How do I tell the classes of champions during character selection?

Cretaceous King·Dec 17, 2016·5 votes·5,881 views

I recently came back to LoL because I wanted a diverse casts of characters and when I went to the champion selection during a bot match...I found there was no information about any of the champions. I didn't know who my teammates picked or what role their character was so I didn't know what class I should've picked. Not even the character's I've actually bought had any info, but luckily I remembered one character and played her successfully. I did another match afterwards and ended up picking an assassin without knowing how to jungle... :\ My team still won (it WAS just bots) but I was of no help whatsoever.

So how do I know who's who during selection so I don't unbalance the team?

66 Comments

BastionKrossDec 20, 20162 votes

Riot is actually pretty terrible about telling you what a champ does. The ability previews can be outdated and vague, the difficulty bar is not to be trusted in any circumstance, and the Primary/Secondary class labels are hit and miss. Even the recommended items can be laughably ineffective.

If you want to learn what champ fits what class, you're going to need to memorize them. The more you play with/as/against those champs, the easier it gets. Some are easier than others. Malphite is a tank because he's literally a giant rock, Soraka is a healer because that's most of what she does, Katarina is an assassin because she has more daggers than a fantasy RPG.

And don't worry about unbalancing the team until you get to plat elo or higher. Just pick who you like and play them. Basic game knowledge will come to you as you play.

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20162 votes

Yay...more "figure it out" answers...When I do play, first off it only pits me against the same few bots so I don't experience everything. Second it offers no information about them. If I click on a champion I'm not told anything. Meanwhile in SMITE it says their name, their classes and even their strengths. And before you say 'so go play SMITE", I want to say I want to play a more common fantasy at times with its own lore.

Some I'm sure I can figure out, but there are many where I take a look and have no clue what they could be.

I know how to play MOBAs. My issue is when I look at the champions I know nothing about them or how they might play so I have to guess.

BastionKrossDec 21, 20161 votes

The reason we're being vague is because champions are constantly evolving and changing. Someone who's an assassin last patch might end up being a juggernaut this one. It just depends on how you build them and what you do with them.

Nautilus was designed and built to be a jungle tank, but people take him top lane too. People take him support. People build him full AP and play him like a burst mage. It just depends on how you play him. Even Malphite can be an assassin if you load him down with enough damage items. It's not like Overwatch where if you pick Tracer you have to be the team's DPS. In League, you can pick Tracer and be a tank with her as long as you build and play her as one. (I don't have any SMITE examples since I've never played it)

Hell, not even Riot knows what their own champions are sometimes. Skarner got updated to be a juggernaut over a year ago, but it flopped and then Riot had to admit that them labeling Skarner as a juggernaut was wrong and that he's actually more of a tank. This is what you're dealing with. We can't just tell you the class of a lot of champs because they change classes from person to person. Patch to patch. Sometimes even mode to mode. Nasus is usually an AD juggernaut in Summoners Rift, but he's a damn fine poke mage in ARAM.

We're not trying to be rude (although that is common in the LoL community). We're just telling you what the deal is. You know how we figured out what champs are what class? The same way we're telling you: "figure it out". Just play the game until you become familiar with who does what most of the time, and be ready to change that classification at any time.

It seems overwhelming, and intimidating. But it doesn't have to be. Watch some LoL streamers and see who they pick and why. Spend some time on youtube. Read a couple online guides. The more you know, the more you grow.

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20162 votes

Why didn't you say they often change roles from the start?!

I'd do that, but one tiny problem: itt doesn't say what their class is, so how am I supposed to know if the big brute is a fighter or a tank? How so I tell if the smaller swordsmen are fighters or assassins? That's the issue.

