10/24/13: Made update section. Hoping to plan to make more updates as time goes on or until I get more things to say for League.

5/8/14: Went to make another section about leading in the League, as well as looking over and editing the other sections. Nothing too much to add at this part, as the opinion of feral flare with its changes and heal are already established, and I really don't have any different opinions on it.

To tell you all right now, this guide isn't made to be complete. NO, I am not being lazy or just ignoring this guide, but I know that the game continuously changes along with the meta. I will always try to edit and revise this guide, so that it will always be updated and good for the current season of the League. So when I mean this guide will never be complete, I mean that it will never be finished until League of Legends gets it last and final patch update or Riot Games stops supporting the game for some reason (probably never), so until then, I will never stop updating this guide.

Note: This Guide is going to be added to from time to time, hopefully maybe weekly. If you want to know more about a subject of the game or think that there is something missing, tell me in the comments. I will try to put everything that there is to know about the league here in this guide, but I may forget or miss some things that you need to know.
Enjoy

Hello, welcome to this guide. If you are here, then that must must mean you want to learn how to win games, right?

Well as much as I can tell you, there actually is more to winning a game than jsutsimple advice, like:

-"stop feeding"

-"dont ks me"

-"get wards support"

-"gank my lane already"

-and etc.

These are many things people think they should do and try to say to one another when in a match. However, not all of this can help you 100%. There is much more to being good at League of Legends than simply telling others what to do. So take a few minutes to go over these general guidelines on how to become a better player, and how to successfully win games with others.

Warning: There are little to no pictures or visual effects, so prepare for a moderate level of boredom when reading this. Sorry. :/

In you lane, you usually want to beat the other side and not let them pass your turret or kill you. However, what most people do not do in lower elo's (or ranks, with the new ranking system) is try to deny the other side creep kills, or cs. This is important, as they will get both more gold and more experience, allowing them to kill you and your team even if you did not die once to them.
List of farm-heavy champs (some example)
-Nasus
-Sion
-Master Yi
-Any AD carry
So solve this, try to zone them. Zoning is to get the other player far away from the creeps in order to deny them experience and gold, leaving them at a a disadvantage. By doing this, you will have more gold and levels on them if done right. However, zoning also requires you to constantly put them out of lane or the part of the lane with minions in it, making you having to keep an eye on them and the bushes (except mid most of the time) so that they don' get to close. Remember to ward your lane if doing this, as the enemy may ask for a gank to stop you from denying them creeps. Also, don't forget to get your own last hits when doing this, so you can get even more gold and experience for a better lead against your opponent.

Another subject on this is when to stay in the lane or leave. It it obvious that you leave to get items or heal, but when to do these things can be hard for people, as timing these ports back to the fountain can be tricky or sometimes wasted. If the enemy team has higher health than you and is pushing to your tower, just try to kill off the creeps for last hits and stay far out of range of the enemy players to harass you any further. Remember that those with flash and gap closers have a farther range to harass you and kill you, as well as those with farther attack range. So leave when you are low on health and being pushed way too much, as getting more items and restoring you health and mana will help you against them. However, in bot lane, try to keep at least one person in the lane, as the two oppoonents will have almost no trouble taking the tower if it is left completely undefended. But once again, in an extreme situation where both of you just can't win, don't stay and feed them further by staying and just leave immediately. The more time you waste, the less time you have getting stronger.
Here are some examples of champions that can do this easily, although many more champs have good far-range skills:

-Caitlyn (other ranged carries can harass you, but caitlyn has far ranged skills and a good attack range farther than most other champions at early levels)

-Brand/Xerath/Leblanc (mages in general, but these have an easier time with it and should be more wary against)

-Blitzcrank/ Thresh (can pull you in for the kill)

-Amumu/Malphite (will dive you can overpower you with constant dmg/crowd control/stuns)

As a warning, do not try to zone them out unless your champion is a great harasser themselves, as they will just hit you and leave you vulnerable to a gank and you will just die, making you lose exp and gold as they continue taking farm.

Another note on staying in the lane is if in a solo lane, you can do two things if you really wanna port back for items:

-Asking the jungler to cover your lane: If you are low and need to go back, but can not leave your lane undefended, try to ask if the jungler can come in and cover you lance for a minute or two. This will not only let you get some hp back, but the jungler can get some free exp and maybe some last hits when you are not there. If they are under-leveled, this will help the jungler recover from a bad start. However, this will reveal where the jungler is, allowing the enemy to counter-jungler them when they are not in their jungle or for a safe gank on another lane, since they know the jungler won't be able to get there in time to be of any help. Do not constantly do this, but only if you are simply need a breather once or twice during the laning phase.

