The Roles of Champions in LoL
The selection of champions in League of Legends is very large. Especially for newcomers or LoL beginners, it is initially difficult to keep track of the more than 120 different heroes. However, since the heroes differ not only visually but also in their abilities, there is a greater chance of finding the “right” champion for yourself and your preferred playstyle. Some heroes, especially mages, are played with AP (Ability Power) items. Other heroes are played with AD (Attack Damage) items – these include the marksmen.
To equip a champion with AP or AD, you need to buy items for gold through the shop in the base during the game. You can improve your gold income by killing enemy champions or minions or neutral jungle monsters. Ability power applies to heroes that deal damage more with their abilities than with their auto-attacks (right-click).
Attack damage affects auto-attacks, but also improves the abilities of various heroes. It always depends on the hero you are playing. If you hover the mouse over an ability of your hero, you will see if and how this ability scales with AD and/or AP. Orange means AD, blue stands for AP.
To have a rough idea of how these heroes play, they are assigned various roles.
The Best Champions for Beginners in LoL, the Right One for Each Role
Assassin: These champions are designed to quickly kill other champions with low health (like the opposing marksmen). However, these assassins typically don’t have much durability themselves and die quickly when opponents focus their abilities on them. A suitable assassin for a LoL beginner is, for example, “Talon“.
Mage: As mentioned, you play these champions with items that grant ability power. In mages, a distinction is also made between “burst” and “DPS” mages. Burst refers to high damage done in a short time. The DPS mages are the heroes that deal consistent damage over time. A recommendation for a LoL beginner mage would be, among others, “Annie“.
Tank: Champions classified as tanks are played with items that provide high resistances and health points. In team fights, they can withstand a lot of damage and focus on diverting enemy attacks while allied team members can spread their damage to the opponents. To achieve this, there are heroes with taunt abilities that force enemies to attack them. If you want to try out a champion that serves as a LoL beginner tank, I would recommend “Garen“.
Marksman/ADC: These heroes stand out due to their high damage in the late game (in the final phase of a game). However, they must compensate for their high damage by being very easy to kill, as they have relatively low maximum health points. This means that you must pay particular attention to how/where you position yourself in team fights. A good recommendation for a LoL beginner ADC is “Ashe“. The low price of 450 IP also argues that you can try this ADC without any regrets.
Fighter/Bruiser: The role of these heroes can be placed somewhere between Tank and Assassin/Marksman. They can withstand more damage than marksmen but are not as sturdy as tanks. However, they deal more damage than tanks but less than marksmen. A champion suitable for the LoL beginner in the fighter/bruiser category would be “Warwick“, as he is very simple to play and forgives minor mistakes.
Support: As the name suggests, you play these champions to assist other heroes, usually the marksman on the team. A supporter often has abilities like shields, heals, or crowd control effects that you use against enemies to help your marksman. After some thought about which champion to name as a LoL beginner supporter, I ultimately recommend “Taric” – he is an all-rounder and quite sturdy.
Of course, the recommendations for these LoL beginner champions are just an idea and not to be seen as the only “correct” choice. However, I believe that beginners in LoL need heroes that are relatively easy to understand in order to grasp the basic gameplay of their respective roles.
