Hey guys, I just started getting into LoL and I'm really enjoying it, but the problem is right now I pretty much suck at it. I always go 2/14/0 or something as rediculous as that and I always have around 6-8k cash at most by the end of a match. I'm on the losing end of the stick a lot of the time as well.

So would anyone mind sharing some general tips for a newbie? Can some of you recommend a good tank, carry, mage, fighter or support as well please? The more AOE abilities the better.

dont auto attack the minions. only hit them to get the last hit. then you get the gold and you dont push to far up to their turret. if all your minions are at there turret then you will be ganked by their jungler. dont worry about pushing forward for the first half the game. just far minion kills and dont die.

I'm not sure how much you know already, but I'm gonna just list a bunch of tips in no particular order that might help you out.

-no matter what people say, dorans blade is a good item. Take it first if you are AD and already have some self sustain. It also makes last hitting easier.

-last hit, cause its super important

-if the enemy has a jungler, dont push past the river without warding it. Also, dont ward right in the river bush, instead, place it halfway between dragon and bush, or baron and bush(depending on which lane ur in)

-if you dont know what to start with, get boots and hp pots

As for good champions for the current state of the game.

Tanks: Singed, Maokai, Leona, Jarvan is still good imo, Rammus, Amumu(Dedicated tanks have fallen out of favor, being replaced by bruisers).

AD carry:Graves, Vayne, Ash, Kog Maw,

AP Carry(Mage): Malzahar, Cassiopeia,Lux, Leblanc, Leblanc, Leblanc

Fighter(i guess u mean bruiser?): volibear, garen imo, i dont know many because i dont really play bruisers

Assasins: Talon, Fizz, Shaco(HOLY SHIT SHACO IS FUCKING AMAZING RIGHT NOW)

Support: Janna and Sona, thats it. Riot is veering heavily away from dedicated supports because they want the game to be more action orientated. The last dedicated support that was released was Karma, back in early 2011.

@TomA said:

I'm not sure how much you know already, but I'm gonna just list a bunch of tips in no particular order that might help you out.

-no matter what people say, dorans blade is a good item. Take it first if you are AD and already have some self sustain. It also makes last hitting easier.

-last hit, cause its super important

-if the enemy has a jungler, dont push past the river without warding it. Also, dont ward right in the river bush, instead, place it halfway between dragon and bush, or baron and bush(depending on which lane ur in)

-if you dont know what to start with, get boots and hp pots

As for good champions for the current state of the game.

Tanks: Singed, Maokai, Leona, Jarvan is still good imo, Rammus, Amumu(Dedicated tanks have fallen out of favor, being replaced by bruisers).

AD carry:Graves, Vayne, Ash, Kog Maw,

AP Carry(Mage): Malzahar, Cassiopeia,Lux, Leblanc, Leblanc, Leblanc

Fighter(i guess u mean bruiser?): volibear, garen imo, i dont know many because i dont really play bruisers

Assasins: Talon, Fizz, Shaco(HOLY SHIT SHACO IS FUCKING AMAZING RIGHT NOW)

Support: Janna and Sona, thats it. Riot is veering heavily away from dedicated supports because they want the game to be more action orientated. The last dedicated support that was released was Karma, back in early 2011.

Thanks a LOT for the character advice. Warding the jungler, huh? What's that?

Tune out chat, if you don't know what you are doing, there is nothing in there that will help you, everyone has an opinion on how you are playing and they are all wrong.

Don't go middle lane until you really figure out the game.

Do whatever you need to do to not die, save cool downs to times that will save yourself rather than kill the other guy, hide under your tower if you need to, don't extend past the halfway point on the map.

Don't worry too much about only last hitting mobs, it's better to make sure you are collecting gold and paying attention to other players than micro managing your auto attacks.

All of this is mostly contrary to what most will tell you but it will work fine from level 5 through to about 20 and let you focus on learning and getting better without dying so much, and then if you haven't figured things out mostly by level 20 then you probably never will.

I'd recommend playing Nasus or Rammus, they are both very hard to kill if played conservatively, Nasus has a particularly nice AoE.

Well if theres a jungler, his goal is to gank you, if you put a ward in the river(which is where they come from 99% of the time) then you can retreat to a safe location when you see him.

EDIT: The reason I say dont put the ward in the river bush, is because it usually doesn't give you enough time to retreat, and also, if your on bottom lane, you can see dragon with it if you place it properly.

@Kidavenger: Ya Nassus is a good pick actually. Try him.

@Kidavenger: @TomA: Okay, stay out of the middle lane. I always go to the middle lane so maybe that doesn't exactly help... I'll give Nassus a try too.

And I know what a jungler is, just not what a ward is.

play a bunch of co-op games until you fully understand how everything works and get to know the champs you want to play in pvp, and also as mentioned ignore the ramblings of the twats in the chat.

@GunGraveTZA said:

@Kidavenger: @TomA: Okay, stay out of the middle lane. I always go to the middle lane so maybe that doesn't exactly help... I'll give Nassus a try too.

And I know what a jungler is, just not what a ward is.

Wards allow your team to see a portion of the map for a limited amount of time, they can be purchased from the vendor.

They are crucial to the game once you get past about level 25, but before that I really wouldn't worry a whole lot about them, if you are already having gold problems, they are just going to make that worse.

