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League of Legends Complete Guide
by EzMoney & Erik

INDEX

- Introduction -
- Playing Guide -
- Roles -
- Mechanics -
- Team Composition -
- Terminology -
- Champion Guides -
- FAQ -

INTRODUCTION

League of Legends (LoL) is a strategy game developed and published by Riot Games and inspired by the popular Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) map for Warcraft III. The game is Free to play so you do not have to worry about spending any money and not liking the game. In a game players are divided into teams of 3 or 5 with the main objective to destroy the enemies base. Games generally last anywhere from 20-60 minutes depending on if you are playing 3v3 or 5v5.

Here are some of the Minimum and reccomended requirements for the game to prevent you from reading this, downloading it, and not being able to play the game or having 2 fps.

Minimum System Requirements
2 GHz processor
1 GB RAM
2 GB hard disk space
Any DirectX 9.0 capable video card
Windows XP or higher

Recommended System Requirements
3 GHz processor a
2 GB RAM
6 GB hard disk spacea
GeForce 8800 or equivalent video card
Windows XP or higher

PLAYING GUIDE

Signup and starting the game
Sign up [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
When signing up at the website remember that your login name is not going to be your in-game name that everyone will know you by, you will choose that once you finish installing the game. It is recommended to put the location you live in as your region due to ping/connection issues. Remember that you can only play with people that have selected the same region as you.

When you are selecting how familiar you are with league of legends or RTS Games I highly suggest not lying. Because if you put expert and have never played a game such as LoL you are not going to like your opponents when you play your online game.

I know in most games you can skip the tutorial and it doesn't matter, but if you skip it you are going to be so confused you are not going to know what to do. You can always start a tutorial as shown in the video below at any time, but it is best to do it right away so you can start getting better againts bots and have somewhat of an idea of what to do.

Gametypes
Summoners Rift - Played with 5 champions on each team. The main objective is to destroy the enemies Nexus or force them to surrender.

Twisted Treeline - Played with 3 champions on each team. The main objective is to destroy the enemies Nexus or force them to surrender.

Dominion - Played with 5 champions on each team. The main objective is to capture the 5 points and bring the other teams score down to 0(Starts at 500) thus destroying the enemies nexus.

ARAM(Howling Abyss) - Played with 5 randomly selected champions on one lane. The main objective to destroy the enemies nexus.

Basics Video


Choosing your champion
Once you arrive at Champion Select and are matched with 4 other players your first order of business will be to select the champion you wish to summon. League of Legends offers a wide array of different champion types to choose from, ranging from durable, close combat champions, to fragile, long range heroes, to powerful mages with high damage spells. To learn more about the champion just click on their picture and it will show you what they are best in and their difficulty You can also click the abilities tab on the left and view short clips of what each of their abilities do. You have 90 seconds to chose the champion you wish to play, and remember that you are not locking in 1 champion forever, you can select a different champion each game you play.

Spells
Once you have chosen your champion you can select which spells you wish to use. These are not the same as abilities as they are bound to you d and f key and can be changed every game. It is highly recommended for newer players to chose ghost and heal so they can make a quick getaway and also heal from a big hit. But remember to use it wisely as some of them have 200+ second cool downs.

In-Game
After loading, you and your teammates start out on the summoner platform. This is where you will spawn if killed. It is the only place that you can purchase items in the game, it also regenerates your health and mana.

What is this 475 number?
Starting out you have 475 gold to spend. Press P or click the money bag on the bottom left of your screen to purchase items. As the game progresses and you generate more gold you will be able to return here to buy additional equipment. If you are unsure of what to buy, you may wish to refer to the suggested items in the bar at the upper right hand corner of the shop interface.

Purchasing items tutorial


Choosing a lane
Once you have chosen your initial ability and items, it is time for you to choose a lane. Since you are just starting out, try to choose a lane with a partner.

What is our objective?
Deep within the enemy base, near their summoner platform, lies their nexus which as said above must be destroyed to win. Guarding the nexus are several turrets that are placed at even intervals in separate lanes. You do not have to destroy all turrets to win. The only turrets that must be destroyed to win are the ones guarding the inhibitors and the nexus. You may notice tall grass throughout the game. When standing in this you are invisible to enemy champions outside of it. But the second they walk into it your position is revealed.

