Hello, and welcome to my... more In-Depth guide for everyone who'd like to know what LoL is about.

Now, there are what I'd like to call 3 Stages in playing LoL.

• Stage 1 - Economy. This stage is about getting gold and items.
• Stage 2 - The Battlefield. This stage is about champion vs. champion combat, and shaping the battlefield.
• Stage 3 - Towers

It's important to remember that while Stage 2 strongly effects both 1 and 3, it is NOT the most important. As your playing LoL, always remember that regardless of champion kills, individual player strategy, and items, TOWERS WIN GAMES. They are the be all, end all portion of LoL, so focus gameplay as much as possible around enemy towers.

How well you master each individual stage will have a lot to do with whether your team loses, or crushes the opposition.

Stage 1 - Economy

Now, it's been shown that the most economical build is one that gives you extra gold. There are two great items to focus on concerning this, and that's Kage's lucky pick under Ability Power in the Magic section of the shop, and the Heart of Gold under the Armor portion of the Defense part of the shop.

Most people only grab one, but why stop there? Grabbing two of the item instead one effectively DOUBLES your passive gold generation, and mixed with some effective combat skills, you will quickly and effectively out class everyone in the game with gold income. I highly suggest this, and it doesn't take much time to get two, and vastly increases your end-game capacity.

When it comes to item purchasing beyond that, it's most effective to cater to one's champions own abilities. If your hero relies on spells, get more mana and ability power. If you rely on quick-strike ganking, get attack speed/critical and damage. If you rely on tanking the **** out of the other team, get armor and health. Also be aware of your opponent, you can build specially to counter them.

While items and gold are NOT the deciding factors in a match, they do strongly effect Stage 2 and your champion vs. champion abilities, so experiment with builds yourself to find something that you are comfortable with and works effectively.

Stage 2 - The Battlefield

This stage is important, as while it doesn't decide the outcome of a match it does effect both other stages strongly, and is also the most difficult stage to master.

The key to this stage is survivability. Your number 1 priority, at ALL times, is to stay alive. The less you die, REGARDLESS OF KILLS, the better you are at this stage. Kills does NOT measure your ability here, deaths do. So STAY ALIVE!!

Now, there are two things I'd like to remind you readers of. The first thing I'd like to point out is that abilities are NOT only for using against enemy champions. Even if there's an opposing champion near you, it's MORE effective to kill minions and push forward in the long run (and gold, always remember more gold) then it is to just sit and wait for an opportunity. So KILL THOSE MINIONS! The more and the faster, the better.

Secondly, wilderness mobs. If there's a lull in the action and there's nothing to kill, or if it's too dangerous and you think you may be ganked, kill some wilderness mobs. They are GREAT for quick gold and exp, and a group will usually dish out 40 gold in a quick two seconds.

Always remember to play for towers though. Killing enemy champions is great, but you want to kill enemy minions and push them and their forces back until you can destroy their towers.

Stage 3 - Towers

This is the most important stage. Towers decide which team loses, and which team wins. Whatever your doing, whatever you want to do, remember that towers are the most important aspect of the game and destroying them is the most important thing you can do.

Always push towards towers, destroy enemy minions as fast as possible to allow your team to move forward. Some good strategies are to bring Heal, Rally, and Promote along with you. These spells will allow you to help your own minion swarm, and to destroy opposing towers.

Killing enemy champions is fine, but it's the TOWERS you want to kill. Champions should be secondary priority, so if you want to win, make sure to keep to towers.


Good luck, and happy hunting!

- Asgrim

Careful bout those towers mate!

If you attack an enemy champion near an enemy tower, the tower will immediately target you and fire away.

nashor is more important than tower. nashor wins games.

FWIW, if you are good at ganking enemy champions, it is absolutely a viable alternative source of money.

One thing that some new players get confused about is the idea that seriously risking your life is OK if you are pretty sure you will kill an enemy.

A 1-for-1 trade usually doesn't help your team (barring special circumstances, like a fed Cho or such).

Especially for newer players, the other guy probably has a trick you don't know or someone coming to help him. This is ESPECIALLY true if the other guy is continuing to fight you. If you are looking at it, and it looks like a close battle, you are probably going to lose because of something you don't know about or forgot. The other gal has her Summoner Heal ready, or some way to escape, or poisons you and will run away at the last second while you still die, etc. Or you aren't looking at the minimap in the heat of battle and don't realize one enemy is missing until he shows up behind you. Experts in the game won't be confused by this stuff, but new players enounter this constantly (myself included for a long time, and still sometimes!)

The only time to outright fight when there's a serious chance you will die is if you are quite sure two enemies will die as a result, or there's no possible chance of your own survival (so get some damage in). Even the second one you might be surprised sometimes, if your allies are at all helpful (and if you are a new player). Perhaps Gangplank or Ashe will help you from across the map with their ultimate, or Zilean brings you back to life, or Alistair or Tristana shove the enemy away from you, etc.

True, but then the players that have the skill for it already know this and wouldn't be needing the guide xD