Picking up a new role has a whole host of benefits; you’ll gain greater knowledge about other champions you typically don’t play against, you’ll understand your other teammates perspectives better, and getting auto-filled will strike a heck of a lot less fear into your heart.

Of course, while the benefits are undeniable, picking up a new role isn’t exactly easy. It requires heaps of dedication and patience, and it be can be difficult to even know where to begin. But don’t worry – we’re here to help. Today, we’ll be going over all the tips and tricks that’ll make transitioning to a new role a breeze, and (relatively) hassle-free.

Find Your Complementary Role

Don’t have a particular role you want to try already in mind? Then we recommend a role that has a similar playstyle to your current main, or one where you can viably play your go-to champions. This will make the transition much easier, as you won’t have to learn it entirely from scratch.

For example, if your main support, a great role to transition to would be jungle. Just like supports, junglers don’t have to focus on last hitting minions, and many skills you pick up as a support – like map awareness, vision control and roaming – are all vital skills for the jungle role.

You should also consider your strengths and what you enjoy; if you’re a fan of dealing heavy damage and excel at positioning, ADC would be the perfect match. If you consider yourself an all-round player with a knack at pulling off roams, mid lane would be right up your alley.

Stick to Easy Champions at First

If you’re learning a role where you can’t play your go-to champions, stick to mechanically easy champions at first. The easier the champions you play, the more time you can dedicate to figuring out how the lane itself works, and the faster you’ll grasp a feel of the role at a macro level.

If you play difficult champions, you won’t be able to focus all your attention on learning the fundamentals of the lane – you’ll also have to learn the intricacies of their kit and all their complicated combos. Once you’ve got a grasp of how the lane feels at every stage of the game, you can then start exploring harder champions.

That said, while we definitely advise initially sticking to beginner-friendly champions, make sure it’s champions you enjoy playing. If you pick easy champions, but you absolutely hate their playstyle, you’ll quickly become frustrated, and it’ll undoubtedly put you off learning the role altogether.

Be a Proactive Learner

While you’ll gain a lot of knowledge from hands-on experience, it’s crucial to supplement your knowledge with proactive learning – spectate pro games, seek advice from communities like r/summonerschool, and read guides about the role. Doing so will seriously ramp up the speed of your learning progress, and it’ll help to prevent you from picking up bad habits. As a side note, our blog is overflowing with in-depth guides about every role, so make sure to give a browse.

Don’t Spam Your New Role – Switch It Up

At first glance, this advice probably seems counter-intuitive; surely the more you play the new role, the better you’ll become? However, forcing yourself to binge play a new role is anything but the best way to learn, and it can actually hinder your growth as a player. You’re not going to deliver an S+ performance from the get-go; you’re going to lose lane, make game-changing mistakes, and experience loss streak after loss streak. All of this can be extremely disheartening, and it will likely ruin your self-confidence and leave you tilted beyond belief.

If you’re hoping to keep your mental in check, as well as your motivation to learn the new role, it’s crucial you alternate between the new role and your main role. That way, even if you play poorly on your new role, you can reset your mental and rebuild your confidence by switching back to your main.

Be Proud of the Small Victories

It’s extremely challenging to learn a new role, and it can quickly become overwhelming. Remind yourself you won’t pick up the role right away, and remember to reward yourself for all your accomplishments, no matter how small – yes, even if it’s as small as managing to hit over 150 CS!

We also recommend setting yourself reachable mini-goals in each game you play. This will allow you to easily recognize your improvement, and it’ll give you a sense of accomplishment even if you’re losing your games. These “mini-goals” will ultimately depend on the role; if you’re learning support, a goal could be to end the game with a vision score of over 40. If you’re learning jungle, one goal could be to pull off an effective gank.

Don’t Dive Straight Into Ranked

Always practice first in normal games, never dive straight into ranked. The ranked environment can prevent you from learning the role properly; ranked is highly competitive, so players are going to be trying their utmost hardest to punish you for every mistake you make. If you’re constantly being thwarted every time, you won’t ever learn how to play the role when you’re ahead, and you certainly won’t be able to grasp the role’s potential and full capabilities.

Additional Tips

• Play with a cool-headed friend who mains the role. It should go without saying that playing with a friend always makes for a more enjoyable experience, and if they main the role you intend to pick up, even better: they can guide you through the process, and give you handy tips and tricks throughout your games. Plus, playing with a friend who is able to keep their cool will definitely help you keep calm yourself, even if you end up going 0/5 while practicing.
  
• Once you’ve got the practice in, and feel ready to test the waters with your new role in ranked, we advise sticking to flex first before you try solo/duo. Flex is a great way to ease in, since it provides more competitiveness than normal games, but it doesn’t have as much of the pressurized environment that ranked solo/duo possesses.
  
• League of Legends isn’t exactly welcoming to players trying out new things; you’re going to experience plenty of flame from your allies, as well as the occasional “first time??” snide remark from your enemies. If you’re the type to get easily tilted by what others say, don’t forget to /mute all.

Summarizing

Picking up a new role can feel like starting afresh in League. You have to learn a new playstyle, new champions and new matchups. While at times it can feel impossible, remember that slow and steady wins the race. All your hard work will pay off, and chance are, you won’t only become an ace at your new role; you’ll even improve drastically on your main, since all the knowledge you gain from learning a new position will enhance your gameplay by tenfold.