Welcome to the Beginner Tactics article. This article should help familiarize you with the basic tenets of League of Legends.


Champion Types

Roles – There are 5 main types of champions: Tank, Support, Mage, DPS, and Jungle. While “Jungle” is not an official tag, playing champions who excel at clearing out the jungle monsters can be just as important as playing your team’s Mage.

Tanks – Tanks specialize in two main traits: Absorbing damage, and distracting enemies. Often, this distraction can come in the form of disabling or “crowd-controlling” (CC) enemy champions. Alistar is an exceptional tank: Pulverize stuns nearby enemies for 2 second. His ultimate, Unbreakable Will, significantly reduces damage he takes for a short time.

Support – Support champions are focused on improving teammates. They can accomplish this feat through a variety of means: Replenishing mana or health, increasing movement or attack speed, shielding teammates from taking damage or getting CC’d, and more. Soraka has four support abilities: Passively, she increases he teammates’ magic resistance by 16. Astral Blessing heals a target and temporarily increases its armor; Infuse replenishes the mana of a friendly target, or silences an enemy; her ultimate, Wish, instantly heals all friendly champions for a significant amount of health.

Mages – Mages excel in dealing instant magic damage through various spells and also typically possess some minor CC effects of their own. Take Annie for example: Disintegrate, Incinerate, and Summon Tibbers together can deal over 1000 damage instantly when cast in sequence. Her passive, Energize, allows her to stun targets with her spells every few casts.

DPS – DPS, short for “Damage Per Second” are targeted at dealing extremely high, persistent physical damage to enemies. One common characteristic of a DPS champion is what’s called a “steroid” ability, which significantly multiplies a champion’s physical damage output. Master Yi has two such abilities: Wuju Style, which significantly increases his damage per attack; and Highlander, which gives him extremely fast attack speed, movement speed, and makes him immune to slows, allowing him to pursue his targets more easily.

Junglers – Junglers will also embody some of the above traits, but are also adept at taking out neutral monsters with no outside help. Typically these champions have a way to heal themselves or deal extremely high damage very quickly. Warwick is an excellent jungler: His passive, Eternal Thirst, heals him with every attack he makes; Hungering Strike deals significant damage to a single enemy and heals him for an equal amount.

Complementing your Team – A winning team contains champions from all walks of life. Many players love playing “carry” (DPS) champions. Summoners who enjoy the playstyles of tanks or support champions are much rarer. Winning a game can be as simple as picking champions complementary to your team!

Possible Team Composition – Here’s a sample, well-rounded team composition: Alistar (tank), Annie (mage), Ashe (DPS, carry), Soraka (support), Warwick (jungle, DPS)

Shop Interface – One of the key components of League of Legends is the purchase of items. Every champion comes complete with “Recommended Items” located at the top right of the shop. Following these items will leave you with a strong balance of your most important stats.

Starting Items – Purchasing some form of mana or health regeneration is extremely important. The first recommended item typically contains a relevant form of regeneration.

Building Towards your Role – Every stat has multiple complements: Attack damage, critical chance, and attack speed all work together to increase your overall damage output. Simiarly, armor and magic resistance increase the worth of your health stat. Mages can employ ability power, cooldown reduction, magic penetration, and more to increase their power. Experiment with stats that work well with your favorite champions!

An Item is an artifact carried by champions to enhance their performance on the Fields of Justice. Items are only obtainable through the Item Shop located inside the fountain, where they are displayed in five main categories (by their effect). They can also be divided by their Tier: basic, advanced and legendary. A champion can only carry 6 items at a time, making the selection of items an important part of achieving victory.
React to your Enemy – As you get more familiar with the champions and items, you should try to build items to counter your opponents. Executioner’s Calling is strong against healers. Last Whisper and Void Staff are aimed at defeating enemies with heavy armor and magic resist, respectively. Madred’s Bloodrazor and Deathfire Grasp work best against enemies with more health than normal.Key Items – There are a few extremely efficient items that will always support your team or always benefit your role: Aegis of the Legion is an exceptional tank or support item. Stark’s Fervor will significantly buff a friendly physical DPS champion. Infinity Edge is never a bad idea on any physical damage champion. Rod of Ages or Zhonya’s Ring should make an appearance on most mages in the game.

