[Guide] League Basics

#Last updated 7/30/14

######Re-posting for the new Board change, rest of the [Guides] to follow!!

I've been seeing a decent number of pre-30's on the forums and asking questions, and I think that's great! To celebrate I wanted to compile a list of general tips that will help your climb to 30, and maybe even help out more experienced players as well. If you don't want to read my guide for whatever reason, then you can check out the guides I read when I started out here at Mobafire. Gl hf fellas.

#1)Runes
#2)In-Game Terms
#3)Last Hitting
#4)Lane Pushing
#5)Warding

#####wow, this is a lot of stuff, is League really this complicated?
Yes and no, leaning a bit more to the no. Most of this stuff you'll learn simply by playing like I did. Relatively painlessly and fast as well. However, some people learn differently and therefore may miss a few things. Last hitting, for example, wasn't something I really took seriously until I was almost 30! Don't be intimidated, I just wanted to lay everything out on the table so nothing's missed. Enjoy!

#1. Runes

If you've just recently started you may not know that in the store you can buy runes for very small early game buffs when you create a unique rune page with your purchased runes. These runes can only be bought with IP, so you gotta play a decent number of games to make a full rune page. A very important thing to know though is to never buy any runes until you're level 20! Tier 3 runes are the only things worth the IP! There is a way to 'upgrade' lower tier runes, but trust me they are not worth it.

Some runes are better than others, Seals (the yelow ones) have much better armor, health and health regen than glyphs (blue) and marks (red) for example. So unless you want to min/max for one specific stat don't bother with inefficient runes.

#2. In-game Terms

There are some terms that people use that have not been covered in the tutorial. And if you were like me when I started then you probably don't want to ask “wtf does that even mean” for fear of looking stupid. Well, don't worry, everyone's been there.

• Gl hf - Most important short speech text you can know. It means "Good Luck, Have Fun". Be sure to say this at the start of any PvP game so you can show you are a good sport!

• mia/ss - mia is the classic call for "missing in action". While I suggest using the smartping for 'enemy missing' if you see someone typing this then their lane is missing. "ss" has the same meaning although is much older and seen a lot less in this context.

• Item abbreviations - shorthand for various items

  • bortk = Blade of the Ruined King
  • Omen, Randy’s = Randuin’s Omen
  • Rabby’s, Cap, Deathcap, The Hat = Rabadon’s Deathcap
  • ss = Sightstone
  • SSoEL, SSoAG, SSoSW = Spirit Stone of…. Elder Lizard, Ancient Golem, Spectral Wraith….respectively
  • pink = Vision Ward
  • pots = potions
  • red, green, blue trinket = Sweeping Lens, Stealth Totem, and Farsight Orb respectively

• cs - “Creep Score” is the term for how many last hits you have. This is a direct representation of how much gold you have, factoring in kills and assists as well. High cs is usually synonymous with a highly skilled player. Your cs can be seen at the very top-right of your screen, while everyone’s, including your opponent’s, can be seen from the score info page (tab).

• gank - is a term for when another lane or your jungle comes in to help, giving you a number advantage. Or inversely when it happens against you.

• cover - This means another lane or a jungle is “covering your lane”. Meaning you if you had to recall or go to another lane for whatever reason they will be at your lane making sure your laning opponent does not damage your turret.

• peeling - This means team members using cc and damage to get an enemy off of another specific teammate. Usually reserved for your carries.

• ult - Every champion has a 4th ability (hotkey R) that is considered their “ultimate ability”. Most champion’s ults are potentially game changing, so be sure to use it wisely as they logically have the longest cooldowns in most situations.

• AD - Attack Damage. Meaning physical damage. This stat affects abilities with orange numbers and your basic attacks.

• AP - Ability Power. Meaning magic damage. This stat affects abilities with green/teal numbers.

• OP - Overpowered. Meaning unfair, not fun, etc.

• up - Under Powered or Under Played depending on context. added by CaptainWednesday

• Face-checking - This means you walked into a bush that did not have a ward, making you insanely vulnerable to an enemy that is waiting in ambush. This is not a good thing to do in most situations and should be avoided. Wards OP.

• invade - This means your team is planning to walk into the enemy jungle and either wreak general havoc at lvl 1 or silently steal a buff, to be found out by the enemy jungle later. All invades will end up at either buff, as that is the end-goal of an invade.

