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Few Questions from former Dota 2 player who recently switched to LoL

Micr0machines·3/24/2015, 7:27:31 PM·14 votes·4,773 views

Notice (If you don't want to read about me, and just want to answer my questions than skip down to my questions please! Pick however many you would like to answer, as there are A LOT and I'm trying to learn as much as possible. Thank you!)

First of all, I'd like to let you all know I started playing MOBA's starting with HON around 2010 when it first released, when LoL and HON were the new rival games. I then switched to Dota 2 when i got invited to the beta and played that for about 3 years. Here and there I would try LoL to see what the hype was about as it started gettin more popular, but never understood how anyone could play it over HON or dota, as the artwork was just too cartoonish and it felt like it took forever to kill someone compared to the one hitter nuke-like abilities of the other ones. However, that opinion changed. I don't play games as hardcore or as competetive as I used to, and instead find the joy in discovering new characters and their abilities. There is something about playing heroes you've never played before and figuring out what they can do that really draws me to MOBAS. I used to play hours upon hours of HON and Dota playing multiple heroes and trying to master them as it sucked away a lot of my time. After a few years and because of the toxicity of the Dota community, I just didn't find it fun anymore. Hearing people constantly flaming each other, and blaming each other for why something happened a certain way just got stale. Now mind you, I played at a higher rating, not the highest but definitely well above average.

So I decided to try LoL again hoping to re-find the love I had in the discovery of heroes, and their abilities, and just MOBAs overall. I haven't tried LoL in a year or two, so I wasn't sure what to expect. However, after downloading it and playing my first game I realized the large amount of improvements that Riot have added to the game. The graphics are less cartoonish, Heroes (or summoners) feel way more balanced, and the ranking system/runes/masteries are an awesome addition! (I'm not sure if those were there before, but if they were, I never noticed them or realized how cool it is that you have a talent tree).

Anyway to sum up all of this, I absolutely love this game, and have a few questions as I am still learning the differences between this game and the previous MOBAS I've played. So here they are.

  1. Wards in this game confuse me. Does everyone get one when they start for free? Also, sometimes when the other team places them they are visible and sometimes they aren't. Why is that.

  2. What does the beetle that walks up and down the river do, and why is it there? Is it a moving ward? If so how come my team never has one.

  3. Can someone explain the difference between the different types of damage. All i understand is Attack Damange and Ability Power, but what about magic? Or is ability power magic? Also what items do you want to build to counter

  4. What is the little red light and circle that appear in areas sometimes. Almost like some type of scouting mechanism but i can't tell if thats an ability or a way to find wards.

  5. How many buffs are there? Is it the carry that should get the Buff camps, or should the jungler?

  6. Is there an item like black king bar which when activated, makes you invulnerable to magic damage, and un-targetable?

  7. What is the strongest damage item in the game? Is there a weapon like Divine Rapier which grants a LOT of dmg, but drops if killed?

  8. Is the whole Rune system more beneficial to someone who pays for runes? Like a pay to win type of thing?

  9. Is the cookie cutter laneing- 1 top, 1 mid, 1 jung, 2 bot? If not what is the standard? and what are some other way to lane?

  10. What's the best website for build guides for Summoners?

  11. How hard is it to solo que and get to Plat or diamond?

  12. I want to learn how to jungle, how do i know who is a jungler and who's not?

  13. How many supports should there be on a team? Seems like 1 is normal.

Thank you if you participated in answering some of my noob questions! I will add more if I think of any, but for now that's all i have!

Cheers!

40 Comments

Saixos3/24/2015, 8:42:32 PM8 votes

Hai, lemme try to answer these:

  1. Everyone starts with a trinket. Trinkets can be yellow, red, or blue, and each has a different function. They're all free. Yellow trinkets act as free 1 minute wards with a longer cooldown, red trinkets act as sweepers to remove trinkets, and the blue trinket is like a mini clarivoyance spell. They all get upgraded automatically, and at level 9 you can buy another upgrade for them (I HIGHLY recommend this, I'd say it's just as important as buying boots.)

  2. Kill it, and it'll give a little ward in the river which lasts for a short period of time. It also gives this little circle which speeds you up if you walk over it. I recommend just killing it in a game and seeing for yourself.

  3. Attack damage increases the power of your autoattacks, and some abilities. Ability power increases the power of some other abilities. Those are the stats that items give you in terms of offense, and you can hover over an ability to check what it scales off of. Red=AD, blue= AP. There are 3 kinds of damage though, magic, physical, and true. Which of these an ability deals is also stated in its description. Autoattacks are always physical. Which kind of damage you deal determines which defensive values reduce its damage. Armor reduces physical damage, magic resistance reduces magic damage. True damage isn't reduced by either.

  4. That is the red trinket, the sweeping lens. Buy it and try it.

  5. 4 kinds: Red, Blue, Drag, Baron. Dragon and baron are global buffs that affect your team in various ways, best to read the description ingame for those two. Red applys burn and slow, blue cooldown reduction and mana regen. Jungler usually takes the buffs first clear, and donates blue to the midlaner on occasion. Late game the ADC usually wants red. Generally speaking I would say the buffs are for the jungler first, but he can choose to donate them to allies (And it's usually a good idea to do so). However, always donate if that's what is needed to avoid conflict!

  6. Nope, nothing like that. There is morgana's black shield ability which makes you immune to crowd control and shields you for a certain amount of magic damage, but that's the only thing even remotely similar to something like that.

  7. The thing about league is that there is no single strongest item, they're all situational depending on your champion. For example, Bloodthirster has one of the highest base attack damages in the game, but trinity force is a more powerful item for most champions. Closest thing I think would be rabadons deathcap for Ability power, it gives the most ability power out of any other item in the game, but has no other stats other than granting AP.

  8. Not pay to win, grind to win. Only buy tier 3 runes. This is a very controvertial topic, but generally I'd recommend that you ignore runes till you're level 25+ with a better idea of the game as a whole, and don't play ranked until you have 1-2 filled rune pages. You can't pay real life cash for runes.

  9. That is indeed the standard. It's the most widespread setup and you'll see it 99% of the time, but the duo bot can also go top lane, or the support mid lane, those are just not as good due to mid not needing the extra protection due to its short length and bot being closer to the dragon.

  10. I personally used mobafire guides when starting out, probuilds can be useful. Most of the time though, I'd recommend look through a number of guides from different people, and then make up your own mind (once you know the items and stuff ofc)

  11. Can't answer this, I personally refuse to play ranked. I can say though that it can range from very difficult to very easy, depending on your attitude and what roles you play.

  12. Here I would simply say look it up. Generally speaking though most/all champions are able to jungle, but melees are usually far better junglers, and some junglers are far more viable than others.

  13. Usually 1 person gets the "support" role, meaning they're in a duo lane helping the other person out, but there are some team comps where weird stuff happens. 1 is the norm.

