It is absolutely necessary to create and integrate an extensive item shop tutorial for new players

DEmperor95·Nov 19, 2014·149 votes·7,918 views

One of the things that I occasionely think about, is how much of a torture it is for new players to learn this game. I say to myself: how often would you find a player who can endure the learning process of this game, which takes an extremely long time, patience, and playing with so many smurfs? This is especially true for people who don't really have friends who can teach them everything quickly.

From a personal experience, what I find to be the roughest and most complex aspect to learn for new players is item builds. Sometimes, people reach level 30 without a clue of proper item builds, and that's why reaching level 30 is deceptively just the very first step for these new players who might think otherwise. This is why an extensive and thorough item tutorial for building each class and subclass of champions should be integrated with the game tutorial.

I am pretty confident that an item tutorial would be the most effective implementation to accelerate new player's learning process, and will greatly smoothen the learning curve of this game. In my opinion, it is neccessary, especially given the lack of tutorials in this game.

89 Comments

EMOFRATPARTYNov 19, 201429 votes

I'd love that too, that way my first couple of games in League wouldn't look like this:

ChimeiTekinaNasuNov 20, 20142 votes

I'd love that too, that way my first couple of games in League wouldn't look like this:

Bam. Mine is better. >=D I.E. and Frozen Heart on Sejuani, and other crap items on her. lol. Though you do have 3 machetes so I guess that does kind of beat mine. Level 15, still building wrong. lol. That was last year though. I started July 2013. Took me a few months to build better. Let me find an old Varus build of mine....

ChimeiTekinaNasuNov 20, 20143 votes

Here we go. Even better. Damage? What's that? Probably a good thing I stuck to Custom bots for a long, long time. I can only imagine that build going very wrong in PvP. Warmog's, Frozen Heart, only Black Cleaver for any sort of damage. Need damage? Black Cleaver. Dying a lot? Need more armor. Barely dying in battle and only need a little bit more health?? Warmog's. There was no advice that Marksmen don't need Frozen Heart/Warmog's. I learned this game on my own. I had no friends or anyone to teach me it. My Brother-In-Law got me into the game and only taught me a little bit of it. He was higher level than me at first, but he doesn't play it much. He's still level 18, too, even though he knew more than me when I started. He actually knew how to build, I kind of just built whatever.

Also, I tried getting one of my friends into this. Apparently too complex for him. He didn't even know how to buy or open shop or anything. Even though he's a huge gamer and mostly plays RPGs and Elder Scrolls games, I guess this game just isn't his style. Though he said he never did care much for MOBA type games so meh.

TL;DR: Extensive item shop tutorial would be great so new players (especially the ones without any friends that already know how the game works to teach them) wouldn't build so crappily for months on end before finally learning on their own.

Edit: Man, what the old match history use to look like and thinner IP/RP numbers.

CG SereNNov 20, 20141 votes

How did you find games that old O.O

Even on the website my match history only goes back to July of this year haha, been playing since 2010.

All I remember was my first game I was Kennen, and I built AD because I understood the words "attack" and "damage" and was confused because my spells didn't seem to be doing any damage :P (Secret AD Kennen Hipster right there).

Then i discovered the glory of Kog'Maw, God of Mercy :D

ChimeiTekinaNasuNov 21, 20141 votes

I may or may not take screenshots of some of my stuff...>.> If you notice my desktop and Firefox in the background. I just now realized in the screenshot with the Frozen Heart on Varus, it shows in the background that I was watching Episode 85 of One Piece in July 17th of last year on WatchOP.com and what appears to be a Veoh video on the website. Yep. It's blue. I think that's a Veoh video. So yeah. That's how. Screenshots OP. =P Though I don't screenshot every single match of mine, but I do screenshot most of them. About 50 of my wins aren't screenshoted, and 320+ of my defeats aren't screenshoted either. Occasionally I screenshot my match history. Yeah, I have way too many screenshots.....>.> shhh lol

jQueryNov 20, 20142 votes

Yeah but u still loved playing :D

I still do double boots quite often,i forget that I both them the previous run to the shop so i buy them again. And keep going with both of my boots until an opponents starts lol-ing at me(sometimes the just keep quiet) or i run out of slots.

YoellaNov 19, 201415 votes

As someone who played against smurfs constantly during the 1-29 process and didn't really learn the value of runes and item builds until around 28, I can confirm that LoL does indeed need an item build tutorial. The new "Item Set" option in S4 helps a lot, but even still new players can sit in base for 2 minutes just wondering what they should buy. It's not even really their faults, they don't know what items do what in the best ways yet. Hell I've been level 30 for almost 2 years now and I've only learned these past 2 months how useful RoA item 3027 is for some mages.

