Every game has core fundamentals and tactics that are worth mastering. Some games go to great lengths to explain those features and play points, while others might skooch them to the side in favor of driving forward more ‘fun’ concepts in their players' faces. League finds itself in the middle of the road in my opinion, but it still struggles to retain those new players. So today, in an effort to help out the newbies of League of Legends, we’re going to be breaking down the core concepts of League and what you need to focus on developing regardless of your role or Champion.

Understanding Minions, Monsters, Gold, and Experience

Before I go anywhere else, I want to first highlight that Minions, Monsters, Gold, and Experience make this game. Sure. There are cool items and Champion combos that make the game ‘fun’, but what makes the game work and what makes those Champions and their items achievable is income. And income in League of Legends comes from Minions and Monsters in the form of Gold and Experience.

So, you’ve likely heard that one of the main concepts you should focus on when starting out is ‘Last-Hitting’, and that’s some great advice from whoever gave it to you. And we’ll reiterate that. Last-Hitting is a key fundamental of League that ensures that any Gold that would be dropped by a Minion or Monster goes directly into your pocket. If you don’t ‘Last-Hit’ or kill a Minion or Monster off yourself, you’ll gain a little Experience for your effort, but you’d ideally want to be getting both the Gold and Experience that every NPC on the Rift can give you.

Last-Hitting is especially important for the roles of Top, Mid, and Bot, as these roles will have a constant stream of Minions marching down their respective lanes throughout the game. One of the biggest tactic points for these Laners is to find ways to soak up as much of the experience and gold offered by these encroaching waves without contesting your own teammates over the resources. So, alongside Last-Hitting, learning Mid to Late Game lane assignments and rotations is a great way to improve your overall income flow.

For Jungle and Support, Last-Hitting is less important to you, but it’s still a valuable skill to develop as there will be times when you’ll be the one clearing a wave or defending a turret before your team arrives, so, knowing how much damage you do or how much damage your turret does to Minions will help soak in that extra bit of income that can help tip you over the edge of your opponent.

You can develop Last-Hitting skills by heading into the practice tool and simply aiming to achieve close to 100-cs (Creep Score, or the number of Minions/Monsters you’ve last hit) per 10 minutes, which is perfect CS in a non-pressured situation. Doing this before your games will help you build up that muscle memory and recognition over time which will improve your overall game. As you get better, you can make the routine a bit more difficult by introducing Beginner or Intermediate Bots to act as your opponents. These Bots will pressure you with damage in lane, so finding a balance of pressuring them back while also Last-Hitting is the goal here. While 100cs/ten is the ‘ideal,’ the realistic goals will probably edge closer to 80 or 90 for practiced lakers, with 60 to 70 being a great start for beginning players.

Learn To Read Your Map

One of the biggest things that can help you improve quickly is getting into the habit of regularly reading your Mini-Map. That thing hanging out in the corner of your screen can give you a lot of information regardless of your role, so taking regular beats to scan it over and adjust is ideal.

To incorporate our previous suggestion of Last-Hitting, incorporate your Mini-Map check after each and every CS. Once you secure a Last-Hit, as long as you aren’t pressured to secure another, toss a glance at the corner of your screen. Aim to identify the following information quickly:

• Can I see the enemy Jungler?
• What are the positions of each lane?
• Are there large neutral objectives available?
• Where is my Jungler in relation to me?

Answering these questions can allow you to develop your own play, and all four of these can be answered with a quick glance when you’ve practiced. Why do you want to know these things, though? Well, knowing where the enemy Jungler is can help you define how aggressive you can play against your opponent. If you know for a fact that you can outplay your enemy laner, seeing the Jungler pass over the opposite side of the map can increase the potential of a winning play for you.

If you don’t see the Jungler, checking the positions for your allied Laners could clue you in. If they’re hugging close to their turrets, either their under pressure from their opponents, OR the enemy Jungler is lurking nearby, so they’re playing safe to the defenses of their turret. Alongside, scanning what Objectives are near those lanes can clue you in too. If your Bot Lane is pressured under turret while Dragon is up, it could be a sign for you as a Mid Laner that their pressure is giving time for the enemy Jungler to solo Dragon. Or, if everyone on the enemy team is missing from vision, they might be either on a large objective like Baron or Dragon, or they’re all converging on you, allowing you to adjust your positioning to be more reserved.

