How to Win at:

By Andrew Clark

Table Of Contents
Contents
Table Of Contents ........................................................................................................................... 1
Intro ................................................................................................................................................. 2
Chapter 1: Basic Rules .................................................................................................................... 3
Controls ....................................................................................................................................... 3
Scoreboard .................................................................................................................................. 3
Champions .................................................................................................................................. 3
Stats ......................................................................................................................................... 4
Champion Types ..................................................................................................................... 5
Minions ....................................................................................................................................... 6
Game Types ................................................................................................................................ 6
Summoners Rift ..................................................................................................................... 6
Chapter 2: Customization ............................................................................................................... 9
Summoner Spells ........................................................................................................................ 9
Runes........................................................................................................................................... 9
Quintessence ........................................................................................................................... 9
Marks .................................................................................................................................... 10
Seals ...................................................................................................................................... 10
Glyphs ................................................................................................................................... 10
Masteries ................................................................................................................................... 10
Skins.......................................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 3: The Meta ..................................................................................................................... 13
Top Lane ................................................................................................................................... 13
Middle Lane .............................................................................................................................. 13
ADC (Attack Damage Carry) ................................................................................................... 14
Support ...................................................................................................................................... 14
Jungler ....................................................................................................................................... 14
Gameplay - A typical game ...................................................................................................... 15

Introduction
This is a manual to teach new players how to play the video game called League of Legends.
League of Legends is one of the most played video games in the world with over 70 million
players. Many new players dont learn everything they have to know in the tutorials, so this
guide will help them play better and get more used to the play-styles used in ranked matches.
Since the only game mode with ranked play is Summoners Rift, this guide will focus more on
that game mode instead of the others.
League of Legends is a free-to-play MOBA(Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) where two teams
of 5 players each battle as powerful characters called champions. These champions must work
together to win the game by destroying the enemy Nexus.

Chapter 1: Basic Rules

Controls

Right mouse button: Move (on land), Basic attack (on enemy)
Q: Ability#1
W: Ability #2
E: Ability #3
R: Ultimate Ability
1-7: Use Items
D/F: Use Summoner Spells
B: Recall Warps you back to base. Takes 8 seconds to complete
Esc: menu, close window
Space pan to your champion
Scroll Zoom in/out
Tab scoreboard
G alert ping
V retreat ping

Scoreboard
Team
Kills

Enemy
Kills

Kills

Deaths

Assists

Minions
killed

Time Elapsed

Frames per second

Champions
Champions are the characters you play as. There are over 100 of them to chose from each game.
They each have their own unique abilities that can adapt to different play-styles. Champions all
have 3 main abilities, an ultimate ability, and a passive ability. The main abilities are used for
basic tasks, like attacking or slowing down enemies. They each can be leveled up 5 times for
every level the champion gains. The ultimate ability is a powerful ability that can change the
outcome of a battle, but they take a while to cool down. They can only be leveled up at levels 6,
11, and 16. The passive ability is always on and can help a champion during battles. For many
champions, the passive ability can make them stand out from other champions by changing how
they work.

Stats
Each champion has its own stats that determine its strength. However, some of these stats may
not be useful to some champions, so they are not worth buying items for.

HUD

Level

Items

Stats

Summoner Spells

Passive Ability
Experience

Mana

Abilities

health

Gold

Recall

Level: Levels are gained by gaining experience from killing jungle monsters, enemy minions
and champions. Gaining levels raise most of your stats and allows you to rank up your abilities.
The maximum level is 18.
Health: Health determines how healthy a champion is and shows how much damage it can take
before they die.
Mana: Most champions use mana to us abilities. But, for some champions, they use another
resource which is explained in their passives info box.
Attack Damage (AD): Determines the damage dealt from basic attacks. AD can also be used to
increase the effectiveness of physical skills with orange numbers in their info box.
Ability Power (AP): Affects the effectiveness of magical skills with green numbers in their info
boxes.
Attack Speed: Determines the number of basic attacks per second. (max: 2.50 attacks per
second)
Movement Speed: Shows how fast a champion moves.
Armor: Decreases the damage done by physical attacks.
Magic Resist(MR): Decreases the amount of damage done by magic attacks.
Life Steal: The percentage of damage dealt by basic attacks and some abilities that heals your
champion.