The item store menu is structured as follows:

Defense_____________________________________
-Health
-Magic Resist
-Health Regen
-Armor

Attack_______________________________________
-Damage
-Critical Strike
-Attack Speed
-Life Steal

Magic________________________________________
-Ability Power
-Cooldown Reduction
-Mana
-Mana Regen

Movement_____________________________________

Consumables__________________________________

Organization – In most cases, the jungle is completely non-random. Epic monsters always spawn in the same locations and always give the same bonuses These images denote the location of the various epic and normal monsters across the Fields of Justice.

Buff Acquisition – Not every champion can easily defeat epic monsters on their own. Some players like to acquire buffs as a team-wide activity at the very start of the game. Others, like Warwick, can comfortably destroy and entire epic monster camp at level 1. Others may want to employ the summoner spell Smite, which is aimed specifically at destroying minions and monsters quickly.

Playing as a Jungler – As a jungling champion, you should be able to quickly acquire epic monster buffs to accelerate your monster killing. Using these buffs, you may find that ganking (attacking enemies from behind, unannounced) enemy champions will be both easy and profitable.

Spells are the summoner bound abilities.
Summoners are allowed the use of two summoner spells during any fight in the Fields of Justice. They are selected during the Champion Selection before each match and cannot be changed for the duration of the match. These spells have a direct impact on the action in the battle arena. Summoner spells don't drain a champion's mana on use, but are instead usable again only after a period of cooling down. As a summoner gains experience and increases their power by fighting in multiple battle arenas, new summoner spells will become available for use.

