4 Tips to Reduce your Teamfight Deaths in League of Legends

How to Reduce your Teamfight Deaths in League of Legends

Dying in League of Legends is something that everyone does. It’s not every day that somebody has a perfect game. One of the leading causes of this is poor team fighting or lack of coordination.

There are plenty of reasons why one may die in a team fight, and some champions die more often than others. For instance, champions like Brand (who has the most deaths of any Support) and Lulu are both very squishy. This means they are easier to kill in a team fight.

In this Mobalytics guide, we will break down some tips and tricks to help reduce your death risk in team fights.

Here are the topics we will be covering:

• What are the reasons you die in team fights?
• Examples of good team fighting champions
• How to reduce your team fight deaths
  1. Ask yourself where the enemy wants to fight
  2. Watch your positioning in team fights
  3. Play around your team’s Ultimates
  4. Play around item actives and Passives

What are the reasons you die in team fights?

There are loads of different reasons you may die in a team fight, but here are some of the main reasons we see players dying in every battle:

Poor positioning

• You’re either too far forward or not positioned accordingly to the champion or the role you’re playing. For instance, ADC’s like Lucian or Ezreal should almost always be in the backline, tanks like Malphite or Leona should be in the frontline and utility Supports such as Janna or Lulu should be in the backline too.

Lack of awareness

• You didn’t see where the enemy was before walking around the map, leading to you walking into the enemy team or an ambush. Dying like this can often cost you major objectives like the Baron or Elder Dragon.

Played into the enemy team hands

• You don’t play to your team strengths and instead feed into the enemy teams hands. For example, fighting around objectives or letting the enemy poke you down before a team fight.

Examples of good team fighting champions

A good team fighting champion is someone who generally has large AOE abilities, poke or someone who can empower their allies.

• Champions with large AOE abilities are good in fights as they can deal damage or CC multiple enemies at once.
• Champions with lots of poke can harass and bully the enemy down. Once the enemy is low, their team could engage on the low health enemies.
• Champions who offer utility for their team are good in team fights as they can empower their allies and protect them or increase their damage output.

Amumu

Amumu’s Ultimate is a great team fighting tool for multiple reasons. Firstly, it has a huge radius which allows him to use it on multiple champions at once. Secondly, it is a CC tool. These combined make it a powerful tool in team fights.

When playing against an Aumumu, avoid grouping too closely together so he cannot CC the whole team with his Ultimate.

“Come play with me”, and check out Amumu’s champion page to learn how to play as and against the little mummy.

Qiyana

Qiyana is another strong team fighting champion: or at least she can be if you fight inside the jungle or around objectives. Her Ultimate can stun enemies that are close to a wall. When you fight inside the jungle or around an objective- you will most likely be near a wall. This can enable her to stun the whole of the enemy team.

When you’re against a Qiyana, do not, under any circumstances, fight inside the jungle.

Check out Qiyana’s champion page for tips on tricks on how to play as and against her.

Malphite

Malphite is a good team fighting champion thanks to his Ultimate, which is a knock up tool that can hit multiple enemy champions at once. If he is ahead and building AP items, he may even be able to one-shot the enemy backline!

Against the rock, avoid sticking too close together so he cannot land a 5 person Ultimate. It is better for your team if he knocks one champion up rather than 5.

Learn the latest and greatest builds for Malphite with Malphite’s champion page.

How to reduce your team fight deaths

To better reduce your chances of dying in a team fight, it is important to understand the stats related to your performance.

You can check this at any time by plugging in your Summoner name and seeing your GPI scores, as seen in the image below.

With these stats, you can quickly see how frequently you die or survive in a team fight.

1. Ask yourself how the enemy wants to fight

In League of Legends, it’s essential to ask yourself how the enemy may want to fight. For instance, champions with a lot of AOE and CC will want the enemy team to group closer together. This will allow them to lock everyone down with CC, or deal damage to many enemies at once.

Here are some general pointers regarding a few champions and how you may wish to fight against them:

Qiyana

• Do not fight her inside the jungle or around major objectives. Teams will be grouped, and it will allow her to get a good Ultimate off.

