General Guide by Jebus McAzn

Preface/Disclaimer

Special thanks to Kibblinator for this amazing banner!


If you came to this thread only interested in suggestions on who to buy next, you can skip down here. However, I do recommend you read the whole thing, as you might learn something.



Alright, if you've been around the MOBAFire forums as much as I have, you'll know that there's one type of thread that you see a lot.

"Hey, guys, I've got XXXX amount of IP! Who should I buy next: This guy, this guy, or this guy?"

And the answers that the experienced members of our community give are usually the same. "Play someone whose playstyle you're familiar with, or someone who you really like that you've tested."

This guide will hopefully serve to answer this general question with a specific answer, along with many more, in one fell swoop.

This guide will NOT give an in-depth guide to each champion. If that's what you're looking for, I recommend simply looking at the first few highest rated builds for each champ.

By the way, if you're not active on the forums, now is a great time to start! Make an account, log in, and go click on the "Forum" tag near the top of the screen!

Theme - Team Composition

League of Legends is a game of teamwork. It is generally impossible for a group of people to beat another group of more people - this is why high-level commentators like TreeEskimo always stress the importance of having 5 men at Baron or backing out of a 3v4 fight. Yet even in a balanced fight, with 5 people on each side, it's not uncommon to see one side completely dominate the other. Why is this?

I'd be willing to say that in an even game, most of the team-fight losses are caused by team composition.

Many have said this before, and this should be old news to you, but the ideal team should have:

-A tank
-A ranged AD carry
-An AP carry
-A support
-An offtank or a bulky melee DPS (5th member is pretty flexible - optional additional carry)
-A jungler (any of the above can fill this role - usually the tank or the offtank).

With this balance in a team, you already have an advantage going into a large fight. Anyone who has ever tried to play a game with 5 squishy champions will probably find that everyone dies REALLY quickly. Likewise, most games with 5 tanks on a team just don't find themselves dealing enough damage.


Now while LoL is in fact a team game, many players go into what is known as "solo queue". And sadly enough, there aren't nearly enough people in solo queue (especially in lower level games) who realize this essential component of the game. Everyone wants to play the big ranged carry, everyone has a "favorite character" while not knowing how to play anyone else, EVERYONE wants to try the new champion and refuses to play anything different.

Don't be one of these players. I beg you.

You should never, ever have just one champion that you play. Sure, feel free to have a "main" champion that you consider yourself best at. But when you enter a solo queue game, don't rely on your teammates to select champions around you. You need to take the initiative and be the one that adapts your champion choices to your team.

Let's have an example. I was recently quite excited to try out Jet's Gangplank guide in a real game. I get to the champion select screen. What happens?

One player instantly chooses and locks in Ezreal. Another chooses Lux and refuses to switch. Aside from these two locked-in champions, I've also got a Taric and an Ashe, who say that they're duo-queuing and really want those champions.

Guess what?

No Gangplank for me.

That's right, I sucked it up and played my good old Jungle Amumu build, seeing as we lacked a jungler and we needed a tank. And you know what happened? WE WON THE DAMN GAME. EASILY.

Sorry, my mini-rant is over. The point is, you need to have a variety of champions that you can play at least decently well, so that when you are in that situation in a ranked game where everyone else is playing their "favorite characters" and you're boned as lucky person number 5, you can choose a champion that fits the team well instead of completely screwing over your team, your ELO, and your allies' ELO.

That means you need to learn at least one of the following:
-A tank
-A ranged AD carry
-An AP carry
-A support
-An offtank or a bulky melee DPS (5th member is pretty flexible - optional additional carry)
-A jungler (any of the above can fill this role - usually the tank or the offtank).



Wait... Doesn't that look familiar? You bet your *** it does.



The following sections will include 5 champions that fall into the above roles that I believe every player should know how to play, or at least champions similar to the ones I suggest. They are all relatively low-priced, ranging from 450 to 3150 IP, and will all test your basics and strengthen your fundamentals of League of Legends.

The Tank | Map Awareness

Every team needs a tank. There's no arguing otherwise. This is the massive son of a ***** saying "HELL NO" when you ask nicely if you can nuke down that Ashe on their team. The ideal tank needs a way to stop enemies from attacking his carries and needs to be bulky as hell to do it.

