This is one of those topics that many players won’t admit that they need it, but they do. Iron is a place from hell. And if you are an unlucky player who is just starting or haven’t played in a long time, it is understandable that you do not want to spend any second in there more than you have to.
The League of Legends is a game that came out in 2009. Since then, there have been over tens of thousands of changes in the game itself. When the game initially came out, it was somewhat understandable to new players since there was a limited champion pool and limited possibilities with the items and the maps themselves. Also, it was much easier for players who played World of Warcraft or other games similar to that one since the LOL itself is based on the same platform.
With that said, you can understand that now, when a new player is beginning to play the League, it is almost impossible to understand everything in the game for a long period of time. Actually, let me tell you a secret.
Sometimes I have no idea what is going on, to be honest. The game is evolving in such a rapid manner that there is simply no time to understand everything perfectly until Riot releases some new updates in the form of champions, items, buffs, or nerfs. Or even game modes.
There is simply not enough time in a person’s life, whether you are a child that goes to school, a student that has to go to college, you have to work, or even have kids, for that matter. You simply can not get the hang of every new update that Riot releases.
The main problem with the game itself is the lack of balance among the champions, and with constant new patches, Riot is trying to bring some forgotten champions back into the game. But I always feel that they are rushing it.
And that is the reason why every champion that was released always had to be nerfed a couple of times every single week in a row. It just doesn’t work for us who aren’t pros and do not have the time to play the game for 10 hours straight every day so we can get used to the changes.
It all comes to the simple stuff. How well are you in adapting to the new stuff? This is the reason why many players are stuck in Iron. Simply not all of us can adapt to that much information in a couple of games, and we all know once you start losing, it just keeps pulling you deeper.
I have thought about the way to help my fellow players in League, who are struggling a little bit to get out of the Iron tier and start their climb towards the higher elo. My guide is focused around the champions that have easy mechanics and don’t require you to think about their abilities a lot when playing them, so instead, you can focus on macro, completing objectives, and your farm!
The list of champions to help you get out of the Iron:
- Master Yi
- Warwick
- Annie
- Garen
- Amumu
- Caitlyin
- Nautilus
1. Master Yi
Master Yi is a champion that has incredible wave clear, great mobility, some pretty serious damage, and fast ganks. These are all the reasons why some players in low elo are struggling to counter him. He has a pretty decent early game, and once he gets fed, the teams themselves in the lower-ranked players simply do not have the synergy nor the harmony to play as a team and stop him.
His Q is great in dodging skillshots or even getting out of some CC. He even comes with a little heal kit in the form of his W. His E empowers his attacks, so when you are in a tight spot, you can always get a little bit more. Master Yi is capable of jumping in action with his Q, and if he doesn’t like it, or he thinks he has done some nice damage, but the fight will turn around in the other person’s favor, he can always just press R and get out of there safely.
The thing that Master Yi struggles with the most is the lack of CC, but since the players in the lower ranks do not have the knowledge to utilize it correctly, it doesn’t matter since he has everything else that he needs. If you really want to screw with your opponent’s heads, just take Exhaust and Smite. Now you will have enough CC to get some kills and even escape some tight situations when your Ult is on cooldown.
Master is a perfect champion for many tiers, and he can easily help you climb out of lower elo since with him, you do not have to pay attention to your spells, your mana, kiting, and much more complicating stuff that will come to you with some experience. The most important thing when you are playing Master Yi is to focus on your farm and the map around you. He has a very quick wave clear, so you will most likely get ahead of your opponents when the farm is in question.
Also read: Best Junglers in Silver
2. Warwick
Warwick has been our favorite werewolf from Zaun since the release of League of Legends in 2009. He has been one of the original champions in the League. WW has always been op, and we all know it. There is no point in hiding it. Riot has done a good job with his rework, but even before, he was mad strong.
His looks were updated, and I think they are spot on. WW is a great champion for your climb since he has great healing, on-hit abilities, and a great CC ult. He also senses his enemies around him on the map, making his map awareness one of the highest in the game. WW is great for the jungle since the chances of you not surviving the camps are so low that it is almost impossible to believe due to his healing abilities.
While playing WW, you should lay on the low side until you get your Ult since only there you have some great CC and the kill is almost for sure once you gank your opponent. With WW on your side, you will most likely get more cs and more objectives than your opponent, so that is the thing you should be focusing on. Lookup for the best items for each particular game, and you will climb so easily you won’t even feel it.
