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Which champion amongst the ones I have is the best one for me?

QN jahn3··2 votes·1,866 views

Now, I would like you to know that this is a serious thing. I need real help here.

Champions I currently have: Ashe Garen Tristana Alistar

I don't have IP or Riot points for more.

I want a champion that I can know like the back of my hand, and that I know what to do with in every situation.

Ashe Ashe

This is the first champion that I've gotten. She is the only champion I paid IP for.

I played decent in Co-op v AI games as her, but in PvP I got wrecked. I don't have good reaction speed to be able to play as her well.

The Lux support kept telling me to go in when I did not know what was going on.

I like her volley. It's good CS and freeze tool. I haven't touched her ultimate much.

I like the fact that she has ice powers, but that's another story.

Garen Garen

I managed to get him through liking the Twitter page.

Garen has a good E. I use the E for getting CS a lot.

The problem is, his attack speed is very slow and I can't do well with it.

That makes me feel as if he's better off as support.

Tristana Tristana

I managed to get her through liking the Facebook page.

I have not played Tristana yet, but I heard she has very poor mid-game.

Alistar Alistar

When I first played him I really had no clue what to do.

He's a decent support. I used his E a lot.

The problem is, I got bashed for doing poorly as Alistar. I did even worse than when I played as Ashe.

Apparently, there was this trick shot I was supposed to be doing, but I died many times attempting this.

Sona Possible Champion: Sona

She is the only champion I have interest in getting.

She is the very first champion I have heard of in League of Legends as Arcade Sona.

Since then, I wanted to get her so bad, but I realized she is usually played support.

I played her once while she was on rotation.

I heard I could play her mid, so I attempted that only to fail bigtime.


So yes, which champion is the best for me, what are some possible scenarios I have to look out for, and what should I do in them?

32 Comments

disregardable3 votes

You'd be better off playing all of them tbh as well as playing the free week champions. The best way to get better when you're new is to familiarize yourself with as many champions as possible.

QN jahn31 votes

That will leave me with no end of questions though. ^^;;

Roaranor1 votes

That's okay. As you play and get a general understanding of more and more champions, you will eventually find the play style that fits you and the champion to go along with it.

The champion that you find yourself enjoying the most as you is one you should stick with since enjoying the champ will make you more inclined to want to improve with them.

tldr just keep exploring and you'll find your place naturally

QN jahn31 votes

Okay, but should I get Sona or no?

Roaranor1 votes

If you find her interesting to play, then go for it. Worst case scenario you know how an extra champ. IP gains seem really low when you first start, but as you play more, you'll find out that you accumulate a lot without ever noticing.

I personally don't play her much, but she's still a respectable pick.

disregardable2 votes

It's alright if you don't do well, especially the first few games you play a new champion. Maybe spend 5-6 games in co-op vs ai with each to see which one you like the most. Sounds like a lot but in the grand picture it isn't. Really, I was told not to play draft at all until I was level 13 or so when I started.

mvargus1 votes

You'll have questions even when you get to level 30. As you play there's always something new to learn.

mvargus2 votes

Ok, so I checked and supposedly you are level 7, so you are just getting into League. And when I check out your game results on na.op.gg that is somewhat supported as it shows only 18 games total.

That said, there are a number of things I might say. I'll try to give you the best advice can think of

First, each week try out several of the free week champions. You can start with a Co-op v AI match, or you can see what you end up with in ARAM, but the key is to test out champions. You will probably struggle. You will make mistakes. You might have some smurfs get on your case for poor play, but you'll also learn how each champ works and more about when and how to use different abilities.

Second, you've played so few games that its hard to say "get X champ." What I can do is give you a bit of a breakdown of champ types and where they play. At first its good to choose 1 or 2 roles to practice/learn first and you should concentrate on mostly getting champs who are playable in that position.

So breakdown by type

ADC - ranged, usually have weak early, but very strong late games. Can sometimes be played mid or top, but the majority only do well bot lane with a support. You have 2 in Ashe and Tristana and I saw you played Jinx. There are differences in them based on ability sets. Ashe, Jinx, Kogmaw and Varus are well known for low mobility but surprisingly good utility or CC. Tristana, Graves, Corki, Vayne are known for higher mobility, but trade away some CC in exchange for the ability that gives them mobility. Playing an ADC is often a personal choice based on play style. Some are "lane bullies", others are better for passive farming until the laning phase is over You kind of need to try each one and decide which ones feel right.

