How To Play League of Legends, The Biggest Game In The World
By Dr. Eleanor Vance | Published on January 01, 0001
When people talk League of Legends, they throw around a lot of numbers. 32 million monthly players. 5 million people playing concurrently. Viewers topping 8 million during the Season 3 World Championships. It all adds up to one thing: League of Legends is the most-played video game in the world right now, and not exactly by a slim margin. So why do so many people not know anything about it? Most folks know that Riot Games’ fast-moving tactical game is inspired – perhaps too weak a word here – by the Warcraft 3 mod Defense of the Ancients, and it somehow involves two teams brawling in an incredibly confusing arena. Most know that the game is free-to-play. But that’s about it.cnx.cmd.push(function(){cnx({"playerId":"e3616d04-4972-4839-a63a-c6975e2e9731","settings":{"advertising":{"macros":{"AD_UNIT":"/23178111854/od.kotaku.com/article","CHILD_UNIT":"article","POST_ID":"1456272237","POST_TYPE":"post","CHANNEL":"culture","SECTION":"","SUBSECTION":"","CATEGORIES":"culture","TAGS":"","NOP":"0"},"timeBeforeFirstAd":0}}}).render("cnx-player-main")}); For those who want to finally get what exactly the game is about and how to get into it, I’m here to help. Here’s what you need to know to understand League of Legends Let’s start with the absolute basics. What in the heck is League of Legends? Basically, it works like this: Two teams of five duke it out in an arena called Summoner’s Rift. This is Summoner’s Rift: Each player takes one of 116 characters – called Champions here – into each match. Typically, they’ll be controlling them somewhere between 20 minutes and an hour. During that time, League works much like a team-based, competitive action-RPG. Each Champion has four activated abilities they can use to kill enemy Champions, minions, and buildings. In return, they get experience points for leveling up and gold to buy power-boosting gear. Above: Here’s what a standard team looks like. From the top, clockwise these champs’ names are Kha’Zix, Leona, Fizz, Jax, and Varus. How do I pronounce Kha’Zix? Kha’Zix is pronounced like it’s spelled, by which I mean however you damn well please. So, this is an RPG? I can level up in the game? League is a struggle to kill the most stuff, thereby getting your teams’ Champions to be much stronger than the opposition. The more stuff dies, the more you and your allies level up and get more powerful. How do you win? The goal of a League of Legends match is pretty simple: Blow up your enemy’s Nexus while protecting your own. The Nexus is the big building in each side’s base with the massive diamond floating over it. Not too complicated. Above: Protect/blow up this big thing. But before you do that, you’ve got to get through a whole bunch of enemy…stuff. Obviously, there are the enemy player-controlled Champions, but there are also the AI-controlled minions that come streaming out of each team’s base and the big, scary turrets that stand tall in the lanes. There’s a ton of lingo flying around here. Could you define some of this stuff? Sure. League has its own language, and that’s often a big turnoff for a lot of new players. Here’re the basics that you’ll probably need to know, broken down for easy consumption: Champions: The player-controlled characters. There are currently 116 of them, with more coming every month or so. That’s a lot, right? Like, man. So many. Above: The Champion to the left is Nasus. He’s a dog. To the right, Renekton. He’s a crocodile. They’re also brothers. Don’t worry about it. Lanes: The three open areas that run from one end of the map to the other. They’re referred to as top, middle, and bottom. Or top, mid, and bot if you’re feeling sassy. Above: Welcome to the jungle. Jungle: The areas between the lanes, filled with camps of neutral monsters that can be killed for money, experience, and buffs. It’s confusing in there, but you’ll figure it out. Minions: The little dudes who run from one side of the map to the other. Minions are controlled by the computer, and there are four types: Melee minions with swords, caster minions with magic which they use from afar, cannon minions with big guns and a ton of HP, and super minions that only spawn once an Inhibitor is destroyed. We’ll get to Inhibitors in a second. Above: The stalwart minions, heading to their inevitable demise. Their types from left to right: Cannon, caster, caster, caster, melee, melee, melee. Towers: Eleven per side, they tower over