Oh great, more LoL talk

[Amethyst]

It's so annoying how often League of Legends (LoL) overtakes the main chat. Like, seriously, every time I come into main, it's this champion or that champion. I don't even play, so why should I care at all?

I've been doing Reborn for a lot longer than I've been playing LoL, and I saw the same gibberish that probably many of you who sympathize with the above see. I would see Lux, Rabadon's, bruiser, bot, Nexus, turret, and I'd just be like

what

what is this

what is that

what is even going on

why are we talking about this

And honestly, before I started playing the game, I could not for the life of me figure out anything about it. It's a very complex game- a tremendously steep learning curve. That's part of why it gets talked about so much, because all of its players are always learning. But before I played, I was so confused by everything, I didn't even understand the objective of the damn thing.

There's been some discussion about confining LoL chat to a separate channel. And if such a thing were used enough, it might work, but when we've tried that in the past both channels were pretty well, dead. A lot of users play League now so there are a lot of people interested in talking about it- they don't necessarily want to head off to a separate chat each time because, let's be honest, how many of us would even bother?

At the same time, I can't in good conscious make a thing like that against the rules in itself because, um... It isn't. There's nothing wrong with discussing a game- it happens a lot with minecraft too, or with Halo, CoD, some RPGs- it overtakes the mainchat. With less popular games there's probably a lot more people who have no clue what's going said.

Those are overlooked for being relatively infrequent compared to the twice-an-hour mess of LoL. And yet, if we bar one thing, I feel like it's going to become a difficult principle to justify. At the same time, I know it's not only annoying, but downright frustrating to look at the chat so often and see so many things that you have no idea what's even going on.

So rather than jumping the gun just yet... I'm going to try and fix that problem. I'm going to try and put LoL jargon into words we all can understand.

Let's start with the basic premise of the game. There's two teams, usually 5 players vs 5 players. The objective of the game is to destroy the enemy base. Everyone moves around on a huge map called Summoner's Rift. The map has two sides, one for each team. They're more or less identical.

Every player picks a Champion that they play for all of that game. A "game" typically lasts anywhere from 20-60 minutes, and ends when one team's base, called the "Nexus" is destroyed. There are lots of different champions, too. Some of them are really neat characters- but there's far too many for me to go over. If you see strange names being referenced like Ezreal or Cho'Gath, just assume it's a champion.

Champions each have their own individual stats, too. They have Health, which is self explanatory, Mana, which is like MP in most RPGs, AD which is like Pokemon's physical Attack. Armor, which is like physical Defense. Then there's AP, which is Special Attack, and Magic Resist, which is Special Defense.

Every champion has 5 unique abilities- 4 active and one passive. Think of the passive as the abilities in Pokemon, like Levitate, Moody, etc. You don't do anything- they're just always there. The other 4 champion abilities can be likened to a Pokemon's moves- you command the champion and designate when to use them. They're also often referenced by the key they're activated with- Q, W, E or R. That can be really confusing for people who've never played the champ before though. One of those abilities, the R, is also considered an Ultimate (or just ult). It's basically just a really strong move.

Over the course of the game, there are a lot of smaller objectives that lead up to destroying the enemy base. For instance, each team has a number of turrets guarding theirs. A lot of the game is devoted to destroying these towers just so that you can GET to the base. As you might expect, they do damage if you get in range. So, each team has to lead a group of Minions there. Minions are just little throw-away fighters not controlled by anyone. Countless of them spawn in each game, and charge at the enemy team's towers in group- but they can take the turrets attacks letting the players destroy them.

The map is split into three different "lanes", which are basically the routes on which minions charge at the towers. They're called, "top," "mid," and "bot". I think you can guess what those stand for. >>

Like in Pokemon, each champion has a different role. For instance, AP Carry. Remember, AP is like LoL's version of special attack? An AP Carry is like a special sweeper in Pokemon. They do special damage, lots of it, but usually are pretty frail compared to other champions. There's also the AD carry, which is like a physical sweeper.

Then there's tanks, which are like walls- they just have a lot of health and are there to absorb damage and make the enemy waste their power. There's also bruisers. Bruisers are bulky fighters- think of something like Conkledurr or Escavalier. They don't really sweep or stall, they just take hits and hit back harder.

Support champions are kinda what you would expect, but in LoL they're specifically supporting the physical sweeper. They set up kills for the sweeper and make sure s/he stays in good fighting condition. Think of a wish passer, or something that spreads status. Things like that.

Finally, junglers. Jungling is a unique concept. So we've got these lanes, right? But what's in between them? A jungle. And things live in the jungle. The jungler goes around killing them for EXP and special bonuses ("buffs"). Saying it like that, I kinda feel bad for the things living there though...

