League of Legends is a real time strategy game inspired by Defense of the Ancients (DotA) that has been developed by Riot Games. Teams of three or five players battle to destroy the other by taking out their base.
Gameplay
Every player chooses a champion unit that levels up over the course of the match. This grants stronger stats as well as the ability to rank up the champion's four unique abilities. You will also accumulate gold which can be used at the store in your spawn area to buy items that increase your stats and bestow other effects and abilities on your champion.
The maps are split into lanes along which are located towers. When the game begins, NPC units (called creeps or minions) will begin marching from your base to the enemy's in waves. These will assist you in your objective of destroying the enemy Nexus. In order to attack the Nexus, a team must first destroy at least one of the Inhibitors and both of the towers guarding the Nexus.
There are also areas between the lanes that contain neutral NPC monsters. These can be fought and killed for extra XP/gold. Additionally, the tougher neutral monsters will have buffs that can be gained when they are killed. There are some champions that can level up entirely by killing these neutral creatures and that is referred to as jungling.
Players can choose to play in
Normal or
Ranked games. Players maintain separate ratings (ELO) for each type of game.
Ranked games are for those wanting to experience the ladder format. During champion select, the team captains ban two champions each. Teams then go back and forth selecting their champion. Once a champion is taken, the other team can not select the same champion.
Normal games do not involve the banning process and champions can be used by both teams. It is also blind pick meaning you do not see what champions the other team has selected until the game loads.
There is also Custom/Practice mode which is a Normal game that you can see all players on both sides before going into champion select.
How does the Free to Play work?
League of Legends is 100% F2P. In the long run, you will be at no disadvantage if you choose not to spend a penny on this game. You can not gain additional in game benefits from anything purchased. Each week the champions available to be played for free rotates. There will always be ten champions available to play at the very least.
There are two types of currency in League of Legends: Influence Points (IP) and Riot Points (RP).
IP is earned by playing games and can be used to purchase champions and runes.
RP is purchased with cash and is used to buy champions and skins.
Champions can be purchased for 450, 1350, 3150, 4800, or 6300 IP.
Runes will cost between 10 - 2050 IP.
The typical match will earn you roughly 100IP.
Summoner Profile
The persistent part of the game is the Summoner, which tracks scores and statistics for each player. As you play matches you will earn Summoner experience. Obtaining new Summoner levels will unlock rune slots, give you a point for your Masteries, and can unlock new Summoner Spells.
Summoner Spells - In addition to the abilities of your champions, each player can take two Summoner spells during the champion selection. These are abilities that can be used for free during the match but typically have long cooldowns.
Masteries - Masteries are perks that effect gameplay. These are all passive effects though certain masteries will augment Summoner Spells. There are three mastery trees: Offensive, Defensive, and Utility.
Runes - Similar to masteries, runes effect gameplay in minor ways. Each Summoner level gained will unlock a new rune slot. But unlike masteries, the runes that you slot must be purchased with IP from the Riot store. The cost of runes is dependent upon their level and whether they are a primary or secondary rune. All players start with two rune pages and more can be purchased via IP.
Important Tips for New Players
League of Legends and any of the other DotA-like games can be very intimidating to the new player. There is a lot to learn and grasp just because of the number of champions. If you've played DotA/HoN then you shouldn't have a hard time adjusting as most of the core gameplay elements carry over. That being said, here's some tips.
1.) Death is bad. When you get good at the game, you'll figure out when it's acceptable to sacrifice yourself for the betterment of the team. But while you're learning you want to play defensively and avoid the respawn timer. Not only does your death give the enemy experience and gold but it denies you the very same since you're no longer in lane. That can snowball and lead to you falling behind your opponents as the game progresses.
2.) Map awareness is important. You have a minimap in the lower right section of your screen. Keep an eye on it at all times. You should not be attempting to knock down a tower if you can't account for three enemies. Do not rely on your teammates to call out missing enemies (unless you're all on voice comm, in which case yell at them for not doing it).
3.) Somewhat related to #2, buy wards! If you leave spawn with 75g or more and have a slot in your inventory, go back and buy one. Wards contribute to your map awareness and therefore they help you survive and sometimes even set up ambushes. The cost is minor for the payoff and if everyone on your team is contributing then the burden isn't shouldered by any one player.
4.) There is no better way to figure out how to beat a particular champion than to play them. So make use of the free champion rotation and play as many of them as you can. This also will help you wisely spend your IP when you go to buy a champion and you know which ones you enjoyed playing and which ones you didn't. Try to avoid buying blind and suffering from buyer's remorse, especially if you still need runes.
5.) Last hit creeps. Don't stand around attacking them constantly. This does a couple of things. First, you only get gold if you kill the creep and you want to make sure you're doing that as much as possible. Second, if you kill creeps fast then you will push your lane. This exposes you to ganking (unless you have a ward protecting your flank!). Third, standing around makes it very easy for enemies to attack you. Learn your champion's attack animation so you can time your last hits and learn how to do it under your tower.
Great! So this game is perfect then?
Haha, no! If only.
As with the other games that share it's genre, LoL's community can be difficult at times. In a small team-based game, it's very easy to single out who's doing poorly and criticize them. /Ignore those that you don't want to listen to anymore.
The stability of the game's servers is always in question. They go down on occasion, especially after major patches. Riot compensates players when it's particularly bad with IP boosts or, in the case of the last time, free RP!
Resources
www.leaguecraft.com - Champion builder feature is very cool and lets you see how much damage abilities/attacks will do with certain item/rune/mastery combinations. The guides can be hit or miss but at least give you some ideas to try out.
www.mobafire.com - More champion guides and forums, a little better than LC in quality.
www.solomid.net - Great for the streams of some of the top LoL players.
www.ventrilo.com /
www.teamspeak.com /
www.skype.com - Voice communication when playing in premades improves the game 100%. Get a mic! Seriously, it's like $10 for a decent enough one.
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