Have been playing for awhile now, and still losing games?
Or have you just started, but know the basics?
Either way; this guide will carry you to your victories.
Content;
1. General view of 3vs3
2. Champions
-2.1 Picking a champion
3. Jungling
4. Backdooring
5. Laning
6. How a match should go generally
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1. General view of 3vs3
3vs3 Is a very different sport from 5vs5. I am not going to tell you how and why or such, the only true facts are, that they are very different, 3vs3 has less players compared to 5vs5 and that some champions work better or worse in 3vs3 compared to 5vs5.
Everything else aside that, is just your or my opinion which matters very little. Then again, this guide, is featured FULL of my opinions. But I ain't gonna compare 3vs3 and 5vs5 at all.
In 3vs3, the most essential thing is to play safely and avoid taking risks which might cost your life (or mostlikely would, for that matter). Why? Because, you win rarely games because you are "good". You win mainly games because enemy is "bad".
That's right, you heard me, the whole thing is about minimizing your mistakes and emphasizing enemies mistakes. You MUST take advantage whenever an enemy makes mistake, if there is a good chance that it might result one of the following:
A kill
A leave from lane
Making enemy suffer mentally (the player itself!)
(okay, forget the last one. That's not important.)
Now, that we know this, we can continue with the guide.
2. Champions
Tricky tricky prickstricky!
Champions, obviously, are important here. You must always remember, that not every champion work here as good as others. Kassadin is bad because he can nuke but pretty uselessly since you nearly never meet squshies.
It's quite simple to be honest.. But I will explain more on the next segment. For now, I will explain you how you should pick a champion considering YOUR team.
Your team needs ALWAYS, I mean ALWAYS these 3 things:
CC (slow, stun, air knock or w/e or fear )
Someone who is good at top (explained in the next segment)
And last but not least, tanks. Pref 2, and 3 is always good. ( Unless you are in premade with a high level set up based upon kiting etc etc. )
Knowing these three things, we go to the next segment:
2.1 Picking a champion
Have spare IP? Your current champions don't seem to work well there? Whatever it may be, let me explain you what is effective to pick for 3vs3 soloque.
A champion that is capable of jungling, sololaning(but not required to sololane) and that can take beating, and also is good with mana. Self healing champions is always great. Whenever it may be through natural lifestealing, lifestealing items that fit to the build or just healing. Also, obviously CC and good damage. And as least dependant as possible. Also, good escape mechanism is always good, but ghost/cleanse combo can make up for that.
Let me make you couple good examples and bad. ( Bad examples may have looked good! )
Good examples:
Shaco: A champion that can deal damage, jungle, CC to a small extent, backdoor pretty well, escape easily and even sololane (albeit weakly). I personally think that Shaco is weak, but he is lot more effective than many other champions.
Udyr: This is what I play myself, so obviously favorism inc. Udyr fits perfectly for sololaning, as there is really from little to no one who can stomp him there easily, no hardcounters at all. Udyr can jungle well and Udyr is pretty durable, and his escape mechanism is great with ghost/cleanse combo and turtle/bear spamming. He can CC pretty well and backdoor also.
Ezreal: He is not really that good at taking damage, but he has an ability to teleport and he also deals damage greatly. He does not have ability to jungle that well, but he is very quick and can teleport through walls. In hands of an advanced player; he is VERY strong and potentially unkillable if played right.
Bad examples:
Warwick: This one is great example of a BAD example. His only CC is on ulti and high cooldown (great ulti still, but not good source of CC.) He becomes easily useless if he won't get his farm/kills. He can jungle, but most do ONLY jungling, which is also wrong. Later explained. Generally, his usefulness is low.
Cho'gath: Two CC's, ulti that deals insane amounts of damage and GIVES HEALTH and good farming and can even potentially jungle. WHY NOT? Because you can't escape at all and your high health won't help you at all if you are slowed down, since you can't escape really at all.
Kassadin: Two CC's also, a teleport better than Ezreals possibly and such. No, still sucks. He can't jungle, he can only teleport and teleport, one after another. You should not play Kassadin in 3vs3 in any case at all. Just quit it.
Now you have them, you can argue about their effectiveness, but I'm sure, that the majority accepts that as it is. And actually, any champion can roll if played well, no matter what, but some are just harder than others.
3. Jungling
So, jungling.
Jungling is also a part of what makes you win a 3vs3 match. It's ALWAYS important in any case. But unfortunately, jungling is a double sided blade. Your team might or might not understand that you are jungling and that they need to play it safe. And also, you might get killed if you jungle bad.
