Sub-30 sucks because of smurfs (which are level 30 players who are playing lower-level accounts for various reasons). The game gets better once you reach 30 and have all your runes and masteries. Really it's better to level on co-op vs ai games as much as you can or find someone to party with who will at least keep the game interesting-fun.

 

I wouldn't reccomend leveling on Coop vs AI games, as it trains you to expect certain behaviours from your opponents that just don't occur in proper games. I'm a decent player in competitive queue, but when I jump into AI games I either feed or end up with a very low kill count. Plus, going from facing an enemy team with a set level of skill to going up against wildly varying enemies can really throw your game off.

 

The problem is that you're playing supports in sub-30s. No one has a fucking clue how to effectively use supports or be supported there. Hell, most still have that problem at 30.

 

This. This, so much.

As others have said, sub-30 games are bullshit because of various reasons, although smurf accounts are a large part of it.

BSuperB; You said that you mostly play Alistair and Soraka. My question to you is, how do you play them? In my opinion, they're a very different kind of support champion. Soraka is more of a passive support, while Alistair is more aggressive, with most everyone playing him chiefly as a zoner before support. He's this big huge threat in the bush, that you don't know whether or not he's gonna come out and headbutt you halfway across the lane when you go in for CS.

Soraka is healing all day. Wish can turn the tide of a teamfight when used correctly, and back in the day she had ungodly sustain when she could give herself mana. Now that she can't do that, she has less sustain, but it's still ridiculous.

Also, playing support sub-30 is just a bad idea. You want to get a feel for how to lane before you get a feel for how to support, in my opinion, that way you can correctly judge how the lane is doing and at what time pushing would be a good idea, what time to recall, etc.

 

Well, I'll change it up a little I guess then, thanks for the advice guys, I managed to win a couple of games today expending what I had left of the free 10 IP bonus Riot gave out over some failing a week or so ago.

I play Soraka and Alistar as suggested, Soraka rather passively, healing my carry, ensuring his mana's ready for a full combo if we happen to try for a kill or our jungler makes a ganking move and Alistar I do my best to interrupt enemy CS, boost my carries and make a kill without over-extending and getting my ass handed to me.

It varies from game to game how well it goes, generally I do better in team-fights as the number of times I've made a mistake with headbutt makes me facedesk. I've tried out a few free characters this week such as Ez and Graves, I have a fair few other champions unlocked from one of the packs but either none appeal, or I'm unsure about them. Most of my time outside supports has been spent playing Veigar (who I find fun, but beyond squishy and, understandably pre-20, not really being able to grab a kill on a full hp opponent till around 12 or so).

I kind of want to try jungling, which I was waiting till 20 to do for runes and to have enough IP saved up to get an ok jungling champion (I was looking at Maokai, Shyvana or Lee Sin, but they're all expensive, and it's a large investment I may or may not suck at) - I have Mundo and Alistar, so I could try out jungling on them (specifically Mundo). Still, I'm sat on 5.2k IP now, still unsure about who or what to purchase and I just turned level 19. At this point I'm just hoping to grind my way to 30 ASAP, but keep picking up things here and there along the way.

 

I buy more or less every champion as it comes out. 3 weeks of fwotd is 3150 IP on its own. A couple games every day is enough to get you the 6300 to buy each champion as they are released.

If you are working from scratch and buying a new champion from a selection of 80? You should definitely definitely definitely be sure to play the champ on free week before you buy it. I would also be sure to buy all the cheaper champions first. Cost is never an indication of anything, despite what Riot said in the beginning. 450IP champs are some of the best around. Ashe, for instance, has been a staple pick in every single tournament since the open beta.

As stated above though, don't play a support. Even at 1500 elo, you will have carries who can't manage to cs properly. Two players CSing will almost always be better for your team unless the carry can consistently get 80% of the CS, which doesn't happen in most games for most people.

The best advice I can give you for soloing is to play carries. Not AD carries, but pubstomp carries. Great pubstomp carries are champions that are strong, mobile, high damage, high survivability champions like Irelia, Jarvan, Wukong, etc.

Singed/Poppy/Mundo/Sion/Tryndamere are great 1350IP champions that can fulfill this role well.


Another option is to play heavy ganker champions. Malphite/Jarvan/Ahri/Kass/Fizz/Gragas/Panth/TF/Akali/Shaco are great options here. You have to really take advantage of their mobility and skip past wards by going over walls and ganking constantly once you get 6.

 

I find Rumble to be an ungodly pubstomp carry. Similar damage output to most AP mids if done right while being insanely tanky and no real resource or counter lanes.

With 200 AP, I've dropped a Rumble ulti on a carry and pretty much destroyed 40% of their HP before a fight even started.

 

Maybe then, I own all the 450 IP champions off the top of my head, I'm on my laptop and don't have LoL on here for some reason (downloading now). I've played a lot of Poppy (not sure why I didn't think of her earlier) just... because I guess. I'll have to just man up, buy some more T1 runes and have a play around with some champions in bot games, get used to them and then get back into PvP.