-Kill the lane opponent: This is much more of an extreme approach, as killing them is riskier and harder to do. But if you can do this, you can go back knowing they are not leveling up while you are not there. This is no advisable, and most of the time you should just try to force them to port out instead and push the lanes right afterwards, killing you creeps using their turret before they come back to deny them those creeps.

sight ward
In many games, the only one that attempts to get wards is the support, and most of the time if they don't, we have a map completely surrounded in darkness, where opponents may be hiding to gank us or take baron silently. However, if you really want to have wards placed around the map, it can't just be the support buying the wards, Everyone on the team should be buying wards, too. This doesn't just apply to the laning phase, during mid and late game your team should be contributing at least 1 or 2 wards every 5 minutes or so. That way, much more parts of the map will be covered, allowing you to make better decisions of where to go and make better plays against the enemy team. Wards help so much during the game that no team should leave them out of their purchases.
Here is a list of what wards do in the game (enjoy?)

-warn against ganks during laning phase
-allows you to defend mosnters like blue/red buff, baron, and dragon
- teleport ganks (only for those who have teleport obviously)
- cover bushes to protect yourselves against campers and ganks
-using the purple ward against stealth chmapions
-using purple wards to take out enemy wards from helping them have cover
- to watch where the enemy team is going (stalker mode)

By using wards these ways, you can literally keep track of what your opponents are doing, warn your allies in case they may walk into an enemy ambush, or just check on baron and bushes constantly. Remember, keep buying them throughout the game, they will always help.

Note: Be careful of pink wards or enemy champions that have gotten an oracles. These will greatly hinder your ability to gain sight of the map. Pink wards are countered by pink wards easily or even getting an Oracles, but with the current mechanics of the consumable, you can't simply stop a person with oracles by killing them, so this will be much harder to stop from keeping your wards safe, as well as stealth champions on your side. To stop an oracle user, you can try to camp them if possible and kill them, making sure that they have no room to roam and eliminate the wards you have. You could even the battlefield by taking out their wards with your own oracles, but you must be wary that the enemy team will have a defense for this, since they were the ones starting the oracles roamer. So just be careful, and assume that if they kill your wards, that area on the map is dangerous since you have no more vision of it and they can take you out.

Whether it be the mid lane, jungler, or the top lanes, one role in the League is the assassin. Now while everyone SHOULD be focusing the carry on their team, sometimes their tank is in the way, there are too many stuns blocking your way, or the carry is just too far away and is using ranged attack and spells to beat your team. The role of the assassin is obviously to go in and kill the carry, then the other high-priority targets. However, while it is a simple job, assassins have to have certain abilities to be very good ones. Although your champion doesn't need them to kill the carry, in a team fight these would help a lot.

Stealth

This is possibly the most helpful if you are focusing on being a hidden killer. As what the name states, having this will allow your champion to go in without being seen. That way, you can kill them without them fighting back that much. This ability is mostly limited to only assassin champions, except maybe Teemo, who has a stealth move that can only be used if he stands still for a few seconds, which doesn't help in surprise attacks except if you are camping or your team leads the carry towards your spot. However, the purple sight wards and an oracle will detect you, and make you lose this advantage. Other things that can reveal stealthed champs are:

-Twisted Fate's Ultimate
-getting hit by Lee Sin's q (sonic wave) or his e (tempest)
-Hex-tech sweeper's active ability
-purple vision ward (just a reminder)
-Caitlyn's Yordle Snap Trap
-Caitlyn's ultimate (only if they stealth after being targeted)
-Lulu's Help pix move
-Nocturne's Q (duskbringer) will not reveal, but they should be leaving a trail of the dust behind them)
-Rengar's Ultimate (only the Rengar using it can see them during this)
-Nidalee's Bushwack traps
So while stealth is amazingly useful, it has many counters to them, and should be used only to get into a fight, get out of the fight, or to juke the enemy when being chased.

Mobility

Ghost Flash
Although Stealth is an ability limited to a few champs, mobility is not, and is one a most important skills needed to play a good assassin. Having a fast speed or instant flash helps you get right up to your target and finish them instantly. This is vital, for if you can't get in range of killing the target, you will be dead like your team. Techincally, having flash or ghost gives the champ mobility, but since everyone can take it, the carry will most likely have one as well. So champs with blinks like shaco or kha zix are very good at moving with instant bursts of speed across the area of the team fight.

High or Burst Damage

What is possibly the most important skill of an assassin, besides mobility, is to be able to take out targets quickly. Leblanc is a perfect example of this, as she can deal tons of damage in an instant. This is very important, as once you are attacking the enemy carry, everyone else around them will begin to attack you and try to stop you, so being able to kill fast is a very good asset to do this. IF you kill the enemy fast enough, you are more likely to come out alive and safe due to wasting less time attacking and more time moving around the map.