When you play a tank, you need to be reliable as a meatshield, soaking up damage so your carries can continue to do their thing. A Miss Fortune with 800 DPS can't do **** if she's dead.

Tanks most commonly seen are:
- Jarvan IV
- Amumu
- Rammus
- Cho'Gath
- Singed


Some less common but still viable picks are:
- Leona
- Shen
- Malphite
- Galio
- Alistar
- Mordekaiser (people are going to hate me for this)
- Gragas
- Nasus
- Sion (if building AD/tank)

Yes, yes, I know that some of these champions aren't the best tanks. I know that some of these champions are often built differently. The point is, if you can learn to play a champion from the above list well as a tank, you can be there for your team when they need a tank in champion select.

Try to use the above mentality for all following lists.

In this particular instance, I'll be talking about Shen. He's 3150 IP, so he's one of the more expensive champions on this list of 5, and he's widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, tank in the game.

His E constitutes an extremely powerful 2.5 second taunt at rank 5 - oh, and it's area-of-effect. This gives him the "crowd-control" portion of being a tank. The more the enemy team attacks you, the less they're attacking your carry.

His other basic skills are just alright - there's nothing too special about them compared to other tanks, to be honest, although they're by no means lackluster. They simply lack the appealing qualities that skills like Bandage Toss or Powerball have.

His ultimate, Stand United, however, is what makes him so incredibly powerful and such a common ban in ranked games. Essentially, he can shield someone from anywhere on the map and teleport to them after a delay. This is gamebreaking. He can turn a losing 2v2 into a winning 2v3, he can assist in ganks, he can save your mid carry from being killed. The reason Shen is so powerful is that he has a "zone" of pressure that extends across the entire map. When the enemy team is 2-man ganking a target, they need to always be cautions of a Shen ult. When a team blows 4 summoner spells and 2 ultimates trying to chase down a Teemo, only to have him be saved by the shield, they've lost a lot and gained nothing.

Buying Shen will teach you the essentials of being a tank - when to move forward, when to retreat, and most importantly, how to protect your carries through positioning and crowd control. Shen in particular will also test your map awareness, as any good Shen player will always be checking the map for big fights and people in need of his ultimate.

Conclusion:
-Kind of cheap (3150 IP)
-Powerful CC, strong base stats
-Extremely powerful ultimate
-Will improve map awareness greatly

The Ranged AD Carry | Zoning

Before we start this section, I'd like to define the term "carry" and a few other words that some people may not know. A "carry" is a champion that generally has a weak early game but blossoms into a powerful damage dealing champion late-game, once they've received some good items and high-ranked skills. So you need your team to carry you through the early game while you'll be carrying them through the late-game.

A "soft" carry is a champion that only require powerful skills to do well and aren't as item reliant. Soft carries include Anivia and Annie, for example, since they can still do great damage without good items (although better items are obviously preferable). Most mages are soft carries.

A "hard" carry is a champion that needs a powerful item build and isn't as skill reliant in order to dominate a game. Hard carries include Tryndamere and Ashe.

Also an essential on almost every team, the AD ranged carry is the champion that takes long range potshots at enemies and towers and can crush a team if left unchecked. However, as a carry, these characters tend to be quite weak early game, requiring a stronger item build and higher ranked skills to be useful in a fight. But once they reach that point, watch your ***.

When you play a ranged carry, you need to know where your relative zone of safety is. Your job in a fight is to deal as much damage as humanly possible without dying. Did you catch that last bit? WITHOUT DYING.

It generally isn't your job to kite around and deal damage. Ideally, you will be a mobile machine gun that takes down everything in its path if left unchecked. Your tank needs to ensure that you are left unchecked (consider Shen's Shadow Dash or Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy. And in the event you are, you will deal so much death and destruction on the enemy team that they will regret not banning whoever you're playing. Even if you're carrying with DPS Soraka.

Some of the most common ranged AD carries include:
- Ashe
- Corki
- Urgot
- Vayne
- Miss Fortune
- Tristana
- Caitlyn

Less common but viable picks include:
- Ezreal
- Sivir
- Twisted Fate
- Twitch
- Kog'Maw (kind of, majority of his damage is magic)
- Nidalee (also kind of, only if building AD/AS)
- Teemo (Again, only if building AD/AS)

Here I'll talk about Ashe. She is the epitome of a good carry. Her abilities allow you to mercilessly chase down and crush enemies - her ultimate is made for ganks and kills, her E lets her get her items faster and prevents enemy ganks. At only 450 IP, Ashe is one of the best carries to buy in the game, even though she's so cheap.

