League of Legends LII: Sin of the Blind Monk

[Darth Mario]

So my mouse broke down mid-game, one second it was working fine, the next it didn't respond at all. It was horrible and now I am trying to find a mouse that works beause trying to play with the mousepad is a horrible, horrible thing that no one should have to experience.

I've had multiple mice die on me in spectacular fashions mid-game. I've learned to always keep a spare in my box'o'cables next to me, because playing Kassadin on a touchpad is a BAD IDEA SON.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I have trouble playing kassadin with a normal mouse... I can't imagine playing him on mousepad

I probably need to buy a good mouse, a gaming mouse would be awesome, but money is a bit tight right now. Sometimes being a full-time student sucks.

[Olinser]

So, finally got around to getting this game after stumbling on some VODs on YouTube.

Server: North America
Forum Name: Artanis
Summoner Name: LegacyCWAL



My experience so far:

I was fairly good at Tides of Blood* back in WC3, but that was a zillion years ago. Thus far I've played the two tutorials and a few Coop vs. AI games. I think I know of a couple things I know I need to learn how to do**, but even the most talented players (of which I am the exact opposite) would still be trash going into their literal second day with the game.


What I have:

-Level 5
-Champions: Nunu (he's cheap, he's "Recommended", and he lets me call myself "Nunu-noob" ) and Ryze (which I instantly realized was a mistake since he's currently free).
-Runes: One of the ultra-cheap Runes that I got just to get a look at how the system worked.



What I need for now:

Any very very general advice would be greatly appreciated. Even specific builds would be well beyond what I'm trying to learn at this point. A couple specific things I'd like to know:
-Which Masteries, if any, are "Take this no matter what regardless of hero and build" and which masteries, if any, are "Even thinking about taking this is Doing It Wrong."
-Similar advice for items (although slightly more specific). Stuff like "This item is required for AD Carries, this item is required for Tops, etc".
-Whether it's better to start with Melee heroes (because it'd force me to learn not-getting-killed habits early) or Ranged heroes (because it'd let me learn other stuff without spending half the game waiting for my death timer to finish).


Many thanks in advance


*It had the same basic concept as DoTA, but significantly different strategy.

**Such as getting better at reliably last-hitting minions as opposed to just attacking them until they die.

The first piece of advice I would give you is while you are learning, try every free champion every week at least ONCE to see if you like how they play. Don't buy random champions - do a little research on them, and buy ones you will play.

The second piece of advice I would give is for you to figure out exactly what style you enjoy playing as. That will help you narrow down your champion buys.

Do you like playing mage-types? Mid lane is for you, you want guys like Ryze, Annie, Ahri.

Do you like playing melee bruisers? Top lane is for you, you want guys like Darius, Irelia, Nasus.

Do you like being the damage carry? AD bottom is for you, with guys like Ashe, Ezrael, Caitlyn, Corki.

Do you like being the tank? Jungle or Top lane for you with guys like Zac, Shen.

Do you like being the supporter that enables the other guys for big plays? You want bottom lane support with champs like Sona, Nami, Thresh.

Narrow down what style you want so you can focus on it.

From there, pick a pool of a couple champions and play every game possible as them. The more games you play, the more familiar you will be with them. One of the biggest mistakes newer players make is they try to counter-pick enemy champions... without actually having played more than a couple games on the so-called 'counter'. Concentrate on a small pool of champions, get good at them, and then you can start expanding. Counters are only effective if you can actually play the counter WELL.

The biggest thing to focus on in lane for new players is to focus on minion CS rather than champions, especially in the early game. A champion kill is only worth about 12ish minion CS (and less experience than that number of minions) - if you spent 3 minion waves chasing a guy down for the kill, then you lost gold and exp on the deal. Unless you are trying to push a wave, you shouldn't be using a lot of abilities or attacks on minions. Move back and forth behind the wave, and only take the last hit on the minion.

