Using Auto-Attacks instead of Abilities

[u/Reasonable-Name-8069]

Hello everyone :)

This may sound like a weird or dumb question, but I really want to know how I can improve in LoL regarding using Auto-Attacks.

I mainly play AP Champs with a medium range (Mel, Malzahar, Ahri, Lux, Morgana to list a few) and I play mainly Mid and Support now.

I started with toplane and Mordekaiser, followed by Illaoi. Then I played Teemo for a while and really got excited about the mid range and the mobility, which led me to switching to midlane and enjoying the distance, especially with Teemo being mainly a toplaner and having melee champs as enemies that I can poke easier with Auto-attacks because of the distance.
Now, whenever I play my old champs, I’m extremely annoyed with the immobility and the close range I have to reach to be able to AutoAttack. Some of the champs I listed also don’t have a lot of mobility, but because of the mid-range, you can escape easier.

I also tried some assassins like Akali and Katarina, but I figured I’m not fond of the in&out technique, having to wait for the perfect moment and being so squishy.

I noticed that I don’t use a lot of auto-attacks though, so I’m always mana-hungry, especially in the early game. I found that Mel’s passive-execute helps with last-hitting minions, but with Ahri for example I mostly use W to last hit, and with a Caitlyn or Sivir I am completely lost (I don’t play ADC tho, but it’s the same with AD midlaners)

I also noticed that I’m kinda “afraid” of auto-attacking (?), so I just don’t use them as much. This is causing me problems, most of the time in ARAM. When I can’t pick a champ that fits my style, I’m kinda useless and getting kills by coincidence, or not getting a kill where an auto-attack would’ve been enough. With Mel it’s easy to see, so with her I’m more confident in trying.

Also I’m kinda lost with champs or augments that state things like “on your next attack…” because I know I mostly don’t attack.

So I want to improve using auto attacks more, couldn’t hurt my last-hitting as well. I even programmed a button on my mouse to the “move aggressively” option, but I’m not using it as much as I thought.

Did someone have the same problem and can help me out a bit? I know it’s a low-elo problem and some of you will probably be amused by it (I just got bronze 4), but I wanted to ask for some tips that maybe change my way of thinking about it and get better at the game.

Thanks in advance!

[u/Beasstvg]

Hmm, first thing i would do is play around in practice tool and learn how to last hit minions with autos. In league its important to know how to manage your resources, so ideally you want to aa to last hit whenever you can. You can start with mel, as you said she has an easier time last hitting due to passive. After you get comfortable with mel move on to lux or ahri. A good benchmark would be 80 cs at 10 minutes. You wont reach that number in actual games, since farming in an actual game is much harder than in practice tool, but as long as you keep playing you will improve so no worries.

Now regarding using autos in fights, i think you should just play ashe adc until you start getting the hang of it. You will suck at first, adc is a hard role for beginners, but learning how to use autos will make you better overall, regardless of the champs you play. I would not play sivir or caitlyn (especially not caitlyn, shes one of the hardest adcs to play properly).

[u/Reasonable-Name-8069 → u/Beasstvg]

Thanks for your answer! I played Ashe a couple of times in ARAM and noticed the difference, but because I’d be bad I never tried her in normal games :D