How do I get back to spawn fast?
If you are in need of health or mana, you can press B and you will "recall". It takes 8 seconds to recall so be sure there are no enemies around you because if they hurt you it will be canceled.

Turrets
Turrets will not shoot at you if you are not hurting one of the enemies, so it is recommended to push with your minions and have your minions take the shots while you destroy it. But the second your minions die you are the target.

Inhibitors
There are small structures in yours and the emnies base called the inhibitors. These do not have to be destroyed to destroy the enemy nexus, but if you destroy them your team will start spawning "Super Minions" which are just as it is stated. Large minions with lots of health. Once you destroy the turret guarding the inhibitor you can take it out with ease as it does not do any damage to you, but be careful for enemies are you are in their base!

Nexus
To destroy the Nexus all that needs to be destroyed are the two turrets guarding it, but i highly recommend destroying some inhibitors because it allows your minions to push and allows your team to do more damage even when not there.

Champion Kills
Kills not only give you gold and EXP but also take an opponent out of the game for a while making them unable to gain any gold through last hitting and unable to get EXP from minions dying. While this is less important in Dominion, due to passive EXP and increased gold gain, it still prevents them from capturing points from their team. Respawn times for champion deaths increase according to champion level and match duration (on Summoner's Rift, death timers range from 12-50 seconds). The purpose of early game kills is often to gain a gold and EXP advantage over your opponent, while late game kills are important for securing objectives (such as Baron or Dragon) or pushing towers and inhibitors.

Gold gained on kills is based on how many kills or deaths you have in a row. Every consecutive kill (called a killing spree) will increase the reward for killing you by 10% up to a cap of 500 gold at seven or more kills. On the opposite end of the spectrum, each consecutive death will cause the gold value for you to decrease. 9% for the first death without a kill and 21% for every death afterwards down to a minimum of 15 gold upon kill. However, the first kill of the match is worth 400 gold and will, of course, start a death streak on whoever was killed.

Assists are gained by either buffing the killer with an active skill (healing, shields move speed buffs) or damaging the killed person 10 seconds before they die. When an assist is granted, 58.33% of the gold from the kill is put into a pot and distributed among the assisters. For example, your AD carry gets first blood for 400 gold and only your support gets an assist. The AD carry gets 400 gold and the support gets about 233 gold.

Champion deaths can have other negative effects other than being out of the game and giving the other team gold and EXP. The following is a list of items, buffs and abilities that are weakened or lost upon death.

Ganking
A gank is a surprise attack on an enemy champion. Ganks are usually coordinated and executed by the jungler or a roaming laner as well as the laner receiving the gank. Early gank attempts often try to catch the enemy champion off guard and kill them before they can reach the safety of their tower or teammates.

Late game ganks are often ambushes by multiple champions against one or two lone enemies (this can also occur at level one if one team invades another's jungle). Usually the ambushing team will make use of Brush to hide their position until the target strays in range of their CC.

When is a gank successful? To pull off a successful gank, you'll usually need some damage, CC and sometimes a gap closer between the ganker and the teammate receiving the gank.A gank's success is often measured by the advantage you gain for your team as well as the disadvantage given to the enemy champion. Successful ganks don't always have to land Champion Kills; sometimes pushing the enemy champion out of lane can create an opportunity to kill Dragon or push down a tower. The retreating champion won't be available for any team fights or objectives and the enemy jungler will often be forced to stop what they're doing and defend the vacant lane.

How do I avoid them? The simplest way to avoid being ganked in laning phase is to make sure you have an escape spell like Flash or an escape ability and avoid pushing your lane. Pushed lanes are much easier to gank, so last-hit and keep close to your tower in case you need to escape. Another way to foil a gank attempt is to spot the enemy ganker(s) before they are in position to ambush you. Wards are a common way to gain map vision of key ganking routes, but some spells like Clairvoyance and Hawkshot can also provide map awareness to protect against ganks.

