When playing League of Legends many people acquire “habits”. While these can be anything from a direction you tend to dodge to or how often you look at the minimap, they all affect your gameplay for the better or for the worse. Everyone has them, but which specific ones are the most common or the most beneficial or even the most harmful? Unfortunately, it isn’t as clear cut an answer as you’d think. Specific habits when taken to opposite extremes can both be negative or positive depending on what it is so let’s I’ll explain a little more.

1. Raging

The first habit that is probably a good one to stow away is getting angry at the game or “raging”. Getting angry at your teammates does not help you at all, pretty much why there are rules against it. The general thought to stop yourself from raging is to “not care” so much about the game. While some people find this hard and some find it easy there is another thing to keep in mind which makes those who don’t care possibly in an even worse situation. It’s fine to not care so much but don’t expect the same from your teammates. Your teammates probably want to win, be it in a ranked game, normal game or even an ARAM. If a teammate of yours is upset don’t say things like “it’s just a game” or “calm down” because that will almost certainly have the opposite effect. If you aren’t playing with friends, you probably don’t know the people you are playing with so saying that it’s just a game might not be true for whoever you say it to.

2. Communication

All of that leads into the next quasi habit: talking to your teammates. This one sounds the strangest because most people don’t even think about it. Every person you meet in League is a person and as redundant as that sounds it is something that needs to be made clear. While of course you should treat your teammates with kindness and respect why not take that one step further. Try engaging your teammates in conversation on random topics at the start of the game. Maybe you’ll find a new friend who shares an interest with you. Wherever that takes you it will probably be more positive than if the first thing someone says is an insult.

3. Warding

With those tricky ones out of the way, next habit I’ll mention is definitely warding. Why warding? It’s because people should ward, but knowing when to ward is definitely key. The time to ward is when you don’t have vision on one or more of the enemies but you can survive if all of them are in the spot you are going to ward. This means two separate things. First, if you see the enemy jungler on a ward bot lane and you are the top laner, you don’t need to ward yet unless mid is missing. If you know for a fact that you are safe, then you don’t need to ward yet. Second is the reverse, if they are all missing you shouldn’t ward unsafe bushes. Vision is something that should be maintained and if an unsafe area of the map has gone dark, you should spread your vision to there, not try to directly get vision. The only exception to that is when an important objective is being taken (Baron, Dragon or Rift Herald) and you need to see if they are doing it in which case you should have gotten the blue trinket upgrade. While all of that sounds complicated, it is definitely a good habit to have.

4. Map awareness:

Another much simpler habit however that ties into it is looking at the minimap. No seriously, the minimap. The vast majority of players do not utilize the minimap and there is proof! Why do “enemy missing” pings exist? They exist because that’s truly how little the minimap is used. When someone leaves their lane, the minimap shows they aren’t there anymore but still people get caught by roaming enemies because they fail to use the free information that is given. Now, I’m not trying to make it sound as harsh as all that. It is very hard to keep track of the minimap while fighting the enemy or getting creeps or warding or any other number of things, but if you can keep the minimap in your mind a little more often you’ll find it saves your life on numerous occasions.

5. Camera

The last thing I’ll mention is something that isn’t so much a habit but something that has two distinct sides, the camera. While it varies between people, the two camera options in League are fixed and free. Some people may tell you one is better but I’m going to clarify. One is not better than the other, they both have specific uses that can benefit or hinder you. First we’ll look at the one a lot of new players tend to use, fixed camera. Fixed camera keeps the camera on you at all times. The reason a lot of new players would stick with this at first would be that it is hard to keep track of their character, but there are some much more advanced reasons to play camera locked as well.

A big advantage it provides is most commonly used on incredibly mobile champions. By keeping the camera locked you can more accurately gauge the ranges of your abilities as you’re in the middle of a teamfight. Free camera has its own benefits, however. The largest and most obvious being able to view anywhere on the map. There are many champions that have abilities that extend far beyond your screens view range and being able to aim those skills properly from far enough away is very important. Keeping an eye on other lanes with free camera is another important use. Knowing when your teammates need your help can make all the difference, but in the end it’s completely down to moderation. Both camera uses are useful and to completely ignore one for the other will have drawbacks.

That about sums up all of the early habits to think about when playing League. While I’m sure that many people have mentioned these things before I think another look at them is very important. I can say with a lot of confidence that I need to take some of this advice for myself. A lot of these points are easy to say but following through with them is hard. Maybe some people will take this and see all of the things they’ve heard dozens of other people say, but the reason it gets said so many times is because it’s that important and I hope at least one person will think about some of these. I know I will.

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