League of Legends, like most MOBAs, is known for having an extremely high learning curve. Sometimes it’s hard for newer players to know where to start, and this can lead to the development of bad habits for those that may one day want to take their League skills onto the Ranked ladder. So, today, we’re going to be breaking down the worst habits you can develop in League of Legendsand unpack how to fix those habits for your own improvement!

Let’s get started!

Worrying Only About Kills

As the old saying goes, “You’re missing the forest for the trees,” and for players that only worry about kills, that’s exactly what you’re doing. Kill-focused players are so fixated on the advantage and defeating their direct opponent that they forget there are tons of different ways to ‘beat’ your enemies besides killing them over and over. Honestly, it’s not odd to see players worry more about their KDA than they actually do winning the game. Which, if you’re wanting to become better and rank yourself in League, you should be willing to give up your personal stat line any day should it net you LP.

Where do we start with unlearning our kill fixation habit? It starts first with Minions. Minions are the safest and surest resource in League of Legends because they’re always spawning, they present a minimal threat to you, and they’re always going to net you gold on last-hit. Roughly 15 minion kills or ‘CS’ will net you the value of a Champion kill, so if you prioritize Last-Hitting Minions over Champions you’re taking a more controlled pathway towards your power-spikes in-game.

Ultimately, amassing a massive CS advantage over your opponent is equivalent to having a kill lead on them. From there, a quick tab and review of items can get you an idea of just how much stronger or weaker you are in comparison and help you judge better if it’s time for you to start the killing, or if you still need to farm it out towards your next big item payout.

Chasing

A slight follow-up to the above, Chasing is one of the biggest ways for games to get chaotic and go wrong. Chasing your enemy into their side of the map without vision, numbers, or ability to kill is a foolish endeavor.

While you, again, are weighing the gold you’d get from the kill over what you’d get from the wave, or you think you’re just winning at mind games by stopping their recall, what you’re really doing is depriving yourself of any advantage that you would have created had you accepted that you won the trade/fight and let them back up and run off.

Sure, if your Champion has higher mobility and can chase effectively like Kayn, Lee Sin, Talon, or Singed, you can afford to put on that extra pressure. But, for most Champions, diving deep into enemy territory and expecting to get out without being collapsed on is a fool’s gamble. So, before you go chasing, recognize your game state and ask yourself if you have the ability to actually secure your desired kill, or would you be losing out on resources otherwise. That’s your only way to improve beyond that desire.

Poor Recall Timings

Recalling or Backing in League of Legends seems simple from the go. You back when you’re low on health and mana to get more. Easy and simple, right? Well, if it were that simple, it wouldn’t be on this list.

While, yes, backing is the best way to restore your combat resources of HP and Mana, it isn’t the sole focus of back at higher levels of play. Backing at certain times and intervals becomes synonymous with ‘tempo’ or ‘control’ in game. Maintaining tempo is key to ensuring you get to your personal power-spikes, but also that you’re always just that much more ahead of your opponent.

Say you take a bad trade and are forced to Recall out of sync with your wave. This presents a moment of opportunity for your opponent, without you there to pressure them, they decide to crash their wave into your turret. This denies you the gold and experience offered by the wave since, if you were wanting to get back in time, you would either need to have Teleport up and ready to use, or you would have to limit how much the fountain regenerated for you by leaving base early. Both situations put you at a loss of resources.

By crashing the wave when you weren’t around, you were forced to make a decision of using your high impact summoner spell to stay even or sacrificing your laning resources (Health/Mana) to get back in time to maybe catch what was left of the wave the turret didn’t kill. And even then, there’s definitely no guarantee you’d get back in time to catch all, if any, of the waves with the second choice. So, now your lane opponent has created an advantage over you since they acquired all those resources you missed out on.

They Recalled right after they crashed the wave so, likely, by the time you get back and are pushing back to their side, they’ve returned from their base replenished, with items, and are able to catch the wave for themselves or take advantage of your diminished resources by all-inning you on their return, denying you even more gold and experience.

