New Player FAQ

[quote=Mowen]>>>[url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/new-player-faq-62815]Guide Version of New Player FAQ (has pictures/videos)[/url]<<< Note: I will only be updating the guide version from now on unless multiple people express the wish to have the text only version. I find the guide version not only easier for me to manage but easier for the reader to find what he wants. Thanks. - - - [color=red]General Questions[/color] [b]Q. What champion should I buy?[/b] A. Really, we can't tell you which champion you should buy. For the most part the champions are fairly balanced. The best we can tell you is to keep playing all the free champions and find the ones you like, then buy them! If you ARE going to ask at least give us some insight on what kind've playstyle you enjoy or other champions you like. We would also recommend if you are going to purchase champions with RP (Riot Points) that you buy one of the champion bundles because they will give you the most bang for your buck. DEWO did find this nifty "What Champion to Buy Helper" though! http://trotsware.net/cgi-bin/quiz.cgi If you have even more questions on this matter you should ask them in this topic: [url]http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/general/which-champion-should-i-buy-should-i-get-xxx-or-xxx-which-from-the-following-should-i-get-megathread-3750[/url] [b]Q. Should I buy ____ runes? I'm level ____ .[/b] A. First of all, most people don't buy runes until they are level 20. This way you will have access to the top tier runes, because you will just end up having to replace any runes you bought before level 20. Second of all check out Sear's guides to runes to find which ones will be the most effective and give you the most bang for your buck for which slots. On a final note, they are pronounced "roons" not "ruins." :) http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/rune-tips-what-secondary-and-primary-means-and-more-24255 [b]Q. What is this "ELO" thing everybody's talking about?[/b] A. Your ELO is essentially your rating. It is determined by your win/loss ratio and how many games you have played. In normal queue your elo is hidden from yourself and others, but the matchmaking system still uses it to decide your opponents. In ranked games your elo is there for the world to see. [b]Q. How do I get Riot Points? How do I get Influence points?[/b] A. You can only get RP by purchasing it through the league of legends store, or buying the cards from participating stores (Best Buy and Gamestop) and redeeming the codes. You get IP by playing games. Every game you play you will earn IP even if you lose. However, you will get more IP / experience if you win, and you can get a First Win of the Day bonus to your IP every 22 hours. [b]Q. I was playing this character I liked, but now he's gone and I can't pick him anymore! What happened?[/b] A. Every week there is a group of free champions to play. After the week is over the free champions rotate to a new group. If you want to always be able to play a champion you have to purchase that champion with RP (Riot points) or IP (Influence points). [b]Q. What is Last Hitting? How do I do it?[/b] A. Last hitting is waiting until the minions have just enough health left so that one hit with your auto attack will kill them. This is very important to master and takes time to get used to different characters attack animations / damage. Why is this important? 1. If you auto attack the minions, it will push your lane closer to the enemy's tower. This makes him safer and you more vulnerable to ganks or the enemy's harass. 2. If you last hit you can get more gold. Gold = items. Items = powah! 3. If your character is sitting still auto attacking you will be easier for the enemy to hit, and you won't be able to easily dodge skill shots. I typically try to click around in a seemingly random fashion then last hit as much as I can. [b]Q. What is a Skill Shot?[/b] A. A skill shot is a champion skill that needs to be aimed rather than you simply click on the target to hit them. If you activate this skill a line with an arrow will pop up rather than a circle. They are called skill shots, well, because they are harder to hit people with than targeted skills. [b]Q. What are map objectives?