Art of Lol

7/29/2019 Art of Lol

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06-20-2011

The Art of League of Legends by Zekent

Table of Contents

IntroductionI. Goals

Part One: The Core Skill SetII. Champion/Item KnowledgeIII. Item AwarenessIV. Creep ScoreV. Basic Map Awareness

Part Two: How to ImproveVI. Attitude/MindsetVII. Practice MechanicsVIII. Game SenseIX. Watching Other Players

Part Three: The Advanced Skill SetX. The Mind Gamea. Jukingi. Loss of Visionii. Bush Jukingiii. Escape Skillsb. Baitingi. Bush Baitingii. Flash Baitingiii. Ward Baitingiv. Turret Dive Baitingiiv. Baiting for Your Jungleriiiv. Baiting the Enemy Junglerc. Lane Controli. Scaring Your Opponentii. Creating OpportunitiesA. Passive PlayB. Aggressive Playiii. Helping Your Jungler Through ZoningXI. Farming Past the Laning PhaseXII. Map Controla. Wardingi. Counter Wardingb. Champion Presencec. TurretsXIII. Positioning

Part Four: Champion RolesXIV. Traditional Rolesa. Ranged AD Carryb. AP Carryc. Supportd. Tanke. JunglerXV. Sub Rolesa. Off-Tank


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b. Bruiserc. Anti-Carryd. Pushere. Roamerf. Assassin

Part Five: Stats

XVI. Defensive Statsa. Healthb. Armor/Magic Resistancec. Health Regenerationd. Dodgee. Life Steal/Spell Vampi. Life Stealii. Spell Vampf. TenacityXVII. Offensive Statsa. Attack Damage/Ability Poweri. Attack Damageii. Ability Powerb. Armor/Magic Penetrationi. Armor/Magic Resistance Reductionc. Attack Speedd. Critical Strikei. Critical Chanceii. Increased Critical DamageXVIII. Other Statsa. Cooldown Reductionb. Manac. Mana Regenerationd. Movement Speed

Part Six: The Pre-GameXIX. Choosing Summoner Spellsa. Exhaustb. Ghostc. Heald. Revivee. Smitef. Teleportg. Cleanseh. Fortifyi. Clarityj. Ignitek. Rallyl. Clairvoyancem. FlashXX. Choosing Masteries

a. 21/x/xb. x/21/xc. x/x/21d. 9/x/xe. x/9/xf. x/x/9g. 12-15/x/xh. x/16/xi. x/x/15-16XXI. Teammate Interaction


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a. Greetingsb. Champion Selectc. Pre Minion Spawn Plan

Part Seven: Game MechanicsXXII. Non-Player Based Mechanicsa. Timers

Change Log

Introduction

Greetings Summoners.

This is an article that aims to explain and teach players how to improve and refine their skills inLeague of Legends. Due to the vast disparity of skill in the League of Legends community, somepoints may not be understood by inexperienced players simply from lack of in-game play time orknowledge.

The approach that I will take to assist in player improvement may work outside the context ofLeague of Legends and into other MOBA-style games. But, the examples within this guide will allbe taken from within the context of League of Legends.

This is not a guide that is intended to teach how to play any specific champion, but rather acomplete overview of how to play League of Legends as a whole, so if you are looking for a guideon how to play a particular champion, this guide is not for you.

Also, for the most part, each section in this guide is meant to be standalone, so if you do not wantto read it in its entirety, feel free to skip around.

I. Goals

So, first of all, what is your goal? The best way to achieve your goal is to first define what you aretrying to do, and then figure out a means to achieve that goal. So, I ask you again, what is yourgoal? For example: Are you trying to improve your win/loss ratio? Are you trying to raise yourELO? If either of the preceding is your goal, then there are ways to achieve that without muchpersonal improvement- you could simply run champions that require little effort to obtain a highwin/loss ratio in your respective ELO range. Example: Teleport/Revive Karthus with -% DeathTimer runes and masteries prior to the adjustment of his death timer (aka: Zombie Karthus).

Doing this may quickly improve your displayed ELO up to a certain level, but you will eventuallyencounter players who can deal with such champions and even punish you early on for trying todo it. If that is your goal, you are free to do it, and you could most likely obtain a fairly respectablewin/loss ratio by doing so.

On the flipside, if your goal is to improve your overall mindset and mechanics, you shouldn?t

waste your time with such ?strategies.? At best, exclusively playing one or two champions willteach you just that- how to play one or two champions. You may become extremely skilled atthese champions, but would become inept at playing at any other champion within your newlyobtained ELO range for one simple reason- you may play Champion A at skill level X(newlyobtained ELO), but you play every other champion at skill level Y(old ELO.) I have personally seenplayers in the 1800+ ELO range become completely useless if their ?main? champion getsbanned or picked. So, before you do anything, decide on your goal- then make plans on how toachieve that goal.

Part one of this guide will be focusing on your core skill set- champion/item knowledge, item


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awareness, creep score, and basic map awareness. All these skills are essentials to becoming awell-rounded and consistent player. So if that is not your aim, or if you already possess theseskills, then you can skip past that section.

Part One: The Core Skill Set

Many players wonder why it is that they aren?t ?as good? as higher ELO players, but few know

what to attribute the difference in skill to. This section of the guide is designed to help youunderstand the key differences between a ?good? player and a ?great? player.

II. Champion/Item Knowledge

So you?re sitting in a lane at 60% HP as Vladimir against a LeBlanc and you?re both about to hitlevel six. You both level and you decide that since you?ve built up a fair amount of gold, you?regoing to go ?blue pill? and buy some items. All of a sudden, she flashes up to you and blasts youwith her Sigil of Silence and Mimic combo and you?re suddenly at only 15% HP. You go into panicmode and try to use your Sanguine Pool to get away, but it?s not working! She easily polishes youoff with Distortion.

This is a very basic example of a lack in champion knowledge. Had you known better, you willknow that LeBlanc can silence you. Fortunately, this is the easiest deficiency to remedy. All youneed to do is to read up on what each item and champion can do. In fact, there are variousLeague of Legends fan sites which provide very detailed information on all the champions anditems.

Having just basic knowledge of each item and champion can make a large difference in theoutcome of a game. You may realize that a Banshee?s Veil can save you from a KarthusRequiem, or that Executioner?s Calling can help counter Dr. Mundo. If you know what eachchampion and item can do, you will discover that certain itemizations prove to be extremelyeffective against certain champions.

III. Item Awareness

So you?re sitting in a lane at 40% HP as Ashe against a 20% HP Poppy. You decide that if youcan pull off an Enchanted Crystal Arrow, you can kill her before she makes a move. So, you takeaim and Enchanted Crystal Arrow her successfully. You run up to her to shoot her. All of asudden, she flashes up to you and smacks you into a wall with her Heroic Charge and herDevastating Blow finishes you off. What just happened?! She was stunned! How was that evenpossible? Oh? that Quicksilver Sash in her inventory might have done the trick.

You should constantly be checking what items enemy champions have- especially if you?re in alane against them. Example: Oh, that Ashe just got back to lane after buying? Wow, she justbought an Infinity Edge- guess I?d better watch out! The ?Tab? button makes checking up onitems quite simple- though it sometimes doesn?t update if you have not recently seen thechampion.

Two of the most important items to watch out for are: Quicksilver Sash and Elixirs. Basically,these two items can easily turn the tide of a gank or fight. The instantaneous de-buff purge from

Quicksilver Sash and the HP boost from a Red Elixir can be the difference between you scoring akill on an enemy champion or having them turn around and beat you down.

Some other often overlooked items are vision and sight wards. If there is a hero with stealth onyour team, (Example: Eve/Twitch) be sure to tell them if you see anyone on the enemy teampurchase a vision ward. Also, if you constantly check items on enemy champions, you can seeapproximately where they place their wards. Example: You see an enemy Ashe has a ward andshe walk into the left bush in middle lane. When she returns to middle lane, she no longer has theward, meaning that you can assume she probably put the ward somewhere on the left- effectivelycutting off one path that your team?s roamer/jungler can gank from.


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IV. Creep Score

It?s ten minutes into the game and you are playing in the middle lane as Corki against an Ashe-both of you starting with boots and three health potions. You feel that you?re doing an excellentjob- you?ve been harassing throughout the entire game and you?ve made her burn through thethree health potions and finally managed to force her to teleport back to base- knowing full well

that she is probably going to pick up some items. So, you push your lane to his turret and decideto teleport back to pick up some items of your own- fully confident that you can once again forceher out of lane when you return. You decide to spend all your gold to get yourself a Tear of theGoddess (995 gold) and return to lane only to find Ashe sporting Three Doran?s Blades (1425gold) a ward (75 gold) and three more health potions (105 gold). What?s going on?! You quicklyhit ?Tab? and see that Ashe has somehow managed to get 30 more creep kills than you and isnow completely dominating you in lane.

