| League of Legends | Beginner's Guide. Champion Choice

[- Sam -]

Hey guys, this is my very first guide i've ever posted! I hope this will help many people when starting League of Legends.
Part 2 has been posted below.
Thanks.

- Champion Overview -
League of Legends has a few distinct champion types; these are Tanks, Physical Damage per Second, Mages, and Support and Hybrids. Each group has their own unique characteristics and strengths. This part of the beginner's guide will shed some light on the champions of the League of Legends and to give you a basic look at what they can do.

Tanks

Tank champions are the heroes who try to take all the damage in the team fights, they usually have Area of affect stuns to help disable enemy champions setting up their team mates to do damage to the enemy. Tanks will also generally have high health regeneration and high armor/ magic resistance values. These are the stats that reduce incoming damage, helping to "tank". Their base health towers in comparison over other heroes, but in doing this they sacrifice damage output and also struggle with mana regeneration.

Mages

Mages are powerful champions with magical damage abilities through the roof that are capable of causing instant death should anyone foolish enough get in range of them. They are quite frail targets and have the lowest armor/magic resist values in the game. They require considerable protection by a tank to keep them safe, as long as they're kept safe they can cause unimaginable pain to an enemy champion. A well-protected mage can be key to victory in the ever-important team fights.

Supports

Support heroes have abilities that give direct or indirect bonuses to their allies. Types of support bonuses are temporary boosts to selected champions such as attack speed boosts and the most conspicuous type of support, healing. Supports help the team by providing heals or boosts when needed, or by slowing/ stunning an enemy champion. Most have very little aggressive power themselves, but make up for it by boosting their allies to unrivaled power. They are also blessed with considerable survivability that coincides with their support role well.

Hybrids

All champions can be built into different roles, though generally there is a definite superior choice of ways to build. Tristana should always be built with physical damage and Alistar should be built to tank, but hybrids can be built in an entirely different way each game and still fulfill different roles with equal success. They are some of the most lethal heroes in the game for example Blitzcrank has the body and the stats of a tank, however, due to several offensive abilities he can be effectively built to do damage over being a tank while being effective in both roles.

- Team Compositions -

In a team game like League of Legends, the most effective team compositions comprise of different types of heroes. Stacking a team with only one type of hero never ends well, if say you pick four mages and one tank, the enemy team can merely stack magic resist items, which essentially makes all damage output pitiful. The same thing is true of an all physical team, all the enemy need to do is buy some armor and your whole team loses half it's combat effectiveness, thus, mixing a team is far superior. One Tank, two DPS, one Mage and a support or a hybrid champion is an example of solid team composition.

- Champion Names -

Alistar -

Amumu -

Anivia -

Annie -

Ashe -

Blitzcrank -

Cho'Gath -

Corki -

Dr. Mundo -

Evelynn -

Fiddlesticks -

Gangplank -

Heimerdinger -

Janna -

Jax -

Karthus -

Kassadin -

Katarina -

Kayle -

Malphite -

Master Yi -

Nasus -

Rammus -

Nunu

Ryze -

Shaco -

Singed -

Sion -

Sivir -

Soraka -

Taric -

Tristana -

Tryndamere -

T. Fate -

Twitch -

Veigar -

Warwick -

Zilean -

Teemo -

( I'm going to add the champion profiles, By each name i'll say what they are best at and there weakness, I will edit this post overtime. )

- Runes -]

Marks

Greater Mark of Malice +0.93% critical chance
Greater Mark of Desolation +1.66 armor penetration
Greater Mark of Fortitude +3.47 health
Greater Mark of Vitality +0.54 health per level (+9.72 at champion level 18)
Greater Mark of Resilience +0.91 armor
Razer Mark of Precision +2.23% critical damage
Greater Mark of Warding +0.97 magic resist
Greater Mark of Knowledge +1.17 mana per level (+21.06 at champion level 18)
Greater Mark of Strength +0.95 attack damage
Greater Mark of Replenishment +0.26 mana regen / 5 sec.
Greater Mark of Might +0.13 attack damage per level (+2.43 at champion level 18)
Greater Mark of Insight +0.95 magic penetration
Greater Mark of Alacrity +1.7% attack speed
Greater Mark of Furor +2.23% critical damage
Greater Mark of Shielding +0.07 magic resist per level (+1.26 at champion level 18)
Greater Mark of Focus -0.16% cooldowns
Greater Mark of Potency +0.59 ability power
Greater Mark of Force +0.1 ability power per level (+1.8 at champion level 18)
Greater Mark of Intellect +5.91 mana