Tank - Melee, with good defense and usually some good CC. Depending on their skillset they can be played just about anywhere, but some are better in specific roles. Garen is best in the top lane although he can be played mid against some team comps. Alistar is very good in the support role, but people have taken him jungling. At your level you don't want to try jungling. (you really need level 10 for smite and level 20 for tier 3 runes). Again this is a matter of personal preference, but you do have the 2 best beginner tanks already.

Bruiser - Melee, but usually build more damage items than a tank. Often have strong skills for fighting 1v1. I saw someone name Tryndamere and Aatrox who are both good bruisers. You see them jungling and top lane with rare appearances mid. If you enjoy melee fighting these can be fun to play.

Mage - Mostly shorter ranged than an ADC and do much of their damage with abilities where an ADC can do the majority of their damage with auto attacks. Mostly played mid, but some appear top or support and a few can jungle. Sona played mid would be considered a mage. Annie would be a better choice for a beginner.

Assassin - Melee, but designed around abilities that allow them to kills champions in one burst of damage. Most take time to learn to play to their potential. Most also play in the mid lane so they can roam since they need to get kills to keep up with champions who can kill minions quickly. They've fallen out of favor in the current meta.

Support - Basically a champ that has some mix of crowd control, healing and protection. They will travel to the bot lane with the ADC and their role early is to keep the ADC alive and try to help the ADC kill the other teams champions. It's not a popular role to play as you don't get gold quickly and are expected to do things like ward. Sona is almost always played in this role. She's very good at it once you learn which items to buy and what skills to level when.


So I'd say find a type you like and a role/lane to play and look at testing out any champ that might fit there.


Next, at your level you'll make mistakes. Try not to take them too personally, but if someone calmly gives you advice listen. They might help you uncover mistakes you can correct.


I'm willing to help if you run into me in game. I'm not great at mid or top. (my reflexes are too poor for me to beat most players and I'm out of practice), but I can definitely help you with Sona, Ashe and Tristana. I also might be able to find others to join in so you can play in a bit more relaxed atmosphere as the groups I run with try to be very nice to new players.

--

I will say if you like Sona you can definitely get her when you can. Riot does allow you to say "oops, I don't think this champ works for me" 3 times, so if she really doesn't work out you can get a refund, but she has the advantage of being a solid champion with a skill set that it not too complex for a beginning player. At the same time learning where to position her and when to use each skill takes time, so you'll develop some strong play skills that can be used on other champions.

See you on the rift.

QN jahn31 votes

Just because I'm level 7 it doesn't mean I don't know about roles, but the rest of the material I might make use of. Thank you.

mvargus1 votes

I was trying to use the roles to give you an idea of how to look at what champions you like to play.

For example, long ago I picked up Sejuani mostly because I liked the look of the champ. At the time I was thinking of maining ADC, so I picked her up as a champ to play for fun.

However, later I started playing with a new group of friends and we had 3 who liked ADC and none who jungled. Since I owned Sejuani I started playing jungle and found that I was actually having fun and success with her. (this was about patch 5.1 before Cinderhulk came out.)

But once cinderhulk came out, Sejuani went from being ignored to being a "must ban" so I needed to find a replacement if I wanted to jungle. The fact that she was a tank jungler suggested that I find other tank junglers, since I liked that playstyle. I've since picked up both Amumu and Maokai and had success with both champions.

I kind of suggested that when I talked about ADC and the fact that you mentioned you paid for Ashe. Ashe is a high utility ADC, so if you wanted to stay with that style of play you could go with Varus, Jinx, or Caitlyn primarily as all 3 have kits that feature high utility in some form. Or you could switch to more mobility and go with someone like Corki or Kalista. As they belong to a different sub-group of ADC.

And I definitely feel the same on Sona. She's known for being a high poke, good sustain support who is extremely squishy. If you think you can be comfortable with that you can use her, Zyra, Janna, Soraka and Nami as well without major changes in play style as all of them are high poke supports. (although Zyra does not have sustain.) Alistar is more of a tank support which puts him in the grouping with Taric, Braum, Nunu and to a lesser extent Leona. (Leona is in my opinion more of an engage support than a tank/sustain support.)

Its hard to really explain in a post, I know if I was talking to you I could probably present this a bit better, but I do know the key I'm trying to present is that you have to be open to possibilities and also be able to look for similarities and differences in champs while deciding who to go. An example for me was the Sejuani to Amumu/Maokai decision.