Jungling is possible by most champions, but some are more or less natural junglers. Natural jungling is usually described as having no need to buy items such as Madred's Razor etc to be successful AND quick jungler. But Madred's Razor is a part of my Udyr item build as it turns into bloodrazor which is great against players, especially in 3vs3 as the enemy usually tends to be tanky and it also makes my dps even more hybrid. ( By the way, Hybrid dps is one of the best things in 3vs3, but most champions are just gimps if they try to hybrid dps. Don't do it unless you are sure about it. )
Generally, you should never try to jungle from beginning to the end. If you are in top lane, then you go jungle ONLY when the lane flow is at their tower, else yours will lose health. You should also be careful for clairvoyance, it tends to be pretty harsh if you are doing dragon and you can't do it quick enough.
If you are at bottom lane, you should only jungle if your mate agrees to it and you are pretty confident, that he can hold the lane by himself good enough. It will give a nice exp advantage over your team, but you also gain even bigger level advantage if you are at top and jungle succesfully.
4. Backdooring
Backdooring is also another way to win a match. I don't have the least clue what backdooring is exactly, but let me try to explain it to you, what it is in my eyes.
Backdooring should be only done when you know where EVERY enemy is, or you you only know 2 but you know, that the third can't just pop out and kill you. You should always be able to escape when you are backdooring or else it might get mean. Also, the best escape route is NOT the lane, but the jungle itself. You can do mindtricks there and escape a situation which was not elsewise escapable.
Also, if you lose lot of health while you are attempting to backdoor, rather not do it in most situations. Some champions such as Udyr or Sion can backdoor thanks to their shield without worries.
5. Laning
Laning in 3vs3 is also the great difference between 5vs5 and 3vs3, this holds absolutely true and is not only an opinion for sure.
Laning in 3vs3 is trickier, as the lanes are lot closer to eachother and you can access to another lane lot quicker in 3vs3. And so can the enemy. This is advantage or disadvantage, depends how you play it. Last hitting creeps here is important as you REALLY don't want the lane to flow at their tower so that you either can't get exp or take a big risk stepping in there.
The advantage there however is also, that through this way, if you are absolutely sure that you can escape through all their CC and stuff, you can make all the three come to you and attempt to gank you, meanwhile your bottom lane will have some pressure released and they can farm effectively for a while. This is good.
But also, be vary, if they go missing, you can't just "wait awhile and then run back", you need to RUN AND QUICK. Because the chances are, they are in your LoS in 3-5 seconds and you will be dead if you can't escape them. ( This holds true for top lane, and for bottom too to a lesser extent. )
So, this all means, try to keep the lane at middle or to your side, if enemy will come to your tower at top, your allies can have a gank set up there, but be also aware, that it might fail and this could ruin the exp gain a bit.
Also, never leave top alone. If you see, that nobody is at top, you should go there if you are sure that their top laner can't kill you and they can't gank you to death that easy. Top is great experience and gold for you.
6. How a match should go generally
Well, I explained main things at earlier section. But let me sum it up for you:
As the match starts, you should watch their champions and their summoner spells. You really don't want to go against 3x exhaust/ignite team, 3x both or 3x just one of them or whatever. They are the strongest spells for firstblooding, as cleanse can't remove anymore ignite.
And the champions matter too, the ones that can stun better will usually win firstbloods. You should just avoid firstblooding to be honest. Unnecessary risks that might lower the chances of winning through outplaying.
Now as the match starts, you should stick to your lane for as long as possible. Either harass or don't harass, better of course to harass, but if you get punished hard for that, then avoid doing it, and try to punish them instead.
On your first trip to shop, you should get boots, as they are lifesavers here. Ninja tabi is usually the best way to go, as enemy too often has 3 physical dps teams. ( Which should also be abused greatly by having lot of armor and/or dodge. This also makes you win through their mistake! )
You should watch constantly for ganks as you are laning, if enemy at top goes missing, try to back off if you are at a position that is prone for an ambush. If you see that someone is overextending, you should try to gank them.
The red buff also now matters less, it is not anymore global (the exp/gold that is) and is pretty much waste of time to do at beginning if your top laner can handle the person with the red buff. ( Usually, it's quite easy for me with Udyr vs anyone with red buff, such as Shaco, Ez etc. )
And try to also push their towers every time you have a good chance for that, but be ALWAYS careful so that they can't just come up and gank you.
And greatest thing of all; avoid feeding and farm well, this is also great key to victory, a well farmed character is still strong and does not require kills to be effective. So FARM.
This is pretty much it, a " short " and nifty guide. It's pretty much lots to read, but not a big problem if you really want to be succesful.
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