Introduction
When trying to climb the ranks most players quickly reach a wall, and most often than not they believe that APM is their limiting factor, but is that really the case? And if so, how much does APM matter in League?
In this article we’ll cover everything related to APM and Mechanics but we’ll also talk about ways to improve your mechanics ways to improve your accuracy and speed.
What Is APM?
APM is an abbreviation of Actions per Minute, it’s an old term dating back to the early days of competitive RTS games. Its pretty simple really, you divide the actions you take inside a game into a minute. For example, in a game like League of Legends every movement action (right click) is an “action”, every keypress (QWER for abilities or DF for summoners) is also another action.
There are other actions inside the game that are traditionally not counted in the most common APM formula some of these are: chatting with your team, checking the scoreboard and interacting with the shop. This is one of the many reasons APM numbers are not super useful for MOBAs as they have been adapted from RTS where they are much more effective at predicting player skill.
Does APM Matter in League of Legends?
Yes, APM does matter in League of Legends but not as much as you think. Let me explain why APM is not such an accurate indicator of skill in League (and most MOBAs) and why you need to take these points into consideration.
APM is a flawed metric in MOBAs
APM as we mentioned in the first section of this article comes from Real Time Strategy (RTS) games, in these games APM is a much more accurate indicator of a player’s speed and skill.
Unlike MOBAs every single action logged in a RTS is “useful” be it creating more economy, more military units, or just using your units to attack the enemy. All of this is counted in the APM calculation, so a player playing at 120 APM is twice as fast as one playing at 60 APM.
In MOBAs the situation is different, checking the items from the scoreboard and using the F keys to check on the other lanes wouldn’t “count” for the traditional APM metrics, in fact for the original MOBA APM implementation (in DOTA1 inside WC3’s engine) it didn’t.
This is important because for most players these are the most difficult things to do and the things that hold them back from reaching higher ranks.
Effective APM and/or “mental” APM
As we can see APM has problems, this is why alternative ways to record and interpret these numbers have come up.
Effective APM (EAPM) is an even better way to talk about APM in most games, it originally meant a simplified version of APM that didn’t count repetitive actions that didn’t do anything useful inside the game. For RTS these included repeating simple move orders, selecting over and over again the same units, and so on.
For League calculating EAPM is difficult because these repetitive movements are legitimate ways to lane against skillshots which is why some people use the term Mental APM.
Mental APM would be a more sensible approach to analyzing MOBA player’s ability to play the game as fast as possible. It would include everything, including checking the scoreboard, using the F keys to check on your teammates and even chatting with your team (if it was to actually communicate and not to flame!).
In general, you should focus more on increasing your Mental APM rather than focusing so much on clicking speed and accuracy.
League of Legends Mechanics
Mechanics in League of Legends are a popular way to describe both the speed and the accuracy of the actions you take inside the game, be it clicking on an enemy to attack them while moving (attack-moving) or just combining your abilities together in ways that make sense.
A lot of people watch clips from Koreans and think that mechanics is something you’re born with, and while that might be true to some extent, the reality is that for 80% of players (I’m making this number up but it should be close) mechanics is something that can be improved and refined with time.
To illustrate my point, I once injured my right had pretty bad, but I still had to work so I started using both the keyboard and the mouse with just my left hand. In just a week my accuracy and speed with the mouse went from basically nothing to at least usable.
After 15 days, I was at the point where I could work and do most simple tasks on the computer with no problems but a bit slower, imagine if I kept using just my left hand for years!
This means that mechanics can be improved and, in my opinion, mechanics is not the most important skill in league even if it’s the most impressive.
How to Improve Your Mechanics
To help you on your way to climbing the ranked ladder we have made a short list of some of the most useful tips to improve your mechanics.
Consider the Terrain When Trying to Land Skillshots
One thing many lower rank players don’t do is take into account the terrain when trying to hit a crucial skill on an opponent. Think about Morgana’s Dark Binding and how it’s so much easier to land it when the opponent is inside the jungle as opposed to when they’re out on open terrain!
Using the terrain to your advantage means that you can predict where the opponent will move and aim there instead.
Hold your Abilities
This is crucial when coordinating ganks. For example, if you’re playing Elise and you want to land your cocoon when ganking mid lane don’t just try to hit the cocoon blindly from the bushes. Instead approach the opponent and force them to either flash away or commit to a direction to escape, and then you try and land the Cocoon predicting them to move only away from both you and your ally.
Another useful thing about holding your abilities is that it is the real counter to juking, if an opponent tries to juke a skillshot and you just hold it, they lose time and look like an idiot, then they die.
Sometimes less is more and waiting can be the most dangerous thing you can do!
Train your Mouse Accuracy
Other gaming genres like Shooters, Fighting, and Real Time Strategy typically require much more precision and speed than League but that doesn’t mean that there are no advantages to be had in League for faster players.
ADCs is the most mechanically complex role in the game, and it’s even worse if you play difficult ADCs like Draven or Ezreal. For these roles we recommend that players practice their mouse accuracy by doing drills or even using other games like OSU! To hone their skills.
You could also just play shooters for a while and see if your accuracy improves, it’s one of the most fun ways to train there are!
Predict Abilities Instead of Just Reacting
Normally when most people see a professional player flash dodge some fast ability in a match, they think it’s all thanks to their amazing reaction time, and because reaction time can’t be trained “it’s just what it is”.
In reality most pros don’t just react to things happening as they see them, instead they predict that an ability is going to be used and are already ready to react to it.
For example, if they’re trading in the bot lane and they know that they have summoners while they’re opponents don’t, they know that the only way the enemy team can stop an all attempt is by hitting them with something like Lux’s Q.
So, in this example when they go all-in, they already have the finger on the flash key ready to dodge Lux’s Q, so it’s much easier for them to flash it!
For your next games, try and predict what is going to happen instead of just reacting to things. Before even the first minions spawn you should already have an idea of how-to lane is going to go this way you can predict things and be ready when the time comes.
Take Care of Your Physical Health
It’s been already proven that healthy people perform better at pretty much everything, and that includes gaming as well.
If you want to seriously get better at the game then you need to take your health seriously as well, don’t take it for granted and make sure you are eating well, sleeping enough and don’t forget your mental health as well.
Conclusion
As you can see APM and Mechanics can be a complicated thing, that’s the reason there is so much confusion and myths surrounding it.
In general, we get better at things the more we do them, if you want to get better at League of Legends you need to play more, but the problem many people make is that they play for fun instead of to practice.
To get better at things you need to practice with intent, that means doing drills which can seem boring but are strictly required to reach the next level. Many players develop bad habits and never deviate from them, this is why some of the most played accounts in the world are ranks like Gold or even Bronze, those guys might have 20k hours of league played but when was the last time they actually trained?