How to Climb Quick in Season 14 LoL (Placement Games)
Happy new year and welcome to a new season of League of Legends. This season will be like no other with major changes coming in, affecting everyone who loves this game we call League of Legends.
Season 13 was a bit longer than the usual season we are used to, but the new season will be starting any day soon, which is great for those who love to grind League all day and every day. But if you’re not someone who plays every day, or has taken a break but wants to come back fresh for season 14, then this guide is for you!
In this Mobalytics guide, we will include several tips and tricks to help you get the best possible start to League of Legends in season 14. This year, we’re going to make a lot of articles to help you climb. Make sure you head to the Mobalytics’ Blog for a ton of additional guides to help you climb this season!
Utilise Your Bans
There are a lot of strong champions in League of Legends that must be banned by either you or the enemy team. I highly recommend that you ban someone who is strong or you cannot face against.
For instance, I always ban either Rell, Draven or Hwei. I ban Rell because she is a flexible pick who can be played in either the jungle or support role. She has a lot of roaming potential and can dominate every lane.
I ban Draven, too, as he can be quite hard to play against. Getting a kill or 2 will usually result in him snowballing and taking over the bottom lane. Taking down a good-fed Draven is very difficult.
Finally, I would ban Hwei because he is a new champion and his kit. While he isn’t stupidly strong, players might not know his kit, and I don’t like playing against him anyway.
Overall, you must ban someone who is strong in League. Don’t waste your ban on banning someone who isn’t OP and don’t ban no-one!
Understand the New Changes
There are a ton of new changes heading into season 14. There are changes to champions, items, objectives and terrain. The changes deeply affect many roles in League of Legends. Due to there being so many changes, you need to understand what has changed and what’s the same.
Here’s a basic overview of some of the major changes:
- There are terrain changes to all 3 lanes, which include bushes being moved, walls being adjusted, and turrets being moved back.
- Introduction of the Void Grubs.
- There are now 3 Barons.
- 20+ new items, 20+ items getting reworked and 20+ items being removed.
- Support item quests have changed.
I highly recommend you check out these articles to help you digest the new changes for season 14.
- A rundown of all the item changes.
- A rundown of all the map and objective changes.
I am not a huge fan of how Riot has handled this pre-season, as they’ve left little to no downtime between the new ranked season and the previous one. So there has been hardly any time to practice the new changes if you are purely a ranked only player.
Get Your Practice In
We’ve recently had our Christmas break, and you may or may not have been playing over the new year. Regardless of whether you played or not, it is important that you start to play League a little more so you’re not as rusty.
This is especially true if you play a champion that is mechanically difficult like Yasuo or Akali as they’re quite challenging to play. You need to practice them a bit more so you’re not so rusty, and you can perform mechanically well on them.
Let’s suggest you’ve put no practice into League and head straight into a game on someone who is hard to play. You’re versus someone who has been playing consistently for some time- who will win? You’re at odds to win this matchup because you’ve hardly played LoL lately.
Build the Right Items
There are a lot of item changes for season 14. They have removed many different items, reworked some and removed some too. This means that your favourite champion’s build has probably changed a lot.
Now I would recommend you understand what each item does before you buy it, and also learn what each item does. We’ve made a separate guide on all the major item changes in season 14, which you can find here.
To avoid falling behind the edge of the curve of your fellow LoL players, make sure you download the Mobalytics App to get up-to-date builds directly imported into your client so you always know what the best items are for your champion.
Ahri S14 Build
Don’t Play Ranked at the Beginning
The start of the ranked reset and every new season is the worse time to try and climb in League of Legends, especially in the opening days of the reset. The reason for this is that many players are either just getting back into the game, or just playing for the sake of it, or are just going to do their placements to get them done.
Similarly, there were a lot of changes at the start of this season. They made a lot of item changes, map changes and much more. Everyone needs time to adapt to the changes so they actually understand what has happened!
While you can play them, I would hold off from playing ranked at the start of the new season, but instead, wait a bit so you can adapt to the changes that Riot have made this season and to also reduce getting bad players on your team.
Also, if you’re a high ELO player, you’ll need to maintain this rank for longer so you do not decay.
Avoid Playing Your Placements All Together
I’m going to keep this one extremely short and sweet. I know you want to get a rank and do all your placement games in one sitting, but extended gaming isn’t good for your performance.
Split your placements up over a few days, or take a large break between when you do your placement games. Use our previous advice in conjunction with this one!
Stick to What You Know
We use a saying in the UK that goes on the line of “stick to what you know.” Just because it’s the new year and everything in League of Legends is different, it doesn’t mean you need to switch what you know outright.
When people travel or visit a new country, they may stick to safe foods or things they’re used to while dipping their toes in some new things. I recommend you do the same with your approach to the beginning of season 14.
Stick to the champions you know, stick to the role you play the most and avoid switching everything up just because it’s a new season.
Trade Roles
The final tip on our list is to trade roles. In League of Legends, you can adjust the champion select pick order. It is a good idea to try to trade roles if you’re first pick if you are a champion that can easily get countered, or if you need more flexibility with your pick.
For instance, a top Laner can be blindly picked, as can most bottom laners. However, for mid-laners and junglers, picking them blind can be difficult. Similarly, some supports get outclassed if they get picked first.
If you can, try to change the pick order so you get more time and to reduce your chances of getting counter-picked. Some champions I would avoid first picking include
- Yasuo because there are so many hard counters to him.
- Nami as she gets outclassed easily if she gets countered, and she will just die over and over again.
- Hwei can get hard-countered in some matchups, which will result in him losing his life over and over again.
Not everyone will trade with you, but the best blind picks are either a meta ADC, a Support that isn’t squishy or easily-counterable, or someone who can go even if they get countered, like a tank.
Final Thoughts
And that sums up another article to help you climb in League of Legends in season 14. We hope this article will help you get the best possible start to your ranked season and help hit your goals early in the season!
For more articles to help you climb in season 14, head over to the Mobalytics Blog.
