Advice on advancing gameplay & different champions?

Olexanna·Nov 9, 2014·3 votes·3,516 views

I am somewhat new to the game (just broke level ten) and I am looking for some advice on strategies to grow further. I started with Jinx before quickly moving over to Ashe, which is the champion I first got comfortable and familiar with. After grinding her out I decided to try Annie and found I did quite a lot better with her overall, and have been mainly using her since. Both Annie and Ashe are longer ranged so I don't necessarily want to get stuck only feeling confident with champions that have that distance. What I like about Annie is her stun, and the ability to poke and deny farm fairly well without too much confrontation.

I have been doing bot games mostly, but have done a fair chunk of PVP with my higher ranked friends, of which were quite interesting due to the drastic level difference, but definitely beneficial on my behalf. What I would like is some feedback on is perhaps some other champions I should attempt to branch out to, maybe some helpful guides to read. My friend suggested that I should either attempt at Lux or Morgana because they can mid as well as support? Thank you for any recommendations!

16 Comments

RiotRiot 10YearSantaNov 9, 20148 votes

Hey! What I did when I started playing MOBAs was to play every single character I could get my hands on, and I think this is what everyone else should do too. Playing every champion allows you to

1.) Learn what everyone does.

2.) Expose yourself to various playstyles.

Eventually you will figure out what champs you like to play and then you can really work on the fundamentals while having the best time playing the champs you enjoy.

Jungle Lux GodNov 10, 20141 votes

I fully agree with this. I personally spent my first games of League of Legends trying out a lot of different champions, and found the kinds of playstyles I liked early on.

Also, don't be afraid to try out champs that you may have not had the most fun experiences the first time you played them. In some of my first games, I played Viktor (I don't recommend trying him early because he's so difficult to play), and I ended up not liking him the first time I played him. I tried him a few more games, and started to really like how he played. Now he's my favorite champion to play, and one of my most played champs overall.

DocRedgraveNov 10, 20141 votes

Note that this also allows you to improve your counter-play against each champion you learn in this manner.

LordOfTheLeagueNov 10, 20142 votes

I think it's what you imply in 1) but it's not very clear, to play every champs allow you not only to find the champs you will enjoy to play as but to find the weaknesses of the champ you will play against too.

EndlessSorcererNov 9, 20143 votes

Well, I feel like I should let you know that you can get Tristana, Alistar, and Garen for free by subscribing to Riot's Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter accounts.

Ask your friends about when to buy runes and what your should get for your initial pages, if you haven't already. It doesn't really matter yet, but it should be helpful in the long run.

I would suggest looking at champion guides at Solomid and Lolpro for tips regarding champion, skill order and item builds.

I would recommend trying the free champions each week to see who you enjoy and try expanding your champion pool with some of the 450IP and 1350IP champions.

Some good, cheap champions I would recommend are Kayle, Cho'gath, Jax, Morgana, Taric, and Nasus. They are all pretty straightforward and strong champions.

Most of them have build guides available, but I want to mention one for Taric. As a support: item 3117 item 3401 item 2045 item 3025 item 3190 item 3143 As a top laner: item 3111 item 3068 item 3065 item 3075

llamasxNov 10, 20143 votes

Every week I would just play the free week champs after watching their champion spotlight on youtube. Though a lot of them are a bit outdated, they still serve as a decent starting point. I would play bot games with them just to familiarize myself with the champ. I felt like this gave me a good experience in getting to know what every champion can do and what ever lane did. I felt like playing a variety of champs and lanes helped me become a better player. It gives you a better ability to anticipate what your opponents will do because you've been in their shoes with that champ.

I didn't start focusing on getting good at a specific lane or specific champion until I was about to started ranked games. For that I just looked for high level streamers playing these champs / lanes.

TehNACHONov 9, 20142 votes

Personally, I tend to find that finding your archetype - a certain set of champions that follow the same general rules (melee carries, engage tanks, etc.) - tends to be the easiest way of finding what champions you are going to want to branch out to. For example, after playing Yasuo for an extended amount of time and falling in love with him, I started branching out to other champions of his archetype; Melee Carries. My champion pool and my personal capabilities expanded greatly after finding this out.

Conveniently, cycling through all the 450 ip champions is going to at least expose you to nearly every dominant archetype in the game. Rotation/Burst Mage - Annie, Ryze (Pure AP) Ranged Auto Attack Carry - Ashe Fighter Tank - Garen, Poppy, Warwick Dynamic Champion - Kayle Melee Carry - Master Yi Tanky Mage - Ryze (Mana tank) Ranged Caster Carry - Sivir True Support - Soraka

I also can't fit Nunu in here because I have no experience with him, lol.

You're still really early leveled, so I don't think you should be overthinking it yet. Just get your feet wet with as many 450 champions you find, figure out which champion of this list you are most comfortable with, and then buy a 1350 champion who is in the same archetype as your champion. For example, if the champion you are most comfortable with is Garen because you are comfortable being a super tanky damage dealer, you might want to check out Dr. Mundo.

