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Can someone explain the roles in League to me please? Primarily Junglers?

Nikushimi Zero·Jan 15, 2016·1 votes·555 views

Hey there, I made this post to primarily ask about Jungling, but also about other roles. I've tried reading up on the roles elsewhere, but they're kinda vague and or from previous patches and seasons where things no longer exist. So, I wanted to ask here where people are most likely to have the newest knowledge with the recent patch.

So, I am sometimes asked to jungle, but I don't know how. I've never done it. Same with support to an extent. I've done support, but have been yelled at when not knowing how. I understand support is to help acquire kills and such, but what I need for a support I don't know. Like masteries, items, etc.

Also, since they changed tanks to be just stupid in terms of damage and bulkiness (Looking at Garen, Darius, Illaoi, and a few others) I am seriously confused on what top lane is supposed to be. Like, is that just the tanks lane? Is that lane in charge of something like tanking or damage? I know bottom lane is for the ADC (long range attack damage carry) and support. Though top lane I'm not sure besides for tanks.

Mid lane is for mages, but are they meant for utility or AP damage carries?

I would very much appreciate if someone can explain to me:

The roles and what they do/what items you should build and masteries you should take for them.
Explain Jungling to me. What it does, what the Jungler is supposed to help with, what they should be aware of, items, champions, etc.
Explain supports to me. Mainly items and champions for that.
Top lane and what its purpose is for champions choosing it, and good champs for top lane.

I ask all this because recent patches have been changing things, and I've been trying to get back into Rift (currently I main ARAM. I like just one lane), and going back to rift (especially after they changed my Main, Fiora) it's been hard to adjust to roles I'm not sure about lately. I've been seeing things such as tanks in bottom lane at the beginning. I've seen marksman up top, and I've seen mages as junglers.

So needless to say I'm confused. Can someone please explain to me these things? Especially how to jungle and what I should do while jungling. Thanks!

2 Comments

VardaJan 15, 20161 votes

So i wrote this for a friend and needless to say it has a lot of caveats where i would explain things to him in person but ill let you take a look.

So here are the basic roles of each of the lanes and positions (as they currently are within this Meta [aka how the game is being played today]).

Top Lane: This can be either an Attack Damage (AD) or an Ability Power (AP) champion. Due to the confined nature of Top lane (there aren’t many ways in or out) most champs who succeed in top lane are Tanks or other champs with Crowd Control (CC, stuns roots taunts etc.) and usually they will have some sort of gap closer (a dash or a short movement buff). This way if anyone from the enemy team tries to sneak attack them (gank) they can slow or stun the offender and get to safety (usually just under their own tower). The main summoner spell that is taken by top laners is Teleport (they can teleport to any friendly minion, tower, or ward. 5 minute cooldown). This is because top lane is usually an island (in that the dragon [an early game neutral objective] is on the bottom side of the map, and because most teams poor resources into their ADC, also on the bottom side). The teleport allows the top laners to quickly join their team on the opposite side of the map during crucial team fights or for objective control (i.e. killing dragon or knocking down towers). Once the laning phase is done (that is a very ambiguous time that takes experience to recognize) they will either split push (where their team applies pressure to one side of the map and they apply it to the opposite side [again possible because of teleport incase their team starts fighting]), or they will group up with their team and help set up and take objectives. In the rare case that there is an assassin champ top, he would roam around the map looking for kills instead of sticking with the team.

Jungle: the jungler is usually an AD champ (some AP champs work). They usually have a gap closer or CC so they can gank lanes and give their teammates an advantage in lane. They take the summoner spell smite, which is a scaling (with champion level) ability that does true damage (ignores resistances like magic resist or armor) to minions and jungle creeps. Their role is by far the most difficult as they must farm (kill creeps) in the jungle to maintain equal levels as their teammates while applying pressure to lanes in the form of ganks, and setting up and securing objective within the jungle. They are your friend and will win you your lane. Always communicate with them and tell them in advance when you will need help.

Mid lane: The Mid laner is usually an AP champion, although there are a few exceptions. There are a couple different “flavors” of mid laners. Assassins rely on burst damage and gap closers, fighters rely on movement, protection or tankiness, and reliable damage output, and support mids have a variety of damage and utility within their kit. The mid lane is the safest lane because there are very many was to enter and exit the lane. Most often the mid laner will take the summoner spell ignite (a level scaling true damage burn) but in the recent patches we have seen almost all of the Summoners being taken. Ignite is the most common, teleport is used by poke (long range damage) champs who wouldn’t get in range to use ignite, barrier is used when the enemy has a lot of burst damage but not much sustained damage (thus you would use barrier [a level scaling personal shield] during the enemies main damage to keep you alive and able to counter), smite was used by a very niche pick on only one champ during the last season. Exhaust is taken when the enemy does a lot more damage over time rather than burst damage (exhaust reduces attack speed, damage, and movement speed). The job of the mid laner is usually to carry the game (that is to apply huge amounts of pressure on single points on the map [kind of in a “stay and die or leave and lose” mentality]). They also will roam up and down to top and bot lane and can assist the jungler in ganks to help the lead in their lane spill over into other lanes. Most of the mid laners have decent snowball potential in that if given a slight lead they will turn that over into an even greater lead if not kept under control.