3. Annie
Annie was one of the original champions when the League of Legends Beta was released. She has stayed relevant for so many years because her kit is so simple yet so effective and can be abused by every player with every skill range there is. She has suffered some minor changes to her kit since the beginning of the game, and the only notable thing that has changed with Annie is her looks since she has benefited from the visual update.
Her kit is simple but highly effective. She has a stun, a shield, and a crazy bear that she can summon with a relatively low cooldown. Tibbers does tons of damage as well. Annie is pretty hard to counter by a lot of midlaners, and not only the players in the lower tiers struggle against her, but some of the higher-ranked players as well. She has a decent range, and she can take quite a lot of abuse.
Even if you are up against some better player, the chances are if you are going one vs. one in the mid, and you have your ult, either you will kill him, or both of you will die. The most important thing is that you will rarely die alone. With a kit this simple, you should always try to farm as much as you can a look around for an opportunity to help your team either with roaming or with some bigger objectives.
You will not focus on your abilities much since they are pretty straightforward, so you will have more time to understand your opponent’s play style and work around it to get the best strategy for every game in particular.
4. Garen
Okay, don’t hate me now. I do not like Garen as a champion at all. He is incredibly strong, incredibly boring to play with or against, he has sick amounts of healing, huge damage for a tank, great Magic resist and armor, and pretty low cooldowns for all of that. He also has a click and points ult, which can oneshot any target that has lower health. But, these are all the reasons that make him great to climb with.
Sure, in any higher elo, where players use smarter tactics and the teamplay is on the higher level Garen is useless. But in lower elo, he really can not be countered with any champion except Teemo, but even he can’t do much in lower elo since players usually do not know how to kite and will almost always get in Garen’s range and get destroyed in the blink of an eye.
He has a great gap closer with hi Q since he gets movement speed, and if that isn’t enough, he can take a huge chunk of your HP after he catches you. Please, for the love of God, and everything that is holy, do not play Garen with AD items since he really can’t use nor abuse them. His only point is to deal damage that he already has, and it is high while sustaining a lot of damage that is coming from the enemy.
If you equip him with AD champions, you will not get close to your enemy, and you will die. Instantly. If you get fed, you can surely carry many games with him. So play wisely. Yeah, Garen and word wisely in the same sentence. Paradox, I know.
Also read: Best Routers for Spectrum
5. Amumu
Amumu is one of the best junglers in the game, and when I say that, I do not only mean the low tiers. Many times we have seen him being picked or being banned in high elo or tournament competitive games. The reasons are quite simple. He has a decent wave clear. He has two stuns, one of them AOE that can stun all the enemy team at once and completely disrupt their plans.
He has some decent damage to him as well, but his main goal in every game is to take objectives, have good ganks, and take as much aggro as he can. These are all doable options since his kit revolves around stuns. You can go for a gank pretty early in the game once you hit level three, but if you are courageous enough, you can go for level two gank as well. The range on his Q is pretty decent, so the chances of you missing it are slim to none.
After that, everything is on your teammates to use that situation to their advantage. And since in the lower elo, that can sometimes be tough, considering that players in low elo are not skilled enough to pull off some decent team moves is the reason why some games won’t pay off.
But he is a great champion to start learning the game and items, and since he has a nice amount of sustain, you can focus on taking objectives and out-farming your opponents while dishing out some respectable ganks. I am sure you will receive many honors while playing Amumu. He can become unstoppable with full tank items, but the recent changes in meta have brought us many players that go full AP with him. This is something that I wouldn’t recommend because then everything changes, and you need to watch out for mana, and your sustain will be slim to none.
You will become more dependent on hitting every possible shot, and if you are struggling, that will sometimes be impossible. And on top of it all, you will not be able to focus on macro and objectives since you will be revolving about your champion. This is why I recommend going full tank, armor, or magic resist, depending on what is needed in every game in particular.
6. Caitlyn
Cait is one of the best ADCs in the game, and I say that proudly. The reason why I think that is simply if you compare the hardness and complexity of her kit with her damage, you get a champion that has great range, one of the highest in the game, apart from Senna, and a champion that has CC, escape, point and click ult that can eliminate targets from far away.
