- This is a simple team composition and game discussion guide. -

To start, there are classifications when it comes to a 5v5 or any League of Legends game. Usually on average there is one tank, AP, support, and a DPS carry. However, what does it mean to carry?

1. High damage output. Dealing the most damage in a fight.
2. The one that is of most value in terms of staying alive.
3. The one that must be protected the most.

This can often change depending on game situations such as the AP burst excelling better than the DPS carry. Note that usually when this happens, the opponent team will most likely target the ones that deal the most damage. Enemies such as LeBlanc , Veigar , Malzahar , Brand and Annie will try to take you out as fast as they can.


What does the tank do?

1. Try to soak as much damage as you can for the team.
2. Cripple the enemy team.
3. Initiation & leading the team towards a fight that is in their favor.
4. Most importantly, have enough HP & Defense to do do everything above.

As I come across popular tanks such as Amumu and Alistar , most of them decide to be more towards the AP side rather tanking for the team. Although players may not appreciate tanks as much as the others, they are very important in a team composition.


Supports, what do they do?

1. Heal & grant other bonuses to allied champions.
2. Cripple the enemy team.
3. Make sure that everyone is alive and ready to fight.

In my opinion, support champions are by far the most difficult ones to play and master. The reason is because they have so much responsibility in a team. Although there are only 3 things they mainly must do, they are ideally very hard to play because they have the harder job in a team which is to keep your team alive. Unlike the AP and DPS champions in which they are freely able to go all out on the enemy, the supports are there to do the dirty work.


DPS and AP champions.

1. Kill as much as you can.
2. Push towers.
3. Harass.
4. To not die.

Although many champions require a lot of practice and skill to master, they overall have a simple roll in a game which is to be alert and deadly. The most important and difficult roles for these champions are to not die. Dying will cause your team to lose a majority of the fire power necessary to enroll in a successful fight.

Snowball Items

What are snowball items?
Snowball items are items that have a special ability known as stacks. These stacks are obtained upon killing a champion or getting assists from slaying an enemy champion. Usually, these items are for players that have good knowledge in terms of a long lasting game.


Mejai's Soulstealer is a common item for all AP champions that are usually known for assassination or simple burst killing. Upon obtaining 20 stacks, the user recieves 160 Ability Power and 15% cooldown reduction. As ridiculous as this item sounds, there is a big risk when it comes to having this item. If the champion fails to recieve certain stacks, then this item is nearly useless. Overall, this item should be a priority only when you are certain to do well.


This item generally has the same effect and potential as any other snowball item. However this sword grants 100 Attack Damage and 15% Movement Speed upon obtaining 20 stacks.


Leviathan is a unique health item that is not commonly used. Although most snowball items are hard to handle throughout a game, the effects are certainly plausible when obtaining 20 stacks. This item offers 640 health and 15% Damage Reduction upon obtaining the maximum stacks.


Tanky Items



- Warmog's Armor is one of those items that bring a lot of confusion when it comes to picking an item to get depending on your role as a champion. Now that the Season 3 meta-game features health as a better optimizing stat than armor % magic resist, Warmog's Armor is an essential core item for many champs.
Question: What is an off-tank, what is their role?
Simply the term off-tank refers to champions that have a surplus of Health and other defensive stats that also have a role in dealing damage. Some common champions that can be referred to a offtank are Olaf , Mordekaiser , Warwick and Xin Zhao.
Note that most of these off-tank champions deal a lot of damage and sometimes even become the carry in a game.

- Sunfire Capes bring many "Self Bonds" which usually is used by Amumu , Garen , Mordekaiser , Nasus and Renekton. This item has good bonds/synergy with these champions because they have AoE skills that deal extra damage around themselves with the benefits of sunfire cape. Also it provides a good chunk of Health for more survivability and durability as a tank or off-tank.

- Randuin's Omen is a unique item that offers many stats that are usually essential for tanks. This item has a great bond with tanks because it offers Health, Armor, Cooldown Reduction, a chance to slow the enemy's movement and attack speed, and the active bonus which slows movement and attack speed by 35%. This item is outstanding for chasing down enemy champions.

- Frozen Mallet is commonly used for champions that need a on-hit slow. Besides this passive, it offers 700 health which is beyond the bonus that the majority of the other health items offer. This item is great for champions that lack health and movement speed. However, this item is an issue when it comes to comparing it with a because they both offer health and a slow. Trinity Force should be bought by champions that have a variety of skills that help activate the passive of Trinity Force. To have the full value of a Trinity Force, the champion should use most of the benefits that it gives.

- Force of Nature is an item that offers lots of Magic Resist, Health Regeneration and Movement speed. Suprisingly, this item is very valueable because of its defensive bonuses. This item is a great counter for casters and other champions that deal Ability Power damage.

- Thornmail is an item that is mainly used to counter DPS damage dealer. Preferably it is the opposite item of the Force of Nature. It offers 100 armor and returns 30% of the damage dealt into magic damage.


Tenacity



- Simply, Tenacity is just another word for anti-CC. The percentage of tenacity offers a percentage of a stun, suppress, etc. to wear off.


Awesome Items



- Banshee's Veil and Guardian Angel are two items that are considered life savers.
Question: When should I buy these items?
Banshee's Veil offers a chunk of Health and Mana while Guardian Angel offers Armor, Magic Resist and a second life. Both of these items are important to have but usually you may end up with one of these. When you see the enemy team with many CC (crowd control:stun,suppress,etc.) you should look forward to getting a Banshee's Veil. However, if you feel that you are doing the best and have problems facing near-death situations, grab a Guardian Angel.

