Hello, my name is Crown, Thatkidcrown, tkCrown, Sup Crown, whatever you may know me as. I'm writing this guide because I am tired of seeing players do terrible things in game. I feel like a lot of people I get queued up with have no clue as to what's going on in their lane, let alone the rest of the field. I'm happy you can get to level 11, I really am, but if you're going 2-9-1 every game, you need to read this. Hopefully I can cover a lot of basis in here, and I will be adding more constantly as I think of it.

I will be explaining most things in simple terms for those of you who aren't VERY familiar with the game. Everything will be in my own words.

PLEASE LAST HIT IN LANE. For those of you who do not know what last hitting is, it is when you constantly click around in your lane to avoid auto-attacking the minions, only stopping to attack the minion to get the final hit on it for the kill/gold/experience. The importance of last hitting is because if you simply auto attack, your lane gets pushed towards the enemy tower, leaving your further away from your base, meaning it will be much harder for you to escape if you get ganked by the enemy jungler or mid lane.

Here is a guide on that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qggKB98It0Q
(credits of the video fully go to DeClawd1)

CREEP SCORE AT 25 MINUTES (solo lane) :
Amazing - 250 cs - This is amazing, pretty much the best you can do, unless the enemy team is afk.
Great - 200 cs - This is what you want at the 25 minute mark.
Good - 150 cs - This is a good score, but you want to get a little more.
Bad - 115 cs - Work on last hitting.
Terrible - Less than 100 cs - You're either afk or bad.

ONE THING PEOPLE FAIL TO REALIZE. WARDS CAN COVER MORE THAN ONE AREA.

PLEASE BUY WARDS OFTEN. I DON'T CARE WHO YOU ARE, HOW GOOD YOU THINK YOU ARE, HOW MUCH MAP AWARENESS YOU HAVE. Buy wards. Every time you go back, buy at least 1 ward. If you don't have the money, make it every two times you go back, buy at least one ward. If you're solo top and you're dying because of ganks, you're not last hitting or you're not buying wards. Fix that problem and you will live.

Pay close attention to this whether you think you know a lot about the game or not, you may learn something. Wards are not JUST for watching buffs/dragon/baron. You can use them to watch a buff and a path in their jungle for more map awareness if you place it in the correct area. Here are some examples with pictures to explain what I mean.



DRAGON WARD :
Pay close attention to where the ward is and the space that it reveals. Placing it in that spot will allow you to view dragon plus the path leaving their blue. (That helps bottom lane prevent getting ganked from a jungler who just got their blue and came bottom)

BLUE BUFF WARD :
Placing the ward on the very far side of the bush near blue gives you vision of the enemy blue and three of their jungle paths which is a lot more than just placing it right next to blue. This allows vision of the path coming from mid to their second blue buff tower in case you've pushed that far and want to prevent ganks from middle.

RED BUFF WARD :
This ward here, although it does not allow vision in the bush, does provide a lot more vision in their jungle. If your team has more map control and you've pushed further into their lanes than they have, this would be the ideal placement for a red buff ward because it allows you to see when they leave their base to go in the jungle and in which direction they are going. However, in early game, when the jungler is still playing jungle mainly, the bush right next to red would also be acceptable since most junglers pull the lizard into their to prevent being seen.


WRAITH WARD :
This ward placement is very underrated to be honest. It gives you vision of their wraiths and if the jungler is coming from red/wraiths/mini golems to gank your middle champion. It also helps if you're getting dragon, you can see if they are coming to counter you and decide whether or not you want to continue/team fight or run/risk giving them the dragon.


BARON WARD :
Obviously a very important ward because of the benefits of getting the baron buff. You must have this warded at ALL TIMES late game. If you have a Wriggle's Lantern then you should constantly use your free ward from it on baron after 15 minutes into the game. There is NO excuse to not have baron warded at all times in the game. If you fail to ward baron, you will have a much higher chance of losing your game.


PINK WARDS :

Pink wards play a very important part in this game, especially in 3v3 where there is only two key points for wards. But in 5v5, you should pink ward baron and dragon very often to counter-ward your enemy team. If you are in a lane against a stealth champion such as Twitch, Evelynn, etc. then it might be smart to put a pink ward in the middle of your lane, or closer to one of the towers depending on which team is pushed further in. They are highly underrated in low elo and often overlooked completely, but they are vital to success! Make sure you don't neglect buying these.