[/b] A. Map objectives are neutral creatures placed about the map that gives you or your team bonus buffs, gold, or experience. [u]Summoner's Rift:[/u] Baron Nashor: That big purple worm thing... Yeah, he's actually very important. So important teams will fight for the chance to kill him. He's very hard to kill. He gives everyone on your team 300 gold, 900 exp and a buff which gives +40AD, +40AP, +3% of total health as HP-reg per 5seconds and +1% of total mana in mana-reg per 5sec. Dragon: This guy will give everyone on your team 190 gold and a bunch of experience to everyone standing near. He's a lot easier to kill than baron. This is the only map objective that doesn't grant a special buff on Summoner's Rift. Ancient Golem: This guy has blue runes circling around him. If you get the last hit on him and kill him you will get his blue buff. This will give you increased mana/energy regeneration, and increased cooldown reduction. Elder Lizard: This guy has red runes circling around him. If you get the last hit on him and kill him you will get his red buff. This will make your autoattacks slow and deal extra damage. [u]Twisted Treeline[/u] Source: http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=83554 Wolf - Crest of Nature's Fury that grants +20% attack speed and 10% cooldown reduction. The crest lasts for 1 minute. Banshee - gives Crest of Flowing Water that grants +45% move speed. This crest also lasts for 1 minute. Lizard - He still gives Blessing of Lizard Elder which slows and adds damage based on level. The runes last for 3 minutes. Dragon - Crest of the Crushing Wrath to each member of your team. The buff is straight +damage that scales with level, ending at +18% damage at level 18. The crests last for 2:30. [b]Q. What is a gank? [/b] A. A gank is when the enemy team coordinates to surprise you (usually when you're by yourself) with an ambush attack and kill you. This often occurs during the laning phase. Watch out for enemy heroes missing from other lanes. If there are a bunch missing be extra cautious and possibly hug the tower. [b]Q. What are wards and how to I use them?[/b] Wards are either [[sight ward]] or [[vision ward]] and they are placed about the map so you have map awareness (essentially you have more knowledge of the other team's movements). Wards are usually placed at map objectives such as dragon, baron, and red/blue buff. Look at this guide on warding for more detail. http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=237514 [b]Q. These freaking stealth heroes are so annoying, how can I see them coming?[/b] A. There are a few items that give stealth detect such as [[oracle's elixir]] and [[vision ward]]. Also simply having [[sight wards]] scattered across the map will let you know they are coming for a gank because they don't walk around in stealth all the time. Your turrets also have stealth detect, so hug those if you think a stealth hero is coming to gank you. There are some champion abilities that reveal stealth as well, such as [[nidalee]]'s Bushwhack and [[kog'maw]]'s Living Artillery. [b]Q. What is a tank/carry/mage/support/jungler?[/b] A. For a simple answer... Tank: Absorbs damage, leads the way in teamfights, initiates fights, saves the damage dealers Carry: Usually refers to a physical damage dealer that does most of their damage from autoattacks. This role does a lot of sustained damage and doesn't fluctuate much. Mage: A character whose damage is mainly from their skills. Their damage is more burst oriented Support: A character whose main goal in the game is to keep your team alive / cc the other team so the damage dealers can kill the other team. Jungler: A character who spends early game killing the neutral creeps in the jungle. They will usually focus on ganking and keeping up their levels with the people in lanes. This lets you have 2 solo lanes which will give your team overall a level advantage. For more detailed explanations read the roles section of this guide: http://leaguecraft.com/strategies/gameguide/145-delepitore-s-comprehensive-guide-improvement-101.xhtml [b]Q. What's the difference between a ranked match and a normal match, when can I do ranked matches?[/b] A. You have to be level 30 to participate in ranked matches. Basics of ranked matches: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/help/ranked-matches-1516 [color=red]Game Mechanics[/color] [b]Q. What is ability power? What is attack damage? Which ones make my skills better?[/b] A. Ability power (ap) is the most common stat for your skills to scale off of. If your skill scales off ability power the numbers will be written in green when you mouseover them. Ability power skills typically deal magic damage. Attack damage (ad) increases the strength of your autoattacks and scales of some skills. If your skill scales off attack damage its number will appear in red. Some skills that scale off ad deal physical damage, some deal magic damage, you will have to read the text to be sure. [b]Q. How does lifesteal / spell vamp work?