This is a classic example of a difference in last hitting skill. Due to the nature of League ofLegends, it is incredibly hard to actually kill someone early in the game when it?s a one on onesituation- meaning that you?re generally better off getting as many creep kills as possible. Thinkof it this way- a kill on a champion is worth about fifteen or so creep kills; so would you ratherspend your effort on trying to kill the enemy champion, or concentrating your efforts onconsistently getting as much gold as possible. In 99% of all situations, sitting back and last hittingwould provide you with far more gold than taking potshots at the enemy champion.

As you move up in skill level, the importance of last hitting becomes more noticeable- if you?re ina solo lane and you?re behind by twenty or so creep kills, you are effectively ?losing? your laneunless you have somehow managed to kill the enemy champion or successfully ganked anotherlane. You may think, ?Oh well, it?s only twenty of so creep kills,? but what you don?t immediatelynotice is what those creep kills allow for. Similar to the example at the beginning of this section,being behind in creep score will only lead to a larger and larger gap due to the difference inpurchasing abilities- basically the first ?blue pill? by each champion will compound the effects of alarge gap in creep score.

So, how do you remedy this? Practice- there?s no way around it. Each champion has a differentattack animation- ranging from great (Example: Caitlyn/Corki) to absolutely terrible (Example:Soraka/Zilean.) The only way to consistently obtain creep kills is to play that champion. Or simplypractice with a hero with a terrible attack animation- if you can last hit consistently with Zilean orSoraka, you can probably last hit with any champion.

As the game progresses, you still want to keep your creep score up and I will elaborate on how todo that in Part Three.

V. Basic Map Awareness

You are playing Jungle Amumu and it?s just past three minutes into the game. You?re justfinishing up that first Lizard buff when suddenly a Gold Card flies out of the bush and stuns you.Twisted Fate?s Pick a Card is quickly followed by Janna?s Howling Gale and Cho?Gath?sRupture. Try as you might, you had no chance to escape, and now the enemy Twisted Fate hastaken your Lizard buff leaving you with nothing. How did they know you were there? There are

basically three options- one: they have a ward there, two: they are running clairvoyance, or three:experience (someone might simply know the jungle timings for Amumu.)

How do you get around this? For one, if you are watching your mini map you would have seen theenemy champions leaving their lanes, or at least disappearing off your mini map. If they don?treappear within five seconds, you should assume they are actively trying to kill you, and you haveone of two choices- run or call in support from your teammates.

Such an example also applies to lanes. Are you overextended? If yes, do you see all the enemychampions on your mini map- yes: you?re fine, no: run. You should always assume that if you


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can?t see the enemy, they are just out of your vision waiting to kill you.

This brings up another important point- warding. For a meager 75 gold, you can obtain anextended range of vision on your mini map, effectively allowing you and your teammates moretime to react to incoming ganks. Remember, a ward is not only for scouting a gank that is comingto you, but also for providing vision of the enemy champion leaving your lane.

Also, having one ward in one of the side bushes in the middle lane effective provides protectionfrom both sides of the river. If you have complete vision of one side of the river, you can stay nearthe warded half of the river- providing yourself ample time to escape from an enemy championthat pops out of the opposite bush.

Having good map awareness directly leads to map control. If you can accurately assess whereeach enemy champion is at any given time, you will know exactly when to push a lane and whento back off- but I will go into map control in Part Three.

Part Two: How to Improve

The following sections are dedicated to teaching you how to improve your game play through avariety of skills and traits. If you feel that you do not need to improve any more on the any of thefollowing topics, you are free to skip any of the sections.

VI. Attitude/Mindset

Not many people really think about their in game attitude, but it is a very important factor ingames. The basic mindset you want is very simple- you play a game intending to completely crushthe enemy team through any means necessary. But, actually gaining this mindset is a wholedifferent matter- after all, what does it mean to have a winning mindset? Even if you?re losing atthe moment, if you continue playing intending to win, you will still have a chance- a key enemychampion may get caught out of position or your team may manage to snipe a Baron kill;basically, it?s not over until the game actually ends.

Dealing with the mindset of your allies can also turn the tides of victory in your favor. If someonescores a kill, type out a gesture of acknowledgement- even a, ?Good job (champion X)? willsuffice. If someone gets caught out of position, tell them not to worry too much about it- somethingalong the lines of, ?It?s alright, we?ll get them next time? can work wonders in keeping morale up.Basically, keep up a positive attitude and don?t ever berate your teammates; it only invitesdisaster- after all, high morale generally leads to better play.

Never assume you are always right. Even the best players make mistakes, and it is far morevaluable to recognize your mistakes and correct them than to insist on your point of view. In fact,insisting that you are always correct can have fairly negative effects on your own improvement-you will never be able to see the other side of an argument. In short, be open-minded, and acceptall opinions.

I feel as if there isn?t really much need to elaborate on this topic since there isn?t much that I canactually teach you. I can only provide you with the knowledge of what a good mindset is and letyou explore it on your own.

VII. Practice Mechanics

Have you ever felt that you ?know what to do, but you can?t do it?? Well, this is where practicecomes into play.

Playing against human opponents is a more valuable experience than playing against AIs, but thisonly applies to game sense and map awareness. Playing in either a single player custom game oragainst AIs is still valuable because doing so can help you devElop solid mechanics. This ismainly directed at last hitting, but can also apply to trying out new champions and jungling.


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Example One: Are you having difficulty deciding on a jungle route for Udyr? Try out various pathsin a custom game and determine which path has the most efficient clear time.

Example Two: Having difficulty last hitting with Ashe? Go play her a bit in custom games until youcan hit at least five minions out of every wave. Simply being able to consistently obtain creep killswill dramatically increase your chances of victory.

After you feel that you are ready to put your new found skills to the test, go play against somehuman players. The practice that you put into any given champion will automatically be applied toyour normal game play. Example: In regards to creep score, you will more smoothly be able toswap between last hitting and harassing, practice simply removes or at least dampens one extralayer of difficulty from the game.

VIII. Game Sense

I personally define game sense as the ability to ?know when to be where doing what.? Forexample, you are Master Yi pushing bottom lane, and there is a 4v5 team fight brewing next toyour outermost top turret, so, you must make the split second decision between your threeoptions- one: take out dragon, providing your team with a nice boost in gold, two: continuepushing and knock out one or two turrets, or three: run up to the top lane to assist yourteammates. In such a situation, option two would generally be your best choice. Tell your team tostall your enemies for as long as possible while you push down as many turrets as possible.

So, why were options one and three not as optimal? Option one may seem like a good choice, butthe difference between the 190 gold from dragon and the 150 gold from a turret does not warrantyou spending your time taking out dragon- killing a turret, and potentially dealing heavy damage toa second turret far outweighs what dragon can provide. The map control advantage from takingout a turret is far more important than the 40 gold earned from dragon. On the other hand, optionthree seems somewhat more viable- after all, you don?t want your team to engage in a 4v5 fight.But, unless there is a massive farm or level gap between your two teams, your teammates shouldbe able to delay the other team long enough for you to take out multiple turrets and maybe aninhibitor- especially if a team fight breaks out.

There is no exact method to improving this facet of your game play, but what I find to be the mostbeneficial is to simply make ?calls? in the games that you play. Simply put- be the leader of yourteam. Sure, you may be wrong a lot, but as you accumulate experience making calls, you will findthat you make fewer and fewer ?bad? calls. Also, if you are not the leader of your team, you cananalyze the leader?s calls- basically asking yourself, ?Why would we do that?? Doing this will helpyou in two ways- remember bad calls (your own and other players?,) if you?re put in the samesituation again, make a different choice and vice versa.

IX. Watching Other Players

Ah, streams and replays. Though it may be fun watching a player ?climb? out of the so calledELO Hell, there is virtually no value in watching it. It is rarely a learning experience to watchsomeone at or bElow your own skill level. If you want to improve, the only players that you shouldwatch are the ones that are either at the top of the ladder, or at least ?noticeably? better than you.

Some streamers tend to comment on their play- this is one of the best ways to improve. If you canunderstand why a player chooses a specific action, you can more readily apply those actions toyour own game play. On the other hand, if a player makes a mistake, understanding the reasonsbehind making the mistake can help prevent you from making similar mistakes. You can just aseasily learn from failure as you can from success.

You may notice that most of the top players can maintain an impressive creep score even whiletrading blows with the enemy champion. Or that they will go to Baron or dragon immediately if theysee even one enemy champion in bottom/top lane. Or you may just notice the small details that go


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into winning a team fight- well timed flashes and effective kiting among other things. Though youmay not be able to pull off such feats at the moment; watching other players provides you with theknowledge of what you need to improve on and the basic framework of how to achieve suchimprovement.

Alternatively, you can download LoL Replay (a user made program) and watch your own gameplay. This will allow you to point out your own mistakes and see how you could have acted

differently. Also, being able to completely analyze a team fight can help to drastically improve yourown efficiency in a fight. Being able to analyze your own game play is one of the best ways toimprove yourself.