Schrodingger3/24/2015, 8:26:41 PM6 votes

Wards in this game confuse me. Does everyone get one when they start for free? Also, sometimes when the other team places them they are visible and sometimes they aren't. Why is that.

There are two types of wards. Green wardsitem 2044 and pink wardsitem 2043 . Green wards cost 75 gold and last 3 minutes unless destroyed by true sight. Pink wards last until killed and provide something really important, true sight. True sight is there to help "clean" spaces from enemy wards and, some champions have the ability to go invisible and this true sight ability let you spot them. Green wards last like 3 seconds visible when put so if the enemy sees it go down, they can use their true sight to clean it.

Everyone get a trinket at the start that can put a weaker ward for 1 minute, there are useful for lanning and spotting early ganks, but should be switched to the other trinkets as soon as needed

What does the beetle that walks up and down the river do, and why is it there? Is it a moving ward? If so how come my team never has one.

The beetle is a "jungle" monster per se that spawns and if your team kills it, gives vision of two important objectives, dragon and baron. They also provide a speed boost to the owner team that walks in it. If your team does not have one it means that your team isnt killing the beetle fast enough.

Can someone explain the difference between the different types of damage. All i understand is Attack Damange and Ability Power, but what about magic? Or is ability power magic? Also what items do you want to build to counter

There are two types of dmg in the game aside from true damage. Attack damage and Magic Damage. Attack damage is boosted by attack damage items ( surprise!!) and magic damage is boosted by ability power. Different champions get bonuses from different stats. If you are an Attack Damage Carry (ADC) you benefit from attack damage and those items, and vice versa if you are and Ability Power Carry.

What is the little red light and circle that appear in areas sometimes. Almost like some type of scouting mechanism but i can't tell if thats an ability or a way to find wards.

The little red light is a trinket (the red one)item 3341 that lets you have true sight of an area for a few seconds. It lets you spot wards and clear them. The blue circleitem 3342 on the other hand, is a tool to grant vision of an area from afar. Think of a blink dagger for vision in dota terms.

How many buffs are there? Is it the carry that should get the Buff camps, or should the jungler?

There are 4 types of general buffs and many more from the jungle.

The main 4 types of buffs are:

Blue buff: This is granted by the blue golem in each jungle and grants lower cooldowns and more mana regenration. It is usually given to the midlaners because they usually use a lot of mana and rely on their spells.

Red buff: Granted by the red golem in each jungle, grants a slowing attack and thus is good for chasing or orb-walking out of enemies range.

Dragon Buff: These are actually a group of 5 buffs granted everytime you kill the dragon. they grant movespeed damage and all sorts of goodies, so its good to get it.

Baron Buff: this buff is one of the best buff in the game and is given by killin Baron Nashor. it grants a faster recall, more powerful minions and a speed boost after recalling. This is usually a win condition and the team with it usually wins. It also gives 300g to everyone, so it is awesome

Is there an item like black king bar which when activated, makes you invulnerable to magic damage, and un-targetable?

There is no such thing as BKB in the game, but there are alternatives. Zhonya's Hourglassitem 3157 makes you untargetable and unkillable for 2 seconds but you cant move attack or do anything.

Quick Silver Sashitem 3140 and its upgrade lets you get out of 1 stun.slow, snare or whatnot on a 45 second cooldown if i recall correctly.

What is the strongest damage item in the game? Is there a weapon like Divine Rapier which grants a LOT of dmg, but drops if killed?

No divine rapier, but there are 7 "high" tier damage items that most carries will build with some variation.

These are:

Attack damage: Essence Reaveritem 3508 Infinity Edgeitem 3031 Bloodthirsteritem 3072 Mercurial Scimitaritem 3139

Ability Power: Luden' Echoitem 3285 Zhonya's Hourglassitem 3157 Rabbadon Deathcapitem 3089

Is the whole Rune system more beneficial to someone who pays for runes? Like a pay to win type of thing?

No such thing. Every rune is the same for everyone. Grind them games and you will be rewarded. Buy the greater runes (those available after lvl 20) the others are not worth it.

Is the cookie cutter laneing- 1 top, 1 mid, 1 jung, 2 bot? If not what is the standard? and what are some other way to lane?

The cookie cutter is as you stated, 1 top 1 mid 1 jungle and 2 support. There IS a meta reason of why this is though, if you want I could tell you why. SOme other lane match ups an be seen on super pro scenes so you dont need to worry about them now.

What's the best website for build guides for Summoners?

Mobafire and Solomid or something like that...

How hard is it to solo que and get to Plat or diamond?

I'm on the struggle in silver 2 just promoted yay. I will carry my way to gold/plat by the end of the season i hope. You need to be skilled and willing to roflstomp every game. Seriously. EVERY GAME.

I want to learn how to jungle, how do i know who is a jungler and who's not?

Junglers usually take smite and are really tanky in the current meta. Youtube Foxdrop or Nightblue3 and thye have guides and are Challenger players that teach the jungle. Other players are TheOddOne and Trick2G. Google/Youtube them. They are challenger and will teach you the game. for what champion is a jungler or not... Almost everyone CAN be, but most efficient now(and seen in pro games) are:

Lee SinLeeSin ZacZac RengarRengar SejuaniSejuani FizzFizz GragasGragas Jarvan IVJarvanIV ViVi

Other popular ones not seen in the pro scene are:

  1. Kha'ZixKhazix AmumuAmumu MalphiteMalphite Xin ZhaoXinZhao HecarimHecarim
KING OF MASKS3/25/2015, 2:19:00 AM5 votes

If you're looking for build guides, LoLKing is the place to go. In my experience Mobafire is generally a bit outdated.

Korthalia3/24/2015, 8:21:55 PM3 votes
  1. The free ward at the start of the game is connected to a free trinket. item 3340 You are not obliged to start with this trinket, however, and may instead use item 3341 - activating it will cause the red light to appear (question 4.) and will disable any enemy wards caught in the area for a short duration while making them visible to your team. There also is item 3342 , which will reveal target area for a short time upon activation.

EDIT: As for the visible and invisible wards - wards will be visible for the first ~2 seconds after being placed. There are item 2043 wards, though, which do not have a time limit and also reveal all invisible targets around them in addition to doing the standard ward stuff - which is why they are permanently visible.

  1. The Scuttle Crab grants a bit of gold and will create a zone of vision for the killing team - placed near the respective river's pit. The zone also grants a short speed boost to champions that pass through it (and to whose it belongs, of course). The crab respawns every once in a while, so make sure to try to kill it when you are sure it is safe to do so.

  2. The major difference between Attack Damage and Ability Power is that without any bonus effects taken into consideration, your auto attacks will scale with 100% of your Attack Damage and 0% of Ability Power (there are champions whose attacks do indeed scale with Ability Power, but they are a minority). Abilities tend to scale much harder with ability power to allow mages to burst people down - most of mages lack a source of reliant sustained damage. As for damage types, they aren't neccesarily connected to any of the stats - you have to watch the color of damage that appears over your character. Red means physical (countered by armor), Purple means magic (countered by magic resist), White means True (ignores both armor and magic resist).

