Picking your champions, Part 1 (A Dummy's Guide to LoL, Chapter 2)

I'm baaack! In today's edition of ADGL (the acronym sucks, I know), we'll take a look at the different roles in League of Legends, and who should you pick first as your new champion.

Battle Training

This is actually a nice feature added by Riot Games. Even though LoL was based of the infamous Dota, there are quite a lot of different features that are added in LoL. Whether you have experience in Dota or none, I highly recommend playing the Battle Training mode first, then come back here for a bit more information.

Meet your champion

So, I assume you've already played Battle Training. That's good, at least now you have a basic overview on how LoL is played. As you have seen, there were only three champions that you can choose from in BaTr: Ashe, the Frost Archer, Garen, the Might of Demacia, and Ryze, the Rogue Mage. In reality, there are 124 champions in League of Legends, and every week, 10 of these champions are free-to-play, which means they are available to play, whether you own them or not. Of course, it's better to buy champions which you like, so you can play them whenever you like.

However, Rito has a special, non-rotating, champion rotation for players who are Lvl. 5 and below (i.e, you). These are:

• Ahri, the Nine-Tailed Fox
• Anivia, the Cyrophoenix
• Annie, the Dark Child
• Ashe, the Frost Archer
• Garen, the Might of Demacia
• Irelia, the Will of the Blades
• Master Yi, the Wuju Bladesman
• Ryze, the Rogue Mage
• Sivir, the Battle Mistress
• Warwick, the Blood Hunter

These names may not seem familiar to you, but fret not! I'm here to guide you on what's what for these champs.

Playing a role

Every one of us plays a role in life, and it's no different in League of Legends. Every summoner must have a defined role in which he's comfortable with.

Here are the most common roles in LoL. See where you fit in, and decide.

Assassins

If you're the type who likes to eliminate opponents quickly and easily, going invisible, and wants high mobility then this class is for you. Assassins are either AP (ability power, more on that later) burst oriented champs, which means that they rely on their abilities to deal tons of damage in just one combo, or AD (attack damage) champs that deal damage-per-second attacks. Assassins also have some sort of invisibility (Teemo, Evelynn) or blinking ablity (LeBlanc) that they use to move around.

Pros:

• High damage output, can easily kill low-health or fragile targets
• Especially useful for stealth ops, or ganks.
• Very agile, can easily move from one spot to another

Cons:

• Very fragile, can easily be killed.
• Pretty much non-existent in late game

 Who should you pick:

Master Yi is an excellent pick for the chaps out there who want to step into the shoes of an Assassin. I suggest reading the link above, as it details the abilities that Yi uses. Other choices would be Ahri, the Nine-Tailed Fox, or Irelia, the Will of the Blades. However, out of these three, Master Yi is probably the easiest to use for starters, while Ahri or Irelia are better once you've had some experience playing.

Fighters/Off-tanks

This class is the most well-rounded out of the many classes in LoL. Essentially, it takes a little bit of the damage output of Marksmen (without the range), and a litle bit of tankiness from Tanks, and combines it into a hybrid. Fighters are also called off-tanks because they have natural tankiness in them. They have abilities that deal DAMAGE, and can bring the pain in teamfights.

Pros:

• Fair damage output
• High survivability
• Very well rounded, can be either an Assassin or Tank depending on the build

Cons:

• Damage dealt isn't as reliable as AD Carries
• Quite slow, so it's easy to chase them down.
• Tend to fall off late game

Who should you use?

Should you choose to take the life of a Fighter, then Garen, the Might of Demacia is what I recommend. He's pretty easy to use, and has the balance between a Tank and a Fighter. Other choices would be Master Yi, the Wuju Bladesman, or Warwick, the Blood Hunter

Mage

The mages, masters of the arcane world, are composed of mainly ranged champions with high AP damage, decent crowd control (refer to this dictionary for info about CC), but are really, really fragile. Mages either have high burst potential (they can deal lots of damage by using their abilites), or have DoT (damage-over-time) attacks.

