Everybody who watches always says that, and my response is always the same. She had a cold




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Baron should be always warded in some fashion. No exceptions.

As a note - the official database on Riot's site is out of date. League Craft, Game Replays, etc are all better choices.

Overextending
Pushing is great, it's how you eventually (hopefully) win. However, keep in mind when is a good time to push. When you're not near a tower, you should be pretending like you've got Paranoia issues. Are four of the enemy team missing, and you're not close to safety? Time to take a couple steps back. You should not be at their Inhib Turret alone if the entire enemy team is mysteriously missing for instance. Killed it and ready to pounce the inhib? Good, retreat for now and grab it later. Not worth wasting your life vainly trying to kill an inhib and giving the enemy team gold. This logic also applies to when generally pushing in small groups, abandon the push if you find yourself in a place that you could not escape from if you were suddenly attacked. This is something I usually just call overstaying your welcome. During the early game laning phase, overextending is a bit easier to handle. Watch the video in the first post, and keep an eye out for mia calls that could screw you. Think of it this way, if your team saw one, lone enemy pushing into your territory. What would your team do? Go and kick their face in of course! If you find yourself in a position that you could easily be slapped down in, move. Don't be there.




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Ya I've recently gotten into using clairvoyance and I have some beastly cooldown reduction so it helps a ton not just for checking bushes but preventing ambushes and timing neutrals spawns and of course checking on how the other team comes of the opening spawn, on another note don't you hate it when you eat blue playdough and it tastes like a red crayon?



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She did have a cold while voicing that

Tanks late-game can check without much recoil, since they have 3,000+ HP, but that's about it. Stealthers can if the enemy is too braindead to get a Oracle's though. The real problem with bush-checking without caution is you just don't know what's in there. You could be walking into a 1v5, at which point you are very dead.




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Know of anything that is so incredibly useful, that you think every player should give it a look over? Post!

Never check Bushes with your face

Juking (or, Running Away Effectively)

Zoning Tutorial

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Builds

With most every champion, Boots are a must. Getting 'plain' boots near the beginning is good enough, but you should have upgraded boots before the laning phase ends. Boots do not stack, you can only gain the movement speed bonus off one set. However, Zeal, Phantom Dancer, and (a fully stacked) Sword of the Occult all give movement speed if you need more.

Snowball items should be taken when useful. Mejai's Soulstealer, Sword of the Occult, and Leviathan are the big snowball items in LoL, you get "Stacks" when you get a kill (2 stacks) or assist (1, 2 on Leviathan), and lose stacks (1/3 of total) when you die. If you are getting less kills than deaths, do not buy a Snowball item! (Bloodthirster also loses effectiveness upon death, but does not use the stack system, it loses all of it's bonus effects on death (40 attack damage))

Concrete Builds are silly. If you find a cool build online that looks fun, that's great, try it out. But modify it to fit your needs in battle. For instance, if you're the tank, and you're using a build that has a Sunfire Cape (500hp, some armor, aoe effect), but you're facing a team purely made of mages, do not get the Sunfire Cape. Instead, get a Banshee's Veil (around 450hp&mp, some magic resist, blocks 1 negative spell every 30 seconds). If you're the damage dealer, and you find you're dying a lot, pick up an HP item. Frozen Mallet is the big HP Item for physical dps, because it not only gives HP, but some attack damage and a slowing effect to your auto-attack. Rylai's Crystal Scepter is the equivalent for Mages.

Know your role

Many teams, especially in lower ELO brackets, use a team composition of 1 tank, 2 mages, 2 physical. What does this mean? The tank initiates battles with his face, as he's stacking defensive items. He tries to soak up the initial burst damage from the enemies so his squishier teammates don't get a faceful of dead. This job is harder than it looks, because the tank has to keep the enemy's attention, and make them think he's the best target to attack, even though the rest of his team does more damage. When fighting, look at the enemy team and figure out who's the tank. Don't attack that person first in battles unless it's a must.

Mundo and Blitzcrank are two characters that can tank, and you'll see them do it often, but falter in this category. Mundo can steal deal damage when built pure tank, but not as much as the dps can, so he will get ignored against a smart team. Blitzcrank has no initiation abilities for teamfights. The only way he can initiate is if the enemy team follows after a grabbed teammate (Blitz can shoot his fist, if it hits an enemy, it brings them to him). Never follow a grabbed teammate when the rest of his team is there. You'll be battling a 4v5 on their terms. Leave your ally to die and run to a safe position. Congratulations, you have successfully made the enemy Blitz unable to tank effectively.