FebruAhriNov 19, 201412 votes

tutorial's fine as it is. I mean, doesn't everyone plat+ rush thornmail on ashe?

TiropatNov 19, 20142 votes

you know its actually impossible to die on that tutorial? all damage gets reduced to 1 as you run out of hp. I was not able to get ashe to less than 3 hp

CupcakeTrapNov 19, 201410 votes

Even more radically: what about an "auto-buy" option for new Summoners?

LoL's got a really intense learning curve. It might be nice to have the game (by default, anyway) auto-buy items for the first five levels or whatever. Once they hit level 5, have it switch to regular shop mode, and pop up a message linking them to a shop tutorial.

It might sound totally crazy, but might there not be some sense in letting the newest players focus entirely on the game itself, before introducing the shop? It's not like most level 3 Summoners (smurfs aside; and they can disable the auto-buy feature) are going to know better than "click the recommended items" anyway.

Sir ArmaMalumNov 19, 20143 votes

That'd be an interesting thing to bring into Co-op vs. AI. It would also restrict people coming back to beginner bots for a good ol' bot stomping from getting things like Sword of the Occult and taking away from the learning experience of the new players. You could also auto-adjust the item order and set based on the bots team comp.

I'd be a little hesitant for PvP though, simply because comps get weird so the items may become a detriment.

Bacon KebabNov 19, 20143 votes

I'm thinking about the situation over all, and I think the best possible option would be to have an "Advanced Mode" button in the shop window, that way new players could use the simple mode that directs you with what item to buy next, which is pretty much what recommended items is, but even that gets confusing to rookies that don't know what is what or good for them at what point in the game. And the smurfs and advanced players could go on with their normal builds.

And while this may not sound like it does anything to nerf the smurf persay, it makes it a more even playing field when the real new player has a decent item build order.

CupcakeTrapNov 19, 20142 votes

Yeah, maybe a halfway option, like some streamlined way to just buy the next item or component in the recommended items list.

After playing a lot of LoL, it almost seems absurd to me, but then I remember how confusing it was. I've definitely had friends tell me that the worst part of their new player experience was the shop.

Demonsolder21Nov 20, 20141 votes

or you could like look at guides made by fellow players ._.

CupcakeTrapNov 20, 20142 votes

or you could like look at guides made by fellow players ._.

I'm not sure how effective that would be for a level 3 Summoner. The problem isn't that they don't know what to buy in an abstract strategic sense, it's that absolutely everything in the game is brand new to them.

I'm not at all convinced that an auto-buy feature is the right decision. I'm just putting it forward as a radical option to promote discussion and debate.

Demonsolder21Nov 20, 20141 votes

xD you guys are treating noobs as if they are stupid or something

CupcakeTrapNov 20, 20143 votes

xD you guys are treating noobs as if they are stupid or something

I don't consider myself stupid, but when I played my first game of Dawngate, their shop was absolutely the most confusing thing. I clicked the shop button, and it was full of icons leading to other icons, none of which I recognized. When I clicked on one of them, it rattled off the names of stats I'd never heard of, together with numbers for which I had no context. Sure, I could mouse over them for more information, but it was a lot to read and absorb in the middle of a match.

Even with a lot of LoL experience to analogize with, I was pretty much just clicking buttons.

Now, it's true, you can then go and read the wiki or whatnot, but that's still quite a lot of information to soak up, and most of it doesn't really make sense until you have some gameplay experience for context. ("Oh, she's killing tanks really well because she has Last Whisper. That's for penetrating % armor. That's better versus high-armor targets, whereas the flat ArPen is better for low-armor targets.")

It's all second nature to us now, but it's important to remember that we're talking about the experience of the very newest players.

When I started LoL, I didn't realize that "weapons" stacked. "Wait, why would I buy a sword? She's already got a bow. How do you switch weapons?"

I've had friends quit LoL in part because they found it really confusing and stressful being asked to make all these item decisions in the middle of a match, while they were already trying to understand the rest of the game. It's a lot of information at once. Remember, I'm talking about the very newest players here.

Coffee Ray GunNov 19, 20148 votes

They should take something that DOTA 2 does right, player suggested builds. When you start a game in DOTA there are many builds you can choose from and follow, not just for items but skill order as well. The top rated builds also have paragraphs explaining why you would buy each item and how to use skills. They are rated like guides on MOBAFIRE or lolking are.