People in LoL like to put the same type of champion in the same place. So AP carries always ( I use the word "always" loosely) go mid, AD carries and supports go bot, bruisers go top, and the junglers go, well, you know, in the jungle. Tanks don't have their own place- they can be top, support or jungle.

Pokemon has status effects that cripple the Pokemon's function- LoL has those too, but they only last for a few seconds. Although, a few seconds makes all the difference. Just to name a few, there's Slow, which is slower movement speed, Snare, which means you can't move, Stun, which means you can't move or use abilities, Fear, which sends you walking in random directions- and some variants of those. Collectively, these conditions are referred to as Crowd Control, or CC.

Although killing the enemy isn't the main objective of the game, it does help a lot. When you die, you have to sit out for a certain amount of time (increases as the game goes on), and the killer (and people who help) get gold. Here are some LoL-specific terms:

To feed- To die a lot to the enemy team

To carry- i.e "carry your team to victory"- this is where the roles get their names.

Gank- A coordinated effort between players to kill a certain enemy player.

Assists- Helped kill an enemy, but didn't deal the final blow

Accordingly, we end up with a score for each game based on kills, deaths, and assists. You see people bragging about 12/2/7 scores? You're like, what does that even mean?

It's Kills/Deaths/Assists

So basically, high first number is good, high second number is bad, high third number is good.

I mentioned gold before. Throughout a game, players earn gold from killing enemy champions, turrets, minions, jungle things- er... basically just by killing. you get paid to kill. great message this game is sending, huh? You use the gold to buy items, but they're not like items in Pokemon. They directly increase your stats a LOT. So, a lot of the game is about getting the money to get items, and which are the right items to get. Some of them have unique effects too. Each player can have up to 6 items at a time. The set and order of items one chooses is called a "build".

In each battle you also get two Summoner Spells. They're like the other abilities a champion has, but they can be used with any champion. They're attached to the Summoner instead. A Summoner is just the person who's playing LoL. I'm a summoner (it's because we Summon the champions to fight. I guess.)

After each battle, as a Summoner, you earn IP, which are points you spend to unlock new champions or runes. Runes are just little things to boost your stats. You also earn EXP as a summoner after each battle, until you're level 30. 30 is the highest level. As your level increases, you can use more Runes and Masteries. Masteries are just also little things to increase your stats, but you don't have to buy them. Choosing which stats to increase is a key decision though. In addition to IP, there's also RP. RP is bought with real money- not earned. Although LoL is free to play, you can use RP to unlock champions too, or to buy special "skins" to customize their look.

I'm trying to keep this short, and I already know I failed, because... well, because since when does Ame ever write anything that's not tl;dr. But I hope after reading this you feel a little less lost on the server. At the very least, you'll have something to reference and know what we're talking about!

And you can feel proud that you actually read something and learned and broadened your horizons rather than just reading the first bit of the post and then scrolling down to see just how much I wrote anyway and then weighing the odds to yourself of if what I wrote is actually worth reading. Maybe it isn't. Why would you want to read about a game you don't even play? You probably don't- but if you're on Reborn much, you'll probably end up reading about it anyway, so you may as well at least understand what's being said. So don't skim. Neh? c:

And if you have any question, I'm sure myself or any of the 32849385897912895 other players will be glad to clarify. @_@

Edited November 24, 2012 by Kiozo
Just spell checking for you C=

[Neo]

Making a guide about the most played video game on Earth....Wut?

Jokes aside I commend you for making this, Ame. Must've taken a while.

[Pyon Pyon Kyuu!~]

I read until the point you started explaining lol.... Then I was like "Too long, did not read."

[Maelstrom]

I read it all. It helped. A lot of halo jargon and other stuff I know coincided, but some was definitely different despite sounding similar. Like ganking- stealing someone else's kill, but that's cuz they just can't finish with a headshot like I can...

[片思い]

im still confused help

[Kiozo]

Well done Ame. Hopefully people won't TL;DR this, and if anyone questions it, we should just post it and be like READ^

Also Mael; Kill Stealing is still Kill Stealing. We complain about it in the exact same fashion. Think of ganking as organized flanking. You communicate with a role, usually the Jungler since they're around anyway, to go in from a spot usually behind them, and get them from all sides. If they take the kill, most people are ok with it; because they also did work for it.

Also I'll answer LoL questions for people xD

[Voctrode]

You didn't explain Revive and Smite though

0/10 wouldn't read again

[片思い]

Kill Stealing is still Kill Stealing. We complain about it in the exact same fashion.