The most important thing to learn when you are starting off is how much area you control and how to stay within your limits. Half of Legal Legends is mind games, you have to avoid unfavorable confrontations and take advantage of lucrative ones.
 
The other most important thing, at least in Summoner's Rift, is to learn that minion waves are more beneficial to you than champ kills. You should only be attacking an enemy champ when they misstep and walk into the zone you control, but your number one priority should be last hitting minions for gold. While champ kills give a decent stack of gold, a few minion waves are worth significantly more and don't put you in danger. A 1 for 1 exchange is not always a tie because you are now behind your team in farming, and depending on how it went down your team could now be at a disadvantage despite an even exchange of kills, this is especially true if you are a carry. Do a little damage to them here and there so they have to go back to base sooner, this is sufficient. Whether they are dead or at base it's free farming for you and no minions for them, so don't overextend yourself for a kill when you can force them out of lane safely.
 
The last most important thing is to learn not to push your lane, especially if they have a jungler. This goes back to the last hitting thing other people have mentioned. If you are always attacking minions you are going to push your minions to their tower. This is bad. The closer you get to their tower the easier it is for the enemy team, and especially the enemy jungler, to run in and gank you. You also have the danger of having to farm under the enemy turret, certain champs like Singed and Blitzcrank can really take advantage of this by flipping you onto their turret for an easy kill.
 
Here is a video. I've seen it posted in numerous newbie threads forever and it is very good at making people understand champs and how they control space very well.

Learn when to run away. Seriously. Most of the deaths are totally avoidable if you use wards and therefore able to see a potential gank before it happens. Also, item and skill builds are extremely important. Maxing a certain skill first and picking the right items can be the difference between you effectively supporting your team and being dead weight or worse, a feeder.

Other than that, I can't really give you recommendations of characters other than the ones I like playing, which may not be the same as the champions who are currently competitively viable right now. I really like building Taric as a tank with as many support items as I can, just like how I really like annoying the hell out of people as an all-offense Fiddlesticks. That life drain can wreck people extremely fast if you can get a stun on them. I've also taken a liking to Shyvana recently, as an extremely mobile tanky-DPS. Really, just find someone that works for you.

@GunGraveTZA said:

@Kidavenger: @TomA: Okay, stay out of the middle lane. I always go to the middle lane so maybe that doesn't exactly help... I'll give Nassus a try too.

And I know what a jungler is, just not what a ward is.

This is kind of a problem for new people.

I see posts along the line of "Hey I just got started, do you guys have any tips" and people immediately start talking about high level meta game stuff. As a newbie the main thing is (as TomA mentioned) learn to last hit. No matter what character you play (supports excluded, but that doesn't matter until you get into higher level where people follow the meta) last hitting is important. If you go 0-5 but have more minion kills then who you are against you can always catch up. If you are relying on killing other champs to get your money and you fall behind you are basically screwed. So yeah, last hitting.

Until you hit around Summoner level 8-10 I recommend just playing against bots, and with friends if possible. Also as a newbie I would say stick with ranged characters until you get used to get used to the interface and learn the items.

I've also found watching live-streams to be equally helpful and dangerous. You can almost always find a pro player streaming games (check solomid.net and clgaming.net for stream lists) but unless you know the lingo and understand the meta that can be overwhelming. If you choose to watch some streams GuardsmanBob and SaintVicious are two of my favorites.

Other than that just don't let people get you down. MOBA's are surprisingly complicated and that shit takes time to figure out. Just stick with it and try to learn from your mistakes. Once you know what is going on I've found LoL to be one of the most rewarding multiplayer games I've played in a long while.

Newb or not, warding will still give you a significant advantage, even if there isn't a jungler. You dont have to have great ward placement; even having using one or two wards throughout the game to cover your ass will put you so far ahead of the rest of the herd of noobs that is levels 1-20.

@TomA said:

I'm not sure how much you know already, but I'm gonna just list a bunch of tips in no particular order that might help you out.

-no matter what people say, dorans blade is a good item. Take it first if you are AD and already have some self sustain. It also makes last hitting easier.

Doran's Blade is a good item on a few ranged ADs (Ashe, Cait, Vayne). Beyond that, there are drastically better options (boots & 3 with Graves/Corki/Ez, LS & 1 with most others).

Also, the best tip I can give a newbie: www.solomid.net, www.mobafire.com, and play a fuckload of Co-op vs. AI. Watch videos, learn the terms and strats, understand what every item in the game does/how it benefits a champ/counters other champs.

Seriously, if you don't dedicate time to understanding the stuff in the game, then you will most likely be in the half-and-half place for a long time. Mind you, not everyone plays like a 1700+, but at least know that level of play in your mind when you go into a match.

The only other thing I can suggest is that it is a TEAM game, so even if your team is doing something fucking retarded and derpy, follow them. There's a chance that derpy and retarded thing can be turned around just by having one more person there.

Um, just put it down before touching it.

You won't do that, you say?

Well, I heavily suggest playing with friends/fellow duders and learning from them. The crowd of randoms is very BM, unusually BM. I guess it was because I never got into DotA-style (I refuse to call them MOBA) games until late, but the community seems to be really rubbish, preferring to take the apprehensive approach and blame everyone else for sucking while they themselves suck, or just blatantly barking orders and getting pissed when people try to do something else.