  3. Sweeping Lens, the red trinket I mentioned in 1.

  4. There are multiple buffs in the jungle, but there are 4 you should be taking into consideration as a non-jungler: There's the Red buff, that makes your auto attacks slow and apply a true damage DoT, also slightly increasing health regen. Blue buff, increasing your mana regeneration by a significant amount (or energy regeneration by 60%) and increasing your cooldown reduction by 10%. These last for 2 minutes and are 'stolen' on-kill - so if you manage to kill a champion with a red buff, you will receive a 2 minute duration red buff while they lose theirs. Then there are the dragon buffs, permanent stat increases for the killing team, and a Baron buff - that one lasts 3 minutes, increases your Attack Damage and Ability Power and makes nearby allied minions become extremely powerful.

  5. There is item 3157 , a mage item that grants a whooping 120 Ability Power, 50 armor and activating it will cause you to become invulnerable but unable to act for 2.5 seconds - perfect to wait out your cooldowns as a mage. Not so much for Attack Damage carries though.

  6. For Ability Power champions, it varies. For Attack Damage, auto attack oriented champions, hands down item 3031 - Infinity Edge increases your Attack Damage by 80, your critical strike chance by 20% and makes your critical strikes deal 250% damage, as opposed to the usual 200%. It scales with other items extremely well and it is one of the reasons why AD Carries are so powerful lategame.

  7. Runes can only be bought by Influence Points - so there's absolutely no pay to win here. It takes a lot of time to buy them all though, because they are terribly expensive.

  8. The meta is 1 top, 1 jungle, 1 mid, 2 bot, but lately it focuses on 1 person per lane + 1 jungler and a roaming support.

  9. You might want to try probuilds, but I'd refrain from using guides at all. Usually guides tend to contain false information or are simply non-informative. Probuilds, however, will simply show you how very high elo players have built said champion in recent games - might be a good way to check what to buy.

  10. Impossible to tell, due to random nature of Solo Queue.

  11. Junglers usually bring smite summoner 11 as one of their summoner spells - it is required to purchase a jungle item item 1039 , without which jungling could become a difficult chore. Every regular jungle camp does grant a smite bonus as well, so there's that to learn - but it should not be a problem as long as you leave New Player Tooltips option checked in your interface. As for champions, in theory all of them can work - as of right now the most optimal are Sejuani Sion JarvanIV Vi . I do not recommend trying to learn to jungle before you figure out everything else though - it requires specific rune set ups to become possible to survive more than 1 camp in the jungle for most champions, you will also need to know how to kite the camps in order to minimize damage taken.

  12. Usually, there's only a single support that either stays with the AD carry or roams the map. There are multiple utility mages taken into lanes, though, and they work similiar to a support later in the game, but do not sacrifice their ability to deal damage while having said utility.

DrCyanide3/25/2015, 12:57:57 AM2 votes

I see a lot of people answering, but I find myself skimming past them. Therefore, I'm going to try and make the TL;DR version.

1 Wards in this game confuse me. Does everyone get one when they start for free? Also, sometimes when the other team places them they are visible and sometimes they aren't. Why is that.

item 3340 is free. item 2044 cost 75 gold, goes invisible after placing, times out. item 2043 costs 100 gold, stays visible after placing, lasts until destroyed, sees invisible units.

2 What does the beetle that walks up and down the river do, and why is it there? Is it a moving ward? If so how come my team never has one.

Scuttle Crab. If your team kills it, it becomes a stationary ward/movement speed boost. It takes a while to respawn.

3 Can someone explain the difference between the different types of damage. All i understand is Attack Damange and Ability Power, but what about magic? Or is ability power magic? Also what items do you want to build to counter

There are three types of damage in the game:

  • Physical Damage - countered by building Armor and Health
  • Magic Damage - countered by building Magic Resist and Health
  • True Damage - only countered by building more Health

In general (but not always), Magic Damage comes from spells that scale with Ability Power, while Physical Damage comes from auto attacks and spells that scale with Attack Damage.

4 What is the little red light and circle that appear in areas sometimes. Almost like some type of scouting mechanism but i can't tell if thats an ability or a way to find wards.

item 3341 is free (an alternative to taking item 3340 or item 3342). It reveals stealthed objects in the area but not stealthed champions.

item 3364 is the upgrade of item 3341. It reveals stealthed objects in the area, and gives you True Sight, which lets you see stealthed champions.

5 How many buffs are there? Is it the carry that should get the Buff camps, or should the jungler?

Three main ones:

  • Blue Buff - Single player buff. Gives mana regen and cooldown reduction.
  • Red Buff - Single player buff. Slows enemy and applies burn.
  • *Baron Buff - Team buff that does a lot.

Each team is diffent on if the buffs should go to the Jungler or the Carries.

6 Is there an item like black king bar which when activated, makes you invulnerable to magic damage, and un-targetable?

The closest is item 3157 , which makes you invinsible but stops you from doing anything. (Very few spells still go while you use this item).

7 What is the strongest damage item in the game? Is there a weapon like Divine Rapier which grants a LOT of dmg, but drops if killed?

No items get dropped. The strongest damage item varies champion to champion.

8 Is the whole Rune system more beneficial to someone who pays for runes? Like a pay to win type of thing?

You are only allowed to buy Runes with the in-game currency (IP), and there's no way to buy IP.

9 Is the cookie cutter laneing- 1 top, 1 mid, 1 jung, 2 bot? If not what is the standard? and what are some other way to lane?

Yes, that is standard. You can do other arangements, but it's not common.

10 What's the best website for build guides for Summoners?

Just search for "[Champion name] build guide" online. They all seem about the same.

11 How hard is it to solo que and get to Plat or diamond?

Don't know personally, only know it'ls a small percent of players in those categories.

12 I want to learn how to jungle, how do i know who is a jungler and who's not?

http://champion.gg/statistics/#?sortBy=general.playPercent&order=descend&roleSort=Jungle

Anyone not near the bottom of that list is considered a jungler.

13 How many supports should there be on a team? Seems like 1 is normal.

1 is normal.

HighSod1umGaming3/25/2015, 8:05:39 AM2 votes

Mother of god, why are you here playing this game made by this terrible dictatorship of a company. RUN! Run while you still can!

Titanium703/25/2015, 12:30:35 AM1 votes

@3)

Basicly you have two offensive stats Attack Damage (AD) item 1036 and Ability Power (AP)item 1052 . There are also two types of Resistences, Armoritem 1029 and Magic Resistance (MR) item 1033 .

Besides you have two types of DMG, physical/normal DMG and Magic DMG.

Regulary every Ability that scales of your AD (and every AutoAttack) deals physical DMG which is reduced by armor, and every Ability with AP scalings deals magic DMG which is reduced by MR.

