League of Legends (popularly known as LoL) is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game created by Riot Games.
You play as a summoner that controls
a champion Janna and takes her into battle with and against other summoners and their respective champions. During games, your champion will level up, get gold for better equipment and hopefully destroy the enemy nexus. Outside of games, your summoner level will rise. This will unlock new runes to enhance champion stats, bestow mastery points for further champion customization and goodies like avatars. At max level you can then compete in ranked matches and/or judge player behavior in what is called the Tribunal.
Next Time on League: Lucian, the Purifier!
Where our story left off:
Thread Layout
OP -
The Basics - General LoL Tips and Tricks
2nd -
PENTAKILL! - Come see who among us has recently scored a PENTAKILL
3rd - Currently Open Contests/One-Time Events
New Player Guide
1. Make an account:
NA EU (West) EU (Nordic & East)
It is worth noting that referring new players has perks, so I would ask for a referral link in the thread rather than a vanilla account.
2. Download the client:
Right hereThe official Mac client is in beta - download it today!
3. Play the tutorials!
New User Guide
The game can be a bit overwhelming, and I highly suggest you play the tutorials OR find someone willing to do a few vs. AI games with you.
4. Join the "Penny Arcade" Chat Channel to find helpful people and people to escape solo queue with!
Click the little double speech bubble looking thing at the bottom right of your screen. Click the + speech bubble right above it. Type in "Penny Arcade" and introduce yourself. Not everyone you see in the thread will be there, as not everyone plays on the same server. You can ask these people how to play champions, we pretty much have someone who plays each champion.
5. Play vs. People
Do it, damn you. As said above, the AI is not going to give you the legitimate LoL experience. You don't want to hit your 20s solely from bot matches. If you do use bot games, focus on practicing LoL basics such as getting the last hit on minions for that sweet sweet gold.
6. Get yer free champs.
Subscribe to Riot's Youtube and get a free Alistar skin! Includes the champion!
Free Tristana if you're into the Facebook thing. Promo skins always include the champion if you never bought it.
The Dos and Don'ts of LoL
1. Don't buy champions randomly!
LoL has two currencies: Riot Points (RP), which are bought with real money, and Influence Points (IP) which are earned solely by playing games. Champions can be bought with both, but every week there will be ten free champions to play with. Play
these champs instead. Get a feel for each type of champion and see which you find more fun. It's far better to do this as opposed to buying a champ randomly and ultimately being unhappy with it. Also, (it's rumored) you can get ONE refund opportunity for (I believe I read) up to 3 RP purchases. After that, it's your own fault for spending RP.
2. Don't buy Tier 2 Runes.
They are pretty much a waste of IP. Buy Tier 1 and save up for Tier 3. Or, if you're baller like Hargaad, don't even buy Tier 1. Wait to hit level 30, then buy all the Tier 3 runes you need.
3. Do queue with friends.
Playing with randoms is a crapshoot, and playing with a Taric or two can put the odds in your favor. Play complementary champs and request feedback on how you did in each game (even if you won). Likewise, you can offer advice to others you saw having trouble in a polite manner (because if you aren't polite, you're likely to get flamed).
4. Do learn the champions
When a new rotation occurs, it is wise to play a few games with each champ. Knowing what each champ is capable of will be useful even if you hate how they play and never intend on using them. For example, Karthus has a skill that does damage to every enemy champion, regardless of location! If you know this, then you can be a jerk and take Soraka (who has a skill that heals all allied champions).
5. Do read guides.
There are multiple ways to play a champion. This combination of skills, runes, masteries and items is called a "build" and are the general strategies for any champion. The recommended items in the game store are not always accurate, and the order you level skills can have a big impact on how the early stages of the game play out. Sites like
Mobafire and
Solomid offer builds for just about every champion. It's cookie-cutter, but a great foundation for new people. Once you learn the ins and outs, you can tweak a build to better serve your playstyles or as a reaction to enemy or ally players.
6. Do be polite and do report
Sometimes people will suck or do shit wrong. It's a game, so try to keep that in mind when things get a little unhinged. If you insult or yell at people, even if they DID do something wrong, you're likely going to get that person defensive and things break down. Instead of focusing on the game, you focus on hurling insults at each. Stay calm, and politely offer advice when needed. And yet, people are jerks. It happens. Simply /mute them and quietly report them after the game. Taking their bait is probably what they want you to do. Do not give them the satisfaction! Keep your cool.
7. Buy skins
Having a skin for a character is a great way to say "Hey I'm fucking awesome with this champion so get the fuck out of my way." If your team is using more skins than your enemy team, you basically have already won.
