User:Lady Michelle/Guide: Beginner's Guide

League of Legends Wiki presents the Beginner's Guide Project Page for League of Legends, the first game of Riot Games Inc. This Guide covers from before the Creation of the Account to the simplest in-game basics.

New User Account
Creating a new user account is very easy, and can be in few steps. But first you should follow this link. And then click in "Create Free Account", below the render.

This will take you to the bot detection screen, in this screen you are required to type the letters that are in the image and the Date of Birth. Then click the button "Continue to Step 2"

The next page is all about your information, the first space is the Account Name that is the way you log in into the Client. The second space is your Summoner's Name that is the name other users see you in the Game and the Client. The third and fourth spaces are about your Password that must match each other. The next two spaces should be filled with your E-mail and again must match with each other. And finally the last space is the Answer to the Security Question. Below those spaces are two check boxes one that subscribes you to the Newsletters and promotions from Riot Games, and the second confirms you acknowledge the Terms of Use and End User License Agreement. Finally click on the "Continue to Step 3"

Then there is one last step, the Create Account Screen. All the information you provided previously is presented to you. If you want to change something click on the Edit Information link, else click on "Create Account" button to create the account you'll use for Riot Games identification.

Downloading
The "Download" Link saves to your computer a 1.42 MB Installer.

Installing
After downloading and opening the installer, the download should start promptly. Depending on your internet connection, this may take anywhere from twenty minutes to several hours. If the download is not starting, you should check your internet connection and make sure your firewall is not blocking it.

Summoner
The Summoners is your in game avatar, he is the one that invokes the Champions into the Fields of Justice. The Summoner represents the persistent part of League of Legends. With every battle you take part in, the summoner will gain Experience and Influence Points. The first ones are used to level up, and the latter are the currency with which you buy Champions and Runes. You can also purchase Riot Points with real world currency, which can be used to purchase Skins, Boosts, Bundles, and other items from the Store. The Summoner can grow up to Level 30, in which he will have 30 Mastery Points, and 30 Rune Slots unlocked (one of both per level).

Every player's Summoner also has a Friend List that will let you see which of your friends is online, as well as what their levels are, and their Win and Leave Scores.

Masteries
Masteries are perks that affect gameplay. They are grouped into Offensive, Defensive and Utility categories. The champion can put one point per level (up to level 30) into masteries. Masteries can be re-distributed at will between battles.

Runes
Similar to masteries, runes affect gameplay in minor ways. Runes are categorized into Marks (offensive), Seals (defensive), Glyphs (magic) and Quintessence (all-purpose). They are also grouped into 3 tiers, higher tiers requiring a higher Summoner level. Runes must be unlocked with Influence Points in the Store and it is possible to have more than one copy of any given rune. Summoners must arrange their runes in their Runebook to benefit from them. The Runebook has limited number of slots for each rune type. The book has two pages, though more can be purchased, allowing several different rune builds to be saved, and the appropriate one chosen before each battle. A combining system exists for runes: combining two equal-tier runes produces a random rune of the same tier, while combining 5 equal-tier runes produces a higher-tier rune. The three tiers of Runes are Tier 1, requiring Summoner Level 1, Tier 2, requiring Summoner Level 10, and Tier 3, requiring Summoner Level 20. During some special events, Tier 2.5 runes may be available temporarily from the Riot Store. These runes cannot be obtained through combining, and are listed under Tier 2 when they are available.

Champions
Each player controls a single Champion. Players can't change champions mid-game so choose your champion carefully. There are over 80 different champions in the game, each with unique characteristics. Certain champions are tagged with certain Champion Attributes such as 'tank', 'fighter', 'mage' or 'support' to describe their play style. If a champion is especially newbie-friendly to play it is often tagged as 'recommended'. Some characters use melee attacks, others possesss a ranged normal attack.

Champions gain experience by killing enemy minions, champions or buildings, or passively on the Crystal Scar. Players can gain gold by landing the last hit on an enemy minion or by killing a champion. Some abilities and items also generate extra gold. The acquired gold can be spent at the item shop for various items. These items boost certain stats of the champion. Some items can be combined into more powerful items by following predefined recipes.

Abilities
After reaching a certain amount of experience, the champion levels up. Each level increases the champion's stats and adds an ability point that can be spent to improve one of the hero's unique abilities. The maximum level for a champion is 18, and in most cases, a maximum of 5 points can be spent on any given ability. A special "Ultimate" ability is only available to level up starting at level 6, and usually has only 3 ability ranks.

Spells
The Summoner can choose 2 summoner spells to bring into an in-game session on the Fields of Justice. These spells significantly impact gameplay, and have a high cooldown, although they cost no mana or resources.

"Laning"
Laning is a genre phrase commonly referring to the starting phase of the game. The laning phase consists of one to two members selecting a "lane" (the pre-scripted path where your AI controlled minions path) in order to maximize experience gain among the team. During the laning phase players usually focus on gaining gold and experience through creep kills and slaying enemy champions. The laning phase is considered over when the outer turret of either team is taken, as it becomes dangerous to venture ("push") farther into enemy territory. It is at this time that it is generally considered beneficial to meet up with the rest of your team and help take their outer turrets.

During the initial laning phase champions often use the brush to deceive players into feeling safe. Curious players often wander into brush to check for opposing champions. This can be dangerous and is not recommended unless you are willing to blow defensive summoner spells to survive a worst case scenario. Alternatively, can be used to check the brush without putting yourself in danger.

Gaining first blood is a strong benefit to any champion as it's worth in gold is almost that of two champion kills. To maximize your chances of gaining first blood it is usually beneficial to balance your lanes out (using Summoner's Rift as a reference). If the option presents itself, it is strongly recommended that you ensure each lane has a ranged champion. Ranged champions can freely harass melee champions to prevent them from attacking creeps to gain gold. In general, melee champions are required to put themselves in compromising positions when they go in for creep kills, leaving them open to spells from the enemy team.

