I finally did it - Tips for a Newbie.

[Kaasoljoyyx]

Let's just say once he/she realizes that Kog'Maw is not great to play in solo queue cause it is solo queue, he/she's moving up in the world of LoL!

In the meantime, sufficient skill will allow you to faceroll (pwn) until you meet opponents that you recognize to be your match or thereabouts.

The only other viable free week ADC is twitch and he plays slightly different than the rest. So unless they get ashe/tristana/another ADC, kogmaw is probably their only option this week to get a feel for ADCs for basic mechanics.

Also solo q at level 5 is a lot different than solo q at level 30. There's absolutely no meta, team composition, team work, or anything. Unless they have experience in another game or they're a smurf, people at that level are still learning what to do. All they really know what to do is

- hit minions
- hit tower
- run away if there's a lot of people
- hit the closest champion in a fight (even if it's a super fed mundo with 6 warmogs, they'll still hit him)

Right now a completely new player should just learn the basic basics of the game. Last hitting is something to understand. Tower aggro is another thing. Knowing when to fight and when not to is also good. Something like wards at this beginner level is not necessary to learn right now. They will eventually learn those things but not at the most basic level.

A real world example is say a new student driver. You want to teach them in an empty parking lot at the beginning or empty roads during light hours. Yes they will have to learn how to drive in the rain or during busy traffic hours but do you have them do that on day 1 when they can barely back the car out straight.

[Corn]

Didn't I and someone else say that Tristana is free? I could've sworn I mentioned Tristana is free.

[Dredragon]

Ashe can be really good at this too. c:

[Will]

Ashe can be really good at this too. c:

Or Graves.

[MariettaRC]

Didn't I and someone else say that Tristana is free? I could've sworn I mentioned Tristana is free.

Yeah, I got Tristana and the other guy the very minute you pointed me to those. I also bought Ashe because why not.

[Kaasoljoyyx]

If you practice last hitting with ashe, it'll be very tough because she has one of the lowest base ADs at low level + you have no runes/masteries to help you last hit. But if you can last hit with her at a low level it'll be very easy to last hit when you get to a higher level with different champs e.g. corki

A couple things that I notice new people generally don't know which is helpful

- You can get rid of the walls surrounding your skills on the bottom middle if you go to options and click "Hide HD center wall" (or something like that)

- You can also change the size of the UI to bigger/smaller to help you

- When attacking something (e.g. enemy champion), you do not have to keep clicking them. You tend to miss them and then walk and miss hitting them or putting yourself in danger. You will continuously attack them unless you lose vision, they die, or you die. An advanced tactic later involves clicking them then moving just as the animation ends so you save time (if you played SSBM it's like L-cancelling).

- Don't keep the camera locked when playing. Get used to an unlocked camera

- Last hitting under tower is

A. melee minion: 2 tower shots + you hit
B. caster minion: you hit + 1 tower shot + you hit

"B." can change to "1 tower shot + you hit" as you get stronger. You'll get better at last hitting under tower the more games you play.

[MariettaRC]

- Last hitting under tower is

A. melee minion: 2 tower shots + you hit
B. caster minion: you hit + 1 tower shot + you hit

"B." can change to "1 tower shot + you hit" as you get stronger. You'll get better at last hitting under tower the more games you play.

What do you mean by tower? You mean turrets?

Also, by locked camera, do you mean having the camera focus on me?

[Raul]

-_- Low levels don't need to learn about that stuff to get the basics of the game. Most ADCs will teach you the basics of the game and kogmaw is one of them. An ADC that won't teach you the basics is draven because he works slightly differently and he is extremely hard to play.

Kogmaw is pretty pineappleing simple. So is ashe and tristana. You don't teach a brand new person advanced tactics when they barely know the in-game mechanics.

Ashe is much simpler and probably the best AD to learn with. Teaches you that vision is valuable, mana management is a good idea, and that anyone can be a l33t noscope headshot master with good aiming and map awareness.

[Corn]

Oh, don't worry about last hits yet *grumble grumble*.

[chrome]

Yes, worry about last hits. It's one of the easiest things to put into practice at a beginner level since it requires no thinking. The CS she gets doesn't really matter for now but it's important that she at least practices last hitting.