I also hate playing DOTA 2, so that's not why I'm suggesting this xD.

AbodyHUN666Nov 19, 20142 votes

I think the recommended items are fine for most champs, the problem is new players not knowing they can upgrade vamp scepter

Coffee Ray GunNov 20, 20142 votes

They are, but the meta changes, and we can't expect Riot to always know the best build for each champion.

AbodyHUN666Nov 20, 20141 votes

yeah but generally they are true. If we were to put these builds in the game we would need them ordered like the hot posts in the forums. Meta can change every patch and you can't expect a rushed guide for the bruiser item changes patch on shyvana to get ahead of a guide some community favorite wrote a year ago.

Coffee Ray GunNov 20, 20142 votes

That's true, but we could have the same thing that looking does with its guides. Mark fresh guides that have very recently been updated.

Sir ArmaMalumNov 19, 20148 votes

Honestly I wouldn't mind these tutorials to be done the same way as the summoner spell vids in-client. With an audio explanation behind it as well. Kind of like an item spotlight, you know? Honestly now that I think about it, this would be entertaining to do myself....sigh, when I have time, when I have time.

ThelmonNov 20, 20146 votes

As nice as it would be to have a tutorial for items, that would be one HUGE tutorial. First, you build based on your champion, then you build differently based on your enemy team and sometimes even your own team. In order to cover all of this, the tutorial would be massive.

I think that the best way to learn items is by experience. However; if Riot came up with some kind of Helper or Tutor program where seasoned players are teamed with new players to help coach them by suggesting items, skill paths, and strategies, I think that would be the best way to help learn how to build items.

Maybe offer an icon or a ribbon to promote helping players.

It Hertz When IPNov 21, 20141 votes

For the love of God, I hope you intend for this proposed system to be voluntary...

ThelmonNov 21, 20142 votes

Of course it would be voluntary. There are some people out there who would genuinly want to help other people learn while others may not really care. Ideally, it would have it's own que and you would have to have a certain rank or number of games to be a mentor. And then when you're in champion select, everyone is labeled as either instructor or student so you know who to go to for help and the instructors know who to help. Probably would want a max and min number of instructors being 2 per team. Since it would be it's own game mode, both teams should be encouraged to give advice to opposing teams.

Edit: There would also probably need to be some sort of rating system where instructors are rated based on how well they taught their teammates or opponents. Important for keeping the trolls out and help prevent bad experiences for new players.

redniwediSNov 19, 20143 votes

There was a very interesting study posted on here a while back that came to the same conclusion. There was actually a red post in that thread, so they are very aware of this need. If they are working on it I wouldn't expect to see it before season 5 begins, but as the shop is a rather complex thing it may take some time for them to get the tutorial right.

CARPEN0CT3MNov 19, 20142 votes

Yes. But simply Riot can not teach you statistics and basic math. and also it would be hard for them to teach you situations in which to buy.

SolaxoNov 19, 20141 votes

I don't need math to know that I need apen or AD marks on ADC

Angry MonsterNov 19, 20142 votes

i have run across many players who think Per level is better on everything. Or that AD blus are viable on ADCs.

You do need math to understand runes.

SilverthaneNov 19, 20142 votes

if i didnt have a friend to explain to me runes, masteries and items i would have quit at level 5. even then i played alone.

Rew711Nov 19, 20142 votes

I am one of those idiots who went to level 30 with no idea about items. I went into a ranked game (bless those guys souls) with no idea how to build. I for one would highly recommend this.

Angry MonsterNov 19, 20142 votes

New players should be experimenting with builds in Bot games.

DominnionNov 19, 20142 votes

I agree very much; I only learned how to deal with items by looking up pre-made builds... Also my friend just started, and at first he didnt understand to buy things other than potions (lol) and then Tiamat Varus

PengodNov 19, 20142 votes

They should integrate an item tutorial but how? There are so many situational things that factor in, they can't do it. All they'd be able to do is create it so it tells you all the basics, like AP items and AD items, and how Armor counters AD, and MR counters AP. Also the pen items and some active items. They honestly need to change the tutorial overall, it's really not that helpful, and I feel that making it more updated would increase some knowledge for new people. And just a thought, how about some kind of jungling tutorial? If I didn't have my friend telling me how to do it, it would've been so much harder. At least just a basics of the jungle set up and info on the machete and its upgrades.