Part Three: The Advanced Skill Set

Alright, you have managed to work your basic skill set up to a level where you feel that any moreimprovement would be marginal at best. Now you?re ready to move on to some more advancedtopics. In this part, I will cover a few more complex topics, namely- the mind game, counters,farming, and map control.

X. The Mind Game

The mind game- probably the most complex topic I will address in this guide. So, what exactly isthe mind game? It can be defined as this- ?How to outplay your opponent.? As simple as that maysound, there is a score of factors that go into effectively outplaying your opponent. So, in thissection, I will focus on just a few facets of the mind game- juking, baiting, and lane control.

a. Juking

There are many ways to juke an enemy champion- loss of vision, bushes, and escape skills. Lossof vision juking is the most common; simply forcing your enemies to guess where you are. Bushjuking requires you to constantly force your opponent to lose targeting on you. And finally, escapeskills such as Shadow Walk or Flash can be used to get into, or escape from various situations.

i. Loss of Vision

Effectively utilizing loss of vision may seem easy enough- if the champion chasing you can?t seeyou, they can?t catch you? right? Well, it?s rarely as simple as that- let?s say you managed topick off someone deep in the enemy jungle and now there are multiple champions coming for you,and from multiple directions at that. What do you do then? I see many players just continuerunning in a straight line, making their path completely predictable- almost assuring themselves adeath.

Following the previous example, let?s say you have ended up just South of the opposing team?ssecondary top turret, meaning that you are in the Northeast of their jungle, and you have enemychampions converging on you from your East and West, you?re low on HP, so at the moment youhave three options- going West (towards your top lane and into one enemy champion), East(towards the enemy team?s base and into an enemy champion), and South (towards your middlelane). So which do you take? Logic dictates that you go South; so you do it- putting you out of theenemy team?s vision range and taking yourself just between the Wraith camp and the Lizard

camp. Suddenly, you see the enemy champion in middle lane react, heading North towards you.You realize that you can?t go North or South, seeing as your HP is low enough that eitherchampion would be able to easily three shot you. So now what? You can either run West (towardsyour top lane), or East (towards the enemy base).

If you decided to run West, you have given the enemy team a chance to cut you off- the enemyteam already knows that you have nowhere to run, so they can cut you off whenever you putyourself in a position that offers no escape. Going West will almost ascertain your death. On theother hand, going East opens many more options to you. You can run into the bush next to theWraith camp and start teleporting out- if you?re lucky, you?ll get out before the enemy team


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figures out where you went, and at worst, you will see the enemy champions coming, allowing youto either suicide into the turret (providing the enemy team no gold or experience), or attempt tokeep juking them (buying your team time to pick off a turret, dragon, or even Baron).

ii. Bush Juking

This is similar to loss of vision, but on a much smaller scale. Being able to effectively juke an

enemy for a sustained amount of time can mean the difference between getting a killed and beingkilled. Buying that extra half second of cooldown time may net you the kill in an otherwisehopeless situation.

The concept of bush juking is simple- you just need to force your enemies to lose targeting onyou; making them unable to attack or cast single target spells on you, or causing them to have ahigher chance of missing area of effect spells due to the lack of vision. But, actually pulling off asuccessful bush juke is not as simple as it sounds. To pull off a successful juke you need toconsider what the enemy champion can do- how dangerous his auto attacks are, whether or nothis spells are on cooldown, and whether or not he has a ward in his inventory.

The first thing to consider is how dangerous the enemy champion?s auto attacks are. For thisexample, let?s say that your Flash is on cooldown for another eight seconds and you are trying tobuy enough time to use it to jump over a wall. If you are at a reasonable amount of HP, say twohundred, you shouldn?t be too concerned about that Soraka chasing you around. But, at the sameamount of HP, a Master Yi chasing you around would be a lot more threatening. In the formersituation, simply bee-lining it to your base will probably be enough to save yourself. But, in thelatter, you?re almost guaranteed to be caught and killed- this is where bush juking really comes into play. A champion such as Master Yi needs to be able to click on you to actually deal damage,and if you?re constantly ducking in and out of the bush, he can?t easily target you- potentiallybuying you enough time to escape with Flash.

Enemy cooldowns are also important to keep in mind- hiding in a bush won?t exactly save you ifthe enemy champion has an area of effect spell ready that can target the entire bush. But, if yousaw that the enemy Veigar already used his Event Horizon (a skill with a fairly long cooldown),juking him to prevent him from casting his Baleful Strike could potentially save you from someheavy damage.

Finally, you should be checking if the enemy champion has a ward in his inventory- if yes, bushjuking potentially worthless; as a ward in the bush you enter renders the bush useless to yourjuking needs. Even so, your opponents may still forget to place the ward as they are chasing you,so attempting to juke them may still prove fruitful.

iii. Escape Skills

Skills such as Flash, Valkyrie, and Shadow Walk can all be used to pull your champion out ofdanger. But, what is the best way to use these skills? For flash-type skills, being able to leap overwalls is the most valuable tool they provide. Skills that provide stealth prevent your opponentsfrom seeing and targeting you.

Flash-type skills allow you to escape from various situations that would otherwise mean certain

death. If someone is chasing you, one of the best ways to use these skills is to run into a bushand wait for the enemy champion to follow you. As soon as they enter the bush, you can Flashback in the direction you came from- this catches most people off guard because they expect youto continue running in one direction; not backtrack. Jumping over a wall also provides you theoption of putting Loss of Vision to use because even if your enemies use flash to follow you overthe wall, there will be a brief moment where they will be unsure of the direction you take.

Stealth-type skills basically provide you with an infinitely large ?bush? to work with. Even if youropponents possess an Oracle, stealth still provides an extremely large safe-zone for you- asopposed to an infinitely large bush, there will be a small clear spot around the champion with an


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Oracle. If you?re playing a stealth champion and are at a low amount of HP, most players will stilltry to cast area of effect spells to pick up a kill on you. These blind shots are easily evaded bydoing one of two things after casting stealth- one: stand still or two: backtrack. The reason thatthese options are effective is that they are unexpected, especially because your opponents cansee you moving in one direction just before you finish stealthing.

b. Baiting

The principle behind baiting is to trick your opponent into overextending- you make them think thatthey can kill you, causing them to follow you into a trap. The most effective bait requires youropponent to be absolutely certain that they can kill you. Baiting is much less effective if youropponent is at low HP or if you are at high HP.

i. Bush Baiting

Bush baiting is the most common form of baiting- you trick an enemy champion into chasing youinto a bush full of your teammates. The best way to accomplish this is to be at a fairly low amountof HP and miss click a few times, causing your champion to accidentally pause for a fewmoments allowing your enemy to catch up to you. This will effectively trick your opponent intothinking that you have made a mistake and that they can punish you for it, but you are actuallydrawing them closer and closer to their death.

ii. Flash Baiting

This technique works far less often, as people are more wary of using their summoner spells tojump over walls to chase than chasing someone into a bush. But, the concept behind it is theexact same as bush baiting- you trick your pursuer into flashing over a wall and into a swarm ofyour teammates.

iii. Ward Baiting

Do you see an enemy champion with an Oracle? Do you know that they are about to pass by acertain point on the map? If yes, than it becomes possible to ward bait that champion. Wardbaiting is exactly what it sounds like- you drop a ward in plain sight, and jump on the enemychampion when he comes out to break the ward.

iv. Turret Dive Baiting

Do you look extra squishy? Maybe you have a Soraka or Shen on your team. As long as you arecommunicating effectively, your enemies may attempt to kill you while under turret fire. This worksespecially well against champions who can stun you from a range (ex: Sion). You want him to stunyou, leaving you at a very low amount of HP and then try to finish you off. A well timed ultimatefrom Soraka or Shen can quickly turn the fight into your favor, adding your damage to the turrets.You can also achieve this through the use of the Exhaust spell- a 70% reduction in attack damagealong with a 35% reduction in spell damage can really catch a player off guard.

There are many more ways to effective bait your opponents and these are just a few examples ofhow to effectively take advantage of your opponents aggression.

iiv. Baiting for Your Jungler

As enemy players tend not to overextend when you have a jungler or roamer; it can sometimes behard for your jungler to get into a good position for a gank on the enemy champion. If you havegood communication with your jungler, you can potentially bait the enemy champion intotemporarily overextending in an attempt to harass or kill you.For example, you are Miss Fortune in the top lane with little bElow half health. Your creep wave isa little past the center of the lane, towards the enemy turret. Xin Zhao is laning against you, and ison nearly full health. Your teammate Amumu is waiting in the bushes near the river, but will be


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unable to stun Xin Zhao without being seen. If you "accidentally" overextend, Xin Zhao mayattempt to go for a kill on you- allowing Amumu to easily land a stun on him.

iiiv. Baiting the Enemy Jungler

Junglers will often wait in the bush at the river near bottom or top lane in an attempt to initiate agank. If you have a ward there which allows you to the enemy jungler, you can simply pretend you

don't know they are there while staying out of their range. This can easily waste an enemyjungler's time- allowing your jungler to get ahead or to simply wear the time down on his Lizard orGolem buffs.

c. Lane Control

This part will deal with how to win a lane through a variety of tactics- scaring your opponent andcreating opportunities for yourself through passive or aggressive play.

i. Scaring Your Opponent

This section is dedicated to early game control and lane dominance- basically, how to scare youropponents into playing extremely passively; thereby missing creep kills and experience. The paceof a lane is generally determined not by what you can do, but what your enemies think you can do.