QN jahn31 votes

Well what I do know is that I have two options--to go with Sona right away or save up for Caitlyn, and I have not played any of the two champions yet. At least not much. I could start looking at Rotation champions, but the rotation does not tell me champion names or whether each of them is Marksman or not.

mvargus1 votes

Actually the free rotation page does, but you have to click past the splash page to the one that lists them.

Current Rotation

If you look at that page you see that Graves is noted as purely a marksman and Quinn is a Markman primary with Fighter as a secondary. They are the only ADCs in the current open rotation.

Of course tomorrow we'll see a new page listing the free champs for next week. But its the same trick, click past the news splash and look at the full page to see which ones are marksmen if you aren't sure.

Godhri1 votes

To ask us to give you situations and possible viable reactions to said situations is a bit much. Situations are endless. You'll just have to get a better grasp of the game because even if we tell you, you'll likely not be able to do it well anyway since your current grasp of the game is pretty nonexistent. The fact that you think Garen is better off as a support is evidence of this.

As the others suggested, just playing the game more is the only way to do it. Just mute people who are rude. You'll encounter them a lot in MOBA games, especially this one.

disregardable1 votes

jeez be nice to the newbie...

Godhri1 votes

I'm just straight forward............. I guess it could come off as rude. I forget to filter myself sometimes.

MrBuffington1 votes

I want a champion that I can know like the back of my hand, and that I know what to do with in every situation.

This comes with experience on a champion; you can do this with any champion you want, so long as you learn about them and put the practice in. Of course this is easier with easier champions, and every champion you listed is pretty straightforward/among the more straightforward champions in the game.

There isn't really a one-size-fits-all champion, everyone plays a bit differently and has mechanics or playstyles that comes more naturally to them. As a newer player I would encourage you to try out as many champions you can through free rotation; this will not only familiarize yourself with what champions there are out there and what they do when you're facing them/on a team with them, etc. but also let you find champions you like more.

Also, remember to have fun; it's a game afterall. I know it's a pretty rough learning curve at first, but once you get the hang of the game things become pretty natural.

NexusFire1 votes

I'm a Tristana main and you can carry super hard. If you go trist blitz bot lane. When they pull you e q then w onto them when they have 4 stacks. You will burn their summs and then next time kill em.

Ih8ucuzurtoxic1 votes
  1. Garen

Garen is an amazing Top champ and an easier champ to master as a beginner. He's not support, he has almost nothing for abilities that would help him support.

Attack speed isn't everything. Check out the guide on mobafire.com and build tanky. His 0 resource cost on his abilities means you can use them to get cs (creep score, last hitting minions). Watch some videos on how to play garen on youtube or any other champ you might have as well.

  1. Ashe

Ashe is a really, REALLY strong adc at the moment. She just got a rework and it was like giving a machine gun to someone who already had a semi-automatic. Work on your "trading stance" (youtube it) and poke with her w, burst with full 5 stack q. Use e to show people the map and try to pop out the enemy jungler. The goal in lane as an adc isn't to always auto attack the minions but rather to get a HIGH cs while still poking your opponents. This means you want to always get the last hit on a minion first and foremost but it also means you have a LOT of time to push back at your opponent who, remember, is trying to do the same thing you are doing.

  1. Tristana, a lot of the same applies as ashe with poking and last hitting. They even build very, very simularly. Difference is you have a bit more "escape" with Tristana and she's on of the best scaling adc's in the game so you'll do a ton of dmg.

  2. Alistar

As a support, he's ok. Not the strongest, not the weakest. he's very straightforward and good for beginners but can take a bit of practice to master when and how to combo people so you're not sitting behind minions and spamming your e.

  1. Sona is an extremely strong support. I have a VERY HIGH win rate with her in ranked and it's because she can poke, she can heal, she can stun and provide speed to the ENTIRE team. As a beginner she's fairly easy to do well with because all you're really doing is poking with your q (and boosting your adc's dmg with it) and healing with your w for most of the game. The r stun is great for team fights, doubly so against teams that clump up (i've gotten people pentakills by stunning at the right time) and her e can be a great way to chase or retreat.

There's a LOT of other champions that are great. It seems though that you have a lot to learn. Check out youtube and mobafire and learn how to build and lane. Each champion has it's strengths and weaknesses where they can excel or get rekt and it's up to you and how you play them to determine how well they do. The only champion I think is useless (because most people have no idea what they're doing with him) is bard.