Your role also includes any abilities that are used out of battle. This includes Karthus, Soraka, Twisted Fate, Shen, and Teemo/Nidalee. Karthus' Ult does damage to every enemy champion. This is useful for finishing off champions early on that run away, but late game it should be used at the start of a battle. Soraka is the opposite, she has a map-wide Heal for her allies. Since the Ally HP bar on the left only works when you're close to the champion, you need to call out in some way when you need her Ult from a distance (It's called Wish). Twisted Fate not only has the Summoner Spell Teleport built in, but can also see where every enemy champion is on the map when using his Ult. Wondering where the enemies are? Are they doing Baron? TF can check. Shen has a built in teleport as well, but he teleports onto allied champions, giving him and them a shield. It's a lifesaver. Teemo/Nidalee do not have a worldwide ability. They have traps. You put them down, walk away, and an enemy can hit them. Teemo's traps do more damage, and have a line of sight (a range of about 250). Nida's traps have no line of sight and deal less damage, but are on a shorter cooldown, and mark the opponent, they can be seen by your team for a good fifteen seconds or so, even if stealthed. Putting their traps in every bush you find, as well as the entrances to Baron and Dragon is a must, you are expected to do so as soon as you can. When possible, your traps (especially Teemo's) go in bushes so you have a better chance of seeing an enemy hiding in one. When a Teemo Shroom is in a bush, your team has line of sight into it.

Short mention: Do not believe a Karthus when he says that he's most useful when sitting on spawn popping Ult when he sees a teamfight. He should be helping in teamfights.

Phases of Play

You'll hear 'early game', 'mid game', 'late game', 'laning phase', 'teamfight phase' etc; quite a lot. But what do they mean?

Early Game/Laning Phase is when characters are confined to their lanes for the most part. You need to be doing the following while in the Laning Phase.
1. Push - The enemy tower will not break itself, help your minion waves push forward and break the tower. Watch who you lane against, Shen, Rammus, and Blitzcrank can give you an early grave with ease when you're near their tower. Be careful, a couple hundred damage on a tower is not worth your life.
2. Don't die - Early kills heavily impact the later stages of play, do your best to not die. Be safe, not sorry.
3. MIA calls - Missing In Action calls are a must, and people can, and will get mad at you if you don't call them. If you don't see an enemy champion, even if you're not sure if they're actually gone, call it.
4. Help - If another lane is having problems, try to sneak/rush over to help. Do your best to not trigger an MIA call from the opponents, so the enemy team doesn't back up before you get there.
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Mid-game/Teamfight Phase is when a couple towers have broken, and teams start grouping up. Here, MIA calls turn into care, if you hear "care mid", and you're in mid, back up and get to safety right away, enemies are coming for you! During this phase it can be harder to tell what's safe and what's not, since towers have fallen. The general rule is that if you go over the river, onto their side of the map, you should never be alone, ever.
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Late-game is the same as mid-game, but with longer death periods. Do your best to not die especially now, as you will lose at least one tower if your entire team is wiped (an Ace).

Baron

The Red Minion Camp, giant purple dick monster. Killing it grants a buff to the team that kills it. A very nice buff. If you're looking to kill it, wait until most of the enemy team is down, or when you can see all of them. You don't want to be interrupted. If somebody you're playing with wants to do baron, and there's 3mia, don't. If/once you are doing Baron, and there's an enemy or two still alive, position somebody above baron, in the woods. A character with range can still hit it form up there, and unless you have line of sight there, an enemy could be waiting there to 'ninja the kill'.

If you think the enemy team is doing Baron, do not go in alone, check using skillshots from the forest above, listen for sounds, or use something that gives you line of sight. If they are doing it, and you're entire team is up, ganking there could go really well. If not, you can either try to ninja it, or run back to base. 1v5 will not end well for you, so don't try it.

Stealth

Called the pub-stomp mechanic, because it fails against organized teams. Here's how to stop a stealther in their tracks: When laning against a stealth character, get a Vision Ward (Consumables, 150g), and plant it in your bush at the lane (So you also get line of sight in the bush). Problem solved, simple as that. Every 5min or so you'll need to replace it, but it's the simplest, cheapest way to completely kill stealthing. During mid/late game, have your tank get an Oracle's Elixir (Consumables, 400g). It's a potion (so you have to use it, not let it sit in your inventory) that reveals enemy stealth characters around them, to your entire team (so, a mobile Vision Ward). The tank should get it since he wants attention from the enemy team to initiate (the enemy stealth will qq until they target the Oracle holder), and he's the hardest to kill.

Shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts you should know
• b - Blue Pill, the recall hotkey
• g - Ping a spot for your team (the actual button is at the top-left of your minimap)
• ALT+SKILL KEY - will cast that skill on the target the game thinks is best. If you use this shortcut on a skillshot, the skill will fire where your cursor is. Called "Smart Cast".
• F#+SKILL KEY - On the left side of your screen, you see portraits of your allies. Pressing F3 will cast it on the third person, F1 is you, etc.
• SPACEBAR - centers the camera on you, you can hold it down.
• CTRL+F - Shows you more detailed information about your frames per second.
• 1-6 - uses the active ability/potion in the respective item slot.

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