There are many ways to effectively establish fear in your opponents mind- especially if you have aroamer or jungler on your team. Example: If you are playing a roamer or jungler, you can let theenemy champion see you enter a bush in his lane. You may be wondering, How do I get a kill ifthey already know Im there? Well, thats the trick to it- you enter a bush and immediately teleportout. If it is a solo lane you were ganking, they cant exactly face check the bush just to see ifyoure still there- they may end up having to sit back near their turret and get no farm andexperience until you reappear on the map. On the other hand, your teammate can easily pick upcreep kills with no pressure being applied to them. This works best against champions that haveweak escapes, but if an enemy champions summoner spells are down, this will still prove to beextremely effective.

Another example: Its five minutes into the game and you are playing as Tristana against a highlyaggressive Caitlyn- admittedly not a great matchup for you due to the difference in range. Luckilyfor you, your team has a roaming Alistar who has already tried to gank Caitlyn once. Even thoughthe gank was unsuccessful, you can still employ the effects of it to your advantage- Caitlyn willprobably have in mind that Alistar is running around the map. So, you notice that every time yourun forward, Caitlyn backs off because shes afraid Alistar is hiding in the bush waiting to assistyou in killing her. Basically, her thought process will be something like, Oh no, was harassingTristana all game, and all of a sudden she wants to attack me head on, there must be somereason for it, I bet Alistar is going to gank me again. Using this small tool, you can easily pushCaitlyn away from what should be easily acquired creep kills- drastically reducing her creep score.This reduction in her income can lead you having a fair advantage after the first blue pill- you canpotentially have more or better items than her; allowing you to easily push her out of the lanewithout assistance from your allies.

Of course, these are not the only examples of the mind game in lane control, but should rather

provide a foundation on how to impress your will onto your opponents. After all, dominant lanecontrol is rarely established from the moment the game starts- but is built up from the constantexchanges between the champions in a lane. If your opponent is thoroughly convinced that youcan kill him at any given point in time, you have effectively won your lane- denying the enemychampion valuable experience and gold.

ii. Creating Opportunities

The way you should think is this- the more decisions your opponent has to make, the more likely itis that he will make a mistake. So, by putting pressure on your opponent (either through personal


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aggression, or through making him feel the need to be aggressive), you are constantly opening upthe possibility that he will make a mistake- leading to an even larger lead. So, the two ways tocreate opportunities are as follows- one: passive play, and two: aggressive play. Ideally, you willbe able to incorporate both of these styles into your game play.

A. Passive Play

A common misconception in winning a lane is that you need kill the enemy champion- this is notthe case. To effectively win a lane, all you have to do is out farm your opponent by a fair margin-generally a 20+ creep gap can be considered a won lane depending on the champion matchup.Passive play requires you to focus on obtaining as many creep kills as possible; creating a largegap between you and your opponents creep score- your goal is not to actively try to kill youropponent, but rather to cause your opponent to hand his life to you on a silver platter.

If your opponent notices that they are being significantly out farmed; they may begin to play moreaggressively to prevent you from increasing the gap. Such aggressive play from your opponentmay allow you to catch him overextending or out of position. The easiest way to punish someoneplaying overly aggressive is to either- continue playing passively and building up even more creepkills, or to simply attack them with minion support. Many players underestimate the amount ofdamage that minions can deal- therefore opening up the opportunity to dish out heavy damage tothe opposing champion, or at the least dealing more damage to them than they can do to you.

B. Aggressive Play

Sometimes a level advantage in the lane is significantly more valuable to your cause than asimple gap in creep score. Aggressive play requires you to constantly harass the enemychampion while keeping damage taken to a minimum- theres not really much point in an evenexchange of damage. Your goal in regards to aggressive play is to zone your opponent away fromexperience, basically to build up a level advantage- the difference between a level five and a levelsix champion is huge.

To effectively play an aggressive lane, you must first know how well your champion matches upagainst your opponents champion. For example, you shouldnt really be playing too aggressivelyas Kassadin against Caitlyn. But, if you feel as if you have a champion matchup, playingaggressively may be the key to controlling your lane. Aggressive play is most effective when youcan build up early momentum against your opponent- dealing heavy damage to them within thefirst two or three levels can leave a significant mental impact on your opponent. If you can scareyour opponent within the first few levels, they may be wary of engaging you later on- even if theyhave an advantage. This means that if you see the enemy champion running up to get a creep kill,you can also run up to scare him back leading to missed creep kills. Of course, this does not workagainst every player, so if you notice that your opponent is still fighting back, you may want toswitch back to a passive play style as an aggressive play style may leave you more vulnerable toganks and counter aggression.

iii. Helping Your Jungler Through Zoning

When in middle lane, if you have a skillshot, especially one which is stopped by creeps (Example:Ezreal's Mystic Shot), the enemy champion will usually try to move to the opposite side of their

creep wave from you in an attempt to make you miss your skill shots. This can be exploited if youhave a jungler coming in for a gank from one side. You can slowly move towards the side of thelane opposite from your jungler's path in an attempt to "push" your enemy towards your jungler.This can significantly increase the chances of your jungler's gank succeding.

XI. Farming Past the Laning Phase

As the game progresses, many players find that their farm begins to slow down- this should not bethe case. So, there are two things you have to keep in mind to maintain efficient farm- one: where


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your teammates are located, and two: is your jungle cleared.

The largest issue that I tend to find is that teammates tend to fight each other for farm. This is notonly inefficient, but actually detrimental to your team- having too many champions in one lane willdramatically reduce a teams map control. If you see one of your teammates heading to a lane,you probably should not be following them there unless your team is trying to push down a turretor gank someone. But, if your ultimate goal is simply to farm, than fighting your ally for creep kills

is just about the worst decision you can make. Instead of competing against your own team, youshould be looking for an open lane to farm- increasing your teams map coverage while allowingyou to kill creeps at your leisure.

Also, many people tend to underestimate the amount of gold the jungle can provide- a quick runthrough just the basic creep camps can net you about 200 gold, which is by no means a smallamount. So, if you ever see that your jungle still has creeps left in it, clearing it may be the bestfarming option available to you at the moment- it is safe and seeing you disappear off the mapputs pressure on your opponents lanes, because from their point of view, you could potentially betravelling between lanes to set up a gank.

XII. Map Control

Map control is easily defined- it is basically zoning the opposing team out of portions of the mapwhile constantly contesting for more control. Your ultimate goal is to have your opponents sopushed back that they are unwilling to leave their base. But, how exactly do you gain and maintainmap control? There are three main ways to do this- effective warding, champion presence, andtaking down turrets.

a. Warding

Warding is one of the most important aspects of League of Legends; yet probably the most oftenoverlooked. Effective wards (ones that prevent ganks and/or provide vision of when enemychampions leave lanes) are instrumental in the success of a team. Such wards provide morefreedom to lanes, while potentially wasting the time of your opponents.

If a lane has all possible entry/exit routes covered by wards, it is easy to see when and where agank is coming from- therefore allowing you to react to one long before it actually reaches you.This allows you to play more aggressively in a lane because, assuming all else is equal, there willbe no external factors from the other team affecting your actions. Also, keep in mind that anunsuccessful gank is a huge waste of time, and seeing one more champion in a lane allows otherlanes to fight with more freedom.

Furthermore, as the game progresses, this concept still applies, but on a much larger scale- therewill be more entry/exit routes to cover as you push deeper into the opposing half of the map. So,what do you do? Ideally you want to box in your opponents with wards. This is extremelyeffective because of the fear of face checking bushes (aka: running into a bush without priorvision). So, your goal would be to make every single bush a danger zone for opposing champions.And, even if someone on the opposing team is foolish enough to face check a bush, your teamwill be prepared to punish him for it. In short, allowing your opponents only the ability to push outthrough the lanes can greatly limit their ability to control the game for multiple reasons- one: you

will know where every single champion is at any given time, two: they will lose control of theirjungle, allowing your team to pick up extra gold and buffs, and three: they lose control of Baronand Dragon, both of which can dramatically increase a lead.

i. Counter Warding

This is one of the greatest tools to achieve solid map control- removing a portion of youropponents map vision opens the door to various opportunities. First of all, if you used a visionward to counter ward and the opposing team wants to regain vision of a particular area, they willhave to first remove your ward or wait it out. The first option allows for ward baiting and also


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requires an opponent to possess an oracle or to buy a vision ward of their own- effectively eveningout the gold disparity from your original vision ward.