Seals

Greater Seal of Knowledge +1.17 mana per level (+21.06 at champion level 18)
Greater Seal of Replenishment +0.41 mana regen / 5 sec.
Greater Seal of Clarity +0.065 mana regen / 5 sec. per level (+1.17 at champion level 18)
Greater Seal of Strength +0.43 attack damage
Greater Seal of Might +0.06 attack damage per level (+1.09 at champion level 18)
Greater Seal of Alacrity +0.76% attack speed
Greater Seal of Furor +0.78% critical damage
Greater Seal of Meditation +0.63 Energy regen/5 sec
Greater Seal of Shielding +0.1 magic resist per level (+1.8 at champion level 18)
Greater Seal of Vigor +0.43 health regen / 5 sec.
Greater Seal of Regeneration +0.11 health regen / 5 sec. per level (+1.98 at champion level 18)
Greater Seal of Evasion +0.75% dodge
Greater Seal of Focus -0.29% cooldowns
Greater Seal of Potency +0.59 ability power
Greater Seal of Force +0.1 ability power per level (+1.8 at champion level 18)
Greater Seal of Intellect +6.89 mana
Greater Seal of Malice +0.42% critical chance
Greater Seal of Fortitude +5.35 health
Greater Seal of Vitality +1.08 health per level (+19.44 at champion level 18)
Greater Seal of Lucidity +0.064 Energy regen/5 sec per level (+1.15 at champion level 18)
Greater Seal of Resilience +1.41 armor
Greater Seal of Defense +0.15 armor per level (+2.7 at champion level 18)
Greater Seal of Warding +0.74 magic resist

Glyphs

Greater Glyph of Insight +0.57 magic penetration
Greater Glyph of Malice +0.28% critical chance
Greater Glyph of Fortitude +2.67 health
Greater Glyph of Vitality +0.54 health per level (+9.72 at champion level 18)
Greater Glyph of Resilience +0.7 armor
Greater Glyph of Warding +1.49 magic resist
Greater Glyph of Strength +0.28 attack damage
Greater Glyph of Might +0.04 attack damage per level (+0.73 at champion level 18)
Greater Glyph of Alacrity +0.64% attack speed
Greater Glyph of Furor +0.56% critical damage
Greater Glyph of Acumen +2.2 Energy
Greater Glyph of Shielding +0.15 magic resist per level (+2.7 at champion level 18)
Greater Glyph of Sapience +0.161 Energy/level (+2.9 at level 18)
Greater Glyph of Vigor +0.27 health regen / 5 sec.
Greater Glyph of Focus -0.65% cooldowns
Greater Glyph of Celerity -0.05% cooldowns per level (-0.9% at champion level 18)
Greater Glyph of Potency +0.99 ability power
Greater Glyph of Force +0.17 ability power per level (+3.06 at champion level 18)
Greater Glyph of Intellect +11.25 mana
Greater Glyph of Knowledge +1.42 mana per level (+25.56 at champion level 18)
Greater Glyph of Replenishment +0.31 mana regen / 5 sec.
Greater Glyph of Clarity +0.055 mana regen / 5 sec. per level (+0.99 at champion level 18)