the lanes, shooting anyone who comes close. They do a ton of damage, so to destroy them, players typically want a group of minions to act as meat shields. Don’t worry too much about the minions, dying is what they live for. Above: The Nexus is flanked by two towers. Getting hit by both at the same time hurts. A lot. Inhibitors: Each of the lanes has one, and when they’re destroyed, the team that destroyed them starts spawning super minions from their base. Super minions have a ridiculous amount of HP and do a good amount of damage, so Inhibitors are rather important to protect. Dragon/Baron Nashor: Big, scary monsters that hang out in the river running along the middle of the map. Killing them will get your entire team a bunch of money, and in the case of Baron, a really powerful stat-boost. Above: Baron Nashor stares down a passing Leona. Sounds awesome. How do I get started playing? What are some of the best Champions for beginners? Ah, the big dilemma. How does one get into a game as complex and deep as League? Well, the best answer is to just start playing. Grab yourself an easy-to-play champion like Garen, Ashe, or Master Yi and take to the battlefield. Garen and Master Yi are both melee fighters, but Garen is more of a tough to kill tank, while Master Yi jumps in, does a สล็อตฟรี bunch of damage, and bailes. Ashe is great for if you prefer to sit back and shoot stuff from afar. Above: Thanks to his relatively easy-to-use skills, Master Yi is a great place to start. Also, he’s got a sweet sword and Sam Fisher goggles. Okay, I picked a character. Any tips for me as I get started? Some tips for your early hours with the game: Don’t die. It sounds pretty straightforward, but consider that not dying is much more important than getting kills. Play it safe until you know what you’re doing. Don’t get too close to those towers until you’ve got minions to back you up. Above: This is Lee Sin. Right now, Lee Sin is dead. Don’t be like Lee Sin. Hold on a second, what happens when I die? สล็อตฟรี You respawn at your Nexus after a certain amount of time, based on how long the game has lasted and what level you are. The respawn timer starts super low, just a few seconds, but can get up into the minute-plus range. However, you lose out on potential experience and money while you’re spending time in the afterlife or walking back to your lane. That can be a huge problem for you, especially early in a match. Fair enough. You can get back to the tips now. Way to interrupt, dude. Moving on. Don’t attack enemy Champions while you are in range of a tower, especially at low levels. Even if the tower is already shooting at a minion, attacking an enemy Champion will draw its Sauron-esque eye to you, likely leading to a quick demise. You’ll learn pretty quickly how big the range of towers is. Focus on being the one to deal the killing blow on minions. Only those who deal the killing blow on minions and monsters get credit for the kill and the money that comes after. Learning to maximize your gold intake by killing minions is one of the biggest hurdles for new players, and the quicker you learn to do it, the better. Pick a champion and position and stick to it for a while. After you’ve played a couple dozen games with different champions, it’s often best to just grab one and stick to it. Much like characters in fighting games, Champions have tons of little intricacies and tricks they can pull out to get advantages. Also, grab a position you like and play that. But how do I know who to pick and stick with? The beautiful thing about League of Legends is its flexibility. Any Champion can be good in the right hands. If you enjoy playing a character that many consider to be underpowered like, say, Heimerdinger, go ahead and get really good at him. Above: Heimerdinger will beat you with a wrench. And turrets. And missiles. A good player playing an underpowered Champion will beat a bad player playing an highly powered champion just about every time. Do my champions have persistent stats, or do they reset every game? Champions’ levels, skills, and items are wiped clean after every game. That way, you can experiment with new ways to build each character every time you play. Think of it like a rapid speed sprint through any RPG skill tree ever. Okay, carry on with your tips. Back to it! Buy the Recommended Items. The Item Shop is super confusing at first, but fortunately Riot Games has laid out what they think are the ideal items for
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