Counter Ganking
A countergank is an attempt to punish an enemy for attempting a gank. If you spot the enemy attempting to gank, you can coordinate with your allies to cut off their retreat and ambush them instead. Usually your jungler and nearby laners can help you accomplish this. The key to counterganking especially is to catch the enemy in the act of ganking and quickly coordinate a response. Counter ganks can be initiated by Baiting, where the would-be target of the gank makes themselves vulnerable enough to initiate the gank, then their allies ambush the gankers before the bait is killed.

Items
tems are pieces of equipment that one can purchase to increase their champion's effectiveness. Items can only be purchased at the fountain where a team spawns. Items come in 3 different tiers, basic, advanced, and legendary. All items sell for 70% of their cost except for Doran's and GP/10 items, which sell for 50% of their cost. There are items that are specific to Classic only, and items that are specific to Dominion only.

Please check this for the complete guide to items.
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Juking
Juking refers to an attempt to escape death by tricking enemy champions into chasing you in the wrong direction. Jukes can be performed using terrain, line of sight, stealth abilities, vision reduction abilities and dash abilities. Juking can also refer to dodging a dangerous skillshot, such as Enchanted Crystal Arrow. A player who expects the arrow may try to weave back and forth or use a dash ability to dodge it. This is often called a successful juke. Darting in and out of Brush is a common tactic used to escape enemies.

Kiting
Kiting refers to attacking an enemy with ranged attacks or abilities while maintaining a safe distance. This term originated from the analogy of flying a kite, where the attacking champion (the person) holds the target (the kite) at a safe distance (the string). This feat is often performed by ranged champions against enemy melee champions. While kiting, the ranged champion makes use of their superior range, mobility and/or CC to damage the enemy champion without taking damage themselves. Ashe's Frost Shot allows her to kite many melee champions quite effectively as they become too slow to get within range for their attacks.

Last Hitting
The ability to last hit is a fundamental skill of an experienced and conscientious player. Landing the killing blow on an enemy minion or neutral monster not only awards you Experience and Gold, vital towards buying items and levelling up, but also allows you to Farm safely without Pushing your lane. Creep Score (commonly referred to as CS) is often used as a measure of how successful one is whilst laning. Focusing on last hitting can be referred to as Farming.
Why is it important? Early game ~17 CS (creep score) is worth the equivalent amount of gold as a kill in mere basic gold values. This number gets smaller as the game goes on. In terms of collateral damage, however, a kill results in considerable loss at the opponent's expense: less experience gained and less gold received whilst they are dead. Killing your lane opponent invites the enemy Jungler to come and gank your lane, and securing one kill in return for your death is not a fair trade. Whilst there's also a psychological element in kills that is not present in last hits, being a successful last hitter is still a major factor towards being a better player.

Masteries
Masteries are tools a summoner can use to increase their champions statistics. Like Runes, Masteries increase in power the higher in level a summoner is.

Masteries are separated into 3 different "trees" of focus. Each "tree" has it's own unique masteries. Each "tree" also has 6 tiers of masteries.

One mastery point is gained every time a summoner levels up, rounding out to a total of 30 points.

One can have a maximum of 10 mastery pages.

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Pushing
Pushing means that a friendly minion wave is moving towards an enemy tower. You can accomplish this by constantly autoattacking and/or using abilities on the enemy minion wave. You will often do this when the enemy champion(s) is not in lane, and you want to attack the tower, or when you want to deny the enemy champion farm (because the turret will kill your minions). Make sure to have the entrance(s) to your lane warded!

Runes
Runes are bonus statistics that can be grouped on a Rune Page in order to boost the normal statistics of a Champion. Like Masteries, Runes require levels on your Summoner in order to realise their full potential. Additionally runes come in 3 Tiers of runes that differ in efficiency and cost. A Rune Page consists of 3 Quintessences, 9 Marks, 9 Seals and 9 Glyphs. Runes can be Primary or Secondary in their respective fields of speciality. Runes can only be purchased with IP ( Influence Points).

