize the enemy's primary source of damage, but if that's not possible, they must focus on the nearest target. Tanks and junglers are responsible for initiating fights, ideally targeting the enemy marksman or mage.
The most critical role for a support in a team fight is to protect the marksman, ensuring they stay alive to deal substantial damage to the enemy. There's no need to use your ultimate on just one enemy – save it, as the remaining four teammates still have their ultimates to use.
Rushing into a fight as a marksman is a huge mistake, and failing to use your abilities properly and dying is even worse. You may wait for the perfect moment to unleash your skills, but that moment is rare, so when it comes, seize it immediately.
4. Regularly Watch Streams Featuring Your Favorite Champions
Nowadays, there are plenty of League of Legends streams to choose from, so you can easily find one that fits your needs. If you’re at an intermediate level, I recommend following streams from Vietnamese players. While they may not have as many flashy moments as top-tier international players, their strategies, lane management, and item builds are incredibly useful for players like you. It’s best to learn from players who are slightly ahead of your current skill level, but not too far ahead, as their advice will be more practical. Also, every champion has its own set of tips and tricks to unlock their full potential, and you can find plenty of videos online to help you improve (there are many tutorial clips out there).
5. Research Potential Opponents in Your Lane
This is one of the most important things you can do to improve your performance in League of Legends. Even if your skills are weaker than your opponent’s, understanding how to play the game can help you maintain a solid laning phase. It may sound vague because there are so many champions in League of Legends, and you never really know who you’ll face.
Of course, it’s essential to know the abilities of all champions because that knowledge is crucial. What I’m focusing on here is the common matchups that happen in lanes. For instance, if you play mid lane, you’re often going to face familiar champions like Orianna, Syndra, Fizz, Yasuo, Zed, and others.
These are the champions you need to learn about. When facing Yasuo, even though he’s a melee champion, his ability to deal damage and push the lane is incredibly strong. You need to farm carefully, avoid his tornado, and retaliate when the opportunity arises. Sometimes, you might face an unfamiliar opponent, and you might lose. But that’s an opportunity to learn a new matchup, and the next time you face them, you’ll realize, “I’ve improved a lot since then.”
6. Experiment in Normal Games, Not Ranked
If you want to try out new champions or experiment with new item builds, do so in normal games first. If you can’t win in normal games, you’re not ready to win in ranked. Don’t pick champions just to troll in ranked matches if you want to defeat your opponents.
7. Don’t Constantly Push Minions Into the Enemy Tower
Pushing minions into the enemy tower repeatedly without vision in the bushes is like inviting the enemy jungler to come and kill you. If you find it difficult to kill the opponent who is hiding under their tower, focus on last-hitting minions and let the enemy minions push up. At the same time, prevent your opponent from farming your minions.
8. Practice Farming in Custom Mode
Improving your Creep Score (CS) is one of the simplest ways to dominate your lane, but it's often the most neglected aspect. If you've ever watched pro matches, you'll notice how players almost never miss a minion and are always ahead of the curve. Farming well isn't a matter of talent—it's the result of constant practice (feeding, however, is a different story). Stop making excuses like getting ganked or forced into fights—just jump into Custom Mode and practice alone. Try to see how many minions you can farm in 10 minutes.
At first, it might feel like a waste of time, but this is how pro players sharpen their farming skills. Not many players invest time in this, so by doing so, you'll outplay the majority of your competition.
Try farming as fast as possible when playing solo. Ask yourself why, in a full 5v5 match, there are 2-3 players who consistently outfarm the rest. If you're not there yet, keep practicing—you're still a long way from mastering it. With every minion you farm, you'll gradually pull ahead of players who were once at your level.
9. Perfect Your Combos: Precise, Quick, and Even Quicker
Custom Mode is the key to improving here! Instead of jumping into games and failing while trying to test Lee Sin, you can practice in Custom Mode and truly master the champion. Since Sandbox mode isn't available yet, Custom Mode is the best alternative for focused practice.
Precision Combos are a clear indicator of your champion mastery. Get them right, and don't let your teammates call you a “noob” when you're in Mid or “lost” when you're Top. Perfect your combos!
Hop into Custom Mode, set up multiple bots as opponents, and perfect your combo execution. Hit those combos with precision and move on like nothing happened.
Quick Combos are the next level. These are only achievable once you've mastered Precision Combos. The damage burst is greater, it’s much faster, and it’s much more surprising! Speed and precision combined will make you a feared opponent.
With enough practice, you’ll be able to pull off 0.5-second Lee Sin kills and leave everyone in awe of your skill.
10. Practice Positioning in ARAM Mode
Not many players enjoy ARAM, but it's a highly engaging game mode. In ARAM, all 10 players are locked in combat from the very start, and that’s when the most intense and prolonged fights unfold.
Much like Farming, Positioning is challenging but entirely achievable with practice. ARAM forces you to enhance your awareness and decision-making in team fights. You can work on dodging skills, landing your own, identifying key targets, and recognizing threats in the heat of battle.
Always be mindful of your position relative to your teammates and enemies. If you sense danger and your target is hiding, retreat and wait for your moment. If the enemy is exposed and vulnerable, seize the opportunity and strike hard.
With time, these tactics will become second nature, and you’ll start to handle team fights like a pro. Players who master positioning in ARAM tend to become leaders in fights, surviving longer, dealing more damage, and carrying their team to victory.
