League of Legends Beginner

[RobfromtheGulag]

Unless you're really into the MobA thing, I wouldn't start. I started under peer pressure and had an awful time playing support for 3 months or so. Then I finally branched out to Katarina who was fun. Then they refurbished Katarina. Now I don't play LoL.

As long as you play a role you like, and find a character aesthetically pleasing enough, you can be good with anyone. Of course that's their company line, and it's false to some degree, but the unwashed masses of normal and even mid/high ladder can deal with anyone. In actual tournaments there are some characters you never see (in fact there's a pretty small roster of characters you DO see), but that's beside the point.

People said Katarina sucked. I liked her. Did well with her. There were a few people who had 2500elo and played her. So... yea, just pick someone you like and get better with them.

(And by 'Better', a big part of what I mean is map awareness and player habits, such as hiding in bushes, diving, etc).

 

[Zebidizy]

annie is a good one, she cost 450 and her q teaches u to last hit. which i =s very very imoportant. (refunds mana when u kill a unit) plus she has a fricken bear !!

 

[miketehmage]

Well it's good to not stick to just one champion. If someone picks that one before you, you're screwed.

Also, play as many champions as you can. Nothing sucks more than going up against an enemy you know next to nothing about. Play everyone so you know what to expect, strengths and weaknesses, counters and hard counters.

Pretty much this. When I started I pretty much played Ashe to 30. That was NOT the way to do things, I knew it, my friends knew it, yet i still did it.

Needless to say i had a crapload of learning to catch up on by the time I reached 30.

However, if you are set on having a main, then I do recommend Ashe. Her q is an extremely powerful noskill slow. Her w is a fantastic poke that fires in a cone so you don't need to worry about being able to aim it really, it also applies her slow. Her e is a handy scouting arrow that allows you to see enemy units in an area of your choosing. And finally her ult, Oh my god her ult. Massive frost arrow of doom that stuns the enemy for a time depending on the range it was fired from. It also applies aoe damage and a slow. It's a fantastic initiate at medium range (This is it's primary use). A great lifesaver at short range, and a hilarious method of killing off enemy stragglers on low HP at global range.

 

[DeadFOAM]

I started with Singed, Nasus, and Tryndamere. Of course, I rarely did PvP matches.

My favorite is Kog'Maw though. I love getting 2.5 attack speed and doing 10% of their health in an auto attack. Not the damage was 10%. I mean the attack specifiaclly does 10% of their health. Add onto that the standard damage boosts from gear and leveling, multiply by Kog'Maw's range, and he can be a real terror. Crazy squishy though. Avoid being CC'd like the freaking plague.

But my League time is behind me. Too much bullshit for not enough fun, in my opinion.

 

[Caliostro]

Yi is an absolute bastard. I started playing the other day too, along with a fellow Brovenger, and yeah, I can pretty much agree with you here, Yi works wonders at destroying people who don't know what they're doing.
[sub]I guess to be fair, the only Champion I actually semi-know how to play so far is Kayle, and I don't think a Melee-Support character is really the best to take one like Yi head-on.[/sub]

Kayle stomps him. Also Kayle isn't melee most of the time, due to Righteous Fury (E).

What gear are you doing with Kayle, and what lane are you playing? Kayle is typically better at solo top as semi-AD carry build or with a Trinity Force build. You can wreck any Yi with either.

Also, what kind of Yi are you facing? AD and AP are faced differently.

AD is a stereotypical glass cannon. Q him, then kite him with E and auto attacks. If he gets close to killing you, because he got fed or something, just ulti yourself and you should shred through him long before your ulti's over unless you're ridiculously underfarmed.

AP Yi is hit and run. He'll Alpha Strike you for good damage and then try to run away or stand there healing. If he runs ignore him, eat an health pot, and go about your business. If he meditates he's dead. Ignite him (or build an executioner's calling and use the item's active) and simply Q > E > auto attacks.

Ultimately though, remember that this isn't 1 on 1 death match. It's 5 vs 5 objective based. In laning focus on CSing and harassing safely, and only dive in when you know you got the kill. In team fights everyone gets to bash him, so as long as someone has some form of render (executioner's calling/morello's evil tome/ignite) he disappears like a wet napkin in a hurricane.