Coming from Starcraft, I can only describe the transition as if I had a gas mask on, only filtering out the good air and leaving behind the poison. As much as I liked actually playing, the community was what really threw me off the deep end.

If it helps, I mained Ashe and Miss Fortune. I used Ashe's ult to snipe people from afar and get good stuns on them.

ya play with friends or duders. Add me if you wish, FelixTheNomad.

Veigar is fun to play for a new player, as far as my dated experience with the game is concerned. I have no idea if he is now useless compared to new heroes and the balance changes since I last played (which was ages ago) but Veigar is a good example of a hero that benefits most from last hits and good timing.

His ultimate especially will encourage you to last hit a low HP hero to try and get an easy kill (I believe this has gotten harder since they changed the bonus damage condition but again, my knowledge is a bit dated when it comes to specifics) but at least the fundamentals of him roughly remain the same. So long as it wasn't nerfed hard, his ring spell will serve as a good way to stun enemies to give yourself chances to flee if you think you are in danger.

Annie and Veigar are good choices, they both have a low cooldown skill that you can use to last hit minions easier. Veigar especially because his skill grows stronger with each minion killed with it, so focusing on that will get you nice and strong and net you a ton of gold. 
 
Once you get last hitting down you'll find yourself doing a lot better, because you're going to have a lot more gold for items.
 
You'll find ranged characters a lot easier to learn with as well, since you can more safely attack minions and enemies, just try and keep in mind how you'll escape if the enemy comes. Some characters are better at escaping than others, for example characters with passive or active speed boosts can obviously escape the enemy just by being faster than them. Teemo is great at escaping due to his skill giving him a passive speedboost forever, and can be activated to go even faster for a short time. Other useful skills are ones that let you "blink" (Short range teleport), these can give you some distance towards or away from an enemy, and can usually be used to hop over walls, which makes your escape almost completely assured. The third way to escape is to debuff the enemy in some way, either slowing or stunning them so that you can escape. Tons of characters have stuns and slows on their attacks, so use them offensively to get kills or make sure you have it ready if you're worried about getting attacked.
 
Oh! One of the most important tips ever:
 
Try out the free week champions, as many as possible, every week. Just jump into a beginner coop vs AI game and give a free champion a try. You'll definitely be surprised by how much you like some champions, even if you don't immediately think they're cool or for you. It'll also get you used to how that character plays, so when you fight against him or her, you'll understand the enemy's strategies/weaknesses/strengths, not to mention what skills you're going to have to worry about. I really can't stress this enough. It'll make you a way better player and find cool new champions to play. 
 
 
Hmm what else... Oh, If you are playing a hero who is designed around doing a lot of autoattacking and physical damage (A carry), it might be tempting to buy an item to give you a bunch of mana regen so you can spam skills more. Don't do it if at all possible. All that gold you spend on that philosopher's stone or whatever you're buying could be spent on a BF Sword or working towards that Infinity Edge. Basically, even though you might think getting that mana is going to help you, you're greatly delaying your damage items and robbing yourself of potential kills you could have had. The earlier you can get a BF Sword the earlier you can really start wrecking enemies and getting tons of gold and kills, the longer you wait the greater your chance of getting starved for gold and killed a lot, plus the enemy has more time to get their damage items first, or build some counter items like armor.
 
Basically, if you really need mana regen, get some mana regen runes, try and get the blue buff if your team doesn't need it for someone else (or snipe the enemy blue buff when you can), or try and use your skills more sparingly. There's no real point using skills before level 3-5 anyways because you almost certainly won't be getting a kill that early unless you know what you're doing and have a good teammate. Compare the mana costs of a level 1 skill to your max mana, and look at its damage compared to a regular attack of yours. Its really not worth it, so just save your mana until you can get a kill.
 
One more quick thing, on the topic of Mana Regen Runes. There are two types: The flat mana regen /per 5 sec runes, and the mana regen /per 5 sec runes that scale with your champion's level in game. There are similar runes for other stats as well. The scaling runes start much much lower in stat boosts at level 1 compared to the flat ones obviously, but they eventually surpass the flat ones towards the late game. Normally this is around level 12 or 13 when they are equal, so you have to decide if you need the flat stats for the early game, or if you want slightly better stats in the late game.
 
HOWEVER, the Mana Regen scaling runes surpass the Flat Mana Regen runes at level 7.  
 
Heres what the tier 1 versions look like for stats:
 

There really are only two things to think about. Kill as many creeps as possible and don't die. Don't ever hop under an enemy turret unless you know you will survive, don't be in an insecure position if you are losing a lane, hump that tower like it's your lover.

Pay attention to your minimap. If you're playing with randoms your teammates are bad and won't call MIA. That's fine because the minimap tells you everything you need to know.

That said, always call MIA when an enemy leaves your lane. Your teammates are probably terrible and don't look at their minimaps, if they get ganked and you didn't call MIA they'll probably have a temper tantrum and start feeding or go afk.

Accept the fact that you suck, and that when people insult you it's for your own good. After that everything becomes a lot easier.