And on top of all of that, you get incredible amounts of damage. The beauty that Cait brings to the game is that she is so compatible with many supports. She can benefit from supports like Nautilus or Thresh that have huge amounts of CC and use that to her advantage, or she can benefit from the healing supports like Sona or Soraka. With her range and their healing powers, she is unlikely to die until later phases of the game when teamfights come to place.
Her range is what protects her from ganks since she can stay relatively close to her turret and farm under it. When you are playing Caitlyn, where ever you stand, you are basically farming under turret. Hence the long-range. She isn’t even likely to die from tower dives since she has escape with her E, and combine that with flash, the jungler will probably die before he catches her.
She also has her traps so she can catch any opponent that comes too close and burst him down with the huge power spike she gets if an enemy lands in her trap. You should focus on farming, learning to kite as much as you can, and just staying alive during team fights since you will probably be the most valuable unit in your team.
Also read: Best Little Legends in Teamfight Tactics
7. Nautilus
This is by far my favorite support in the game. One of my favorite champions as well. The amount of elo I climbed while having fun with Nautilus is incredible. He is the support to take without hesitation, and you know you will not screw up. This champion can be useful even if he is 0/10. Trust me.
He has sustain, he has CC, and with the right items on him, he can easily become the most important champion in your team. His rule is simple. To support. To make moves. To initiate teamfights. You all have it in his kit. You can pull with his Q. You can use it for escape as well. You receive some shielding from his W, and you get a nice slow with your E.
He also has a root with his passive. Combine that with his ult, and I promise you, the champion you decide to attack has a zero chance of moving and, with that, a zero chance of surviving. You should avoid some standard support items on him and go for full tank Nautilus since he can be abused the most with that build.
Your job is also to ward the map, but trust me, that won’t be a problem since most of your enemies will be too scared to come close to you. They will fear the anchor. And even if they do get in your range, and you are by yourself, you can always Q, E, R, and escape anytime. I am not a fan of The Support Ignite meta, and I always recommend taking Exhaust while playing supports. This is the case with Nautilus too.
If you have Flash and Exhaust to your kit, combined with your abilities, you become an unkillable titan of the depths. Protect your adc, pull some nice moves, ward the map and start teamfights. That is your job, but the most important thing to remember while playing Nautilus is to have fun!
6 Tips To Climb Faster Out Of Iron
1. Knowing Your Role
Getting used to certain champs is important, but what really matters in ranked games is understanding your role. Remember that getting kills is a good thing, but only if it translates to long-term gain for your team as a whole. Different roles in the game require very different mindsets:
Mids and Marksmen – Focus on holding the lane and secure items to provide damage later on.
Top Laners and Junglers – Provide lane pressure and early map control.
Supports – Protect marksmen from pressure, help set up or secure kills, and peel for priority targets.
Under each role, there are further different play styles that have to be considered. Some heroes provide an early game advantage, while others scale later into the game but start out rather weak. This will dictate how aggressive or passive you have to be at different points in the game at fulfilling your role.
2. Getting More Creep Scores (CS)
Getting more gold than the opponent will allow you to buy items before them. This means you should get used to last hitting minions to earn enough gold ASAP. Remember that every minion you fail to last hit will keep you longer from getting your items and power spikes. With perfect last hitting, a player can have 50 minion kills within the first five minutes.
One of the best ways to practice last hitting is to go to the game’s sandbox mode and practice without any opponents. Try to last hit enough minions as close to 50 until the five-minute mark. If you’re last hitting less than 20 until then, restart and try again. Once you’re consistently scoring around 40 or more, try last hitting with AI opponents until you are comfortable with last hitting under pressure.
You should also practice last hitting minions within your turret’s range. Here’s a quick reference on how much damage minions can take at full health.
- Melee – 3 turret hits and one auto-attack
- Casters – One turret hit and two auto-attacks
- Cannon minions – 4 turret hits and two auto-attacks
While it is easy to just keep attacking minions, doing so will push the minion lane closer to the enemy territory, which means the enemy will have an easier time flanking you. Making sure you only deal the last hit will allow you to “freeze” the minion lane in its current position until you are ready to commit to a push.
Also read: Best ADCs To Pair With Thresh
3. Proper Positioning and Trading
Because team coordination is barely existent in Bronze and Iron Division, winning or losing the laning phase will usually decide the outcome of the match later on. That being said, you should always strive to win the laning phase. This is where positioning and trading will play a very important role.