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20161 votes

Some are rather easy to tell If someone has a bow or gun obviously they're adc and if they have magic obviously a mage. But what kind of mage? Damage or support? And what of other characters? What of the crocodile? The wolf? The blood guy? There are plenty that I think 'they could be this or that class"

Mig89Dec 21, 20161 votes

Best thing you can do is read their abilities. Bot games are good for this because you can play without the fear of being flamed but thats about as good a learning tool as you will get. In the old client, you could type marksman or mage into a search bar before a match and it would filter by that but it doesnt do that anymore

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20161 votes

Could you add me to try and help some?

Mig89Dec 21, 20161 votes

Send me a friend request. I dont play as much as i used to due to Legion coming out for WoW but if youre ever on at the same time as me, Ill help with what i can

Mig89Dec 21, 20161 votes

Learning the champions is the first step.Once you have some basic knowledge of what each one can do you can somewhat see what lanes theyre useful in. Im no pro at this game but this is my general understanding of how things work so far.

Top lane is mostly for tanks/fighters/ people who can survive on their own
Mid is mainly high damage champs who needs levels more importantly than gold to do damage. Its why its mainly mages and assasins
The bot lane is a marksman who just farms minions because they need the gold from that to buy the expensive items to do damage and a support whose job is to babysit the adc early and provide utility throughout the game.
Jungle is kind of a curveball. Depending on who your/the enemy jungler is should affect who you pick in almost any lane. If you know your jungler has high damage but not a lot of crowd control abilities, you may want to pick someone in lane who has some crowd control and vise versa. The bottom line is you have to learn how the champs do their rotations in order to improve. Pick a hand full of champs you like to play at first and master them. What i tried doing was playing every champ once or twice to see what they do and how long their cooldowns are. Once you have some understanding of what they are capable of, you will know how to fight them. The macro plays in the game will come with experience. Knowing when its ok to attack the dragon and baron or take a tower comes from just playing a lot of games. If youre bot lane and you just killed the jungle or adc, go for a dragon because you know the enemy has less resources to fight it. I made this post because you asked for a friend request and i dont play often anymore lol.

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20162 votes

I know how the game plays :p I'm familiar with MOBAs. I'll..give you an example I guess.

I know who Jinx is, right? (I do :D) So if someone on my team picks Jinx, I will recognize her. I can say "Oh, we have Jinx, so we already have an ADC". And then I know to NOT pick an ADC. But if I had never seen Jinx beofre, I would not know she was an ADC and thus I might pick an ADC as well, completely throwing off the team's balance all because the game won't tell me Jinx is an ADC.

Mig89Dec 21, 20161 votes

Ah. Im assuming you play blind pick. The short, correct answer is there is no way to tell if you dont know aside from A. Asking a teammate or B. Google You'll pick up on who does what pretty quickly. Ive only played a year or so but i know what each champion's abilities are aside from urgot lol

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20161 votes

I...guess blind pick? I just play against bots to figure out how champs work.

Mig89Dec 21, 20161 votes

That's your best bet. If you're up for it, play a different champ every game and focus on macro play. When you've played a good amount of the champs, start focusing on who you want to main and go from there. If a champion is giving you a hard time, play that champion.

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20161 votes

I only have so many champions I can play as

BastionKrossDec 21, 20161 votes

That's the trick my friend. Many champions can be both. That mage can be a big damage burst mage, or that same mage can be a utility support. It just depends on what kind of items you grab for them and where you take them. Sometimes the guy with a ranged weapon isn't meant to be an ADC, but can still be played as one due to them being ranged. Heck, you wanna take a mage and be a marksman? Go ahead. It's not the most efficient build ever, but those mage auto attacks can be lethal with crit items.

That's why when you ask something like "What class is the werewolf supposed to be?" it's not an easy question to answer. He can build full damage and become an assassin (either AD or AP, either one works), he can build a bunch of lifesteal and be a DPS drain tank, or he can build tank items and be a juggernaut.

And then you have a few champs like Kayle or Teemo who can do anything. They can support, they can be DPS, they can be tanky, or they can be anything in between. They even scale with both physical and magic items, so you can go either one or both at the same time.