However there are Abilites that are working diffrent:

Let´s take Ezreal´s "Q" Mystic Shot: This Ability deals 35 + 1.1 times your AD + 0.4 x AP DMG at Level 1 - although this Ability has an AP scaling it deals ONLY normal DMG so only Armor will reduce its DMG.

As contrary Ezreals R deals magic DMG while still having an AD scaling - or better an "additional" AD scaling - thats important because the AD your Champion has as Base-Value 50-101(@18) in Ezreals case will not effect the DMG dealt by this ability.

Well that should be enough. ^^ If you want to check your abilities just play a custom and read all of your skills carefully - or just visit a Wiki-Page. :P

WhiskerWow3/25/2015, 1:36:47 AM1 votes

Most people answered the questions well, but I have two things I want to touch up.

8.) Runes are useful to have, but they are not necessary early levels. You cannot buy them with real money. Back when I started playing LOL, you never wanted to buy runes before level 20 because at level 20, you unlock tier 3 runes which are the best runes, and runes below tier 3 were usually overpriced and crappy. They reworked the rune system partially, so now tier 2 and tier 1 runes are a lot cheaper, but I would still hold out if I were you.

I only use two rune pages, because honestly, that's all I need. I have one page of AD with early defense, and one page of AP with early defense. A lot of the runes are shared, so it shouldn't cost too crazy an amount. (But it'll still cost a lot.)

11.) I'm a firm believer that your skill level is your rank, and that unless you paid someone to boost your account, it's what you deserve. Granted, I'm only a silver scrub, hehehehe.

12.) You'll just have to use your brains (or the internet hint hint) to find out. Make sure to take smite. It's somewhat hard to jungle at lower levels because of a lack of early defenses you get from runes and masteries, but I'll list all the junglers that have strong sustain, are cheap, and are easy to play. Fiddlesticks - Fiddlesticks is a middle-range mage who specializes in sustained damage, sustain, and crazy team-fights. Warwick - Warwick is a fighter who specializes in locking down a single target, sustain, and can be either built tanky with lower sustained damage but less risk, or a fighter with a ton of single target damage. Fighter is more popular. MasterYi - Master Yi is an assassin with sustained damage who has no utility, but if he gets ahead, he has a scary amount of damage. Nunu - Nunu is um... Nunu? The easiest way to classify him is as a fighter-mage-support-tank? He has good sustain and clear. His damage is reasonable, his tankiness is reasonable, and his utility is reasonable. I guess he could be a jack-of-all trades.

These champions are very good for early players who want to jungle. I'll list all the other junglers I think are meta-acceptable in the list below. Amumu (Amumu is my favorite)Volibear XinZhao Zac Trundle Tryndamere Udyr Sion Shyvana Shaco Sejuani Rengar RekSai Rammus Pantheon Nocturne Nidalee Nautilus Maokai LeeSin JarvanIV Jax Khazix Kayle Hecarim Fiddlesticks Evelynn Elise DrMundo Amumu Alistar

Tip from me though, play the champions in the rotation and figure out what you like playing. No point in playing a champion that's strong if you don't like it. Try the new things. :) Good luck!

InvalidGuest3/25/2015, 1:42:16 AM1 votes

This is a pretty useful website - http://champion.gg/

Voted the best statistical website by the LoL subreddit

It allows you follow winrates, pickrates, highest winrate builds, runes and masteries, etc.

DarkLiquidDeath3/25/2015, 4:44:30 AM1 votes
  1. About ranking up to platinum: I was stuck in silver for a long time, but I only really play ranked at the end of the season. Ranked has a few rules you should always make sure to follow.
  2. Play at least 3 roles and 3 champs per role in case they are banned/picked. I personally only play ranked if I can play multiple champions in every role depending on the meta.
  3. You will get roles you don't necessarily want. Pick order decides lanes, but you can always request a different one.

and a few guidelines

  1. A lot of people pick 1 or two champions (usually Riven) and exclusively play that champion throughout ranked. They learn everything about that champ and have a bit of an edge over those who are less experienced. I personally don't do this, but a lot of people have found success with it.
  2. People are really sensitive, make sure to never call someone out on an obvious mistake unless they don't seem to be learning from it. Even then, arguments can start really easily. Sometimes staying quite is the better option so you don't have to worry about AFKs. This generally gets better as your rank up.
  3. Duoing can really help. Communication is key to winning and having a friend at your skill level can bring an edge to the game.
  4. Buy wards. Every role should eventually buy some wards with support buying the most. I'm sure you know this from DotA, but I still forget to buy them way too often.
  5. Guides are useful (I'd recommend TeamSoloMid but I personally use LoLKing, I've heard Mobafire is bad) but rememer that no champion should build the same items every game. Always build depending on your opponents, such as more magic resist or armour depending on the enemies.
  6. Be careful of playing while "on tilt." This means if you've not slept well, had a bad day, it happens and can make the next game harder.
  7. Don't dive towers. I do dive rarely, but generally the only players who dive are either bronze or challenger.

Also, different advice. Junglers are generally tanky, but you DO need runes to play them. Only buy tier 3 runes and use guides to help with this. A good jungler usually has cc or sustain, but there are exceptions like Master Yi who just farms the entire game in the jungle. Junglers should always start Hunter's Machete.

I'll end with a little personal story with ranked. I felt pretty hopeless last season. My friends told me I'd never make gold, and with only a bit over a month to do it (a busy month at that) I realized my friends were purposefully losing games when duoing with me. I ended that season in plat just to spite them. Never give up and good luck with League of Legends! You can add me if you have any further questions.

FastAsHeck3/25/2015, 12:21:38 PM1 votes

this is gonna be lengthy but here goes:

  1. first of all, there are 2 types of wards: green wards item 2044 and pink wards item 2043 . the green wards cost 75 gold and can be placed (being consumed in the process) to reveal an area for 3 minutes. green wards are invisible except the first 3 or so seconds after being placed (so if someone tries to put a ward on top of 5 people it can be killed before stealthing). now the pink ward costs 100 gold and works similarly to the green one, but will not go invisible, lasts until killed (not only 3 minutes) and will reveal invisible units in range. this means that a pink ward will show enemy green wards around it, but it will also show invisible champions (like Twitch ) or traps (like teemo mushrooms). place these bad boys somewhere that they can be defended and they can sometimes last for a good 10-15 minutes.

now, wards have a bit unusual HP system. they take damage in autoattacks, meaning that the green ward needs 3 autoattacks to die, while the pink needs 5. their HP is not affected by spells or crits. Note that certain abilities can be used on wards (ally or enemy), like Jax Q.

(still on question 1) the free wards are trinkets. everyone can have one of these for free, and they have their own item slot. there are 3 trinkets: -item 3340 places a normal (green) ward that lasts for 1 minute and has a 2 minute cooldown. -item 3341 sweeps an area, briefly revealing and disabling enemy wards and traps. also has a 2 minute cooldown -item 3342 reveals a small area (from a long range) for 2 seconds, and enemy champions hit by it will be revealed for 5 seconds (but it does not affect stealth!)

oh, and remember that turrets act like pink wards (enemy wards near them will not be invisible).