[/b] A. Lifesteal takes a percentage of damage dealt to the enemy with auto attacks and spells with "on-hit effects" (like [[Ezreal]]'s [[Mystic Shot]] and [[Gangplank]]'s [[Parrrley]]) and gives it back to you as health. Lifesteal does not damage the enemy any extra, only gives you health for a portion of the damage dealt to them. Spell vamp functions the same way except for spells. AOE spells only give you 1/3 of the damage dealt as health for balance reasons. [u]Only active spells[/u] give health with spell vamp. Spells that hit the enemy and deal damage. Those that deal damage in other ways does not give health. [[Kog'Maw]]'s [[Bio-Arcane Barrage]] and [[Singed]]'s [[poison trail]] are both indirect magic damage and thus; gives no health with spell vamp. Spell vamp doesn't work with any item damage at all. [b]Q. How does armor/ magic resist / armor penetration / magic penetration work?[/b] A. In a nutshell, armor protects you against physical damage. Magic resist protects you against magic damage. Armor penetration reduces enemy's armor, and magic penetration reduces enemy's magic resist. For more detail about these mechanics, go here: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/theorycrafting/lvxs-theory-crafting-compendium-game-mechanics-and-effect-maximization-197 [b]Q. Are there any caps for stats?[/b] A. Cooldown Reduction cap = 40% (stacks additively) Attackspeed cap = 2.5 attacks per second (stacks additively) Things that stack additively you will see no loss in stacking. Things that stack multiplicatively you will see a reduction in the benefit you get for the more you stack (such as dodge, %penetration, and movespeed). [b]Q. How do I calculate my _______ on _______ champion?[/b] A. Here is a catchall information source on statistics and formulas: [url=http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Gameplay_Elements]http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Gameplay_Elements[/url] [b]Q. Do aura items stack?[/b] A. When you get an aura item, it gives you a personal buff, and then others around you get a different buff. So if you have for example, [[soul shroud]], and so does someone else on your team; you will get your personal soul shroud buff AND the other persons area of effect soul shroud buff. Essentially, you only get double benefits from auras if you are one of the owners of the aura item. Everyone else only has 1 stack of the aura. And of course if they auras are different, they stack for everyone. [u]Movement[/u]: Credit to Stumpster for this compilation! (and a few fixes by me! :3) [b]Q: How much movement do the different levels of boots add?[/b] A: Level 1 adds 50, Level 2 adds 70, Level 3 adds 90, Level 5 adds 130. Boots do not stack. [b]Q: How do movement modifiers work?[/b] (Credit to Larias) A: First, you have your base movement of say 300. You add boots first, always boots first, so if you have boots added. Let's say you get boots 2. That's 370 movement. Then, you get 35% movement speed buff from items or runes or masteries or buffs: that 370 is multiplied by 1.35, or 499.5 movement speed. If this is the only thing affecting your movement speed, the diminishing returns formula kicks in. Now, let's say you get slowed by 38% (ashe arrows). What happens is the ORIGINAL 499.5 is multiplied by .62, and you get 309.69 movement speed. Because 309 is not above or below diminishing returns, you stay at that speed. [b]Q: What are these diminishing movement returns?[/b] (Credit to Guinsoo) A: For each point of movement you would have above 490, that amount is reduced by 50%. So if your final movement speed was 748, it would be reduced to 490 + (748-490)*0.5 = 604. For each point of movement you would have above 415, it is reduced by 20%. So if your speed after all mods was 445, you would end with 415 + 30 * 0.8 = 439. [b]Q: Do slows stack?[/b] Source: http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?p=6643329 A: Sort of. Item slows do not stack - if you have two people with Frozen Mallet, for example, the slows will not stack. This includes two different items as well: if you have a Frozen Mallet and a Rylai's Scepter, the slows will not stack. Ability slows do stack; however, they do not work additively. If you have two 50% slows, it's not a 75% slow or a 100% slow. The first slow you put on a target always slows for the amount stated. Subsequent slows remain multiplicative, but slows beyond the highest % slow are cut in half (and then applied fully). Thanks for reading, I hope you learned something. I hope if people find this helpful enough it could get stickied. I would like to update it more if people have suggestions. I was trying to make this very basic questions and answers, otherwise if I answered all the questions why would we even need a New Player Help section on the forums? :P I was also thinking about making a guide with similar information, and that way it would be easier to edit / add pictures and videos, but I wanted new players to be able to easily find this when they were looking for help. Please tell me what you think / if it was helpful! -Mowen A Special Thanks to those who've helped with this FAQ: Searz (liek omg thx!) Lord Fragamacrunch Jebus McAzn (for awesome links / resources!)[/quote]