• collapse - essentially pincer, it means to group on one location or target that happens to be close by multiple teammates. e.g. "Collapse on the Vayne, she's out of position!"

• care - short for 'careful'. e.g. "Care mid, Shaco" = "Careful mid-lane Shaco may be nearby"

• ks - Kill-steal or (usually sarcastically) kill-secured. added by CaptainWednesday

• aa - auto-attack, a.k.a. basic attack added by CaptainWednesday

• Poaching/Counter-jungling - the act of taking jungle mobs from the enemy jungle. The practice also usually involves leaving a small minion to prevent respawn. added by CaptainWednesday

• RB/BB - Red Buff / Blue Buff. Usually followed with TS or OS for "Their Side" or "Our Side" respectively. e.g. RBTS is "Red Buff Their Side".

• OOM - Out Of Mana Added by Zarkkast

#3. Last Hitting

I know the tutorial mentioned that getting the last hit on a minion, monster or champion will get you bonus gold. But I want to emphasize how important of a skill this is. More gold-->more items-->more kills-->more gold-->etc etc. No matter what lane you are in you should last hit at almost any opportunity you can, while attempting to push your opponent off of your own minions to deny him/her gold, a concept known as zoning.

A good thing to know is how to farm underneath your own turret, it will happen to you eventually. A big factor in this is how fast your turret kills minions.

• Melee minions will always take 3 shots from full health, making an auto attack after 2 shots is almost guaranteed to last hit.

• Caster minions take two shots from full, so a trick is to auto just before the turret shot and finish with another after.

Keep in mind your own minions will be ‘helping’ as well, making your job a bit harder. Practice makes perfect here more than anything!

#4. Lane Pushing

A common misconception is attacking minions will get you to the last hit faster and therefore means more money. While not entirely false there is the effect of "pushing" to consider. "Pushing" a lane means you kill the minions as fast as you can to get your minions to the enemy turret asap. This means possibly getting a turret, but also means putting yourself in a dangerous position for a gank as you are farther away from your own turret.

When to push

---When you need to go back to base, but don't want your opponent to get to your own turret before you return.
---When you score a kill or two and can afford to be aggressive.
---When, for whatever reason, most of the opposing team is confirmed to be elsewhere in the map and you think you can get a turret uncontested.

When not to push

---When you want to farm
---When the jungler or another opponent could be about to gank (mia)
---When you need to go help somewhere nearby.
---When you don't want to provoke a fight.

#5. Warding

By and far the single most important skill to know to help you and your team out, wards are the most overpowered item in the game! They can allow you to catch an opponent by themselves, or show you the entire team is waiting for you in the next bush, or let you land a skillshot you wouldn't have normally, or tell you they are taking Dragon or Baron.

#### Stealth (green) wards

These wards last 3 minutes unless summoned by trinket, in which case that’s 2 minutes until lvl 9. You can only have 3 of these on the map at once, a 4th ward placed will replace the 1st if it’s still up. These wards will take 3 basic attacks to kill, no matter how much AD you have. They will be invisible after they are placed in about 2 seconds.

#### Vision (pink) Ward

This ward has “true vision” which means, just like turrets, these can see stealthed units. These include stealth champions, traps (Teemo shrooms, Shaco Boxes, for example) and also green wards. These wards however will not be invisible themselves, and I highly suggest to place these inside bushes to help protect them. These wards are permanent until destroyed or replaced and as such it is suggested to place these within your own jungle and ‘defensive’ areas so an enemy cannot simply attack it without consequence. These wards take 5 hits and a player can only have 1 out at a time, so max for a team is 5.

Attached is a map with good warding spots and places to always try to get vision. High traffic areas like this are dangerous to walk into without vision so I suggest you place a green ward down just before a ward expires, not after. Wards are always situational so keep in mind where fighting is usually happening and also where you can place ward to keep an eye on assassins and others who can wreak havoc if you do not know where they are.

The map has generally good places to ward, but do not be afraid to place wards within lanes and less efficient bushes if you think there are or will be enemies in it. Face-checking has a very low chance of being a good life choice.

If I either missed something or you have questions feel free to ask/correct! I am currently in Gold but I have no qualms answering questions or being corrected, I'm experienced but not perfect. :)

Picture pulled from LoLwiki and is not my own in anyway.

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