User:Bachoru/Guide: Team Jobs

Disclaimer

Please note that nothing written on this page is an actual in-game mechanic; it is shifting towards a general guide for the practical use of certain aspects of the game.

Roles and Jobs
There is a distinct difference between "Job" and "Role." In order to have a well functioning team throughout a game it is important for players to know their role and their job and the differences between the two.

A Job is the category that your character will play throughout the match, from beginning to end. Whether it is AP dps, Tank, Melee DPS, etc. If your character selected can fill one of multiple positions depending on build it is important to let your team know which one you plan on filling. If your team expect you to be the tank/offtank/Basic Meat shield, and you choose to build AP dps instead your team is left with a gaping hole in their composition which they may not be aware of until too late.

A Role is a category that your character will play at this moment. It is ussually temporary or evolving throughout the match. Jungler is a role that is filled at the beginning and ussually during champion select but by mid game it no longer serves a purpose, so that character transitions to something else. Heavy AP characters tend to fill the role of "Carry" early to late-mid game. But the earlier they start dominating the more likely the other team will build a lot of Magic Resist and completely neutralize them, at which point another character must step up and be the carry (ussually giving the opportunity for the AD-dps to shine and take over "carry" duties.)

There are more roles and jobs than there are characters on a 5 man team, so no team can field them all. What is important for a successful team is to fill as many as possible, be willing to quickly adjust roles on the fly, and be blatantly aware of what was not brought this match and adjust game-style or item builds for it.

Your job in a team
Every champion in League of Legends is unique, has a different set of abilities, and overall has different ways to help win the game. There are several champion categories, into which all champions have been placed, and although you can play any champion the way you like, these categories show what the champions’ abilities and natural stats help him do best. There are several different roles of which only a few major ones will be mentioned here; check the Champion Statistics page for more info.

The Physical DPS, The Mage and Carrying
The Physical DPS is a champion whose primary damage comes of auto-attacks, and these champions also usually have an ability scaling off Attack Damage. The Physical DPS champions are usually rather weak compared to other champions, before they get more items. As their abilities scale off Attack Damage, and they usually have ranged attacks, they can just stay behind their team and unload an extreme amount of damage upon the enemy team. The Physical DPS needs to be carried by the team during the early game, and then with the right items can carry their team to victory. Thus most people call them AD Carries, although with right builds any champion can carry. In this page, the terms "Physical DPS" and "AD Carry" can be swapped, and there shouldn't be made any difference between these terms.

The Mage, also known as the AP Carry, is an exclusively ranged champion with several abilites scaling off Ability Power, and these usually have a high range and low cooldown, thus being spammable. The Mage tends to have a slightly weaker early game phase, but grows extremely strong with higher ranked abilities. Mages are usually the main damage dealers during the first teamfights and carry the team through the mid-game phase. Later on, when the enemy team starts buying Magic Resistance, they loose efficiency, but still have potential to unload a lot of damage, usually to cripple the enemy main damage dealer. In this page, the terms "AP Carry", "Mage" and "caster" can be swapped and there should not be any difference made between these terms.

Early in the game, both the AD and AP Carry's primary focus is last-hitting minions, while not pushing the turret. The reason for this is: You only gain gold for landing the killing blow on an enemy minion. Each minion can give from ~15 gold in the very beginning to ~30 gold later in the game. Since every minion wave contains 6 minions (cannon minion waves spawn every 3rd wave and contain one additional minion), if it is possible to get the last hit on every single minion in a wave, the killer would get about 100 gold. Minion waves spawn every 30 seconds, which means that every minute, you can get up to 260 gold (2x100 for the minions + the regular 1 every second). With no last-hits, your minutely net would be only 60 gold, which is less than 25% of your potential. As a result, a champion which takes every opportunity to last-hit in lane could get their BF Sword (1650 gold, +45 attack damage) before a champion that takes none could get a Long Sword (415 gold, +10 attack damage). In the next few minutes of the game, the first champion could be a dominant force, while the second's damage would be insignificant. The amount of last hits is commonly called the "cs". An important note: Mana, or any other resource to fuel abilites is better used for last-hitting than harrasing, when playing a mage or physical DPS. Ezreal's mystic shot, Veigar's Baleful Strike, or even Ashe's volley are better used to get a minion kill then to try to drop your enemy's health bar. Unless you feel like you could get a kill (if laning with a strong partner, for example), mana is free to use to "farm" minions well. Another important thing to note is that it is an unwanted thing to do unnecessary damage to the enemy minions. Pushing the enemy too far gives them an advantage in last-hitting, makes it harder to harass, and puts you in danger of ganks from their jungler or other lanes.
 * To sum it up: AD Carry champions are champions with usually a weaker start, a decent mid-game and a very strong late game. AP Carry champions have a weaker start, a powerful mid-game and a decent late-game.

