Hey guys
An often asked question that beginners have is “What champion should I play?” Well, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s dive in
As usual, you can find a link to the video version below, as well as a link to all my other beginner guides.
The quick answer is:
- Top: Dr. Mundo
- Jungle: Master Yi
- Mid: Lux
- ADC: Ashe
- Support: Lux (yes, again!)
Before I explain the reasoning, I’ll talk about the criteria for picking the champions.
- They must be accessible (either one of the 10 free starter champs or 450 BE)
- While complexity is NOT a deterrent, they must at least have a basic floor that benefits beginners
- They are not meant to be champions you main until reaching challenger (although they can be).
- They’re weaknesses (early, mid, late, etc) are not important as long as they provide ways to learn the game.
With that being said, let’s examine the champions starting from the top.
1) Mundo*.*
Mundo is not an early game menace. Nor is he a hyper carry. He’s a tank that takes time before really getting strong and has some tough matchups early. What Mundo provides however, more than makes up for all his flaws. He provides plenty of learning mechanics to help you learn the game. I won’t breakdown his abilities as that’s for a different guide, but I’ll mention the beginner friendly parts. He has three main mechanics that I have in mind
First, his passive is a nice get out of jail free card. It blocks any CC (crowd control) that might affect your champion. This does two things: 1) it indicates what ability the enemy has that is a CC, and 2) it doesn’t punish you for not knowing (because you probably have no idea what any champion does) or for not being able to dodge.
Second, he makes CSing (Last hitting minions) very easy. He has multiple mechanics to achieve this. His q is spammable and does plenty of damage to minions so you can always farm from afar. His E passive gives a LOT of bonus AD making last hitting easier. And his E active makes it almost impossible to miss a last hit as well. This will give you the gold necessary to buy items (and learn more about the item system).
Lastly, He’s really hard to kill 1v1. His ult is your second get out of jail free card. Anytime there’s danger, you can pop your ult and q to slow the enemy and you’ll survive. Bonus points for his q slow and r speed boost being great for chasing fleeing enemies.
2) Master Yi.
The Jungle is complicated, but luckily, Yi isn’t. While he has an extremely high mechanical ceiling, his floor is nice and comfy. He clears just fine in the jungle, and has damage mitigation and a heal on his w. His q is great for chasing enemies and as a gap closer, and his e helps you do damage regardless if the enemy is tanky or not. His ultimate helps you chase kills and get off good ganks, and also helps you runaway when you need to. Overall, he’s a good starting champion. I would move off him and to Kayn as soon as you can though, because Kayn is cooler, more fun, and has a lot of beginner friendly mechanics, but he doesn’t meet all the criteria so Yi gets the spot.
3) Lux.
Lux provides everything except a dash that you could want in a mid champ. She has poke with her e, waveclear with her e, a slow with her e, a super short cooldown ult, and cc on her q. She can farm from miles away, she can poke from miles away, she can assist fights and roam from miles away, she can always have mid control. She’s great, enough said. Oh yah and she has a multi person shield too!
4) Ashe.
Ashe has nice long range, spammable poke with her w (and long range farm if needed), plenty of slows so they can’t run away/chase you, and her e helps you with bot lane safety. making sure you are safe and not going to get ganked and die is probably her bread and butter for beginners. Lastly, you’ll always be useful. Her ultimate will always provide you some utility in the game even if you do end up super far behind. She doesn’t really have any dashes and so she can be vulnerable at times, but having an ultimate that’s quite large and stuns for a decent amount of time that’s global range will make you feel like you’re the american sniper.
- Lux again because she can help the adc take lane control by poking, shoving, ccing, and killing lane opponents. See #3 above for more details.
Link to the video version can be found here
Link to all my other guides can be found here
This is a guide for absolute beginners. Lux is visually and mechanically more simple, as well as safer as a champion. Hence why I recommend her for absolute beginners. For more advanced beginners, Annie works great