Game Stuff
1. Do not be aggressive
There will be a serious urge to want to kill enemy champs. Resist! Death is an all-around loss: your opponents get more cash and experience, you miss out on experience and your lane risks getting pushed. If you set-up a kill and fail, do not continue chasing. In many cases, you will just die to a tower or get ganked. While later on you will learn when to take risks, early in your career it's best to be less aggressive and just let the other guy get away.
2. Do not focus on KDR
Your kill-death-ratio is not the end-all of your value. It is possible to lose despite having a serious kill advantage over the enemy team! Certain champions, once getting the right items, can be unstoppable murder machines. Even if you do kill them a lot, if they reach this threshold, it's possible for a dramatic reversal to occur. It is far more important to support your team's objectives: push towers, protect your own towers from being pushed and keep your team informed of enemy activity. It is far better to have a modest KDR and win, than be the team killer and lose.
3. Do watch the minimap and your enemy
Enemy locations are important! In your low-level games you will likely have two champs tops lane, one mid and two bottom (in later level games, one from top will be off "jungling," so top will have just one champ). If a player in YOUR lane is missing,
let the team know. The player might just be heading back to base to buy items, or they could be trying to jump your friend in another lane. And mention when they came back to your lane! But this doesn't mean you should rely wholly on team recon. Watch the minimap yourself for enemy locations in other lanes whenever you can. People aren't perfect, and sometimes that warning comes a bit too late. Another set of eyes is always useful.
4. Do buy wards.
Wards are items that grant you vision of an area for 180 seconds. They are, without a doubt, one of the best purchases you will make. You can plop them along the river and have advance warning of ganks. They'll grant you vision of the brush. They'll alert you of enemy attempts on big-reward neutral monsters like the dragon or baron. If you attack them in the middle of something like that, you could mob up their entire team. Or maybe you are aware of a gank attempt on you. You could alert a nearby friend, bait the ganker in and turn the tables. Buy wards. BUY. WARDS.
5. Do buy wards.
Wards are items that grant you vision of an area for 180 seconds. They are, without a doubt, one of the best purchases you will make. You can plop them along the river and have advance warning of ganks. They'll grant you vision of the brush. They'll alert you of enemy attempts on big reward neutral monsters like the dragon or baron. If you attack them in the middle of something like that, you could mob up their entire team. Or maybe you are aware of a gank attempt on you. You could alert a nearby friend, bait the ganker in and turn the tables. Buy wards. BUY. WARDS. Yes, I posted this twice. It is that important.
6. Do something.
So you just wiped the enemy team out. Hooray! But...what are you doing now? Did you just go back to your respective lanes and farm? Incorrect! You now have precious map control, and should be taking advantage of it. Gather up as a team and take out a tower. Head to the dragon and get a clean kill. Steal enemy creeps (especially their blue and red buffs). You can always check the status of both teams by pressing tab. If multiple enemies are waiting on respawn, then you need to press that advantage.
7. Don't just wait around all day when you're in a position to win.
8. Do buy wards.
Seriously, kids. If Hargaad can do it, so can you. I know you have 75 gold just laying around sometimes. Don't feed us with your bullshit of, "But I need to save for x item!" No! Fuck you, and your high horse. If you don't buy wards, and you die a lot, nobody on your team is going to be able to save you from a beefed up (whatever) lane.
9. Learn to speak ping.
All you really need to communicate effectively in this game is to be able to use the pings it provides.
To use these pings, hold down the Alt, Ctrl, G, or V keys while clicking to show the new ping overlay. Then, move your mouse in the direction of the ping you want to issue, and release. You can perform this action either on the terrain or the minimap for precision pinging.
It is
unacceptable to blame players that aren't typing at all, or players that are not speaking in English.
Meet the Team
Like any group activity, stuff is usually broken down into roles. It's worth noting that champions don't always fit neatly in categories. A champion's role in the team may depend on what build has been chosen, and sometimes you may fill several roles depending on the group composition. When picking champions, it's a good idea to see what people are doing and fill in any holes.
1. The Marksman:
Examples include Caitlyn, Ezreal, Ashe and Vayne.
If your team is a car, then the marksman is the engine. It's what makes the team function. The marksman, when doing its job, will be able to easily destroy the whole team. But, just like an engine is useless without any other parts of your car, the marksman relies on its team to get the gold necessary to buy the items needed to kill swathes of enemies. Early on, however, marksmen tend to be more vulnerable and weaker than other champs.
2. The Tank:
Examples include Leona, Sejuani, Zac and Nautilus.