Seems like their's some neat tutorials around for people new to the game. My only recommendation is understand your limitations and don't get greedy. If you can bring a 2/14 score down to 0/6 then you have done much better than you think even with the lack of kills. Dying is bad.

Also, try to stay off of Mobafire, understand how champs work and build them to what seems to correspond. Armor and magic resist go a long way also, defend yourself appropriately.

hi mate, game is easy to play but hard to master. here a few tips you should know:

look for last hits. killing minions is your main source to earn gold, so do that wisely. look for low hp minions and attack them. (but if you are playing with a support character, don't do that. leave minions your carry).

a balanced team has a tank, an ad carry, an ap carry, a support and a jungler. so keep that in mind and pick a champion that your team needs. (but you don't have to do that always too, this is just a suggestion.)

always keep an eye on minimap, aware that what's going on. if enemy leaves your lane simply say "miss", "ss" or "mia". this can save your mates ass from a gank.

buy wards. this is most important thing in the game. buy wards and place them like in front of dragon, baron etc. this is a must.

learn your and your champions limits and play safely. don't make turret dives if you don't sure about getting a kill.

getting kills doesn't win game (i'm not saying it's not important), you have to stay alive and destroy turrets. that's way to win.

these are basics, watch some streams, read some guides, play games and you are set. hope this helps for you.

After playing LoL for the last 2 years i have come to this conclusion; don't play LoL.. it's not a bad game, it just has the shitties community i have ever laid hands on.. it's even worse than XBL which says alot.

Only "good" times i had with that game was when playing with/against friends just for kicks, but everytime you play against random people prepare to get educated about how your mothers sex life is, and also

that you are a homosexual ofcourse. Oh and on a side note i wasn't a shitty player around 14-1500 ELO not that it means the world.

@crossfox said:

a balanced team has a tank, an ad carry, an ap carry, a support and a jungler. so keep that in mind and pick a champion that your team needs. (but you don't have to do that always too, this is just a suggestion.)

A balanced team does not mean a winning team. We've won ranked matches playing a team of AD Soraka, AP Janna, support tank Leona, AP Karma, and hybrid Kayle on multiple occasions. This idea of a "balanced team" is strictly meta stuff, and beyond that, it's about the skill level of the people playing the game. If you are good with a champ, you should be able to do good regardless. The only time that wouldn't be true is if you are playing against a natural counter to your character.

Even then, you could always be dragged down by one derp.

@eezo said:

After playing LoL for the last 2 years i have come to this conclusion; don't play LoL.. it's not a bad game, it just has the shitties community i have ever laid hands on

Ever play Heroes of Newerth? LoL is a group of playful puppies in comparison.

@jakob187: like i said, that's just a suggestion. if you're good at any champion, you can play with it, there's nothing wrong with that.

@TomA: I disagree with you there. Well, maybe in this dude's case it'd be okay to buy a Doran's Blade as his first item. But once you become better acquainted with the game, well, boots and three health pots gives you better sustain. If you're playing AD carry then you should go Boots+3 HP at the start, then go back when you have enough money for two Doran's Blade and a Vampiric Scepter. And if you have enough for full boots, then get that. Sustainability is great.

The most important thing to know as a newbie is how to use the ignore function, its liberal use will very much improve your playing experience. In particular anyone useing "noob", "omg", "wtf", or "pls dont feed" can and should be put on ignore without delay!

More advanced play involves standing behind such players and spamming dance to see if you can get them to rage quit.

@EvilAshe: The more amount of shit you take the better you will be in the long run. What they're saying is actually constructive criticism bathed in hate and anger and filth.

@GunGraveTZA: I don't know how seriously you take the game, or how seriously you want to take it, so I'll give you some tips to have fun. First, you should look up some item builds to have a general idea what to buy. Sites like Mobafire, Leaguecraft, and Solomid all have champion guides where they tell you what to buy, why, and sometimes what order. The Recommended Items list in the client isn't ever to be followed, because it's often suboptimal, if not flat-out wrong.

Don't worry too much about math or runes right now. Just remember when you get to level 30 to pick up a set of Greater Seals of Resilience, Greater Glyphs of Shielding, and Greater Quintessences of Fortitude. Those runes work on literally every champ and in literally every match, so it takes your mind off the sweat of picking runes and such.

For masteries, just follow what you see in guides. Few guides will have flat-out terrible masteries, so they're generally pretty safe (although never follow a guide that says 30 in one tree).

As for champions, I'm assuming you don't play a lot so you're not going to want to spend days grinding out IP for the expensive champions. So for good, cheap champions I'd say to go with:

Sivir as a ranged AD carry

Ryze as a mage/AP carry

Soraka as a support

Singed as a tank (as was already mentioned)

Singed is also a good, cheap jungler (a common strategy is to have a tank or tanky champion jungle, because those beefy defensive items don't cost as much in general as offensive items, and you don't get as much gold in the jungle).

Tristana is also free if you subscribe to Riot's facebook page, and Alistar is free if you subscribe to Riot's youtube channel. They're both good champs (Tristana is a ranged AD carry, and Alistar is a support).

A lot of learning how to play League of Legends just comes from experience, knowing what you can do, and knowing what the enemy champions can do. Ultimately it takes time to get good, and a lot of it, but the most important key is to ignore people who are making you upset and enjoy the game. If you hit Tab in-game and click the little speech-bubble button next to someone's name, it'll put them on ignore and you won't hear their typing any longer (you can also type /ignore [username] in chat).