Quintessence

Greater Quintessence of Knowledge +4.17 mana per level (+75.06 at champion level 18)
Greater Quintessence of Replenishment +1.25 mana regen / 5 sec.
Greater Quintessence of Clarity +0.24 mana regen / 5 sec. per level (+4.32 at champion level 18)
Greater Quintessence of Strength +2.25 attack damage
Greater Quintessence of Insight +1.89 magic penetration
Greater Quintessence of Might +0.25 attack damage per level (+4.5 at champion level 18)
Greater Quintessence of Alacrity +3.4% attack speed
Greater Quintessence of Swiftness +1.5% movement speed
Razer Quintessence of Speed +1.5% movement speed
Greater Quintessence of Revival -5% time dead
Greater Quintessence of Furor +4.46% critical damage
Greater Quintessence of Avarice +1 gold / 10 sec.
Greater Quintessence of Wisdom +2% experience gained
Greater Quintessence of Shielding +0.37 magic resist per level (+6.66 at champion level 18)
Greater Quintessence of the Piercing Present +1.89 magic penetration
Greater Quintessence of Vigor +2.7 health regen / 5 sec.
Greater Quintessence of Regeneration +0.28 health regen / 5 sec. per level (+5.04 at champion level 18)
Greater Quintessence of Evasion +1.5% dodge
Greater Quintessence of Focus -1.64% cooldowns
Greater Quintessence of Celerity -0.13% cooldowns per level (-2.34% at champion level 18)
Greater Quintessence of Potency +4.95 ability power
Greater Quintessence of Force +0.43 ability power per level (+7.74 at champion level 18)
Greater Quintessence of Intellect +37.5 mana
Greater Quintessence of Malice +1.86% critical chance
Greater Quintessence of Desolation +3.33 armor penetration
Greater Quintessence of Fortitude +26 health
Greater Quintessence of Meditation +1.575 Energy regen/5 sec
Greater Quintessence of Vitality +2.7 health per level (+48.6 at champion level 18)
Greater Quintessence of Acumen +5.4 Energy
Greater Quintessence of Resilience +4.26 armor
Greater Quintessence of Defense +0.38 armor per level (+6.84 at champion level 18)
Greater Quintessence of Warding +4.5 magic resist
Greater Quintessence of the Deadly Wreath +3.33 armor penetration
Greater Quintessence of Frosty Fortitude +26 health
Greater Quintessence of Sugar Rush +1.5% movement speed

- Mastery Trees -

Here's the stat boosts that you get if you spec into all of the stat boosts in each of the different trees.

Offense Tree:

Critical Strike Chance: +2%
Ability Power per Level: +0.60
Cooldown Reduction: -3%
Attack Speed: 4%
Magic Penetration: +15%
Armor Penetration: -6
Damage to Minions: +4
Attack Damage: +3, +5%
Critical Strike Damage: +10%
Magic Damage: +5%

Summoner spell upgrades

Exhaust: -25 armor, -25 magic resist, +.5 second duration
Smite: +5 gold, -5 second cool-down
Promote: Siegerider +20 armor, taunts towers, -15 second cool-down
Rally: +20% magic damage, +5 second duration

Defensive Tree:

Magic Resistance: +6
Armor: +6
Health Regeneration: +0.30% of Max Mana
Dodge: +2%
Physical Damage Reduction: +2
Minion Damage Reduction: +2
Damage Reduction: +5%
Health: +60

Summoner spell upgrades

Heal: +75 heal, -10 second cool-down
Revive: +400 health for 90 seconds, -20 second cool-down
Boost: -30 second cool-down, +2 second duration
Fortify: +6 damage to minions when off cool-down

Utility Tree:

Death Timer Reduction: -10%
Health Regeneration: +4%
Mana Regeneration: +4%, +1/sec
Experience Gain: +5%
Mana: +5%
Gold: +0.10/sec
Neutral Buff Duration: +30%
Movement Speed: +3%
Cool-down Reduction: -6%
Summoner Cool-down Reduction: -15%

Summoner spell upgrades

Teleport: -.5 second cast, -5 second cool-down
Ghost: +8% movement speed, +1.5 second duration
Flash: -15 second cool-down
Clairvoyance: 30 second invisibility vision, +30 second duration

---

- Beginner Tactics -

Welcome to the Beginner Tactics article. This section should help familiarize you with the basic tenets of League of Legends.

Champion Types

Roles – There are 5 main types of champions: Tank, Support, Mage, DPS, and Jungle. While “Jungle” is not an official tag, playing champions who excel at clearing out the jungle monsters can be just as important as playing your team’s Mage.

Tanks – Tanks specialize in two main traits: Absorbing damage, and distracting enemies. Often, this distraction can come in the form of disabling or “crowd-controlling” (CC) enemy champions. Alistar is an exceptional tank: Pulverize stuns nearby enemies for 2 second. His ultimate, Unbreakable Will, significantly reduces damage he takes for a short time.