This is one thing I'll never really understand about ARTS players. Whether it's League, Dota, HoN, whatever. Complaining about KS is (imho) stupid and pointless. I can (maybe) understand it in a game like Call of Duty or Halo because even though most modes are still team based, you almost never work together, most people play for individual score. In ARTS, you are FORCED to play with 4 other people, and you need to work together if you want to win. Individual skill means less in an ARTS game than in a FPS game, and you can win games in CoD/Halo without saying a word to anyone in your match. Not the case with an ARTS.

Complaining about it is just stupid. For one, it causes the team to not work together. People with the "oh you took my kill, asshole" mentality do not (in my experience) work well together with the team. It causes bad attitudes and makes the game a lot less fun. Wanna know how to get a team to not work together? Complain instead of help. Annoying. Another thing is that it WILL happen, whether you like it or not. Accept it, move on, win your game. Unless it was completely absolutely 100% deliberately stolen by someone who ONLY took the last hit, you have nothing to complain about, so shut up.

Not saying any of you are guilty of this, because the only one of you I've played with is Ame and not since a long time ago, but there are certain people in this very community that do complain about it a lot. It's more of a rant about the ARTS community in general. Don't mean to target it at anyone, just Kio brought it up and I felt like saying this.

All the bitching and moaning and raging about stupid stuff makes people outside the ARTS community hate us.

[Yuki]

eh >> what bothers me is when people /d because somebody so much as mentioned Teemo in passing. Patience is key e_e

[The Fush]

This is one thing I'll never really understand about ARTS players. Whether it's League, Dota, HoN, whatever. Complaining about KS is (imho) stupid and pointless. I can (maybe) understand it in a game like Call of Duty or Halo because even though most modes are still team based, you almost never work together, most people play for individual score. In ARTS, you are FORCED to play with 4 other people, and you need to work together if you want to win. Individual skill means less in an ARTS game than in a FPS game, and you can win games in CoD/Halo without saying a word to anyone in your match. Not the case with an ARTS.

Complaining about it is just stupid. For one, it causes the team to not work together. People with the "oh you took my kill, asshole" mentality do not (in my experience) work well together with the team. It causes bad attitudes and makes the game a lot less fun. Wanna know how to get a team to not work together? Complain instead of help. Annoying. Another thing is that it WILL happen, whether you like it or not. Accept it, move on, win your game. Unless it was completely absolutely 100% deliberately stolen by someone who ONLY took the last hit, you have nothing to complain about, so shut up.

Not saying any of you are guilty of this, because the only one of you I've played with is Ame and not since a long time ago, but there are certain people in this very community that do complain about it a lot. It's more of a rant about the ARTS community in general. Don't mean to target it at anyone, just Kio brought it up and I felt like saying this.

All the bitching and moaning and raging about stupid stuff makes people outside the ARTS community hate us.

First of all, you don't have to COMPLAIN about a kill steal to point it out.

Second of all, kill stealing is more of a matter in MOBA games then in games such as Halo, because while FPSes reward you for kills in the long run, kills are more of a short term thing in MOBAs, where, most of the time, you need kills to do well in a single game. Kill stealing in LoL, for example, is a case when a champion (mainly supports) who do not need kills to do well in the match take kills from teammates who NEED the kills to do well in the game.

Just before I go any further, let me just say that in LoL, kills give you gold, which you buy items with to become more powerful, similar to how enemy minions give you farm; just not as much. Kills generally give you much more gold than say, a few creeps, and they also give you experience, more so than said creeps, to level up with and power up your skills with. This is why, to you people who have never heard of LoL, kills are so important compared to say, in CoD.

Example Case:

• Ashe and Leona go and unleash their attacks on the enemy Graves.
  
• Leona finishes Graves off with an E, meaning that Ashe does not get the kill.
  
• Ashe needs farm and kills to excel later in the game (same reason why supports are yelled at for killing creeps), while Leona is a support, and is meant to instead HELP others such as Ashe get kills.
  

And that's why people complain about it... but unfortunately, this is the LoL community, where complaints are either taken way too offensively or are meant offensively. While I disagree on your matter of how kill steals matter, there are many things I agree with you on. I'd agree with about 80% of what you're saying, only because the matter isn't just limited to 100% deliberately stolen by someone who ONLY took the last hit.

For starters, there's no point COMPLAINING about kill stealing. That'll only lower morale and start arguments, resulting in the end being a typical "bg report Sona for bad support flame and ks". POINTING it out, on the other hand, is a way to show somebody what they have done wrong, so they'll keep it in mind and instead be like "k thnx won't do it again". Presto, you've helped another teammate, and you might even get a Helpful Honour.

