User blog:Xeroshifter/Noob to Pro: Basic Gameplay

Elements of the Field
Most of the things within this section of League of Legends Noob to Pro will be looked at later in more detail. The things found here are summaries of things you need to keep in mind while playing.

The first thing you need to know about League of Legends is what kind of things to expect on The Fields of Justice, or more commonly: The battle field.

So let's list the basics before we go over each one in a little more detail: Towers, Inhibitors, Nexus, Base Platform, Minons, Champions, Bushes, and Fog of War.

Towers
Towers are a major contributor to many of the decisions made in league of legends. In order to win the game, one or more lines of towers must be destroyed. Towers fire projectiles at any hostile targets within their range. They protect allied champions, and any towers behind them. The most forward tower must be destroyed before any towers behind it in its line can be destroyed. Towers yield gold to all enemy champions when they are destroyed, and they automatically defend allied champions if they are hit by an enemy who is in range. They have a large amount of health, and only the most rear towers are capable of regenerating their health. Towers do not respawn.

Inhibitors
After all but the most rear of towers in a line are destroyed, the inhibitor of that line may be destroyed. Inhibitors respawn on a timed interval started once they are destroyed. There are three lines, and thus three inhibitors. Once an inhibitor is destroyed the towers behind it, no matter what line they are in, may be destroyed, however, if all inhibitors are still intact, those towers become invulnerable again. Inhibitors do not attack or defend, and are static (non-moving.) While an inhibitor is down, super minions will spawn incrimentally with the normal minions along that line or within that lane.

Nexus
The Nexus is the main objective in any game. If you destroy the enemy nexus you win the game, and if the enemy destroys yours, they win. The nexus cannot take damage as long as an inhibitor or one of the rear most towers is up. The nexus slowly regenerates health if it takes damage.

Base Platform
This is where all champions spawn at the start of the game, and respawn after their death timer is finished counting down after their death. Each team has one, and it cannot be destroyed. When on an allied base platform, a champion will quickly regenerate their health, and mana, or energy. Standing on the platform will not grant any other bonuses. Champions may still take damage and die while on the platform. The platform also has a very powerful turret. It is not possible nor nesseciary to destroy this turret. The turret deals great ammounts of damage to any enemies that step on the platform. This is not considered one of the rear-most turrets. You cannot become immune to the damage that this turret does by any means.

Minions
Minions are NPCs meaning that no player controls them. The game automatically decides what they do. Minions spawn at the nexus, and travel down each lane or line until they reach opposition. They can only be hurt by enemies. As the game progresses the amount of health minions have increases very slowly. Minions do not regenerate on their own, but unlike towers, they can be healed by external sources. There are several different types of minions. When an allied champion is attacked by an enemy champion, minions will automatically switch targets (much like towers) to that enemy champion. Otherwise they target what ever is closest to them.

Caster Minions
These are the ranged minions that spawn in the back of a minion line. They fire ranged projectiles that look like little balls of light. They have lower health than other kinds of minions, but their projectiles home on who ever they fire at.

Melee Minions
These are the fore-runners of a minion "wave." They are melee which means that in order to deal damage to a target they must approach them. They have more health than Caster Minions, but less than any other kind of minion.

Cannon Minion
This minion is rarer than Caster or Melee Minions, and only spawns every couple of waves. It spawns in the back of the wave. This kind of minion is ranged, but does more damage, and has more health than many other kinds of minions. This type of minion may be the target of the Promote Summoner Spell.

Super Minion
This type of minion has as much health if not more than many champions at level 18. It does a lot of damage. Two of this minion will spawn in every wave in its line after the inhibitor in that line as been destroyed. Once an inhibitor has respawned, this minion will stop spawning, but any existing super minions in that inhibitor's line will continue on, trying to reach and destroy any targets in its path on its way to the enemy Nexus.

Champion
This is the element of the game that the Player controls. Each player controls one champion, and each champion has several abilities that make them a viable contribution to their team. There are five champions on each team in a traditional game (other game modes may change the number of champions.) Champions level up by gaining experience by killing and assisting in the killing of enemy champions, and by gaining experience by being near minions when they die. They do not have to kill minions to gain experience though. The maximum level a champion can obtain is level 18, and once they hit that level, they stop gaining experpience. Upon leveling up a champion's base stats will increase. This level is in game and is different from your Summoner Level, the two different types of levels do not affect eachother AT ALL.

Bushes
One of the biggest factors in killing enemies is the ability to hide in bushes. In the game these are referred to as "brush." While in the brush you are invisible to enemies who do not have vision inside of that bush. In more laymens terms is that unless an ability, spell, or item allows an enemy to see in that bush, as long as the enemy is not in the bush, they cant see you. If one enemy unit can see you though, all enemy units can. You can see from the bush out though. Since allies always share vision, if any enemy unit can see you in a bush, all of them can, champions and minions alike. If you damage an enemy unit while in the bush, you become visible. Once an enemy unit enters the bush, they can see you for a few moments before you become invisible to them again. Bushes are good place to hide for suprise attacks, and an even better place to use your recall ability that every champion has, to return to base when you need it.