Pros:

• Enemies have a hard time itemizing against mages
• Very powerful kit (the abilities a champion has)
• Can carry a team

Cons:

• Very squishy, can easily be locked down by Fighters
• Somewhat fades at the late game
• Somewhat slow

Who should you use?

If you plan on taking up the challenge of a Mage, then Ryze, the Rogue Mage, should be a great start for you. Other mages that you could choose are Ahri, the Nine-Tailed Fox, and Annie, the Dark Child. All of these are great mages, and Ahri, in particular, when mastered, is very, very deadly.

Look out for part 2, coming in about three days!

-2Cool4Usernames

Carpe Diem

Seize the Day. That is the exact meaning of "Carpe Diem", a Latin term taken from a poem by Horace. So how should this phrase impact your life?

In layman's terms, carpe diem means make the most out of it. When opportunity knocks at the door, open the door with gladness and determination. Because once the opportunity goes away, you may never get that chance again.

So, you're planning to do something you've really wanted to do? Then go for it, you dummy! Unless what you want to do is illegal and/or unethical, there's nothing stopping you from doing what you want. Just don't go overboard, okay?

Take it from me, once you've realized you've missed a really good opportunity, it hurts like hell. You know you could have done this, could've won that, but you just disregarded the chance.

A dummy's guide to League of Legends, part 1

Hey, guys! I'm feeling a little bit bored (and disappointed, damn PC won't let me try URF), so here, I made a sort-of guide to the peeps planning to enter the realm of summoners and champions, the League of Legends.

What is League of Legends?

 

For starters, League of Legends (previously known as League of Legends: Clash of Fates) is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre video game developed by Riot Games. It was designed to operate on the Microsoft Windows operating system. The game was first announced on October 7th, 2008 and released a year later on October 27th, 2009. The game was in beta from April 10th, 2009 to October 26th, 2009.

If you're unfamiliar with MOBAs, multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA), also known as action real-time strategy (ARTS), originated as a subgenre of the real-time strategy (RTS) genre of video games, in which a player controls a single character in one of two teams. The objective is to destroy the opposing team's main structure with the assistance of periodically spawned computer-controlled units that march forward along set paths.

Yeah, enough with the history. How do you play this game?

 

Each game starts with two games, with either three or five members per team. The main objective of the game is to destroy the opposing team's "Nexus", or the spawn point for the other team. Your spawn point is also your "Nexus". Sounds pretty easy, right?

Think again. There are three "lanes", or routes that the periodically spawning "minions" take, in Summoner's Rift. Each lane has three turrets that protect the "Nexus". Be warned, these turrets can, and will, hurt you, so to destroy the turrets, you'll need the cover of the minions. Also, attacking an enemy champion while under the range of a turret will cause the turret to attack you.

Let's talk about these lanes later on, and focus on another topic. Along the course of the game, you gain experience points and gold, which can be used to purchase items that improve your champion's stats, after completing select objectives. These objectives include, but are not limited to, killing an enemy champion, destroying an enemy turret, and killing minions.

Alright, how do I get this game? Is it for free?

Here in PH, the only way to play LoL is through the Garena client, which can be downloaded here. After downloading and installing Garena+, the next step is to download LoL from the G+ client. That's pretty easy.

Some of the champions that can be bought from the in-game store. These champs, along with a whole lot more, can be bought from the in-game store using Influence Points (in-game currency), or Riot Points (bought with real money)

As for the free part, well, I can't say it's for free. Though downloading the program is for free (yay!), there are numerous things that can be bought from the in-game store (not the one when you play a match). You can unlock champions (yes, these are bought), skins, and other things that can boost your game, statistically or aesthetically speaking. So, it is free to play, but to fully enjoy League of Legends, you need a fat stash of cash.

That's part 1 of "A Dummy's Guide to League of Legends", tune in next time for another edition!

-2Cool4Usernames (which, BTW, is my League of Legends name)