ADC: The primary damage dealer on the team (or at least the AD damage dealer vs the mid lane AP damage). Otherwise known as a glass cannon. All ADC’s are AD and while every once in a while an AP build will succeed in the ADC position, the most reliable and tested build is AD. The role of the ADC is to farm and push their tower down as fast as possible. If you can push the enemy tower down the opposing AD will then have to position dangerously (aka without tower protection) just to get CS (minions). The ADC build is built around sustain and damage over time (Crit/damage, lifesteal, and attack speed). There is a very narrow group of items that ADC’s will take and 95% of those fall into one of the 3 categories. As the primary source of damage in the team, they must also build movement speed to enable them to kite (which is to say move around the enemy while lacing basic attacks and spells at the enemy). Positioning is the most important tool of the ADC as they must always be the “perfect” distant away from the enemy as to not get hit, but to be able to hit. During a teamfight they will focus on the enemy champions that are closest to them and try to have constant damage output from the beginning to the end of the fight. ADC’s take heal which can be used offensively or defensively (it gives a level scaled amount of health to you and a nearby teammate as well as a short movement speed burst). If there is no open objective on the map the ADC will farm. That means lane minions, or jungle creeps, as long as they are constantly farming and getting experience and gold.

Support: The support is in lane with the ADC for a couple of reasons. They protect the ADC from ganks and the enemy laners, while also providing vision of the jungle so to keep tabs on the whereabouts of the enemy jungler. Supports usually have a way to engage (start a fight), and/or a way to disengage. Most of them have shields and/or heals that they give to the ADC throughout the laning phase. The support also tries to be a nuisance to the opposing ADC to make them miss the valuable CS and thus fall behind. Supports almost always take exhaust, which they use on the enemy ADC during fights. Some recent supports have begun to take ignite because it does burn damage but it also applies “grevious wounds” (which reduces the effectiveness of the summoner spell heal, as well as any life stealing from items or healing from their support). The support is the utility on the team and is usually a tank or someone with a large amount of CC. During team fights they protect their ADC so that the most damage can be done. Usually supports are AP although a few scale based on Maximum health or armor and magic resist.

Order of events: Load in to game

Buy items and run to lane

Either top or bot lane will give the jungler a leash (which means on the first jungle camp the laner will put damage on the jungle creep so that the jungler does not lose a lot of damage on their first camp.)

Laning Phase. This is an ambiguous time that starts when minions get to lane and ends when laners begin to roam or towers begin to get pushed down. In professional play there are a lot of early tower takedowns and roaming, so their laning phase looks and feels a little different.

Objective phase. After the initial laning phase is complete the teams will now fight for control over certain objectives (Dragon, Baron, Red and Blue Buff, and Towers).

Late Game, this is the point in the game where death timers have become so long that a single team fight will determine the game. This is usually around the 40 minute mark and beyond.

PrinceOfStormsJan 15, 20161 votes

I myself am a jungle main, but since I'm not high ELO, take this with a grain of salt, as it may not apply to you.

The roles and what they do/what items you should build and masteries you should take for them.

This depends on your champion. Many champions can be taken into the jungle, and pretty much the only requirement is to take Smite as a summoner spell. As for items that you build, that again depends on your champion. If you're playing a jungler like Nidalee, for example, you start item 1039 item 2003 , and build her like an AP champion, with the caveat that you finish your jungle item. The Tier 2 Jungle items that build out of Hunter's Machete and Hunter's Talisman each have their own use. Typically, many gank heavy junglers will use Stalker's Blade, because it allows you to slow enemy champions when you smite them. More autoattack reliant junglers (like Shyvana) typically take Skirmisher's Saber, for the additional true damage on hit that it grants after smiting an enemy champion, along with the mini-exhaust effect it grants. Tracker's Knife is typically the item that you build if you feel like you need additional vision, and your support isn't cutting it. Lee is probably the only jungler for whom this is a go-to item. though.

Explain Jungling to me. What it does, what the Jungler is supposed to help with, what they should be aware of, items, champions, etc.

The job of the jungler is generally objective control and ganking. Which job you focus on more heavily depends on your champion. A gank-heavy champion like Nidalee or Elise will primarily try to snowball their lanes through relentless ganking, whereas a more farmville type jungler like Warwick or Master Yi tries to do more objective control in the early game, and carry in the late game.

Generally, a jungler will follow a specific route. If you are on blue side, for example, you will start Krugs (with a leash from your botlane), then do Red, then blue, getting level 3. This is when gank-heavy junglers will typically try to pull off a gank.

When it comes to champions, as mentioned earlier, there are a great many that you -can- play, though there are only a few that are meta, each for their own reasons. Rek'sai is powerful in the jungle because she puts an immense amount of global pressure on the map with the ability to instantly be anywhere she has already placed a tunnel. Elise is strong because she has amazing level 3 ganks (with that 1.6 second stun on her Cocoon at rank 1). Kindred is strong because she has good early game pressure, and amazing late-game presence with her ult and stacked passive.

Generally, there aren't really any good mage junglers out there, in part because they often have to take kills for themselves, instead of being able to donate them to the laners. Nidalee, for example, can jungle moderately well, but unless she gets a few kills early on, she falls off pretty hard as her build path is very expensive. Technically, Elise is a mage jungler, though she generally builds tanky. The thing about mage junglers though is generally the only ones that do well are the ones that can easily abuse the AP jungle item. Back when Runeglaive still existed, junglers like Nidalee and Diana did well because the sheen proc suited their playstyle. Now that the current jungle item is basically a scaled down version of Luden's Echo, it's entirely possible that the champions that become good will change dramatically.

When it comes to marksmen in the jungle, it's even worse. Graves has a pretty good clear, and he can jungle, but aside from him and Kindred, thare aren't any marksman junglers that don't have a hard time on their first clear (like Twitch and Twisted Fate, who typically try to wait for lategame to do big damage).

When you're actually playing jungle, however, typically what you're going to want to look out for are times when an enemy laner is pushed. That means that you might be able to go in for a gank, and either get the kill or at the very least burn summoner spells. The other thing to keep in mind is when you're taking a neutral objective like Dragon, Rift Herald, or Baron, you're going to want to hold off on using Smite on it until smite will finish it off, so that the enemy jungler cannot jump in and steal it with smite.

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