Orianna

• Do not sit on top of each other. Split up slightly so she cannot use her Ultimate on the whole of your team.

Amumu

• Do not group too closely together as he can CC everyone for a long time, leaving your whole team vulnerable. For more tips to play against Amumu, check out our how to counter Amumu guide.

Syndra

• Syndra will want to poke you down with her Q and W and then look for a good E to CC someone on your team. When fighting Syndra, engage as quickly as you can so she cannot poke you down.

I would recommend that every time you load into a new game, you take a quick look at the enemies team composition and ask yourself, “what do they want to do in a fight?” It would be best if you then tried to play accordingly and avoid playing into their hands when it comes to team fighting.

If you’re unsure what a champion may want to do in a team fight, or if you don’t know what team composition the enemy may have, check out our in-depth team fighting and team composition guide. It breaks down every major team comp in the game and gives tons of different examples to help you learn how to team fight effectively.

2. Watch your positioning in team fights

I would assume that a good percentage of team fight deaths are because somebody mispositioned in the fight. If you misposition in one fight, not only do you die, but the enemy may be able to take the Dragon or Rift Herald afterwards. Fighting after one of these objectives have been secured can be extremely difficult.

Each champion has a different position where they should stand in a fight, and miss positioning will leave you vulnerable and easy to kill. For instance, a mispositioned Kog’Maw is an easy target for any would-be frontline champion.

Here’s a general guide for positioning for some roles and some champion classes. Please note that specific champions or team comps may require different positioning. If you want to learn more about positioning for the champion you’re playing, why don’t you check out the Mobalytics champion page for your champion to see where they should be positioned.

Tanks like Dr Mundo

• Tanks should always be towards the front of their team.

Assassins like Leblanc

• Will usually be off to the side to flank and get on a squishy target of the opposing team.

Utility Supports such as Janna

• Utility Supports should be near the backline next to the ADC so they can heal and shield them.

It is imperative that you are not too far away from your team at any given time and that you do not position too far forward when playing a carry champion. If you die at the start of the fight, you will most likely cost your team the team fight.

3. Play around your team’s Ultimates

I can’t tell you how many times my team has won a team fight, then decided to fight again straight afterwards while not having their Ultimates up. In many cases, it is better to hold off from team fighting unless your teams Ultimates are up: especially if they’re very impactful and needed to win a fight.

For instance, an Amumu will only want to commit to team fights if his Ultimate is up. Fighting without his Ultimate is him asking for trouble. It is the same for champions like Sona. Her Ultimate is a great team fighting tool- so why would you fight without it?

Before initiating a fight, look at your allies icons and check for the status of their Ultimates. Wait for the most impactful Ultimates to be up before committing for a fight. This includes looking for picks too.

On the other hand, it is also smart to play around the enemies Ultimates. For instance, looking to fight once the enemy Amumu has no Ultimate, so you know he cannot CC your whole team. Or fighting when Shen is split pushing without his Ultimate and forcing a 4v5 knowing he cannot save one of his teammates.

4. Play around item actives and Passives

Similarly to our previous point, playing around your champions active abilities such as Zhonya’s Hourglass or playing around item Passives like Guardian Angel or Banshee’s Veil will be very beneficial.

These items can protect you in team fights and increase your chances of winning the fight. Zhonya’s can allow you to survive an engage or protect you against burst damage, Banshees can protect you against CC or poke, and Guardian Angel can resurrect you and allow you to fight again.

If you commit to late game team fights, try and play around these items as much as possible. If you fight while they’re on cooldown, you reduce your chances of winning the fight and increasing your chances of dying.

Keep an eye on your active items as much as possible, and be prepared to delay fights until they’re up. Ping them too so your team knows not to fight until the item is back up!

Find out what situational or defensive items your champion might want to invest in by checking out the Mobalytics champion page for your favourite champion!

Conclusion

Decreasing how often you die in team fights is actually quite easy if you’re dying on your own. Of course, there will be occasions that you will die regardless, but even reducing a few deaths a game will be highly beneficial.

If you have any questions or want to learn more, check out PicklePants’s stream.

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