  1. go in a game and kill it. it goes and sits in front of dragon/baron and provides vision and a speed shrine (touch it to get a speed boost)

  2. the 2 main forms of damage is Physical and Magic damage. -Physical damage is mostly dealt with your autoattacks, but certain spells will also deal Physical. Its defensive counterpart is Armor. -Magic Damage is only dealt by spells. It is countered by Magic Resist (MR)

autoattacks will always deal your AD as physical damage. Now, spells have scalings: AD (attack damage) scalings and/or AP (ability power) scalings. lets say a spell has 150 base damage, a 1.2 AD scaling and a 0.5 AP scaling, and you have 100 AD and 100 AP. 100x1.2=120, 100x0.5=50, 150 (base) + 120 + 50 = 320 damage total. the type of damage of the spell is explained in its description, so even if it has an AP scaling it can still do Physical damage. (some spells also deal mixed damage, so they are reduced by both Armor and MR).

Finally, there is also true damage, which is pretty straightforward: no resistances matter. Vayne W proc for example deals true damage, even though it scales with AD.

  1. it is the sweeper I mentioned in 1)

  2. there are 4 buffs, red, blue, dragon, baron. Red buff gives you slowing and burning autoattacks (and extra HP regen) for some time. Similarly, Blue buff gives you a massive mana regen boost and 10% CDR (cooldown reduction).

Dragon and Baron are team objectives so they give team bonuses. Killing dragon grants one dragonslayer stack to everyone in your team (it stays forever, even if you die). Just mouse over it and it has a tooltip explaining each stack. Once a team gets to 5 dragon stacks, they get a 3 minute lasting buff that gives a massive burn on your attacks. note that dying will make you lose it, and if the team gets 5th dragon while you are dead you dont get the buff. once the buff times out, you will keep your 4 stacks so once the dragon respawns you can take it again for another 5th dragon buff.

Baron gives an AD+AP bonus to everyone on your team, along with a faster recall. Also, minions near someone with the buff get incredibly stronger, so it is a great siege tool. note that similarly to the 5th dragon, it is lost when you die and if the team gets it while you are dead you dont get the buff. it wears off after some minutes.

  1. I dont know how exactly what that is, but in LoL you can get item 3157 , which when activated makes you untargetable and invulnerable for 2.5 seconds, but you cant move or cast spells for that time. Its not good for everyone though, because it gives a ton of AP so it benefits mostly mages.

  2. your description reminds me of mejais soulstealer item 3041 , which grants AP for every kill and loses stacks on death. when capped it is the biggest AP item in the game. However i'd recommend getting more consistent items, like deathcap, item 3089 , zhonyas hourglass item 3157 and void staff item 3135 for mages, infinity edge item 3031 , bloodthirster item 3072 and trinity force item 3078 on AD champions and randuins omen item 3143 , frozen heart item 3110 and warmogs armor item 3083 on tanks. try to avoid hit or miss strategies (unless you are incredibly fed).

  3. the runes system is kinda crappy, i'd say avoid them until lvl 25-30.

  4. thats the standard becasue it works well, with the majority of people near dragon in the early game. you can make other strategies work but its gonna be hard finding people for it.

  5. mobafire, solomid, probuilds

  6. avoid ranked, even when you reach lvl 30. i find normals much better, less trolls and flamers. maybe thats why im bronze :D

  7. jungling is pretty hard becasue you need a good understanding of the game. some champions can jungle beter than others, but what you really want is someone who can clear efficiently (not die to the monsters) and gank effectively (that could be with stealth Rengar Evelynn , gapclosers LeeSin Nidalee JarvanIV or anything)

  8. the reason that 1 goes support is that there are 5 players but 4 sources of income (3 lanes + jungle). so instead of sharing a source, it is considered better to have someone not farm at all. and since they are not farming, they might as well assist the most vulnerable person on the team, the ADC (the carry).

Ace Access 3/25/2015, 7:17:51 PM1 votes

{quoted}

Notice (If you don't want to read about me, and just want to answer my questions than skip down to my questions please! Pick however many you would like to answer, as there are A LOT and I'm trying to learn as much as possible. Thank you!)

First of all, I'd like to let you all know I started playing MOBA's starting with HON around 2010 when it first released, when LoL and HON were the new rival games. I then switched to Dota 2 when i got invited to the beta and played that for about 3 years. Here and there I would try LoL to see what the hype was about as it started gettin more popular, but never understood how anyone could play it over HON or dota, as the artwork was just too cartoonish and it felt like it took forever to kill someone compared to the one hitter nuke-like abilities of the other ones. However, that opinion changed. I don't play games as hardcore or as competetive as I used to, and instead find the joy in discovering new characters and their abilities. There is something about playing heroes you've never played before and figuring out what they can do that really draws me to MOBAS. I used to play hours upon hours of HON and Dota playing multiple heroes and trying to master them as it sucked away a lot of my time. After a few years and because of the toxicity of the Dota community, I just didn't find it fun anymore. Hearing people constantly flaming each other, and blaming each other for why something happened a certain way just got stale. Now mind you, I played at a higher rating, not the highest but definitely well above average.

So I decided to try LoL again hoping to re-find the love I had in the discovery of heroes, and their abilities, and just MOBAs overall. I haven't tried LoL in a year or two, so I wasn't sure what to expect. However, after downloading it and playing my first game I realized the large amount of improvements that Riot have added to the game. The graphics are less cartoonish, Heroes (or summoners) feel way more balanced, and the ranking system/runes/masteries are an awesome addition! (I'm not sure if those were there before, but if they were, I never noticed them or realized how cool it is that you have a talent tree).

Anyway to sum up all of this, I absolutely love this game, and have a few questions as I am still learning the differences between this game and the previous MOBAS I've played. So here they are.

  1. Wards in this game confuse me. Does everyone get one when they start for free? Also, sometimes when the other team places them they are visible and sometimes they aren't. Why is that.

  2. What does the beetle that walks up and down the river do, and why is it there? Is it a moving ward? If so how come my team never has one.

  3. Can someone explain the difference between the different types of damage. All i understand is Attack Damange and Ability Power, but what about magic? Or is ability power magic? Also what items do you want to build to counter

  4. What is the little red light and circle that appear in areas sometimes. Almost like some type of scouting mechanism but i can't tell if thats an ability or a way to find wards.

  5. How many buffs are there? Is it the carry that should get the Buff camps, or should the jungler?

  6. Is there an item like black king bar which when activated, makes you invulnerable to magic damage, and un-targetable?

  7. What is the strongest damage item in the game? Is there a weapon like Divine Rapier which grants a LOT of dmg, but drops if killed?