And while I've recommended a few cheap, easy-to-get, easy-to-use champions, don't be afraid to save up for someone who looks/seems really cool and pick them up. I only have about 16 champions, and half of them cost 6300 IP, and I could probably own half the champ list if I had just bought cheaper champs with all that IP, but I picked what I wanted, and I haven't regretted it, because I've had a ton of fun on those champs.

@Buscemi said:

@TomA: I disagree with you there. Well, maybe in this dude's case it'd be okay to buy a Doran's Blade as his first item. But once you become better acquainted with the game, well, boots and three health pots gives you better sustain. If you're playing AD carry then you should go Boots+3 HP at the start, then go back when you have enough money for two Doran's Blade and a Vampiric Scepter. And if you have enough for full boots, then get that. Sustainability is great.

Not a great tip imo. If we're going to get into actual discussion of different itemization builds, you buy based on who you're facing. For top and bottom lanes (and jungling), when you're playing AD, cloth/5 is a much safer item pick pretty much universally. It adds defense against both minions and the enemy champ (assuming AD), along with giving more early sustain through more potions. It also builds faster into Wriggle's Lantern, which is just all-around a great item, especially early. Unless I know I'm laning against AP, I pretty much always start cloth/5, and it works really well.

Also, the only time Vamp Scepter is a good early item is when you're building Wriggles and have the other pieces, but not enough to finish the lantern. Doran's blade is useful for the health and AD, but lifesteal is useless when lasthitting, so unless you're pushing hard you're not going to get any sustain out of it. Using some leftover gold to buy a couple health pots is going to be much more effective and reliable

Against AP (talking about going mid-lane, or if it's an AP champ top) the situation is a little different, but I still look to build to my opponent. I don't play long-range skillshot mages, which are kind of FOTM right now (Xerath and Ahri are really popular), so I need mobility to be able to get in and harass while also dodging the enemy skillshots (which hit like a truck early), so against those kinds of mages I start boots/3. But if I'm against a heavy nuker who uses click-to-target spells like Annie, I'll want to start Doran's Ring, because that extra health and mp5 is critical to helping survive early and get ahead. The two exceptions I have are Kennen, where I buy Doran's shield instead of Doran's Ring, and Ryze, where I always start with a Sapphire Crystal and 2 pots no matter who I'm facing.

@Example1013 said:

@Buscemi said:

@TomA: I disagree with you there. Well, maybe in this dude's case it'd be okay to buy a Doran's Blade as his first item. But once you become better acquainted with the game, well, boots and three health pots gives you better sustain. If you're playing AD carry then you should go Boots+3 HP at the start, then go back when you have enough money for two Doran's Blade and a Vampiric Scepter. And if you have enough for full boots, then get that. Sustainability is great.

Not a great tip imo. If we're going to get into actual discussion of different itemization builds, you buy based on who you're facing. For top and bottom lanes (and jungling), when you're playing AD, cloth/5 is a much safer item pick pretty much universally. It adds defense against both minions and the enemy champ (assuming AD), along with giving more early sustain through more potions. It also builds faster into Wriggle's Lantern, which is just all-around a great item, especially early. Unless I know I'm laning against AP, I pretty much always start cloth/5, and it works really well.

Also, the only time Vamp Scepter is a good early item is when you're building Wriggles and have the other pieces, but not enough to finish the lantern. Doran's blade is useful for the health and AD, but lifesteal is useless when lasthitting, so unless you're pushing hard you're not going to get any sustain out of it. Using some leftover gold to buy a couple health pots is going to be much more effective and reliable

Against AP (talking about going mid-lane, or if it's an AP champ top) the situation is a little different, but I still look to build to my opponent. I don't play long-range skillshot mages, which are kind of FOTM right now (Xerath and Ahri are really popular), so I need mobility to be able to get in and harass while also dodging the enemy skillshots (which hit like a truck early), so against those kinds of mages I start boots/3. But if I'm against a heavy nuker who uses click-to-target spells like Annie, I'll want to start Doran's Ring, because that extra health and mp5 is critical to helping survive early and get ahead. The two exceptions I have are Kennen, where I buy Doran's shield instead of Doran's Ring, and Ryze, where I always start with a Sapphire Crystal and 2 pots no matter who I'm facing.

I've seen people go for Wriggle's as an AD, and I guess that works, but I guess I'll have to clarify why I do as I do. I basically never play solo queue, I always have friends to play with. I don't go for solo, that just stems from bad experience. People are bad players and a lack of communication is the worst thing. When I go boots and three pots I know my lane partner. I know if I ask him to play Janna or Sona, that's what he's going to do. And so far I haven't had a really bad early game where we've been pushed back and had our tower destroyed. If I buy the Vampiric Scepter and the two Doran's Blade, I have such sustain that I don't have to go back until I have the money for a Black Cleaver and the beginnings of a Zeal. It all depends on who you're playing, of course, but I mainly go MF.

I guess my advice was a little flawed, depending on what and with who you're playing. Personally I'd never go for a Wriggle's. Maybe I'd go for Madred's Razors if I knew that their team was going to be heavy, but a Bloodrazor isn't going to be viable until later in the game.