1
Exhaust 210 sec Reduces a target's Attack Damage by 70%, Ability/Item damage by 35% and slows its Movement Speed by 40% for 3 seconds.
Cast range: 500 (estimate)
Cripple (Offense) – Also reduces target's armor and magic resistance by 10 and lengthens the duration to 3.5 seconds.
Presence of the Master (Utility) – Reduces cooldown to 178.5 seconds.
1
Ghost 210 sec Your Champion ignores unit collision and moves 27% faster for 10 seconds.
Haste (Utility) – Increases movement speed by 6% to 33% faster and lengthens the duration to 11.5 seconds.
Presence of the Master (Utility) – Reduces cooldown to 178.5 seconds.
1
Heal 270 sec Restores 140 + (lvl x 20) Health to your Champion and 50% of that to nearby allies. All targets healed will have a 50% reduction in heal amount from other summoner heal spells for 20 secs.
AoE range: 600
Mender's Faith (Defense) – Decreases cooldown by 30 seconds.
Presence of the Master (Utility) – Reduces cooldown to 229.5 seconds. With both masteries cooldown is reduced to 199.5 seconds.
1
Revive 540 sec
Instantly revives your Champion at your Spawning Pool, increasing your movement speed by 225%, diminishing to normal over 12 seconds. 9 minute cooldown.
Preservation (Defense) – After cast, maximum hp is increased by 400 for 120 seconds and reduces the cooldown by 30 seconds.
Presence of the Master (Utility) – Reduces cooldown to 459 seconds. With both masteries cooldown is reduced to 429 seconds.
1
Smite 75 sec Deals 420 + (lvl x 25) true damage to target enemy minion or pet.
Cast range: 800
Plentiful Bounty (Offense) – Smite spell rewards 5 gold when used and reduces its cooldown by 5 seconds.
Presence of the Master (Utility) – Reduces cooldown to 63.75. With both masteries cooldown is reduced to 58.75 seconds.
1
Teleport 300 sec After 4 seconds, teleports your champion to target friendly minion or turret. 3 minute cooldown if cancelled.
Spatial Accuracy (Utility) – Reduces delay to 3.5 seconds and reduces cooldown by 5 seconds.
Presence of the Master (Utility) – Reduces cooldown to 255 seconds. With both masteries cooldown is reduced to 250 seconds.
2
Cleanse 150 sec Removes all control debuffs, silences and blinds from your champion and reduces the duration of subsequent stuns, slows, taunts, fears, snares, sleeps, and immobilizes by 65% for the next 3 seconds.
Willpower (Defense) – Reduces cooldown by 20 seconds.
Presence of the Master (Utility) – Reduces cooldown to 127.5 seconds. (Cannot have both Willpower and Presence of the Master)
4
Fortify 300 sec Grants invulnerability to all Allied Turrets and causes them to attack 100% faster for 6 seconds. While Fortify is ready to cast, you deal 9 bonus damage to minions.
Reinforce (Defense) – Turrets deal 50% splash damage when fortify is used.
Presence of the Master (Utility) – Reduces cooldown to 255 seconds.
6
Clarity 180 sec Restores 160 + (lvl x 30) Mana to your champion and 50% of that to nearby allies.
AoE range: 600
Insight (Utility) – Clarity grants 100% of spell’s mana to allies instead of 50%.
Presence of the Master (Utility) – Reduces cooldown to 153 seconds.
7
Ignite 180 sec Targets a single champion dealing 50 + (lvl x 20) true damage over 5 seconds. Also reduces the target’s healing and regeneration by 50%.
Cast range: 550
Burning Embers (Offense) – While your ignite spell is on cooldown, you gain an additional 10 Ability Power.
Presence of the Master (Utility) – Reduces cooldown to 153 seconds.
8
Rally 270 sec Summons a beacon with 200 + (lvl x 25) Health for 15 seconds which increases allied Attack Damage by 10-35.
Cast range: 120
Aura range: 850 (estimate)
Improved Rally (Offense) – Rally also increases base ability power by 20-70 and increases duration by 5 seconds.
Presence of the Master (Utility) – Reduces cooldown to 229.5 seconds.
10
Clairvoyance 55 sec Reveals an area of the map for 6 seconds.
Mystical Vision (Utility) – Vision lasts additional 4 seconds and has cooldown reduced by 5 seconds.
Presence of the Master (Utility) – Reduces cooldown to 46.75 seconds. With both masteries cooldown is reduced to 41.75 seconds.
12
Flash 255 sec Teleports your Champion to target nearby location under your mouse cursor.
Cast range: 475
Blink of an Eye (Utility) – Reduces cooldown by 15 seconds.
Presence of the Master (Utility) – 216.75 seconds. With both masteries cooldown is reduced to 201.75 seconds.

A Rune is an enhancement that the summoner provides to the champion before a battle arena match begins to augment their champion's fighting abilities. Runes can only be bought with Influence Points from the Riot Store. Each rune gives a small bonus to a specific category, which stacks upon each other to give larger bonuses.
Runes cannot be sold, but can be combined (five lesser runes combined to create random rune one of greater quality or two runes combined to create a random rune of the same quality). Therefore it is wise to save up Influence Points for Tier 3 runes.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 Searz'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.

The Mastery is the way that a summoner is able to focus their intense magical training into three specific categories, which collectively are known as masteries. Some of the more advanced masteries require not only a working knowledge of previous masteries within a single category, but also the knowledge of a specific mastery. As a summoner gains levels of power within the League of Legends, they are able to select which specific areas of interest to focus on.
Summoner masteries are not set in stone; based on the type of champion you wish to control in a battle arena, masteries can be changed to better suit a summoner's needs, simply by pressing the "Return Points" button to completely reset your masteries and allow yourself to choose others in which to spend your points ("re-spec").