Spell Vamp: The percentage of damage dealt by magic attacks that heal your champion.
Critical Rate: The percentage of basic attacks that deal double damage.
Health Regen: determines the amount of health healed every 5 seconds.
Mana Regen: Determines the amount of mana healed every 5 seconds.
Cooldown Reduction: Cooldown is the amount of time a player has to wait after using an
ability before they are able to use it again. Cooldown reduction decreases the amount of time by
a percentage (max: 40%).

Champion Types
All champions can fit into one or two categories in which they fit under by their ideal play style.
Assassin- Assassins are fast, stealthy champions that can do a lot of damage at once. They are
great junglers, but they can also play well at top. They are supposed to target fragile damage
champions first when theres an opening.
Fighter They are melee champions that can deal damage as well as it can take it. Effective
fighters find a balance between offensive and defensive equipment. They fight at close range and
jump in when safe.
Tank Tanks can take a lot of damage and can often hinder enemy progress. They usually
create openings for the team to strike and are the first to fight the enemy. Their equipment is
mainly defensive to help them survive many attacks.

Marksman Marksmen can deal a lot of physical damage at long range. Their main role is to
deal as much damage they safely can and leave it to the tanks and supports to keep them alive.
Support Supports are mainly for crowd control, or abilities that hinder the other team. Many
supports can also heal and boost the team. Supports main job is to keep the team alive and also
create openings for the team to exploit.
Mage- Mages can deal a lot of magic damage using their abilities. However they rely heavily on
their abilities, so their basic attacks are often weak. Mages often build offensive Ability Power
items and a few mana items. However, there are AP items that are an offensive and defensive
hybrid which are useful for mages.

Minions
Minions are small creatures both teams own. Their main purpose is to draw fire from enemy
turrets. They are very weak and easy to kill. Minions give gold to the player that gets the killing
blow. They also give experience to any nearby teammates, even if they dont attack the minion.

Game Types
Summoners Rift
Summoners Rift is the standard mode of play and the only game mode used in ranked play. This
manual will focus mostly on this. Summoners rift is a 5 on 5 match which the objective is to
destroy the enemy nexus located in their base.

Summoners Platform
Large Golem

Inhibitor

Baron Nashor

Lizards
Nexus

Turrets

Dragon

Nexus: A team has to destroy the nexus to win while guarding their own.
Summoners Platform: This is where champions respawn when killed. They also heal friendly
champions standing on them and deal massive damage to enemies on it.

Turret (also called towers): Turrets are places in the 3 lanes. They are very powerful, but they
focus on the first thing in range with priority over minions, so it is a good idea to let the minions
to take the turret fire while the champions attack it. However, if you attack an enemy champion
near the turret, the turret will target you instead.
Inhibitor: If an inhibitor is destroyed, the other team starts spawning super minions in the lane
of the destroyed inhibitor.
Dragon: The team that kills the dragon gains a large gold bonus.
Baron Nashor: The team that kills Baron Nashor gains an Attack Damage, Ability Power,
Health and Mana Regen boost. They also get a large gold bonus. Only fight when the team is
high-leveled and the enemy team is mostly dead.
Large Golem: The player that kills it gets an increased mana regeneration and 10% cool-down
reduction. Also known as blue buff.
Lizards: The player that kills it gets slowing attacks that set enemies on fire, damaging them
over time. Also known as red buff.

Chapter 2: Customization
League of Legends has many ways to customize champions to fit the players play-styles.

Summoner Spells
These are spells you can cast with any champion using the D and F keys. You can equip two at a
time.

Ignite- Deals damage over time to a champion while lowers the effectiveness of any
healing effects.
Heal- Heals you and a nearby champion while giving both a small movement speed
bonus.
Smite- Deals a large amount of damage to a jungle monster or minion, Ideal for jungle
champions.
Barrier- Provides a barrier that protects a champion from attacks.
Ghost- Grants a movement speed bonus and allows champions to run through units.
Flash- Immediately teleports your champion a small distance. You can also flash through
walls.
Cleanse-Removes negative summoner spell effects and any disabling effects. Plus, it
lowers the duration of any disables for 5 seconds.
Clairvoyance- Reveals a part of the map.
Exhaust slows down an enemy champions attack speed and movement speed
Teleport teleports yourself to a friendly minion, turret, or ward
Revive- revives you from death instantly, and gives you an initial speed boost
Garrison-On an allied turret, prevents a capture point from being captured and increases
its attack speed. On an enemy turret, it decreases its damage by 80%. This spell is only
available on the Dominion game mode.
Clarity- restores 40% mana to you and nearby allies.

