Hi, I'm level 29 but this entire time I've only ever played Morgana, Ashe, and Dr. Mundo. I'm in dire need of expanding my repertoire if I intend to start doing ranked draft games at level 30.

What's the "proper" way to go about doing this? Should I just dive right in? Should I warn my teammates at the start of the game about my newbie status to the champion I'm playing?

Also given that I know Morgana, Ashe, and Dr. Mundo pretty well, what champs do you suggest I start learning in order to broaden my base and prepare myself for draft picking?

I strongly reccomend a custom game against bots and maybe a co op vs ai before you jump into a normal game.

Remember, for the most part though that normals are where you should get this practice done. You will get the odd jerk that flames you if your bad on a champ but you have to start somewhere. Aside from getting a feel for your champ abilities and ranges bot games don't do much for you. They can even make you develop bad habits, like buying carry items on a support...

Make sure that before you jump into ranked you can at least 2 champions in each role.

support
ad carry
ap mid
jungle
top

also, dont coun't commonly banned champs like morgana in your case. shen, shaco and kassadin are also banned just about every game.

champs you might like based on:

Morgana

Lux
Brand
Malzahar

Dr Mundo

Skarner
Olaf

Ashe

Caitlyn
Varus (when he's out)
maybe Ezreal

This is my opinion on this and what I do.

Start with an AI game, so that you can test out the skills and try a few different builds. This isn't to really practice the champion, but so that you can use the champion without it really mattering because your gonna win anyway.

Then go onto blind pick, and just instalock it in. If you are forced to use it in a lane that isn't really where you should be its fine, because this is more about practice, learning the tricks of the champion, and using it against others. Then once you feel like you have a good grasp on things like last hitting and stuff, you are now ready to add it into your box of useable champion for draft mode.

However. If you only know 3 champions you wont' be ready for ranked at 30. You need to have at least 4-5 full (different) rune pages and should know at least 3-4 champions for each role. Ranked is done with draft mode rules, meaning picks and bans. Knowing only three you could get banned out, or have those champions picked already. (Morgana is sometimes an isntant ban, and ashe and mundo are pretty popular.) The hardest part about this to me, is the rune pages, they are expensive to get the pages themselves, and can be twice as much if not more to fill, so we're talking like around 100K IP for 5 pages of runes that are different. It's really lame, but there are reasons for it.

Thanks for the response. Good advice about the roles. I think I have a grasp on what it takes to do AD carry, ap mid, and jungle since that's what my ashe, morgana, and Mundo do...I know that Soraka is a good support. What exactly goes into someone who is at top?

Another point: if someone does give you **** for using a character you're relatively new with, don't let them get to you. Either respond super politely or don't respond at all. I find it gets them to shut up. I also understand your fear though... even in normal blind pick I'm still scared of trying jungling just because I'm terrified of being yelled at. :/

It can be daunting to enter a normal pvp match play champion you don't know, but you'll have to do it at some point. And if people give you **** for being bad, ignore them, report them if necessary, and remind yourself that at least you're not doing this in ranked. People who try out new champs only in ranked mode are jerks, and you're not one of them.

I've had so many losses because someone chooses a champ that they have never played in a PvP game (not ranked.) So I firmly believe that at least one bot game should be played with a champion before you go to PVP. After you've played a lot of champions and roles, you tend to see that they are played the same way. Meaning that in bot your doing the same things no matter the champion. What changes is how you do it.

This is why at least one bot game is a good idea, because you learn the how, at least a little. That way your not looking through your skills before minions are spawned wondering what your supposed to be leveling when, and what you should start with. You know already, so it really is just practicing the how, now the when where and why.

But Sokar is right. Even in just draft mode, I've been left with no options on champions I know to pick. Which is odd because I have quite a few. It's that they don't mesh well with the team or something. So it will happen, but that's why its important to learn what is the same about the roles. Like building IE into PD on almost all AD carries. It may not always be optimal, but it won't steer you wrong either. Just farm up and your good. But I'm rambling...

Fappa, My friends and I play ALOT of custom games and blind modes where we don't care AT ALL about the outcome. Feel free to add me and we can get you in on some games. Between the group of us someone plays almost every champ a fair bit so you can get lots of advice and comparisons.

We are a mixed bag of skill and ranked experience and we have a vent

it sounds like you want go about learning the game more in depth and I think we could help you get the basic anyways

cdnmute

Hard to disagree with anything said so far. If you want to stretch a game create a custom game 1v1 against Annie, seems as though if you did nothing the minions would end up winning the game for you. This is helpful if you want to play with different items so you just want to farm and gank.

Many champions that have crowd control or distruption abilties can really only be mastered in a normal+ game. The last champion I got was Blitzcrank, and with his pull and knock up I play him as an initiator. It would really be hard to get this kind of practice in a bot game where they they stand still and run in straight lines.