I've been playing this game for four years now, going on five. And I still end up learning almost daily. Aside from the obvious new stuff like patches and updates and new champions coming out, sometimes a guy on youtube will discover a certain combination of items and masteries that will change this support mage into a top lane tank.

So the best advice I can give you? Play the champions you like, who have kits and abilities you find fun. Play them wherever you like with any items you like. After a few games, you'll start to notice things like "X item seems to do better for me than Y" or "I'm having an easier time winning if I'm in the jungle". If you find that the crocodile works best for you in the jungle with mostly damage items, do it. If he's better as a full tank in top lane, do that instead. Try something new, make a few mistakes, that's the best way to learn. It's bot games so no one cares if you feed (or at least they shouldn't, but there's always that one guy).

If you really want to be adventurous, try an ARAM game. I can guarantee you'll play as, with, and against many types of champions. You may even get one assigned to you that you really like, and can buy him later. Buy with IP if at all possible, RP is for skins and icons and extra stuff. Save your IP for new champs and tier three runes.

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20162 votes

Thanks for the tips, but I don't know how much of that is what I was looking for in an answer. I mean like if a person picks a champion I've never seen before, obviously I know nothing about that champion. SO I won't know what that champion is capable of and I might pick a champion that does the exact same thing, taking away a vital role in a team all because I didn't know what class a certain character was.

duckarpDec 21, 20161 votes

It's not only that Riot changes it, people change it often by just building these champions differently. How is Riot supposed to know if the person is going to play the champion as a tank, as a fighter, as a utility support...? You need to ask the person who took the champion how does he intend to play him, there's no other way.

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20161 votes

I meant like their intended intended role. If Riot says "This champion is a tank", how am I supposed to know that, versus a fighter?

duckarpDec 21, 20161 votes

Trust me, it wouldn't help you, because It's a very imprecise information. I guess you just need to accept the fact that LoL is a complex game and many of the necessary knowledge isn't gained by reading, but by experience. You just need to play more and you'll soon figure it all out :)

ChatillonDec 17, 20161 votes

Read

Thats how i did it. Dont expect league to be a jump in game. You need to practice and learn like any class. I still miss some things because I dont read patch notes, but I am a lot more aware than some of my friends. You need to study and read, thats just the truth. Otherwise click on champs in the store and learn a few between every game

Cretaceous KingDec 17, 20162 votes

I know how to play the game. But when I go to select a champion, I know nothing about them unless I've played them before, nor do I know anything about the ones chosen by others because it gives no information.

ChatillonDec 17, 20161 votes

You have 3 options man, after I list them, Im done because youre adamant on not studying. Least effective method to most.

watch and observe allies and enemies play them so you can become familiar with kits and builds
play the champs yourself, learn them that way, learn from recommended and read your tooltips
Watch the champion spotlights(literally 5 minutes)
Read their profile in the store and watch youtube videos

Get used to league bud, there are no shortcuts

Cretaceous KingDec 17, 20162 votes

Are we thinking of the same thing? I'm not talking about the abilities, builds and stuff of the champions.

Like let's say I'm in Champion Selection. My teammates pick champions I've never seen. I don't know the names of these champions or their rolses, so I don't know what I should pick so there's balance. How do I know if they're a tank or ADC? I don't because it doesn't say. What you're sugegsting won't help with that issue. If I've never seen the chmpion before I know nothing about them, so I don't know what roles have already been claimed and I don't know if I'll unbalance the team with my choice because I have no clue what roles these champions are. I don't have during selection to search for these champions and read about them then make a choice.

ChatillonDec 18, 20161 votes

Typically ppl call top, bot, mid, jg , or support.

Spend time outside of the game, and look at the champ in the store and below their stats is listed fighter, mage, tank, etc

if you just started, anything anywhere works.

