This guide is intended to teach the basic mechanics and skills of the popular MOBA game, League of Legends. Topics covered include: farming, lane choice, zoning, roles, and more. However I, the maker of this guide, will say that I am by no means a professional player and that all topics covered in this guide are only discussed to the extent my own knowledge and ability is capable of. I am and always will be open to suggestions. Thank you, and enjoy the guide :)

League of Legends (LoL) is and online team-based game in which opposing teams attempt to push 3 lanes to the opposite team's base, destroying structures called turrets and inhibitors along the way, and ultimately destroy the enemy team's nexus. Every 30 seconds starting at 1:30 game time, a group (wave) of units (creeps/minions) spawn from the nexus and move down a lane until they reach the enemy team's wave, tower, or champion, and begins attacking one of the aforementioned units. The game ends when a team successfully pushes a lane (or multiple lanes) to the enemy team's nexus and destroys it.

• Lane: One of the paths leading from your base to the enemy team's base and visa versa.
  
• Minions: Refers to any of the 4 types of minions (also called creeps) that spawn out of the nexus every 30 seconds.
  
• Turret: The tall statues that line each lane that shoot very strong attacks at any enemy within its range.
  
• Inhibitor: The round structure just after the third turret in each lane that when destroyed allows the destroying team to spawn super minions (very strong minions). Often abbreviated “inhib”,
  
• Nexus: The large structure at the back of each team’s base. Minions spawn out of it and two turrets protect it. It is the goal of the game to eventually reach this structure and destroy it. The first team to destroy the other team’s nexus wins the game.
  
• Farm: Used to refer to the act of farming minions in lane or in the jungle
  
• Top: Used to refer to the topmost lane on the map.
  
• Mid: Used to refer to the middle lane (which is the shortest also) on the map.
  
• Bot: Used to refer to the lane farthest to the bottom of the map.
  
• Gank: A term used to describe when a champion leaves his/her lane (or in the case of a jungler, his jungle) to target an enemy champion in another lane. For example, Warwick says "Coming bot for a gank." He is telling the friendly champions on bottom that they should prepare for Warwick to enter their lane and try to kill the enemy champions there.
  
• Mia: A callout used to alert allies that the champion a particular player was in lane against is "missing in action" so that allies can play more cautiously. For example, Ryze sees that Brand (the champion that he was laning against) has disappeared from the lane. Ryze would alert his teammates by saying "brand mia" or if Ryze is in the middle lane (which is most likely) "mid mia".
  
• Re: Used after an mia to state that the champion has returned to the lane. Using the example for mia, when Brand returns to middle lane Ryze would then state "re", "mid re", or "brand re".
  
• Care: Used to tell an ally to be careful. In the above situation, when Brand went mia Ryze might think that he would likely go top (or bottom, if the assumption that Brand was going bot) to gank that lane. Ryze would say "care top" (again, or "care bot").

In League of Legends there are 5 champions on each team, and each champion serves a different purpose, or in other words fills a certain role. While roles can be divided and subdivided many times, this guide will only cover the basics on roles in game. All roles below (with the exception of support) are expected to also try to kill the enemy champions WHEN POSSIBLE.

AD Carry - An AD Carry's job is to farm as much in lane as possible early game in order to produce a gold and level advantage. With these advantages (plus a few kills) a carry should have better items than the opposing team's carry and will be able to inflict large amounts of damage quickly.

AP Carry - The AP Carry is similar to the AD Carry in the sense that its primary concern is farming and gaining kills. However, a mid will also need to be able to function as a solitary unit as there should NEVER be 2 champions mid. Because of mid lane's easy access to all areas of the map, the mid will be able to reinforce areas quickly and therefore has a slight leadership role. A mid should focus on damage output with his/her spells in order to be able to burst enemy squishies (carries).

Support - Arguably one of the hardest jobs on a team, the support goes bottom with the AD Carry to assist them against the enemy team's carry and support. A support is responsible for keeping their carry alive and helping to zone the enemy team's bottom laners. A support rarely kills champions (they let the carry get the kill if possible) and does not farm minions unless the carry is not in lane and the minions are pushed to the tower.