So, this begs to ask, when should you have backed after your initial trade? Well, here are some quick ‘rule of thumb’ moments to look for IF you can maintain your presence in lane for one of these opportunities without risk of dying:

After shoving - Backing after a crashed wave will have you returning to a wave state that you can safely farm the majority of the time.
Before the Cannon Wave leaves base - If you back before the Cannon Wave leaves base, you can be back in time to acquire its gold/experience which is more than the other lane Minions.
To buy your next big item - Item advantage is huge for winning trades and fights. If your next time guarantees you win your next scrap, it’s worth backing even at a CS loss to make sure you have that extra tool.
If the enemy has died - If they’re dead, they can’t respond or catch the wave. So, shove it in and make them miss out on all that gold and experience for their mistake.
If you see your opponent elsewhere on the map - If you’re opposing Mid has run down for a gank Bot, shoving the wave in response is a way you can help match the pressure they create and hopefully net yourself resources in the process.

If your matchup is so bad that you’d die from simply being half-health to their three-fourth’s health, well, sometimes you just must soak that Minion loss and find a way to overcome it. But it’s better to hold out for the CS and experience if you can, and back around one of these situations.

Refusing to Buy Control Wards

As you climb the ladder, Vision Control becomes paramount to your success. It determines where you can go, what pressure you can apply, and how you can play around the larger objectives and players in the game. Without vision, you cannot establish and control tempo.

Many players make the mistake of believing that vision should only be supplied by the Support, and while great Supports can make up for lazy vision from their Laners, teamwide application is best. In most games, it’s not uncommon to see laners buy one or maybe two Control Wards within a 20-30 minute game. While it’s true you want to focus on those larger chase items as a Laner and not heavily invest your gold into vision, many players fail to see what Control Wards can bring to your game’s success. To break it down quickly:

If you control vision of an area, your opponents are forced to play back and away from that area, or risk being ganked from it. This can entirely alter the way someone plays their lane. Aggressive Champions playing back denies them the game plan they want, whereas you can move about freely knowing that the enemy isn’t coming in on you. And this increases your Jungler’s pressure, even when they aren’t on your side of the map.
Bringing an extra control ward or two to a contested objective like Dragon, Rift, or Baron can help you secure and fight around it. Control wards disable all vision that’s around them that aren’t other control wards, so you deny your opponents their trinkets in and around objectives if you have your Control Ward readied up to deny them.
Roaming and Ganking becomes easier for everyone! If you need to dip up or down the map, or your Jungler is looking to gank, the Control Ward’s presence guarantees them a lane and at minimum a safe opportunity to look to assist.

Suboptimal Runes and Builds

Many players unfortunately come into the game not understanding the effect of Keystones and items right away. They simply build whatever and however with minimal or no understanding of why you build what you build. While following the recommended Keystones and item builds is fine in like 80% of your games, to really unlock the potential of your Champion, coming to a deeper understanding of why you build what you build and how those things interact with your kit is super important.

For example, Swain’s most common Keystone as Carry in Mid and Bot is Conqueror. He stacks it effectively and it supplies healing and damage when he builds it to cap. This effect synergizes with his Ultimate extremely well as its constant ticking constantly stacks Conqueror and it’s a great catch-all rune since it will always be effective because Swain’s ult is never going to change from game to game.

But, say you’ve found yourself in a matchup where you need less scaling and more early game power as Swain, or maybe even utility or tankiness. There are situations where you can entertain a Phase Rush choice as Swain if the enemy team has a ton of tools to kite you back or they’ve got a ton of skillshots you need to dodge. Or maybe if you’re in a melee matchup that you can abuse, opting for the super-server Aery build which makes Swain more of an early game lane bully. Or, if your team needs a truer Tank, Tank Swain can be built off of Grasp of the Undying. These are just some examples of how to think about how your main Champion interacts with a Keystone, and you should consider this and how it alters what you have to deal with when it comes to your enemy’s team-comp.

Additionally, consider how your Keystone alters your itemization. Staying on Swain, that super server Aery build differs from Conqueror Swain as a Carry as Aery Swain often rushes Rod of Ages since it provides sustain where Conqueror’s Liandry rush does not. This sustain turns Swain into that short-range lane bully where Conqueror Swain wouldn’t have the regeneration to be able to supplant such a playstyle. So, again, learn how your Keystones and Items overlap and alter your playstyles to really unlock the potential of your picks and matchups.

Closing Out

So, there we have it folks! Some quick hits for you to unlearn and ways you can teach yourself over those bad habits! You can find more resources like this here on our website, so take a look around. We’ve got plenty of guides written by our staff as well as guides crafted alongside DIG’s own Pro Players, and who better to learn from than them, right?! Anyway, good luck on your end of season climb. We hope the final days of this season treat you well!