Ever since Season 8 started on the 16th, I've played a lot of League. I mean, a lot of League. I've played a total of about 90 ranked games, placing, demoting, promoting, it's quite the cycle. Playing so many games a day isn't easy, especially with a mentally taxing game like League of Legends. While climbing ranks is great and all, there's no point in it if you don't learn valuable skills along the way. If you work really hard on csing, but don't punish enemy mistakes efficiently or space out opponents as well as you could, those mistakes could end up costing you in higher ELOs. So for those wanting to find a new start to improving botlane gameplay in 2018, here's what I learned.

1. Take as many trades as possible

Trading during lane is a great way to hinder the enemy ADC or support, secure a possible kill, or relieve pressure off of your lane allowing you to push/recall but the goal of trading is to make sure you're left with more health than your target. Additionally, the style in which you can trade depends on not only your matchup, but your AD carry champion and support. Tristana/Taric is a great champion combo (Taric in general), since you can get stuns through Taric's E which allows Tristana to easily place her bomb onto a target (if the stun even hits), but also Taric's shield and ult allow your botlane to take risks some champions couldn't normally take (like efficiently dodging a jungle gank or diving enemies under tower).

Thresh can close gaps with his hook which gets lower-ranged champions closer, Soraka, while not thriving in the meta, can provide consistent heals, Lulu grants some bonus magic damage on hit as well as shields, and Braum can not only provide a shield, but peel as well. While that's not all the supports that can help your lane out, it's a good list of those that are flourishing under the current meta. If you're looking for some basic ways to practice, go into training mode as a champion against a CPU and practice trading.

Order of the Fifth Age Taric splash art from Riot Games.

2. Shortening your champion pool actually helps

Maintaining multiple things at once isn't easy, and League of Legends is no exception. Plenty of basic ADC mechanics are shared between multiple champs, allowing you to still CS and trade with autos, but every ADC needs to be played differently than another. Caitlyn bullies her opponent with her abnormally long 650 auto range and traps, Kalista hops around with her passive, but also relies on of stacking spears and landing her Rend. Tristana does AoE burst with her Q's increased auto speed, slight AoE magic damage when she last hits minions, and her E's bomb allows some decent trading.

Improving botlane play for the most part revolves around your mechanics and focusing on a small champion pool helps a lot. A small champion pool allows you to focus on specific mechanics, improve matchups, and increase your overall knowledge of a champion, especially when you use their utility. To find a playstyle that might suit you, go ahead and try some out in the practice mode. Not all ADCs fit everyone, but there's bound to be one just right for your playstyle.

Pulsefire Caitlyn splash art from Riot Games

3. Map awareness, map awareness, map awareness

This tip gets overlooked in plenty of games. The minimap has so many little tools to help you decide whether to shove lane, back off, freeze, or ward (like tri-bush). Often times, botlanes I've seen have been laser-focused on their side of the map, but the jungle, midlane, and toplane can tell bot just as much. Often times, teammates forget to ping their opponents missing, but with great map awareness, you can tell where champions walked before vanishing in fog of war, where they last ganked, and if they're shoving waves or not. Map awareness as a whole isn't hard to learn, but hard to do consistently throughout all games. Gbay99, a popular League of Legends YouTube channel, recommended a sticky note somewhere on the screen saying "Look at the minimap", but that's not the only way. Other times, some have made it habit to not only look at lane, but flick their eyes to the minimap every once and a while. Training to look at the minimap varies by person, but pick the best way you can remember to look at it and study it. It could be the deciding factor of surviving a gank or dying to it.

Conclusion

And with that, those are three ADC tips I've compiled from the last few ranked games I've played. While your experiences and games may vary, these should help reinforce some critical mechanics and strategies that might end up improving your gameplay. All it takes is a little practice, and in no time you'll be climbing the ranks like a pro.

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