If they opt not to re-ward the area that you counter warded, your team is awarded a new gankpath. Your roamer/jungler can more easily gank a lane which has no vision. If your team is notganking, even the threat of a gank can potentially scare an enemy champion into passivity byaggressive play (see The Mind Game: Lane Control: Aggressive Play).

b. Champion Presence

An often overlooked portion of the game, champion presence actually plays a large part in mapcontrol. Champion presence can be defined by how prominent a particular champion is in theopposing teams minds- a champion that is hardly noticed will have low champion presence andvice versa.

Oftentimes, you will find that enemy champions tend to focus on particular champions more thanothers (usually targeting the more farmed/fed champions on your team). As long as the targetedchampion can be seen on the map by your opponents, every other champion on your team willhave an increased level of safety due to the must shut down champion X mindset that manyplayers have. In this scenario, champion X (with his high champion presence) provides the rest ofhis team (lower champion presence) a veil of safety, and thus allowing them more freedom topursue map control. If there is ever a champion that is getting out of control on the other team,keep in mind, allowing one champion to become strong is far less dangerous than letting the restof his team gain farm and map control just to slow him down- meaning that you are better offshutting down the rest of his team.

Another example can be taken from team fights and backdoor champions. When a team fight isabout to start or already underway, few people will notice that Master Yi charging through a lanetaking out turrets and inhibitors- people are too focused on what is happening right in front ofthem. So in this case, the champion presence of the other four players on Master Yis team (highpresence) effectively hides him from the other team.

So, what exactly does champion presence have to do with map control? Its actually a very subtleeffect- enemy champions are slightly more likely to gravitate towards areas of high presence,providing areas of low presence more freedom to do whatever it is they want.

c. Turrets

Players often say that the key to victory is to take out turrets. This is true, but what many playersdont realize is why taking down turrets is essential to victory. The map control that turrets provideis an invaluable resource to a team- meaning that, with each turret lost, a significant portion ofmap control is lost.

Turrets provide a fair amount of sight range, cutting into potential paths that enemy championscan pass through without being seen. So, if an enemy champion wants to gank you or one of yourteammates, they will have to take a more roundabout route if the direct path puts them within aturrets sight range. This means that your team requires fewer wards to cover the same amount ofspace- leading to more gold reserved for other purposes.

Also, turrets provide safety zones for champions (especially early-mid game)- that is, if anenemy wants to engage your team with a turret around, they will have to think twice or at leasthave an extra champion around to provide them support. This means that having a turret aroundwill provide you with a relatively secure path of retreat in case things go sour.

Effectively utilizing the map control by a turret may take some practice, and knowing when to letgo of one to pursue a different objective requires a keen sense of the flow of the game. The bestway to think of a turret is this- an allied champion that doesnt move, but can still dish out a lot ofdamage. But, sometimes you have to let your teammates die for the good of the team, and other


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times, saving them is the best course of action.

XIII. Positioning

Positioning is one of the most important aspects of the game. In short, it is where you want to bein the middle of a team fight- of course, this varies depending on what champion/role you arefulfilling for your team. Good positioning ensures that you are pulling out as much potential out of

your champion as possible. In fact, positioning is usually the key deciding factor in an even teamfight. If you find that a champion on the opposing team is overstepping their bounds, than you caneasily punish them for the mistake.

Positioning is a skill that is built through experience in playing- as you play a particular role moreand more, you will unconsciously improve your positioning in fights. The positioning of eachchampion role is not the same, so having knowledge of the various champion roles will allow youto better judge where good positioning is in a fight.

Part Four: Champion Roles

The following sections are dedicated to explaining the jobs of each champion role. In addition, Iwill elaborate a bit on the skills that you need to effectively play each role.

XIV. Traditional Roles

These are the roles that are most generally considered as needed in a team composition. Eventhough this is not the case, it is still very beneficial to be fairly proficient at playing at least one ortwo champions in each of these roles so that you can fulfill any deficiencies in your teamcomposition.

a. Ranged AD Carry

Champions such as Ashe or Miss Fortune fall into this category. Basically, their job is to stay backand dish out sustained damage, or to score hits on turrets when a team is pushing. If you areplaying one of these champions, you should never be in the middle of a fight, but rather youshould stay back and deal damage to anyone that comes close to you- and remember, if yourteam has a dedicated support champion, they are basically your best friend in the game.

To effectively play one of these champions, you require excellent farming skills, along with superbpositioning. An AD carry with no farm is about as threatening as a Soraka- that is to say, not at all.So, in most games, you should be spending a lot of time just killing creeps and only ganking ifthere is an extremely high chance of you getting a kill- each champion kill is only worth about 20creep kills, and time spent ganking another lane could potentially be better used to increase yourcreep score.

Positioning is undoubtedly the most important skill required of a strong ranged AD carry- a deadcarry wont do much to influence the game, and such champions are among the easiest to killwhen focused. So, correctly positioning yourself in a team fight is absolutely vital to dealing asmuch damage as possible. You should always be around the outer edge of a team fight, andshould generally not be chasing a wounded champion through the middle of a fight, they could

potentially be baiting you, and even if they arent, putting yourself in the middle of every otherchampion on the opposing team is a fairly bad idea. In short, you should always be hitting theclosest enemy champion, and not trying to dive in to hit other champions.

Tip: Farm. Farm some more. Farm a little bit more. I think youre ready. Actually keep farming.

b. AP Carry

An AP carry such as Anivia or Annie has a similar play style to ranged AD carries; with the maindifference being that the burst potential on an AP carry is generally much higher. They have the


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exact same job as a ranged AD carry- that is, stay safe, and deal as much damage as possible ina fight. For the most part, AP carries have decent spells to farm with, so attaining a high creepscore is not as difficult as on a ranged AD carry. And, as with ranged AD carries, staying on theouter edges of a team fight and near your teams support champion is essential for an AP carry.

That being said, an AP carry does rely heavily on a high creep score- so be prepared to sit backand farm. But, due to the higher early game power of AP carries, attempting to pick up champion

kills may be more beneficial to your farm than simply sitting back and farming. In short, do notunderestimate to power of a full round of nukes against an enemy champion- for the most part,even a level six AP carry can dish out some fairly heavy damage as long as you have magicpenetration runes and sorcerers boots. Other than this aspect, the play style of an AP carry isalmost identical to that of a ranged AD carry.

Tip: Magic Penetration will sometimes make you do more damage than flat out AP. Be preparedto decide which is preferable based on the enemy teams itemization.

c. Support

Support champions such as Soraka or Janna are generally considered essential in a teamcomposition- but not for the reason most people think. The reason that you want a supportchampion is this- there is generally one champion on each team that will not be able to pick upsignificant farm, but you still want that champion to be effective come late game. This is wheresupport champions come into play- they are champions that function perfectly well on very fewitems and almost no farm at all. Support champions generally make up the lack of farm throughthe use of gold per 10 items- providing them with a steady flow of income that can eventually beused to buy wards and more costly items.

As a support champion, you need to have excellent map awareness- especially if you are runningClairvoyance as one of your summoner spells. Being able to land a good Clairvoyance canprovide your teammates with very useful information regard the enemy teams movements. Earlyon in the game, being able to basically follow the enemy teams jungle champion (through theuse of Clairvoyance) will allow your lanes to know exactly when a gank is coming.

Knowing how to efficiently place wards around the map can save you a lot of gold- allowing you tobuild up stronger items. Well placed wards will allow your teammates to know when they cansafely push a lane or play aggressively and potentially waste the time of enemy champions tryingto gank a lane. Being able to see most of the enemy champion on the map will allow your team todecide on the best course of action to take. For example, if you see three enemy champions inbottom lane and the last two are heading down towards bottom lane through their jungle, yourteam can choose to either: defend the turret, kill baron, or push the other two lanes. Depending onthe situation, such a situation can potentially lead to a great advantage to your team.

In regards to team fights, as a support champion you are usually very squishy- meaning that ifanyone on the other team is allowed to attack you, you will almost certainly die. So, much like acarry champion, you must stay fairly far back in a fight, only running in to throw out your spell. Forthe most part, you should be next to your teams carry champions to help ward off any enemychampions that are allowed to get close to them.

Tip: Oracle is your friend, winning a battle of map control is much easier when you can walkaround destroying the other teams wards.

d. Tank

In contrast to most other roles, tank champions, such as Cho`Gath or Malphite, make it theirbusiness to get up close and personal with the enemy team. When you are playing a tank, youneed to be able to take a very heavy beating- if you cant, you may as well be playing a differentchampion. A tanks job is to be threatening enough that enemies will want to target you, but tankenough to survive at least the initial burst on you. Basically, you have to itemize in such a way that


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you can do some damage while still being able to soak up damage for your team.

