I've decided to give League of Legends a shot, does anyone have any tips for someone who has never even touched this type of game ever? And by "This type of game", I mean any kind of Real time strategy game of any kind. I read a little bit about it, and it sounded fun, so I figured I'd give it a shit.

I looked at the character list, and I liked the little mummy guy "Amumu", the little fishman guy "Fizz", and that gamble guy with the cards. How hard/good are these characters? I have no idea what I'm even remotely doing, I just though they looked like cool characters, so I figured I'd give them a shit. Let me know what characters would be good for the most beginner of beginners. I mostly play fighting games, and whenever someone asks me about a game, I always tell them to learn the Ryu of the game. In Street Fighter, you should learn Ryu first, since if you can learn to use him, most of his moves will apply to other characters. So who is the Ryu of LoL? The most basic character for me to get a handle on.

Amumu is good and pretty easy, only that you have to learn how to jungle and gank. Check stonewall008's videos for some help in the jungle-department. Fizz and Twisted Fate are kinda hit and miss, also both are pretty hard to play. I would recommend that you try Annie and Ashe, both cheap and easy champs to start with.

Best of luck to you at the Summoner's rift.

The biggest mistake new players make is not understanding the importance of farming. 
 
MOBAs are a lot more RPG heavy than they initially let on, farming minions in the first 15 to 20 minutes of a game takes precedent over pretty much everything else. This is why League meta uses the 2 solo lanes, 1 duo lane 1, 1 jungler format so as many players on a team can get the maximum amount of gold possible. While it may not be as important early on, the laning phase sets the tempo for the rest of the match and it is very important to both understand why this is and how best to use this time.
 
Gold is everything, LoL is a game of resource acumen and map control. The more gold you have the more powerful you are, and the more powerful you are the easier it is to take towers and control objectives like Dragon and Baron Nashor. In time you will naturally learn the rhythm and flow of how a match goes, but really all you need to know is money is power. Last hitting minion waves is a lot more rewarding early on than trying to kill your lane opponent. Champions are weak early on, they can't afford to make many mistakes. The real penalty of dying early on is that you are missing out on gold farming, not that you have given the enemy gold for your death.
 
As for the Ryu of LoL, I'd probably say Ryze, Ashe and Alistar are the easiest champions to get a handle on early on. All three of these champions are very low risk high reward and have some of the most powerful abilities in the game. Ryze does some of the highest single target burst damage of any mage, Ashe is a ranged carry champion easily able to lock up opponents with her variety of slowing abilities, and Alistar is a tank with some of the most powerful crowd control of the entire cast.
 
That isn't to say that these are the only champs worth learning early on, I recommend these only because they are cheap and easy to learn. The champions you mentioned are all actually fairly easy to get a handle on as well, perhaps with the exception of Twisted Fate, but they all do have some more unique mechanics that may get a bit complicated early on when you are still learning the basics of the game.
 
Amumu is also tank that specializes in locking down opponents with his bandage toss and doing consistent area of effect damage, he also has one of the best ultimate in the game being able to temporarily stun several champs in a large area. Fizz is a magical assassin able easily chase down and burst single targets while jumping around to avoid damage. Unlike most high burst magic damage champs he is almost exclusively melee based in his powers. Twisted Fate is also a magical assassin, but unlike Fizz he is much more versatile and able to adapt to a variety of situations. His trademark Pick a Card allows him to pick several different buffs for his basic attack with careful timing. These range from area slows to a single target stun, allowing him to choose the right power for the right situation. His ultimate also let's him not only see the position of every enemy on the map, but also let's him teleport anywhere on the map within a set distance from him giving him incredible map control and ganking opportunity.
 
Legaue is a tough game to get into, but it rewards persistence. Once you learn the basics, you'll be able to adapt to any champion's playstyle.

Play with a coach/someone more experienced than you to understand the game. Visit mobafire as far as tips and guides go.

Amumu is good and easy to play, also he's flexible as he can jungle, solo top, dual lane etc. Fizz is actually a bit harder, but in my opinion is an easy champ(as long as you have good AP runes). He has damage over time, damage reduction and no unit collision, can become basically invincible by jumping on his spear and his ultimate can disable an entire team. Also, last-hitting is very easy with him because of his damage over time. As far as twisted fate goes, I never played him, and don't much care for him to be honest. If I'm right, I think his ultimate isn't global anymore, which sucks. Also, I don't like his skills. At all. And I never did manage to fit him in a role (Carry, Tank, Pusher etc.)

Just my 2 cents.

I'd pick a tougher champ for your first game. Ashe is the champ everyone suggests but she can be killed pretty darn quickly if you aren't paying attention. Maybe someone a bit tankier.

Ignore any antagonistic comments from your teammates when you are learning but make sure to learn the terminology. Learning how to get away from potential ganks is a very handy skill to pick up. Most of the time, this comes in a "top/mid/bot mia."

Twisted Fate is pretty hard without having other mechanics down, I'd save him for a bit later. Fizz is a bullshit instantkill asshole and Amumu is a cute little tanky guy. Play Amumu and be credit to team!