 

[Fappy]

-Snip-

Fancy seeing you in here! I agree with trying to find one champ to stick with until you get a hang of the game. As for which champ... well, I say just play someone you think looks interesting. I started out with Morgana (a pretty high skill-cap champ mainly because of Q) and 700ish game later she's still my best champ and I have a blast playing her.

-Snip-

I mostly agree with your assessment of Yi. Since he's free so often and cheap it's not a bad idea for people to try him out early to see if they like that kind of role. There are better champs that fill that niche, but Yi's the easiest to learn.

He is also a complete noob-devourer (much like Morde), as you said. Playing on a smurf account with Shrek here AP Yi eats people alive with 0 effort.

EDIT: Also, we're trying to ease Shrek into the mechanics of the game so we usually babysit him in bot. We did let him solo a lane one game last night though IIRC. At his level you don't see much jungling going on. I play Kayle occasionally myself, so I'll take good care of him ;P

 

[shrekfan246]

Yi is an absolute bastard. I started playing the other day too, along with a fellow Brovenger, and yeah, I can pretty much agree with you here, Yi works wonders at destroying people who don't know what they're doing.
[sub]I guess to be fair, the only Champion I actually semi-know how to play so far is Kayle, and I don't think a Melee-Support character is really the best to take one like Yi head-on.[/sub]

Kayle stomps him. Also Kayle isn't melee most of the time, due to Righteous Fury (E).

What gear are you doing with Kayle, and what lane are you playing? Kayle is typically better at solo top as semi-AD carry build or with a Trinity Force build. You can wreck any Yi with either.

Also, what kind of Yi are you facing? AD and AP are faced differently.

AD is a stereotypical glass cannon. Q him, then kite him with E and auto attacks. If he gets close to killing you, because he got fed or something, just ulti yourself and you should shred through him long before your ulti's over unless you're ridiculously underfarmed.

AP Yi is hit and run. He'll Alpha Strike you for good damage and then try to run away or stand there healing. If he runs ignore him, eat an health pot, and go about your business. If he meditates he's dead. Ignite him (or build an executioner's calling and use the item's active) and simply Q > E > auto attacks.

Ultimately though, remember that this isn't 1 on 1 death match. It's 5 vs 5 objective based. In laning focus on CSing and harassing safely, and only dive in when you know you got the kill. In team fights everyone gets to bash him, so as long as someone has some form of render (executioner's calling/morello's evil tome/ignite) he disappears like a wet napkin in a hurricane.

Well, typically I go for AD/Speed, and I like ending up with the Trinity Force. Right now, I'm assuming mostly because I'm level 6 and playing with people who's main accounts are level 30 so they're easing me in, I'm usually bot. And I think I've usually been running into AP Yi's.

Again, I don't really know a whole hell of a lot about the meta yet, since I've only been playing for... a week?

-Snip-

Fancy seeing you in here! I agree with trying to find one champ to stick with until you get a hang of the game. As for which champ... well, I say just play someone you think looks interesting. I started out with Morgana (a pretty high skill-cap champ mainly because of Q) and 700ish game later she's still my best champ and I have a blast playing her.

I know, right? It's almost like I actually can have an opinion about the game now because I'm sorta-kinda playing it!

 

[Ferisar]

Hahahah, good luck. It doesn't matter how much you read up on League, sucking stays bad until you get some practice in. Just keep playing and look for general stuff that tends to be repeated every game. Guides are just that, guides. When players stick to them like flies to sticky paper all they get is how someone else plays a champion.

Try out different builds and learn reactionary play when you get better at it. Countering your opponent becomes important, but not this early.

Keep trying out champions as you go along, find out who fits your playstyle before getting them.

Try to fill out a runepage before you hit 30. Those things are extremely necessary at higher level (not that they vary a whole lot, but there it is).

Keep looking at the free rotation and seeing what looks fun to you.

Don't get serious until you hit 30. The last thing you want is to get mad at League before you hit max-level. It's not worth your time if you do.

Disregard playerbase, acquire wins. Honor may help this, but assholes are in each game. Gotta find your own way of dealing with them.

Eh just Leave LoL now... it's dying. Go to DOTA 2 its more locked in and secure while it is growing rapidly and LoL is losing players daily in addition to tournaments. Pro Teams are dropping them as well. DOTA has returned Mwahahahaha.

When you get to DOTA be ready everyone flames just as hard... use the mute function or ask kindly for instruction with your hero. ITs a nice community when you are willing to ask for help.