What is a Lane? – Minions, turrets, and inhibitors (for this reed "Map objectives") are situated in various “Lanes” in League of Legends. Minions follow a pre-determined path down these lanes, which are dotted with turrets of increasing power down the lane.

Travel Between Lanes – While minions stick to one lane all game, you should always be looking for the best place to fight! You can easily transition between the various lanes via the river running through the middle of the map, or through the twisting pathways in the jungle. Don’t worry: Monsters in the jungle will not attack you until you attack them.

Minion Spawns – Starting at 1 minute and 30 seconds into the game, minions will spawn in each of the lanes and head to the enemy base. On Summoner’s Rift, further waves spawn every 30 seconds. On Twisted Treeline, they spawn every 45 seconds. Every third wave will also see a “siege” minion spawned, who excels at absorbing damage from enemy turrets.

Turrets – Three turrets per team dot each lane. Two more turrets also protect the nexus. Normally, these turrets restrict your ability to push forward and kill the enemy champions or vital structures. Grouping together as a team will allow you to push these turrets down more quickly.

Objectives in the Lane – There are 3 main objectives while in the lane. First, deal the killing blow on enemy minions. While simply being near a dying enemy minion will award you experience, you gain bonus gold for directly dealing the killing blow on them. Second, you should try to kill the enemy champions. This feat won’t always be easy, but if you work with a teammate – especially with the help of slowing or stunning spells – you should be able to gain some extra gold and experience for killing your opponents. Third, you should also try to push down the enemy turrets. Certain champions like Sivir, Nasus, and Heimerdinger really excel at killing droves of minions quickly and attacking turrets.

Turrets – Turrets give gold and experience to the entire team when they’re killed. Quickly pushing and destroying turrets will give your team a significant advantage in levels and items. Additionally, it leaves your enemies more exposed and easily attacked with less protection.

Inhibitors and Super Minions – After destroying 3 turrets in a lane the inhibitor will be vulnerable. Killing the inhibitor will spawn “Super Minions” for your team in that lane. They will continue to spawn with every minion wave until the inhibitor respawns a few minutes later. Super minions are remarkably durable and deal very heavy damage.

Kill the Nexus – Once you have broken past an inhibitor, 2 more turrets protect the nexus. Destroying the nexus will win you the game instantly!

Epic Monsters – Fields of Justice also contain various non-vital objectives: Epic monsters. Upon killing them, these monsters will give your champion a temporary buff, award your team gold and experience, or both!

Laning

Utilize Brush – Brush can accomplish many goals for you in the laning phase. It will allow you to advance on enemy champions without them noticing, or pulling aggro from enemy minions. This will help you position for kills, or harass with skill-shots. Second, because walking into brush will shroud you in fog of war, you should quickly dart into it when you pull minion aggro.

Know your Enemy – It’s imperative that you know the intricacies of the champions you face in lane. At level 7, how much damage can Annie throw at you during a stun? Check the scoreboard: Does she have Ignite to finish you off? Does she have Flash to close into range? Does she have Cleanse to escape your stuns, slows, or silences? These are all vital points of information that will determine how you can play.

Watch the Minimap – Intelligent teams will run a jungling champion. Many of these champions make for great gankers. Additionally, your enemies may leave their lanes to come gank you. Make a habit of checking for “missing” enemies frequently: it may save your life.

Working in a Team – When playing in a lane with a teammate, try to pick lanes with strong synergy. For example, Sion and Anivia have great potential: Sion stuns with Cryptic Gaze, which lets Anivia land Flash Frost, as both players follow up with their other spells for further damage. Another example is Janna with Pantheon: Eye of the Storm will significantly buff Pantheon’s Heartseeker Strike, making for easy early-game kills. On a larger scale, it's wise to have a healthy mix of both melee and ranged champions.

Soloing – If you’re laning all by yourself, you typically won’t be able to kill your enemies. Most players can comprehend what one champion can do much better than they can predict what two will accomplish. Thusly, your best option is to last hit as many minions as possible. Great players can consistently kill over 100 minions by the 15 minute mark. Use that as a template to see how strong your last hitting is.