Rune divisions:

1. Quintessences
2. Marks
3. Seals
4. Glyphs

Runes come in three tiers of advantages:

1. Tier One: Levels 1 - 10
2. Tier Two: Levels 11 - 20
3. Tier Three: 21 - 30

It is best to wait until you are level 21 before buying runes as Tier Three runes are better than the tiers below them.

Warding
Warding the process behind heightened map awareness by reducing the Fog of War. Map awareness via Warding is the key to preventing successful enemy ganks, tracking the enemy jungler, and keeping strategic objectives (like Baron Nashor and Dragon) under lock and key.

Here is a warding map to help better understand where to put wards.


Zoning
Your zone is the area you are able to control with your champion. Zoning is the act of controlling your enemy's positioning and/or making them afraid of entering your zone. Zoning occurs when you push enemies back from minions by making them fear your zone. This is beneficial because they will have a much harder time funding items mid- and late-game due to not Last Hitting minions for gold. Additionally, by pushing enemy champions far back enough, you can even deny them experience from dying minions. Both of these things together can be extremely advantageous throughout the game, as your opponents can be both undergeared and underleveled.

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Support
These champions excel at supporting teammates typically through heals, disables (stuns, silences, etc.), auras, and ally buffs/enemy debuffs that allow their other teammates to dominate the opposing force. Typically these champions can't do much damage and can die very easily. They can be useful for ganking, pushing, and team-battles depending on their ability set. In team fights, the Supporter's role is to protect his team especially any high priority target's such as an ally carry. Remember, your job is to help your team get kills and NOT taking kills for yourself. During team fights, your job is to stay close to your carry as much as possible to help ensure kills while keeping them as healthy as possible. While playing a support might be boring since you are most likely not getting any kills, a team having a support gives a significant advantage over teams who don't have a support.

Examples: Soraka, Taric, Sona, Janna, Lulu, Karma, and Thresh.

Tank
The tank is a champion that has very high health, magic resistance and armor. This allows for the tank to be able to take high amounts of damage without getting killed. The tank's role is to initiate into a fight so they can take most of the damage, without the more vital teammates being focused down. The tanks skillset consists of defensive buffs, stuns and other CC, shields and more. Tanks are highly team dependent. Though it is very honorable for a tank to die and sarcrify to protect carries, it is highly advised against to do so for a meaningless death. One of the most common mistakes made by a tank is to initiate a team fight without the presence of the rest of the team. Remember, you have to lead your ENTIRE team to follow you and do not ever charge in alone. Your basic job in a team fight is to initiate and charge at the enemy that will most likely deal the most damage to your carry/mage.

Examples:Dr. Mundo, Shen, Rammus, Amumu, Skarner, Singed, Zac, Jarvan IV, Volibear, and Nautilus.

Mage
Burst mages are one of the scariest beings in the game of League of Legends. As soon as reaching Level 6, these mages WILL be able to burst an enemy champion down using their full combos. Before using your full combo, it is recommended to check the enemy's summoner spells. Enemy using a flash is usually one of the best ways to escape out of the full combo. Although these mages are not as strong as the burst mages, enemy fear these mages for the AoE effects during team fights. To play these champions well, you have to know where to place your AoE to maximize output during team fights. For example, Karthus can allow the whole team fight to occur on top of his Defile to continuously deal damage to the enemy team. Mages generally go solo mid lane.

Examples:Lux, Leblanc, Morgana, Ahri, Annie, Ryze, Veigar, Brand, Xerath, Ziggs, and Kassadin.

Carry
As a carry, your job is to kill as many enemy champions as you can while getting babysat by the rest of your team. You need to farm VERY well in lane to get the best items you can. During team fights, you should never EVER get in the range of enemy team and only attack in the back. If your team doesn't mind, try to get as many kills as possible even if it is a kill-steal. Carry can be played in a solo-lane where the ranged will be a significant advantage over your enemy to farm and harassed. Because most carries lack escapability, carries also duo-lane very well with a baby sitter such a support or a tank.

Examples:Ashe, Caitlyn, Tristana, Kog Maw, Vayne, Corki, Graves, Ezreal,and Miss Fortune.

