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

DEmperor95·11/19/2014, 7:19:28 PM·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

EMOFRATPARTY11/19/2014, 7:57:44 PM29 votes

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

Yoella11/19/2014, 8:20:07 PM15 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.

FebruAhri11/19/2014, 8:17:57 PM12 votes

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

CupcakeTrap11/19/2014, 8:43:22 PM10 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 ArmaMalum11/19/2014, 7:46:15 PM8 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.

Coffee Ray Gun11/19/2014, 7:41:14 PM8 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.

Thelmon11/20/2014, 12:40:31 AM6 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.

redniwediS11/19/2014, 7:24:34 PM3 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.

Pengod11/19/2014, 11:19:58 PM2 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.

CARPEN0CT3M11/19/2014, 9:15:29 PM2 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.

Silverthane11/19/2014, 9:40:34 PM2 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.

Rew71111/19/2014, 10:20:06 PM2 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 Monster11/19/2014, 10:21:57 PM2 votes

New players should be experimenting with builds in Bot games.

Dominnion11/19/2014, 10:33:19 PM2 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

Maple Crusader11/20/2014, 1:06:14 AM2 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.

CupcakeTrap11/20/2014, 3:33:44 AM2 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.

Terff11/20/2014, 3:41:46 AM2 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!

jQuery11/20/2014, 4:01:29 PM2 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

Daen11/20/2014, 5:08:51 PM2 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.

League of Potato11/21/2014, 7:57:48 PM1 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..

pinkyblossom11/20/2014, 11:58:22 PM1 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.

MawFox11/20/2014, 3:24:19 AM1 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.

MonteQQ11/21/2014, 3:14:29 PM1 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 Dreemurr11/21/2014, 4:18:40 PM1 votes

Power to the noobs!

Hasslevania11/21/2014, 5:46:20 PM1 votes

I completely agree, new players need help building.