Support – Support champions are focused on improving teammates. They can accomplish this feat through a variety of means: Replenishing mana or health, increasing movement or attack speed, shielding teammates from taking damage or getting CC’d, and more. Soraka has four support abilities: Passively, she increases he teammates’ magic resistance by 16. Astral Blessing heals a target and temporarily increases its armor; Infuse replenishes the mana of a friendly target, or silences an enemy; her ultimate, Wish, instantly heals all friendly champions for a significant amount of health.

Mages – Mages excel in dealing instant magic damage through various spells and also typically possess some minor CC effects of their own. Take Annie for example: Disintegrate, Incinerate, and Summon Tibbers together can deal over 1000 damage instantly when cast in sequence. Her passive, Energize, allows her to stun targets with her spells every few casts.

DPS – DPS, short for “Damage Per Second” are targeted at dealing extremely high, persistent physical damage to enemies. One common characteristic of a DPS champion is what’s called a “steroid” ability, which significantly multiplies a champion’s physical damage output. Master Yi has two such abilities: Wuju Style, which significantly increases his damage per attack; and Highlander, which gives him extremely fast attack speed, movement speed, and makes him immune to slows, allowing him to pursue his targets more easily.

Junglers – Junglers will also embody some of the above traits, but are also adept at taking out neutral monsters with no outside help. Typically these champions have a way to heal themselves or deal extremely high damage very quickly. Warwick is an excellent jungler: His passive, Eternal Thirst, heals him with every attack he makes; Hungering Strike deals significant damage to a single enemy and heals him for an equal amount.

Choosing a Champion

Complementing your Team – A winning team contains champions from all walks of life. Many players love playing “carry” (DPS) champions. Summoners who enjoy the playstyles of tanks or support champions are much rarer. Winning a game can be as simple as picking champions complementary to your team!

Possible Team Composition – Here’s a sample, well-rounded team composition: Alistar (tank), Annie (mage), Ashe (DPS, carry), Soraka (support), Warwick (jungle, DPS)

Items

Shop Interface – One of the key components of League of Legends is the purchase of items. Every champion comes complete with “Recommended Items” located at the top right of the shop. Following these items will leave you with a strong balance of your most important stats.

Starting Items – Purchasing some form of mana or health regeneration is extremely important. The first recommended item typically contains a relevant form of regeneration.

Building Towards your Role – Every stat has multiple complements: Attack damage, critical chance, and attack speed all work together to increase your overall damage output. Simiarly, armor and magic resistance increase the worth of your health stat. Mages can employ ability power, cooldown reduction, magic penetration, and more to increase their power. Experiment with stats that work well with your favorite champions!

React to your Enemy – As you get more familiar with the champions and items, you should try to build items to counter your opponents. Executioner’s Calling is strong against healers. Last Whisper and Void Staff are aimed at defeating enemies with heavy armor and magic resist, respectively. Madred’s Bloodrazor and Deathfire Grasp work best against enemies with more health than normal.

Key Items – There are a few extremely efficient items that will always support your team or always benefit your role: Aegis of the Legion is an exceptional tank or support item. Stark’s Fervor will significantly buff a friendly physical DPS champion. Infinity Edge is never a bad idea on any physical damage champion. Rod of Ages or Zhonya’s Ring should make an appearance on most mages in the game.

Map objectives

Turrets – Turrets give gold and experience to the entire team when they’re killed. Quickly pushing and destroying turrets will give your team a significant advantage in levels and items. Additionally, it leaves your enemies more exposed and easily attacked with less protection.

Inhibitors and Super Minions – After destroying 3 turrets in a lane the inhibitor will be vulnerable. Killing the inhibitor will spawn “Super Minions” for your team in that lane. They will continue to spawn with every minion wave until the inhibitor respawns a few minutes later. Super minions are remarkably durable and deal very heavy damage.

Kill the Nexus – Once you have broken past an inhibitor, 2 more turrets protect the nexus. Destroying the nexus will win you the game instantly!

Epic Monsters – Fields of Justice also contain various non-vital objectives: Epic monsters. Upon killing them, these monsters will give your champion a temporary buff, award your team gold and experience, or both!

Lanes

What is a Lane? – Minions, turrets, and inhibitors are situated in various “Lanes” in League of Legends. Minions follow a pre-determined path down these lanes, which are dotted with turrets of increasing power down the lane.