Ashe will help you learn how to play a ranged carry efficiently. Just because she's weak early-game doesn't mean that she's doomed in the lane - other champions are often just as weak. Playing Ashe will teach you how to harass and zone effectively while keeping your map awareness up and still getting creep farm.

Zoning with Ashe constitutes letting your creep wave push to your tower (again, an essential part of last-hitting) and standing in front of the ranged creeps, threatening to hit your opponent with a Volley or with an autoattack. When your Focus is up for a crit, try to harass opponents with it. If you see an opening, hit them with Volley. Part of playing a carry is being able to be aware of your surroundings and to exploit your opponent for not doing the same.

Shurelia has an excellent video on zoning that I highly recommend you watch, no matter who you play.



In a mid lane, it comes down to who plays better. If you do that as a carry, you've gained a lot of momentum for the rest of the match.

Ashe in particular gives you extra gold for each creep kill with Hawk Shot and also lets you scout the map, so she's a great introduction into playing a ranged carry well. You'll get your key items faster and you'll escape ganks more often. But just because she's easier to play doesn't mean she's easy to master - a brilliant player controlling an Ashe is still one of the most dominant forces in the game. Don't think that Ashe is inferior to other carries just because she's cheaper to buy or easier to master.

Conclusion:
-Noob-friendly. Built in ward on a 60 second cooldown, extra gold for kills
-Strong harasser in lane
-Strong champion late-game
-Extremely cheap, is free very often.

The AP Carry | Last Hitting

Take a look at that video. Start 3 minutes in. That is a game from the WCG finals between CLG and Epik, both of which have some really big names in them.

Now if you'll notice, at around 3:20, Salce (playing Annie) kills HotshotGG (playing Kog'Maw) in about 3 seconds with her combo. It happened so quickly that Phreak, the commentator, missed it completely. Because of that, CLG didn't have a ranged carry for the rest of that fight, barring Kennen, and ended up losing more people than they normally would have.

That is the role of the AP carry in a fight. You track down their AD carry and kill them. Because in a big fight, the one who does the most damage will be the powerful champion in the back, landing repeated hits that all do upwards of 200, 300 damage. But your burst is so powerful that you can generally find one of these champions and simply take them down.

AP carries are sometimes called "mages" because they're incredibly spell reliant. Most spells scale off of ability power, hence the "AP". Now certain champions have better scaling than others, or just have better skills than others, and this is what designates them as powerful "mages" to have on a team.

The most common AP carries are:
- Orianna
- Annie
- Brand
- Fiddlesticks
- Twisted Fate
- Malzahar
- Vladimir

Less common (but not necessarily less viable!) carries are:
- Anivia
- Ryze
- Karthus
- Lux
- Veigar
- Kassadin
- LeBlanc
- Cassiopeia

I would like to note that these champions are not necessarily the only AP carries in the game. This is a compilation of all the champions that, 99% of the time, will build like an AP carry. Sure, you might see the occasional tank Annie or AD Fiddlesticks, but you generally won't. There are plenty of other AP carries as well, like Sion or Swain, but these characters aren't "mages" all the time.

I choose Annie for this particular example. She's only 1350 IP, so she's pretty easy to get, and she will boost one area of your fundamentals greatly - last hitting.

Disintegrate is a wonderful spell. It's on a low cooldown, and every time you use it to last hit a minion, the mana you paid to cast it is refunded. If you're bad at last hitting with it, or if you just spam it on cooldown, the spell will punish you for your poor play and leave you out of mana very quickly. And a mage that can't cast spells is just a slab of meat, waiting to feed the enemy team. Playing Annie will force you to learn how to last hit well, and that skill will play off immensely in later games.

"But Jebus," you shout, "Why is this stupid 'last hitting' so important anyway?"