When it comes to AP champions, I basically only play Orianna and Cassiopeia, and have done so for a couple of months. And especially for Cassiopeia the boots will be beneficial. Her harass requires good movement speed against a counter. Orianna is a little different, since putting that ball between us is a great way to dissuade anyone to come any closer. With the runes I have for AP I usually go boots, three pots>Rylai's (if you're losing a lot of health) or rushing a Rabadon if you feel you can take the damage.

@eezo said:

After playing LoL for the last 2 years i have come to this conclusion; don't play LoL.. it's not a bad game, it just has the shitties community i have ever laid hands on.. it's even worse than XBL which says alot.

Only "good" times i had with that game was when playing with/against friends just for kicks, but everytime you play against random people prepare to get educated about how your mothers sex life is, and also

that you are a homosexual ofcourse. Oh and on a side note i wasn't a shitty player around 14-1500 ELO not that it means the world.

From the limited number of matches I've played, it does seem like a real harsh community, which is a shame and kind of makes me not want to continue improving. Also the matches are pretty long and if someone quits, that team always seems to be completely screwed so it seems a real commitment every time i play. I really want to like LoL, but it doesnt seem to like new players.

@WildFloyd said:

@eezo said:

After playing LoL for the last 2 years i have come to this conclusion; don't play LoL.. it's not a bad game, it just has the shitties community i have ever laid hands on.. it's even worse than XBL which says alot.

Only "good" times i had with that game was when playing with/against friends just for kicks, but everytime you play against random people prepare to get educated about how your mothers sex life is, and also

that you are a homosexual ofcourse. Oh and on a side note i wasn't a shitty player around 14-1500 ELO not that it means the world.

From the limited number of matches I've played, it does seem like a real harsh community, which is a shame and kind of makes me not want to continue improving. Also the matches are pretty long and if someone quits, that team always seems to be completely screwed so it seems a real commitment every time i play. I really want to like LoL, but it doesnt seem to like new players.

i haven't read any of the other comments, but if you wanna learn about LoL without actually having to go through all the shit that is the community i'd advice you get some friends together and play against each other, it's actually pretty cool :) also watching streams can help to learn how the game works, especially with streamers that talk about what they're doing and why. Oh and btw fun fact, iv'e played some rounds 3v5 and won just because we outfarmed/outleveled the other team, so it's not impossible if you're decent and the other team gets greedy and such :)

@Buscemi: I see, so you're one of those guys who uses annoying skillshot APs. Anyways, like I said, it's situational. In cases where there are no skillshots to dodge, starting with a Doran's Ring is pretty safe, but otherwise boots are a good bet.

Anways, on the issue of Bloodrazor, that item is literally only viable on like 3 champs, and only one of them is ranged AD (Kog'Maw). Madred's Razors build into Wriggle's, though, and help with buff/dragon securing due to the proc, besides the fact that they give perfect stats for AD carry vs. AD carry (armor and AD). If you duo queue with a lane mate all the time, you're probably used to going against two solo queue guys, but I'll tell you that a decent carry/support combo will make you wish you had cloth/5, especially if you're facing, say, Caitlyn. There are a lot of bad players and a lot of players who don't work together well (which is why I avoid bot lane like the plague in solo queue), but two good laners who are on the same page will just have too much of an advantage starting with either Dblade or cloth/5 (depending on who they are and whether they need the cloth).

Wriggle's is one of the most cost-effective items in the game for what you get out of it, and you can't beat the stats for the price. Past early laning when you're lasthitting it also becomes quite useful for pushing lanes (because of the proc). It's a safe buy for any AD champ pretty much universally. And the best way to think about it is this: a BF sword costs 1650, but just gives 45 AD. Wriggles has a good active, a good passive, 23 AD, and 30 armor for 1600. And even though it doesn't build into anything, it's certainly cost-effective to use it while you fill out the rest of your build, and then just sell Wriggle's for whatever final item you're going to buy.

Also, Black Cleaver...isn't the best item to use. Especially with the new masteries (which has a 10% arpen one), Last Whisper is the better item to take on a carry. To look at the math, the flat arpen of TBC reduces armor by 45 at 100 and 45 at 200, but LW reduces it by a percentage, so while at 100 armor LW gives 40 armor reduction, at 200 armor that reduction is 80, making it both more universally applicable and more effective at killing high-resistance targets. Granted TBC increases the damage of your whole team, but being the carry, you're the primary source of physical damage, so your damage is most important. Also, LW increases the effectiveness of your abilities against armor, so it makes, for instance, MF's ult hit harder against targets with resistance. SInce TBC's effect only procs on auto-attacks, it's less reliable when talking about increasing ability damage.

Buying both is also inefficient, because TBC lowers the armor of the opponent, meaning it lowers the value that LW takes for the % armor reduction, which is inefficient. Much better to get, say, a Bloodthirster (or two).

Not much I can really add to the advice that's been provided other than to maybe watch some streamers over at own3d. Most of the top players tend to livestream themselves playing and can be fairly informative on how certain champions should be played.

Other than that I found it easier to learn by playing 3v3 when I first started in order to get an idea of how the characters and basic mechanics work.

You guys are getting way beyond the scope of this thread.