Displacement and stun  skills are very valuable in the laning phase due to the widespread use of  and the relatively narrow distance between the initial two towers. With the lack of any stun or displacement your only hope for getting a kill during the laning phase is that the other team overextends and leaves themselves compromised enough for you to take advantage.

It is highly recommended that newer players take high regen/survivability starting items to help them stay in the lane and maximize gold/experience gained during this phase. Items like this include, and. Because of the increase in the values of mana regen in League of Legends in relation to other MOBAs, it is often recommended that ranged champions/mages pick up mana regen (i.e. or ) to let them cast spells more freely. Regardless of your item purchases, if you can afford a potion when you leave the base you should definitely bring one along. A good example would be a Meki Pendant and two health potions or a with one mana potion and one health potion. Both of these give a balance of health regen and mana regen to allow someone to use spells and stay in their lane.

The alternative to laning is jungling, where a champion avoids the scripted AI paths and kills neutral monsters in either their own or the opponents' jungle.

"Ganking"
Ganking is the term used when one group of champions(2+) ambush less enemy champions in the group. Gankers usually wait in the bushes as the laning champions let the enemies push further from their own turret, thus giving the enemies more distance to cover for an escape. Junglers tend to use ganking to their advantage because of their non-stop movement. Ganking usually signifies the end of the Laning Phase. After a turret is taken down, the champions that took out the turret begin ganking; because, it is too dangerous to push to the next turret. If the champions were the push the lane anyway, they would need the durability and escape mechanisms to escape a potential gank.

Minions
"Minions" refers to the multiple expendable units that each Nexus spawns and sends towards that of the enemy. They move on predetermined paths, and have the singular goal of destroying the nearest enemy minion, Tower, Inhibitor and Nexus. Correct utilization of both your opponents' minions and your own is a major key to victory.

Minions primarily serve as your main source of Experience. Every enemy minion that dies will reward all nearby champions with a set amount of experience, split evenly amongst all allied champions in the area. Due to the fat that the experience is split amongst champions, it is advantageous to have champions split between all the lanes, so that they all receive experience at a good rate and do not end up underleveled as time goes on.

In addition to experience, enemy Minions can provide a large amount of Gold to champions. Every time a champion slays a minion by landing the "Last Hit," they will receive a small amount of gold, the amount of which is determined by the type of minion slain and the amount of time the match has gone on. If you carefully time your abilities and attacks in order to gain this gold, you can quickly afford powerful items from the shop.

Finally, one should utilize their own minions in order to further their own team objectives. While inividually, a minion cannot accomplish very much, their numbers are great enough that when a champion helps them to "Push" to an enemy Tower, Inhibitor, or Nexus, they can both deal a respectable amount of damage, and also serve as cannon fodder, absorbing multiple tower shots. In the laning phase, minions can also deal a considerable amount of damage to enemy champions, but since there is currently no way to issue orders directly to minions, this fact is of less impact.

Jungling
In addition to each teams minions, there are a variety of neutral Monsters that spawn in each teams' jungle area. These monsters can be slain for gold and experience, and several of the more powerful monsters can be slain in order to gain beneficial buffs. Additionally, monsters such as or  can be slain to grant rewards to the entire team.

Naturally, making use of the buffs, gold, and experience available in a team's jungle is beneficial and can be a deciding factor in the outcome of the match. There are several ways to harvest these rewards for your team, but one of the most effective methods is to have a dedicated "Jungler" who will spend the early game roaming about through the jungle and killing the monsters within. This task takes a considerable amount of practice to perfect, as the player will need to be able to both quickly slay the neutral monsters, and stay in relative safety while doing so. For more information on jungling and for tips on how to jungle better, please visit the Jungling page.

Store
The League of Legends Store allows Summoners to purchase additional options through Riot Points (RP) and Influence Points (IP). Riot Points must be bought using real money, while Influence Points are earned by playing the game.
 * Champions can be unlocked either by spending RP or IP.
 * Skins are alternate looks for champions that can be unlocked by RP only.
 * Boosts to IP and XP gain over a period can be purchased by RP only.
 * Runes can be purchased by IP only (some can be bought in packs, with Riot Points. You can't choose them).
 * Bundles that unlock a large selection of champions can be purchased by RP only.
 * Riot Points can be recharged by credit card or PayPal.

Other useful terms

 * Mia
 * Missing in Action, a term used when an enemy champion is not longer in their lane. This helps to prevent
 * allied champions from being ganked(An ambush of an attack in which a person is assaulted by more than one person by surprise).


 * CC
 * CC is a common abbreviation used for Crowd Control. An example of crowd control is Anivia's Glacial Storm, which slows enemies inside an AoE.


 * Proc
 * Proc is a word used to mean special procedure, used in LoL with an item such as phage. Phage has a % chance to slow an enemy on attack. If the slow occurs, it is a proc.


 * AoE
 * AoE is a term used to mean Area of Effect. A good example is amumu's Ultimate, Curse of The Sad Mummy, which has an AoE, meaning instead of hitting ONE target, it will effect multiple targets within the AoE attack range..


 * Top
 * Top is a term used to refer to the top line on the map. Example:"Mia Top", This term means that the enemies that were on the top line now are missing.


 * Mid
 * Mid is a term used to refer to the middle line. Example:"Mia Mid", This term means that the enemies that were on the Middle line now are missing.


 * Bot
 * Bot is a term used to refer to the bottom line on the map. Example:"Mia Bot", This term means that the enemies that were on the Bottom line now are missing.