And don't switch to DotA 2 because of this guy. Yeah, just don't do it out of spite. It's a fun game, until you meet anyone on it.
Our community may as well be rainbow flowers with unicorns in comparison.

 

[Kyr Knightbane]

Honestly the best thing to do is play the game to enjoy it. I recently got my wife to start playing it and she is focusing on 3 or 4 heroes and learning mechanics with a buddy and I. We do custom games and a few Co-Op v Ai's but mostly the fun comes from having friends who play like you do. Or if you can meet another player in a Co-op game or even PVP. Last match i did was about a month ago against other people and it was fun until the flaming started and people complaining about lag and KSing.

That's the biggest thing, when you play with other people its hard to forget the instinct to just rush kills and steamroll. Its a team game, and when you forget about helping your team-mates, that's when you fail. I played Wukong and was supporting more toward the end by diving targets ulting and using my clone to distract while others were running away. Its not the META, but i was keeping the enemy team from feeding off my team.

But i feel i'm getting off topic. In order to become better, just play. Do custom games, 1v1 against a bot and get a feel for laning and tower tactics. If you're unable to farm, fall back to your tower and try to kill the creeps there, once you get better, look for opportunities to dive enemies from brush or the fog of war. Once you feel more comfortable look for the buff locations (IE Lizard and Golem) Then try your hand at soloing Dragon. Once you get that down, try a few Co op games, learn how to lane with someone else, watch the other player and see how you can adapt. It took me a very long time to learn how to lane with someone else properly. If you're on the NA server, add me, gamertag is IamShmgeggy. I'm not the best but i wont flame you for trying. Good luck

 

[BraveSirRobin]

I played Morgana from levels 1-25 or so. She's very safe in lane which makes her good for new players. She also has guaranteed CS once Tormented Soil hits rank 3, which can put you miles above other low level summoners playing champions who have to rely on last hits for gold. She has an overall good kit with a binding that hits like a truck with AP and an ult that at best stuns an entire team and at worst scatters them while you stun their carry. Her shield can also save teammates close to death and blocks all CC. She only costs a modest 1350 IP and remains very powerful even as you start to climb in ELO. Personally I find her fun to play and consider her a great first AP carry to pick up. If you find her to your liking and enjoy mid lane I would suggest branching out into other harder to play mages like Anivia and Ahri.

 

[DugMachine]

Just keep playing and you'll get better. The 450 champions are really good and the more expensive they are doesn't mean they're better. If you ever hear Pay2win those people are just absolutely wrong. Yeah new champions might need some nerfing but most people know fuck all about them and suck balls while you're playing your favorite champion that you've read a guide for a thousand times over and know all the ins and outs of said champion.

Oh and guides are you friends. Just do some casual reading on guides of your chosen champion and learn their item builds for different scenarios n stuff.

 

[Highlandheadbanger]

I recommend learning Tryndamere early. Tryn will dominate beginner games but drops off hard in usefulness once you get to the 20s and 30.

 

[Mau95]

Try to get the free ones, if they're still doing that (I mean the Youtube and Facebook ones)and try out the free weekly champs. I started playing with people that were lv. 25, and it made me learn fast. The ragers were annoying at first but don't always ignore them; occasionnally there's some good advice in there.

 

[SpAc3man]

Play DotA 2 instead. All my LoL playing friends have switched to it and like it better. More hero variation and whatnot. Plus the community and developer support is really good.

 

[Jedd Crilly]

One piece of advice; don't be the guy that enters a room and immediately locks in a character.

Learn to play each of the five subtypes.

AP Carry; Annie. She's amazingly cheap for how good she is.
Tank; (Amumu is a good choice at the start because he's cheap)
AD (Preferably Ranged) Carry; Ashe. Learn her. She's damn good if you play her right. And she's cheap as chips.
Support; I'd pick Sona. More expensive than almost all of the others, but a lot better.
Jungler; Learn how to do this. It'll help you understand it at the very least. I've seen good Nocturne Jungler's, but I'd recommend Warwick because he's cheaper and still very good.

Use Mobafire to get builds if you're not confident making them up yourself.

DO NOT BUY RUNES until you reach lvl 20. There's no point, because the higher level ones are kinda expensive and the lower level ones don't really affect you nearly as much.