Here we’re going to learn how to play the macro game when it comes to League of Legends. First, the term macro means “Large-scale; Overall.” This means the larger picture for the game, which includes main objectives such as towers, inhibitors, dragons, etc. These objectives have a hierarchy of importance in terms of helping to win a game. Where some might view getting kills as the main way to win a game, that is only a small significance compared to the objectives around the map. This is a surefire way to increase your chance of winning games and I’ll tell you which to choose over the other.

While taking fights and winning in kills is the solo-queue special, it is always a gamble for each match. This is also known as micro playing, smaller or less significant acts, meaning it won't provide as much of an impact to the game as compared to taking objectives. There is no guarantee this method will work unless you tailor your team and playstyle to make it work, which is quite difficult with a randomly selected group of individuals.

What to Do

When taking objectives, you need to set them up to be done with little to no counterplay from the enemy team. This means warding nearby areas such as behind Dragon/Baron pit, clearing enemy wards so they aren't able to steal with long range abilities, or allowing a teammate to play cutoff and pressure them. The last one is preferably done with someone who is able to either poke from a distance or is a strong enough tank to take damage and run out without dying.

Regardless of your team side, Red or Blue, you will have favor in either Baron/Herald or Dragons. This means you need to either allow the dragon to come out of the pit or set wards to spot enemies which are attempting to steal. For Baron, you have to ensure you have vision of the back of the pit or from the enemy's jungle to keep a tab on their movement. Another means is to deny vision from any wards the enemy has or destroying the vision plant that resides next to both pits. Keeping the enemy in the dark will cause them to panic and make mistakes. This will not only give you an opportunity to get an objective but, also a kill.

Using a teammate to cut off the enemy is extremely risky, depending on your chosen teammate. If you have enough damage from your jungler and maybe another, use the rest of the team to distract the enemy and only distract. This means not engaging in any fights but rather poking or putting pressure. The key is to not fight and if you are pushed off after the objective is taken, all is still well. Even losing a single player does not spell the end of the game for you.

Priority List

This list is based on how useful each one is in ending a game or helping to end one. Taking into account stats or other effects given this list shows the priority importance of each objective.

• Inhibitors
• Towers
• Baron/Rift Herald
• Elder Dragon
• Mountain Drake
• Fire Drake
• Ocean Drake
• Air Drake
  
  

What They Do

First, we look at Inhibitors. This objective is the most important as it will create a large opening of the map for your team. With Inhibitors destroyed, super minions spawn and create pressure as that lane will always be in your favor. This will cause one of two outcomes. First, the enemy team is forced to leave one teammate to deal with the pushing super minions, or second, the minions are left alone and they potentially destroy a Nexus Tower. Of course, if you’re not able to take an inhibitor, you default can to taking a Tower first to open the Inhibitor.

Second, Towers are the next in importance. These are the main source of defense for the enemy, a little sanctuary for them to retreat under. Take these out and they lose their presence on the map. They won’t be able to move as freely around and can be caught out much easier. These also provide the most gold early on, as the plates from outer turrets provide 160 gold evenly divided among anyone nearby who assisted in destroying them. These must be destroyed before 14 minutes and if you destroy all outer turrets you can net up to 2400-2550 gold for your team. Gold, of course, means items and freedom to move around the map with less threat.

Next is Baron/Rift Herald. Both are the most useful when it comes to sieging and taking towers. While the recall is only for one person when a herald is defeated, Baron grants the recall buff to the entire team. Herald drops an active that you use to summon your own Herald to siege towers as it will deal 40% of its health or 1500 true damage to any Tower it charges. This can be especially helpful when trying to get some early Tower gold. Baron will grant a buff that grants bonus AP/AD and empowers nearby minions which deal increased damage and reduce the damage they take. This allows your team to siege from multiple lanes or spearhead a single lane with little issue.

Then we have the Elder Dragon, which is highly dependent on how many Elemental Drakes you defeat prior to Elder spawning. This Dragon grants a buff that grants a buff that deals damage over time on hit which increases with prior dragons killed as well as increasing the buffs gained from elemental dragon kills. This enables your team to fight with a big advantage in stats. This buff is an indirect help to taking Towers and Inhibitors because, if you are able to kill multiple Mountain Drakes, the buff granted from them will be empowered by 50%. This is an immense bonus to taking Towers and especially dangerous if you have champions that excel in split pushing or destroying towers.

Lastly, we have the Elemental Drakes in priority. These four dragons are listed in terms of raw stat bonus from most helpful to least. This is subject to change depending on your team composition in game. If you have a teamfight-oriented team, the Fire and Air Drakes would be listed higher. A siege and poke composition would take Mountain and Ocean first and foremost. Of course, you want to net as many as possible so that later Elder Dragon will scale much more in your favor but, this is the basic list of importance. Mountain is the most favorable as it helps with taking buildings, Dragons, and Baron. Fire is next with a bonus to AP and AD by a hefty percentage helping with team fights and slightly helping take objectives. Ocean Drake is next as it allows you to heal and gain mana while not attacked by towers or champions meaning you can heal while taking more Dragons and Baron/Rift Herald.

Conclusion

Follow this list, and you will see much more success in your games. If you can communicate to your team the objective timers and set up the means to take them the game will favor you. The game ultimately has a goal to complete in order for you to win, which is to destroy the Nexus. This means getting 200 kills in a single match will not end until you destroy the Nexus and these objectives will help meet that goal. Take these tips and let me know how you do via Twitter!

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