Not sure I'm necessarily a new player, since I'm level 18 now (I know, I know, not exactly the pinnacle of LoL), but I feel more like a noob now than ever.

Thread title basically says it all, but here's some explanation: even though I play fairly well during the laning phase, I cannot seem to rack up any kills. My opponents will play aggressively, occasionally overextend, and basically do things that I consider to be reckless. And yet, I can't kill them.

Of course, when I try to play aggressively, if I make the slightest mistake, I'm dead. My end game scores over the last 10 or so games have been ugly - 2/9/9 or such even on wins.

A friend has suggested it may be due to playing level 21+ players with tier 3 rune sets, which could explain some of it. But I wonder if there's some tactical concept I haven't grasped yet.

So, how do I increase those kill numbers? How do I finish off an opponent? Any (constructive) ideas are appreciated.

Id love to help but I need more details. Some very important things are what champions you play and what champions you see over extending.

Let me give some examples. In this situation lets say we are talking about Teemo. Teemo is one of the squishiest champions in the entire game. He is extremely fragile. He has excellent mobility with move quick which makes him difficult to target and difficult to catch. However if Teemo gets caught in a poor place or overextends, hes going to die VERY quickly.

On the opposite side of things lets say Udyr over extends himself a bit. He has a shield he can put on himself which is extremely strong at the midpoint of the game to absorb damage, and his bear stance which gives him a couple second massive speed burst, both of which are on relatively low cooldowns. If he overextends himself a bit, its very hard to kill him unless you have several of your teammates there and none of his around because of his excellent durability and speed.

As you can see from these examples, its hard to give a broad spectrum response because conditions can be drastically different in various situations.

As far as runes are concerned, they can play a bit of an impact for sure but its not some extreme massive difference that makes you unable to compete.

The best thing you can do is tell me some of the champions you play and I can try to give you some tips on how to try and survive and how to get some kills. Another important note is not all champions are killers. Tanks and support champions usually end the game with very low kill totals however have massive contributions towards winning a game.

Also if you can provide some scenarios you are having difficulty with I can try to give some more tips.

Lastly not everything is champion based. Think of it like a war. You are trying to kill people and stay alive and other people are going to try just as hard to kill you and do everything in their power to stay alive. This means you often have to outsmart them to put you and your team in an advantageous position to kill them, weather its a team fight or a gank attempt. If you want some ideas in that regard just let me know.

It really depends on a lot of things:

What champion are they playing?
what champion are you playing?
Who are your laning partners (if any) and will they support you?
have they bought armor/MR?
do they have aditional escape mechanisms (flash/ghost/cleanse)?
Do you have additional offense (exhaust/ignite)?
Who has what abilities on cooldown?

All of this is just the basics for determining when you can engage a fight and expect to get a kill. Not knowing any of the above, it's hard to give specific advice, but I'd suggest the following:

- If they want to play super aggressive, go ahead and let them push you back towards your tower. This will give you more room to work with when you attack, as they have a longer run back to their tower.
- Let them waste their mana trying to harass, focus on avoiding skill shots and last hitting. If you are ranged, chip away at them with the occasional auto attack. Very often, within a few levels, you will find you have lost a little health while they are down just as much (if not more) plus be low on mana.
- if you are laning with a partner, try pinging the person just before you jump them to give them a heads up. They will be more likely to focus with you and net you the kill/assist
- Look at their summoner spells in the loading screen. If you know that the Ashe in your lane took flash/cleanse, she probably isn't the target you'll want to focus (you'll blow all your cooldows, then watch her flash out and laugh).
- Get at least 1 health pot to start if you can. People often dont look at others inventories, and it can be a nasty surprise when you pop that bad boy just as they think they have the upper hand. Just don't wait too long (it is health/time, so they can still kill you if you are too low).

Hope some of that helps.

Thanks for the responses!

I have actually played quite a variety of champions lately. I played Tristana and laned with Pantheon against Tryndamere and Warwick earlier, where I simply could not put them down but they killed Pantheon a couple of times.

Earlier I played Mundo and laned with Malzahar against Poppy and Blitzcrank, and admittedly Blitz got me with his rocket grab. I also had a Warwick on Warwick battle where I was a higher level and had better items when we squared off one on one... and I lost. It's possible I didn't make proper use of my abilities or whatnot, but that one baffled me.

All in all, this has been a champion wide issue for me. I've played Mordekaiser, Cho'Gath, Alistar, Ezreal, and the list goes on. Getting that kill shot is extremely difficult, whereas I tend to feel rather squishy - even with my tanky types. Of course, the tanks aren't exactly known for their slaying abilities, and now I feel a bit qq.

Regardless, this has become a universal issue for me and not limited to just a few champions or lane comps.

TL;DR: I play lots of champs with lots of other champs against lots of champs and regardless of those pairings, I'm always abysmal at getting kills. The common denominator appears to be me : )

The thing is every champ needs to play differently to get their kills, and often needs to play differently based on whom you are against.