Starting off there's a few champs that are fairly easy to become acceptable on quickly: Tryndamere Shyvana Annie Warwick Sejuani Volibear Gragas (Seriously, compared to other junglers this guy is like using a fat king kong against tinkerbell) Vi Dr. Mundo Aatrox Heimer Nasus

Most of these are very forgiving if you make a mistake and Built right can become MONSTROUS in game.

Some are junglers though and I don't recommend going jungle without watching a LOT of videos on how to do it and how to gank effectively. It's a high risk, high reward role but your team counts on you to be there for them when it's time to gank and countergank. So please, watch some videos and learn how to before diving into pvp as a jungler.

At the end of the day, play what you have fun playing. If you love Ashe, queue her up. If Garen spinning and winning is what you enjoy, go for it. It's a game, just remember to enjoy it.

mvargus1 votes

My only comment here would be that the OP is only level 7. Jungling really requires smite which he can't get until level 10 and ideally he should wait for level 20 when he starts getting level 3 runes as having runes makes a huge difference in the jungle clearing camps.

But I agree Gragas is a power in the jungle at the moment and more forgiving than some of the other popular junglers.

QN jahn31 votes

I am working my way toward level 10 so summoner 11 Smite might be something to look forward to...

But I thought I made it clear that I don't have money for those champions... unless they are 3150 IP or below... then I might consider...

mvargus1 votes

[{quoted}](name=QN jahn3,realm=NA,application-id=WEuoGbmp,discussion-id=5jlu7oXG,comment-id=000400000000,timestamp=2015-06-05T00:25:40.800+0000)

I am working my way toward level 10 so summoner 11 Smite might be something to look forward to...

But I thought I made it clear that I don't have money for those champions... unless they are 3150 IP or below... then I might consider...

You'll be surprised how quickly you can obtain IP if you decide to save for a specific champion. But I can understand trying to purchase mostly the low IP costs ones first.

However, it is true that a good number of the ones named on that list are either 4800 or 6300 IP each. I do know that Annie, Warwick and Nasus are all less (Annie and Warwick are 450, Nasus is 1350).

But I do think jungling should wait for a few levels past 10. Having tier 3 runes helps more than you might think and having a good mastery page also helps as you can get both defense and offense up a bit if you have 20 or more points in your masteries.

Vistha Kai1 votes

Coming to the boards with a question like this is one of the worst things you can do as a newbie.

IMO, there are two things you can do.

  1. Play it cool and try champions in free rotations.
  2. Browse LoL wikia or champion list in the client and look for a champion that gets your attention.

Practically every champion is good if you like it and train some with it.

QN jahn31 votes

The AFK Farmer (NA)

  • 3 days ago

jeez be nice to the newbie...

Vistha Kai1 votes

I'm basically telling you to play the game instead of asking people's opinions about it.

If you'd ask about some technical stuff, then yeah, people could explain it, but asking "which champion should I play" is the question you are suppose to ask yourself, not the next guy.

61413860_DEL1 votes

Hi, so I'm (fairly) new to lol as well as I've only been playing for four or five months, but at the beginning I played a fair amount of bots before starting pvp. I started pvp at level 16 maybe? And mostly it was with champions I was comfortable with. I tried out all the champions whose abilities looked interesting to me; check the champions and their abilities to see what they look like :) and when they come free week, try them out and see if you like it. I think I had a fair amount of free week syndra before I started my first pvp game. Play a champ on free week two or three times. If you like it then consider trying it in pvp :)

Ashe is in a great state right now, so if you like ranged carries with late game potential, play her.

Add me in game if you want :) we can play a game together if you like

Truly Prideful1 votes

Honestly, I would hold off on buying any champions when you're new unless you really fall in love with one. Just play each of the free week champions every week and pick one or two you like and improve with them. Do that every week. After a month or so you'll have a decent idea as to what you like playing best. That's what I did when I started years ago. I didn't buy a champion until like two months in when I had played Heimer for a couple of weeks total and found I really loved playing him.

If I had to pick out of what you gave us, I like Sona best. She can be taken mid as you said as well as being played as a support. Hell, you can even build her as an AD if you are playing with some friends. She just has a lot of build variety and is fairly fun to play. I chose other though, already gave my input on that.

QN jahn31 votes

The only problem is, I have to learn builds for those champions all the time and it's really hard to memorize multiple builds at once, especially due to the fact that I have to memorize the ability sequences.

Truly Prideful1 votes

I understand that, it can be kind of overwhelming if you're not used to it. If you're just going for repetition to learn, I would slowly grab something from each role so you get a feel for how each plays. A lot of things have very similar builds so once you get the hang of building something from the role, it's easier to make educated items choices for others.