[quote=Fragamacrunch]This is a really good guide! I would +1, if I could...[/quote]

[quote=Zeprido]Can't... +1... thread... Great guide! =)[/quote]

[quote=Scrax]Should be stickied :)[/quote]

[quote=TheNaethryn]mowen you're a saint! i wish this was here when i first started playing! we should play a game sometime again ;). i give this an ethereal +1[/quote]

[quote=PotatisFarfar]Nice Faq mowen![/quote]

[quote=Searz]:/ the previous comment got removed. I hope you remember the changes I wrote. If not; I'll try writing it up again. [quote=Mowen] Is there a reason you took my example of kog'maw's bio arcane barrage out of the examples of where lifesteal doesn't work? Am I correct about spell vamp not working on on hit effects like that?[/quote] No, I just don't use any examples. As I said: "Only active spells (doesn't work with item spells) work with spell vamp. Spells that hit the enemy and deal damage. Those that deal damage in other ways does not give health." Things that don't deal direct damage does not give you health. That includes things like [[Bio-Arcane Barrage]] and [[Poison Trail]]. (they're both indirect) [quote]Also, I am pretty sure there is diminishing returns on stacking attackspeed. I have found various equations for calculating it and I'm not sure which one's right, do you know the most updated one?[/quote] AS = BaseAS*(1+AS from items) + (AS per lvl)*(lvl-1) Taken from [url=http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Attack_Speed]here[/url]. I've always thought it worked that way. [quote]And I know lvx's guide is outdated, but I have yet to find a better one.[/quote] Yea, let's hope we find one somewhere. I'm personally too lazy to write one up right now. I prioritize updating my builds over that.[/quote]

[quote=Mowen]I already edited the things you suggest and wrote (Thanks Searz) by them for the ones I didn't want clarification on. Yeah I was very frustrated while mobafire was having server downtime and my comments got erased 3 times! >.< Edit: Nope my editing is lost... and I lost the info you gave me. :( Anyways, for the attackspeed, I saw that formula but something doesn't seem quite right to me... Say I am using Kog'maw (lvl 18) and I have [[madred's bloodrazor]],[[malady]], and [[stark's fervor]] as my as items. Using this formula... AS = .668(1 + .4 + .5 + .4 + .3(passive)) + (.017)(17) AS = 2.0258 Tested these items in game with kog and items, got 2.028... so basically... you are right. I think I read a bad formula, and have just been confused in general trying to freaking figure out how to apply this forumla, thanks for finally clarifying. I think I got confused with the abbreviations in LoL Wiki and was already frustrated at failed math attemps... I SUCKZ AT MATHZ! Thank you Searz, editing now... -.-[/quote]

[quote=Searz]I'll just rewrite the parts that disappeared. "Q. How does lifesteal / spell vamp work?" Should contain: A. Lifesteal takes a percentage of damage dealt to the enemy with auto attacks and spells with "on-hit effects" (like [[Ezreal]]'s [[Mystic Shot]] and [[Gangplank]]'s [[Parrrley]]) and gives it back to you as health. Lifesteal does not damage the enemy any extra, only gives you health for a portion of the damage dealt to them. Spell vamp functions the same way except for spells. AOE spells only give you 1/3 of the damage dealt as health for balance reasons. [u]Only active spells[/u] give health with spell vamp. Spells that hit the enemy and deal damage. Those that deal damage in other ways does not give health. [[Kog'Maw]]'s Bio-Arcane Barrage]] and [[Singed]]'s [[poison trail]] are both indirect magic damage and thus; gives no health with spell vamp. Spell vamp doesn't work with any item damage at all. I clarified it even further and added examples. Now anyone should be able to understand it. Just press quote and copy the text to make everything as easy as possible :] "Q. What are map objectives?" Should contain: A. Map objectives are neutral creatures placed about the map that gives you or your team bonus gold and experience and in 3/4 cases also buffs that make you more powerful. Baron Nashor: That big purple worm thing... Yeah, he's actually very important. So important teams will fight for the chance to kill him. He's very hard to kill. He gives everyone on your team 300gold, 900exp and a buff which gives +40AD, +40AP, +3% of total health as HP-reg per 5seconds and +1% of total mana in mana-reg per 5sec. Dragon: This guy will give everyone on your team 190 gold and a bunch of experience to everyone standing near. He's a lot easier to kill than baron. This is the only map objective that doesn't grant a special buff on Summoner's Rift. I clarified that even further too. You should also add something about the buffs on Twisted Treeline. You should also add something about how movement speed and dodge loses effectiveness when stacking in the "Q. Are there any caps for stats?" category. Dodge is stacked multiplicatively. MS bonuses are reduced by 20% when exceeding 415 and by 50% when exceeding 490. Warning, math: To calculate how diminishing returns (stacking multiplicatively) works, you take: 1 - the% value on the stat from each source (all runes are counted as one source) and multiply them to eachother, then you take the answer -1 and reverse it to get the total amount of %. That is how dodge and %MrP works. %MrP is only attainable through masteries and one item though(that means 0.85*0.6=0.51 to get the max amount of %MrP attainable). This is probably not the best explanation for it though, I just did a quick one.[/quote]

[quote=Mowen]Thanks Searz, I updated the FAQ and gave you credit! :) I'm going to leave the math out and let them look at the lol wikia page that I added in the Q. How do I calculate _____ ? section.[/quote]