Tanky DPS
These hybrid champions can be built either via the carry route or the tank route. Having one of these champions in your team allows you to deal great amount of physical damage, as well as having another tank to soak up damage. These champions need less care unlike ranged carries because of their greater health and sustainability. It doesn't hurt to have one of them in your team, but it is not required. These champions typically solo top because of their early game sustainability.

Examples:Daruis, Garen, Olaf, Irelia, Riven, Renekton, Wukong, Mordekaiser, and Jax.

Jungler
Junglers, recognized by taking Smite as a summoner spells, are not often seen in lower level games as it is very difficult to jungle without runes. However, having a Jungler in your team provides you with both significant pros and cons, so your team has to decide which benefits your team composition more. The main role of a jungler is to level up by killing neutral monsters in your jungle and gank lanes as fitted. Doing so can give your team a level advantage as your solo laners will get more experience, but they might also face difficulty 1v2 if the enemy does not have a jungler. The greatest advantage of having a jungler is that you will also have a member on your team that the enemy team will not know the location of. In return, your enemy team might play more cautiously because they never know when the jungler is coming to gank.

Jungling 101 Video


Examples:Warwick, Nunu, Fiddlesticks, Skarner, Lee Sin, Hecarim, Shaco, Nocturne, Trundle, Zac, and Amumu.

Assassin
An assassin is what makes your enemy's squishies fear the most. Your job, basically, is to ignore the rest of the enemy team and take down the enemy's squishy. Being an assassin, your abilities usually include one or more gap-closers that allow you to jump or charge at enemy targets. Using these abilities very careful to come in and take down the enemy carry, as well as getting away safely. Assassins, though very useful, are not a major core to a team composition.

Examples:Akali, Xin Zhao, Lee Sin, Evelynn, Leblanc, Fizz, Nocturne, Shaco, Talon, and Poppy.

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Armor Penetration
Armor Penetration and Armor Reduction are the statistics of a Champion which allows them to counter some or all of a target's armor. All champions have 0 base armor penetration but can increase it with items, runes, or abilities for a few champions.

Attack Damage
Attack damage (or AD) directly increases the physical damage of a unit's autoattack and also improves the damage some champion abilities do

Ability Power
Ability power (or AP) is a stat that increases the effectiveness of most champions' abilities. Abilities in League of Legends that are affected by ability power have an ability power ratio. This ratio determines how much a particular ability will benefit from a champion's total ability power, whether through increased damage, healing, and other numerical values. Ability power stacks additively.

Brush
Brush is the tall grassy terrain on a map that provides a champion with a form of stealth. Upon entering the brush, a champion immediately (no fade time) becomes invisible to enemy units outside of that particular patch of brush. Visually, this effect manifests by your champion's avatar taking on a partially transparent quality. Opposing champions in different patches of brush will not be able to see each other even if they are within normal sight range. Brush, however, will never block your view of an allied champion hiding within.

Crowd Control
Crowd control (or simply, CC) is a term used to define an ability or spell that can temporarily reduces a unit's ability to fight. You do this by either restricting their contribution or means to escape.

Energy
Energy is what some champions use in order to be able to use their spells. If a champion does not have enough Energy to cast a spell, they have to wait until they have enough energy again.

Fury
Fury is a source of "energy" used used by certain champions. Fury replaces the Mana/Energy bar in-game. If they have enough Fury, some of their abilities will gain a bonus effect.

Heat
Heat is used by certain champions. Upon reaching a certain amount of Heat, some of their abilities are granted a bonus effect.

Life Steal
Life Steal grants the attacker a percentage of their damage back as health. It works with autoattacks, but also abilities that apply on hit effects.

Magic Penetration
Magic Penetration and Magic Resist Reduction are the statistics of a Champion which allows them to counter some or all of a target's magic resist. All champions have 0 base magic penetration but can increase it with items, runes, or abilities for a few champions.

Mana
Mana is what most champions use, in order to be able to cast their abilities. If a champion does not have enough mana to cast a certain spell, he is oom (out of mana).