Following the car metaphor, the tank is your steering. It'll guide the team into battle, and in many cases will be the one starting the fights. Tanks are there to absorb damage and lock down the most dangerous champions on the enemy team so you can position yourselves to win the fight. Some tanks do this with CC, whereas other tanks have some damage and will soften up the enemy team instead. Tanks still tend to need the rest of their team to back them up.
3. The Support:
Examples include Soraka, Sona, Nami and Janna.
I guess support are your tires or something? Maybe the AC. Either way, supports help the team out with buffs and generally shields or healing. Supports tend to assist the marksman by allowing the marksman to stay in the lane longer. Unlike, well, just about everyone else, supports don't rely so much on gear and thus will purposefully AVOID getting last hits so that their lane partner can farm gold faster. Because of their reduced need of gold, support should also be buying and placing wards when needed. It's worth noting that EVERYONE should generally buy wards, but as a support you can afford to take the financial hit. Janna is both a good example of a support, and the best champion in the game.
4. The Assassin:
Examples include Kha'zix, Talon, Zed and Kassadin.
If we're sticking with the car metaphor, the assassin is like your car having a button you can press which will make that other car's engine implode. Assassins generally specialise in high single-target damage and mobility, allowing them to quickly eliminate enemy marksmen and mages with ease. If you're playing as a squishy and vulnerable target, these guys are going to be your biggest threat - ask your team to try and keep them from harming you. Assassins also generally need to get kills early in order to stay competitive into the later stages of the game.
5. The Mage:
Examples include Brand, Syndra, Lux and Annie.
Mages are a broad category, with their defining feature being that they primarily deal damage at range through their abilities and not auto-attacks. Some, like Lissandra, focus less on dealing damage and more on being able to control the enemy team's movement. Others, like Brand or Ziggs, have relatively less utility and are instead capable of putting out high amounts of damage. Mages benefit strongly from their role's innate flexibility, and can have a huge impact on team fights.
6. The Fighter:
Examples include Garen, Renekton, Trundle and Vi.
Fighters are melee attackers with a mix of offensive and defensive capabilities. They're not as hard to kill as a tank, and not able to throw out as much damage as an assassin, but they can still prove to be fearsome opponents - especially if they stay alive and are allowed to deal their damage over time. Like mages, the fighter role is incredibly versatile, with each fighter having a different mixture of damage and utility.
7. The Jungler:
Examples include Warwick, Udyr, Xin Zhao and Jarvan IV.
Although not a label Riot applies to their champions, the jungler is a role that you'll begin to see at higher summoner levels. This is due to runes and masteries allowing for more efficient jungling. It is still possible during lower levels on a few champs, even at summoner level 1, but very uncommon. As the name implies, the jungler sits in the jungle (the parts of the map in between lanes) and kills neutral creeps (or "monsters"). This benefits your team by creating a second solo lane (top lane), resulting in more experience and gold for your team as a whole. Once the jungler hits a certain gear/level point, they look for opportunities to gank enemies. This is generally done via strong CC abilities, such as Warwick's ultimate or Nunu's slow coupled with his speed buff. Skills such as these will enable the jungler's teammate in that lane to easily assist with the kill. When not ganking, the jungler will return to the jungle regularly to keep up in terms of gold and experience. Due to their roaming, the jungler has plenty of opportunities to place wards for its teammates.
This is a very simple guide, and is only a rough outline of the basics! Roles can easily overlap, and a champion can fill more than one role! Ezreal is a marksman/mage, for instance, and Taric is a support/tank.
Useful LoL related websites
Stuff You Should Know
- Yes, a promo skin will unlock that champion for free.
- No, a promo code will not work on multiple servers.
- Map vision wins games -
BUY WARDS.
- It is a team wide effort,
everyone buys wards.
- When in doubt, take Exhaust/Flash
For emergency use only
Brought to you by Infidel.
Instructions: replace the "dread%20pirate%20arbuthnot" portion of the url with the name of the intended target.
Posts
Post your pentas in the thread to get them added! Message the OP if he is blind or lazy!
This post is now going to be saved for the more recent pentakills. In the interest of giving more attention to the recent pentas, I took the liberty of removing the old ones and putting them into an album. All the pentakills until 4/15/13 are here.
None at the moment!
The contest has wrapped up! The winner is COINAGE, who wrote this incredible work of fiction.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/26984554/#Comment_26984554
@Coinage wins $50 of RP - and my undying love!
time to get the brain bleach again
This is my Garen policy.
Every thread needs a villain.
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
Also, Pentakill:
Was a couple weeks ago but I don't see it in the archive.
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
I hate Galio but he's a useful champ to know so like whatever.