Well, you only get gold if you were the one that killed the minion, not your minions or towers. Now when you get a successful last hit, you see gold pop up, ranging from around 15 gold to over 30, depending on the type of minion killed. This, at first, really does seem inconsequential, doesn't it? Then you start to realize that the average minion wave contains around 100 gold. Then you realize that you can conceivably have a B. F. Sword at around 10 minutes into the game if your last hitting is perfect. You don't even need a kill.

Still don't believe me? Alright, who watched the ESL series? One of the quarterfinal games was CLG vs. LowELO, with CLG being the widely favored victor. Now early game, LowELO was surprisingly ahead, at least at first glance. They were up one or two kills, and had gotten two Dragons - that's a huge advantage, right?

Then Phreak opened the creep scores. Ashe in mid, played by Chauster, had over 170 creep kills by the time the opposing Corki in mid had just over 100. Their second most farmed carry, Kassadin, had been farming top and had around 150 creep kills. The second most farmed character on LowELO was at only 85.

What kind of disparity is that? To put it into pure numbers, these two champions had around 2000 more gold than the opposing "top farmers". Even with 2 Dragons and 2 kills, you don't even come close to that - about 600 gold behind, actually.

So at the 25 minute mark, CLG pushed out. Ashe had her Infinity Edge already, Kassadin just finished his Rabadon's Deathcap. They aced the enemy team 5-0, and did it again a few minutes later. CLG won the game.

This is how essential last hitting is to the game. It means the difference between recalling back to buy a Needlessly Large Rod or recalling back to buy a Blasting Wand and a Health Potion. It's the difference between having I-Edge at level 12 and having it at level 16. Realize that a champion kill is only worth around 20 minions in terms of pure gold, and you're getting a lot more experience for 20 minions than you are for a champion kill.

Anyway, back on topic. Annie will force you to learn how to last hit. As a mage, she's also one of the strongest picks in the game, as her skills all scale extremely well with AP and with rank. What makes her so potent is her Energize--> Summon: Tibbers combo, which can stun an entire team and deal thousands of damage in seconds if they cluster up. It can also be used to drop carries extremely quickly, as you saw in the video.

Conclusion:
-Will force you to learn how to last-hit well
-Strong burst mage, second only to champions like Veigar and Anivia, and exceeds them in other aspects.
-Cheap, free quite often.

The Support | Babysitting

Everyone wants to be the hero of the game. Everyone wants to have tons of kills, no deaths, and no assists, because they killed everyone too quickly for anyone else to get an assist. In short, everyone wants to play a carry and be the baller of their team.

Sadly, this doesn't work.

If you've got a game where you have one really fed Miss Fortune on your side, but the rest of your team is mediocre, what is the enemy team going to do? Like I said in the beginning, they will FOCUS HER *** DOWN.. And after she's gone, you've lost your main source of damage.

More often than not, the fed champion will actually succeed in carrying the game, but sometimes, they need someone to help them not die instantly. This should be the tank, but he can't do everything.

This is where the support comes in. Support champions are almost exclusively dual lane champions, who head down to bottom lane with an ally. Support champs generally don't need as much gold as others and are designated to keep allies alive while maintaining a high assists to deaths ratio.

The best support champions include:
- Janna
- Taric
- Soraka
- Sona
- Zilean

More uncommon but still viable picks are:
- Alistar
- Morgana
- Karma
- Kayle (if building support and not AP or AD/AS)
- Nidalee (same as above)
- Heimerdinger (Again, if not going full AP)

The reason why I say "best" this time instead of "most played" is because those five champs are, in short, the 5 best support champions in the game. The uncommon picks all have some purpose other than support - they can nuke, or go damage, or tank. The five champions up top are almost always exclusively support champs, with few exceptions.

I chose Janna for my example - she is, in my opinion, one of the strongest, if not the strongest, support in the game. Consider that at rank 5, her Eye Of The Storm is equivalent to a B. F. Sword. That's at level 9 - remember how I said that your carry could potentially get a BF Sword by level 11 if she farmed well? That's Janna for you.

She has a knock-up with her Howling Gale, which is useful for initiation, escape, slowing, or just farming minions. Her Zephyr is a built-in slow and a decent AP nuke, while also giving yourself a passive movement speed buff and the ability to float through minions. Finally, Monsoon is her game-breaking skill - you can reset a team fight completely, you can heal your team up after a battle, you can disrupt the enemy team positioning with it, or my favorite: You can be a mailperson.


