Beginners tips for League of Legends: a guide to maximize to level 30

A good friend of mine and author on this blog, atenthirtyone, has gotten me into many games. One of the first games we ever played together was World of Warcraft in early vanilla. When I first started he was already a veteran raider and he told me “don’t worry, the first 60 levels are tutorial. The game really starts at max level.”

The same thing is true for League of Legends. So since you are a beginner, in the level 1 to 20 range, don’t concern yourself with too many meta-game principles, like what an ideal team comp is, right off the bat. These things will come natural later on.

Since the first 30 levels are all tutorial, it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, so have fun and don’t spend too much time raging at your team.

With that being said, you want to win right? And you don’t want to suck when you get to level 30 so take a look at these few tips to better prepare yourself when you finally get to 30.

Tip #1: Save your IP Points
You will need a lot of IP so save it up. You don’t want to waste it on champs you don’t need at a time you don’t need them.

Tip #2 (levels 1-30): Anytime you try a new champion play at least 1 game against bots
I cannot stress enough how important either a Co-Op versus AI game or just a custom game can be.
Just spend the 10 minutes in a custom game to get to level 6 and try all of your abilities
Lots of people argue about this one saying “What can you learn by playing bots?” and “You need to play against people to get better”. Yes thats true, but you should never go into a new game with real players before trying out the character and seeing how every single ability works. It is easy to say, “oh im a good player. I should be able to handle myself and do well”. WRONG! Most characters abilities and item builds are not easily known at first. Usually it takes a few games before you understand what order to level skills and what items work best. So just play bots, you will make your team happier later when you play real matches.

Tip #3 (levels 1-15): Play every freeweek character you can, at least 3 times.
You should familiarize yourself with every champion in the game. The best way to do that is to play as many as you can. It will help you learn their abilities. You might lose more often by doing this, but you will win more at level 30 when it really counts.
I say play 3 games because if you play only 1 you might get a false impression of the character because of bad players on either your team or your opponents.

While you play through your freeweek characters you should

Tip#4: Find the archetype that you like the most
You will learn as you play through the game that there are different types of characters.
-AP carry, AD ranged carry, Bruisers, Tanks, and Support
Since you have played a lot of characters because of the freeweeks you should figure out which ones you like the most, and win with the most.
Play those characters a lot.
At the recent season 1 championship for League of Legends the europe teams did much better because their players specialized in a favorites archetype. Where as the american players tried to be good at everything. So if you want to play well, stick with an archetype at first.

Tip #5 (level 15): Buy a champ of your favorite archetype
I say wait to level 15 to buy your first champ because you don’t really know what you want to play early on and there are enough freeweek champs to mess around with.
It doesn’t take long to get to level 15 and by the time you do you should have a solid idea what type of playstyle you like.

Tip #6 (levels 15-25): Play only that champion
Play this character exclusively. Master it, learn all the ins and outs and tricks you can do with it. Test different item builds, test different ability rankings, read guides, watch videos. Perfect that character. You want to have 1 character you know and feel like you can stomp anyone with.
Focusing on a single character will allow you to learn different intricacies of the game, like when to push, when to hug tower, when to dive, instead of focusing on learning a new champ every game.

Now remember all that IP you’ve been saving
Tip #7 (level 20): Buy a full set of runes for chosen archetype
At level 20 the highest tier of runes become available. These change the game. So you should get a full set of runes designed for your “main character”. You will see a dramatic increase in your performance. Don’t buy runes before level 20.
Now I play mostly AP carries and support. I used to get stomped on early game and always found myself struggling to hold lane. When I hit 20 and got a full set of mana regen runes my problems vanished. Runes are amazing.

Tip #8 (levels 25-30): Buy more champs of your favored archetype
With a full set of runes and a lot more experience you can learn and master these champs a lot faster than before.

Tip #9 (level 30): Try other archetypes
Once you are level 30 you can start experimenting with other archetypes, different characters and the such. But because you perfected a few characters you will have developed a skill set that is more easily transferable to new champions.
You should learn every role in the game but still be specialized in one.

So congratz, you are level 30 and the tutorial is over, you know have a skill set to succeed in League of Legends.