You may want to try to AT with someone who can help out. There are several players here in the new player forum that have threads that are willing to play with new players. Sometimes, just playing a few games where someone else takes the lead will give you insight on when to engage and when to back off.

Tristana is primarily a late game hero. She can get kills early in the game, but it requires well timed aggressive play with the rocket jump burst damage, explosive shot and possibly ignite. Its kind of hard to give tips for in a general sense though because it really depends who you are facing for weather or not you can do that. That being said you dont want to max explosive shot because you will need to have rapid fire maxed around 13-14 at a minimum for when you are a strong physical attacker. Most of her kills come late game in team fights when she can chew people apart.

Mundo, Mord, Chogath and Alistar can all be hard champions to get kills with because of their skillsets. Alistar stuns and knocks people back into his team so they can kill someone. Mord is mainly a tank, who can contribute some damage to a fight, but lacks big damage or stuns and slows to get kills. Chogath can get kills with his ultimate or with his burst damage from his spells, but that primarily comes in team fights, you cant really solo people down by yourself. Mundo can be a bit more of a killer because of cleavers snare, however he provides some decent sustained damage, but not huge burst damage, or extremely high consistant damage which makes getting final hits on champions more difficult. As far as feeling squishy on tanks, they take items to feel more durable. Early on in games they are still pretty squishy. Its not until you get a bunch of items that they are really beefy and hard to take down.

Warwick is an excellent ganker and you should be able to get some kills on him. His ultimate provides a nice stun and some solid damage for him and his team to chew people apart. With him you should always be looking for opponents that have overextended and you can go kill with some of your friends. As far as losing to the other warwick, its very possible that you guys ranked up different skills and his were better for a toe to toe encounter.

Ezreal is a very strong killer. He is best used as attack damage at the moment. Because of his blink and long range attacks he is very good at chasing and taking people down.

Honestly I think you just need to play the game a bit more. As you play more you will become better accustomed to situations where you can go in and kill people, and others where you cannot.

If you really want to get kills, the easiest way is to start off with some dps casters. Someone like annie has very high burst damage to where you put a lot of burst on someone being attacked and kill them off. That might be a good starting point. Another good choice can be stealth champions like twitch and shaco because you can sneak up on people when they aren't suspecting you, allowing you and your teammates to kill them.

As for general tips, always look for people to gank. If someone pushes themselves out to far you can ping the target and get some of your teammates to come with you to kill the target. If you play to passive or dont look for these opportunities, you lose some of the largest places to get kills.

Another very useful thing is summoner abilties. Ghost in particular will help you chase down low HP targets and finish them off. It can also be used to help you escape. Using these at the right time often results in either you staying alive or other people getting killed.

As for something like teamfights, if you are a squishy champion like annie you have to be very careful of your positioning. You ideally want to attack a squishy target that you and your team can quickly destroy, however you have to be very careful not to overextend and get yourself killed. If you get killed constantly early in teamfights, you obviously aren't going to kill many people.

Something which I have mentioned before and I cant emphasize enough, you really have to look for people to kill, and think up ways to get them killed. Remember they are always trying to stay alive just like you are, so you have to find ways to catch them offguard. Attacking unsuspecting opponents is always the best way to kill them.

Lastly use your team. Its very hard to just run off by yourself and kill people. You have to work with your team to do so. When you coordinate with them you wont get every kill as there are several people there, but you will certainly get more. Ontop of that you will become stronger, the enemy will become weaker than you which in turn will make it easier to kill them in the future.

Running off to gank someone by yourself will often not be enough and they will be able to escape, or they will have teammates come help and you can get killed. If you have a couple friends with you then that target will die much faster and have a very hard time getting away. This also goes for laning periods in games. If the enemy only things they are fighting against the people in their lane they will feel safer. If you pop up suddenly the numbers are against them and you have a much better chance of scoring a kill.

This is also an excellent suggestion. Just like going to school its much easier to have some guidance when learning things instead of having to teach yourself. Having someone beside you to offer some guidance can make a big difference.

Hopefully some of this will help a bit. If you have any more questions or need more tips dont hesitate to ask.

Thanks guys! Very helpful info.

I want to emphasize on this point a bit more:
Don't even focus on killing anyone in the laning phase. Yes, if they do something stupid and you see an opportunity, they should be punished. And yes, you should at least try to harrass your enemies to have some lane presence. But if you're able to not die, protect your tower and farm gold it's really not an issue if you don't get any kills early on (it's too bad if you manage to do this and your lanemate feed, of course)

Otherwise cwatz covered most of it.
1v1s are very hard to predict, especially for new players and usually don't even serve a purpose so just try to avoid them.
Play opportunistic. Try to get the enemies to make mistakes and punish them. Games with new players will very often have players in gankable positions, abuse the **** out of it.

And most importantly: Don't even focus on KDA. Some champs don't get much kills it's just the way they are. Sometimes it's just a matter of luck who lands the killing blow.
After a game think about if you contributed to your team or if you were a liability. If it's the first one you have nothing to worry about