Runes
Runes are in affect for all champions the player plays. They individually give very small boosts
to champions stats, but when added together they can make a big difference in an actual game.
They are bought using IP (Influence Points) that are earned by playing games. Runes come in 4
different types: quintessences, marks, glyphs, and seals. They are gradually unlocked as your
Summoner Level increases. There are 3 tiers of these: Tier 1 is unlocked when you start out, tier
2 is unlocked at level 10, and tier 3 is unlocked at level 20.

Quintessence
Quintessence have larger bonuses than the others, but theres only three of them and they have
unique bonuses that are unique to them.

Marks
Marks are mainly for physical damage. They are best for boosting attack damage, armor
penetration, attack speed, and your critical hits. You can have up to 9 of these.

Seals
Seals are for defensive bonuses. They are best for boosting armor, health, and health, mana or
energy regeneration. You can have up to 9 of these.

Glyphs
Glyphs are for magic bonuses. They are best for boosting mana, ability power, magic resist,
energy, and cooldown reduction. You can have up to 9 of these.

Quintessence
Seals

Glyphs

Marks

The numbers in the spaces is the Summoner

Level you must reach to unlock the slot.

Masteries
Masteries are free and you get a mastery point each level. They are similar to runes, because they
both give small bonuses to champs the player plays. There are 3 branches of Masteries: Offense,
Defense, and Utility: Offense is mainly for damage characters, Defense is mainly for tanks, and
Utility are general abilities that can be useful to all champions.

Skins
Skins are change a champions appearance, but doesnt give them stat boosts. They cost Riot
Points which are bought with real money, but some of them come with unique emotes and ability
skins.

Chapter 3: The Meta

The Meta is the strategy most players in ranked matches follow. Note that many champions are
playable in multiple lanes. This is for the standard Summoners Rift game type. Many players
are picky about playing in the meta, so its a good idea to learn it.

Top Lane
The top lane belongs to mostly melee brawler or tanks champions. They are in the front lines for
in a team-fight and can either take a lot of hits or deal a lot of damage. Top lane should find a
balance between offensive items and defensive items.

Middle Lane
The mid lane is mainly for mages that require Ability Power for their abilities. They stay in the
back lines dealing heavy magic damage to one or more enemies. As many types of champions
can effectively play mid lane, their builds may differ a lot. Even some physical champions can
play mid well.

ADC (Attack Damage Carry)

They are located at bottom lane. ADCs are ranged physical champions that can do a lot of
damage over time. Their main job is to kill minions, while occasionally harassing the enemy
team.

Support
Supports are also at the bottom lane and their main job is to protect and heal the ADC while
trying to create openings to get the ADC kills. Most supports have stuns and slows to help create
those openings. They gain gold mainly from assists and experience from being near minion
deaths. They also are supposed to ward the nearby area to avoid ambushes from the enemy
jungler.

Jungler
Junglers are mainly assassin champions that can ambush the enemy team and deal a lot of
damage. Their main job is to help the lanes that are in trouble by ambushing them. They mostly
get resources by killing the jungle monsters.

Gameplay - A typical game

1. Help jungler kill the buff monster or invade their jungle. If the other team tries to invade
your side of the jungle, fight them if possible.
2. Go to your assigned position and kill minions, while the jungler helps out lanes if
necessary.
3. Kill the enemy champions when they are vulnerable.
4. Destroy the towers when you can.
5. Unite the team after a few towers are destroyed.
6. Attack the enemy turrets as a team while killing enemy champions whenever possible.
7. When in a team-fight, attack the damage-dealing champions first (like ADCs and mages).
8. Defend your towers whenever they take the offensive.
9. Kill Baron Nashor for a large boon when your team is strong enough (preferably around
level 15 or higher) and when most of the enemy team is dead.
10. Destroy the enemy inhibitors to strengthen your minions. The enemy team will have
trouble fighting a large number of them, so it will leave them vulnerable to attack.
11. Destroy the turrets near the nexus. The Summoners Platform is right next to the turrets
and Nexus, so they will have easy access to healing.
12. Destroy the nexus and win the game.

Conclusion
This was a basic tutorial of League of Legends. You will need to adapt your strategies in case the
opponents are trying something different or your team has an irregular composition. As a final
note: some of the strategies and rules may change as every year or so, as a massive update will
come to prepare for a new season of gameplay.