Boards›General Discussion

New to League, but not MOBAs.

Mantipede·1/23/2019, 2:41:18 PM·5 votes·6,925 views

I played Heroes of The Storm at the Master level for around 3-4 years, so I am not necessarily new to MOBAs, but I am new to this one.

I have installed the Blitz app and it has been doing wonders to help me understand my match-ups and runes/builds/etc.

I chose Support as the first role to learn, because it seems to be the best way for me to start understanding the flow of the game without sacrificing too much in lane.

I am about 30 games in and honestly, LoL is the better game than Heroes. I enjoyed those years with Heroes, but I genuinely regret not putting that time and effort into LoL instead.

With that being said, I have two questions - Brand has been my champ of choice so far (I really enjoy how aggressive you can be with him) and mechanically, I feel really comfortable with him. The next thing I need to learn is when to start roaming? Is it when you get a few plates down in lane, when the wave is crashing on their towers, when you back to reset/buy? I feel confident warding and dominating my lane, but I just don't feel like I am roaming enough to be as helpful as possible.

My second question is, if you're looking to spend some money on the game (mostly to increase my Champ roster), what is the most efficient way to spend RP?

Heroes had a lot of big Hero bundles that were pretty cheap, which helped fill out your roster really easily. It doesn't seem as simple in LoL so far.

Thanks for your time!

28 Comments

Warlord Rhinark1/23/2019, 2:50:19 PM7 votes

The next thing I need to learn is when to start roaming?

Brand isn't exactly the most "roamable" Support there is, primarily due to his lack of mobility as well as supportive spells, and thus, roaming on him isn't as important as other Supports.

My second question is, if you're looking to spend some money on the game (mostly to increase my Champ roster), what is the most efficient way to spend RP?

There is a "Beginner's Bundle" in the shop that gives you a nice amount of champions, plus a free skin.

I would advise against using real money on the game though. The Blue Essence grind to unlock new content feels way more rewarding than just getting there immediately through microtransactions.

Grinding Blue Essence to unlock new content gives incentive to keep playing the game. The moment you have all of the champions (or at least a great portion of them), the only incentive left to play the game is to grind Ranked, which feels awful.

PowerBurger1/23/2019, 2:54:20 PM6 votes

Welcome to League! Ignore the incoming posts telling you that coming here was a mistake, or that you shouldn't ever spend RP. You enjoy the game how you like. ^^

Generally you want to roam and whatnot when it's past the laning phase, when you've destroyed first bot turret, and when your lane's pushing. Even during laning though, finding moments to go out and deep ward isn't a bad idea as long as you're confident in your map awareness.

To contradict myself a little though, I wouldn't spend RP on champions. It was easier to earn them before, purposefully made more difficult due to Riot's greedy marketing tactics. Getting all of them now is next to impossible for new players unless they spend an unreasonable chunk of money. I'd personally save your RP for skins that you want, not for champions. It's smarter to play the ones on rotation and save for the ones you really like, since BE exponentially takes longer to earn over time.

Sona Ping1/23/2019, 4:05:29 PM4 votes

I know there's going to be people who will tell you not to buy champions with RP for various reasons, one is that you can get them with Blue Essence. There is a point there. League is a Moba and if player spends time with it, they are going to be able to unlock the champions eventually and when you have the ones you want, then BE won't have a use outside the semi-annual BE store. However, I do not know what your time is worth, so if you want to buy them, here's how you can get champions.

First there is the "New Player Pack", that offers 5 champions for about $5, as well as a champion skin for one of them, an icon, and a ward skin. Since you are looking to buy champions with money, you'll probably be interested because the bundle costs less than the RP for an individual champion in it. The choice of the champions in it for new players (e.g. Lee-sin) is a different topic.

There's a weekly champion rotation where you can play 14 different champions to try them out and there is also a champion sales rotation where you can get an individual champion for 50% off the regular price.

There's two permanent bundles left, the "Champions Bundle" and the "Digital Collector's Bundle" that have 20 champions and an exclusive skin. They are also flexibly priced, so if you buy a champion that is in the bundle, the cost is reduced. So there's no worry about waste there. Note: The discount goes down a bit if you buy champions from it, but that also because you are not buying a very low BE cost champion with money.

There's also the "Your Shop" feature which comes about occasionally. It gives personalized discounts on skins based on what you play. If there's a similar champion that you don't own, it can give a discount on both the champion and a skin for him.

Can you only farm Blue Essence from disenchanting/missions, or do you get some for winning games? I haven't really been paying attention to currency post-game, just stats and trying to learn what went right/wrong in that particular game.

From the games you play, win or loss, you get experience. You get Blue Essence from your First Win of the Day, from missions, and from leveling. After the introductory 30 levels, your capsules contain Champion Shards and in some additional BE for added value. The shards can be disenchanted for BE or used to unlock that specific champion at a discounted amount.