I wish I got to play Syndra more to get better with her and I wish I wasn't so awful with Cass.
Howling Abyss pentakills don't get included, sorry!
Since when?!
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
such a bummer
Since always (I think?), the album's only got SR Pentakills.
Streaming 8PST on weeknights
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
@Burnage The newly renamed Markspeople's Union would like to note the "Meet the Team" section should be updated to reflect its new perspective on its members' role.
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
Though the highlight of the whole affair for me was when Clueless played for funsies against Curse Academy at the end of day Sunday, and Rhux picked Jayce. I told my friends on skype that he was going to buy a tear.
"Tear on Dominion? Dude, that's stupid. He wouldn't do that."
And then Rhux bought tear on first back. :rotate:
I'll try it. She's fantastic late if she's had a good going in the early game, but if I get stuck in a mire in lane I struggle with her. I had the same problem with Tristana, though that was a 4v5 against a premade so when Kat killed me 50 times, it was expected.
It's "Marksbeing" now!
Get with the times.
I've had Quadras that get stolen by supports.
Like a boss.
Vi pre-nerf was banana-pants good. She's in an OK spot IMO, she suffers from not being a support jungler but she has good pre-6 ganks, good post-6 ganks, and she can explode vulnerable targets in a gank or teamfight.
Her big weakness, IMO, is the same one that most damage / carry junglers have: the Season 3 jungle wants you to be a second support.
Likely to see more of her as Vayne rotates into the botspot.
http://www.twitch.tv/whitezhark
You > Chaox.
But your link is broken. Need to copy paste it.
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
On Nami now I have realized that getting items isn't important. So I go mana pendant plus pink/greens/pots to start. Then I build a chalice which lets me spam her spells indefinitely. Then sightstone. Then I get mobo boots and a philo. Eventually i'll turn the philo/chalice into mikaels to remove CC from my ADC, but once I have chalice/ruby sightstone/mobos I pretty much just buy even more wards on top of the sightstone and oracles. The last game we won in a huge landslide, and I bought 3 oracles. I was just buying them so I'd have another to drink when the current one ran out. At one point we did a baron, and at the time I had 3 wards in their bot jungle, 4 wards in their top jungle, 3 around baron, and everything cleared with my oracles.
It's basically letting your team play a different game where there is no fog of war, and it makes it very hard to lose.
I'm also finding that I'm pretty god damned good at support mechanically, much better than I thought. Like, I'm making ADs that I can tell are not the greatest mechanically win lanes, because I always have brush control, and I learn their patterns, so I will put E on my ADC when he's harassing instead of hoping he does when I put it on. Then landing all the Qs and utilizing W to the fullest. Once I realized how to make use of all 3 W bounces my Nami improved markedly, and she's quickly becoming one of my favorite champs. My KDA the last 3 games of Nami is 1/3/21 average.
She really doesn't have good ganks against Vayne. If she ults to initiate Vayne can just E her away and tumble away, and by the time Vi charges her punch she can't get in range to hit her with it. Vayne has Tristana's ult disengage on a 15 second cooldown, so nobody really ganks her that well.
I've rewritten that whole section now to match Riot's brave new world of role descriptions.
She has to wait to condemn Vi for after the knockup and slam. By that time Vi's bot lane has swarmed her.
If she really, really wanted to get her all you have to do is Q towards her and then tag her with the ult. If you have any form of CC from your support she's likely to be dead. Lulu, for example, will leave her pretty fucked because she can pop her up if she has to or just screw her over with glitterlances and Pix to keep her revealed if she tries to ult+tumble away.
Both champs have so much potential damage and options that its not really easy to say one or the other wins. Vi's ability to ignore CC during her ult makes her a (mostly) unique threat to Vayne if her team can follow up on Vi's initiate or if Vi can outplay Vayne in a teamfight.
Vayne, of course, remains a unique threat to everything with an HP bar because she's Vayne.
Slice like a god damn hammer. LoL: Rafflesia / BNet: Talonflame#11979
Vi is not immune to CC after she arrives and has knocked up the target. Vayne can E her away while they're both up in the air. You can find a youtube video of it easily if you like. I'm also not arguing that Vi with her ult is bad at ganking bot lane. She's quite good at it. I'm contending the point that somebody made that Vayne is inherently weaker to Vi ganks than other ADCs, because I don't believe she is. Certainly less so than Draven, Ashe, Varus, or Kog'maw.
The secret to killing any ADC is throwing a fish at them, missing it, then killing them with QWE only because Fizz with a lichbane and some AP behind it is the best assassin in the game right now.