It's been a little while. I have a very basic understanding of how the game works. I play Kayle almost exclusively now on my way to earning Sona. I usually hop into a lane with a partner and toss out heals and burn stuff with my fury. In terms of game strategy I usually stick with the team late game, but don't really have a tactical plan for anything. I like my support role and using a basic principle I learned in the alternate realm were the Civil War still rages on, I "Go to the sound of the heaviest fighting." I've read some guides but can't really make heads or tails of much. I'm just trying to get some concepts in my head and start to determine why I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm not even fully aware of what a Carry is, but apparently I played two of them (Tristanna and Ashe). I'm horrible at playing Mid alone and wish to avoid certain situations by virtue of understanding what they are. Is there a basic guide that will break me into the tactics of this game? Have I overlooked it? Or is this going to be a repeat of College Calculus where I just can't get it into my head .

There is a tactics section in the learning center that is pretty solid. It has beginner, intermediate and advanced tactics.

This thread by Statikk is also really useful. It explains character "types" (such as carries) and there roles that each character type fills and what it brings to a team.

These videos just came out, and are very well done/useful.
Laning Basics – declawd
Map Awareness - Kendama

You might also want to look at this whole thread for a lot of the terminology used in the game.

Colloquial provided some GREAT links.

There are many threads on here built for specific styles or game phases. (from jungling, to early/mid/late games) most of the threads are stickied so they should be on the front pages of the forum sections.

If you have any specific questions definitely ask and they will be answered.


Kayle is a great champ, as she has support, but can also hold her own in a fight (at times). Using ur heal and ult in team fights is very important. But it is also important to target an important champ (generally a carry) with you ranged ability and your righteous fur). Depending on how you build/play [full support, support/AP, support/AD, or just AP/AD] the strategy of play varies a bit.

Sona, on the other hand, is made to be full support. While she can still get kills and surprise people with her damage output, I find it is best to use her as full support (sometimes verging on support/tank) with sona I recommend harass harass harass early game, mid/late game: keep all auras going during team fights, activate any items that might help (shureliq's reverie for example) and try to get as many enemies as possible caught in the ult.

I hope that helps a little bit!!

And a carry is a character who is often fragile early game, farms well, and pwns later (Ashe and trist are two very good examples, depending on team, even mages can be the carry (like ryze or Annie)

I've only glanced at the links posted so far (I'm just found out what livestream was and this stuff is better than TV!). The thing that has me most mystified is the Rune/Mastery portion of this game. First of all, are there any basic builds that I can look at, I really don't know where to start. On top of that, I usually go into games not knowing what champion type I'm going to play as (although more often then not, I'm support). I thought about using my three pages as DPS, Tank, Support, based on what I need, but Masteries can't be changed on the fly, so that leaves me kind of stumped. Although the whole system has me kind of confused. It looks similar to WoW, and in that situation I just played a cookie cutter build posted on the forums...

There is a thread in the new player section centered entirely on runes, while the mastery questions has been addressed multiple times.

Runes: I use similar runes (m-pen, mana regen, health) on most of my champs, but have enough to have some crit chance or CDR or ability power depending on who j plan on using. It is best to change your masteries once your character has been selected (right before the game actually begins) unfortunately that means that you need to know your role before the game starts)

Most people use the 9-0-21, 0-9-21, 21-0-9, etc etc mastery set up. For example, for my AP champs, I use 9-0-21. This means 9 in offensive (because I want the "your abilities Penetrate 15% of target's MR) and 21 in utility because I want mana regen, exp, and things like clarity and port or clairvoyance.

The masteries you should use vary greatly depending on champ, role, and summoner abilities. (which do you use and we can offer suggestions)