Seriously though. For now, at least get the 450 champions and try them out, and then think about expanding your horizons. Trust me, there is no point in shoehorning yourself into a particular play style yet. Just explore as much as you can.

tempname8468Nov 9, 20141 votes

Personally, I tend to find that finding your archetype - a certain set of champions that follow the same general rules (melee carries, engage tanks, etc.) - tends to be the easiest way of finding what champions you are going to want to branch out to. For example, after playing Yasuo for an extended amount of time and falling in love with him, I started branching out to other champions of his archetype; Melee Carries. My champion pool and my personal capabilities expanded greatly after finding this out.

Conveniently, cycling through all the 450 ip champions is going to at least expose you to nearly every dominant archetype in the game. Rotation/Burst Mage - Annie, Ryze (Pure AP) Ranged Auto Attack Carry - Ashe Fighter Tank - Garen, Poppy, Warwick Dynamic Champion - Kayle Melee Carry - Master Yi Tanky Mage - Ryze (Mana tank) Ranged Caster Carry - Sivir True Support - Soraka

I also can't fit Nunu in here because I have no experience with him, lol.

You're still really early leveled, so I don't think you should be overthinking it yet. Just get your feet wet with as many 450 champions you find, figure out which champion of this list you are most comfortable with, and then buy a 1350 champion who is in the same archetype as your champion. For example, if the champion you are most comfortable with is Garen because you are comfortable being a super tanky damage dealer, you might want to check out Dr. Mundo.

Seriously though. For now, at least get the 450 champions and try them out, and then think about expanding your horizons. Trust me, there is no point in shoehorning yourself into a particular play style yet. Just explore as much as you can.

+1 I used to main ADC. I would destroy bot as Vayne. Then I left the game, came back and tried to ADC again and was terrible. I switched over to tanks. I started with Pantheon, he has stun, poke, and his passive was perfect against most top champs. Then I moved to Darius, Olaf, Garen, Mundo, Trundle, Volibear, Shen and now I just got VI. Hecarim is also one of my favourite champs. I love bruiser champs.

And I agree on getting the 450 champs. They're a good precursor to the more expensive champs. And they're really easy to learn and use too. If you could master Master Yi, you could easily have a good win ratio. A lot of lower ranked leagues ban him because they don't know how to counter him well.

TehNACHONov 9, 20142 votes

A lot of lower ranked leagues ban him because they don't know how to counter him well.

I'm tempted to say that lower ranked leagues literally can't know how to counter him. Of the 450 champions, there are no proper engage tanks (Malphite, Amumu) or true tanks (Alistar, Maokai), the two archetypes that counter Master Yi the hardest (at least in my experience). In other words, in the lower leagues/levels while a lot of people are still learning, they may literally can't know how to counter Yi yet.

tempname8468Nov 9, 20141 votes

I'm Bronze III (lol) and people don't know how to counter him still.

WorgslargNov 10, 20141 votes

Hard cc and exhaust stop yi's damage long enough for him to get bursted down. But getting all of that done at lower levels is nay impossible.

TehNACHONov 10, 20142 votes

And you know who are the strongest proponents of Hard CC? Engage tanks and True Tanks, as I said in my post.

Seriously though, I think Riot should add one of those two archetypes to the 450 champs, it could really help establishing really early on to new players the value of a CC tank.

WorgslargNov 10, 20141 votes

Alistar has the simplest CC for any champion at beginner level IMO. Malphite would also be a good option.

TehNACHONov 10, 20141 votes

And yet they are not 450 champions, literally the first champions a player should be exposed to.

I'm sorry, at this point it's more of a personal pet peeve than an objective point, but it really does bother me that these two kinds of champions aren't present at all in the 450 beginner pool of champions.

Leti the YetiNov 9, 20142 votes

stop thinking bout champs so much cuz one day ur gonna be sitting out on the rift with a sign saying "will work for runes"

you will survive off playing the weekly free rotation champs i think

kayakninjaNov 10, 20141 votes

Like a lot of people have been saying, one of the best things to do is try a bunch of champs on rotation. If I was you, and what I did, is to whenever free rotation hits try a bot game with every champion you haven't played yet over the course of that week. Try as many champs as you can. I have historically preferred big, hard to kill champs which is why it came as such a surprise to me when I found out how much I loved Karthus and Lucian. Also, about supports, I feel like more than almost any role there is a wide variety of supports. Lux/Morg, Leona/Braum, Thresh, Sona, Soraka. If support's something you want to try to do, try a bunch of them because there is almost certainly a style out there for you.

In a slightly different vein, one of the biggest things that helped me was watching streams. Nightblue is really good jungler and does a good job at talking through what he's doing. Trick2g is a great player and you can learn a lot from watching him or his "Trick spectates X" streams where he watches someone else play a game and talks through what they're doing right, what they're doing wrong, etc. Those are the big 2 for me, but watching really good players and trying to figure out why they did what they did is a great way to figure out the hows and whys of the game.