League of Legends is one of the biggest esports on the planet. Here’s a guide for getting started in this massive community game. League of Legends has taken over the world with its addictive MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) gameplay and an entire subsection dedicated to fans of this game was formed. It’s impossible to go onto Twitch and not see League of Legends streams dominate at least one of the top 3 most viewed games. There’s a good amount of money invested in making sure this franchise thrives. Stadiums are sold out to host spectator events for championship series. Prize pools range within the millions of dollars per tournament. Professional teams, players, and sagas have been developed around this game. It can be intimidating to want to begin playing League of Legends as it has a reputation surrounding it for being difficult to jump into. This guide will help beginner players learn the basics of League of Legends.
Here’s how League of Legends games work out. Two teams of Five are to face off against each other on the map, Summoner’s Rift. The player then will select champions to take control of for the match. Currently, the game has over 140 characters, each one with their own unique abilities and skills. In order to win the game, the team must destroy the enemy team’s base. The challenges lie in seeing who can do this first while killing each other and protecting their own base. Also, champions can be leveled up in games and become stronger by earning experience and gold. One team will eventually fall behind and the other will be victorious. Sounds simple enough. Although, there’s a lot of consideration when playing a game of League of Legends, especially when selecting a champion. Each game can be vastly different due to the difference in each champion. Let’s start with choosing a role.
Choosing A Role in League of Legends
In a game of League of Legends, there are 1 of 5 roles players can take on, each with their own function in-game. These are what each role can accomplish. It’s recommended to try each roll to find what fits comfortably with the player. Also, as its a team-based game, it’s important to consider what role is needed for the team to succeed in battle.
- Support: This role is to protect and support the ADC. If needed, this means taking hits and sacrificing their lives so the ADC can survive. Abilities focus more on crowd control like silences, stuns, slowing down the enemy. Their main mission is to support the team. ADC/Marksman: ADC stands for attack, damage, carry. This role is responsible for dishing out damage to the enemy team. While these roles can attack and kill pretty easily, they are also one of the weakest in terms of defense. Using gold (gold will be mentioned later) the Marksman can become stronger. Tank: It sounds exactly like what it is. The Tank roll requires players to take in all the heavy damage since they have a higher defense. They can also help control crowds with support. This role focuses on taking down the enemy team Marksman and holding them in place while the rest of the team arrives so they can kill them together. Jungler: The jungle is an area in the Summoners Rift. In the jungle, this roll can grow experience quickly without having to split it with the rest of the team. They will also be responsible for killing creatures to gather XP. Junglers are fast and can deal plenty of damage. APC/Solo Mid: APC stands for ability, power, carry and this role can also deal with plenty of damage. This role does not need support with them. This role gains the most XP by focusing on themselves and collecting it in the middle lane.
Fighting Basics and Practice in League of Legends
Each champion has an auto-attack and their own abilities to use. To use auto-attacks, click on the enemy and the game will do it automatically. Although abilities are a bit more elaborate. each champion has a few special attacks they can use. Each one also has a cooldown time in order to use them again, so be careful not to incorrectly time when the use these. Also, items the players purchase at the shop can be assigned to the 1-7 keys.
Understanding Your UI in League of Legends
The champion UI contains a good amount of information to take in about each champion. These metrics will differ between each champion, but the locations will remain the same on the UI.
- Health Bar: This is the green bar. This determines how much health the player has remaining. Ability Resources: Depending on the champion, this could be energy, fury, or mana. Mana is indicated by the blue bar and slowly fills back up over time. Energy is the yellow bar (recharges faster than mana but max value cannot be increased) Attack Damage: Represented by an axe icon. Determines the amount of damage the player can distribute. Ability Power: Represented by a blue fireball. This is to make abilities stronger. Armor: Represented by the shield. How much damage the player can take. Magic Resist: Represented by a purple dot. How much magic damage the player can take. Attack Speed: Represented by the yellow axe. How quickly attacks get sent out. Cooldown Reduction: Represented by the hourglass. An ability that makes cooldown for abilities go faster. Critical Strike Chance: Represented by the red strike icon. The odds of landing a critical hit. Movement Speed: Represented by the white boot. How fast the character can move.
Leveling in League of Legends
As mentioned, all champions begin at level 1 at the start of each match. Leveling in a game can provide perks like more HP, MP, movement speed and defense. In order to level up. champions will need to defeat enemies or kill opponent champions. Also going to jungle camps and killing there is another way to gain levels. They will also drop gold that can be used to upgrade specific stats and unlock abilities. The max level players can reach in a single game is 18.
Working In Teams in League of Legends
League of Legends is a team-based game. There’s absolutely no way around out. Working together with other players and properly selecting the roles the team needs is essential to emerging victoriously. It’s important to communicate with the team as well. For example, if the team is rushing one specific section of Summoners Rift, that needs to be communicated. There’s a reason why these roles exist, as each one picks up the slack of the others. One bad apple can ruin the entire game. As a new player, it’s recommended to begin playing as each role until one feels like the right fit. Once it clicks, grind with that character until the player sees improvement.
There’s no game in the world like League of Legends. Modern-day eSports can be grateful for the success of the game. While eSports has existed for decades in the form of competitive Quake and Call of Duty tournaments and competition, neither has even come close to what League of Legends has accomplished. It’s completely understandable while people would want to play this game. An entire business has been built around this single game. Although for beginners, try collecting a group of friends and learning together. It could be their next favorite game.
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League of Legends is available now on PC and Mac.