To sum it up: It is important for the AD and AP carries to land killing blows to enemy minions while not pushing their minion wave close to the enemy turret.

Teamfights, mid to late game

The AD carry is generally the highest damage dealer late game, putting out sustained damage mostly with its autoattacks. As carries are squishy, these will usually stay at the far back of the team, safe from most damage and having a good chance to retreat if the fight goes bad or they get focused by the enemy team.
 * The role in a team
 * Early game

The AP carries are generally the highest damage-dealers early-mid game. Their job is to deal lots of damage and maim the enemy team. Later on, the AP carry/mage stays behind the melee champions, its job is to deal extreme amounts of burst damage to a single target (nuking), usually the enemy AD or AP carry, disabling them from the fight (eliminating most of their Health pool will result in them not being able to participate, because they could be killed too easily) or even killing them. They will usually come up front to cast all their spells and then retreat back till they can repeat this combo.

Examples

AD Carry: and

AP Carry: and

The Tank
Tanks are the most durable members of the team. They are usually melee champions with some ranged abilities and are supposed to be hardest to kill since they will usually have a lot of health or resistances that reduce incoming damage. While this is very desirable this also means that a tank usually won’t be dealing lots of damage. Since they are hard to kill and deal minimal damage, they should never be focused by the opposing team, especially if there is a carry nearby, dealing lots of damage. The job of the tank is to protect the carry, disabling the enemy champions from focusing fire on it. A tank champion is essentially the opposite of the carry. While carries specialize in dealing lots of damage (be it sustained or burst) and are generally squishy (low HP and resistances), tanks focus on keeping themselves and the team alive by having a much lower damage output in trade for enormous survivability and crowd control tools. Most tank champions have an early-game almost indistinguishable from other champions, as they are usually pretty reliant on items (although much less than carries). Tank champions will typically have these assets:


 * 1) Naturally bulky, higher natural HP, MRes and Armor
 * 2) Some form of Crowd Control (CC), usually a stun, slow, or taunt.
 * 3) Great synergy (due to abilities) with certain defensive items, making it very desirable to get them
 * 4) Most tanks have some sort of initiation; an ability to open up the fight giving their team an advantage.

'''To sum it up: Tank champions are durable champions that and their damage output is rather low because of this. Their their primary goal in the team is to take damage and shake off focus from the carries thanks to their abilities. They usually have a good initiation ability.'''

Tanks typically have no problem surviving even the focus of multiple enemies, so if an enemy attacks the tank instead of the carry, that’s a desirable situation. The tanks will usually use their skillset to disable enemies from attacking allied carries. Tanks should generally be the last ones to retreat and be at the front lines of the team. Also, when tower-diving, the tank should attack the enemy champion first so that the turret targets him and not other members of the team.
 * The role in a team

Examples:

and

The Support
Support Champions are typically ranged champions that have very low damage output and low durability in general. These champions usually have abilities that help their teammates, such as shields, heals, various buffs to attack damage, movement speed, etc; they also commonly have some kind of disable, and generally want to stack Cooldown Reduction and/or Aura items, as well as some AP to boost the power of their spells. The goal of the Support Champion is to have a high Assist/Death ratio. The support champion should NOT:


 * 1) Steal minion kills from the carry. Support champions are generally least dependent on items, and their builds are usually pretty cheap. Any other member of the team will make better use of the gold. Of course, support champions should attempt to get last hits if their lane partner is unable to for some reason, but not steal them.
 * 2) Steal champion kills. Support champions generally deal low damage and can’t chase alone; if chasing with a partner, make sure you disable your opponent, but if possible let your partner get the kill. The gold gain difference is not huge, and if your partner can’t get the kill, you by all means should, but it is always better if the carry gets the kills. This is because the killer receives 100% gold, and 70% additional is split between each assisting champion.
 * 3) Attempt to take damage for the team, or deal damage. The main priority is to keep all positive buffs up at all times possible (e.g. shield whenever possible) and when possible, hit enemies with disabling skills.
 * 4) Be the one leading the chase, solo-pushing, etc. At all times, the support needs to be with the tank and Carry (can be with offtank too, check section below).

