League of Legends: 10 Tips to Get You Ready for the Start of Season 11

Set yourself up for success in League of Legends Season 11!

One day remains in Preaseason 10 as of the publishing of this article, which means that League of Legends Season 11 is about to start. From the big changes like the item reworks, two new champion releases, and a bonkers meta, the preseason was full of change.

With all those changes, along with the removal of the inter-division promotion series (you’ll freely move from Gold IV to Gold I without promo series), players are going to be looking for every advantage possible. If you want to maximize your odds of placing high and climbing quickly, here are 10 tips to help in Season 11! Also, feel free to check out this list of 50 gameplay tips from Season 10, which should still be applicable to this season.

1. Abuse Dodging

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This is going to be unpopular, especially with players at higher elos who complain about long wait times, but dodging is a mechanic that is in the game, so it’s important to understand when to use it. Most importantly, a dodge does not count as a loss in your provisional/placement match, so you can use them to help improve your odds of placing higher.

Even after provisional matches are done, you should still be looking to strategically dodge games whenever you can. Dodges don’t affect your MMR, and therefore don’t affect your LP gains. So you lose some LP in the short term to avoid a (likely) heavy LP loss later.

2. Know Your Build

With the reworked item shop Riot gave players a lot more information to make the smartest item purchases in-game. However, relying purely on those “recommended” items should not replace your own knowledge.

It’s your responsibility to know which Mythic item you are going for, which type of boots are best for the enemy team comp, when to build a defensive item versus an offensive item, and so on. Remember, the recommended tab only shows a few completed items that are most-often built. There will be instances where an item that’s not displayed is actually better than what’s on screen, so make sure you know the new items.

3. On the New Champions

Seraphine, the Starry-Eyed Songstress, was released at the end of October, about a week before the end of the season. If you haven’t encountered her yet, she’s basically a less-mobile Ahri or a higher-damage Sona. She can go mid and support.

Rell, the Iron Maiden, is primarily played as support. She has two forms, mounted and unmounted, steals enemy resistances, has a tether to allies that can stun you, and her ult is an AoE Skarner ult.

4. Mythic Items

Speaking of the items, you need to know which Mythic item your champion needs going into Season 11. If you’re completely unfamiliar with the new Mythic items, you can see our post on these new items here. The biggest keys to consider are that you can only have one Mythic item in your build and you will get bonus stats on all your legendary items depending on which one you buy.

5. Understand Ability Haste

This was the other big change that the preseason brought was the introduction of a new stat for items, ability haste. This replaces cooldown reduction, which no longer exists. We go into more about ability haste here but the biggest things to know are that ability haste is uncapped and it is not a one-to-one ratio (20 ability haste does not necessarily equal 20% CDR).

6. Know Your Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Role

This sort of goes hand-in-hand with the dodging tip, but you need to know your top three roles that you can play at a competent level. Even though you only pick two roles when you queue up (or just pick fill), if you’re serious about climbing you should know one more role in case you get autofilled. Don’t overextend yourself and try to know four or all five roles, just know two and have enough knowledge of a third so that you can play it if you are autofilled.

7. Limit Your Champion Pool

With all the itemization changes, it’s going to be imperative that you figure out which item builds are best for your champions. The more champions you’re playing, the more item builds you have to keep in your mind.

Instead, a better idea is to pick a small champion pool of between three and six champions to cover your three main roles. If you can pick champions that can be played in multiple roles, even better.

8. Mute All

If you’re someone who gets easily tilted by people typing in chat, or you’re someone who ends up tying a lot in chat when things go well, this is a great tip. At the beginning of game, just type “/mute all” and you’ll ignore all messages in chat from teammates and opponents. You can also type “/fullmute all” to mute emotes and pings, or turn off all chat in the game menu to block the enemy team from chatting you.

9. Make Sure Your Settings are…Set

Proguides has a great video about optimal settings that you should make sure to watch to prepare for Season 11. But, regardless, you should double check and make sure that your in game settings, as well as the settings on your peripherals are set up properly before going into game. It’s better to go into practice tool and do a quick test than realizing that your keybinds are off in the middle of an actual game.

10. Check Your Mental

Before going into a game, make sure that you are in the proper mindset for a game of League of Legends. That means you’re not hungry, angry, distracted, nervous, or have to go to the bathroom.

Next. The 5 Best Champions to Main in Each Role. dark

If you load into a game unconfident, thinking you might have to step out for a minute, or worried about your math test tomorrow, you’ve already put yourself at a disadvantage. Make sure that you are mentally ready to play a ranked game before loading screen. If you’re even slightly nervous or unsure that you can play to the best of your abilities, just dodge.

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