SUPPORTS AND WARDS :

Your JOB as a support is to buy wards. You buy gp/5 items, wards, oracles, and if you have enough gold you get aura items (Shurelia's, Aegis, Stark's, etc.) If you're the support, BUY WARDS. That is your MAIN job is to support the team, whether you're healing them or giving them more vision on the map.
BUY WARDS IF YOU'RE A SUPPORT.

PLEASE don't play just 1-2 champions in every single game since you've started since you've started playing. Branch out into different types of champions, buy at least 1 tank you're comfortable with, 1 jungler, 1 ranged ad, some kind of support, buy one of every single kind of champion! Teamwork is the most important part of this game, and if you're not properly contributing to the team because the only champion you know how to play is Graves, your team will suffer terribly. I don't care how well you play Graves, you can't win every game by yourself. What if Graves gets picked? Then you're **** out of luck. Pick DIFFERENT kinds of champions, play who your team needs. If your team doesn't have a jungler, try jungling for once, see if you like it. Chances are, you may love jungling and be wonderful at it, you've just never given it a chance. This goes for every single role that a team composition needs (support, ranged ad, ap carry, melee, jungler, tank, anything).

Know what your champion does. I can't stress this enough. So many people pick champions like Mordekaiser or Dr. Mundo and call themselves a tank. Those champions are not tanks, no matter how they're built. Those are soak champions, they can take a lot of damage but can't keep an enemy champion on them/off an ally in a team fight.

Full Tanks:
(These are tanks with tanky abilities that support ganking, survival, and initiation.)
Amumu
Alistar
Malphite
Maokai
Rammus
Shen
Galio

Full Tank Substitutes:
(These are tanky champions that if built to tank, can properly initiate and keep an enemy off an ally.)
Xin Zhao
Jarvan IV
Blitzcrank
Renekton
Singed
Udyr
Irelia
Gragas
Lee Sin
Urgot
Taric
Volibear




Certain champions belong in mid lane. If you have an ultimate that will help win an early game team fight, you should probably mid rather than someone who doesn't.
Prime examples would be :
Katarina
Karthus
Ashe
Fiddlesticks
LeBlanc

These are a few champions who's ult is very important and need to prioritize getting it more than other champions. The five champions I just named could help turn the tides of a losing teamfight within the first 15 minutes of a game very easily because of their ultimates. Whether it be heavy AoE damage or an initiation from ashe's ult, it could be the difference between winning or losing that fight.

A lot of this is covered in the "Warding" section, but I'll go into more elaborate details in this section. You may not always know where your lane enemy is, but if they are mia, they are almost always getting some advantage from being mia. Whether it's getting dragon/buffs, or just scaring you into not pushing and they're in the river bush, they are benefiting from you not seeing them. If you want to scare your enemy into not pushing or playing passively, one of you in your lane must go mia, but try to stay in range of experience. So staying in the bushes in lanes, or jungling if your team doesn't have a dedicated jungler will make them a lot more scared, which will benefit you. But of course, warding is a very large portion of map control outside of the lanes, such as their jungle or dragon. Early game, if the enemy team has a jungler, make sure your river bush is warded to avoid being ganked and giving them first blood.

Okay, you're playing a support now. One thing about the support, you're not allowed to get last hits or kills. Make SURE you're letting your carry get the last hits and kills, and you're just helping him in the process. BRING CLAIRVOYANCE. You absolutely need it as a support, and every team needs at least 1 Clairvoyance.



Clairvoyance tips :

At 0:05 in the game, use clairvoyance on the enemy base to see what they are buying and who is going into what lane.

At 1:50, use clairvoyance on the enemy blue if they have a jungler.




When you are playing a support, there are only a few ideal starting item setups. One would be Faerie Charm, 3 Sight Wards, and a few HP/MP potions. The other is a Regrowth Pendant and a Health Potion, depending on who you're supporting as.


Your core build will consist of Philosopher's Stone - Boots - Heart of Gold

Your Boots should either turn into Boots of Lucidity or Mercury Treads depending on what you need.

Galio and Taric should always buy Mercury's Treads.
If you picked Alistar, Maokai or Nunu & Willump and the enemy team is caster heavy, pick Mercury's Treads. Blitzcrank, Gangplank, Leona, Sona, Soraka and Janna should buy Mercury's Treads only if the enemy team is extremly CC heavy. In all other cases enjoy the more stuns, heals and ults provided by Boots of Lucidity.