Though it is not always the case, in most team compositions it will be up to you to initiate a fightthrough the use of your spell set. Most if not all tank champions have at least one or two spellswhich can force a fight to break out. So, knowing when and where to initiate a fight is of theutmost importance- so keep an eye on your team so you know where they are and how soon theycan make it to you. For example: If your team has a large amount of area of effect spells,

choosing a narrow space to fight in would be ideal, whereas fighting in the open can lead to yourteammates spells to have significantly less effect.

One of the most important skills a tank player requires is the ability to quickly discern where themost damage output comes from on the opposing team and itemize against it. Example: If younotice that the enemy Ashe is knocking chunks out of your teams HP bars, it may be time to get aFrozen Heart or Thornmail. Or, if that Anivia has 600 AP its probably time to buy a Banshees Veilor Force of Nature. Obviously these are extreme examples, but knowing what to build at everypoint in the game will vastly improve your ability to tank.

Tip: If you happen to be playing a tank with an area of effect crowd control spell such as AmumusCurse of the Sad Mummy, there is no need to immediately use it in a fight- in fact, using it at thelast moment may prove to be more beneficial to your team that blowing it the moment you enter afight. It is often the case that simply having you in their midst will cause enemy champions toretreat- allowing your teammates to take free potshots at them. Also, if you happen to be tankenough, you can literally chase the enemy carry out of a fight while your team cleans up.

e. Jungle

While not exactly a traditional role, a jungle champion is vital to the success of a team. Not limitedto any particular champions, a jungles job is to exert pressure on every single lane in the game.Some champions such as Warwick or Nunu undoubtedly make far better jungles than Sion orSoraka for two reasons: Sustainability and Speed.

Sustainability is simply the ability to constantly stay at high amounts of HP throughout the junglingprocess, thus reducing the risk of being counter jungled while allowing you to immediately gank atany point in time. On the other hand, speed is exactly as it sounds- how fast you can clear thejungle, that is, to kill all the creep camps. Being able to quickly clear the camps allows you to bethat much more dangerous early game- that isnt to say that you should only gank after you clearthe jungle, but that the level advantage definitely helps.

The most important skill for a jungler is to know exactly when a gank can be successful- withsuccess defined as getting a kill, forcing the enemy champion to blue pill, or forcing them to usetheir summoner spells. The ideal situation is that a lane is pushed up against your tower so thatyou have plenty of space to work with, but that is rarely the case. So, in other situations, you needto be able to judge when it is possible to achieve one of your ganking objectives and when it isbetter to do something else.

A common mistake that beginning jungle players make is to be ganking the entire time after theyget Elder Lizard buff. While this does help your teammates in lane, it also puts you significantlybehind every other player in the game- in farm and in experience. Though ganking is important to

a jungler, being able to keep up in levels will allow you to be a constant threat throughout thegame.

Tip: Most jungle champions are only viable as gankers after they attain the Elder Lizard buff- sothe earlier you can get it, the better. But, you must make sure to kill the Elder Lizard right beforeyou start ganking so that you do not waste any time on the buff.

XV. Sub Roles

These are roles that are not considered part of the traditional team composition, but are still


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completely viable and in no way should they be discounted compared to those in the traditionalset. For the most part, sub roles are just secondary roles that many champions with traditionalroles can fill if the need arises. You should understand the concept behind each of these roles,and how you should play them.

a. Off-Tank

Off-tanks such as Singed or Dr. Mundo play a very similar role to traditional tanks. The maindifference between the two roles is that the damage output on off-tanks tends to be lower, andthey have much weaker initiation abilities. So, what good is an off tank then?

An off-tanks role in a team fight is simply to bother every single champion on the other team. Forexample: Singed can run amok in an enemy team throwing people around to get them out ofposition and dealing a little bit of damage to them in the process. Off-tanks are generally not highpriority targets, so you will find that you can actually output a fair amount of damage before theenemy team decides to start killing you- which they will do eventually.

Most off-tanks are extremely hard to catch and prove to be excellent distractions- even more sothan traditional tanks. For example: A Nunu solo pushing bottom can lure one or two enemychampions to bottom lane; allowing his team to push other lanes or take Baron. For the most part,their skill set makes them naturally hard to chase down; buying valuable time for your team.

Game sense is a valuable skill for any off-tank player- it allows you to know when and how far youcan push to lure out your opponents, and knowing how to waste as much of your opponents timewithout getting yourself killed is extremely important.

Tip: High movement speed is very important on an off-tank. Get your opponents to chase youaround for minutes on end without being able to actually catch you.

b. Bruiser

More commonly known as tanky DPS champions, bruisers such as Renekton or Irelia areextremely powerful in most team compositions. Having a naturally high HP per level modifier;these champions tend to do a decent amount of damage while being extremely hard to kill.

Though many bruisers also make excellent initiators, they are better off entering a fight after theirteams tank champion. For the most part, these champions tend to be in the middle of team fights,knocking out supports and carry champions with ease while ignoring the tanks. In fact, it is fairlycommon for a bruiser to occupy two or more champions in a fight- allowing his team to have aneasy time with the remaining champions.

One of the major strengths of bruisers is their extremely strong early-game. An aggressive bruisercan completely dominate a solo lane through the use of their high base damages and large HPpools. For example: Renekton can easily chase an Ashe out of the lane due to the bonus armorfrom Cloth Armor and the extra HP from a few health potions.

The most important skill for a bruiser is the ability to pick your fights. Even though bruisers tend towin most fights if you are just trading blow for blow; if you blindly charge at every champion you

see, you may rack up some unnecessary deaths. You must be wary of champions that caneffectively kite you to death without you being able to lay a finger on them.

Tip: Cloth Armor along with five health potions can lead to early lane domination. Trinity Forceallows bruisers to deal heavy damage without sacrificing too much defensively. In fact, TrinityForce along with Force of Nature is a staple item combo on most bruisers.

c. Anti-Carry

Anti-carries such as Poppy or Nocturne make it their business to make the opposing teams


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carries have a hard time fulfilling their duties. These champions have ways of getting to anddistracting, if not killing, whoever they please. What makes these champions so effective atfulfilling their duties is that there is no way for an opponents teammates to stop them from gettingto whomever it is that they target.

In a team fight, these champions have one overarching goal- to kill the opposing teams maindamage dealer, or at least chase them out of the fight. For example: Poppy can use Diplomatic

Immunity on a non-threatening champion (usually a support or tank champion), and basicallycharge up to the enemy teams carry with little to no harassment.

The most important skill that an anti-carry player requires is timing. Knowing exactly when you cancatch the opposing teams carry off-guard will allow you be extremely successful in pulling off killsand surviving. Generally, jumping on the enemy carry the moment a fight breaks out will prove tobe the most effective timing window for two reasons- one: the enemy team will be less focused onyou, and two: this will be when the enemy carry is most overextended. The lack of focus on youwill allow you to rack up a kill, and then retreat before anyone notices that you entered the fray. Inaddition, if the enemy carry is farther extended, it will be more difficult for them to escape from youand your teammates.

Tip: Movement speed is your friend- Shurelias Reverie or Yomus Ghostblade will allow you tocatch whomever you want.

d. Pusher

Champions such as Master Yi and Malzahar fall under the sub-role of pusher. That is to say- theycan quickly and safely advance a lane to take out turrets or inhibitors. Left unchecked, a strongpushing champion can easily knock down two or more turrets in the time it takes an entire team toget push past a four champion defense and take out one turret.

Ideal pushers tend to excel at killing champions in a one on one situation- meaning that if theenemy team wants to stop your push, they will have to pull more than one champion away fromother areas of the map just to stop you. Pusher champions naturally have high farm since they areconstantly clearing creep waves- this will allow you to be more farmed than the majority ofchampions in the game. This means that in some cases, the enemy team will have to pull morethan two champions to stop you- if this happens, you know youre doing a good job. Having threechampions chasing you around will allow your team to up a Baron kill or push down other laneswith ease.

Map awareness is undoubtedly the most important skill for a pusher. Being able to quickly retreatwill allow your pushing to be that much more effective. In fact, there is usually no need to retreattoo far back- simply hiding in a bush until your enemies leave will allow you to more quickly returnto the lane to continue pushing.

Game sense is also extremely important. Sometimes, it will be more beneficial to have your teamdefend a turret four against five so that you can quickly knock down a number of turrets. Othertimes, being a part of a team fight will produce a better outcome for your team. It will be up to youto judge both options and choose the one that you think will best support your team.

