League of Legends is very unfriendly towards new players

Ancestor007·7/7/2015, 8:08:00 AM·26 votes·2,562 views

It's not the first post like this, but i guess i'll try anyway.

Being somewhat new myself (i started playing last year in June), i can tell you that starting this game is the most awful experience i've had as a player. Main issues:

The tutorial is shit. There is no point in hiding this. I remember that I only played 1 tutorial game and I realized i was better off playing bots.
There is rarely a normal game without a smurf. This is a big issue. Moreover, the smurfs rage at new players. It is very unfun to be raged at because you are new.
The ip demands are outrageous( ). A new player is forced to play the free week champions, since it takes very long to buy most of them
Tier 1 and 2 runes. These should be removed. They just waste space
The refund system is really bad. The new players should get a warning message when they want to refund a champion.

20 Comments

wilsuport4coffee7/7/2015, 8:47:35 AM5 votes

yes, it is not friendly towards new players, but that's because riot caters to the LCS people. Also, the game is very complex on some deep levels. Riot takes the hands-off approach and lets people fall in the ranks that they may, it's really up to the person to become a better player. So that means a ton of research, wiki's, youtube videos, and guides to help you.

The rest of the stuff about IP, this is riot's gimmick. It's free to play and free to win, but what they do is they make runes only purchasable with IP so they most definitely are "free to play". Champions cost a lot of IP (of course, depending on who) because it takes a long time to gain IP for runes (ridiculously expensive for tier 3) and for champions too, so champs you can buy with RP. So you buy RP with real money, which is set at odd prices, so you're likely to pay for champions and skins, and the RP never matches up exactly, so you'll always have some left over but never enough to buy anything with. It's how they make money, and the refunding system is so you people cant complain they never get refunds, but they get 3 and the rest are considered wasted if you don't want them later. But advice for that is, honestly just save your IP. buy the runes, maybe spend some RP to get some champions you really like if you want, but stop there. Only buy skins you love for champs you love, and look up how they look in game first (I was tricked with sheriff caitlyn like this, I loved this picture, i think she looks stupid in game and had no refunds left. never made that mistake again) .

Bathtub17/8/2015, 1:22:15 AM3 votes

Do you actually think riot cares about anyone under diamond???

klaize7/7/2015, 12:14:23 PM3 votes

These posts really confuse me, like I understand them, but I'm a pretty new player and I haven't had trouble with smurfs or trolls or whatever

I guess it's because I took some initiative to google how to play league of legends and miraculously learnt how to play from the dozens of guides online.

a) I'm not saying that the lol ingame tutorial is any good whatsoever but I don't think getting a hang of the game in bot matches is as bad everyone makes it out to be

b) Smurfs tend to never play bots (which i played until like level 10 because I've never played mobas before) and there might (?) be a level restriction for normals anyway Even if smurfs did play normals I honestly don't think you'd run into them that often bc their normals mmr would go up faster than a normal new player's

c) 450 ip champs are there so newer players can afford them and actually own champions (that's only a couple of wins anyway- if you're playing against bots it should be easy) and I think the point of fw is to test out champsthat you might potentially buy before you actually sink 4800+ ip into them

d) personally i wasn't bothered with t1+t2 runes when I started because I was saving up for champs, ect. They're pretty cheap so not too much of a hindrance but I'd like the rune combiner tbh

e) truu

1000angrybees7/7/2015, 8:41:35 AM3 votes

To further illustrate these points:

1.) I was fine learning in beginner bots (i joined before intro bots), but I distinctly remember the lack of teaching tools towards the different champ roles. I went into intermediate bots for the first time LONG after I was being penalized for still playing beginner bots, as Nasus . I ended up building the absolute worst build I've ever had (something like regen health and mana. I had zero idea what I was doing).

2.)My first normals was with a friend, thank god. but when I tried it on my own, I ended up getting pretty much verbally abused by one of my teammates and it honestly shook me from playing normals until I felt I was ready to go back to them. I played intermediate bots well past level 30, with about 2 to 4 games of PVP under my belt. It honestly was a pretty bad experience to learn how to adapt from bots to human players.

3.) I think the first champ I actually bought myself was Sona , and I remember how long it took me to get to that point. Must have been at least a month, if not more.

4.) The rune system needs it's own tutorial. I didnt even acknowledge them until I was finally accustomed to playing normals.

5.) I didnt know I would get just 3 permanently. I wasted my refunds on trying out 6300 IP champs- because they were so damn expensive. I ended up with Zyra and I hardly even use her. waste of refunds and money.

1 Wing7/7/2015, 8:53:29 AM3 votes

The community was better when the game first launched: everyone was kind of on the same level. Obviously that's changed.

I agree that smurfs are a problem; I don't understand why people smurf, but they do, and it's really a problem, because it prevents there from being a "lower league" where new players can play with people of equivalent skills. I don't know what to do about this problem! Maybe, people are smurfing when their main account gets banned, but what do you do when people troll games? Something, right? People will smurf even beyond that. I dunno what to do about it :|

I also think teir 1+2 runes should be removed: you're better off buying a champion at that level. Much like with bonus-per-level runes, it's something that could work, but is in practice just a trap for players. :\

Holîday7/8/2015, 3:40:03 AM2 votes

Smurfs are probably the worst thing about the new game experience. Games are so horribly lop sided you almost have to expect someone rage quitting every other game. That may be exaggerated but in my experience it can't possibly be TOO far off from the truth. People don't care about getting banned on new accounts and legit new players might not understand going afk is gonna get you in hot water fast. So when that mid laner or adc is like 8/0 in 10 minutes people just say screw it and leave. It gets better the closer you get to 30 but man 10-20 is seriously a test of will power.

LordGeovanni7/8/2015, 8:50:09 PM1 votes

Common guys League of Legends is horrible to new people but its largely the community itself not riot. and though i want champions faster making them all super easy to obtain means people wont buy them at all and though you may like the free to play aspect if riot isnt making as much money as they would like and it seems stupid to only go for a small profit when you can finance so much other stuff if riot doesnt make enough money the game shuts down. but its not like ip costs for champions dont lower over time

Dingding1237/7/2015, 3:36:13 PM1 votes

Well...

It's very unfriendly to old players as well.

If that makes you feel any better. :V

ChaosThief7/7/2015, 4:24:20 PM1 votes

At least tier 1 and 2 runes are affordable. I have to pay up to 6300 worth of IP for 9 armor and magic resist? Really?

S2C2Xd9KOy7/8/2015, 2:09:11 AM1 votes

bRUUUUUH. My friend and I were trying to help out a new player on the other team with just some friendly tips on how to play their champ and build them and our team and even some of the enemy team flamed us so fucking hard... like what is this community

Davy Crockett7/8/2015, 3:52:38 AM1 votes

The rage is very real and annoying. Happened to me when I first started playing