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League of Legends

League of Legends Beginner's Guide

Gameplay Overview
League of Legends gameplay is a session action-RPG game that combines the intense control of a single hero with the tactical elements of team play all wrapped in the dynamic strategy of your hero's unique build and abilities.

Each player controls a champion they choose before the game begins and is part of a team of five in the normal matchmaking, or in a team of up to 5 players in practice matches. With there being a wide variety and real depth of possibilities in champion classes and play style, and many ways to build a balanced and diverse team, team composition is a persistent theme in the game.

The main matchmaking map, Sumoners Rift, features three lanes that run through the map upon which uncontrollable friendly minions march down, attacking any enemy units. The main objective is to destroy the enemies Nexus. The Nexus is the large castle near your fountain where all friendly minions spawn. This final goal is gradually achieved by first fighting the enemy team for control of the map and penetrating outer defenses, before finally getting to the base turrets defending the inhibitor structures. Inhibitors are structures that both teams have in front of their Nexus which stop the enemy from spawning super minions in each lane (i.e. there are three inhibitors, one per lane). Once you destroy the enemy inhibitor in a given lane, you will begin spawning super minions in that lane for a ~5 minute period, and these minions will help you push to the enemy nexus and gain victory. After the 5 minutes, the inhibitor will respawn and the enemy on the back foot can have a chance to come back.

Each match will go through several different phases wherein the player’s actions and goals will change. The First phase is the laning phase where your goal is to last hit enemy minions as much as possible so that you can gain experience and gold. During this phase, the opposing champions will harass each other, but champion kills will be low. This phase often lasts until around level six or seven.

The second phase is the gank phase. Ganking is where one or more heroes leave their position to go team up on a certain enemy champion in an attempt to slay that champion. Extra gold and experience is given for champion kills compared to minion kills. This phase can last a very long time, or not long at all. When ganks start to become frequent, champions will be moving to and from lanes often, and it becomes hard to monitor all champions.

The Third phase is the pushing or team fight phase. To avoid getting ganked alone, teams will start to roam together moving from lane to lane attempting to kill enemy turrets. When both teams start to do this, large team fights will start to occur, often involving all ten players. This is by far the most crucial part of the game, but effectiveness in this phase is often determined by how well you've done up until now.

Important units & structures


Turrets
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Tough defensive structures which both teams have 3 of per lane, the outer turret, the inner turret, the inhibitor turret, and finally two nexus turrets. These deal significant damage to minions and champions alike, and scale throughout the game to retain this lethality until only the late game stage is reached. They deal physical damage, so to tank turret fire requires a hefty armor value.

Inhibitors
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Destroy these structures to spawn super minions in that lane. The health and damage of all your minions goes up for each destroyed Inhibitor. They respawn after 5 minutes. If you have all the Inhibitors down, double super minions will spawn.

Super minions
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These will begin spawning from your Nexus once an enemy inhibitor is destroyed. They are specially toughened siege minions, which take reduced damage from turrets, and can deal lots of damage. For example, they could quite easily kill softer champions like mages and ranged DPS if unchecked.

The Nexus
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The ultimate aim is to destroy the enemy Nexus and end the game, it is well protected in the enemy base behind the lane turrets, the three inhibitor turrets, and two turrets of its own, that last of latter which can regenerate health.