Make Sure to experiment in the beginning with different characters to explore your playstyle. After choosing a main you should learn your character. Try checking out some of the guides on Leaguecraft. Some universal advice, Don't die, there are very few situations where dying is worth it even if it eats at your ego. Classic 3 v 3 is great for training to understand characters, the basic mechanics, and your playstyle. Dominion is great for seeing how you fight under pressure, and 5 v 5 is good for challenge because you're more isolated. Make sure to jungle (fight the non sided enemies in the forest) if your character is made for it. It can help a lot in tougher matches. I find the sweet spot for me to start is around level 5. Creeps (minions) are great for exploring some of the character abilities and for xp before jungling. after you're a high enough level they're more of an annoyance vs fighting champions. A few more tips, Try the original characters they tend to be easier on starter players. Also mix up your strategy. I can't tell you how many times I've won 3 v 3 matches by switching from the 1 | 2 split strategy and doing alternating ganks (all attacking one side), or getting an early advantage with all one side ambushes or bait and group tackle kills. Some turret advice is that you're safe around turrets early on. Early on turrets are killing machines. If someone attacks you near a turret, it'll auto attack them, regardless of minions. Even later turrets are safe points against long battles. If you're grouped up upon, press the g(I think?) key to send out a signal. Your teamates will learn your signal reasons, as most early players don't know them already. Be warned, some matches you'll go up upon pros who've created new accounts for easy wins, this is unavoidable. On the good side, they're the same level as you on runes, so if you use strategy you might come out on top. Chat is your friend. Remember Y and T let you chat to your team and both teams. The everyone chat is pretty useless battle wise and is mostly used for taunting, congratulating, and friendly/mean chat. The team chat will let you coordinate your team to victory. You can chat while fighting so make sure to start attacking before chatting. You'll auto attack enemies around you once you start(melee only!), so fighting minions is a good place to chat. Don't be afraid to send a broken message if it means stopping someone from killing you mid text. I found that in LoL battles a leader often helps, and the more people who take charge the more it helps, as long as people don't fight amongst each other. This message system helps in battles a lot. Lastly it's all a battle of power management and strategy. If they're better at item management and power usage than you, beat them with strategy. even if that doesn't work strategy is still useful. If you've ever seen eyeshield 21, Uncharted, or one of the many underdog stories that exist you'll have seen the element of surprise is useful. A bit of randomness, running past an enemy when they least expect it(very dangerous on low life, people also see through this later on), seeing a battle you know you're going to lose and signaling your friends where to go, then going in to battle before running away hurt and trapping your damaged enemy with your teammates, alternating ganks tend to work well to shake up the enemy before splitting up and leaving them to take on one side while the other is conquered. These are just some ideas, and you should work on your own strategies. Also some characters work better together, Tank and speed fighter, trap and ranged. hybrid fighter and warrior. Last tip, look at the battle from both sides. Try and make them respond to you planning how they'll respond so you can counter attack. Thinking ahead is always good. As I said before if there's more you need check leaguecraft for character and game info. Keep experimenting, keep working on getting better and keep having fun.

@Example1013 said:

@Buscemi: I see, so you're one of those guys who uses annoying skillshot APs. Anyways, like I said, it's situational. In cases where there are no skillshots to dodge, starting with a Doran's Ring is pretty safe, but otherwise boots are a good bet.

Anways, on the issue of Bloodrazor, that item is literally only viable on like 3 champs, and only one of them is ranged AD (Kog'Maw). Madred's Razors build into Wriggle's, though, and help with buff/dragon securing due to the proc, besides the fact that they give perfect stats for AD carry vs. AD carry (armor and AD). If you duo queue with a lane mate all the time, you're probably used to going against two solo queue guys, but I'll tell you that a decent carry/support combo will make you wish you had cloth/5, especially if you're facing, say, Caitlyn. There are a lot of bad players and a lot of players who don't work together well (which is why I avoid bot lane like the plague in solo queue), but two good laners who are on the same page will just have too much of an advantage starting with either Dblade or cloth/5 (depending on who they are and whether they need the cloth).

Wriggle's is one of the most cost-effective items in the game for what you get out of it, and you can't beat the stats for the price. Past early laning when you're lasthitting it also becomes quite useful for pushing lanes (because of the proc). It's a safe buy for any AD champ pretty much universally. And the best way to think about it is this: a BF sword costs 1650, but just gives 45 AD. Wriggles has a good active, a good passive, 23 AD, and 30 armor for 1600. And even though it doesn't build into anything, it's certainly cost-effective to use it while you fill out the rest of your build, and then just sell Wriggle's for whatever final item you're going to buy.

Also, Black Cleaver...isn't the best item to use. Especially with the new masteries (which has a 10% arpen one), Last Whisper is the better item to take on a carry. To look at the math, the flat arpen of TBC reduces armor by 45 at 100 and 45 at 200, but LW reduces it by a percentage, so while at 100 armor LW gives 40 armor reduction, at 200 armor that reduction is 80, making it both more universally applicable and more effective at killing high-resistance targets. Granted TBC increases the damage of your whole team, but being the carry, you're the primary source of physical damage, so your damage is most important. Also, LW increases the effectiveness of your abilities against armor, so it makes, for instance, MF's ult hit harder against targets with resistance. SInce TBC's effect only procs on auto-attacks, it's less reliable when talking about increasing ability damage.