Lastly, don't be afraid to ask for advice. Page 1 of all threads has the list of all the GITPers. Friend them, ask questions in game, in Mumble, and in here.

I've gone through with a couple buddies showing them how to play, if you want help I'd be happy to go through a couple games with you.

[Antonok]

What I have:

-Level 5
-Champions: Nunu (he's cheap, he's "Recommended", and he lets me call myself "Nunu-noob" ) and Ryze (which I instantly realized was a mistake since he's currently free).
-Runes: One of the ultra-cheap Runes that I got just to get a look at how the system worked.

Get Annie, shes rather good (and cheap). Can play support or mid roles. Also, don't get runes until 20-30. They really don't do much until then and the IP is better suited towards Champions.

What I need for now:

Any very very general advice would be greatly appreciated. Even specific builds would be well beyond what I'm trying to learn at this point. A couple specific things I'd like to know:
-Which Masteries, if any, are "Take this no matter what regardless of hero and build" and which masteries, if any, are "Even thinking about taking this is Doing It Wrong."
-Similar advice for items (although slightly more specific). Stuff like "This item is required for AD Carries, this item is required for Tops, etc".
-Whether it's better to start with Melee heroes (because it'd force me to learn not-getting-killed habits early) or Ranged heroes (because it'd let me learn other stuff without spending half the game waiting for my death timer to finish).

Masteries really depends on the champion you're playing. (I have 11 different mastery pages for example and I only have around 20 champions).

Items usually have a core build and situational items, which can vary based on the team comp you're up against. Example: My core Fizz build is Lich Bane, Zhonya's Hourglass, Sorc Shoes, and Liandry's Torment, and say, I'm in a AP heavy team, I'll get Abyssal Scepter to help out my teammates when I jump into the middle of the enemy team and use zhonya's during team fights.

My best advice would be to get mumble and talk to the other playgrounders on it, and maybe run a few custom games to learn item build priority.

[Darth Mario]

What I need for now:

Any very very general advice would be greatly appreciated. Even specific builds would be well beyond what I'm trying to learn at this point. A couple specific things I'd like to know:
-Which Masteries, if any, are "Take this no matter what regardless of hero and build" and which masteries, if any, are "Even thinking about taking this is Doing It Wrong."
-Similar advice for items (although slightly more specific). Stuff like "This item is required for AD Carries, this item is required for Tops, etc".
-Whether it's better to start with Melee heroes (because it'd force me to learn not-getting-killed habits early) or Ranged heroes (because it'd let me learn other stuff without spending half the game waiting for my death timer to finish).

Masteries don't really have absolutely-trash-at-all-stages-type options. Well... Good Hands and Legendary Armor in the Defense tree are pretty crap, but other than that I wouldn't say anything is AUTOMATICALLY a never-take, and even those aren't never-takes, just rarely-takes. It comes down to a champion-by-champion basis.

AD carries, generally speaking, like Infinity Edge, Statikk Shiv OR Phantom Dancer OR Trinity Force (this may change shortly), Blade of the Ruined King OR Bloodthirster, Last Whisper, and a defensive item. Unless that AD carry is Ezreal. But sometimes still when that carry is Ezreal. It's weird at the moment.

Tank tops are generally looking at Sunfire Cape OR Spirit Visage early, but other than that it's really hard to categorize item builds for top in general because so many different kinds of characters go there.

Start with what you feel more comfortable on. I started with Blitzcrank. I'm weird.

[Antonok]

So I logged in a bit ago to this

Spoiler

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Now I have a pretty green ribbon on my pic

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

Start with what you feel more comfortable on. I started with Blitzcrank. I'm weird.

Quoted for truth.

[Socratov]

Ridiculous (ri·dic·u·lous), adj.: Sort of like being outrageous, but not as good.

I love you! This quote is so full of in it's almost outshining Chief Win Beifong of Legend of Korra.

[Cogwheel]

I love you! This quote is so full of in it's almost outshining Chief Win Beifong of Legend of Korra.

Quartz for quotability.

