u/CuriousAd9279

So I’m currently Gold 3 and my goal is to hit Emerald before December. I’ve been thinking a lot about my champ pool and I really want to keep it limited to only 3 champs because I feel like if I play too many, I never actually improve properly.

Right now the 3 champs I want to use are:

• Shen as my main
• Jax as my secondary
• Ornn as my tank/scaling pick

The way I see it, these 3 kinda cover most of top lane if used correctly.

I like Shen into a lot of AA-heavy champs and matchups where I can impact the map more. Jax feels really good into ranged champs, skill matchups, or duelists like Fiora and Gwen where I feel like Shen or Ornn would struggle too much. Then Ornn feels like my safe blind/tank pick into heavy AD bruisers or early game champs like Renekton where I can just scale and be useful no matter what.

My main goal isn’t really to “win lane every game,” but more to have answers for most types of matchups while still keeping the pool small enough to actually improve.

Do you guys think this is a good lineup for climbing to Emerald? Or do you think I’m missing a certain type of champ/playstyle? Also, is there a champ that would completely destroy all 3 of these picks?

Any feedback is appreciated.

I just reached Bushin for the first time with Kazuya, and honestly I don’t even know how to feel about it. I’ve been going up against Tekken Kings, Emperors, and other Bushins, and the skill difference compared to Kishin feels massive. The biggest thing that stands out to me is sidestepping. Up until now I barely saw people use it properly, but here it feels like everyone is constantly stepping in neutral and just controlling space in a way I don’t understand. What really shocked me was seeing someone sidestep during my combo timing and actually punish me, I didn’t even know people could do that at this level.

The problem is I genuinely don’t know how to sidestep properly. Every time I try, I just get clipped and launched, so now I’m hesitant to even use it. It’s the same with wavedashing, I never really practiced it seriously, and whenever I try to incorporate it, I just get hit out of it. I worked hard to get to this rank, but right now it feels like I’m about to get demoted back to Kishin, and it’s making me feel like I don’t belong here at all.

For players around Bushin and above, how did you actually learn movement at this level? Are there any specific drills, habits, or videos that helped you understand sidestepping and timing better? I feel kind of lost right now and like I’ve hit a wall