Welcome to our ultimate beginner’s guide to League of Legends! In this guide we’ll cover everything you need to get started on Summoner’s Rift (where the battles take place).
Wether you’re thinking about playing for the first time or you’re a player who wants to improve their skills and sharpen their basics understand of the game, this guide is made for you.
A lot has changed since the game first got released in 2011. We’ll walk you through everything you’ll need to succeed in League of Legends.
What is League of Legends?
League of Legends is an extremely successful multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA). It’s quickly became the most popular game on the planet. If that doesn’t impress you, I’m not sure what would.
In a standard game of League, two teams of give players duke it out on the classic map, Summoner’s Rift.
Each “summoner” (you) control a unique champion – each with their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses.
What Is a Champion?
When playing League, you pick your champion that you will use for the entirety of the game. As of now, there are over 150 champions with new ones being added all the time.
Every champion has a passive ability, three “basic” abilities and one ultimate ability which is more powerful than the rest with a longer cooldown.
Every champion has its own strengths and weaknesses. It’s up to you to pick a champion based on your ideal playstyle, what synergizes with your team, and if you want to “counter” the other team.
The Game Objective
League of Legends is a very complex game with limitless ways to play the game. Imagine, even if it’s the same map every game, one champion difference makes sure no game is exactly the same as the last.
There are some key parts of the game you should get familiar with. All of these aspects of the game are essential to success and important to know to grow as a player.
In a nutshell, your goal is to earn gold throughout the game through killing other players and killing minions (CSing).
Your goal is to break down turrets in the way of the enemy nexus. Killing the nexus is the ultimate goal of the game.
We’ll break down some of the most important parts of the game for you.
The Five Champion Roles In League
In a regular game of League, there are five main roles that every champion falls under. Of course, you can play any champions in more than just one role, but there is a standard or “meta” where they usually reside.
The five roles are:
- Top: usually a fighter champion
- Mid: Lane: typically a mage or assassin
- Jungle: tanks, assassins, or fighters
- Support: typically a healer or tank
- ADC: attack damage carry responsible for heavy damage
Each role in league has its own unique role and importance. You’ll notice when you try to play a game of League that you will be able to pick from these five roles.
If you’re brand new to the game, we recommend starting with one role and learning it as you go. Maybe try the different roles a few times each and see which one you prefer.
Don’t worry, you’re never “stuck” in a certain role. If you decide you want to switch it up and try a new role, there’s nothing stopping you!
Aspects Of The Game
There are many, many different elements to League. It will take you a while to get familiar with all of them. We’ve highlighted some of the most important ones to start learning. As you read more in to our beginner’s guide to League of Legends, you’ll piece together the different elements.
Creep Score
Your “creep score” or more commonly called “CSing”, is very important in League of Legends. Csing is your biggest source of gold in the game.
Learning how to kill minions effectively is one the most impactful ways to become a better player.
There is a technique for every champion on CSing that you can learn over time.
Champions may even use their abilities to cs. For the most part, this just takes practice. We recommend going into a custom game by yourself and try and get every cs you can. The average cs/min for silver players is 5.12.
Remember every champion is different and missing a minion isn’t the end of the world.
Champion Pool
Your League of Legends champion pool is another important aspect of the game. It’s really easy to want to play every champion in the game but you also have to remember there are over 150 champions in the game with Riot regularly adding new ones.
However, it’s important to try different types of champions to better understand what play style you like. Once you’ve found that playstyle it is recommended to find and focus on 3-5 champions.
This will allow you to get to know your champions and allow you to focus on some of the other basic skills such as CSing.
Vision Control
Vision control is something most players struggle with but becomes more important as you learn the game.
“Wards” are items you put down on the map that reveal an area for a short time. This allows you to see where enemy champions are and allows you to create your strategy around them.
Although the support class of champions are mostly responsible for them, every player has a trinket that lets them put down wards for free.
Vision control is equally important in all stages of the game. An enemy jungler will try to “gank” you. If you have wards on the map, you can see them come before it’s too late.