Edit - Don't own Rumble but my friend who plays on EU East does stomp face with him, might be an idea, though I could see me always being paranoid regarding a melee champion, especially if solo-top.

 

Personally, I'd recommend not buying runes till you can get tier 3s- at level twenty iirc.
Bit of a waste of ip otherwise.

 

T1/2 Runes are a waste, but if you don't have any runes, it's actually better to spend a bit on t1 runes before t3 runes. Using the rune combiner, you can get runes that would normally cost 2k for 375 IP. If you don't have so many runes that you have a large chance of getting doubles of runes you don't need, it can be a good way to play the system to get extra value for your worth.

Unless they've changed the rune combiner

 

I'd forgotten about the rune combiner-I should use that on my old runes sometime.

 

*BSuperB: An idea of how ridiculous Rumble is:



Matches were vs:

GP Ignite Flash
Morde Ignite Flash
Chogath Ignite Flash

 

I just bought a handful of T1 runes because I had none till level 15 and thought they might help a tiny bit, I'll combine them shortly.

Nice Rumble play then, lil confused with the Giants belt, assuming Rylai's? Still, 4800 IP... I'll see how I sit and think on it, might not be a bad idea though I'm split between getting a new champ or 2 & grabbing T3 runes, but then there's the awkward choice of what champion I grab runes for, even though the major ones can be shared anyway. Hmm.

 

I play Soraka as an Aggressive Support and Veigar as Tanky.

Tank Veigar is all sorts of fun, but you have to excel at last-hitting-with-Q(and Champion kills in general), and have a certain brash confidence that you can get in and get out of what might seem unlikely success.
The former is greatly benefited by having a Jungler that can feed you blue buff, but can be done without it.

My usual build is:
Regrowth+Pot(Boots+Pots against some champions like Brand)
-> Philosopher's Stone
-> Kage's Lucky Pick/Boots(almost always Mercury Treads, but circumstantially Ninja Tabi)
-> Negatron Cloak/Chain Vest
-> Glacial Shroud
-> Frozen Heart/Force of Nature/Warmog's
-> Deathfire Grasp
-> Sell Philosopher's Stone for Rabadon's Deathcap

Movespeed Quints, flat Armor Seals, Mres/lvl Glyphs, Mpen Marks
Standard 21/0/9 Offense/Utility Masteries
Teleport/Ghost for Summoners

If things have gone decently, I've got at least +150~200 or more on my Q by the time the Deathcap rolls around, bringing me to 600-650+ AP. Altogether, I've got modest but consistent damage, and a great CC in my E, and I can easily take other AP champs with my Ult long before reaching full build. I rarely have issues with most AD's too, and by full build you can still easily do a one-combo burst to kill a non-Tank champion.

The main tricks are farming with your Q for that free AP while you build Tanky, and obviously skillful usage of your E.

 

Quick update before I go back to playing.

New Evelynn and Twitch are bawse-mode. Xin is rapeage from behind in distilled form. This entire update was a success.

Eve takes real skill to use well, since you can't just bumrush someone without warning. But she's great for scouting/ganking with a team that works with her. I'm not too fond of her ult, but that's okay because it isn't terrible either.

They need to adjust the targeting on her Hate Spike though, I've lost a few kills here and there because it shifted to minions when the enemy champ inched just-a-bit-further-away at the last second than the minions were.

Twitch's poison-cask thing is pretty cool, and the adjusted mechanics of his ult make it even nastier. Expunge still does lots of damage, but it's no match for Darius in a last-hitting competition. Put him in a lane with, say, Alistar, and you should be good.

Haven't played Xin yet, but I watched him Penta.

Twice.

In one game.

Edit:

Oh, and, I now hate bushes as Eve. They are her biggest weakness. The enemy can see you when you enter range, but you can't see them. Bushes completely counter her stealth in every fashion. I got absolutely destroyed by an Alistar because all he did was sit in random bushes with a teammate or two and wait for me to 'stealth' by.

This wouldn't be so bad, except she has no way to check brush without using her ult. So. Basically. I have to jungle while being terrified of near every brush I have to pass. It really, really blows.

I honestly think that if someone is in a bush, they shouldn't see stealth-ed eve until she enters that bush.

Basically, if you want to be safe from Eve, stick to the brush. You'll know she's coming way before she even considers the fact that she might have been spotted.

 

I really dislike the fact that Eve's stealth is broken by every random skillshot hitting her. 8 secs to restealth if Karthus ulties or Graves buckshot happens to hit you while you are in a bush.


New Xin is truly a boss, and I like Twitch a lot more, both playing with and against.


And boy, Malzhahar regained his pubstomping glory with this patch. He is still hardcountered by quicksilver sash, but so much more dangerous now.

 

AP Eve OP.

Insta-gib any sucker in a team fight for 70%+ max HP using DFG + Ulti then add Q and E. Plays way better than AD Eve.

 

Truth.

/10char.

 

Edit - Nevermind, got it sorted out quickly thanks to Riot. As for Eve/Twitch, kind of dreading them in normal games just because of how bad they'll be played, or how much they'll roll over people even with the sight range on them.