Team Play

Champion Synergies – When picking a team, especially in Draft Mode, you may want to consider picking champions that specifically work well together. Pantheon and Janna, as mentioned earlier, are great at controlling a lane. Amumu’s ultimate makes for a great opening into Fiddlesticks’s Crowstorm. Morgana’s Black Shield can allow Katarina or Nunu to finish channeling their own ultimates without interruption. There are many possibly combinations in League of Legends: Try to find your own!

Playing a Tank – As your team’s tank, you have three possible goals: Initiate a fight and absorb all the initial burst damage you can. Get to the enemy team’s “carry” and make his life miserable. Protect your team’s “carry” and make anyone who tries to mess with him pay dearly. For example, as Alistar you should walk right up to the enemy Ashe, hit Pulverize, walk behind the stunned archer, and Headbutt her back into your team. Chances are she should die almost instantly. Some champions, like Udyr or Shen take a slightly different approach. They will simply dive into the carry and deal great damage to the squishy target while shrugging off most of the damage directed back onto them.

Carrying – As a “carry” champion, you have 3 main goals: First, farm lots of gold. Carries scale with items much more than other types of champions. Thus it is almost always better for you to farm minions for the first 15-25 minutes of the game, with a few exceptions. Second, you must choose your targets correctly. Target selection may be difficult because sometimes the most damaging enemy champion is extremely far away and behind their tanks. Weigh their damage output as an incentive for killing them against their distance and durability as negatives. Basically never kill a tank unless you absolutely have to, and otherwise choose your targets wisely. Lastly, the carry is a bit of an all-star. If you die early in a fight, your team will probably lose that battle. It’s okay to play selfishly and safely if it means being able to kill 3 enemy champions and surviving, instead of killing one and dying. Especially with a champion like Twitch who can easily kill an entire team in three seconds, you should wait until the enemy tanks have cast their stuns and blinds.

Supporting – Support champions can have a variety of roles, depending on the champion. Taric for example just needs to heal damaged teammates and stun important enemies while maintaining his ultimate. Morgana should hold onto her Black Shield for a champion who needs to do a lot of damage in a short time, like Katarina or Twitch. Understand your champion’s strengths, and make sure to use your specialized spells properly.


Jumping Walls

Why – When escaping from enemies you may find simple running insufficient. In these cases, you may want to jump, dash, Flash, or otherwise move to the other side of a large obstruction. Here we will detail some of the ways to move across barriers.

Ground Jumps – Ground jumps are abilities that physically move your champion to a target location on the ground, like Tristana’s Rocket Jump or Shen’s Shadow Dash. However, if you don’t give yourself enough room to land on the other side of the barrier, you won’t go through at all. Ensure your champion has enough room to spread out before you attempt any daring maneuvers. Amumu and Blitzcrank work similarly with Bandage Toss and Rocket Grab. Sometimes the champion and the target will end up on opposite sides of the barrier if there’s no room for both champions on one side.

Ground Flashes – Ground flashes instantly teleport your champion to the location. Ezreal’s Arcane Shift and Shaco’s Deceive are examples of ground flashes. Unlike jumps, flashes react differently when interacting with barriers: If you attempt to flash to a location inside a barrier, it will push your champion out to the nearest opening. Sometimes this may result in your champion not moving anywhere, but often it can double the distance on your flash as it pushes you out the other end. Any champion make use this trick if they pick the summoner spell “Flash.”

Targeted Spells – Some abilities require you to choose a specific target to jump or flash to. Jax’s Leap Strike and Katarina’s Shunpo are primary examples of targeted movement spells. In these cases, you must have an enemy (or teammate if applicable) in range in order to cast the spell. Like with ground jumps, you may not always end up on the same side of the barrier. There is one exceptional trick you can pull off with targeted movement spells. If you carry a ward around with you, you can place it on the other side of a cliff, and Leap Strike or Shunpo to safety after placing it.


