Hey guys. I've been playing LoL since right before Nami was released but a bit after Zed's release. I just recently hit 30 (2 or 3 days ago) and was ecstatic to start playing ranked games. When it comes down to normals, I used to almost ALWAYS play top lane. Then, of course, I started playing ranked games. I had played a few drafts before so I knew I wasn't guaranteed to play top lane. I'm not an ******* who calls "top or feed" and will play any role my team requests I play. I just always state I'm most comfortable playing top lane and that my least favorite roles are support or jungle.

I'm rambling so I'm starting a new paragraph. Because I played top lane so much while leveling up, I neglected the other roles a whole lot. I also became very tunnel-visioned on one champion. I would go through a Renekton phase, or a Jayce phase, etc. I learned how to play a lot of top laners really well (or at least, really well for a low elo mind you). I'm terrible as support. My jungle times are horendous. I'm also pretty bad at CS and have been really making an effort to make that my primary focus on improvement. With Zed, I can farm critters like no one's business, but I have never had success farming with any other champ. I'm terrible at last hitting so in ranked games I almost always lose if I play top, mid, or bot adc simply because I get outfarmed and end up way underleveled/undergeared.

I just want to know, how to I get better at a game that's constantly requiring me to play different roles and build differently every game depending on the situation while also needing to know how to play so many different champions? I'm really struggling and can't figure out how to dig myself out of this hole.

Before people ask, yes, I do tend to keep my close-by brushes warded, I pay attention to my minimap, and I try to always keep a positive mentality and never flame my teammates/opponents. I'm a very competitive person, I've always had a thing for trying to be the best and tend to aggressively poke my opponent (even though I shouldn't, I'm working on that too).

Any advice?

i suggest playing solo lane soraka

Get a few thousand games under your belt. That's about the only thing you can do. Also, do some practice games with a friend to practice getting CS. Always have him harass you so it feels like a real game.

You definitely want more practice. You know how you're comfortable with a lot of top lane champs? Put in that much time into any other role and you'll be that comfortable playing it too. Repeat as necessary.

Right now, your main problem is lack of practice.

What they all said. It's good to have a few select champion(s) for each role, and practice those. For example, I'm terrible at support, but if my team seriously forces me to support, I can play an okay leona, and at the very least, play passive soraka. Bot isn't going to be spectacular, but it's not gonna feed either.

Definitely play more draft mode/blind games to just improve. Understand mechanics, check counters, study enemy laning champion while your screen is loading to see if you can counter/survive them somehow. A lot of laning goes down to gritty nitty details.

I would also put off ranked until a bit later, if you want to increase your elo fast. Your first few games change your elo by a lot, and you want those to be wins.

Alrighty, thanks guys. I guess I'll stick with drafts and blinds for a while. I'm going to just pick my champ last in order to fill whatever spot we're missing. I have at least three champions for each role that I want to "master" and hopefully this will give me the experience I need to get better.

Don't hit 30 and immediately do ranked. It was years before I even touched the ranked queue.

For last hitting with an ADC, which should normally be one of the easier roles to learn, just practice in BOT games. You will still get IP and they go fairly quickly as in normally 25 minutes. Same can be said for all lanes in a BOT game.

Last hitting is a key to all lanes except as support and a bit less needed in Jungle. However, if last hitting is severely limited, try running an AP mid with a Nuke, or choosing those that are close to Zed in style, as you said you do not have any issues with him. This will help you get comfortable with a playstyle similar to Zed (not an assassin, but an easy way to clear creeps). Also you mentioned focusing on 3 champs of each type.... scale that back to 2 champs, as in ranked you will often only have one of your core picked, unless you choose a commonly banned champ like Malphite or Shen. Also, get or look at champs that can easily have 2 - 3 roles. Teemo can mid or top, ChoGath can Mid, Top, or Jungle, and his Q+E makes for easy farming once you get a few levels. Mundo / Olaf can both jungle or Top.

For Jungle, I love Skarner and KhaZix, but I just picked up Udyr. Both Skarner and Udyr have very fast clear times that could help you get into the swing of jungling, but they will play very differently than what you are used to, and do not apply to the above paragraph as they are only mediocre in lane(s).

I started playing ranked very recently as well. I think the most paramount skill for the first few levels is to watch your mini map and creep lane while harassing. Improving your last hits will improve how fast you can itemize yourself. Best of luck

PS watch out for trolls .. unfortunately theres a lot of them and I really do believe dodging them and waiting 30 mins is better than 40 mins of a piss off.