I'm also a newish LOL player, 2 weeks, and i feel that i've learnt a bit in that time but i have read so much that some had to sink in.
Don't get me wrong, my knowledge is still in the embryo stage compared to where it needs to be but now i would say i have a clue and can play some pretty good games where i either dominate or at least hold my own, mixed in with the odd game where i get owned.
Any new game has a massive learning curve and i'm from Sc2 which is the same but just different stuff to learn but at the end of the day you have to get stuck in and try to learn.
There's a heap of information out there and while i think certain Champions will suit certain play styles the one thing i have learnt from reading all the good players posts is that ALL of the Champs are good but not just good at everything or in all circumstances.
However at our level i don't feel we have to worry too much about that stuff yet because we are just learning the game so imo i feel it's best to try to play a more balanced type of Champion and build rather than an all out massive damage glass cannon because we are going to make mistakes, that's just what happens when you are learning.
As for the ragers and leavers etc, well that's just the game mate and i know it is frustrating but that's just the way it is so you would be best trying to just concentrate on what you need to do and try to forget your win/loss for now and just work on a few simple things each game like maybe last hitting and positioning.
Hopefully some more experienced players can give you some more advice, and i hope mine was ok, but just try to learn the basics and with time and effort it will turn around and you will be loving the game.
Good luck.
Don't get me wrong, my knowledge is still in the embryo stage compared to where it needs to be but now i would say i have a clue and can play some pretty good games where i either dominate or at least hold my own, mixed in with the odd game where i get owned.
Any new game has a massive learning curve and i'm from Sc2 which is the same but just different stuff to learn but at the end of the day you have to get stuck in and try to learn.
There's a heap of information out there and while i think certain Champions will suit certain play styles the one thing i have learnt from reading all the good players posts is that ALL of the Champs are good but not just good at everything or in all circumstances.
However at our level i don't feel we have to worry too much about that stuff yet because we are just learning the game so imo i feel it's best to try to play a more balanced type of Champion and build rather than an all out massive damage glass cannon because we are going to make mistakes, that's just what happens when you are learning.
As for the ragers and leavers etc, well that's just the game mate and i know it is frustrating but that's just the way it is so you would be best trying to just concentrate on what you need to do and try to forget your win/loss for now and just work on a few simple things each game like maybe last hitting and positioning.
Hopefully some more experienced players can give you some more advice, and i hope mine was ok, but just try to learn the basics and with time and effort it will turn around and you will be loving the game.
Good luck.
Since you seem to want to know basic stuff mostly, I suggest you watch some of the videos on this Youtube channel. I found it when I was level 5-ish and it helped me a lot with learning the game basics and finding some champions I liked. Also, watch streams, Guardsman Bob is my favorite streamer.
Yes, you need to play Normals. Do it. Eventually things will improve, and if you don't you'll be at a big disadvantage if you decide to later. Try to find friends to play with and it's a lot more fun. There is a Mobafire chatroom ingame where you might find some people to play with. Honestly, levelling up from 1-30 is probably the most fun part of the game, especially if you play with friends, because you can play whatever you like wherever you like and still do well.
Which server do you play on?
Yes, you need to play Normals. Do it. Eventually things will improve, and if you don't you'll be at a big disadvantage if you decide to later. Try to find friends to play with and it's a lot more fun. There is a Mobafire chatroom ingame where you might find some people to play with. Honestly, levelling up from 1-30 is probably the most fun part of the game, especially if you play with friends, because you can play whatever you like wherever you like and still do well.
Which server do you play on?
=D.
There are some times where it's a good idea to autoattack the minions, most notably when your lane opponent is dead or has gone back to base. Whenever I get a kill or my opponent leaves the lane I like to push my minions up to his tower. Your minions dying to the tower while he's not there means a significant loss of XP and Gold for him and can help to snowball you ahead.