Maple CrusaderNov 20, 20142 votes

I agree with you. I had no idea what items to buy when I first started out in this game. It would have been helpful if Riot sets up a good shop tutorial to explain what champs scale off of and what resistances are helpful in certain situations. It would be a great idea if the tutorial explained why it is important to purchase and place stealth/vision wards.

CupcakeTrapNov 20, 20142 votes

the point still stands they can just search up guides that go in depth in explaining the item build. Instead of adding this nonsense into the game.

The problem isn't lack of in-depth knowledge. It's not knowing what the items or stats are in the first place, or how items build into each other.

TerffNov 20, 20142 votes

I recall once seeing someone who thought since they used abilities a lot that they should build AP, they were playing Garen. I fully agree with this being a necesity. I remember when I first started playing the whole concept of slowly building items was... unknown, so I would literally wait til I could fully afford an item to buy it, maybe I just didn't understand that building the items was as good as buying it at once, maybe it seems pretty obvious but to me at the time it wasn't. I just think it would be great to have some better tutorials in general!

jQueryNov 20, 20142 votes

I think you are wrong, If u present them with more learning material u'll just put them off. When i tried to bring the first friend to League i was trying to be smart and suggest better suited items with good passive effects for his style of play(he was overwhelmed with the Q,W,E,R -D,F i dint want to bring in num keys to his play). But it back fired when he started learning more and more; his style was changing very frequently, sometimes 3 times in a single game, going back and fort.

When i brought other friends i implemented another strategy, the simplest i could find and it worked for them most of the times; it goes something like this:

"Buy boots first" "*Buy at least 2 items under the "Defensive Items" list, the u can go and look at the "Offensive Items" list *" "And read the description out loud! before u buy an item! Ill smack u if u dont know what u get with the items u bought! " :D

pinkyblossomNov 20, 20142 votes

Yes he is, Builds are troublesome for beginners, the recommend does enough , the only thing that may new players need is some kind of warning, when they try to by two boots; "U already have boots, u can use ur gold more wisely, u have been warned OK(Button)"

Besides there is nothing new to the shop except some new items, And all items are new for beginners.

Demonsolder21Nov 21, 20142 votes

yeah like i really want to get spammed:

"WARNING WARNING WARNING SUMMONER YOU ALREADY HAVE ONE BOOT BUYING ANOTHER IS NOT RECOMMENDED " "WARNING SUMMONER YOU HAVE 3600 GOLD I SUGGEST YOU PURCHASE THIS INSTEAD" "WARNING SUMMONER HERE GET THIS ITS BETTER"

-The helping system has restricted your ability to purchase two boots so sorry- -The helping system has restricted your ability to buy 6 warmogs- -The helping system has restricted your ability to buy - -THE HELPING SYSTEM IS NOW YOUR MOTHER-

yeah no ty gonna pass on it.

pinkyblossomNov 23, 20143 votes

:D im sorry but i think u misunderstand me.

I dint meant for that much extensive warnings and I didn't said that restrictions and suggestions(many) should be made - I did say:

the recommend does enough , the only thing that may new players need...

The warning can be disabled with a "Don't show again" check box. or be embedded in the tool-tip under the stats of the item and be shown until level 10 or so. And I didn't said it should I said "May need".

I was just adding to the point of @jQuery, that there is NOT! ;

absolutely necessary to create and integrate an extensive item shop tutorial for new players

As the initial post suggested.

DaenNov 20, 20142 votes

Right, so: I upvoted this and cannot agree enough, but there's something I wanted to touch on.

This is why an extensive and thorough item tutorial for building each class and subclass of champions should be integrated with the game tutorial.

integrated with the game tutorial

game tutorial

My personal opinion is that the current tutorial system is hopelessly inadequate. It's basically a five minute instructional video that shows you what turrets are and points at the Nexus; the tutorial covers nothing about deeper mechanics such as last hitting, zoning, teamfighting, communication, etc.

I don't think that attempting to add a specific tutorial like itemization to the current system would be anywhere near as beneficial as overhauling the entire tutorial system, and it's very possible to create something that can be used by almost everyone, regardless of skill level rather than a single piece of content at the beginning that's never touched again.

The reason I bring this up is that items don't really make sense until you have a basic understanding of the game's mechanics. Why should I buy armor against Riven but it's less effective against Irelia? Why would I ever want a Sightstone, it gives bad stats. When should I be building offensively as opposed to defensively? Why do opponents have more items than me? How do I get more money for items? Why did everyone just leave my lane and disappear to the bottom half of the map?

