Improving late game tactics
I've been playing LoL for about a month now, and I consider myself pretty decent. I'm level 20 with more wins than losses, and have been using mobafire's guides everytime I play.
However late game I've been running into a lot of problems with being tactical. Sometimes my teammates will get pissed at me for not helping in team fights(when I'm trying to push a lane full of minions), jumping in too early, not going in for a kill even tho it would be suicide, or just getting caught up in a lot of bad situations where I die because I get stunned or slowed.
I guess I want to know how I can better my late game tactics.. does it come with just playing more champs and getting used to what all of them do so I know what to avoid? Is there a tactical guide I can follow or read? Maybe some of you could join me in game and give me some pointers.
Playing other champions really gives you a feel for how to handle situations. It is important to know what your champion is capapable of and what they are capable of. I can offer some tips though.
Watch your map: This one is the most important, always watch your map. When more than one person is missing on the enemy team you should be moving to a safe position. Make sure you know where your enemies are or where they were heading last seen. Keep the map scouted and when 3+ people are missing you should be trying to bunch up aswell. If theres 3 or more people missing and you're pushing a lane deep then most likely they are coming to kill you.
Know your role: If you're the tank, be the tank. Protect your squishies, stay close to them and protect them. They are usually your carries and thats how you will win the teamfights. Rally your team, don't be afraid to boss them around. "All push mid" "Group up". Late game power is all yours as the tank, you engage, you chose where and when to engage and where to push. Without you your team is pretty useless. If you're the carry, stick to the tank farm within moderation and keep an eye on the map. You're who they're disappearing to come kill. Stick to the brush when teamfights engage so they can't come in and just ice you and run away. Don't reveal yourself till some spells have been cast and they have already begun focusing another less squishy player. If you're support, keep the tank alive and watch your squishys.
Don't wander: If its late game and you're all level 18 its time to be a team, move together, stay close. Don't over extend and wandering also involves watching the maps. If the enemy team is pushed into their base and fending off super mionons go steal their camps, but just always farm in moderation and never over extend.
Know your enemy: Once again coming back to knowing the champions. If you're the tank and the majority of the enemy team damage dealers are ability power then stack magic resist, if you're a carry and a majority of the enemies are tanky high health grab a madreds and tear them down. Don't trust mobafire 100%. No build is gaurenteed every time. I say this all the time, LoL is dynamic and should be played as such. Build your build around the enemy team and what your team needs from you.
Also a side-note worth mentioning, once you can buy tier 3 runes build some pages for your favorite champions. Try to make ambiguous pages that can apply to for example all AD carries or all tanks. Some good purchase starting points are armor seals, armor pen marks, and magic pen marks. You can use them for basically any character.
Here are some other miscellaneous tips from a strategy/tactical perspective:
Have an objective: If your team spends the whole game reacting to the other team, you're not going to succeed. Properly communicating so that your whole team is on the same page is important here. What lane are you going to push next? When are you going to grab dragon or Baron? Knowing what you're doing next saves time when you win a teamfight, which leads me to...
Maximize teamfight wins: Many times I've seen a team engage in a nice big 5v5 teamfight and come out with an advantage, then merely return to their lanes to farm. In the late game, if you get a 2 or 3 person advantage coming out of a teamfight, you should be accomplishing an objective! Any imbalance should be exploited - push down some turrets, grab dragon or Baron, or at LEAST steal some jungle buffs! Returning to farming in this case just wastes your advantage.
Baron is risky: Teams, especially in solo queue, have a tendency to immediately choose Baron as their objective any time they win a teamfight or even just when the other team is out of position. But it's risky - even a very fed team will take a while to kill Baron, and you're sitting ducks the whole time. On top of this, sometimes Baron is just the wrong objective - Baron doesn't directly win you games. Pushing some towers to get control of the map, or pushing an inhibitor to get a 5 minute advantage, is often a much better strategic choice than grabbing the Baron buff.
Wards!!! It's been said over and over on every LoL community, but wards are invaluable, particularly during the end teamfight phase. Having consistent visibility of the enemy team is a HUGE tactical advantage - being able to see that their team is split and attack with odds in your favor can easily lead to an ace. One 75-gold ward can directly contribute to a win.
Minions not required: By the end of the game (assuming a decent composition) your team will easily be able to tank the inhibitor turrets and even the Nexus turrets of the enemy base. Don't fall into the habit of always requiring a minion wave - 3 champions (or even 2 if they're tanky enough or put out enough AD) can tank a turret down quickly, saving TONS of time compared to the time required to push a minion wave all the way to a turret.