As for A "Ryu" of LoL, there really isn't one. I think Annie is a good pick and most autoattackers are pretty straightforward. I wouldn't really recommend Ashe since she can get a bit tricky compared to others, but she is cheap in the store so go for it.

Thanks a lot guys, I'll use Amumu for awhile till I get the hang of things. Then I'll try some others.

Aright some LoL tips for new guys:

• Have fun first and foremost. I cannot emphasize this enough.
• Go through the tutorials at least once, they're kinda buggy but they do layout the core mechanics of the game.
• The players in LoL are sometimes not the friendliest lot. It approaches Xbox live levels of rudeness at times. Just relax and carry on is my advice on that :P
• This game becomes infinitely more fun with comrades, try to get some buddies to hop on with you.
• Try to play defensively. Dying deprives you of gold and exp, more often than not patience pays of big.
• Don't spread yourself too thin with the champions you can play,stick to the ones you have the most fun with.
• Don't worry about masteries too much, they really don't become too important until level 20ish
• I would highly discourage buying runes until you are level 20.

The rest should come with practice. Good Luck and have fun on the fields of justice :)

Watch your lane ;)

@Aarownd: Theres no real ryu character, I guess the closest thing is support. If you learn support first (like I did), you can easily pick up things that transfer to other roles like: when to harrass in lane, where to ward, when to "freeze" a lane so the enemy can't farm, and most importantly where to position yourself in team fights. You can pick up a lot of little things as a support, and theres no pressure for you to be last hitting/ farming at the same time, which new players can find difficult.

Twisted Fate is really, really good but he can be difficult. Try Ryze if you want to play a mage.

Also, look at http://solomid.net/guides.php for guides on characters. A lot of them are written by tournament level players, and they can give you good insight into the game as well.

Good luck!

Depending on what region your in, im more than happy to help when your online :)

If you are playing in the NA Region then I can show you as much as I can. I've played LoL since it was in beta and I have every champ. So I feel that I'm pretty familiar with all things LoL. Just as everyone said above me, there really isn't an easy champ. To me the easiest champ would be Garen. He's fairly inexpensive and he doesn't even use mana. However, pick someone that you like and focus on them. Don't try to play every character that you can. Either way, let me know if you want any coaching or whatever.

Wow, seriously, thanks a lot guys. I'm trying to get a friend or two to at least try it out with me. So if I like it, I'll definitely take you up on your offers for help. But it'll probably be a few weeks before I'm anywhere near that level.

Another thing to note: You can play against AI and a new player would likely find it a challenge but I'd recommend against it. AI tend to be fairly predictable and the more you play them the more you get locked into a play style which is completely different from playing actual people. While the player base isn't the best on the internet just get a bunch of friends and do what you can, learn from your mistakes and read up on stuff when possible.

I would say that 450 IP champions are a pretty good start (Ashe, Annie, Nunu, Ryze, Master Yi, maybe I forgot someone). But in the end, just play anyone and anything you think looks interesting.

You'll learn the most from just playing the game and trying out new things.

@C2C said:

Aright some LoL tips for new guys:

• Have fun first and foremost. I cannot emphasize this enough.
• Go through the tutorials at least once, they're kinda buggy but they do layout the core mechanics of the game.
• The players in LoL are sometimes not the friendliest lot. It approaches Xbox live levels of rudeness at times. Just relax and carry on is my advice on that :P
• This game becomes infinitely more fun with comrades, try to get some buddies to hop on with you.
• Try to play defensively. Dying deprives you of gold and exp, more often than not patience pays of big.
• Don't spread yourself too thin with the champions you can play,stick to the ones you have the most fun with.
• Don't worry about masteries too much, they really don't become too important until level 20ish
• I would highly discourage buying runes until you are level 20.

The rest should come with practice. Good Luck and have fun on the fields of justice :)

all of this. really, don't try to force anything in the beginning. it can and will be frustrating. friends help a big deal. if you're looking for a champion that is easy to play and brings lots of satisfaction, i would recommend Annie or Ashe.

NEVER go solo when the enemy team is not visible.

@Aarownd: Amumu and Twisted Fate are relatively useless characters unless you know how to jungle and handle playing Twisted Fate as an AP mid rather than an AD carry. Fizz is a cool champ, but he's also a little complicated to get the hang of mechanically for a first time player.

Personally, I would recommend the following champs to start out with (that aren't overly complicated in terms of mechanics and move sets that will give you a better grasp of the roles that the game needs fulfilled in order to have a cohesive and competent team):

• Annie - a solid mage (played as an AP mid)
• Ashe - a solid ranged character (played as an AD ranged bot)
• Soraka - a solid support character (played as a support bot)
• Cho'Gath - a solid solo top character (played as an AP/off-tank healthy solo top)
• Skarner - a solid jungling character (played as an off-tank/hybrid jungler)

Try those out and see what you think.

Not related to game mechanics, but LoL hands-down has the worst online community I've ever had to deal with, save Xbox Live. It's really really chock full of the doucheiest assholes around. So yeah OP, be prepared for shit like that.

@SathingtonWaltz: Yeah, I made a second blog post detailing my troubles with the game, and how it's not the most welcoming community. And that it's nearly impossible to enjoy unless you're playing with people you know, since half the time on the entry level you'll get stuck with people who just idle the entire game.