I mained tank warwick top when i started, its unthinkable now but it worked then

Cretaceous KingDec 18, 20162 votes

I shouldn't have to spend time outside of the game memorizing every single champion. that's ridiculous.

ChatillonDec 18, 20161 votes

in a game with 130+ champs, yeah, you should. League has a steep learning curve. You can either suffer through it the "easy way" of playing in games and being clueless there, or you can do the smart thing that a lot of us do/did, and research and study until you get over the hump of knowing what champs do what.

It's going to take the same amount of time to learn everything, it makes your life easier to do it out of the game instead of screwing up peoples games while you figure it out there.

When everyone is telling you to study, and you say "isn't there another way?" yeah, there is, it's do what youre doing now.

-or-

study for goodness sake.

Thats the long and short of it. The game isn't Nintendogs, you have to put work in instead of saying "this puppy is brown, i liek"

Cretaceous KingDec 19, 20161 votes

I know how to play MOBAs/ This has never been about me not knowing how. Are you even listening to what I've been saying? This has nothing to do with a learning curve or the game being difficult. I do not know which champion is which by looking at a picture and being given zero information about them. So if my teammate picks an ADC I've NEVER seen before, I will not know they picked an ADC and thus I might too pick an ADC (maybe without even realizing it), completely throwing our team off.

ChatillonDec 20, 20161 votes

Yes, I am listening to what you're saying.

Learning curve includes all the information you need to know to play a game effectively, or do something effectively. It includes learning the champs names, classes, kits, synergies, pros, and cons. Classes.

Look it up. Outside of the game. You're complaining about something riot's not going to change for quite a while. Complain about not knowing who is what class in champ select, or spend some time and look everything up.

Just look it up. I gave you an answer, so did several other people.

"research and study"

"I am afraid there is nothing which would help you with that in champ select...you just have to play more"

"top laners http://champion.gg/statistics/#?roleSort=Top&sortBy=general.playPercent&order=descend

mid laners http://champion.gg/statistics/#?roleSort=Middle&sortBy=general.playPercent&order=descend supports http://champion.gg/statistics/#?roleSort=Support&sortBy=general.playPercent&order=descend ADCs http://champion.gg/statistics/#?roleSort=ADC&sortBy=general.playPercent&order=descend junglers http://champion.gg/statistics/#?roleSort=Jungle&sortBy=general.playPercent&order=descend "

look, people are telling you to look stuff up about champions you arent playing

Just do that, quit trying to do it "your way" and learn the way the rest of us did and click on a link and read

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20161 votes

You keep bringing up kits. I'm not talking about kits so no, I don't think you're listening. I just want to know how I can tell who's who when I've never seen the champions and you keep mentioning their kits.

You're of absolutely no help. You can stop telling me to 'figure it out" now. That's just going to frustrate me further. I shouldn't have to spend countless hours memorizing every itty bitty detail of a game before I can even PLAY the game. That's complete bullcrap.

ChatillonDec 21, 20161 votes

I am just saying, it's part of what there is to learn.

There are a lot of things to learn. Classes. Is one of them. You're not a gracious receiver.

I, when I began playing league 4 years ago, started playing, never worried about team comp. I just knew a few champs that I liked, played them in their respective roles. I was told there are assassins, supports, tanks, fighters,adcs, and mages. I saw someone on fire, mage, i saw someone with a bow, adc. I scrolled through the store, fascinated by all the people, and read about them. I watched champion spotlights, learning who people were.

I played a different champ every day, that's how i learned what they were in terms of class. I looked them up in the store, or observed how they did things in game, and drew associations from that.

That's how you learn what class people are.

There is no way, whatsoever, to see it in champ select. So you either need to be an intelligent observer in game, or a researcher out of it and peruse the store, or the internet to read about them.

I didn't spend hours memorizing everything, I did it bit by bit. I went into my first pvp, and a chain dragged a minion into a bush and I was terrified, people everywhere did things I had no clue, but I took it like any game, identified a pattern, and tried to memorize as much as I could while i was in game, then after I looked the characters that interested me up.