This rotation is a pretty good one, I'd give Sivir a shot. She's really straightforward and actually has a nice team steroid. Overall pretty easy to farm with and can be fun to play once you get used to her.

What do you like playing best so far in the game? I could give you some champions to look out for that you might like.

QN jahn31 votes

This week's rotation is not that interesting. I would imagine Sivir's attack speed would be very slow because what she's using is a boomerang and not a musket or a sniper rifle which Caitlyn uses. I know iansnt plays Lux support sometimes but I know she's very hard to play.

I'm looking for champions that are easy to play, and that's very hard because I don't know what I'm looking for.

Here is the list of Champions I hope to see on the rotation.

Sona Sona

I would like to try Sona Support at least once just to try it before I consider purchasing. I like her because of her background story and looks more than her playability. Her playability I cannot comment on because I don't know if she's playable or not. That's the thing. I wish I could find out.

Annie Annie

She's a very intriguing character personality-wise. She feels quite relatable, and I know LemonNation plays her.

Caitlyn Caitlyn

I really wish I could give Caitlyn a shot for once. Memorizing the ability sequence might be a challenge, though. However, I cannot tell for sure because I have not seen it yet. I wish C9Sneaky did a Caitlyn guide, or at least someone currently from an actual team featured on ESL.

Jinx Jinx

She has very humourous voice acting, but I know she's quite difficult to play so that is going to be a problem.

Tristana Tristana

Wait, don't I already have her? Dang, I really need to start playing her a couple of times.

Jayce Jayce

According to my research, Jayce is a marksman that is played on top lane. I find that very interesting, albeit he's probably both ranged and melee. I know Marksman is his secondary, but he still is Marksman.

Lucian Lucian

This is one of C9Sneaky's top champions. If there are no trick shots or combos I'm supposed to know, then I would like to give him a try.

I would also like to see more Marksman champions be added into the game.

Nidalee Nidalee (ADC build)

I wouldn't touch this with a ten-mile pole, but I would like to see someone give this a try.

Note: Just because I tend to look at Marksman champions it does not mean I'm looking to play ADC. Like I have said, I would like to give Jayce a try because he is Marksman as well, and yet, he's not ADC.

Truly Prideful1 votes

Sivir actually gets quite good attack speed at level 6. Once she has a point in her ultimate, her W gives her an attack speed buff when she activates it and it has a very low cooldown.

Despite what you'll read here, Sona is still playable if you take the time to learn to play her well. She's still great as a support and has good team utility. It's all just a matter of getting used to positioning correctly on her.

Jayce / Nidalee are similar in that they can pretty complicated to play since you'll need to learn how to utilize both forms well. I would hold off on both until you have more experience.

Lucian might actually be worth a try. He's not particularly difficult, you just have to get used to using his Q. Outside of that he is pretty easy to learn and I find him fun to play.

Caitlyn I agree you should give a shot when she's up. She is nice for a beginner and doesn't have any complicated combos to learn. The only one is probably using your E to jump backwards and pressing Q toward them so it fires midjump, but honestly you don't NEED that combo to do well on her.

Annie is for sure worth a try for support or mid. Very mechanically simple while still being effective in both roles. 100% agree on her.

Jinx would be worth a try after you've gotten used to some of the other ADs like Caitlyn.

A couple I'll throw in are Lulu and Velkoz ( More for a little later down the road. )

Lulu can be played effectively support, top, or mid. She has a lot of nice utility for her team from any of the roles, just with varying builds depending and where you are playing from. Supporty cheaper items from support, can just go full AP elsewhere.

Velkoz would probably look intimidating to play by looking at his abilities, but he's really not. If you get a feel for his Q, getting his skills to combo together falls into place quickly. I play him support, but he can also go mid. He's very fun to play. My favorite champion next to Bard.

Sorry for the long post, just trying to give some help if I can.

QN jahn31 votes

{quoted}

A couple I'll throw in are Lulu and Velkoz ( More for a little later down the road. )

I'm sorry, I don't know the names of those two champions. I only know less than half of the champions on the list.

Ekko Ekko seems quite difficult, but is he? I would like to give him a try before he expires...

Truly Prideful1 votes

Oh sorry, they're Lulu and Vel'koz.

I would say Ekko is probably more difficult to play well than many things. He's just heavily about good setup and working off of your opponent making mistakes. Granted if you play him and get good with him it could carry you places, he just might still be getting banned later on when / if ranked play if your thing.

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