Using Items

Hello there, i usually lurk around the forums but, i decided it's time i take a step on learning the game mechanics and that stuff, basically i build my champions with builds i take from guides! and i know that builds vary from situation to situation, the problem is i can't use different items because i don't know what it's effects are of they suit the champion i'm using. Any guides on item buying and using? i really don't want to start buying random items for my champion and have a horrible game...

cheers!

Well you say you follow guides, so you
also do get some suggestions as to what start
items you should use. I don't know what you mean
by the effects, since you can see the effects of
an item by clicking on it or hovering your mouse
over it. But in the guides, there's usually a section
on alternate items you can use, versus various team
compositions; such as high AD damage, high AP damage
or very tanky teams. At least in the good guides.

If anything, just experiment :). You could even just
make your own custom bot games and check it out.

Generally when playing i will know my chosen champions core items and what they do for him/her.
Some items e.g boots, defensive items and some offensive items can be switched for others to help counter the enemys your facing. Also most guides have been written by people who have spent a lot of time on them so items they have suggested have been thought through!

Like The LZ said, many guides will show you gear that you can use instead or sometimes have full builds with a different set-up. Familiarise with both builds or items you can exchange and at least try in bots :)

Either way, any problems you have you can send me a PM and I can try to help :)

First you will have to understand the different roles and what they're supposed to do: AP Carry, AD Carry, Support, Tank, Assassin, Offtank.

There are typically standard item builds for each, even if switching up some items will be better per champ. Do you understand what the different roles are?

I'll try to find a good resource for this, since the ones I know of don't seem to be that comprehensive, and I'll check back.

http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/in-depth-item-guide-97205

Probably the best one we've got at the moment.

Watching streams of high elo players and trying out new items for yourself will usually give you a good idea of when to use specific items. Until you're ready to do that, just follow a guide you trust.

AP Carry / Mage: Goes pew pew, does lots of magic damage. Depending on the champ can be bursty (Annie), sustained damage (Vladimir), or an assassin (Ahri). These champs typically scale off AP, and as such you want as much as you can while balancing your surivability and any other stats you need like CDR, Mana Regen, Mana, and Magic pen.

Typical Items: Doran's Ring, Sorcerer's Shoes, Rabadon's Deathcap, Deathfire Grasp, Zhonya's Hourglass, Lich Bane, Rod of Ages, Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Void Staff, Will of the Ancients

AD Carry: Does a lot of sustained physical damage. Most of damage comes from auto attacks. Can be range or melee, but when people say "AD Carry" they are usually referring to ranged AD Carries like Ashe. These types of champs are usually the most gold reliant since their damage comes from their auto attacks and not abilities, so leveling up doesn't give them that much bonus damage unlike Mages. AD buffs auto attacks so we want a lot of that, along with attack speed, crit, and armor pen.

Typical Items: Doran's Blade, Berserker's Greaves, Infinity Edge, Phantom Dancer, Last Whisper, The Bloodthirster, The Black Cleaver

Support: This role is based around empowering / protecting your teammates rather than focusing on your own damage / survivability. Champions like these typically have abilities that work well even without items, since Supports don't take CS (Creep Score) from other champions and buy a lot of Wards. There are aggressive supports, passive supports, and tanky supports so you will have to build to match the style of the support.

Typical Items: Philosopher's Stone, Heart of Gold, Ionian Boots of Lucidity, Aegis of the Legion, Shurelya's Reverie, Zeke's Herald, Will of the Ancients, Locket of the Iron Solari

Tank: The job of a tank is to be on the front line of a fight and absorb a lot of damage. Tanks also usually have good iniation spells like Malphite or Amumu. Because of this they want as much survivability as possible, so they get stats like Magic Resist, Armor, Health, and Health Regen. They also usually build a bit of damage depending on what their abilities scale off of.

Typical Items: Ninja Tabi, Mercury's Treads, Aegis of the Legion, Shurelya's Reverie, Randuin's Omen, Warmog's Armor, Atma's Impaler, Spirit Visage, Force of Nature, Banshee's Veil



Hope that helped, I just decided to give a brief explanation of the roles and why they want those stats, then what items have the stats wanted for the role. Lots of champions are a mix of roles, and then there's roles such as Tanky-DPS which would be a combination of a tank and AD Carry or AP Carry.

Offtank/Bruiser/Tanky DPS/Fighter (it has a lot of names)

Bruisers are probably the most common of champions and are usually seen top lane and/or in the jungle. Generally they're melee champions with good offensive base damages and/or scalings, sometimes with defensive abilities. Unlike tanks, these champions usually lack a strong initiation tool but can absorb and dish out a lot of damage when they're farmed up and itemized. Usually they focus on protecting their carries, but can also target enemy carries if they get an opportunity.

Typical items:

Doran's Blade, Ninja Tabi, Mercury's Treads, Wriggle's Lantern, Trinity Force, Frozen Mallet, Randuin's Omen, Guardian Angel, Wit's End, Maw of Malmortius, Last Whisper, Warmog's Armor, The Bloodthirster

That's all I can think of at the top of my head.

EDIT: If you notice from the list of items I gave, most melee bruisers don't build Critical Strike Chance. Instead, they often build items like Wit's End that give a mix of offense and defense. Usually you won't see more than 2 pure offensive items on a bruiser, though there are some champions that may build more (like Riven).

Wow, thanks! every single one of you helped, ALOT! i'll read these in detail later, once again thanks!

cheers

If u feel to build random items just think that playing always the same build is also buying random items.
once u understood ur role(ex: if u are ad carry u wont buy warmog for first item) u should understand their team(more ap or ad? have they got mr/arp?) just try in normal different build even there will always be a core( ex rabadon for ap carry)

i have learned the roles, i usually go AP Carry, Akali most of the times, i know what items to buy and what not to buy, i have started playing different roles already, support and bruisers! thanks anyways !!