[PhantomFox]

New infoooooo!

http://beta.euw.leagueoflegends.com/...where-you-look

[zabbarot]

So my mouse broke down mid-game, one second it was working fine, the next it didn't respond at all. It was horrible and now I am trying to find a mouse that works beause trying to play with the mousepad is a horrible, horrible thing that no one should have to experience.

I have a friend who only plays with the touchpad. She can't play with a mouse. And to top it off she's better than most my friends on LoL. I will never understand it.

[Olinser]

I have a friend who only plays with the touchpad. She can't play with a mouse. And to top it off she's better than most my friends on LoL. I will never understand it.

Then you should convince her to play with a mouse because it will be much better.

If she's better, it's because of skill trumping equipment.

Faker or Mancloud on a touchpad would still own any bronze level player with a pro-tuned mouse.

However, I'd be willing to place a large bet that if she actually used a mouse, she would be significantly better.

A mouse is objectively better than a touchpad - there's a reason every single pro player uses a mouse. A touchpad is heavily affected by what condition the surface is in, while a mouse is not. And the condition of a touchpad can change in the middle of games. If you happen to be sweating a bit? There's a good chance that your touchpad sensitivity will be changing inside of a match. A mouse's will not.

A lot of pro players can actually be blindfolded and told where to click, and they can do it blind.

[Olinser]

New infoooooo!

http://beta.euw.leagueoflegends.com/...where-you-look

Looks a bit too similar to Joker from Batman for my taste - right down to the personality and picture.

Can't they come up with an original idea?

[NineThePuma]

Can't they come up with an original idea?

Nothing is original anymore. If you can come up with an idea, I can probably find something similar enough that what you came up with is a knock off. I much prefer Joker-esque "I'm having fun wrecking everything!" anarchists than "KILL. MAIM. DESTROY." anarchists.

[Olinser]

Nothing is original anymore. If you can come up with an idea, I can probably find something similar enough that what you came up with is a knock off. I much prefer Joker-esque "I'm having fun wrecking everything!" anarchists than "KILL. MAIM. DESTROY." anarchists.

No, you're missing the point. I'm not against her being an anarchist.

I'm against the fact that from the description and picture of her, she looks exactly like a female Joker. So she's going to be a female Joker instead of having her own personality and image.

[PhantomFox]

As opposed to Shako, who is a direct interpretation of Joker?

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Re: What champions to start with.

Try every champ for two reasons. First, it's really really important to have at least a general idea of how a champion works when you play against that champ. Read the skill descrptions, get a feel for the ranges and cooldowns, what sort of damage they can output, what shuts them down, what kind of openings they can take advantage of... etc etc.

Second, trying lots of champs is the best way to find that champ(s) that clicks and you just feel comfortable with. I wandered aimlessly for a while until I found the light. The blinding light that is Lux's laser also the binding light that is Lux's Q. I fell in lurv, and it was beautiful.

Later I'd dump her for Irelia, but that's another story.

Back to the point! It's good to find someone you feel just clicks well with you and play the hell out of that champion until you can focus on things like map awareness and last-hitting without worrying about more basic stuff like landing skillshots or having a good feel for your ability cooldowns.

[NineThePuma]

Shaco.


And... So what? I mean, I can count the unique and engaging personalities of League on one hand (and a fist). But I look forward to seeing where they can take her, because Riot always manages to put a fun spin on their champions.

[Ashen Lilies]

I don't think I've ever wanted a champion so much since the last time I've wanted a champion so much!

[Farix]

Yay, more noobs!

Watching the Worlds has gotten me to download this game so here's my info.

Server: North America
Forum Name: Farix
Summoner Name: Jiin in Tin

I'll be happy to get some games in if anyone feels like slumming it down here in Co-op Vs. AI.

[Cogwheel]

Yay, more noobs!

Watching the Worlds has gotten me to download this game so here's my info.

Server: North America
Forum Name: Farix
Summoner Name: Jiin in Tin

I'll be happy to get some games in if anyone feels like slumming it down here in Co-op Vs. AI.