When to go in

After picking your assassin champion to fight on the Fields of Justice, the most important thing is to know when to go into the fight. This is usually the mistake people make when they are the assassin or anti-carry champ, as they usually go in once their tank initiates the fight. While the tank did just get the attention, this is much too soon, as the enemy team still have all of their crowd control ready to use, and by going in right after they will focus you with them, making you unable to move and do your job. You should wait once their big stuns go off, like after their Amumu or Zyra activates their ultimates. That way, you can go in without much trouble and kill their carry, allowing your team to win the game. Another thing you should consider is your position on the map. If you are too close once the fight starts, they will take you down easily as you are in range of their spells to disable and slay you. However, if you are too far, you will end up doing nothing, making your team lose the team fight and just be going in after your team is dead (dying soon afterwards most likely). You are not the clean up-crew after the fight; you are the one that going in the middle of one once the enemy team is already focused on a target, giving you at least a few seconds to complete your mission.

This chapter is more of an ideal rather than something set like stone, but it does help to
have a solid ideal of what the leader of your team is. Whether it be someone who is carrying your team or the one that is actually telling the others what to do, the leader is a role that isn't set by any role. However, I believe that it is important to have some form of captain that is able to command the team and get them all to work and fight as one, as a unified team is better than a disorganized one. In ranked, this is extremely important, as most games in the lower elo's are won because the other team can't stick together, one person goes Rambo and accomplishes nothing, or nobody on the enemy team can seem to actually start a team fight or even group up for an objective. By having a leader, your chances of winning will definitely be increased, but remember that the rest of the team actually has to listen and follow him/her/it for the leader to be effective.

Picking a leader

The first thing that you need to do is select either yourself or another teammate as the leader, who will be one making the calls when to do things. Remember, don't just pick yourself because you think you will be the best option out of everyone else. Try to see how everyone else is playing, as well as their chat, and decide one one person. You can try to do this by typing in for everyone to follow the one you think should be the leader and if everyone agrees, it should work out well and your chances of winning will greatly increase.
However, about people that don't want to have or follow a leader, try to convince them that it will in their best interest to follow the rest of the team, and if at the end if you can't make him follow the rest in the end. You have two options:
1. Ignore the one ignoring the rest of the team: This way you are stuck in a 4v5, but it's generally better than doing nothing at least. Sadly this option is probably going to make you lose if the other team is more competent than you, even if you are ahead, unless you are ahead by like 20 kills.

2. Follow the deserter: Now this sounds incredibly weird, foolish, and dumb, but in League you need to have all of your team at all times. So by making him the "leader", you can simply just tail him and thus have him lead you. If he tries to do objectives alone, just tail him and you will have a likelier chance of winning than if that player went alone with you and the rest of the team going another way. Of course don't do this if that player is just walking aimlessly or not going to try and be a benefit to the team.

The Cautionary tale of a bad leader

While having a leader will be very beneficial to a team, there are sometimes in which you need to abandon your so called "leader". Here are the following traits of a bad leader:
1. The leader tries to start team fights all the time. This is foolish and eventually the enemy team will adapt to this and start using it to their advantage when your team starts with a poor initiation. Unless the enemy team really can not fight you at all, fighting them all the time is not a good plan.
2. He forces everyone to group up all the time. Yes, staying together as a team is very important, but there are lots of times in the game where splitting up and taking more than one point on the map can really help out. Of course being a distorted team is bad, but a good leader knows when dividing your forces to divide and conquer is a good idea. Being grouped all the time will also force your team in tough situations if you are behind if one of the enemy champions split pushes when thy see all of you far away from your base. So sometimes being able to swarm the field rather than be stuck all in one place is a better idea.

For now this it all you need to know about the League, but to brush up on what you should know, here is a list.

Summary:

-Buy wards (everyone) and put in bushes mostly as much as possible
-don't take risks without a good back-up plan
- AD Carries should attack the enemy squishies, but they should have a good position and not be in a dangerous area. They should attack whomever is closest to them if going in any closer means death, but should not be a wuss.
- The assassins (people like shaco/malphite/Zed/Leblanc) should be focusing the ones that can be killed the easiest, generally the support or carry
-Tanks Should initiate and try to block the way of the enemy carries ( stick on to them) and apply crowd control on them (duh)



Hopefully, these tips in this guide will help you become a better player overall, as well as learning how to overcome some problems you may have when working with your team. Thank you for reading this guide. Best of luck in your next match, and don't forget to have fun!