You should also generally start to autoattack if there's a huge minion wave and it's going to reach your tower, to stop it taking as much damage. Just make sure to always get the last hit, because that's the important one.
The purpose of not autoattacking and only hitting once for the last hit is mostly to make it easier for your jungler to gank and harder for theirs, but I doubt you will see jungle players for a while yet. It might still be a good idea to practice hitting as few times as possible though.
Don't underestimate the amount of gold you'll get from last hitting either. For example, if your opponent killed you, but you have 20+ minion kills more than him, you're actually ahead of him in gold
There are some times where it's a good idea to autoattack the minions, most notably when your lane opponent is dead or has gone back to base. Whenever I get a kill or my opponent leaves the lane I like to push my minions up to his tower. Your minions dying to the tower while he's not there means a significant loss of XP and Gold for him and can help to snowball you ahead.
You should also generally start to autoattack if there's a huge minion wave and it's going to reach your tower, to stop it taking as much damage. Just make sure to always get the last hit, because that's the important one.
The purpose of not autoattacking and only hitting once for the last hit is mostly to make it easier for your jungler to gank and harder for theirs, but I doubt you will see jungle players for a while yet. It might still be a good idea to practice hitting as few times as possible though.
Don't underestimate the amount of gold you'll get from last hitting either. For example, if your opponent killed you, but you have 20+ minion kills more than him, you're actually ahead of him in gold
I would say it's a bad idea to buy any expensive champion you haven't played before, at least when you are low level. I suggest you focus on cheaper champions too, as price is not always reflective of how strong the champion is. Only get something expensive if you've played them and really really like them.
The reason you do badly on Caitlyn is probably just because AD carries are very team reliant and require positioning. I've actually been doing really bad on her lately. xD
Some good relatively easy and cheap champions to learn:
AD carries (Squishy dudes who right click stuff from long range):
Ashe
Tristana (she is free if you have Facebook)
Sivir
AP Carries (Mages):
Annie
Ryze (though he doesn't actually build AP)
Tanks:
Cho'Gath
Shen
Offtanks:
Garen
Udyr
I don't recommend playing a Jungler at your level, and playing a Support is fairly boring when you can't trust your allies, but here's a few for those roles too:
Support (Basically you stand around protecting your AD carry and not taking minions):
Soraka
Janna
Sona
Jungle (Instead of laning they farm the jungle for their XP/Gold, and they gank lanes to help you get kills):
Amumu
Rammus
Warwick (easiest to learn by far)
Udyr
That said, don't follow that list, just play what interests you in free weeks and buy them if you like them. There are a ton of other fun/good champions that I didn't include.
The only champions that I've bought without playing them first were
Akali and
Udyr because they are almost never free, and
Sivir and
Soraka because they are really cheap and I figured what the hell.
The reason you do badly on Caitlyn is probably just because AD carries are very team reliant and require positioning. I've actually been doing really bad on her lately. xD
Some good relatively easy and cheap champions to learn:
AD carries (Squishy dudes who right click stuff from long range):



AP Carries (Mages):


Tanks:


Offtanks:


I don't recommend playing a Jungler at your level, and playing a Support is fairly boring when you can't trust your allies, but here's a few for those roles too:
Support (Basically you stand around protecting your AD carry and not taking minions):



Jungle (Instead of laning they farm the jungle for their XP/Gold, and they gank lanes to help you get kills):




That said, don't follow that list, just play what interests you in free weeks and buy them if you like them. There are a ton of other fun/good champions that I didn't include.
The only champions that I've bought without playing them first were




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I'm stuck with playing solo matched vs. AI games; where I do the "kill mobs, see enemy, shoot the hell outta them, keep right clicking backwards so my champ doesn't run into a turret" mode. I know people say playing vs. AI is bad. Random matched PvP is worse: "Yay! Let's watch people tower dive while I deal with random aggro and AFKers!" I'm not getting anywhere. I'll read stuff that says "blah blah blah this person is good with all this junk you can't afford". Is this like some underground illuminati cult or something? Am I ******ed for not playing any RTS games past Star**** broodwars? Someone help me! I like this game and, I don't want to suck!