Movement Speed
Movement speed is a champion statistic that tells you at what rate a champion travels across a map. Each champion starts the game with base movement speed, ranging from 300-335.

Spell Vamp
Spell Vamp grants the attacker a percentage of their damage back as health. This only applies to skills that do not apply on hit effects.

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A crucial part of playing the game is having a good team composition. Having a bad team composition is like having a badly built machine, it will fall apart. In game a badly composed team will not work with each other well, and will make it very difficult to win. You want to create a team that has good synergy and can effectively fight.

Efficient roles in a team.

Tank
Support
Mage
Carry

The 5th member can be a second mage, assassin, tanky DPS, or other off-tanks. Decide which one is best for your team comp. For example, if your team has mostly squishy champions, you should consider an tanky champion like Jarvan or Sejuani.

Good Tank DPS/Bruiser Champions:
Elise, Renekton, Wukong, Jayce, and Irelia.
Good Jungle Champions:
Udyr, Nunu, Hecarim, Zac, Sejuani, and Rengar.
Good Tank Champions:
Dr. Mundo, Shen, Volibear, Amumu, and Sejuani.
Good Support Champions:
Soraka, Janna, Taric, Sona, LuLu, and Thresh.
Good Mage Champions:
Lux, Ahri, Veigar, Ryze, Karthus, and Orianna.
Good AD Carry Champions:
Ashe, Vayne, Tristana, Varus, Caitlyn, and Twitch.

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Dont know what anyone on your team is saying? Here is a short list of some of the most common used terms/abbreviations.

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Here are some useful video guides to some popular champions.
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FAQ

Is this game free?
Yes, although there are purchasable items in the shop.

What champion should I buy?
Really, we can't tell you which champion you should buy. For the most part the champions are fairly balanced. The best we can tell you is to keep playing all the free champions and find the ones you like, then buy them! If you ARE going to ask at least give us some insight on what kind've playstyle you enjoy or other champions you like. Look into the recommended champions.

Should I buy ____ runes? I'm level ____ .
First of all, most people don't buy runes until they are level 21. This way you will have access to the top tier runes, because you will just end up having to replace any runes you bought before level 21.

How does this ranking system work?
There is a very informational video located here
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How do I get Riot Points? How do I get Influence points?
You can only get RP by purchasing it through the league of legends store, or buying the cards from participating stores (Best Buy and Gamestop) and redeeming the codes. You get IP by playing games. Every game you play you will earn IP even if you lose. However, you will get more IP / experience if you win, and you can get a First Win of the Day bonus to your IP every 22 hours.

The character I was playing is gone now, what happened?
Every week there is a group of free champions to play. After the week is over the free champions rotate to a new group. If you want to always be able to play a champion you have to purchase that champion with RP (Riot points) or IP (Influence points).

What are wards and how to I use them?
Wards are either Sight Ward or Vision Ward and they are placed about the map so you have map awareness (essentially you have more knowledge of the other team's movements). Wards are usually placed at map objectives such as dragon, baron, and red/blue buff. Check this thread for more [ Register or Signin to view external links. ]

What are elixirs and how do I use them?
Elixirs are items you buy in the Consumables section of the shop. 2 of them buff your stats, cost 350g and 250g, and last 4 min. Oracles instead provides you with stealth detect and lasts until you die. If you have no item slots you can still buy elixirs and they will be automatically consumed upon purchase. However if you have an item slot open you can carry it with you then click on it to use it.

How can I see stealth champions before they kill me?
There are a few items that give stealth detect such as Oracle's Elixir and Vision Ward. Also simply having sight wards scattered across the map will let you know they are coming for a gank because they don't walk around in stealth all the time. Your turrets also have stealth detect, so hug those if you think a stealth hero is coming to gank you.

Are there any caps for stats?
Cooldown Reduction cap = 40% (stacks additively)

Attack Speed cap = 2.5 attacks per second (stacks additively)

Things that stack additively you will see no loss in stacking. Things that stack multiplicatively you will see a reduction in the benefit you get for the more you stack (such as dodge, %penetration, and movement).

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