How to Climb at the Start of Season 11
With Season 11 coming on the 8th of January, players will be hitting Summoners Rift in full force to start the new year off with a bang.
Whether you decide to start the ranked grind on day 1 or if you prefer to wait until things have called down, now is the time to optimize your strategies and prepare for the climb.
Before we being, on behalf of the Mobalytics team, good luck in Season 11 and we hope that you’re able to hit your goals quickly and have a great start to the new season.
In this LoL Season 11 article, we’ll cover how to:
- Solidify your champion pool
- Learn the new items and updated builds
- Don’t force yourself to play ranked immediately
- Pace how many games you play
- Familiarize yourself with the latest champions
- Warm up your CSing and other mechanics
Just click on a topic above to jump to that section.
1. Solidify your champion pool
It is important to keep a small champion pool in League of Legends so you can play your champion to their strengths at all times. Somebody who plays the same champion or set of champions over and over again will be better than somebody who plays every champion in the game.
One of the main reasons for this is because that person will have lots of experience when playing said champion.
Let’s say you play 30-50 champions in League of Legends. If you happen to be laning against an enemy who has a rather shallow champion pool, you will find it much harder to play against them purely because you have less experience on the champion (because you play so many different champions).
See your Champion Pool stats at your Profile!
Instead of playing every champion in the game, try to limit how many champions you take into ranked. A good number to go by is 3 champions on your main role.
This will provide you with enough flexibility to play a different champion when you’re in a tough matchup on your preferred pick. It also allows enough wiggle room to counter pick the enemy.
If you really are unhappy with playing 3 champions or find yourself getting bored/needing to switch it up often, allow for up to 5 champions. Do not go over this number if possible.
Further down the line, you may wish to replace champions when they fall out of meta or if you stop performing well on them. When this occurs, swap and replace when necessary to stay at your peak. But I wouldn’t advise you to give up so easily at the start of the season.
2. Learn the new items and updated builds
If you’ve been out of the loop, Riot added, adjusted, and removed tons of items to the game in the pre-season.
Every champion should now be purchasing a new genre of item called a Mythic item. Each build is limited to 1 Mythic item with each offering a variety of different benefits.
We will not go into detail about each of the new items as there is a lot to discuss and it can get overwhelming quickly. Luckily, we have broken down each of the new items in our Season 11 item guides.
- What items were removed for Season 11
- Reworked Season 11 items
- League of Legends Jungle item changes
- Assassin Mythic item breakdown
- Bruiser and Fighter Mythic item breakdown
- ADC Mythic item breakdown
- Support Mythic item breakdown
- Mage Mythic item breakdown
- All new League of Legends Legendary Items
Make sure you’re also building the right items that suit your champion. Check out our build recommendations for each champion in the game to get ahead of the enemy. If you’re not building optimal items in the right order, you’re going to find yourself falling short against the enemy.
Try to gain an understanding of each of the new items and what they do before heading into ranked. It is vital and will make building your champion and playing against the enemy much easier if you know what all of them do.
3. Don’t force yourself to play ranked immediately
This isn’t a tip, but more friendly advice. Do not feel pressured into playing ranked at the start of the season if you’re not ready, or if you don’t think you’re up to scratch.
There is a lot of free LP to gain when doing your placements, so it’s important that you play to your best ability and get a good start.
Do not play the game or play your placements just because your friends are or other players are doing theres. The climb is a marathon, not a sprint. Get the best start possible and start whenever you’re ready. There is no rush.
4. Pace how many games you play
It is pretty common for players to grind a ton of games on the first day of the new season. As you need to play 10 games in order to get placed, it is easy to see why players will be trying to go get them done quickly.
Our advice is to not fall into the trap of playing all your placement games right at the beginning of the season (or at least not play all 10 games on the first day). Instead, try to split your gaming sessions over 2-3 days.
Play at maximum 5 games to increase your chances of winning more games. If you lose a few games in a row, take a step back and stop playing for the day.
If you play 10 games straight, you’re harming your chances of getting a good starting rank purely because you’re going to start to play worse after the first few games due to fatigue.
Similarly, if you lose multiple games in a row, you’re going to play worse and worse the more games you play. At this stage, the losses will start to affect your mentality which is always a big problem.
Here’s a separate guide that goes into more detail on this subject at hand. It also has a few other tips on how to achieve Diamond in League of Legends.
5. Familiarize yourself with the latest champions
It felt like Riot were popping out champions left, right and centre in Season 10, and in the latter part of 2020, we had a few new releases to hit Summoners Rift.
Similar to a previous point, it’s important that you learn how to play against the newer champions to understand what they do and how to beat them.
Some of the latest champions like Samira and Seraphine are on the higher end of our Mobalytics Tier List right now and are incredibly strong, so it is key to know how to play against them when they’re frequently being played.
Here are some separate guides on how to play against the last 5 champions to bless us on Summoners Rift:
- How to play against Rell
- How to play against Seraphine
- How to play against Samira
- How to play against Yone
- How to play against Lillia
Learning how to play against all the champions will severely increase your chances of climbing and winning games as you will know what they do and what to expect from them. All of the above guides also have tips and tricks to make handling them easier.
6. Warm up your CSing and other mechanics
Farming and gold income is one of the most impactful things a player can learn to master. Earning lots of gold will allow you to buy your items faster than the enemy laner and enable you to create more leads further down the line.
For example, getting a lot of early gold will allow you to buy a core item while the enemy may be stuck on 2 basic items (like double Long Sword for ADCs).
Go into the practice tool and try to sharpen up on last hitting and securing those minions. You don’t have to do it every day or after every game, but it’s good to try and do it often so you stay on form.
Here’s a good video by Seth Rival that goes into detail on how to CS like a Diamond Player.
If you’re a Support and your champion takes either Relic Shield or Steel Shoulderguards, you can earn more gold in the early game by focusing on securing melee minions and cannon minions. On the first (or second) wave, use 2 stacks on the melee minions.
Then your third stack will be up in time for the third wave which you can then consume on the cannon minion. From there, repeat cannon melee, cannon melee. This will allow you to earn more gold and help you complete your warding quest quickly. Do not kill any ranged champions as they give very little gold.
Additionally, for Supports, here’s a separate guide on how to maximize your gold income throughout the game. It has a bunch of other tips to make securing that gold and completing your warding quest quickly.
Final thoughts
Try your hardest not to worry about how good or bad Season 11 starts for you. You’re not racing anyone and it doesn’t matter how long it takes you to get the rank you want. Stay positive, have fun, and try your hardest. This season is yours.
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