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- How to Get Better at League of Legends, According to a Pro
How to Get Better at League of Legends, According to a Pro
by
Alana Young
POPSUGAR Australia has partnered with Alienware to highlight female champions in the gaming industry.
League of Legends is one of the most popular video games of all time, accruing more than 1.5 million active players in August 2022 alone. It was adapted into the award-winning Netflix show Arcane and has spawned multiple spinoffs, including the highly-rated RPG Ruined King and the card game Legends of Runeterra. Despite its popularity, playing League of Legends is a hard sell for most people. It’s known for having a steep difficulty curve, which isn’t helped by having more than 140 playable characters to choose from. But once you get over the initial difficulty spike, says Nicole Ge, a streamer and Diamond-1 ranked player who goes by nic0le, League opens up to you quickly.
“League is one of those games that, in the beginning, there’s a very hard bump that you have to cross, and after that it’s relatively easy to be an okay player,” she tells POPSUGAR Australia. “But that initial bump is a barrier that most people have to cross when they start the game.”
We asked nic0le how to get better at League of Legends and she gave us her best tips and tricks for total newcomers and players who are starting to climb the ranks.
Understand the Objective
In League, two teams of five players begin in bases on opposite sides of the map. Each base contains a large crystal structure called the Nexus, and the aim of the game is to destroy the other team’s Nexus.
First, though, teams need to fight their way across the map by pushing deeper into three lanes — called top, mid and bot lane. Players can also venture into the untamed, overgrown spaces between the lanes — called the jungle — to earn powerful upgrades for their team.
Towers are placed along the top, mid and bot lanes, and these will attack any enemies who get too close. To deal with the towers, players are helped by minions — weak NPC characters who spawn at the Nexus and advance through the lanes, automatically attacking any enemy minions, towers or champions they encounter.
Experiment With Champion Roles
All 140+ champions fit into one of five distinct roles, and your role determines which lane you’ll play in and what your mid-game objective will be.
“Typically two people would go in bot lane,” nic0le says. “One would be the ADC [the Attack Damage Carry, often called the Marksman] and one would be the Support. The Support’s role is pretty simple — they enable the rest of the team to perform and carry. The ADC will generally be the damage dealer of the team.”
The Tank typically plays in the top lane, while the APC (Ability Power Carry) plays in the mid lane.
The final role is the Jungler, which is what nic0le plays. “They take camps and objectives, and they also help their teammates get ahead with their map presence.” This is called “ganking” — a League of Legends term that means joining teammates in their lane to overpower the enemy.
No role is necessarily easier than the others — it really depends on what playstyle you prefer, so experiment with different champions and roles to find the one that best suits you.
When you want to start improving and playing ranked games, nic0le suggests focusing on one role. “Just because there’s a limit on how much information we can take in at any point, and every role has different mechanics and different knowledge surrounding the role.”
“If you’re in school and you’re taking five different classes, you should be trying to be really good at all of them, right? But if you were to focus all of your energy on one class, you probably have a higher chance of acing that one class.”
Be Patient With Yourself
As with learning any new skill, it’s going to take time to get good at League of Legends.
“Don’t try to learn everything at once,” nic0le says. “Don’t worry about too many things. Just focus on one thing at a time, like ‘in this game I’ll figure out what my abilities are’, ‘in the next game I’ll figure out how to buy stuff’ but don’t worry about buying the right things, just copy the recommended stuff.”
Use Third-Party Apps
To copy the recommended items like nic0le suggests, there are a number of third-party apps and sites you can use.
U.GG suggests which items and abilities you should use for each character, and even the order you should get them in. It also lists the average win rates for each champion, which nic0le checks after each patch to find out if the updates made a certain champion stronger than normal. Mobafire and OP.GG are also helpful.
“And then for builds, typically I would just use Google,” nic0le says. Searching a champion’s name with the word “build” will usually give you a good guide for which items to buy and the abilities to unlock.
But again, nic0le says you shouldn’t stress too much about builds in the beginning. “Realistically, if you’re just starting off, it doesn’t matter too much, as long as you’re going in the right direction.”
Get Good at Last Hitting
League of Legends has a lot of unique terminology, but one of the most important terms is “last hitting”.
“Last hitting refers to when you’re in a lane against another player and minions from their team. If you last hit the minion, that means your attack or your ability is what kills it. And if you kill it, rather than your minions killing it, you get gold,” nic0le says. “That gold will help you buy items, so if you last hit more minions, you’ll be stronger.”
A successful last hit is deceptively difficult, so it’s important to practice and get a feel for the timing. Try to hang back while the minions fight, and only attack when you see an enemy minion with low health.
Watch Videos and Streams
One of the best ways you can get better at League of Legends is to watch skilled players. The League of Legends category on Twitch is a great place to start, and you can even watch nic0le stream the game. The Riot Games Twitch channel also streams esports tournaments which you can watch to pick up advanced gameplay tactics from professional players.
YouTube is another great resource for guides to certain characters and roles. If you’re really determined, there are even paid courses on Skill Capped.
“I love how there’s something for everybody with League of Legends,” nic0le says. “There are the different roles that you can explore and different champions, and the teamwork aspect is also pretty nice. There really is something in it for everyone.”
Watch nic0le stream League of Legends and other games on Twitch and follow her on Twitter here.
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