Pushing

When – Starting a push can rely on a variety of circumstances. A common rule of thumb is that players should start to group together at 20-25 minutes into the game. Look for undefended turret, especially if your minions are close to it already. If it will take your team more than a minute to wade through enemy minions to even reach the enemy turret, you likely won’t succeed in pushing it. Some champions also excel at destroying turrets quickly, like Master Yi and Heimerdinger. You can often push one lane with 4 champions, and push on the opposite side with a specialized one.

How – Many champions excel at helping their team push. Sivir and Taric are two great examples, because their ultimates affect their entire team, giving them significant attack speed or damage, respectively. The summoner spell Rally is also extremely useful in helping a team destroy buildings.

Know When to Retreat – While pushing is extremely important, know that fighting an entire enemy team while protected by a turret can be a very bad idea. If you’ve succeeded in killing a few enemy champions and are pushing into enemy territory, check the scoreboard to see how many players are currently alive on both teams. If you find yourselves outnumbered, retreat and try to accomplish other objectives, like killing a few epic monsters.


Warding

Who – Most commonly, the jungler is assumed to place wards in high-traffic areas during the beginning stages of the game. Later on, tanks and support champions – ones who don’t necessarily scale supremely quickly with items – are typically called upon to buy wards.

What – There are two types of wards in League of Legends: Sight (Green) Wards, which are cheap, see far into the fog of war, and last quite a while; and Vision (Pink) Wards, which are more expensive, but also reveal invisible units. Sometimes there is a bit of a mini-game if both teams purchase wards: Buying the more expensive ones could allow you to kill the enemy wards while still revealing a sizeable area of the map.

Where – Wards can serve a variety of purposes. Vision Wards may be placed in the middle of lanes in order to look out for stealth champions like Evelynn and Twitch. Otherwise, high traffic areas, especially in front of Dragon and Baron Nashor on Summoner’s Rift, or near Grez and the Dragon on Twisted Treeline, are common locations.

When – If you’re most concerned with allowing the opponents to kill the significant epic monsters, you should ward their openings at their spawn times: For Summoner’s Rift, that’s 2:10 for Dragon and 15 minutes for Baron Nashor. On Twisted Treeline, it’s 2:10 for Grez and 4:30 for the Dragon. Why – Wards will allow your team to gank enemies as they attempt difficult objectives like the Dragon. Additionally, placing them in high-traffic areas allows your team to protect themselves from being ganked.

Clever Uses of Wards – As mentioned in an earlier topic, champions with unit-targeted movement spells may target wards with abilities like Leap Strike or Shunpo. Additionally, certain abilities like Gangplank’s Raise Morale need to target a friendly minion. Carrying a Sight Ward in your inventory allows you to Raise Morale at a moment’s notice.

Escaping

Using Brush – Because your enemies have no idea which way you’re heading after entering a patch of brush, you can use it to escape your enemies in odd ways. Often, they will expect you to run down the length of the brush, enabling you to stand still until they have passed you. Brush may allow you to lead into certain invisibility skills, like Twitch’s Ambush or Akali’s Smoke Bomb, darting from one patch of brush to another, or simply to stop taking damage while your stealth activates.

Escape Spells – Some abilities, like Sivir’s Spell Shield, may be used to escape from enemies with disables. When facing a champion like Annie while being ganked, you should wait for Energize to be ready, so that you block the stun with Spell Shield as opposed to a random nuke. You can dodge spells the same way with the summoner spell Flash: Wait for a disabling nuke to be launched, and dodge it.

When to Recall – Depending on the location of your enemies, you may decide that using Recall will be a safer choice than running to a safe location. Typically, your best choice is to Recall while in a patch of brush, because your enemies won’t be able to interrupt it without first closing the distance.