  8. Is the whole Rune system more beneficial to someone who pays for runes? Like a pay to win type of thing?

  9. Is the cookie cutter laneing- 1 top, 1 mid, 1 jung, 2 bot? If not what is the standard? and what are some other way to lane?

  10. What's the best website for build guides for Summoners?

  11. How hard is it to solo que and get to Plat or diamond?

  12. I want to learn how to jungle, how do i know who is a jungler and who's not?

  13. How many supports should there be on a team? Seems like 1 is normal.

Thank you if you participated in answering some of my noob questions! I will add more if I think of any, but for now that's all i have!

Cheers!

  1. wards turn invisible a few sec after being placed, as to seeing some I'm not sure exactly, I think its because an allied ward is placed in the same location (not entirely sure)

  2. that beetle when killed becomes a ward and in its line of sight it gives movement speed bonus to the team that killed it, it helps keep and eye on Dragon and Baron Nashor, these two creatures provide great buffs so knowing if the enemy team is nearby helps when they are about to spawn or respawn, the beetle ward despawns after a while

  3. Attack damage is mainly damage from Auto/basic attacks, some abilities also deal attack dmg, ability power affects abilities as the majority of abilities gain damage or other buff/power from it.... magic dmg is pretty much from abilities that deal magic dmg, each ability has a tooltip when hoverign the cursor over it, it says what dmg it does

  4. most likely a red trinket, it detects enemy wards in its line of sight letting you kill it

  5. Red buff is from the red tree monster thing (can't remember its name), gromp (frog) gives a buff that returns a small % of dmg received back at the attacker, the wolves give a buff that creates a spirit thing that travels across its side of the jungle like, its basically a security camera, krugs (small rick creatures) they give a buff where your 5th basic attack stuns the target for a 1sec, I don't remember what the raptors do

  6. I believe thats item 3157 Zonya's hour glass, its makes you un killable by turning you into a gold statue for a few seconds so you can't move, and the enemy can just wait to kill you if you don't have an escape or your team doesn't bail you out then there item 3026 gaurdian angel, it revives you after dying but its has a long cooldown

  7. IMO that would be item 3031 , 80 attack dmg with 20% crit hit chance, also all critical hits deal 250% dmg, after that I'd say item 3072 with 80% attack dmg and 20% life steal, also after fully healing you it creates a shield when your over healed

  8. runes costs a lot, also only buy T3 runes, they offer betetr stats but are crazy expensive, most expensive are quintessences which can cost 1050 to 2050 IP, you can earn the IP by playing matches, as far as P2W goes you can buy an IP boost but thats about it, also rune pages costs 6300 IP which is as much as the most expensive champion

  9. the meta is based on what the pro's pick, and what you said is the norm but people do sometimes not follow it

  10. mobafire, lolking are good sites but you must experiment on your own as well, those sites help you learn but your gonna have to make changes on those builds based on situations

  11. I only play normal games so I don't know but people in ranked are very competitive and there are those who will rage if someone messes up

12 Amumu Fiddlesticks MasterYi Vi JarvanIV I'd recommend these fro learning to jungle

  1. one support is enough, basically your suposed to baby sit the (adc )attack dmg carry in bot lane, you get less gold though for this job
Ulric Greatsword3/24/2015, 10:39:32 PM1 votes

  1. Simply put, there are two types of wards: those with true sight item 2043 , and those without item 3340, item 2044, item 2049. The Pink wards last until they are destroyed, but are constantly visible (place them is brush so they won't be detected). The yellow and green wards have a limited duration, no true sight, and are invisible. Each player can have up to 1 vision ward and 3 stealth wards on the map at any given time. additionally, one of the trinkets (more on those later), the Warding Totem item 3340 allows you to place a free ward every 2 minutes. the ward lasts for 1 minute, but once you reach level 9 it upgrades itself fro free and the ward lasts 2 minutes. it can also be upgraded at level 9 a second time, allowing it to place down full-fledged stealth or vision wards.

  2. Kill it and you'll see it run back to the middle of the river and turn into a speed shrine. The shrine provides vision to your team and a speed boost to any allies that move through it.

  3. Physical Damage is boosted by Attack Damage items (item 1036, item 1037, item 1038, etc.) and reduced by Armor items (item 1029, item 1031), etc. Magic Damage is boosted by Ability Power items (item 1052, item 1026, item 1058, etc.) and reduced by Magic Resist items (item 1033, item 1057, etc.) There is another type of damage known as True Damage, which can only be dealt by certain champions (Olaf, Ahri, Twitch, for example), by attacking enemies while you have a Red buff, or by certain Summoner Spells (summoner 14 andsummoner 11). True damage ignores all resistances.

  4. The red circle is caused by item 3341 or its upgraded version item 3364. It is a trinket (a bonus item that costs nothing initially and gets its own slot). Trinkets are often referred to by their color: Yellow item 3340 Red item 3341 and Blue item 3342. The red trinket reveals any wards and any traps set by Teemo in the area it is used on and disables them for a short duration, allowing you to clear them for extra gold and to deny vision. The upgraded version also grants you true sight against stealthy enemies for a short duration.

  5. There are three kinds of jungle buffs: Jungler-only buffs, single champion buffs, and global buffs. Jungler-only buffs happen the first time a player uses summoner 11 on a jungle camp, and are usually designed to help clear the jungle faster or more safely (by smiting the Gromp or Kruggs), or to clear wards for ganks (by smiting the Raptors). Single Champion buffs are found in the largest camps in each quadrant and come in two colors: Red and Blue. Whichever player strikes the killing blow on the large monster or the player that currently has the buff gets it. The blue buff (called Crest of Insight) grants 10% CDR (cooldown reduction) on all your abilities and vastly increases mana regeneration for the duration. The red buff (Crest of Cinders) gives a true damage-over-time effect and applies a movement slow to enemies you hit with your auto attacks. Global buffs are awarded to every player on your team, and come when anyone on your team kills the Dragon or Baron Nashor. The Dragon buff stacks up to 5 times, providing new bonuses for every Dragon you take, and the Baron buff supercharges any nearby minions and allows you to easily push through the enemy team's turrets. Whichever team gets Baron buff is normally a deciding factor in long, drawn-out games. Be aware, though, that if you die, you will lose the buff, even if your teammates get to keep theirs.

  6. The only item that grants invulnerability to magic is Zhonya's Hourglass item 3157. It lets you go into stasis for 2.5 seconds, meaning you are untargetable, invulnerable, but unable to move or take actions. Note, though, that certain damaging spells you cast can still damage enemies if cast before you enter stasis (Fiddlesticks ult, for example).

  7. There is no 'strongest damage item' for every role. For AD carries, it will probably be Infinity Edge item 3031. For AP carries, it may be Rabbadon's Deathcap item 3089 or Luden's Echo item 3285. Champions with high base damage and short cooldowns would probably prefer Trinity Force item 3078, while others get more mileage out of Ravenous Hydra item 3074. Also, no item is ever dropped in game. the only way to get rid of items is to use them if they are consumables, build them into other items, or sell them in the shop.