Added!

...In case you're wondering who 'Omega Nixon' is, that would be me. Old in-joke, I have my reasons.

[Artanis]

Thank you everybody for all the advice. I'll do my best

[Dusk Eclipse]

I added both of you Artanix and Farix, I'm DuskSoul10 (summoner name being the imaginative DuskSoul ), I'm too kinda of new having started playing the game about 5 weeks ago.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Heh, I may as well put myself on the roster. I play infrequently, and most of my playing is either bot-training and teaching myself various aspects of the game, or else PvP with some higher-level friends of mine who are much better at the game than I.

I basically consider myself a casual player who's slowly but surely mastering aspects of the game as I play. So I'm interested in learning to play competently, I don't feel like I need to know how to play optimally at this point. I'm not even Level 30 yet--and when I get there, I don't anticipate playing a lot of ranked games.

So, that being said...

Server: North America
Forum Name: CarpeGuitarrem
Summoner Name: CarpeGuitarrem (surprise!)

At the moment, I've mostly played Pantheon, and also own Annie and just bought Nunu to break in my knowledge of the jungle. From what little I've started to learn, jungling is very interesting (and it's definitely helping me understand the whole map, which will help me when I go back to laning). So I'm wondering if there's any especially good Beginners' guides to jungling out there, I mainly went off of the first one that I found in a Google search. It seems pretty good, I have no idea what else is out there.

Any other general tutorials for the beginner level of play?

[endoperez]

No, you're missing the point. I'm not against her being an anarchist.

I'm against the fact that from the description and picture of her, she looks exactly like a female Joker. So she's going to be a female Joker instead of having her own personality and image.

We have Vayne "totally not Bruce, or Wayne" the dark leather-clad hunter of villains, we have Shaco the jester-harlequin who is totally not Joker or a gender-changed version of his girlfriend Harley Quinn, we will have Jinx who is totally not Joker, we have Nidalee who isn't Catwoman although she's a literal one, we have Zyra who isn't Poison Ivy, we have Renekton who is totally not Killer Croc and Zac isn't at all like the shapechanger Clayface. Well, okay, that last one is stretching it a bit. But hey, at least Singed has Bane skin!

Perhaps someone at Riot is a Batman fan. And perhaps they've still managed to pull off those characters, who could've just been ripoffs, so well they feel like original characters.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

New champ has a pretty nice wanted poster:

Spoiler

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I admit, the list of crimes cracked me up a good deal.

Edit: How does one get even charged with "exorbitant weapon size" in a city with the likes of Jayce

[Holocron Coder]

Do you know who the spoiled champion reminds me of?

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[mrcarter11]

Actually it's been a well known thing with some people I often play with that I want to run a full out Batman team comp.

Top- Renekton (Killer Croc)
Mid- Fiddles (Scarecrow)
Jungle- Shaco (Joker)
ADC- Vayne (Bats)
Support- Zyra (Poison Ivy)

However I can never find the right group of people who own the right champions to run it

[Cogwheel]

We have Vayne "totally not Bruce, or Wayne" the dark leather-clad hunter of villains, we have Shaco the jester-harlequin who is totally not Joker or a gender-changed version of his girlfriend Harley Quinn, we will have Jinx who is totally not Joker, we have Nidalee who isn't Catwoman although she's a literal one, we have Zyra who isn't Poison Ivy, we have Renekton who is totally not Killer Croc and Zac isn't at all like the shapechanger Clayface. Well, okay, that last one is stretching it a bit. But hey, at least Singed has Bane skin!

Perhaps someone at Riot is a Batman fan. And perhaps they've still managed to pull off those characters, who could've just been ripoffs, so well they feel like original characters.

The only point to take away from this is that we're seriously overdue for Bruce Swain.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

The only point to take away from this is that we're seriously overdue for Bruce Swain.

So for his ult Bruce Swain pops into costume and batarangs start shooting out of him?