'''To sum it up: Support champions are extremely important and valuable during teamfights, but they are usually very poor at doing anything without the team. They have a low damage output and durability, but their disables and buffs to allies are a huge asset when fighting the enemy team.'''

Support champions should assist the champion in the dual lane in laning phase, then always be with the team, healing them or otherwise increasing their chances to win. Support champions should usually buy Aura items, as they benefit the team rather than the individual, and they will usually be the ones warding.
 * The Role in a team

Examples:

and

The offtank/tanky DPS
The offtank, or tanky DPS (also known as bruiser) champions are currently probably the most common champion type. They are typically melee champions who have more durability than carries, while still potentially dealing significant damage. The two terms essentially represent the same champions, offtank referring to those who built tank items, and tanky DPS to those who built more Damage items. The offtank is supposed to take some burden off the main tank, tanking damage while still doing a significant amount. The tanky DPS has a role similar to carries, although tanky DPS is usually melee. Their job is to deal as much damage as possible, their close range balanced out by increased durability.

'''To sum it up: Offtanks and tanky DPS champions are generally melee champions, with a high damage output yet still pretty high survivability to complement their low range. Offtanks support the main tanks while tanky DPS dive in the heart of battle, damaging the enemies' squishies and taking advantage of their durability.'''

Examples:

and

Assassins
Assassin champions are champions who specialize in eliminating the most threatening opponent in seconds, mostly with their extreme burst damage. Assasins typically possess a dash ability to cover the distance quickly without being focused, and usually enter the fight after it has begun, so that they survive.

Examples:

and

The Jungler
The Jungler is a champion who doesn’t level up by fighting minion waves on a lane, but instead gains money and levels by killing the monsters found in their “camps”. The area out of lane is called “the jungle”, thus the name. Junglers have to possess high natural stats and a good skillset in order to be able to jungle efficiently. They commonly have some sort of CC effect, as well as a way to enter the fight quickly, to be able to successfully execute a gank. Junglers will typically be the tank or offtank/tanky DPS, as carries seldom possess the important assests a jungler needs to be successful. The advantages of having a jungler are obvious:


 * 1) You get 2 solo lanes and 1 jungler, who can often keep up with solo lanes in terms of experience. This means that 3 players on a team with a junglers will have an advantage over the other players, while only 1 player will have this advantage on a team with no jungler. Usually the AD Carry and Mage will go to the solo lanes, as they need the level and gold advantage most. However, if the oposing team has no jungler, an offtank is advised to man the solo 1v2 lane, as they can survive better.
 * 2) The Jungler is extremely unpredictable, and it is rarely known where he is. If team A has a jungler, team B has to play extremely cautiously, as a jungler will often gank an overpushed lane. Junglers typically have a good way to get inside the fight quickly, and also have a good CC move to disable opponents. If coordinated properly with the team, a jungle gank will often result in a kill.


 * The disadvantages to having a jungler are
 * 1) Junglers often stay at low health later when jungling, as they rely only on their natural stats, abilities and starting health potions (if bought) to keep alive. Junglers can often be ganked and disrupted in the jungle so they have to always have an escape route prepared.
 * 2) Monsters found in the jungle are very powerful and cannot be fought by just any champion: only certain champions can effectively jungle without modifying their builds, pre-game setup and ability order.
 * 3) The solo lane is much easier to out-harrass, and with a strong enemy duo, the lane will often be pushed to the tower, leading to a possible tower-loss early in the game. A jungler should always help the solo lane if asked to.
 * 1) The solo lane is much easier to out-harrass, and with a strong enemy duo, the lane will often be pushed to the tower, leading to a possible tower-loss early in the game. A jungler should always help the solo lane if asked to.

'''To sum it up: The jungler is a champion like any other, and this role is usually only assigned to him early game. The jungler needs to be able to clear out the monster camps efficiently, while also having a skillset allowing him to successfully executing a gank.'''