I also bought every 450 immediately, learned them and what they did, their class etc, and then I started buying other champs I liked. By looking at characters you can basically tell what they are.

Either take my experience and learn from it or dont kid.

I'm done here. You will do what you want anyways. At least you gave me something to do over the past few days, albeit it wasted my time because you wanted to do things your own way.

If you can't look at Karthus and Identify that he is a mage, or look at Garen and know he is a tank, then you need to work on your deductive skills

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20161 votes

And what of the characters whose classes aren't as obvious? I'm not blind. If someone has a bow obviously they're adc and if they have magic obviously a mage. But what kind of mage? Damage or support? And what of other characters? What of the crocodile? The wolf? The blood guy? There are plenty that I think 'they could be this or that class"

ChatillonDec 21, 20161 votes

Chatillon has left the conversation

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20161 votes

Thanks for nothing

Mig89Dec 21, 20161 votes

The crocodile and wolf are both melee champions who are fighters. Fighters/tanks/juggernauts you will usually find top or in the jungle. The blood guy is a mage. The majority of the learning in this game only comes from experience either playing as or against a champ. The bottom line is, against the right matchup, you can take a champion into any lane/role and have success. Playing in the meta will help you climb ranks but may not be fun. For example: Ahri. Shes a mid lane mage who is very mobile and can do a lot of damage with the right Ability Power builds. On the other hand there is a guy on youtube who is high rank playing only adc on her. Classes arent black and white. There are people who take marksman top and do well because they just poke at tanks until theyre too low to trade back. selecting a team composition is more than just "who is supposed to go where." If you want to win, you have to pick champions based on how they work with teammates. Unless youre amazing at this game and can solo carry.

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20161 votes

I know the lanes and strategies to employ with certain classes ;D I was just saying if I look at a champion I'm not always able to tell what class they are and if I don't know what class they are I could throw the team out of balance by picking a role already picked. But if I know 'Oh, this guy is a fighter/tank" to go top. If I know a character is support, then I should go to the bottom and help the ADC by buffing/haling/whatever. I'm familiar with how MOBAs play. And once I know what role a champion is, I'll know if I want to try them or not and I'll go from there.

AnonagonDec 17, 20161 votes

The best thing you can do is type the name of the class in the search bar and it will pull up all the champs classified as that role

Now, some of the classifications in the client are wonky (Jarvan 4 is a tank lmao) but thats the best you can do in champ select.

A better choice is to just decide what champion to play beforehand. Look through them, see which ones look cool. Don't worry about roles and positions and builds too much if you're playing bot games.

FioraWillCarryDec 20, 20161 votes

Just play whatever where ever. You will learn eventually who is who and who can go where. There are no shortcuts. Most of use here know these things already just by playing a lot.

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20161 votes

Great...another "figure it out" answer... I shouldn't have to spend countless hours memorizing the game before I can play it. And even when I do play it still offers no details about the characters so I don't know who's who or what they do.

RequiemsfireDec 21, 20161 votes

This is a game where you need to play the game to understand it. You might know the basics of how League of Legends works but you don't have the game knowledge to make proper use of it. This isn't a game where you can just jump into it and expect immediate results, it takes time. If you truly to know champions names and abilities there's an interface on the client that will give you a basic outlook. There are also numerous guides that can give you some idea. I started League of Legends and I didn't bother too much with learning who a champion was it just came with the experience as I played the game.

Mysticman89Dec 21, 20161 votes

In the old client, I'm pretty sure you can click on the champs portrait during champ select to get their bio/abilities/etc.

That's not a thing in the new client from what I can tell, but theres still lots of features that have yet to be added. I have no idea if that's planned or not.