Positioning
Positioning refers to where you should be given a certain situation in the game. For example, let’s say you are playing a support like Morgana, you’d want to place yourself in a spot where your Dark Binding (Q) is not blocked by enemy minions while still having your marksman within range of your Black Shield (E). This will force the enemies to back off because they could get rooted and take extra damage, putting them at a further disadvantage.
Trading
Trading is a more complicated part of the game, but it goes hand in hand with proper positioning if you want to win the laning phase. Simply put, trading refers to one or more champs dealing and receiving damage. You need two things to trade favorably: better stats (courtesy of having better items or a higher level), proper positioning and what champion you are up against, since some champions counters others etc.
Trading doesn’t always have to end in a kill! As long as you come out of the trade dealing more damage than taking it, you will have the lane advantage.
Picking when to make trades depends on a wide variety of factors, but here are a few situations where you should consider getting a few hits in:
The opponent is attempting to last hit a minion and in range of your ability or auto-attack.
The enemy is pushing forward and your jungler is nearby to cut off their retreat.
You or a nearby teammate has a crowd control ability ready.
These being said, you also have to make sure you don’t get yourself on the other side of these situations to minimize the risk of the enemy getting favorable trades.
4. Obtaining Information
One of the biggest reasons why Bronze and Iron (and even higher) players end up losing is lack of information. A lot of game-ending ambushes could be prevented just by knowing where the enemy champions are. There are three things related to info that you have to prioritize in Bronze and Iron: learning to check the minimap, planting wards, and keeping track of the enemy’s ability and summoner cooldowns.
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5. Checking the Minimap
If there’s one thing that will help you survive ganks more often, it’s the habit of checking the minimap every few seconds. Even a quick half-second glance at the minimap should tell you the following:
Who’s still in their lane?
Who’s alive or still waiting to spawn?
Are there enemies on your way?
Which jungle camps (especially buffs, dragon, and rift herald) are up?
Just seeing an enemy champion move towards one lane will let you pull back to a safer spot and avoid getting cut off on your way back. You can also decide to push if you see that nearby routes are clear of enemies. If you have a teammate already closing in your location, you can prepare for a gank.
One way to help yourself get used to the minimap is to set a recurring timer. By setting your timer to beep once every 10 seconds (more frequent is better), you’ll soon be able to check the minimap regularly like it’s second nature.
6. Using Wards
Proper warding will drastically increase your chances of winning because it gives your team more time to react to enemy plays. A good rule of thumb is to use up your remaining gold after buying your recent batch of items to purchase sentry wards. Sure, a couple of wards may send you back 150 gold, but two wards could keep you from dying to an otherwise avoidable gank.
Ward Placement
Okay, so you already have wards, but where exactly should you place them? The general answer is to place it where you expect the enemy will be. However, there are a few common ward spots that should serve you well depending on your role.
Top lane – For both teams, ward the river bush to prevent ganks coming from the river. For the red team, ward the tri-bush (y-shaped bush) just south of the tower to help spot deeper ambushes.
Mid lane – For both teams, the southern end of both river bushes should always have wards. You can place wards the smaller bushes further down the river. This is because Bronze and Iron-level junglers and supports will rarely place wards for you.
Jungle – You get to roam the map, so place wards on bushes that the laners can’t cover at the moment. Alternatively, you can also place wards in common jungle paths to keep track of where the enemy jungler is.
Bottom Lane – Same as top lane, but this time the blue team has the tri-bush. Supports can save a ward for the lane bushes to prevent the enemy laners from hiding there.
Baron and Dragon Pits – For both teams, key areas have to be warded before attempting to take either objective. These key areas include the nearest tri-bush, the jungle entrances, and the area beyond the back wall of either pit.
Ward Removal
Unless you’re engaged in a fight, you should always destroy enemy wards you encounter. This way you deny the enemy team of valuable map information. Junglers and Support players will usually change to a sweeper lens later in the game for this very purpose.
Control wards are also great for denying the enemy team with precious map info. Aside from providing the vision for your team, a nullifier also disables wards near it. While this type of ward is not invisible, it lasts until it is destroyed.
Conclusion
The road to Silver and beyond is paved with many challenges, but they are anything but impossible. Just getting a good grip on the basics of the game will drastically increase your win rate. With enough practice and a bit of patience, you’ll soon find yourself blowing past those divisions! I hope this guide can help you climb the ranked ladder!