The jungler role is to clear minion waves in the beginning of the game, allowing an additional teammate to gain solo lane experience and level up faster. The jungler should always be on the look-out for ganks, and gank any lane overpushed, to get a kill. Also, the jungler should place wards and help control the Dragon. Later on the jungler will fulfill his regular role, usually the main tank or offtank/tanky DPS.
 * Role in a team

Examples:

and

A Regular Game
This section contains a summary of early, mid, late game, different champions and the roles they fulfill, teamfight and gank examples etc.)

Preface
This is the phase in the champion selection screen (and before). Each member chooses his masteries, runes, summoner spells and, of course, champion. In game they also choose a lane and starting items.

In preface it is important to coordinate with your allies. If someone has already picked Sivir and Miss Fortune, then it is advised no other member picks a ranged DPS carry. If someone picked a 3rd carry like this, the team would be too easily countered by buying armor, or the team would be too squishy due to lack of a tank.

You want to have 2-3 ranged carries/supports, and 2-3 melee tanks and/or offtanks (assasins, bruisers, tanky DPS etc. will be labeled just offtanks in this guide). It is advisable each player can play at least one champion from each role, to best suit the team’s needs. An ideal team would be, e.g. Sivir (ranged AD carry), Anivia (ranged AP carry), Amumu (tank, jungler in this case), Janna (support) and a flexible 5th member (melee). For this example I will use Jarvan IV (can be built full tank, offtank or full DPS, in this game he will be offtank). The team must coordinate before the battle starts that everyone fulfills the job he’s supposed to.

Just to make the example more realistic, the enemy team contains an Ashe, LeBlanc, jungling Shen, Irelia (built as offtank) and Taric.

Early Game
The basic concept of laning phase is that everyone stays in their respective lane (the jungler stays in the jungle). Each lane has a certain goal to attempt:

The solo mid lane’s job is to get as many last hits as possible. Secondary objectives include harassing the enemy, zoning them to prevent them from getting experience, and with champions with global abilities also helping the side-lanes. The mid lane should be:


 * A carry champion, as the mid lane has the most experience and minions, this therefore helps the carry to get strong sooner in the game.
 * A ranged champion, as melee champions can’t harass that well and are more susceptible to being harassed.
 * A champion who is less durable than most, as mid lane has only one opponent and therefore champions can survive better here.
 * Sometimes the mid lane should have a champion exclusively suited for fighting the enemy mid lane.

Example: We suspect LeBlanc is going mid (our support used clairvoyance on their base to find out). Normally, in our example, we would choose Anivia to go mid (she’s easy to kill and harass, and needs lots of last hits to get her gear soon), but LeBlanc is extremely good against Anivia (Anivia’s skillshot can be dodged by LeBlanc’s Distortion, her ice wall can also be passed by it, and LeBlanc has a Silence and a Snare, possibly killing Anivia with two rotations of her combo, and the egg too). We should therefore send the other carry into mid, in our detailed example Sivir, as she has a spell-shield to counter LeBlanc’s combo, and is much less ability-reliant so being silenced doesn't hurt her damage output all that much, possibly dealing more damage to LeBlanc than LeBlanc’s combo could do to her.

The jungler’s objectives are to efficiently clear out the neutral monster camps, doing it as fast as possible and skipping camps as little as possible, while still staying at high health and being prepared to escape from any ganks. His other main objective is to gank an overextended lane (a lane pushed close to your turret is called overextended), surprising the enemies and killing them with the help of the lane. Coordination is extremely important for this, as a jungler will sometimes gank a lane without notifying the team, often dying himself. His secondary objective is to defend any turrets that need defense, and to “babysit” lanes (if a lane has to recall, the jungler should get into that lane to gain experience and defend the turret). An important thing to stress is that although Smite might be considered less useful later in the game, a jungler should always carry it, as it speeds up jungling significantly; without Smite the jungler might die, or fall back significantly in terms of experience.

