Over the years, League has made strides to make itself a more ‘skill expressive’ game within the MOBA world. This has meant that both Champions and items have been reworked to require the player to think outside the box, often putting themselves into risk versus reward situations. Take Taric for example. Taric was once regarded as one of the easiest Supports in early League thanks to his simple healing, point-and-click stun, and powerful ultimate. Now, he still has his healing, but Taric is rewarded through unique tethering mechanics that spread the reach of his stun that is now a ramping skillshot from him, as well as how wide of an area his ultimate can cover.

The idea behind Taric’s stun and ultimate is simple; stand around your allies, tether to someone that can easily get on top of your desired stun target and cast your stun and ultimate on them for protection and CC across a wide range. However, the execution can be funky, especially since alongside skillshot diversity, dashes and mobility have increased as well. Expecting a walk-up stun isn’t as simple as it sounds with the likes of Yone, Ezreal, or Akali around. So, what’s a player to do to improve the success rate of their skillshots? Let’s find out.

Understanding Map Elevation

Unbeknownst to many LoL players, Summoner’s Rift has elevation. That’s right, there’s high and low ground, and it alters the way skillshots are registered. The Jungle and Lanes, the earthy solid terrain of the map, are high ground, and the river is low ground. You can tell this by carefully watching the slight lift that your Champion does when entering or exiting the river to the Jungle, or by the impressions in the map’s terrain that imply a slope. Below is an example:

Elevation alters how hits are registered. Simply put, when you’re on the low ground, you want to be aiming low on the enemy. That’s going to guarantee your skillshots. Whereas, if you’re on the low ground and aimed high, you’ll be missing your skillshots even if the skillshot cursor is hovering directly over your target. The inverse of this is also true, if you’re on the high ground, aim high, don’t aim low or you’ll miss! You can see a full explanation of this concept here by Kola:

Punish Positioning

A large part of learning how to trade and poke effectively in League of Legends is through punishing Last Hits. To do this, you’ll throw your skillshots at your dying Minions just as the enemy approaches forcing them to make a split second decision. They’ll either have to soak the damage to secure the last hit, use an ability to get the last hit and mitigate or avoid the damage, or back out of the skillshot’s range and miss the last hit to avoid taking the damage.

What choice they make all depends on your Champion to Champion matchups, and how greedy they are for their next item spike. Some Champions, like Gragas and Vlad, can step forward and take a bit of extra poke since they have sustain naturally built into their kits. A Champion like Diana will have to sacrifice her mana to give herself a shield so she can soak the poke as she last-hits. But, a Champion like Zed would just have to entirely avoid the poke with click movements or give up the potential of damage and mobility to get around the range of his enemy.

Take a moment to think about your match-up in every game and how best you can look to punish your enemy as they last hit in lane. Then consider what their Champion cares more about, gold or experience. While ideally it’s both, some Champions spike harder at certain levels than they do items, while others do the opposite. Whichever more it may be, that’ll help you determine how greedy your opponent will play for last-hits in lane, and can help you adjust your skillshot trajectory accordingly.

Learn Tendencies

A lot of matchups against skillshot reliant Champions come with a layer of mind games. “Will he step left or right? Forward or back?” and then making a prediction around that to secure your damage. Most players have a tendency to repeat motions, so if a player likes walking left to right over and over, they’ll rarely walk forward or back unless it’s clear they need to. Same goes for players walking forward and back. We have these habits ingrained into us from endless games of League and it’s hard to break these tendencies from game to game.

So, if you’re a skillshot player, watch your enemy. Study as they step. If they’re someone that defaults to forward and back movement, as they step forward, that’s an opportunity for you to advance your position and angle your skillshots. If they’re a left to right mover, then you can position to one direction or the other, and limit the range in which they can move, narrowing their space.

Hit Your CC First

This one seems obvious, but crowd-control guarantees skillshots. If an opponent can’t move, they can’t dodge. So, slowing or disrupting their ability to move makes your damage or impact come through easier.

Take for example Blitzcrank’s Rocket Grab. It’s a high impact ability known for its CC as it displaces an opponent to Blitzcrank and his team. It’s fast and sudden, and very hard to dodge for Champions that don’t already have some form of innate mobility like Ezreal. So, typically, the way low mobility Champions negate Blitz’ hook is by standing behind their Minions who will soak the hook for them should he fire it. Which, in most cases, means they’re ranged, and Blitz has minimal ways of interacting with them without taking a risk.

That risk is that Blitz uses his acceleration to speed up and quickly run towards his opponents. Then, in melee range, he uses his Power Fist to knock up his enemy which guarantees he can successfully follow up with his Q. While risky and likely puts Blitz inside the enemy Minions range, and within reach of his second lane opponent, Blitz can make this maneuver to get directly on top of his opponent and guarantee his hook because of the nature of his kit. He’s a bit bulky and has the passive shield that kicks in if he takes too much damage. So, if Blitz can fully expect that he’ll secure a kill, or at least a Flash, in his aggressive endeavors, this situation becomes fully worth it to him since it sets up the play after.

Things become easier when you’re paired with a partner or teammate that also has some form of CC to follow up from. For example, the infamous Yasuo-Malphite combo. Yas has the ability to ult off his own tornado, but it’s a skillshot and requires more individual effort. Malphite by hitting his area targeted ult, can hit multiple people which allows for Yasuo to cleanly follow up and use his Q’s tornado as a continuation tool and not engage tool.

So, if you’re a duo, think about what combinations you have at your disposal. Popular picks like Renekton-Nidalee, Jhin-Swain, Cait-Lux/Morgana, and many more are out there at your disposal.

Control Vision/Fire From Fog

Lastly, in the words of Zed, “The unseen blade is the deadliest” and this is so true in a skillshot reliant Champion’s case. Fog of War provides cover and safety for skillshoters. Most skillshots don’t reveal where the target is firing from, so if you can see your enemy and they can’t see you, you can easily slap your damage down in their paths to secure your skillshots.

If they can’t see your windup, if they can’t see your positioning, they can’t anticipate your fire. So, controlling vision around yourself and where you want to be in lane, is huge. Xerath players make it a habit to secure vision around the curves of Mid Lane’s walls. From here, they can easily apply damage towards the wave Mid and their opponents there thanks to their range, while also allowing for them to position towards Bot or Top to follow up with their ultimates for assistance.

Hook Champions, like Blitz and Naut, will often opt for Sweepers early so they can clear the lane brushes of enemy wards. Allowing them to camp forward positions to more easily land hooks against opponents mindlessly walking forward. Champions with point and click stuns like Annie and Pantheon do this too. Camping a brush and waiting for someone to get right on top of them so they can secure the full rotation of their abilities.

Vision and skillshots go hand in hand, so learn where your Champion most wants to position themselves throughout the game so that you can place your Control Wards there to deny your opponents knowledge of that space.

Closing Out

There you have it! Partner yourself with a duo for guaranteed damage. Predict your enemy’s tendencies. Control vision around yourself. Understand the elevation of the map. All these things and practice will make you a skillshot god!