Yep. She's fun to play.

Why do you need a support on your team? Well, when the moment gets down to it, you will have one champion on your team that the enemy will focus down. They will be so determined to kill this champion that it's unlikely that he/she will survive the next team fight, unless your tank is absolutely amazing. Your job is to keep that champion alive no matter what.

Janna does this. She shields the champ, providing damage mitigation in addition to extra damage. She knocks up enemies, snaring and slowing them and potentially disrupting ultimates. She slows that enemy melee damage dealer who is intent on destroying your Corki. She resets fights and heals with her ultimate. Everything about her screams "SUPPORT CHAMPION!".

By playing Janna, you will learn how to support your carry. More importantly, you will realize how essential it is for a carry to be farmed and fed early game, and that your own CS or K/D ratio won't matter when your carry is completely dominating the game.

Conclusion:
-Will make you better at giving CS to your lane mate
-Will teach you more about map awareness with constant use of Clairvoyance
-Will allow you to more readily make sacrifices for your team, such as dying to allow your carry to live

The Fifth Champion | Jungling, Offtanking

The Fifth Member | Jungling, Offtanking

The fifth role on your team is generally much more flexible than your other four roles. If you. Normally, in addition to a full tank, you also want what people call an "offtank", or another character who is bulky enough to take a lot of damage, to relieve some of the burden off the main tank. Another role that is useful on a team is the "tanky DPS", which is a melee champion that is an offtank while also being able to take down one character particularly fast. By playing a tanky DPS, you force your opponent to choose between two bad options - either ignore you and die to your stream of DPS, or focus you and get obliterated by the enemy carry. In a fight where both Olaf and Ashe are charging at you, it is often difficult to know what to do. The most common tanky DPS/offtanks are:

- Olaf
- Udyr
- Warwick
- Xin Zhao
- Jarvan IV

Other viable tanky DPS include:
- Renekton
- Mordekaiser
- Trundle
- Rumble


There are plenty more offtanks, like Singed, Dr. Mundo, etc, but a lot of these champions veer more towards the "tank" aspect and don't quite have the high damage output that the above champs have.

The theme of "tanky DPS" is a character that can deal a substantial amount of damage - perhaps not as much as a pure DPS carry, but substantial damage nonetheless, while still remaining tanky. These champions dive into the heat of battle and force the enemy to choose between two poor decisions: Ignore them and die, or focus them down and waste your damage on him as their carry takes you out.

A tanky DPS must be strong enough to run into a fight and dish out tons of damage, while also being able to survive most attacks thrown at them. They can't survive focus fire for as long as a dedicated tank could, but they're much beefier than, say Ashe. Examples of excellent tanky DPS characters are:

- Olaf
- Udyr
- Warwick
- Xin Zhao
- Irelia

You'll notice that many of these champions are also listed under "offtanks". There's a reason for this - a tanky DPS character always naturally doubles as an offtank They can take load off of the main tank, which in turn allows him to tank better and more efficiently, which in turn lets your carry dish out more damage without fear of being targeted.

Now if you'll bear with me for a moment, hold on to the idea of "tanky DPS". I need to discuss something else very critical to the game - jungling. This will tie in to the theme of this section, so have patience.

As you get into higher level games, you will see a jungler in almost every match. A jungler is simply a character who never enters the lane and levels up by killing neutral jungle creeps. A good jungler can level up almost as quickly as a solo laner.

Now what exactly is the advantage of having a jungle? In essence, it allows three of your teammates to have the experience equivalent to that of a solo lane. You'l basically have three carries. And ideally, you'll have a solo mid, a solo top, a jungle, and a duo bottom. Why always duo bottom? Simple, Dragon control is incredibly important and the bottom lane can reach there faster.

A jungler is almost always the one to initiate a gank, since they roam all the time. Therefore a jungler must have a strong initiate for a gank, and ideally some type of crowd control, although red buff is sometimes enough.

The best junglers include:

- Warwick
- Nunu
- Amumu
- Nocturne
- Trundle
- Lee Sin
- Jarvan IV
- Udyr
- Fiddlesticks

While other viable picks are

- Olaf
- Shen
- Irelia
- Malphite
-And many others

If you notice something, these characters all have quite a bit in common. They all generally have strong initiates or CC, and they are all quite beefy characters. A squishy can almost never jungle without sacrificing something in the way of runes, masteries, or jungle time.

