What are some good beginner tips and champions for people starting out like me?

M3G4M4C·Sep 20, 2014·2 votes·1,624 views

I'm having some success using Ashe, Lissandra and Master Yi. I am currently saving up for another champion

8 Comments

SunfieldSep 20, 20143 votes

We got the world championship going on right now, watch some games and see if you find somethiń interesting.

Dont worry about whether champion is hard or not, if you find something you will really like, it wont matter

DocRedgraveSep 20, 20143 votes

If you're looking for a cheap champion that can do any role, go for Kayle. She can do every lane besides AD carry with relative success.

12talesSep 21, 20142 votes

This. Kayle is a fantastic champion for new players because her mechanics are easy, but she teaches and rewards decision making in teamfights, which can otherwise fall by the wayside. Also, as you say, she can fill every role (she can still go bot lane even if she builds AP, because her sustained damage in the late game is on par with most ADC and she lanes well with supports).

MrSc0ttySep 21, 20143 votes

I always recommend Fiddlesticks.

he can be played in 3 roles. Jungle, Mid, and Support.
all point and click skills makes for easy gameplay
best champ to learn jungle on as he doesn't require runes/masteries and he can even clear without a leash if teammates are dumb.
he's GLORIOUSLY FUN. His ult can quite literally demolish entire teams if you get a good one off and his drain wins you fights aaaay more often than it should.

BikohonessSep 20, 20142 votes

There are two ways to play: 1) for fun, and 2) to win. Yes, winning is fun, and some people who are really skilled can pick up any champion, play it for fun and do well. But most likely you (and I, and most others) are not one of those people.

So first thing is to decide which way you want to go. If you want to play for fun just lock in a champion you like, queue up for normals (or dominion/ARAM/TT) and have a blast. You can still practice your mechanics, figure out what you want to build and when to buy wards, push objectives that kind of stuff.

But if you are playing specifically to win, the best thing to do is pick a champion that is commonly picked by pros and high-level players (Thresh,Morg,Zed,Trist, etc) then go watch them play... a LOT. Try to figure out why they make the decisions they do WHEN they do. Then copy that. Practice cs, buy wards, practice in normal games until you can start winning small trades and small skirmishes more often then not. At that point you are just starting on the path of becoming a "good" player. If you start having games when you have the lowest # of deaths on you team while being in the top 2 damage to enemy champions, then you are doing it right. At that point you probably understand the game well enough to start picking up off-meta champs and doing well with them.

Deep Terror NamiSep 20, 20141 votes

Want to try support next? Soraka is as point-and-click to play as you can get. She has a targeted heal, a targeted damage/silence which doubles as a mana transfer if used on an ally, an AoE damage that doesn't even need to target, and an Ultimate heal that heals the entire team from anywhere. She's getting reworked, so don't expect that to stay the same for too much longer.

Watch the Worlds Championship and pay attention to champions that look interesting. Don't be surprised if they made it look easy but turns out it's hard to master though.

Rock RockburghSep 21, 20141 votes

It's worth noting that she's getting a fairly major rework soon, though. Not totally sure of the details, but here's what I know: Starcall is now area-target and fires on a delay, rather than hitting all units near you. It can be blocked by eg. Wind Wall. Passive has been replaced with "Astral Ambulance" (not the actual name) which increases her movespeed when approaching a wounded ally from outside heal range. I think her mana battery is going to be nerfed or possibly removed, but I'm not sure on that.

PikmintsSep 21, 20144 votes

As said, because of her imminent changes, perhaps Soraka is no longer a simple and basic support to learn with.

Despite a couple of these having fairly low power in more advanced gaming, I think supports like Sona, Nami, and Taric have relatively simple mechanics that let people pick up the role without being too specialized as other supports can be.

As for other roles I can't really think of good champs to learn the basics of that role with, Malzahar can be an ok champ to learn mid with maybe.

As for more general beginner tips:

Learning to land the killing blow on minions and the importance that carries. You only get gold from a minion when you learn the killing blow and that gold can add up pretty quickly, especially early on.
Notice personal flaws and how adjusting them can open up more possibilities. Early on, it's enticing for champions to pick the summoner spells revive, clarity, and heal, however learning to manage your mana or build more appropriate items can let you swap out clarity for another spell, knowing your general strengths and the consequences of giving your opponent a kill can take away the appeal of revive, and so on. I'm not saying to never take them, but some have more potential than others.
Don't buy any runes until you hit level 20. You unlock higher tier runes as you level up, accessing top tier runes at level 20. They are expensive drains of IP, so spending IP on any runes before that is simply a mistake.
Use your mastery points. There's no reason not to use all of your mastery points at any given time, and keep in mind that you can have multiple mastery pages for various champs. Playing a durable character, use your defensive mastery page that game. Going a Mage or Marksman, use your ability power/ attack damage mastery pages respectively.
Learn to use your trinket. It's been said for years that vision can be the difference between a win and a loss, and with the somewhat recent addition of trinkets, there's no reason not to use it and adjust the amount of vision in the game accordingly (yellow or red trinket advised early on).
Learn how items/abilities work. This sound fairly basic, but some people think early on that if you want to buy a item like Thornmail, you need to spend the full 2200 gold all at once. That's not the case, as buying the 300 gold Cloth Armor that's listed under Thornmail's picture in the store will subsequently reduce Thornmail's price by 300 since Cloth Armor is an ingredient. Also learn how UNIQUE effects change items, like how you can't buy 6 Guardian Angels and revive 6 times every 5 minutes.
Understand how turrets function in the game. Turrets deal increasing damage each time they shoot (to a limit) until they have a second to cooldown and reset their damage. Turrets reveal nearby stealthed enemies, so you can't sneak past the enemy turret if you are invisible. Turrets lose a fair amount of armor when enemy minions are near it. If a large wave of minions is approaching your tower, your tower will take a heavy beating unless a champion helps kill the minions, so don't feel the constant need to hover around your teammates.

This should be a fairly good list of basic lessons that would help people get up to speed about things they weren't sure about. If it comes down to it, there's a league wiki that you can visit and look up virtually any info about the present game.