Lol: Micro vs Macro Difference Explained

In League of Legends, you need to master two different topics to be able to climb divisions and enjoy the games with an outstanding performance: macro and micro play.

Micro basically stands for what you do around your champion's furthest skill range.

It is a definition used to determine the player's skill and capabilities in the game.

Macro on the other hand, is a term used to determine your impact all around the map; the decisions you make and the actions you take.

Micro in LoL

Micro Play is completely about your personal decision-making and actions regarding combat, farming, and varieties, essential micro skills include:

Last Hitting

• Being able to earn gold from the creeps by last hitting is one of the most critical micro skills in League of Legends to achieve a decent gold income.

Trading

• Managing successful trades is an important indicator that you know your champion's capabilities and it's a must if you want to have a lead during the lane phase.

Skill Shot Accuracy

• Not too big of a deal, as you can play many champions that don't require skill shots if you are unhappy about this micro skill of yours. 

Kiting and Orb Walking

• This is the difference maker between challenger players and bronze, the most crucial micro skill in the game and you have to master spacing properly in order to climb the ladder.

Animation Cancelling

• We have all seen the Riven that uses 15 skills and 200 auto attacks in a second in our games. That is called a micro play and is important for many champions with auto attack/skill cast animation cancels.

Positioning

• Being untouchable or catching the enemies that are positioned farthest from your team due to the way you manage your champion also counts as a micro skill.

How to Have Better Micro in LoL

Training mode

• The safe place of LoL grants you the comfort you need, to especially practice animation cancelling and 

Watching Gameplay

• Professional and challenger players streams often provide you the information you need regarding your champion's capabilities and what you can do with it if you play its micro to the fullest.

Stable Champ Pool

• As micro skills improve depending on the champion mostly, not changing champions you play too often would provide you the practice you need at the champs of your preference without overcomplicating the process of improvement.

Macro in LoL

Macro plays point out the strategic elements in League of Legends. It's about making smart decisions that give your team an advantage and put you in a position to win without being in need of an amazing micro. Key aspects of macro play include:

Map Awareness

Checking the map to see whats happening in the game off your screen is a really critical part of LoL as it helps you understand the game state and decide rotations.

Vision Control

Warding is the key factor to knowing where enemies are, as even if you have top-notch map awareness, if you and your allies haven't warded the important locations; that awareness goes to dust.

Objective Priority

The decision-making of pushing a side lane, going for a dragon fight or forcing a tier 2 turret at bot defines your understanding of the game and macro skills.

Wave Management 

Even with last-hitting minions being a micro skill, the way you decide to manipulate the wave ( slow push, freeze, and so on) defines your macro, as those decisions have different outcomes that can damage or benefit the current game state.

Rotations and Map Movements

Where you go to on what time shows your game prediction skills, one of the highest value macro knowledge to have.

Back Timings

Same way that wave management works, knowing when you should back off and come back stronger is a difficult macro knowledge that many players struggle to decide.

How to Have Better Macro in LoL

The key is having enough experience to understand what is the most valuable decision you can make that will give you an advantage in the next minutes of the game. Yet we can speed the learning process up with some practices:

Pro Plays

Watching professional players and seeing how they decide is one huge improvement in understanding the macro decision-making process.

Coaching

Getting a personalized guide on what your mistakes are and what you should work on is an amazing strategy that has helped many players in their grind, contact me today!

Map Size

Increase your map size from League of Legends in-game settings just to fix your habit of not checking the map, later on; you can put the normal size back again!

Third-Party Apps

Using a third-party app to help you understand the game basis is also as valuable as coaching since those applications have answers to many questions you have in mind.

Balancing Macro and Micro

Macro plays and Micro plays have different value depending on the role and the champion, here are the things that you should keep in mind for every role:

Top Lane

Micro Requirement: ⅘
Macro Requirement: ⅗

Jungle

Micro Requirement: ⅖
Macro requirement: ⅘

Mid Lane

Micro Requirement: ⅗
Macro Requirement: ⅗

ADC

Micro Requirement: ⅘
Macro Requirement: ⅖

Support

Micro Requirement: ⅖
Macro Requirement: ⅘

Conclusion

Macro and Micro are 2 sides of a coin, you can't have one without the other in most cases and you should be able to understand them both to improve at League of Legends.

Make sure to follow the requirements to understand what's needed the most for you to master the role you are playing, and good luck in your climb!