Top Lane - A top lane champion can either be a Bruiser, Tank, AP Carry, or Assassin. A top laner must be able to function without much help because it is the "farthest" from the rest of the map. Mid lane is always easy to get to and bot lane is in close proximity to dragon so during the laning phase fights may break out in the river between bottom and mid which leaves top alone the fend for themselves completely.

Bruiser: A Bruiser is a beefy carry, normally AD, and normally melee.
Tank: A Tank does little damage (normally) but can take large amounts of damage.
Assassin: Very squishy champions with some of the highest burst damage in the game.

Jungler - A Jungler has a tough role in game. He farms in the area between lanes known as the jungle and constantly has to go to lanes to gank, or defend a lane against a gank, or even counter jungle. A Jungler needs to have good map awareness and generally decent game knowledge in order to make decisions properly.

I am dedicating a whole chapter to farming because it is UNARGUABLY the most overlooked skill that new players learn. The thought process seems to go like this.

"How do I farm? I autoattack minions until a champion hits me then I will attack him and kill him!!"

The major flaw in this (I know some people are like what the AUTOATTACK? :7) is that new players are valuing kills more than farm. Farming gives you money, experience, and lane control. A kill is worth approximately 14 minions. What does that mean? It means that if you get 10 kills you would have the amount of gold you would have with 140 creep kills. So what's the point of farming if kills are worth so much? Well, kills give less and less money as you get more and if you go on a killing spree the amount of gold the enemy team gets for killing you gets higher and higher. SOOO, if you farm minions primarily and only get 3-5 kills in lane, the bounty on your head will be lower, you will have the same amount of gold as otherwise, and kills will still give you lots of money in the most important part of the game, MID GAME!!
Play Video
Videos are coming soon for this section. I plan on making a video of how to farm well and a video where I show the math on the difference between kills and farm.

To begin this chapter I would like to provide a gamer's definition of these two terms.

Positioning: Used to describe the act of putting your character at a certain angle and/or distance compared to the enemy team in order to maximize damage or disruption, among other things.

Zoning: Describes a certain type of positioning where the opposing team's champions are forced to stay out of an area, thereby being denied access to whatever "resources" (whether they can't get into a teamfight or they can't farm) are in said area.

A video on zoning by myself is soon to be included in this chapter as the topic is difficult to explain in words.

Okay so by now you understand the basics of the game, how each role works, how to farm, etc. This section is dedicated to explaining how each role works together during each part of the game: early game (or laning phase), mid game, and late game.

Early Game: This part of the game occurs from the start of every game to the time teamfights start breaking out. During this phase every person on a team (except support) has the goal of farming minions in lane and trying to secure an early gold and level advantage over the enemy team. Generally in this period first blood is achieved and the general feel of the match (like how good each lane is going to do) is discovered. The AD Carry and Support are duking out a 2v2 lane on bottom, the Jungler is ganking whatever lane he can, the Top is farming, and the AP Carry is farming.

Mid Game: By this time in the game each team has scored a few kills and probably a tower or two. At this time teamfights will start to break out generally near dragon. During these teamfights each player has a specific job. The beefiest members on the team (the tanks/bruisers) need to start fights with the enemy and try to soak up as much damage as possible. The AP Carry (and/or assassin) need to focus the enemy AP Carry, then AD Carry in order to negate the opposing team's damage potential. The AD carry will need to attack the squishiest targets first (normally AP and AD carries, followed by the Support).

Late Game: In the late game players have a full build or are nearly there. Each team must be able to coordinate well and do their jobs, listed above in the mid game paragraph, well. Teamfights will likely focus on Baron now, as killing Baron yields an enormous buff to the whole team. All stated in the mid game paragraph apply here as well. The biggest difference between mid and late game is that a death in late game leaves you out of the action for a minute or so at a time.

8-2-12: First Published. Plan on adding pictures and videos later. Guide looks bland. Just a wall of text.
8-5-12 7:28 PM: Added 2 new sections. Videos coming soon. Guide is still just a wall of text. Planning on adding pictures and "beautifying" the guide when the learning material has been completed.
8-6-12 2:45 PM: Made a few sections look slightly nicer. Added first video to Farming section. One more farming video and one positioning/zoning video to do still (so far).