Fog Of War
Fog Of War is the short term for saying "Areas where my team cant see." On the map, fog of war looks like a shadow that is cast over the majority of the area. Every unit and building, Minion, Champion, Tower and Inhibitor grants vision. They all have a vision range too. What this means is that the area directly around them is visible, and the fog of war is dispelled. However, un-like many other games, in League of Legends, the fog of war is LOS (line of sight,) based. This means that a champion or minion cannot see over a wall, in or behind a bush. In order to see there, an allied unit, ability, spell, or item must grant them vision there. Many abilities may be cast into the fog of war, but not all. Any allied vision can be seen not only if you move your viewing screen over into that area, but also on the map.

Elements of Game Play
Beyond just the field there are several more parts of the game that must be paid attention to, these elements include things such as killing enemies, killing minions, Defending and Destroying enemy buildings or structures, Buying items, summoner spells, death, leveling up and much more.

Death & Dying
Inevitibly your champion is going to die at some point during your game of League of Legends. As game intensity increases, it is ever more likely that it will happen. When a champion dies in LoL (League of Legends) they are given a respawn timer which appears over their character portrait to count down, until the champion is revived. So clearly dying isn't the end of the game. However there are several things you should know about dying. When ever you die to an enemy champion, that champion gains gold with which they may buy items, and become more powerful, they also gain experience points, which makes them level up faster than you. Further, while you're dead, you're not able to kill minions, or destroy or defend towers, or do anything else at all. So dying is bad. Very bad. Once you die, it becomes even easier to die again and again. So when possible, avoid death. Another thing to note, is that each time you level up, the time it takes you to respawn goes up, so the stronger you get, the longer you stay dead. On the flip side though, when you kill an enemy champion, you gain gold, experience, and an opportunity to play with a little less to worry about, even if only for a few moments. As mention previously, when a champion dies, they respawn on the base platform, so they must walk all the way back to their lane (unless they have the summoner spell teleport.)

Killing and Killing Streaks
In order to kill a champion you must deplete their health and any shields they may have, by doing damage to them. They will very likely try to kill you as well, so be careful, and try not to put yourself in a position where you will go down.

When a Champion kills multiple champions in short succession of eachother they recieve a "Kill Elevation" this is to say that the announcer will start proclaiming how many champions they have killed by saying something special: Double kill! (2 champions,) Tripple Kill! (3 Champions,) Quadra Kill! (4 Champions) and Penta Kill! (5 champions,) Legendary Kill! (6+) While most wont get a Penta Kill until late in their career, if ever, these kill Elevations are important to try to get, and to try to avoid letting the enemy have. Note that a Champion does not need to do all of the damage to an enemy to get a kill or kill elevation, they simply need to do the last point of damage. Anyone who helps another champion kill someone, will get what is called an Assist. Assists also award gold and experience, though generally not as much, assists also do not have to be through doing damage, they can be by buffing, shielding or healing anyone who did damage to the enemy, or a number of other methods. (Note that a minion or tower will never get a kill, it will always be called an "Execution." Also, if a tower or minion finishes an enemy off shortly after another champion did damage to that enemy, the champion will get the kill over the tower, even though the tower dealt the last point of damage. ) 

Killing Sprees
A Killing spree is announced or achived when a Champion kills multiple enemies without dying. Killing sprees are not time sensitive like Kill Elevations, and have different requirements as well. "Killing Spree" is announced and obtained when three champions have been killed without dying, four results in a "Rampage", five in "Unstoppable", six "Dominating", seven "God Like", eight and up "Legendary."

Its important to know that killing sprees raise the value of killing that champion. A champion is normally worth 300 gold for killing, and that ammount increases as the spree rises to three and above. Death streaks also happen, so if a champion manages to die multiple times without killing anyone, they become worth less and less to kill. This is to stop feeders, and discourage players from picking on just one person. The exact gold ammounts can be found outside of LoL Noob to Pro: Here. What's important to know though, is that a Champion can eventually be killed enough, to be worth less than a minion.

Destroying and Defending Structures
While killing and dying are important because the yield gold, they cannot win the game alone. However unlikely it is, the same cannot be said for Destroying and Defending structures. Because Defending structures is essentially just stopping them from being destroyed, we're going to glaze over that, and go straight to their destruction.

Structures are destroyed when they're reduced to zero hp. With the exception of inhibitors, they do not respawn. Because minion waves naturally push back and forth against eachother, they are one of the ways to destroy towers. With just a little help a Minion wave can push up against an enemy tower, and they will attack it, dealing damage to it that it cannot recover from. As long as the minions get within the tower's range first, the tower will attack all of them first, giving you the opportunity to destroy it. The exception is if you damage an enemy champion while within the turrets range, it will turn to you, to ignore the minions. Another option is that if you have enough health you can take the towers damage yourself and hit the tower repeatedly. However, towers do upwards of two hundred physical damage with each shot, and are not to be taken lightly. Structures are also immune to most abilities so keep that in mind while trying to destroy them.