Seiferoth1/23/2019, 3:36:33 PM3 votes

Every week there's some champions that are 50% off RP-wise, keep an eye on it and see if any of them interest you. Unfortunately, there's not a try this champion mode like there is in HOTS, but the free rotation might help you get an idea for what you want when they do come on sale.

Mantipede1/24/2019, 2:58:21 PM2 votes

Thanks for all the feedback everyone, it's much appreciated.

I am slowly getting the hang of it. Having 5,000+ games played in HoTS has given me a lot to work with right out of the gates here. The biggest difference is vision and the lane-phase. Neither are as important in HoTS as they are here. I like their importance. It makes it feel like a game of give and take, rather than just spread-out chaos that is HoTS.

Once I was able to kind of compare Baron/Dragons to the different objectives in HoTS, the flow of the game started making more sense to me.

I really do enjoy the game so far. I am not sure if I will main support once I am fully practiced and prepared for every game I join, but right now I think it's a fun role.

I also appreciate all of the warnings about the possibility of toxic players. Trust me, I am already well armored in that area. HoTS was just as toxic, but you had less opportunity to carry in that game. So even if the game was still winnable, toxic players literally just cost you the game no matter what you did. Here you at least have a chance to take control yourself (seemingly depending on your champ) and carry.

As I said, my only regret is not picking this game up earlier. I just wish I didn't feel so behind on the roster. I just got out of a game vs a Tristana (as Lux) and her mobility caught me completely off-guard and it was rough to adapt.

Still clawed out that W, though. ;)

Yara01/23/2019, 6:19:10 PM2 votes

Run. Run away. Get as far away from here as you can.

Quality Content1/23/2019, 10:23:31 PM2 votes

I would not waste RP on champs. League champs have such extensive mastery curves that you only need a handful to keep you going. Especially if you pick up someone like Thresh where you can put hundreds of games into him and still continue to improve. Having a small champion pool won't hurt your ability to climb in ranked either, there's a lot of players (NA in particular) that one trick their way to the top ranks.

ApollyonBainer1/24/2019, 1:29:46 AM2 votes

I wouldnt spend money on champs. Getting them through blue essence is slower but it lets you take in what they can do. Getting bombarded with many champs isnt a way to go imo

ilovemnms1/23/2019, 6:37:57 PM1 votes

Welcome to Leauge :)

for buying RP I would say the best way to do it if you're going to spend money on champs is to simply play the free champs when you get the chance, try every one and the ones that you do like wait till they are on sale if you're going to buy them with RP at all. but otherwise I would only suggest going to the shop, going under Champions then bundles on the right side and getting maybe the the Champions bundle because that set has more difficult champions but if you're set on getting RP I'd suggest the Digital collectors bundle, this one has many more simple champs and more support champions that are good at roaming such as zil, janna, ali, even morg.

Chaywood1/24/2019, 12:57:31 PM1 votes

I’m a supp main, and brand is a good pick for sure. Stick with him for a bit.

If you want a new champ, try Zyra. Similar mentality as brand, but a bit more disengage compared to brand. Both damage focussed . I like Morgana too, but she’s a pick for certain comps. Alistair is a beast too, and Pyke is worth looking at if you feel like you can carry.

As for roaming, agree with most that he is primarily a lane smashing champ. Once tower is down head to a lane to take another tower. If you’re good, brand can make picks, but really you need the support of team to stay back line poke.

Gl hf, and ignore the toxic community :) just mute if needs be. Supp role is a punching bag.

The Trent1/23/2019, 10:58:49 PM1 votes

I just applied my roaming knowledge from league to HoTS and I got extremely fed every single game I played despite being new when I played that game. I would think you could do the same in reverse.

Kerwints1/23/2019, 11:43:47 PM1 votes

The best way to learn anything in this game is to take most advice with a grain of salt. While people have great intentions, I see a lot of bad advice in every thread.

Better resources are reddit, discords and, most of all, streams. You will learn the most from streams and videos. I'm by no means a credible source, but I'm a support main and maybe this will get you started a bit:

ALL SUPPORTS ROAM. It does not matter what you're playing. Your roam windows are just a bit different. Concrete example: If I'm playing Kog Lulu, and they have Lucian Thresh, I really don't want to yolo under their turret. But if we're Zyra Cait, then we definitely do want to do this (provided vision etc, but you get the idea). In the first, this can be a quick window to get something else done, even if that's just a deep ward.

Short answer: you can roam when you're not at your turret and you trust your adc to not die (and if he does die and your roam time was good, don't feel bad. Eventually, he'll learn). In general: 1) IF YOU CAN'T GET ANY ADVANTAGE IN YOUR LANE RIGHT NOW, or 2) IF YOUR TEAM / MID / JUNGLE IS GOING TO NEED YOU WITHIN THE NEXT 30 SECONDS AND YOU AND YOUR ADC ARE NOT BEING PRESSURED UNDER YOUR OWN TURRET. That's pretty much your roam windows.