Second of all, and this is something that really gets my piss into a boil, is the VIEWING of a kill steal. Let's take the example case from earilier and modify it a bit:

• Ugh noob Leona, you took my kill!
  
• Ashe, I had to E him, he was too far away from you and he was under his turret!
  

This isn't really a case of kill stealing, but rather finishing the job. Ashe (well, saying that her ultimate was on cooldown), could not reach Graves and slay him, so Leona just finished him off, since she was in range. Ashe still gets an assist for this, which is better than nothing. Unfortunately, this case of viewpoint isn't limited to "this guy needs kill more than you do". Here's another example:

• Ezreal and Morgana both have 6 kills, and have just finished off an enemy Warwick, which Morgana gets the kill for.
  
• Ezreal: Noob Morgana ks me!
  
• Morgana: Ezreal, we were both equal in kills, why does it even matter.
  
• Ezreal: Because I'm more awesome and deserve it more, report Morg pls
  

This Ezreal is clearly a retard. Both him and Morgana benefit from kills, and heck, even if they weren't on equal kills it wouldn't really matter. Ok, it kinda would matter if Morgana had like, 9 kills and Ezreal had about 1. But then the Ezreal should just ask Morgana to let him have future kills in a polite way, and then they progress to both get fed. Presto, yet again you help out someone to play the game.

What I'm trying to say is, kill stealing is sometimes kill stealing, and other times it's just some random shouting about how a Karthus couldn't requiem an enemy because some Riven sliced him in half. That, and kill stealing is a pretty important matter in MOBAs if it IS actually kill stealing.

Edited November 24, 2012 by Roo The BAKA!

[Ikaru]

Guys this isn't the thread to talk about complaining (at least about ingame things) and why kill-stealing is good/bad, so let's not, okay?

Finally, junglers. Jungling is a unique concept. So we've got these lanes, right? But what's in between them? A jungle. And things live in the jungle. The jungler goes around killing them for EXP and special bonuses ("buffs"). Saying it like that, I kinda feel bad for the things living there though...

This is true, but it's actually mostly so there can be two solo lanes that get all the experience and -potentially- gold, rather than splitting it with another teammate. Also they help out others by ganking for their teammates whereas if there was no jungler it would be harder for anyone to do so from their lane. And speaking of ganking,

Gank- A coordinated effort between players to kill a certain enemy player.

Think of ganking as organized flanking. You communicate with a role, usually the Jungler since they're around anyway, to go in from a spot usually behind them, and get them from all sides.

Good thing I read the replies before I posted or I would have missed that Kiozo said it first; Ame's wording was a little vague but yes, it's basically a sneak attack from one or more of your teammates that come in from elsewhere. They occur less often later in the game as by then teams tend to be together and teamfights happen instead.

That said, teamfights are exactly_what_it_says_on_the_tin.jpg- full fights between most, if not all members on both teams, instead of the early game 1v1 or 2v2. I'm kind of surprised Ame didn't mention this but I guess it's a liiiiiiiittle self-explanatory?

[Kiozo]

Unless it was completely absolutely 100% deliberately stolen by someone who ONLY took the last hit,

Which is all I referred to, because I was more being specific on how it doesn't reflect poorly if the jungler ganks and gets the kill, because he participated too, but you know, that was a bit over the top for one sentence.

[Amethyst]

Yeah, I'm trying to let this be a topic for people who don't play LoL, not for people who do. XD

[Maelstrom]

Q: How do I sign up to play?

[Ikaru]

Someone will probably want to refer you, but the normal method is found here: https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/en/signup/index

[Skeleton]

I now approve of this thread because I was Morg once and my teammate Ez yelled at me for double killing in some kind of team fight. >>

But his build made my eyes hurt.

[Maelstrom]

Someone will probably want to refer you, but the normal method is found here: https://signup.leagu...en/signup/index

I don't mind waiting for a referal to help someone out by joining that way.

[Skeleton]

Oh by the way when you start playing you should do a bot game with me. ^^

It's just a normal match, but the enemies are bots. It's a bit easier than pvp.

I can make a smurf account for you. ; u ;

[Maelstrom]

Oh by the way when you start playing you should do a bot game with me. ^^

It's just a normal match, but the enemies are bots. It's a bit easier than pvp.

I can make a smurf account for you. ; u ;

Yeah, I definitely plan on coop vs ai to get the hang of things first. after the tutorial stuff of course.

[Ikaru]

...Well, again, I don't really think this is the place to be talking about that, soooo... >> <<

[The Fush]

...Well, again, I don't really think this is the place to be talking about that, soooo... >> <<

Since people seem to like talking about it here, wynaut just make another topic for general LoL chat?

[Amethyst]

Go for it.