For this particular example, I have chosen Warwick. He is widely regarded as one of the best junglers in the game, and is quite a strong offtank if you build him correctly. Warwick's jungle path is the most diverse in the game, as his natural lifesteal and his Hungering Strike keep him at extremely high health, regardless of which path you take. Because of this, he is widely unpredictable and is a constant threat. But the real point of worry comes to your opponents at level 6, when you get your ultimate.

Infinite Duress is one of the best ganking ultimates in the game. In an even battle in mid, with your Ashe against their Miss Fortune, Warwick can simply jump in, Infinite Duress the MF, followed by an Enchanted Crystal Arrow and a kill in mid.

With a good team, against a champion that doesn't pack some sort of really powerful escape mechanism, Infinite Duress is almost guaranteed to land you a kill when ganking, at least if you play Warwick correctly.

His build almost always includes Madred's Bloodrazor, simply because Madred's Razors speeds up your jungle time by so much and Infinite Duress has such good synergy with Bloodrazor. The armor from there will make him naturally bulky - however, a good Warwick will also always buy magic resist, usually Mercury's Treads, Spirit Visage, or Banshee's Veil. Those factors, combined with life steal, make Warwick an extremely potent tanky DPS. The build I post above uses Merc Treads and Banshee's Veil, along with a late-game Guardian Angel and scaling Magic Resist Glyphs, making him extremely tanky.

Most junglers require runes and masteries - for example, it is impossible to jungle Rammus or Malphite without armor runes, at least not efficiently. Warwick, however, is one of the few champions that can start jungling at summoner level 1, regardless of runes or masteries. Thus he is a very good champion for beginners to learn how to jungle with.

By playing Warwick, you will learn the essentials of being a jungler and an offtank. Warwick is not only easy to jungle with, he is also a very forgiving champion. You can afford to make a few minor mistakes and still easily finish your jungle. Compared to jungle Shaco for instance, where one mistake means the difference between a successful level 2 gank and a death to Lizard buff, Warwick is much less daunting for newer players to try.

The particular build I suggest with Warwick makes him quite beefy while still being able to dish out a large amount of damage though Bloodrazor, The Black Cleaver, and your Sunfire Cape. If a team focuses you in a team fight, that's a lot of damage that you've absorbed that your carry did not suffer. If a team does not focus you, you're ripping their carry to shreds.

Conclusion:
-Warwick teaches you how to jungle at a fundamental level
-Not a 6300 champion, so he's affordable
-Will teach you the basics of being a tanky DPS and drawing enemy fire

THE MOMENT EVERYBODY'S BEEN WAITING FOR

A lot of you have probably skipped down to this section of the guide just because you want to know who to buy. I understand. I'm boring. ;_;

The first thing I'll say is if you like a champion and are interested in purchasing him/her, you REALLY want to wait until he/she is free and test the champion out first before purchasing. For example, I blew my first 6300 IP on Ezreal without testing him first and I learned that I just wasn't skilled enough to use him yet.

Anyway, a lot of you definitely have asked the question "I have this much IP, so who should I buy next?" or "I like THESE champions, so out of this list, who should I get next?"

The following sections of this guide will give you RECOMMENDATIONS on which champions you MAY like and/or are best suited to your playstyle. Every champion in the game is listed somewhere in this guide, and I'll try to keep it updated every two weeks.

Champions Arranged by Team Role

Table of Contents

I. Tanks II. Offtanks/Tanky DPS
III. Ranged AD Carries
IV. Melee AD Carries
V. AP Carries
VI. Anti-Carries
VII. Support
VIII. Junglers

Tanks
Back to the Table of Contents

Amumu
Cho'Gath
Galio
Garen
Gragas
Jarvan IV
Leona
Malphite
Nasus
Rammus
Shen

Uncommon Tanks
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Alistar (Much stronger as AP/support)
Dr. Mundo (More viable as an offtank)
Mordekaiser (Stronger as tanky AP)
Singed (Stronger as tanky AP/offtank)