[Kaasoljoyyx]

Ashe is much simpler and probably the best AD to learn with. Teaches you that vision is valuable, mana management is a good idea, and that anyone can be a l33t noscope headshot master with good aiming and map awareness.

If you read my original post I mentioned riot girl tristana (free) and ashe (450 IP for being cheap) as being good ADCs to start with. I mentioned kogmaw because he is free this week. I too believe ashe is the best ADC to learn with (although last hitting with her on a low level account is really hard) but

- Did the person own ashe at the beginning? No because they had no IP
- Did the person plan to buy ashe? Unknown as they didn't say
- Is the person always going to be able to get ashe? Not always. If someone picks her it's good to know what other ADCs are available (low levels dont' care about meta so running 3 ADCs is more common than you think)

And kogmaw will teach you the basics of the game just like ashe will. At a low level for ADC all you need to learn how to do is last hit, follow, and run away. Positioning in a team fight comes later and I'd say 50%+ of the level 30s cant' position to save their life. Learn the basics then move to the next step.

What do you mean by tower? You mean turrets?

Also, by locked camera, do you mean having the camera focus on me?

1. Yes, tower and turrets mean the same thing and are interchangeable. I find tower easier to say and I think most people use the word tower over turret

2. Yes, you can change the camera from always being on you or having it free so if your mouse touches the edges, the camera will move to that area. I believe the default button is Y. In unlocked camera mode you can press/hold space to temporarily position the camera onto yourself (locked mode) and if you let go it will become unlocked again. I can never play 100% unlocked so I play unlocked and hold down my space bar 90% of the time, only moving it when I need more vision of the map.

[Corn]

Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention, join the Southperry chatroom (you can also set it to autojoin everytime you boot LoL). I'm too lazy to explain how to do it, but it's not hard to figure out (room is called Southperry by the way, in case you didn't pick that up).

[MariettaRC]

@Kaasoljoyyx

I played unlocked to see what it was like and I completely forgot that me using no mousepad = My mouse disagrees with what I do sometimes. But I didn't know about the spacebar bit so that's VERY helpful to know, thank you!

Champs owned right now are Ashe (bought), Tristana and Alistar. I haven't tried Alistar yet. I also seem to play better with Tristana, but I actually land last hits much easier on Ashe.

Now... my friend just steamrolls through everything by what I assume getting last hits everywhere and buying all the gear she needs. How's the learning curve on knowing what items to get from the shop?

[Corn]

You should be able to "know" what items to buy by level 10ish, but you truly "master" it by level 20ish if you're smart enough. Well, at least that's what happenned to me.

Just stick with the recommended items for now. They're good until you're comfortable facing other people, and then you can look at guides on websites such as on solomid.net

[Kaasoljoyyx]

@Kaasoljoyyx

I played unlocked to see what it was like and I completely forgot that me using no mousepad = My mouse disagrees with what I do sometimes. But I didn't know about the spacebar bit so that's VERY helpful to know, thank you!

Champs owned right now are Ashe (bought), Tristana and Alistar. I haven't tried Alistar yet. I also seem to play better with Tristana, but I actually land last hits much easier on Ashe.

Now... my friend just steamrolls through everything by what I assume getting last hits everywhere and buying all the gear she needs. How's the learning curve on knowing what items to get from the shop?

ADCs almost always run the same build and there's not much flexibility. All the other roles have a large variety of items to buy. As some people said, www.solomid.net is the best place for guides.

One thing to note is the recommended items generally are not the best things to buy. You can use a program to change the recommended items (or do it yourself) to make it easier. It's approved by riot too. For an ADC you generally do

- Start with boots + 3 (red health potions)
- Get 1~3 dorans blades + 1 vamp scepter + bezerker shoes
- First core item is infinity edge (some can do bloodthirster but I would not bother with doing BT first until you get very comfortable with the game)
- Next item is a Zeal into a phantom dancer
- Last 3 items depend

A. Last whisper if the enemy is stacking a lot of armor
B. Bloodthirster if the enemy is still really squishy
C. A defensive item if you find yourself dying too quickly and not adding anything to the team
- Guardian angel (GA), gives decent defenses + gives you a revive [5min CD]
- quicksilver sash (QSS), gives good magic resist + gives you a dispel on yourself (90 sec CD)
- banshee's veil (BV), gives good magic resist, health, mana + gives you a shield that absorbs a negative spell (45 second CD)