A tutorial about itemization without a strong backbone in general mechanics would fall on relatively deaf ears, I feel.

MawFoxNov 20, 20141 votes

I'm still new to League and about to hit 30 for the first time, but during my learning process I really didn't need extraneous tutorials due to the fact I was willing to go outside of the game to find information about normal strategies. Such as effective builds, armor->apen->ad equations, and how to play certain champions to their inherit strengths and weaknesses. I'm by no means a veteran player yet, but the information available outside of the game is rather abundant (though that's inconvenient to more casual gamers).

I have to agree however, with how complex building a jungler may be now with the potential variance in viable builds per-champion, that breaking things down for new players would really help their early progression.

Playing as a first time pre-30 with a bunch of smurfs isn't pleasant, not due to the extra challenge associated with it (I like that, honestly, I learn faster under pressure), but the degradation and toxicity aimed toward you if you aren't performing up to 'standard' (standard being relevant to the team's average experience composition, which is usually far out of reach of 'newbie'-levels); moreover, it is bad enough to make new players not even bother continuing to play the game at the early stages. The problem rests on the learning stages requiring you to pretty much do said learning through trial and error exclusively, meaning you're going to be subject to harassment more than likely.

OnegarionNov 20, 20142 votes

Actually I think the issue needs to be handled by the community itself. Like you said there is an abundance of knowledge outside in guides and detailed breakdowns of champions. Yet for most players this is rather taxing for only wanting to enjoy the game.

This is why I actually started a community group to help newer players get the hang of league from all perspectives.

I have a link here Newbs/Veterans of the boards page in the tips section.

I can't agree with the OP with the big fact that not everyone here wants to play competitively. Some people just want to run AP darius and thats it. Which while its a terrible poor build if they find it fun than they should play it. A quick pitch on it. I've asked for volunteers who want to help newer people. Its labeled Newb because its for people that are 1)New to the game or Mobas in general, 2) To players new to ranked because it is VERY DIFFERENT than normals, and 3) Players who are "new" to leagues within the ranked. So that Diamond lvl player helps the gold to improve WITHOUT CARRYING HIM (have to emphasize this). Its mainly casual and different volunteers want to do different things.

I want to form a close community that is willing to help new players or players that want to improve. So if you want help come joint the thread and the in-client chat group and I'm pretty sure someone will help. We are rather small right now since its very new and very voluntary.

Again I think that the stuff the OP calls for is going to be gained from the community. Its not going to be the best thing if Riot makes it and does it wrong or explains something poorly. Its best coming form someone who plays this game the same way you do to help you understand how to get the most out of what you want.

pinkyblossomNov 20, 20141 votes

U are going overboard. There are just some new items in the shop, and 3 are removed, the nav list is just changed a bit ( Spell Vamp missing WHY RITO! WHY! :P ). summoner 11 is still smite there is just some extra stuff, at least now u can see how much smite damages and how much HP the golem has without clicking and hovering things.

Anyway, every single item in the shop is new item for newbies. The new jungle items wont be of any use (since they don't have summoner 11 to lvl 9 i think?) and they will figure those are not helping much in lane very soon. Also they are asked to choose 1 of 3 lanes (arrows glowing and everything) so they wont worry for the jungle for a while.

And believe me the best tutorial is when the game ends and u stare(as a newbie) in the opsite Ashe build and try to figure out how did he killed ur Ashe 1v1 5 times in a row so fast. And that is half the fun in Lol; "OK im buying this first my next game! My Garen is gonna be indestructible !" and when ur new build works that's when u feel the success in this game.

MonteQQNov 21, 20141 votes

What I would recommend is a tutorial for items. I mean I saw a Shyvana jungle that had Tears o_o ... And went for mana items. I was like "WHUT". When I was playing on my lv 5 smurfie xD.. I think it should be included in tutorial. Or make a possible tutorial for EVERY champion. So people get familiar with skills / items / functions of each champion. I'm willing to help make those tutorials.

Squeaky DreemurrNov 21, 20141 votes

Power to the noobs!

HasslevaniaNov 21, 20141 votes

I completely agree, new players need help building.

League of PotatoNov 21, 20141 votes

Yea like the fact if you take the battle tutorial it forces you to build a thornmail on ashe...like no there's never a time when you should ever build that on ashe lol

it just sets up new players for failure, I've never understood their reasoning behind this..