Lastly, as a fellow support player who started playing support for the same reason: it's the wrong reason to play support for. You're just gonna set yourself back mechanically and while you actually will learn the "flow of the game" and your macro will likely be better than most ALL IN OR GO HOME YOLO midlaners you're getting, your actual mechanical skill in the game will not improve so much. It's superfrustrating if you, after so many games of support and seasons and whatever you realize that fuck this, this is never what you wanted and what the fuck are you still doing support, and you're no longer bronze but when you go any other lane you get dumpstered because you can barely cs.

So, support is fantastic, but make sure you play it for the right reasons!

DarkmoonDiana1/24/2019, 12:37:46 AM1 votes

typically you only want to roam as brand in 2 scenarios

  1. scuttle is contested. with brand it should be easy to get lane priority so you can just roam up and help your jg if they need help at scuttle crab.

  2. when one bot tower falls. Typically what happens after a bot tower falls is the bot lane that takes a tower will swap with either mid or top depending on the pace of the game. If the enemy team takes tower and rotates to a new lane you would want to match them. From that point on you would want to either roam with your jg if you can spare the lane xp loss or just sit with your adc and take towers. Also, river warding a a lot easier in this situation. Don't int into enemy jg to get vision though, if you see enemy jg on the map then its probably gonna be safe to get deep vision down. This is really simplified and there is a lot of room for learning what to do naturally.

Oh, and shame on you for playing brand you silly goose

Noor Sakata1/23/2019, 3:24:17 PM1 votes

Buying new champions is pain Only spend RP on skins which you like Always save up for champions from Blue Essence (BE) We get new offers every 4 months called " your shop " you might get some decent deals for a champion with with a skin

There is a weekly champion, it gives you free champions to try weekly 14 champions , it used to have 10 champions only

You get some champion rotation while levelling up

Wait till you get 20 champions then play ranked or whenever you feel you're ready Don't ever rush Ranked Ignore toxic people who blame everyone for everything And yeah don't rush champions with RP , you can get them with BE Always take the first win of the day And good luck ^^

dramj1/24/2019, 2:56:26 AM1 votes

were do you think blizzard got their idea from?

FrozenFrostFyre1/23/2019, 4:48:58 PM1 votes

I would suggest using champion shards( in hextech crafting next to store) to buy champions at 40% discount BE. If you are honorable you will get capsols quickly and even chests have a chace at giving them.

Sona Ping1/23/2019, 5:18:45 PM1 votes

You're welcome. The next question is going to have different answers from different people. Since you are a new player and you're learning how the game works, I say "Do whatever you want; have fun". If you want to play everybody, do that. If you want to check this week's Free Rotation, look up anyone who you think looks cool, learn a bit and then try them out, that works; you're in a learning phase right now. Doing that, you'll see what everybody does, gain experience, and you see their play style so you can find which champs you enjoy, so when you want to really dig in and get good you know your champion is. But if you want to focus on a few and learn the others from experience or other resources, that's cool too.

Later, when people have it figured out and are trying to rank up, a lot of people choose to focus on a position with just a few choices, so they have options to use in their games. But then others beyond that choose to one-trick and only play a single champion that they find that engaging, because this game does reward that.

Frontline Fury1/24/2019, 3:05:39 AM1 votes

Support is a great role to learn the game. I wouldn't really bother trying to learn roaming just yet - focus on supporting (tagging along with your lane partner) and things like warding, playing against all sorts of champions, item builds and so on.

And please be aware - League of legends can be an EXTREMELY frustrating game. You WILL come across very negative players now and then. Make sure to utilize the mute function on the scoreboard rather than engage in their little venting game. The mute function is a MUST in League of Legends - you can hold down the left mouse after you click G to open a ping wheel (one HOTS introduced a short time after league if i recall correctly) and communicate using them. You can also ping various elements of your HUD. The chat is not obligatory for playing the game, and it's extremely rare that anything important for the game at hand is ever said there.

Welcome to League of Legends! I'm sad that HOTS has stagnated to the point you're migrated, but that's just how it is sometimes. I think you'll find you have much more purpose and personal impact on your matches here compared to HOTS - and i'm certain you'll enjoy it if you manage to endure your first encounters with frustration and/or toxicity. It WILL happen - do your best to weather it, as we're not all bad. Some people have bad games, some people have bad days - try not to let it convince you everyone's like that.

Feel free to ask if you'd like advice, or if you have anything you'd like to discuss (or frustration you need to vent) you can add me on my NA account "Extra Yukeh". I'd be happy to chat now and then - i tend to play a lot on NA, so i should be able to catch you now and then should you choose to add me.