Laning Phase: Advanced

Harassment - The choice between last hitting minions and harassing enemy champions can be difficult. Some important considerations are: Enemy health regeneration, mana efficiency, and range. Annie for example has exceptional damage output by level 6. However, she has to whittle her target down to roughly 1/2 or 3/4 health before she can kill him. Starting her harassment at around level 4 will open the door for an early kill as she levels up.

What is Zoning? – Zoning is the practice of forcing your opponent far away from the minions, causing him to miss out on gold and/or experience.

How do I Zone? – Certain champions, especially those who can heal themselves, like Nidalee or Soraka, simply have to push up to a location where they can damage the enemy without taking backlash from opposing minions. Any damage taken can quickly be healed and the process can be repeated. Of particular interest is using the brush. For example, if Nidalee is against Ashe at the top lane on Summoner’s Rift, Nidalee only has to sit at the edge of the brush and attack Ashe when she gets close. Ashe has no way of consistently poking at, or initiating on, Nidalee while she sits there, giving a position and durability advantage to Nidalee, thus zoning Ashe.


Baiting

Recall Baiting – While in lane, using Recall at inopportune times can force your opponents to throw spells at you unnecessarily. Because Recall takes 8 seconds and is canceled by damage, it’s often easy for an enemy to cancel Recall, and they will be glad to do so. By casting Recall when you don’t need to, you can bait enemies into wasting mana and cooldowns.

Epic Monster Baiting – If your opponents don’t have any wards nearby, you can make it painfully “obvious” that your team is attempting to kill a high-value epic monster like Baron Nashor on Summoner’s Rift. In truth, sitting in a brush patch on the way to Baron will allow you to initiate on enemies who aren’t in position to fight, netting a few quick kills before they wise up.


Fun with Skill Shots

Scouting Brush – While it’s never a good idea to check unexplored patches of brush with your face, most skill shots can be used to find un-revealed enemies. Ezreal’s Mystic Shot, for example, lowers all of his cooldowns by 1 second if it hits an enemy. Firing Mystic Shot into a brush and watching your HUD will tell you if it crossed paths with an enemy. Dr. Mundo’s Infected Cleaver makes loud splashing sounds when it hits an enemy. Morgana’s Dark Binding has exceptionally long range. As you watch the projectile in the fog of war, seeing it suddenly stop short will tell you it has hit an enemy.

Predictions – Because skill shots target the ground as opposed to enemies, you have to predict where your enemies are headed when you cast them. This can be a hindrance if the enemy you wish to hit is hidden behind minions, but in certain cases will allow you to hit enemies completely blind and behind barriers.

Hold your shot – Skilled enemies will know the cooldown and range of your skill shots. By holding on to your spells a few extra seconds, you can cause enemies to “juke” the spell even when it isn’t coming. This deception can allow you to close distance with them as they dance back and forth. The need to hold onto your skill shot is compounded by laning with another skill shot wielding teammate. For example at Blitzcrank you should always let a friendly Morgana fire first. Her Dark Binding has a faster casting time and projectile speed. Once the opponent is rooted by the spell, Rocket Grab will be easy to land.