Tip: Keep wards up around the lane youre pushing. Being able to spot the inevitable gank earlywill allow you to retreat before the enemy team reaches you.

e. Roamer

Roamers such as Alistar or Taric excel at giving their teammates very early lane domination. Thegoal of a roamer champion is to either kill enemy solos or to force them to burn summoner spells-which can lead to future kills. Of course, having a roamer will prove to be disadvantageous to theusual duo lane- leaving one champion to fend off two opposing champions. But, if your ganks inthe other two lanes are successful, one disadvantaged lane is a small price to pay.


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When you decide to play a roamer, you should first consider your team composition. If your teamdoes not consist of three champions that can effectively solo a lane, then choosing to play aroamer is probably not the best choice. In addition, you must know how useful your teammateswill be in assisting you in your gank- an allied champion who possesses a stun or a slow will be farmore helpful than one lacking in either.

A common mistake that roamers make is to continue roaming past the point of effectiveness.That is to say, there is a point in the game where you should realize that you need to start pickingup experience and gold to continue being useful. So, if you find that your ganks are no longerhaving an effect, or that you are taking excessive damage in your gank attempts, it is probablytime to pack up and head back to a lane to catch up in farm and experience.

As a roamer, your timing on ganks must be impeccable- as soon as you see an enemy championslightly out of position or overextended, you should be ready to take advantage of it and rush outto drop a stun or slow. In addition, you need to be wary of wards- if you are spotted, your gankmay become ineffective.

Tip: Boots tend to be your first item, the extra speed will make your first ganks that much moreeffective.

f. Assassin

The bane of squishy champions, assassins such as LeBlanc or Akali excel at bursting a championdown within a matter moments. These champions tend to take solo lanes so that they can obtainan early gold and experience advantage which will allow them to effectively gank the other lanesearly on in the game.

In a team fight, the goal of an assassin is to Well, the goal of an assassin is to make sure a fiveon five team fight never breaks out. You should always be attempting to pick someone off withyour heavy burst damage- it is fairly common for a strong assassin to kill a squishy champion inless than a second, allowing their team no time to react.

As an assassin, being able to itemize to maximize your damage is essential- deciding correctlybetween armor/magic penetration and AD/AP can mean the difference between a kill and anenemy champion running away with almost no HP. So, make sure you take note of your spellsratios and the amount of defense your opponents have built.

Tip: Hiding in a bush can work wonders. Quickly disintegrating someone running by a bush caneasily turn a game into your teams favor.

Part Five: Stats

The following sections will focus on the various stats that can be found in League of Legends. Beflexible, build against an opposing team- dont just stick to one build. Warning: Be prepared for aflood of numbers. Also, this section will be quite dry, so feel free to skip it if you feel that youalready understand all the stats.

XVI. Defensive Stats

Having trouble staying alive? Consider buying items which improve your defense stats- damage isimportant, but even if you have 400 AD or 900 AP, getting instantly killed by anyone means thatyou will have no chance to put your damage to use.

a. Health

Health flat out increases your effective HP pool- nothing really fancy about it. Increasing your HPpool simply lets you take more hits before you die. I dont think theres much else to explain.


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Tip: Watch out for items and champions that do % based damage- building up too much healthcan leave you vulnerable to such attacks.

b . Armor/Magic Resistance.

The damage reduction from both armor and magic resistance is calculated the same way: %

Damage Reduction = (Armor or Magic Resistance) / (100 + (Armor or Magic Resistance)). Youmay notice that this equation creates diminishing returns as you increase your armor. So, youmust keep in mind that excessively stacking up either armor or magic resistance will sometimesprove to be less beneficial than flat out buying health and vice versa.

Example: You have 1000 health, 200 armor and 50 magic resistance. Your effective healthagainst physical attacks will be: 1000 * ((100 + 200) / 100) = 3000. Your effective health againstmagical attacks will be: 1000 * ((100 + 50 / 100) = 1500. As you can see, having a fair amount ofarmor and magic resistance can greatly increase the amount of damage you can take beforedying.

Tip: Keep in mind that some abilities do true damage, bypassing all armor and magic resistance.So, sometimes buying health will keep you alive longer than just armor or magic resistance.Banshees Veil completely negates the next damaging spell that hits your champion, so choosingto build one can potentially save you from large bursts of damage- making it an excellent choiceagainst Assassins.

c. Health Regeneration

An often overlooked stat, health regeneration can prove to be the difference between life anddeath in a fight. It is fairly common for team fights in League of Legends to take the better part oftwenty or so seconds, and having a significant amount of health regeneration can allow you torejoin a fight if you were hit hard early on in the fight. Health regeneration scales linearly, so thereis no need to worry about diminishing returns- but do watch out for Ignite or Executioners Calling.

Tip: Health Regeneration tends to be extremely powerful early on in the game- being able to stayin a lane while under pressure can allow you to outlast your opponent.

d. Dodge

Dodge gives you a chance to completely evade a physical attack- meaning that you will take nodamage from it at all. While dodge is an excellent stat, many players tend to shy away from it dueto its random nature. But, since it is up to chance; you can occasionally pull out some very clutchplays.

The dodge modifier is calculated multiplicatively; so with each additional source of dodge has adiminished effect- which makes stacking dodge a bit less attractive. Also keep in mind thatvarious physical spell effects will still hit regardless of dodge.

Example: You are playing Nidalee in the Aspect of the Cougar form (10%) with a full set of dodgerunes (11.25%). You have 4 points in the Evasion mastery (2%), and you are sporting a pair of

Ninja Tabis (12%). So, your total dodge would be calculated as such: 1 * (1 - .1) * (1 - .1125) * (1 -.02) * (1 - .12) = ~.69. This means that you will dodge approximately 31% of all physical attacksagainst you.

Tip: Feeling lucky?

e. Life Steal/Spell Vamp

Similar to armor and magic resistance; life steal and spell vamp are two sides of the same coin.Basically, these two stats allow for your attacks or spells to replenish your HP pool- allowing for


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sustainability in lane and in team fights. Do keep in mind that neither of these stats work againststructures- so, attacking a turret wont grant you any HP.

Tip: Some spells, such as Poppys Devastating Blow, can trigger both life steal and spell vamp.

i. Life Steal

Life steal does trigger on spells which trigger on-hit effects such as Parrrley- meaning that variouschampion spells can potentially help you regain your HP. The amount of HP you regain from lifesteal is calculated after you deal damage to an enemy- meaning it does factor in the amount ofarmor an enemy possesses.

Example: You have a Dorans Blade (3%) and an Emblem of Valor (17%). Your attack damage is200, and you are firing shots at an enemy champion who has 100 armor. The amount of HP youwould regain per shot would calculated as such: 200 * (100 / 100 + 100) * (.03 + .17) = 20.

Tip: An AD carry possessing a large amount of life steal can catch enemies off guard when at lowHP. If you can do enough damage, you can easily regain some 200+ HP a shot; making aseemingly easy kill a tough target to overcome.

ii. Spell Vamp

Spell vamp is triggered by any spell- this includes items such as Hextech Gunblade and DeathfireGrasp; along with the summoner spell Smite. Spell vamp is calculated the same way as life steal,but, spell vamp is cut to a third of its original value when applied to area of effect spells- with thespell vamp being calculated on each separate target.

Example: You have a Will of the Ancients (25%) in your inventory and you are playing Karthuswith Defile activated- dishing out 200 magical damage per second. There are only two enemieswithin the effect of Defile, one with 50 magic resistance and the other with 100 magic resistance.The total amount of HP gained per second through defile would be calculated as such: ((200 * (1 -(50 / (50 + 100))) + 200 * (1 - (100 / (100 + 100)))) * 0.25) / 3 = ~11.1 from the first target and ~8.3from the second- totaling about ~19.4 HP regained per second.

Tip: Even with the reduction in effect on area of effect spells, spell vamp still proves to beextremely effective on champions with large area of effect skills due to the sheer number oftargets hit.

f. Tenacity

One of the most powerful defensive stats in the game- tenacity reduces the duration, not effect, ofall crowd control effects placed on you. This means that if you have 25 tenacity, a 30% slowlasting for 4 seconds will still slow you by 30%. But, the duration of the slow will have decreased to3 seconds instead of 4.

But, keep in mind, tenacity items do not stack, instead the highest tenacity value will override thetenacity from other items. So, if you buy Mercurys Treads, the tenacity from Moonflair Spellbladewill have no effect. But, champion abilities, such as Dr. Mundos Burning Agony, which reduce the

duration of slows and stuns placed upon him will stack multiplicatively with tenacity.

Example: You are playing Singed with an activated and maxed Insanity Potion (30% crowd controlreduction). In your inventory, you have Mercurys Treads along with Eleisas Miracle. Your totalcrowd control reduction will be calculated as such: 1 - (1 - .35) * (1 - .30) = .545, this means thatall crowd control effects placed on you will be reduced by 54.5%. In this scenario, the .35 is thereduction from Mercurys Treads, the .30 from Insanity Potion, and the Eleisas Miracle takes noeffect.