- Trinity Force and Lich Bane are two items that people look at as double damage dealers.
Question: Which one is better?
When it comes to item comparison, none of these items are better than another because they both belong to champions of different style. Lich Bane is used towards champions that are heavy AP such as Akali , Mordekaiser , Nidalee and sometimes Twisted Fate. Trinity Force is used on champions that are balanced and that are powerful with the variety of stats that this item gives. Examples are Nasus , Poppy , Blitzcrank , Lee Sin , Corki and Irelia.

- Hextech Gunblade and Guinsoo's Rageblade are twin hybrid items.
Question: Who needs this item?
Some champions that scale off of both Attack Damage and Ability Power become superior when they obtain this item. The Gunblade offers lifesteal and spellvamp along with 60 Attack Damage and 70 Ability Power. The Rageblade offers a consecutive 8 stack bonus upon attacking 8 times gaining 4% attack speed and 6 ability power per hit. Champions that usually need these items are Akali , Jax and Katarina.


Item Comparison

or

- Both of these items are great for AP casters but when it comes down to buying, only 1 will be brought.
Question: Why can't you buy both of them?
When you compare both of these items, you can see that both of them are nearly identical because they both offer Ability Power, Mana Regeneration and Cooldown Reduction. However, deathfire grasp is usually common for AP bursts that use all of their skills right away when they encounter an enemy. Therefore, the active of the Deathfire Grasp is an excellent combination/finisher for an AP caster. However, regular casters such as Lux may find use for Morello's Evil Tome because it is a good solid item. Again, these items are classified according to style of gameplay.

or

- Both of these items offer massive Health and give bonus on-hit slows.
Question: Whats the difference?
Frozen Mallet clearly goes towards champions that mainly deal Attack Damage on there attacks and the Rylai's Crystal Scepter goes towards the champions that deal Ability Power Damage in there attacks. A common flaw towards the people make with the champion Jax, is his Q skill Leap Strike. Is it affiliated with Ability Power or Attack Damage? For the users that say that Rylai's is a must for Jax because he scales heavy AP and all of his skills are based on AP, you are slightly wrong. Frozen Mallet's passive to slow works with Leap Strike. In this case, both items are acceptable for Jax.

Brand



Pros :
- Deals super damage with ridiculous combo.
- Unique stun.
- Passive. Ablaze

Cons :
- Decently squishy in terms of armor and magic resistance.
- Focused by enemies.
- Long cooldowns.
- Low escapability as well as survivability.

Skills :

Brand is overall a champions that deals with heavy AP bursting with his combination of -> -> -> .
Conflagration is used to first set the enemy champion ablaze. Next comes Sear in which if you land while the champion is under ablaze, the champion will be stunned. Next comes Pillar of Flame in which it deals 25% more damage if set ablaze. Lastly comes your ultimate Pyroclasm which launches a great ball of fire that bounces off enemies and deals damage. The ball will travel faster the more enemies it hits.

Runes :



Magic Penetration + Mana Regeneration + Ability Power



Gangplank



Pros :
- CRITS EVERYWHERE
- Very powerful late game. (reaching 100% critical chance)
- Fruit that removes any CC.

Cons :
- Squishy.
- Vulnerable to Exhaust.

Skills :

Gangplank is a champion that excels in 1v1 when he obtains 100% critical chance. His skills are -> -> -> . His main attack is his Parrrley and his normal attacks. Parrrley is affiliated with on-hit affects so critical strikes are key towards his fighting capability. However, there is more than one way of building Gangplank.

Runes :

Greater Mark of Armor Penetration Greater Glyph of CD Reduction

Spread with a variety of offense, defense, and utility is a great starter and finisher for gangplank especially during times of rough counter-picks. You may switch the armor penetration for critical chance or critical damage but armor penetration to inflict more damage during trade-offs is ideal during laning phase.



Alistar



Pros :
- Epic Tank Cowz
- Great stuns. &
- Great initiater.

Cons :
- Shreaded apart by Health (%) damage dealers.
- Long cooldowns.

Alistar is an Epic Cow that plays for the team. His skills consist of -> -> -> . Alistar excels in chasing enemy champions and breaking the other team apart in a team fight with his pulverize and headbutt combination/technique. Also Alistar is exceptional at roaming early game and is one of the most viable tanks in the game.

Runes :



Armor + Health + Cooldown Reduction + Movement Speed


Ryze



Pros :
- Chunky.
- Rune Prison.
- Great potential in team fight.

Cons :
- Slightly weak without items.
- Mana dependant.
- Expensive items.

Ryze is a caster that is not AP dependant but Mana dependant. His skills are scaled on how much mana with a tiny portion of AP in which Ryze does not need. His skills are -> -> -> . Ryze's main specialty is spamming his skills because of his low cooldowns with the exception of his rune prison which has a maintained cooldown. However it is used more to trap enemies rather than to damage them although it deals high amounts of damage. Mainly his first skill Overload, is the skill that should be spammed throughout the game.

Runes :

Greater Glyph of Knowledge

Magic Penetration + CDR + Mana + Movement Speed



Caitlyn



Pros :
- Super ranged DPS.
- Deals lots of damage.
- Extreme range in Ultimate.
- Traps reveal map.
- Has escapability.

Cons :
- Squishy.
- Mana hungry.

Caitlyn is a ranged DPS that excels at shooting enemy champions at a distant range and deals massive damage. Her skills are -> -> -> . All of Caitlyns skills deal with ranged attacks and help harass and finishing off champions with her ultimate if any enemy appears to be running away.

Runes :

Greater Mark of Desolation Greater Quintessence of Desolation

Armor Penetration + Mana Regeneration + Magic Resistance + Attack Damage

This guide is just information on tips in game, mainly discovering your ROLE in a game and little guides on 5 champions above. This build is not 100% complete and in depth but the goal here is to motivate and educate players. Thanks!