Executioner's Calling: +18% Lifesteal, +15% Critical Strike. UNIQUE Passive: On hit, you cause 4 damage per second for 8 seconds. UNIQUE Active: Attacks inflict Grievous Wound, causing 50% reduced healing for 8 seconds. 20 second cooldown. 1350 Gold.
Frozen Mallet: +700 Health, +20 Attack Damage. UNIQUE Passive: Physical attacks slow enemy's movement speed by 40% (30% for ranged attacks) for 2.5 seconds. 3250 Gold.
Guinsoo's Rageblade: +35 Attack Damage, +45 Ability Power. Passive: On attack (or spell cast), increases your Attack Speed by 4% and Ability Power by 6. Lasts 5 seconds (stacks up to 8 times) 2235 Gold.
Madred's Bloodrazor: +30 Attack Damage, +40% Attack Speed, +25 Armor. UNIQUE Passive: On hit, deals Magic Damage equal to 4% of the target's maximum health. 3800 Gold.
Madred's Razors: +15 Attack Damage, +23 Armor. UNIQUE Passive: 15% chance on attack to deal 500 damage to a minion. 1000 Gold.
Malady: +50% Attack Speed, +25 Ability Power. UNIQUE Passive: Your physical attacks shred your target dealing 20 Magic Damage and reducing their magic resistance by 6. Magic resistance reduction stacks up to 4 times. 1825 Gold.
Phage: +225 Health, +18 Attack Damage. Passive: 25% chance on hit to reduce target's movement speed by 30% for 2.5 seconds. 1315 Gold.
Sword of the Divine: +60% Attack Speed. UNIQUE Passive: Every fourth attack deals an additional 100 Magic Damage. UNIQUE Active: Your attacks cannot be dodged and you gain 30 Armor Penetration for 8 seconds. (40 Second cooldown) 1970 Gold.
The Black Cleaver: +55 Attack Damage, +30% Attack Speed. Passive: Physical attacks reduce your target's armor by 15 for 5 seconds. (Maximum 3 stacks) 3065 Gold.
Tiamat: +50 Attack Damage, +15 Health regen/5 sec., +4 Mana regen/5 sec.. Passive: Your attacks Splash, dealing physical damage in a small area around the target. 2070 Gold.
Trinity Force: +30 Attack Damage, +30 Ability Power, +30% Attack Speed, +15% Critical Strike Chance, +15% Movement Speed, +250 Health, +250 Mana. UNIQUE Passive: 25% chance on hit to slow the target by 35% for 2.5 seconds; on cast, increases your base attack damage by 150% for one attack. 4070 Gold.
Wit's End: +40% Attack Speed, +30 Magic Resistance. UNIQUE Passive: Your attacks deal 42 bonus magic damage as well as adds a 5 magic resist bonus to you for 5 seconds (max 4 stacks) . 2150 Gold.
Wriggle's Lantern: +23 Attack Damage, +30 Armor, +18% Lifesteal. UNIQUE Passive: 20% chance on attack to deal 500 magic damage to a minion. UNIQUE Active: Places an invisible ward with 1100 sight range and lasts for 3 minutes. 3 minute cooldown. 1525 Gold.
Another few items applies when hit by an enemy champion instead:
Randuin's Omen: +350 Health, +75 Armor, +25 Health regen/5 sec.. UNIQUE Passive: 5% Cooldown Reduction and 20% chance on being hit to slow the attacker's movement and attack speeds by 35% for 3 seconds. UNIQUE Active: Slows movement speeds and attack speeds of surrounding units by 35% for 2 second + 0.5 seconds for each 100 Armor and Magic Resist. 60 second cooldown. 3075 Gold.
Thornmail: +100 Armor. UNIQUE Passive: On being hit by standard attacks, returns 30% of damage taken as magic damage. 2000 Gold.
Warden's Mail: +50 Armor, +20 Health regen/5 sec. Passive: 20% chance on being hit to slow the attacker's movement and attack speeds by 35% for 3 seconds. 1350 Gold.

A Champion is a warrior reigning from the vast regions of the universe that have come to wage war on the Fields of Justice. Riot Games develops new champions consistently. Each champion is individually designed to have specific abilities and traits that players must use wisely. One group uses brute strength and power, another uses deadly precision and cunning, while the last group uses supernatural vision and magic.
There were 40 champions released at launch, and there is one added every about two weeks. About 8-10 more champions are in development at any moment. Each week there is a rotation of ten champions that are freely available to play. For those that bought the Collector's Edition, 20 champions are automatically unlocked; another 20 can be unlocked by buying the Champion Bundle through the game client. The rest can be unlocked with Influence Points or Riot Points.