Lastly, knowing where your Jungler is ties into the first point of aggression, but also, knowing where your Jungler is can also give you an idea of where the enemy Jungler is and what the next play you could make is. A lot of League of Legends is dictated by how well your Jungler succeeds, so as a Laner, Top, Mid, and Supports especially, playing towards or around your Jungler is a key way to set the game off in your favor. So, always take a glance and see if there’s an opportunity to go in on an assist with your Jungler. They’ll thank you for it in the form of LP.

Positioning Based On Your Role

One of the largest and most overlooked aspects of League is its spacial warfare. By that, I mean the efforts that players will go through to hold particular pockets or how enemies position in relation to others. And this is a pretty difficult concept for a lot of beginning players to come to understand, and one that honestly relies a bit on having prior MOBA or competitive PvP experience in other titles. But let’s break it down the best we can.

Zone Control is the concept of controlling space in League. By that, I mean when you have control of a Zone or Space, you are able to immediately influence that position on the map with your abilities with minimal drawback. Using Blitzcrank as an example, Blitz has a massive threat in the form of his Q, Rocket Grab.

The threat of Rocket Grab allows Blitz to position his body forward and aggressively towards his opponents since its long range and high impact will almost always guarantee a kill in situations where Blitz’s team is ahead or neutral against his opponents. Good Blitz players are aware of this outcome and play towards it by looking to use their character’s body to threaten the literal space that their opponents would want to occupy by putting themselves within range to successfully land hooks should an opponent wander through. If you’re a Chess player, think of it like setting up a fork where you are able to attack multiple pieces at one time, or by setting a piece forward to threaten while having a piece that’s further back still in position to recapture should your opponents act against your aggressive movements.

Every lane in League has Champions that are particularly excellent at dominating Zone or Spacial Control. Some examples are Maokai with his massive AOE ultimate. Orianna with her ball that has great vision and can entirely cut off choke points. Fiddlesticks whose circular ultimate dominates in close quarters. Miss Fortune whose Make It Rain (E) and Ultimate, Bullet Time, can both slow and decimate opponents caught in confined spaces.

Learning what your Champion can do to claim and threaten space against your opponent is a huge deal in becoming a better player. And this is especially so for our Bot Lane Mains out there. Bot Laners in particular are in charge of pumping out as much damage as they can against turrets and within teamfights. But, Bot Laners are also typically the most fragile Champions in the game since their class space is occupied primarily by Marksmen and Mages, who are known more for their scaling damaging ability and less for their durability. So, they must be keenly aware of how the position in relation to the enemy team’s biggest threats, often Assassins or Burst Mages that are specifically designed to ruin your day.

In this same vein, Supports, Mids, Junglers, and Top Laners all must be aware of the function of their Champions in relation to what the enemy team wants to accomplish. If the enemy team only has the single-minded goal of diving onto your Bot Laner, then as a Support, even one designed to initiate fights, it might be better for you to hang back and play defensively using your cooldowns to protect your Bot Laner instead of charging into the fray. For Mids, sure, if you kill the enemy ADC for the 15th time, or you can put your focused damage on controlling the space between your allied ADC and the fed enemy Renekton that is just slicing his way through to one-shot your carry. Top Laners too can think and expand their role in this way.

Consider what tools you have and what you can do with them to alter the moment-to-moment position of yourself and your enemies in-game and that will help you establish great fight awareness and overall micro-understanding of League’s most hype moments, teamfights.

Closing Out

So, Income, Experience, Minions, Monsters, the Map, and Positioning are your biggest concerns in our eyes. Learn these game aspects and deeply come to understand how your Champions play in and around these concepts, and you’ll go far as you aim to master League’s more rigorous challenges, the Mental of Solo-Queue.