In bots and low level non-smurf filled games, you don't need to worry about roles/classes/etc basically at all. Pick whatever, and play it wherever (although try to not have 3 people in a lane), and just try to figure out what the specific champ you're playing does. Repeat.

That'll get you some familiarity with probably a dozen champs, and you'll either figure out (or be told by teammates) where those champs you are familiar with 'should' be played. Then get used to playing those champs in those positions. You can probably ignore overall team comp synergy and as long as you're playing a champ that is meta for the role you're in, that's the important thing.

Eventually you'll have draft pick available, and you'll have an assigned role, so you won't have to worry about accidentally picking a champ for a role you thought was open, but wasn't actually. People in blind pick are usually pretty vocal about their role picks though.

Just keep on repeating all the above and slowly you'll build up knowledge about the majority of the champs. At first it'll just be recognising them, then recognising them and where they're played normally, then knowing their names+roles and a vague idea of what their abilities do, then names+roles+abilities+a rough idea of what they build, then names+roles+abilities+builds. If you're a super high tier player, knowing every champion, and their roles, and their abilities, and their builds and their cooldowns is a thing, but that's hardcore.

Linna ExcelDec 21, 20161 votes

This is one of those things that newer and returning players of the game have to figure out on their own.

It's like riot is trying to have a worse new player experience than Eve online.

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20162 votes

It's ridiculous. A little label when you mouse over saying "Hey! This champion is this class!" wold be nice...

KorilloDec 21, 20161 votes

Go to champion.gg. Type in the name of the champion. It will show their most common role and give you information about the champion.

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20162 votes

It doesn't tell you anything about the champions in selection, not even their names.

KorilloDec 21, 20161 votes

This is why they force you to grind your way to level 30 before you can play ranked. So you can learn the game.

So learn the game.

http://gameinfo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/game-info/champions/ and http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_champions are both websites with a list of all existing champions and have their picture beside them for easy reference.

They will also have info on the champion. I suggested champion.gg because you were concerned with what position or role a certain champion plays, and that will tell you.

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20162 votes

I just want to be able to know what role a character is. I know how to play the game. It's complete bullcrpa that you have to not play so you can memorize dozens and dozens of champions and their roles and if you don't "lol, sucks to be you. Should've read up"

KorilloDec 21, 20161 votes

You will learn by playing. By the time you hit 30 you'll know the name of every champ and the role they usually fill.

RookPusherDec 21, 20161 votes

If you're using the new interface, there are buttons at the top-left that pull up on the [tanks/fighters/assassins/etc.] so you can see only them.

If you're asking what other folks have picked, just play more, man. Or ask in the lobby "what do we need?" That answer is usually "tank"

Cretaceous KingDec 21, 20161 votes

But I still won't know the characters already picked if I've never seen them before.

GavitronJul 3, 20171 votes

I also HATE this with the new client! It's very frustrating not knowing what the characters do at the character select screen. I don't particularly care that it doesn't say whether they are tank, crit, sup or whatever (although this would certainly be helpful to know, as you said, so you can build a balanced team) but, a simple note (such as the slide-bar that they now use in the character info screen) to know whether they are AD or AP so you can choose your runes accordingly would be nice. I played the game for years, grinded my way to 30 a couple of times (different servers), know how to play many characters very well but, every now and then I might simply like to choose a new character and try it out for a bit of fun. Heck, isn't this part of the reason why they even rotate the free-to-play characters? Without knowing what the character does (and some are rather hard to tell from just the picture alone) it just turns me off. I might be choosing an entirely wrong build, starting off with a big disadvantage and then the play time just feels like a waste of time. Plus then copping abuse from your team mates. Not fun at all. It's almost like Riot is purposefully trying to turn away any sort of casual play. Like they are trying to dissuade people from trying out new characters and simply want people to play the same characters over and over and over again. Sure it's great to have the regular, devoted players and most people would have their stable base of preferred characters to play but, why turn away those that also want to log in and have a quick game with a random character for fun? Silly move.