Offtanks/Tanky DPS
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Blitzcrank (Can be built either AD or AP, both are viable)
Dr. Mundo
Gangplank (Can also be built straight-up DPS)
Garen (Can also be built straight-up DPS)
Irelia
Jarvan IV
Maokai
Nasus (Seems to be built full tank but deals insane damage with his Siphoning Strike while still being very tanky)
Nunu
Olaf
Renekton
Rumble
Sion (Can be built tanky DPS or AP)
Swain
Trundle
Udyr
Warwick
Xin Zhao
Yorick


Ranged AD Carries
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Ashe
Caitlyn
Corki
Ezreal
Miss Fortune
Sivir
Teemo (While some of you may think that AP is more viable, The Rain Man carried himself to the top 5 on the solo queue ladder with AD Teemo)
Tristana
Twisted Fate (Better as AP)
Twitch (Also a viable roamer)
Urgot
Vayne


Melee AD Carries
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Evelynn (Can be built AD or AP, usually a roamer who capitalizes on early game advantages)
Gangplank
Lee Sin
Master Yi
Nocturne
Pantheon
Poppy
Shaco
Tryndamere
Wukong
Yorick


AP Carries
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Akali (mostly melee)
Anivia
Annie
Blitzcrank (slightly tanky)
Brand
Cassiopeia
Evelynn (Viable as an AP carry/assassin)
Fiddlesticks
Heimerdinger
Jax (Melee, kinda tanky)
Karthus
Kassadin
Katarina
Kennen
Kog'Maw (Both AP and AD/AS are viable, AD/AS more so)
LeBlanc
Lux
Malzahar
Morgana (Slightly more support and CC/utility than a carry)
Nidalee (Typically built AP, if you've ever watched HotshotGG play)
Orianna
Poppy (Can also be built AD)
Ryze (Ryze is interesting because he's sustained, tanky magic DPS instead of squishy, burst damage.)
Sion
Swain
Teemo (Viable both as AP and AD - however, even when building AP, still plays like an AD carry)
Twisted Fate (Both AP and AD/AS have been seen)
Veigar
Vladimir


Anti-Carries, or "Assassins"
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I'll insert a brief explanation here since a lot of people may not know what anti-carries are. An anti-carry is a champion that is designed to single out the biggest threat on the enemy team and kill it quickly, even if it means at the cost of their own life. They specialize in huge burst damages and generally have flashes, blinks, or movement buffs. If you like playing assassins, you'll like these types of champions.

Akali
Evelynn
Jax
Kassadin
LeBlanc
Lee Sin
Master Yi
Nocturne
Pantheon
Poppy
Shaco
Tryndamere
Urgot
Vayne
Wukong


Supports
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Alistar
Janna
Karma
Kayle
Lux
Morgana
Nidalee (Straight AP early game, usually becomes more of a heal/support/poking champ late-game)
Sona
Soraka
Taric
Zilean


Junglers
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Amumu
Cho'Gath
Fiddlesticks
Gragas
Irelia
Jarvan IV
Lee Sin
Malphite (Nerfed quite hard)
Nocturne
Nunu
Olaf
Rammus
Renekton
Shaco
Shen
Trundle
Tryndamere
Udyr
Warwick
Xin Zhao

Champions Arranged by Playstyle

I like being very aggressive in a lane and beating my enemy!
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Akali
Anivia
Blitzcrank
Caitlyn
Evelynn
Galio
Garen
Jax
Karthus
Katarina
LeBlanc
Lee Sin
Leona
Mordekaiser
Nidalee
Orianna
Pantheon
Poppy
Rumble
Twisted Fate
Urgot
Vayne
Vladimir
Wukong
Xin Zhao
Yorick


I like farming a lot and being very strong late game!

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Ashe
Caitlyn
Corki
Gangplank
Irelia
Malzahar
Miss Fortune
Nasus
Olaf
Sivir
Tristana
Tryndamere
Twisted Fate
Twitch
Veigar


I prefer to roam around the map looking to gank people!
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Alistar
Blitzcrank
Evelynn
Fiddlesticks
Kassadin
LeBlanc
Maokai
Nocturne
Pantheon
Poppy
Shaco
Taric
Twitch
Twisted Fate


I prefer to push a lane early-game and push towers late-game!
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Heimerdinger
Master Yi
Mordekaiser
Nocturne
Pantheon
Renekton
Rumble
Shaco
Shen
Teemo
Twisted Fate


I like a champion that takes a lot of skill to play!
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Akali
Anivia
Blitzcrank
Cassiopeia
Ezreal
Heimerdinger
Morgana
Orianna
Shaco
Shen
Udyr


I like a champion that's quite easy to play!
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Annie
Ashe
Dr. Mundo
Fiddlesticks
Gangplank
Garen
Karthus
Mordekaiser
Vladimir
Warwick


I want to be the main damage dealer on my team!
Please refer to the ranged AD and melee AD sections for this.


