Since I myself had no experience in MOBA games - League of Legends is my first game. By downloading it and registering in it, I had to go through training in three stages. On the first, you need to destroy all the enemy towers on the same line, and you can also try the skills of five different champions. In the second stage, only one character is available that you do not select, but the entire map is already open. The objective of this stage is to increase the level of skills of your champion. And finally, at the third stage, it is proposed to buy additional items in the store for his champion. After completing the training, they give you a capsule with a new hero.
To tell you the truth, for a man who had never played anything, learning was difficult. First, you need to press the buttons that are responsible for the skills, despite looking at the keyboard, and at the same time move the character with the right mouse button (and not the left one, as your hand got used to, just working on the computer). I didn’t even immediately understand that I needed to move it with the mouse, as I thought the keyboard arrows were more suitable for this. Secondly, when you kill a champion, he rises after a few seconds, and it all starts all over again - you need to kill him again. I thought that the death of a hero is permanent. It’s good that the rules apply on both sides: if they killed me, then I also resurrect at the base. Thirdly, there is a lot of everything on the screen: everything is moving somewhere, something is happening, something needs to be bought, there is also a card in the lower right corner of the screen, which, as I later learned, must also be watched. And when there are big battles between teams, you can’t call it a mess on the screen. All ten characters are mixed together, there are also red and blue minions between you that you must kill too, and you all stand between the towers and the inhibitor, and I don’t even see my champion, I just click on all the buttons with skills to at least do something. At first, there is a feeling that it’s impossible to understand all this. But this, of course, is not so. And now, first things first.
The first thing to do is to choose one or two champions from the available ones and go to YouTube to watch the guides on them. There are a lot of guides, but it is better to choose those that are newer. Since updates regularly appear in the game, old guides are simply irrelevant. Champions can be obtained for free or purchased. While I was learning to play, I liked Miss Fortune, and then in that very first capsule, I came across Lux. I watched 10-12 guides about these champions and I can say that they really help. From them, I learned a lot of important and necessary information, without which it is simply impossible to play since at first, I did not understand what was going on. It is also important to say that there are a lot of gaming words in the guides. Naturally, I didn’t understand them, so I just googled everything and wrote them out to remember.
What you need to know for the game
The role of his champion
There are 145+ champions in the game. All have their own roles, there are five in all. The Tank does little damage but is very hardy. The Fighter prefers close combat and gradually deals great damage. The Mage deals a lot of magical damage. The Assassin is waiting for the right moment and does a lot of damage, using his mobility. The Marksman constantly deals damage with his auto-attacks. Support helps the characters and usually plays on the line with the arrow. For example, the role of Miss Fortune is a shooter (which is called AD-carrie), and Lux is a magician and support (in a game-like support).
The line on which the champion plays
The entire game map is divided into three lines: top - the top line, mid - the middle line and bot - the bottom line. Not all heroes move as they want. For example, Miss Fortune always goes only to the bot, and Lux either to the mid or to where the marksman goes because she will be his support. Also on the map is a jungle with neutral monsters and strong dragon. They can be killed to get additional gold and temporary buffs for the whole team. A player who goes to the jungle takes on the additional role of Jungler and helps his team only in case of urgent need.
Champion skills and their levelling order
Each champion has 4 unique skills. To use them, you need to press the keyboard buttons Q, W, E, R. The skill R for each player is called the ultimate since this is the most powerful ability. When a champion reaches a new level, you can only upgrade one skill. All champions have different skill levelling order, which also depends on the role in the game.
Summoner Spells
These are additional skills that are activated with the D and F buttons. There are 16 of them in total, they are the same for each champion, but only two of them can be selected for the game. For example, using the Heal or Barrier spells, you can greatly increase the survivability of your champion. And in the jungle, there is nothing to do without the Smite spell, since it deals great damage to the monsters and restores health.
Items from the store
There are 281+ items in the game, and new ones appear regularly. What is suitable for some characters is not suitable for others. In the guides, the guys tell in detail why champions need certain items. The most powerful items are obtained from combinations of simple ones, so you should still buy component items. When a champion acquires all 6 items possible per game, this is called a full build. You can buy items in the store only when you are near the fountain - the place where the game begins.
Runes
These are special enhancement spells that enhance the champion's skills. The game has 5 runes: Precision, Domination, Sorcery, Resolve and Inspiration. All of them are immediately available to the player, but you can only select and change them from level 11. Each champion has only two paths of runes: the main and additional. For example, Lux takes Sorcery as the main one, and Domination as secondary. On the main path, you can select 4 abilities, and on the additional only 2.
Real battle
My friends asked me if I play alone or with someone, and when they found out that I'm playing alone, they called me to play together. But I was always upset that they advised so far not to play with real people from the start. But I already wanted to find out how everything happens there. This game brings a completely different feeling. You never know how the champion will act, which is no longer controlled by a computer, but by a real person. I played 5 of these games, and I don’t feel like going back to bots at all. Each game was unique in its own way: of course, in the first game we lost; the second game was the longest in my entire “game practice” - as much as 37 minutes, but it was also the most interesting. At first, our team won, but the mid player did not keep their line, and the enemies began to destroy the inhibitor. Someone wanted to give up a couple of times, and the rest of the team, including myself, confidently did not agree, and after a while, we won. After that, all ten participants thanked each other for the game.
Community
Besides the size of the game, I did not expect the LoL community to be so friendly. I was helped by people with whom we are not familiar and have never seen each other, and only once did I encounter a negative behaviour. In addition to this, the game hosts world tournaments and championships with professional cyber sportsmen, and the winners are awarded huge cash prizes. I did not understand this part of the game since the goal of my experiment was simply to learn how to play LoL. Having mastered the basic gameplay mechanics in two weeks of the daily game, I realized that I became a real fan of League of Legends.