Travel Between Lanes – While minions stick to one lane all game, you should always be looking for the best place to fight! You can easily transition between the various lanes via the river running through the middle of the map, or through the twisting pathways in the jungle. Don’t worry: Monsters in the jungle will not attack you until you attack them.

Minion Spawns – Starting at 1 minute and 30 seconds into the game, minions will spawn in each of the lanes and head to the enemy base. On Summoner’s Rift, further waves spawn every 30 seconds. On Twisted Treeline, they spawn every 45 seconds. Every third wave will also see a “siege” minion spawned, who excels at absorbing damage from enemy turrets.

Turrets – Three turrets per team dot each lane. Two more turrets also protect the nexus. Normally, these turrets restrict your ability to push forward and kill the enemy champions or vital structures. Grouping together as a team will allow you to push these turrets down more quickly.

Objectives in the Lane – There are 3 main objectives while in the lane. First, deal the killing blow on enemy minions. While simply being near a dying enemy minion will award you experience, you gain bonus gold for directly dealing the killing blow on them. Second, you should try to kill the enemy champions. This feat won’t always be easy, but if you work with a teammate – especially with the help of slowing or stunning spells – you should be able to gain some extra gold and experience for killing your opponents. Third, you should also try to push down the enemy turrets. Certain champions like Sivir, Nasus, and Heimerdinger really excel at killing droves of minions quickly and attacking turrets.

Jungle

Organization – In most cases, the jungle is completely non-random. Epic monsters always spawn in the same locations and always give the same bonuses These images denote the location of the various epic and normal monsters across the Fields of Justice.

Buff Acquisition – Not every champion can easily defeat epic monsters on their own. Some players like to acquire buffs as a team-wide activity at the very start of the game. Others, like Warwick, can comfortably destroy and entire epic monster camp at level 1. Others may want to employ the summoner spell Smite, which is aimed specifically at destroying minions and monsters quickly.

Playing as a Jungler – As a jungling champion, you should be able to quickly acquire epic monster buffs to accelerate your monster killing. Using these buffs, you may find that ganking (attacking enemies from behind, unannounced) enemy champions will be both easy and profitable.

Fight Wisely

Run the Numbers - Unless you have a significant level or gold advantage, you should typically not start any fights where you are outnumbered. Fighting under-staffed will only result in giving away gold and experience to your enemies.

Defending and Attacking - In gauging the strength of your team vs your enemies, consider defensive points like turrets. A turret is typically worth 1-2 champions in damage output. Consider their involvement before choosing any pitched battles.

Surrendering

In order to save time in games where defeat seems unavoidable, League of Legends offers teams the option to surrender. Any player may initiate a surrender vote for his team by selecting the ‘Surrender’ option from the ‘More Options’ submenu of the main menu. You must be at least 25 minutes into the game before the surrender option becomes available.

Initiating a surrender vote will show a pop-up for 60 seconds from which players will be able to cast their vote for or against the motion. At least 70% of the team must agree to surrender in order for the vote to pass. This means that on a team of three or fewer players, the entire team must agree. Any player who abstains from the vote is counted against the motion to surrender.

At the end of the 60 seconds, if 70% of the team has not agreed to surrender, the vote fail

[Saga]

Whoa, nice guide! I don't play it, but I may start too.

[morchid]

Iv never ever liked this game, seems really weird.

[- Sam -]

Thanks guys, just a simple beginners guide.

[CHEESEWIZKILLA76]

Thanks for this post OP, I've tried this game before but I stunk at it!
Might give it another shot after reading this.

[- Sam -]

You should try it again, takes time to become good. Watch tutorials on youtube of the champ you want to use. thats the way i got around it.

[Blic]

Renekton or Olaf FTW!

[Carbide]

All Ashe. All day.

11-0 ranked enemies surrender @ 20 = good game.

Nice guide, found it a bit long though.

You should also mention for any new players that the community is complete crap, and everyone who plays LoL sucks ass. .

I switched over to HoN primarily because it is more difficult.

[- Sam -]

Cumminity isn't crap. You just get some kids who don't know how to play. When your 30 play ranked games.

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Always wondered what the game was about, everyone speaks about it. Thanks for explaining, not interested in it tho