Views: 372 Focus: New and Learning Players
|
Report
January 18, 2013
Earlier this week I celebrated one month as a LoL player. I believe the festivities included playing all pvp games with a random team and COMPLETELY avoiding my "first win of the day" bonus. Not much fun. But it WAS a learning experience.
I began playing LoL at the behest of my nephew, who's been playing for about a year. He would come over with his laptop, and plug it into my tv, so I could watch him play and go through champion profiles and such. I was fascinated fairly early on, but my gaming has been limited to consoles for years now. The last PC game I played was probably Warcraft II. In fact, I have Warcraft III and haven't even touched it. (Note to self: load up Warcraft III) So finally, months after my first introduction to LoL, I signed up and downloaded the game.
My nephew is 15 and a high school student, so during the day while he was in school I began trying to figure this out on my own. After the tutorial and the battle training segments, one is prompted to play a match vs. bots with other players comprising your team instead of other bots. One also has access to all current free-to-play champions at this point, rather than the limited selection of Ashe, Garen, or Ryze. Also, after playing through battle training one should have enough influence points to purchase Annie, Ashe, Garen, Kayle, Master Yi, Nunu, Poppy, Ryze, Sivir, or Soraka. Personally, I went with Soraka - she looked the coolest. After a few more bot games in which I killed nothing and fed like the dickens, I explored the newbie chat room, hoping for some advice.
What I actually found was a ton of spamming and requests for people to gift items, along with guys looking for hookups. This was rather disappointing, but I started asking questions anyway. I was shocked and amazed when I got a single intelligent answer followed by a friend request from said voice of sanity. I immediately accepted the request, getting my second "friend" and pleading for helpful advice all over again in a 1 on 1 chat window. I did not yet know what a valuable find I had stumbled across.
We talked for quite some time about the game, as well as other things, and I came to discover that my giver of game advice and offer-er of help was actually a ranked player! I couldn't believe that someone of this caliber had taken the time to help someone who was just getting started and not off to such a great start at that. As it so happens my savior is also HALF MY AGE - go figure! (I got quite a laugh out of this)
So, we ventured into a bot game together, as Soraka and Ezreal. On top of completely carrying the team itself, Ez managed to give me instructions via the chat window, that were an IMMENSE help, and kept me from feeding: what to buy, when to attack, when to back off, how close to stay, what abilities to level first, etc. Ezreal finished the game with 52 kills, I got about half of them as assists, and I ONLY died like 5 times - which was officially my least amount of deaths to date! I was ecstatic!
I wanted to just keep going and going like that. BUT at the same time I didn't want to become a pest and wear out my welcome so to speak. I received links to videos of pro games to study, and a steady stream of advice and encouragement. Everything from how NOT to feed, to what to do about uncommunicative team members, to what a team actually needs to survive, and of course - how to deal with the angry people who yell at new players.
I am currently at summoner level 22, almost 23. I am just finally beginning to understand the mechanics of the game, and getting a handle on how to play the champions I like best (so far Nami and Soraka are my mains). I have been advised to make myself another player profile, because my summoner level belies my actual skill level. (In other words: I still kinda suck) But again, I've come this far and learned this much in the course of one month. Maybe I'm not off to that bad a start after all?
Earlier this week I celebrated one month as a LoL player. I believe the festivities included playing all pvp games with a random team and COMPLETELY avoiding my "first win of the day" bonus. Not much fun. But it WAS a learning experience.
I began playing LoL at the behest of my nephew, who's been playing for about a year. He would come over with his laptop, and plug it into my tv, so I could watch him play and go through champion profiles and such. I was fascinated fairly early on, but my gaming has been limited to consoles for years now. The last PC game I played was probably Warcraft II. In fact, I have Warcraft III and haven't even touched it. (Note to self: load up Warcraft III) So finally, months after my first introduction to LoL, I signed up and downloaded the game.
My nephew is 15 and a high school student, so during the day while he was in school I began trying to figure this out on my own. After the tutorial and the battle training segments, one is prompted to play a match vs. bots with other players comprising your team instead of other bots. One also has access to all current free-to-play champions at this point, rather than the limited selection of Ashe, Garen, or Ryze. Also, after playing through battle training one should have enough influence points to purchase Annie, Ashe, Garen, Kayle, Master Yi, Nunu, Poppy, Ryze, Sivir, or Soraka. Personally, I went with Soraka - she looked the coolest. After a few more bot games in which I killed nothing and fed like the dickens, I explored the newbie chat room, hoping for some advice.
What I actually found was a ton of spamming and requests for people to gift items, along with guys looking for hookups. This was rather disappointing, but I started asking questions anyway. I was shocked and amazed when I got a single intelligent answer followed by a friend request from said voice of sanity. I immediately accepted the request, getting my second "friend" and pleading for helpful advice all over again in a 1 on 1 chat window. I did not yet know what a valuable find I had stumbled across.
We talked for quite some time about the game, as well as other things, and I came to discover that my giver of game advice and offer-er of help was actually a ranked player! I couldn't believe that someone of this caliber had taken the time to help someone who was just getting started and not off to such a great start at that. As it so happens my savior is also HALF MY AGE - go figure! (I got quite a laugh out of this)
So, we ventured into a bot game together, as Soraka and Ezreal. On top of completely carrying the team itself, Ez managed to give me instructions via the chat window, that were an IMMENSE help, and kept me from feeding: what to buy, when to attack, when to back off, how close to stay, what abilities to level first, etc. Ezreal finished the game with 52 kills, I got about half of them as assists, and I ONLY died like 5 times - which was officially my least amount of deaths to date! I was ecstatic!
I wanted to just keep going and going like that. BUT at the same time I didn't want to become a pest and wear out my welcome so to speak. I received links to videos of pro games to study, and a steady stream of advice and encouragement. Everything from how NOT to feed, to what to do about uncommunicative team members, to what a team actually needs to survive, and of course - how to deal with the angry people who yell at new players.
I am currently at summoner level 22, almost 23. I am just finally beginning to understand the mechanics of the game, and getting a handle on how to play the champions I like best (so far Nami and Soraka are my mains). I have been advised to make myself another player profile, because my summoner level belies my actual skill level. (In other words: I still kinda suck) But again, I've come this far and learned this much in the course of one month. Maybe I'm not off to that bad a start after all?
Also, unbelievable that there are still good people in LoL :) It even warms my heart a bit, such kindness :3
Some tips:
- Play champions that are free to play, no matter how cool you think they are (or not). Just go in a bot game and study the mechanics and abilities of that champion. This way, you know what to expect if a team mate or enemy ever picks that champion.
- If you have friends who have been playing for a bit longer, don't play with or against them, spectate them! This way you can fully focus on what is going on, instead of having to decide how to deal with it. Off course this also works with streams from the more famous and skilled people.
- Since you're over level 20, save IP to buy runes. ONLY buy the Greater runes, they may be more expensive but they will stick with you the rest of your account's life. They give a really nice bonus which might just give you the edge over the enemy.
That's what I could think of from the top of my head, hope it helps :)
Best of luck in your LoL career!