  8. Runes can only be purchased by using Influence Points (IP), which can only be earned by playing games. RP, which can be bought using the in-client store, can be used to buy Rune Pages, which allow for more diversity and specialization. The simple answer is no.

9.Spot-on with the 'meta' laning patterns. If you want other strategies, you can try about anything, but just remember that there are 4 sources of income and 5 players, so a duo lane is almost inevitable.

  1. The best starting place is probably the 'recommended items' tabs in the shop in-game. beyond that, you can find some good ideas on sites like champion.gg or lolking.net.

  2. I don't have an answer for you, me being unranked and all that. 'Pretty darn difficult' seems to be the consensus.

  3. Good starting junglers I would recommend: Xin Zhao XinZhao, Warwick Warwick, Amumu Amumu, Fiddlesticks Fiddlesticks, Dr. Mundo DrMundo, Jax Jax, Master Yi MasterYi, and Udyr Udyr, are all good starting junglers. I would seriously consider learning how to jungle with them before trying anything fancy with non-meta junglers.

  4. One support is pretty standard for most team comps, as nobody else will need to forego income and become a 'dedicated support' because they are in either solo lanes of the jungle. Support champs that can survive and farm in solo lanes, or high-utility champions that mainly contribute to teamfights are quite common. plus, with trinkets, everyone can help ward.

Spinning Axes3/24/2015, 11:28:58 PM1 votes

Hey, I felt like I should drop in and give you my two cents on some of those topics. Keep in mind I am a Plat I player, so while I may not be some Challenger LCS level Pro, I do still know my way around the game.

  1. The Yellow Trinket supplies a free ward for 60 seconds at the beginning of the game, changing into 90 seconds when you become level 9. This ward becomes upgrade-able at Level 9, in which case you can spend 250 gold to either: A) Get a free Vision Ward, which can spot even invisible units like other wards, or champions like Evenlynn or Rengar B) Get a stacking Stealth Ward, which is a ward lasting 180 seconds and you can carry two of them from the trinket alone. While the Vision ward sounds amazing, with the recent buffs to option B I personally prefer to have the Stealth Ward. This trinket can also be a Scrying Orb, which gives you vision in a certain area for a short time, a lot like the Summoner Spell Clarity. The last version a trinket can become is a Sweeping Lens, giving you vision on invisible units, but not champions, like wards and Teemo's Noxious Traps. This can be upgraded to give you extended vision, giving you true sight (the term used when being able to see invisible units) to everything around you for 10 seconds. VERY useful against champions like Talon, Akali, and Teemo, as you can spot them right away with your upgraded Sweeping Lens! HOWEVER: Please, please, PLEASE, just because you have a Warding Totem does NOT mean you should not buy Vision and Stealth Wards!

  1. The crab is called the Scuttle Crab, and it's a neutral camp that will not attack you if you attack it. The whole point of the Scuttle is to kill it to gain vision control over Dragon pit, which is very useful for the following reasons. A) It protects your Bot Lane from river ganks. B) It allows your Mid laner and Jungler to gank easier with the Speed Boost. C) It provides vision of Dragon, completely denying the opportunity for the enemy to take it without a huge advantage over you.

  2. Physical damage is applied through Attack Damage, which is popular on champions like Darius, Draven, and Vayne who only have abilities that scale with Physical damage (with the exception of Darius' passive, which has a small AP ratio.) Magic damage is applied through Ability Power, which is popular on champions like LeBlanc, Ahri, and Fiddlesticks who have abilities scaling with Ability Power. HOWEVER: If you feel like a champion would be fun to play with AD (stands for Attack Damage) then DON'T BE AFRAID. Just... uh.. please don't play it in ranked. It might be fun to play champions in forms they aren't designed to play, but champions are in the meta for a reason, and in ranked, you play to win. A few effective items to counter AD are: Thornmail, Randiun's Omen, and Frozen Heart, while some items to counter AP (stands for Ability Power) are: Banshee's Veil, and Spirit Visage. On squishier champs it's better to build Banshee's Veil, Guardian Angel (revives you upon death), or Mercurial Scimitar, but Mercurial Scimitar takes timing and more skill to use, so try to lay off it when learning the game.

  3. That is either the Sweeping Lens, if it makes a circular motion, or just Blood Moon Thresh's souls waiting there to be absorbed. For more info on Thresh, just look him up in game.

  4. There are generally 2 buffs, Red and Blue buff, which give different benefits. Blue buff provides mana regeneration and cooldown reduction, while Red Buff offers an On-Hit slow and DoT for true damage, and increased Health Regeneration. Normally, junglers give their second blue to their mid laners if they are doing well, or are incredibly mana hungry, like Orianna or Anivia. Red buff is up to the junglers discretion to give out to, but the jungler definitely needs the first two or three to stay in the game. Then there are Baron and Dragon buffs, which, in a quick summary, just give you and your teammates a bunch of buffs.

  5. The closest to that is probably Zhonya's Hourglass, which gives you +120 AP and +50 Armor, and can be used actively to enter a statis, becoming invulnerable for the next few seconds. This is amazing against champions like Zed and Karthus, as it allows you to easily counter their timed ultimates, giving you a very strong advantage against specific champions. In certain matchups, Zhonya's is the best item in the entire game to buy. Just get it on squishy AP champions, or if you're a priority AP champion.

  6. There is no best item, however, there are build paths that are recommended. For example, let's look at Graves, as I'm a pretty experienced Graves player. You would want to go Infinity Edge (IE) for the insane amount of AD that it gives, straight into either a Phantom Dancer (PD) or a Youmuu's Ghostblade, but I prefer Phantom Dancer. After this, looking at how tanky the enemies are, either go Last Whisper (LW) for the Armor Penetration against tanky champions, or Bloodthirster (BT) against squishier champions. Remember to get boots inbetween IE and PD, and finish up your build with a defensive item like Guardian Angel (GA) or Banshee's Veil. (BV). As for the Divine Rapier, there is no item quite exactly like it. The closest you can get is Mejai's Soulstealer, or Sword of the Occult, which grant extra AD when getting a kill or assist, and you lose AD on death. Search the items up if you want to learn more.

  7. The beautiful thing about League is that it is not a Pay to win game. The Rune system, although completely horrible, offers advantages in champion statistics which can only be bought through IP, which can only be earned by playing the game. I'd suggest to not jump into ranked until you have a full rune page set up for the champion you like to play.

  8. Yup, that's the meta at the moment. In the earlier levels, since it's hard to jungle without runes and masteries, you might be seeing some duo tops instead of a jungle, but when you get to level 20+ you'll start seeing less and less duo tops.

  9. Hands down, Mobafire. Professional players write guides there on champions they like to play, and you can definitely learn a thing or two. Lolking offers statistics on every summoner, or Lolnexus can tell you statistics about the game you are playing right now.

