How do I Know if I'm Ready for Ranked? - Preparation Checklist

Archive post, September 2011. The checklist below is a good record of what getting ready for ranked meant in 2011, and almost none of it is what you'd do today. Level 30 isn't the top of the ladder any more, it's just the gate you have to pass, and you keep levelling well beyond it. Nothing much arrives with it either, because there's no quintessence slot to unlock and no last mastery point to spend. Riot replaced both systems with the Runes Reforged trees, which you pick for free in champion select, so the two tier 3 rune pages the post costs out are not there to buy. Elo went the same way, and a number like 1250 means nothing on a ladder that runs on tiers, divisions and League Points. Champions cost Blue Essence rather than Influence Points these days, and the Facebook promotion that handed out Tristana closed a long time ago. If you want the current entry requirements, they're level 30, at least 20 champions owned, and 10 completed normal games on Summoner's Rift. We're keeping the post for the thinking in the second half, which has aged a lot better than the shopping list.

Are you ready to parlay with me?

Ding! Level 30 accomplished! Congratulations Sir or Madame you have successfully reached the max summoner level in League of Legends, giving you a brand new Quintessence slot and that last marvelous mastery point to boot. Is it time to jump into Ranked? Well let's see!

Preliminary Steps:

1. Make an ELO goal: Do you care what ELO you end up at? Do you think you'll care in the future? If you don't really care and just want to play some draft mode, maybe Normal Draft mode would be better. If you're looking to troll, may god have mercy on your soul, but yes you may jump right into ranked.
2. Do you want to get over 1250? Then jump down to the checklist below!

PREPARATIONS FOR WAR:

1. RUNES: Make sure you have at least two FULL Tier 3 rune pages. To maximize your runes for all champions, the cheapest rune pages you should make should look like this:

Page 1:

• 3 Greater Quintessence of Strength (Flat Attack Damage)
• 9 Greater Mark of Desolation or 9 Greater Mark of Strength (Armor Pen/Flat Damage)
• 9 Greater Seal of Resilience (Flat Armor)
• 9 Greater Glyph of Warding (Flat Mag Resist)

Page 2:

• Sames runes, but replace the Desolation marks with 9 Greater Mark of Insight (Mag Pen) and
• Replace Quints with 3 Greater Quintessence of Potency (Flat AP)

This combination of runes will allow you to pretty much play any role except for some special characters like Akali or Jungle Shaco. You won't be the best runed player, but you'll be able to compete. For support champions either one will do, but you're more likely to use the AP page.

2. Champions:

You need to own at least 2 of each role in case one of the champions gets banned.

AD Carries: Tristana is free from facebook, and Ashe/Sivir are 450

Mid Champions: Ryze is 450 and almost never played

Junglers: Fiddlesticks/Malphite/Mundo/Warwick are 1350.

Top Solo: Singed, Warwick, and Mundo are 1350

Support Champions: Alistar is free, Soraka is only 450. You can also buy Taric or Janna later on for 1350.

This isn't to say that you need to master all these champions, but you should be able to play them without feeding. Make your goal every game NOT to be first blood, to have a positive kill/death ratio, and to have the most assists on the team.

Know that other players will rage, sometimes with you, sometimes at you, but it's a learning experience. You won't be in the top 50 from the get-go, and if you are then you wouldn't be reading this blog.

Duo Queuing is also a good way to increase your chances to gain ELO, but be sure to find someone in a similar range as you or else matchmaking will throw you some crazy curveballs.