I want to be an asset to my team that lets my carries survive!
Please refer to the tank and support sections for this.

Champions Arranged by Viability

Okay, so before I start this part, I'd like to note that this is a section for the more serious gamers. These are champions that have proven themselves to succeed in high-ELO play and are meant for use in all ELOs.

Some of you may disagree with this list - that's fine. I'm just saying that some champions are simply slightly less viable in higher level play, not that you cannot ever win a game with that champion.

I am not a top-tier player. A lot of this list is based off of what I have seen directly through videos, livestreams, tournament play, and my own experience. If you have any disagreements or improvements to suggest about the list, please do so.

Without further ado, the list.

Table of Contents

I. Tanks
II. Offtanks/Tanky DPS
III. Ranged AD Carries
IV. Melee AD Carries
V. AP Carries
VII. Support
VIII. Junglers


Tanks
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Most Viable:
Jarvan IV
Amumu
Cho'Gath
Singed

Viable:
Rammus
Shen
Nasus
Malphite


Offtanks/Tanky DPS
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Most Viable:
Udyr
Rumble
Jarvan IV
Mordekaiser
Warwick
Alistar
Maokai
Irelia
Olaf
Xin Zhao

Viable:
Renekton
Nasus
Trundle
Garen
Sion (Can be built tanky DPS or AP)
Rumble


Ranged AD Carries
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Most Viable:
Corki
Ashe
Miss Fortune
Caitlyn
Tristana
Vayne

Viable:
Urgot
Ezreal
Teemo
Sivir

Not As Viable:
Twisted Fate
Twitch


Melee AD Carries
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Most Viable:
Pantheon
Nocturne
Master Yi
Tryndamere

Viable:
Shaco
Wukong


AP Carries
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Most Viable
Orianna
Annie
Brand
Malzahar
Akali
Twisted Fate
Kennen

Viable:
Lux
Anivia
Ryze
Nidalee
Sion
LeBlanc
Poppy


Supports
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Most Viable:
Soraka
Sona
Alistar
Janna
Taric
Zilean
Maokai

Viable:
Morgana
Lux
Nidalee


Junglers
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Most Viable:
Gangplank
Fiddlesticks
Udyr
Nocturne
Lee Sin
Amumu
Warwick
Xin Zhao
Trundle
Nunu

Viable:
Cho'Gath
Shaco
Rammus
Olaf
Irelia
Shen

Not As Viable:
Malphite

FAQ

Q. Where did you get the builds from?

Q. Are you a professional?

I'll add more to this FAQ as more questions are asked.

Changelog

08.14.2011
-Updated tier lists.

08.02.2011
-Added Wukong, slightly updated tier lists.

07.22.2011
-Updated tier lists again, added Leona.

07.01.2011
-Revamped a lot of the builds for the 5 champions shown
-Added Yorick to the lists

06.11.2011
-Updated tier lists again
-Added Orianna to the lists
-Updated Shen build to reflect buying Randuin's before Guardian Angel

05.22.2011
-Slightly updated Ashe and Warwick builds
-Updated tier lists, added Twisted Fate as one of the best AP carries, added a "Pusher/Backdoorer" section to "playstyle".

05.13.2011
-Added Maokai and Vayne to all the lists
-Updated the list to move Jarvan up as a top-tier tank

05.04.2011
-Updated a lot of the lists. Moved Nocturne way up on the jungler list as he's one of the strongest in game now. Moved Trundle up. Moved Jarvan up as a tank. Added Brand to the AP Carries section and Rumble to tanky DPS.

04.04.2011
-Guide published
-FAQ added
-Added Shurelia's zoning tutorial - thanks, Wintermond, for the suggestion!

04.03.2011
-Majority of guide written
-YAAAAAY