Tip: Buying tenacity granting items against teams with heavy crowd control can be a lifesaver.


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XVII. Offensive Stats

Obviously building straight defense wont get you anywhere, so lets look at offensive stats now.After all, seeing those big numbers fly out of your opponents is always heartwarming.

a. Attack Damage/Ability Power

As the main ways of increasing your damage, attack damage and ability power undoubtedly play alarge role in how hard you can hit. The general rule of thumb is basically this- the bigger thenumber, the better. Do keep in mind that getting Armor Penetration or Magic Penetration cantrump getting Attack Damage or Ability Power in damage output.

i. Attack Damage

The Ranged AD Carrys typical stat of choice- attack damage can make or break a champion.Attack damage is the main stat behind dealing damage per second- most; if not all championswho rely on attack damage will be constantly attacking something in a fight. Attack damage scalesadditively, so each additional point you get will directly be added to your attack damage.

Many spells take in to account a champions attack damage- but, not all of them are calculatedthe same way. For instance: the total damage of Garens Decisive Strike is a set amount added to1.5 * (Your total attack damage); while the damage of his Judgment is a set amount added to 1.2* (Your bonus attack damage). So, what is the difference? Total attack damage is the sum of yourchampions base attack damage added to any masteries, runes, and items you may have. On theother hand, bonus attack damage is only what your masteries, runes, and items provide.

Tip: Stacking up pure attack damage may seem like a good idea, but do remember to get somelife steal, or you will kill yourself shooting anyone with a Thorn Mail.

ii. Ability Power

As the only way to increase the raw damage of magical spells; ability power is an essential forvirtually every caster. Almost every magical spell in League of Legends scales off of ability powerto some extent- with each spell having a different Some champions have spells with better ratiosthan others, so keep that in mind when you are deciding between ability power, cooldownreduction, and magic penetration.

Tip: Rabadons Deathcap is basically a core item on every AP based champion. The 30%increase in ability power is not to be underestimated.

b. Armor/Magic Penetration

Exactly as it sounds, armor penetration and magic penetration allow your champion to bypass thecorresponding defensive stat. This means that, if you have enough penetration, you cantechnically deal true damage to your enemies. When calculating penetration, flat penetration takesprecedence over percentage based penetration. Also, take note that you penetration can onlydrop an enemys armor or magic resistance to 0.

Example: You have Brutalizer (15) and Last Whisper (40%). The enemy champion has 95 armor.So, factoring in reductions, the enemy would effectively have: (95 - 15) * (1 - .4) = 48 armor. Thiseffectively increases your damage by about 32%.

Tip: Later on in the game, when the opposing team has a fair amount of armor or magicresistance, building either Last Whisper or Void Staff can greatly improve your damage.

i. Armor/Magic Resistance Reduction


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There are also ways to reduce an enemy champions armor and magic resistance. As opposed tosimple penetration, such reductions also apply to your teammates, allowing for your entire team todeal more damage. As opposed to penetration, percentage based reduction applies before flatreduction. On top of that, armor and magic resistance reduction can actually put an opponent in tonegative values of armor or magic resistance. If you do manage to pull someone into negativevalues, they will take additional damage equal to the amount of damage reduced if you took theabsolute value of their negative armor or magic resistance. Do keep in mind that reductions come

before penetration, and penetration ceases to work past 0.

Example: As Evelynn, you manage to hit an enemy with a level five Ravage, reducing 26 armor.On top of that, you have Yomuus Ghostblade (20). The enemy champion had 15 armor to startwith, so they end up with: 15 - 26 = -11 with the 20 armor penetration from Yomuus Ghostbladetaking on no effect. This translates to a ~10% increase in physical damage on the target.

Tip: Dropping an enemy into negative defensive values will allow you to do far more damage thanthey will expect- usually leading to an easy kill.

c. Attack Speed

Every physical damage based champion wants a healthy amount of attack speed. Sure, its greatto hit like a truck, but if youre only managing to pull off one attack a second, you probably wontbe dropping your enemies too quickly. Do keep in mind, some champions, such as Kog`Maw orVayne, can build straight up attack speed and devastate the opposing teams due to the synergy oftheir spells and attack speed- so, make sure you understand your champions strengths andweaknesses before choosing your build.

Calculating attack speed is fairly simple since it follows a fairly linear equation- Attack Speed =(Base Attack Speed) * ((1 + Bonus Attack Speed From Runes/Items/Masteries/Spells) + (AttackSpeed Increase Per Level) * (Current Level 1)). This means that each additional percentageincrease in attack speed will have the same effect as the last. Also note that attack speed doeshave a hard cap of 2500, which is equal to 2.5 attacks per second, and any additional attackspeed you obtain after that point becomes a null stat.

Example: You are playing Master Yi who has a base attack speed of .679 and a 2.8% increase inattack speed per level. You have 30% additional attack speed from your runes and items, and arecurrently level 12. So, your attack speed would be: .679 * ((1 + .30) + .028 * (12 - 1)) = ~1.09attack speed. This means that your champion will attack ~1.09 times a second, or once every~.92 seconds. For comparison, turrets attack about 1.09 times a second.

Tip: Getting too much attack speed on a ranged carry might prove to be a bad idea- its rare thatyou will be able to stand still and shoot people in a fight, and its quite difficult to maintain a highnumber of shots while kiting your opponents.

d. Critical Strike

On a critical strike, your champion will do double the normal amount of damage (modified bymasteries, items and runes). Basically the offensive version of dodge- critical strike leaves muchto chance. So, unless you have a fairly high amount of critical chance (40% or more), it is difficult

to rely on a critical strike due to its wildly random nature. That being said, there are two ways toimprove your champions critical strike.

Tip: Pulling out a lucky critical strike on your opponent in the beginning of the game can easily turna lane to your favor.

i. Critical Chance

The first way, critical chance, is just that- it will raise your chance to get a critical strike by somepercentage. This is usually the preferred method of increasing your critical since it is more


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reliable. Critical chance scales additively, with each additional bonus simply adding on to yourprevious amount. And of course, there is a cap of 100% critical strike- not that any more would doyou any good.

Example: You are playing Tryndamere (+10%) have a full page of Malice runes (+20%) and aPhantom Dancer (+30%). Since the base amount of critical strike is 0% for most champions, yourtotal critical chance would be: 10% + 20% + 30% = 60%. This means that on average, six out of

every ten attacks will be a critical strike. Do keep in mind that this is an average, and unless youhave 100% critical chance, it is impossible to predict a critical strike.

Tip: Critical strikes really come into play when you have an extremely high critical chance (75% ormore), through the use of critical strikes, you can dramatically increase your champions damageoutput.

ii. Increased Critical Damage

The other option is to increase your critical damage. As of now, this can only be achieved in threeways- Furor runes, Infinity Edge, and the Lethality mastery. Like critical chance, this stat scalesadditively- with your base critical damage at 200%.

Example: You have three points in Lethality (+10%) and Infinity Edge (+50%). This would result inyour total critical damage being: 200% + 10% + 50% = 260%. Which would mean that instead ofdoing 100% extra damage on critical strikes, you are now doing 160% more.

Tip: Though Furor runes may seem good, they only become effective come late game, so unlessyou plan on achieving high critical strike fairly early on, it is generally better to run a different runeset.

XVIII. Other Stats

While not exactly falling under either defensive or offensive stats, these other stats are stillextremely valuable to any champion.

a. Cooldown Reduction

Being able to throw your champions spells more often is never a bad thing. Being especiallyeffective on champions with long cooldowns (most champions with area of effect ultimates), a fairamount of cooldown reduction can easily drop the cooldowns of an ultimate by 30 to 40 seconds.In addition, cooldown reduction is a fairly easy stat to build up- with most items giving 10-20%.

Cooldown reduction stacks additively, so having 6% from runes and 25% from items will give youa total of 31% cooldown reduction. Do remember that cooldown reduction is capped at 40%, somake sure you plan accordingly in your item builds to not have any unnecessary amounts of it. Inaddition, cooldown reductions are unique among the same item- this means that building twoMorellos Evil Tomes (+20% cooldown reduction) will not give you the full 40%, but only 20%.

Example: You are playing Malphite, whose ultimate, Unstoppable Force, has a cooldown of 100seconds. You have a Frozen Heart (+20%) and a Randuins Omen (+5%) in your inventory. So, in

the end, Unstoppable Forces cooldown will be: 100 * (1 - .20 - .05) = 75 seconds.

Tip: If your champion relies heavily on burst damage, you need to decide between building upheavier damage and being able to do less more often. If you can one shot someone, then heavierdamage is generally the better choice, but if not, cooldown reduction will be more helpful.

b. Mana/Energy

Having all the cooldown reduction in the world wont do you much good if you have nomana/energy to cast your spells. Having a high mana pool is extremely effective on champions


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with on/off spells such as Karthus Defile- being able to leave such a spell on can devastate theopposing team. Do keep

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