  10. Let me tell you now, it will take a long time to become Platinum or Diamond. League of Legends is the most played game in the world, and to secure a top 5% of the population (I believe it's 5%, it could be something like 8%) is no easy feat. You will have to spend a long time getting to know the game in order to rank high. But, make sure to have fun along the way! Although we're known for a very toxic community, there are a few nuggets of good people around, and I'm sure you'll have fun as I did when ranking up.

  11. Everyone and anyone can jungle, but a few champions I'd recommend for starting are Vi, Master Yi, and Sejuani. All of these junglers are pretty cookie cutter, and will teach you the basics of jungling.

  12. Normally, there's only 1. However, since the ADC (Attack Damage Carry) or "Marksman" is such an important role in teamfights, there are comps designed to protect the ADC. For example, Lulu Top - Provides CC, a shield, and a very protective ultimate Nunu Jungle - Tanky, provides an attack damage boost for the ADC Orianna Mid - Provides CC, damage, and a shield for the ADC Vayne ADC - Although bad early game, becomes a ridiculous and hard carrying champion lategame. Other ADC's like Vayne are Jinx, Kog'Maw, and Tristana. Morgana Support - Offers CC, and a CC negating shield.

Well, that about wraps that up! Don't be afraid to add me in game, "Spinning Axes", if you have any more questions. Hope you have fun on League of Legends!

EDIT: I would really appreciate a response to know that you've read this. I put quite a bit of effort into writing this, and I feel as though it's very educational. Again, good luck, and have fun in LoL.

Auz the Ripper3/25/2015, 12:09:22 AM1 votes

In regards to runes, it's not "pay to win" It's "play to win"

You see, there are two currencies in this game "IP" (or Influence points) and "RP" (or Riot Points) These two cannot be converted into each other, although they can overlap on somethings like buying champions

IP is gained through playing the game, you'll get some at the end of every game. It can be used to purchase anything essential to gameplay like champions or runes. Runes can Only purchased with IP

RP is bought with actual money and is usually used to purchase cosmetic items like skins. Champions and temporary boosts to IP or EXP gain (per game) can be also be bought with RP. This is less advisable because buying either simply saves you a little time; although if you feel your time is worth the 5-10 dollars you'll be shelling out, go for it.

BloodyMace3/25/2015, 12:14:23 AM1 votes

I don't know much about Dota 2 but in league there is a patch every 3-4 weeks which buff (increase stats) or nerf (decrease stats) certain champions and also adds new items which makes the meta shift and gets sort of difficult to pin point which champions are most viable. These patches start to stabilize at the end of the competitive season (around Sep-Nov). Basically keep an eye out for the patch notes when you reach lvl 30 and you start getting accustomed to the game.

Best is to learn a few viable champs in every role. Having said that, at low lvls of playing, it doesn't really matter if a champ is super viable or not, the important thing is that you know how to play him. I also recommend trying out as many champs as possible so you get accustomed to every champion in game (there are always a free to play rotation of champions), this will help you understand what to expect from the enemies you face. After that you can start thinking of maining a role

That's my 2cent

Good Luck

M0RDEKA1SER3/25/2015, 12:19:47 AM1 votes

Hey! Welcome back to LoL!

You probably already got the answers you were looking for. However, I've found that sometimes, things don't always make sense when explained a certain way. I'll do my best to explain them as simply as possible.

  1. Yes, they are available for free, but there are a few different ones to choose from, which is why you don't auto-start with one.

The one that is invisible is a Warding Totemitem 3340. It doesn't last very long and basically all it does is remove "fog of war" in an area.

It's upgraded version is a Stealth Warditem 2044. It does the same thing but lasts longer. It also costs you a little bit of gold.

The other version is the one that you'll usually see, because it is not invisible. A Vision Warditem 2043. This nifty little item reveals invisible things as well as remove "Fog of War."

  1. That beetle is commonly referred to as a scuttlebug. "It" isn't a moving ward. It provides a ward as a benefit when you kill it. If your team isn't killing it, you'll never see the ward it provides.

The ward is generally useful for keeping an eye on two important team-buffs. The Dragon and Baron Nashor. These are monsters like the scuttlebug that provide a buff when killed that apply to the whole team.

  1. Attack Damage (AD) and Ability Power (AP) are your base stats. They are used to measure how certain abilities scale.

Then you have Physical Damage and Magic Damage. "Typically" these scale based on their expected base stat. AD = Physical Damage. AP = Magic Damage.

Build to counter? Armor blocks physical damage. Magic Resist blocks magic damage.

Fun bonus tip: There's a thing called True Damage that ignores any resistances.

  1. That is a Sweeping Lens item 3341 . It's an item that goes in the slot your Wards would normally go in. It reveals and disables invisible traps and wards in an area for a short period of time.

  2. This is always up for debate. Certain champions perform better with the buff at certain times better than other champions. I could almost open another board post to discuss this.

At it's most basic level, the jungler needs it first so he can clear out the jungle quickly enough to keep up with the players in a lane, gold and experience wise. The buffs will also help him "gank" lanes when players in lanes need help.

Later in the game, it's more beneficial usually for the ADC to have the buffs so he can do his "job."

  1. Yes, but it's not as good. It's called Zhonya's Hourglass item 3157 . It makes you immune to "ALL" damage, and untargetable, but you cannot move or use abilities while it's activated.

  2. Sort of. Not really. The closest thing I think to what you're talking about is called Sword of the Occult item 3141 . It builds more damage according to "stacks" the more kills and assists you get, but it caps at 20 stacks. You lose half stacks upon dying.

It also has a magic counter-part called Mejai's Soulstealeritem 3041 that works the same way.

  1. I don't recall you being able to buy runes with real money. You can only get them by using the in-game currency that you earn by playing.

That said, it is more beneficial to have them than to not have them.

  1. Unfortunately this has become the "meta" or standard. No, it is not "required" that you play this way, but if you do anything besides this, you'll generally get flamed for it. The only other acceptable way is 2 top, 1 mid, 2 bot, no Jg.

  2. There used to be one called Mobafire, but I don't know if it's up to date anymore. Unfortunately can't help you too much on this one.

  3. Hard... Just... Hard...

  4. A lot of champions can "jungle." Some will just be a lot more effective than others. Also, some are easier to do it with than others. I recommend this guide for learning and understanding jungling and what all it entails. http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Jungling

  5. You honestly don't even have to have a support. I've seen some scary dual ADC teams do well. I've also seen a dual support team. Don't let your head get absorbed by the "meta." It's possible to push limits and find something that no one else has thought of before. You may get a hassled a little for it, but when they see how well it works, they may try and tell their friends and it could become a thing.

My friend has been doing Nautilus support since the beginning of season 5. But now it's starting to become a thing. Until recently, almost nobody would have thought of trying it.

I hope this answered your questions!

Happy gaming!

-Sindalla.