Buying both is also inefficient, because TBC lowers the armor of the opponent, meaning it lowers the value that LW takes for the % armor reduction, which is inefficient. Much better to get, say, a Bloodthirster (or two).

We play as a team of five. We know each other and have played for a year or so. I'm not really the main AD carry, as I'm more of a solo top or mid kind of guy. To the matter at hand. Over a hundred armor LW is more viable, that's true. Now, I wouldn't bet that too many players go for that, but it's an option. I like to go the Phantom Dancer+Infinity Edge way, with a Black Cleaver, or if they're stacked on armor, a Last Whisper. And let's just be clear about one thing, MF's ultimate is only ever viable in a team battle if you have great positioning and another ultimate that can stun your enemies, say Sona's. Otherwise it's all just a waste of time, or a lane-clearing ability.

I don't like to go Wriggle's because I hardly ever need to. My support will heal me as Sona or Soraka, and shield me as Janna. I don't need the ward it gives, the support takes care of that as well. With two Doran's Blades and a Vampiric Scepter I have the same sustain to stay in lane as a Wriggle's. I get the same amount of attack damage, but I don't get the armor. What I do get is HP. It basically comes down to taste. Both ways will have you selling them sooner or later, with similar stats.

@eezo: Thanks, that does sound a good way of doing things. My experience with random players has not been good hehe. Its good to know it can be done when your out numbered as well!

@Buscemi: You're still skipping the Madred's Razors proc. I will say that in a best-case game where you can stay and farm out zeal/BF without having to B you should do so, but if you aren't going to have enough, Wriggle's is a good item. Also, don't forget that that's a free ward. First off your support has to pay 75g per ward, and second it's good for safety in split-pushing, because if you're say on blue team pushing bot by yourself you have an extra ward to throw down in their jungle, and if you happen to run into a wild Blue Golem or somesuch the Madred's proc kills it faster. It's a decidedly mid-game item, but it's a really good one at that. I'm not saying it's the best in every situation, but that it's a strong, safe item.

The point of using MF's ult was as an example. It also increases the damage of double shot and her small AoE thing because of the arpen. TBC doesn't give arpen on either of those moves, since it's an on-hit effect. Imo rushing TBC is never a good idea, because then if they stack armor you need to buy a LW anyways, which was more the point I was trying to make. On the issue of getting over 100 armor, pretty much anyone who's not AD carry is guaranteed to get over 100 armor over the course of a match. As an example, GP hits level 18 with 76 base armor. Assuming armor seals and Atma's, that's like 140 armor, which is more than enough to warrant buying LW even without stacking multiple armor items.

I'm pretty new to it myself, but I love playing it. Don't underestimate Teemo! He's always a fucking asshole and you'll be like, "Oh he can't hit me from there." but most likely he can and then you've just fed him and then it keeps happening and its the WORST. That's just me though... My only real advice is to practice with different champs and get a good feel for them so you can be more comfortable playing them. Also if you're playing a new champ read up on their skills before the game starts.

Just thought i'd try to get back into LoL this afternoon, did some comp stomp as it were and perfomed ok at kayle. Thought I'd try a pvp match and follow some tips and a decent build: nothing but arseholery (even though I was about 2 levels ahead of the rest of the team of most of the first half). It's currently uninstalling. It's just not worth the stress.

@WildFloyd said:

Just thought i'd try to get back into LoL this afternoon, did some comp stomp as it were and perfomed ok at kayle. Thought I'd try a pvp match and follow some tips and a decent build: nothing but arseholery (even though I was about 2 levels ahead of the rest of the team of most of the first half). It's currently uninstalling. It's just not worth the stress.

thats pretty much LoL/moba games in general..

@Example1013: With the masteries I use I have enough armor penetration anyway. It varies from game to game but I'll take speed and lifesteal over more armor penetration than I already have. The people who need to die will die without the help of the LW.

At the newbie level, people will try to trick you into losing fights for almost the entire game. Healers will play hurt, enemies will lure to their allies, etc.

It's funny, but that doesn't happen at higher skill levels, since such behavior is a little costly and tricks almost no one with experience.

@Buscemi: The math is out there. LW results in more DPS than TBC. And more arpen results in more lifesteal, since lifesteal is given back as a percentage of damage. But hey, you do what you like. I'm not going to tell you how to enjoy a game. :)

At its most basic, LoL is a game of farming. The only way to learn how to farm is to watch streams of your champ being played by someone who knows what they're doing. The #1 noob failing is the inability to farm with their champ. If watching streams seems like too onerous a commitment for a game, you should probably put down LoL now.

At the next level of complexity, LoL is a game of rock-paper-scissors with an additional 50+ options. Getting "good" with a champion means learning their matchups. That means a baseline of 20 games against common lane/jungle opponents. Spread this across the five basic roles and that's a minimum of 100 games to gain baseline proficiency in less than 10% of the game's champs. If learning a shitload of matchups seems like too onerous a commitment for a game, you should probably put down LoL now.

The only guides worth reading are at www.solomid.net. Type "/ignore all" at the beginning of ALL of your matches to avoid going on tilt. GLHB