The 1v2 lane (called solo lane by most, if both teams have junglers it’s actually 1v1) should be occupied by a ranged carry champion with some durability. The goal of the solo lane is to defend the turret. If the solo lane is having trouble defending the turret, the jungler should help out and gank or take over the lane. Side goals of the 1v2 lanes include getting last hits, semi-harassing enemies in lane (keeping them at lower health for the jungler to have an easier gank), assisting the jungler in a gank, and champions with stun abilities can lure enemies into tower-diving them, possibly even getting kills. The advantage of the solo lane is that it gets experience equal to that of the mid lane. However it is harder to get last hits, because out of turret range the solo lane will often get harassed, and in turret range the turret can “steal” last hits. Soft Carries (AP carries that don't need too much gear and are dependant mostly on their skill ranks) are logically the best suited for this lane. However, due to usually low durability or soft carries, if the enemy team has no jungler a more durable champion should man the solo lane. In our example, we could send Jarvan or Anivia solo top, and as the enemy team also has a jungler (Shen), Anivia is the better choice as she can get her gear sooner. Another thing to note is that Janna works extremely well with Jarvan, shielding him and increasing his attack damage.

The duo lane is the lane where the support champion will usually be, as they help their team and don’t need last hits that much, allowing their laning partner to get most of them. Also, support champions do worse solo, since their damage is usually not that high, and they tend to be squishy too. The other champion in the dual lane is usually the least suited for any of the above-mentioned lanes, and is usually the tank or offtank (although carry champions are also good, any champion can go dual lane with the support). In our example, Jarvan and Janna would take the dual bot lane. Dual lanes are almost always the bottom ones, as they can reach the dragon quicker if necessary. Another factor when determining the dual lane is champion combos. If a champion has a high damage output, the team will want a champion who can counter his weaknesses, allowing for an extremely powerful lane. In our example: Jarvan and Janna. Jarvan is naturally pretty durable, and combined with Janna’s shield it’s almost impossible to harass him. Also, Janna has a Slow effect and a knockup ability, allowing Jarvan to move in and deal some damage. This is not the greatest possible combo, but almost every support can combine his skills with those of a different champion for extremely devastating effects. The goal of the dual lane is to not die. The dual lane has to face two opponents, yet since there are two champions there too, it is often pretty balanced. The dual lane is supposed to harass enemies, also has the greatest chance to get the first few kills or deaths. The dual lane is prone to ganks if overextended, yet this is often an undesirable side-effect of harassing (if an enemy is low, they will let you push to their turret, still gaining experience yet staying safe). A right balance must be found, and dual lanes are advised to be most cautious, as it is possible, with the right timing, to have 4 enemies there at once (the enemy duo, the jungler and even the turret, with a right-timed stun). Also note that without a jungler both side lanes are dual lanes. The secondary goal of the dual lane is to get last-hits (in this order: AD Carry, AP carry, tank/offtank, depending on item dependancy, and the support not getting too much of them).

Our detailed example (our team against their):

Top: Anivia against Ashe

Mid: Sivir against LeBlanc

Bot: Janna & Jarvan against Taric & Irelia

Jungle: Amumu against Shen (not exactly against each other, but they compete in speed, ganks and counter-jungling)

Mid-game
Ganks

It's already 5 minutes into the game, both junglers have cleared their jungles (imagine we're observer mode, therefore have absolute vision over the entire map) and recalled, and are back with boots, and some more health potions. Our Janna and Jarvan are being counter-harassed well by Taric and Irelia, seeing as Jarvan is a melee champion and Taric's stun with Irelia's help result in a lot of damage taken by our Jarvan. Our dual lane is therefore pushed to the turret, but they're still relatively high on health and the turret (shielded by Janna) looks like it's OK.

Our top (Anivia) is at half health, their Ashe also at half. It's a very passive game, as Anivia can't spam her abilities much to damage Ashe (and Ashe dodges lots of Anivia's attempts thanks to her long range anyway) and Ashe is afraid to overcommit, as Anivia's passive (Rebirth) is active and a failed attempt could force their Ashe to recall, or even kill her. Thus, a very balanced lane, fighting in the middle, both sides having the summoner spell Flash ready. Ashe just hit level 6, and she has wisely been conserving mana for a strong ultimate+volley combo. Anivia's mana levels are low, but she managed to keep up in cs to Ashe thanks to last-hitting with mana. Finally, our mid Sivir managed to force LeBlanc to tower hug, and is pushing the turret, shielding LeBlanc's abilites. Our jungler Amumu should try to gank bot lane, and their jungler Shen is bound to attempt a gank at middle lane.

Pushing

Skirmishes

Lategame
Teamfights

Teamfight scheme

Determining the “Victor” of a teamfight

When to push, take dragon, baron?