First thing to learn when beginning League of Legends
So I just started out playing League of Legends. I've got a friend who plays and we started up a bot game so that I could learn the basic commands.
It wasn't pretty.
The bots basically slaughtered us. I eventually ended the match with 3 kills, 17 deaths, and two assists. My friend, of course, did better, but she couldn't tell me what she was doing or why she was doing it. Which makes it hard to know what I need to be learning.
The first thing a new Left 4 Dead player should try to learn is effective communication with teammates. The first thing a new TF2 player should try to learn is what situations each class excels in and which each class in vulnerable in. But League of Legends has cash management, character management, runes, item builds, not to mention tactics once on the field...it's hard to know where to start.
What's the first thing a new League of Legends player should try to learn?
Solution 1:
Map Awareness
Riot has garnered some pretty effective videos with their Video Tutorial contest (Links posted below). As a beginner, you want to primarily focus on making sure you don't get ambushed by the other team (called a "gank"). While some of this involves Map Awareness, you also need to learn to not overextend, as well as keeping an eye on the enemies you're fighting in your lane. If you cannot see one or both of the enemies in your lane, let your teammates know!
Last Hitting
Killing minions and enemy players nets you gold to buy items. However, if you don't land the killing blow on an enemy minion, you will get ZERO gold, even if you've done most of the damage to it.
The faster you kill enemy minions, the faster the minions reach the enemy tower, which will make quick work of all non-cannon minions. It's better to keep the minion fights as close to the middle as you can; you only need to finish off the minion to get gold from it -- see if you can limit yourself to only attacking minions when you will kill them!
Tower Aggro
The enemy towers are dangerous. They have lots of health, armor, and a powerful attack that can quickly decimate low-level heroes. It's important, then, to know how the turret picks its target.
Enemy towers will always target allied minions first, switching to champions only if there are no longer any allied minions around. The exception to this is if you deal damage to an enemy champion, in which case the tower will immediately switch to the damaging champion, shooting at them until they die or move out of range.
Let me repeat that: If you deal damage to an enemy champion within range of the tower, it will immediately start shooting at you: You do not want this. Be very careful when attacking the enemy at their own tower.
Recommended Viewing
Four of these videos are a result of the Valoran Video Contest held by Riot Games, and are quick, 1-minute videos touching on just the basics (which seems exactly what you're looking for). The fifth video is made by Shurelia, an employee of Riot Games, and goes much more in-depth into what "Zoning" is, and how to take advantage of it.
Solution 2:
Don't Die (aka Don't Feed)
First and most important rule in League of Legends is to not die, or at least, not die easily out of a team fight.
Your death cause a lot of troubles to you and your team. While you are dead and waiting to respawn:
- You don't acquire experience for minions kills.
- You don't acquire gold from last hitting minions.
- You leave your lane and risk to lose the tower (early-mid game)
- Your team is disadvantaged in team fight due to inferior number (mid-later game)
In order to avoid dying easily remember that your towers are nice friends especially in early game; move near them, while recovering health/mana.
If you spare some gold buy a couple of wards in the first teleport back to your base and put them in the bushes to avoid being easily ganked (attacked by an enemy coming from mid or another lane and basically attacking you from where you dont expect them to attack you from).
In addition, I just found this guide that I think is good to read for a beginner: 10 things every League of Legends player should known.
Solution 3:
Positioning.
Actually, this is basically true for just about any team-based game - if you're in the right place, you're helpful regardless of how unskilled you are as a player. If you're in the wrong place, you're either contributing nothing, or getting butchered by the enemy team, and this is true regardless of your individual skill level.
With regards to LoL specifically, my suggestion would be to find a good, general purpose build, then print it out and tape it to your monitor. Follow that build exactly, every game. It won't be optimal, but it will be "good enough" and let you basically ignore that part of the game and focus on learning the important stuff. Like positioning. Then once you're comfortable with that, you can start to investigate different builds.
Solution 4:
Pushing wins games
Pushing is what wins games, not killing. Killing just makes the job of pushing easier. It is perfectly possible to push with the entire enemy not dying once.
I pick Sivir a fair amount and get called a noob, people queue jump. Ok she offers a lot less than a lot of champions in team fights, but she had great escape mechanisms and unrivalled pushing.
Always make sure your team has some sort of pusher. A good technique is to backdoor. Just tell your team to be defensive during a team fight, so it is 4v5 (and a tower on your side) whilst you teleport up to an enemy tower, and later in the game, its probably going to fall VERY quickly. Make sure you don't overpush and flee if you see the enemy coming back to gank you.
Pushing also gives you map control, towers are a defensive checkpoint and champions won't want to push too far in fear of getting ganked.
Focus
When team fights start you need to co-ordinate and know who to focus and when. There is no point focusing a tank, at all. There is no point focusing a Tryndamere at the start of the fight, less hp = more damage. Focus on the vulnerable damage dealers (carries). Worry about the others later.
Solution 5:
My first word of advice would be to play with bots for a while, probably the first thirty or so games. They are generally regarded as 'scrub' games so there isn't much pressure, fortunately.
You'll learn tactics as you play. The primers:
- Try not to die.
- If you're a beginner, follow builds left to right. I try to buy cheaper things rather than saving for later if I die or have to go back to base.
- Last hits (i.e. killing blows) on minions are very important.
- Team composition is important! Learn the characters' strengths AND weaknesses so you can both play better as them and so you'll know what to expect when playing against them. At least try playing different types so you know how they function.
- Early game should focus more on minion kills and mid game is when the gloves come off and you should start getting aggressive. Turrets hurt a lot early game, but as the game goes on, they become less of an obstacle. Respect the turret.
If you're stuck on what to do with runes and masteries, find your favorite champion on Mobafire and go from there. You can learn a lot about runes, masteries, and strategies for those champions on mobafire. You may want to go with a more defenseive build, and then change it as you go on. More expensive runes are not necessarily better. Each champ has strengths and weaknesses; it's often a good idea to build runes that best compliment your favorite champion.
When playing against bots, don't be afraid to try new champs and strategies! It can be scary at first, but don't be afraid. Feel free to play the tutorials a few times if you are still unfamiliar with the controls.
LoL is one of those "easy to learn, impossible to master" games. Good luck, and have fun!