Summoner Spells
Every champion has four abilities but every summoner has two summoner spells. These spells are designed to aid you and your playstyle. The most used spell is Flash, but every jungler takes Smite. It’s also typical for the ADC to take Heal.
The more you play the more you’ll understand the different summoner spells and when to use them.
Map Awareness
Map awareness is a key strategic part of the game that even veterans struggle with. The map actually has quite of bit of information and can be hard to truly understand when you’re first starting off.
It would be a good idea to try and get to know what and how the mini-map can be utilized. Timers for jungle camps are massively useful and can give you an idea of where the junglers may be on the map. As well as timers for bigger things such as Dragon and Baron.
With time you will feel more comfortable using the map to your advantage as of now focus on slowly trying to take in the information even without using it.
Dealing with Toxicity
Riot is working on dealing with toxic players but it’s almost certain you will have to deal with them at some point. as
Sadly there is quite the stigma of League having a toxic community and from what I’ve seen in my many years playing the game people aren’t wrong.
While reporting is a good way to hopefully weed out the toxic people that doesn’t always help you within the game. The best way to go about dealing with toxicity is simply not allowing it. At the first sign of someone being toxic just mute them. Not everyone in life wants to get along and that’s ok but you also shouldn’t have to deal with their toxicity either.
Key Bindings
Having a well-optimzed key bind set up that feels good to you will help you become win more games on in League of Legends.
You want to be the most comfortable with a game you can be, while many of the default key binds seem to work pretty well it’s still all about comfort. While you can look up what some pro players use or your favorite streamer there is no “right” answer here. Just find what works best for you!
Counter Picks
Some champions do very well against others. On the contrary, that means it will be much harder to play when you’re versing a counter pick to your champion.
Counter picks are one of the biggest reasons you need to have a decent-sized champion pool. While counter picks are not necessarily needed they can help you climb a lot.
Although this will later come more down the line naturally as you gain more knowledge about most champions there are plenty of ways to find counters using certain websites or apps. With that being said it is also important to know why and how a champion counters another. Even if you have a good matchup you can still lose if you don’t know how to exploit the enemy champion.
Team Fighting
Team fights are a huge part of League of Legends so knowing how to maneuver them is a must. First we take it back to champion pool.
You need to understand your role and how to position in a team fight. If you’re more of a supportive character you should do your best to peel for carries while carries need to know when they can step up and when they can’t.
Understanding your role will come with time and knowledge of your champion. Like with many things in League, experience is your best bet.
As a general rule of thumb most supports either provide engage and cc or damage and shields. While Mid lane often provides high burst damage. Top and Jungle can vary quite a bit so they are harder to pin down. Bottom on the other hand is often range and expect to be auto attacking as much as they can.
Target Priority
Knowing who to target is also very vital to team fighting. Obviously targeting the people with the most damage should be your first option.
That isn’t always a safe thing to do though. As a carry if you never want to put yourself in a position to be taking to much damage. This is why you will often see Bottom carries position further back in team fights and attacking the tanks.
Remember to try and coordinate with your team so you all know what the best course of action will likely be. If you have to peel back your whole team will need to help. While if you have an assassin you will want to look for good flanks to catch the enemy carries off guard.
Don’t Forget To Have Fun
League of Legends can truly be a fun game to play with friends or solo. It’s important to remember you’re playing a game and are there to enjoy yourself.
To many people get caught up in trying to climb and ranking up that is causes them to get tilted very easily. There is plenty to learn along the way as you play both in game and out but one thing will always stand true, if you’re playing to have fun the experience is almost always better!
Conclusion
Overall we really hope our Ultimate Beginner’s Guide To League of Legends will be helpful for you. The game seems to never stop growing and has fans all over the world.
You too can become a fan, player, and enjoyer of the game. Be sure to check out our lol esports news to keep up with all your favorite teams.
Let us know if our guide has helped you and good luck to you on the rift.