Which League of Legends champion to pick is pretty much the first question the game asks you and the answer can be confusing. Five roles, 159 characters, classes and archetypes, and oh my, where to begin? We’ll simplify it all for you. Here are the best LoL champions for beginners, a couple for each role, and why we think they’re easy picks.
The key to learning League of Legends is simplicity. There are some obnoxiously difficult champions to play in the game – whether due to complex unique mechanics, the necessity for fantastic aim, or simply low health pools and inability to escape. Plus, while certain roles are more impactful on a game than others, every player on a five-person team really must carry their weight in League or there’s going to be trouble. All that said, it’s a much easier game to learn than many other MOBAs, and the initial skill challenge isn’t as high as your average shooter or RTS.
Let’s get started. When it comes to item builds and the like, we’d recommend sites like u.gg and op.gg that give builds for each character based on popular plays. YouTube, Twitch, Reddit, and asking your mates are also effective.
Best League of Legends jungle champions for beginners
We’re starting with Jungle because it’s the role that has the least direct interaction with an enemy team, is easy to practice, and you can Google all sorts of videos about how best to go about it. It also has the earliest ability to majorly affect the game, and doesn’t require learning how to last-hit minions – one of the dullest and most annoying, but still incredibly vital, tasks in the game.
Vi
Passive: Blast Shield
Vi charges a shield over time. The shield can be activated by hitting an enemy with an ability.
Q: Vault Breaker
Vi charges her gauntlets and unleashes a vault-shattering punch, carrying her forward. Enemies she hits are knocked back and receive a stack of Denting Blows.
W: Denting Blows
Vi’s punches break her opponent’s Armor, dealing bonus damage and granting her Attack Speed.
E: Relentless FOrce
Vi’s next attack blasts through her target, dealing damage to enemies behind it.
R: Cease and Desist
Vi runs down an enemy, knocking aside anyone in the way. When she reaches her target she knocks it into the air, jumps after it, and slams it back into the ground.
Everyone knows Vi, star of Arcane and excellent punchlady. She’s also a pretty fantastic starter character for a couple of key reasons. First up, she only has three skills to worry about, and only one of them requires aiming. Second, she’s relatively tanky and survivable, while still being able to do a bit of damage. Finally, she can even use her charge punch skill to escape in a pinch. Try not to dive too hard with her Ultimate, hit enemies, and attack the same targets as your allies.
Volibear
Passive: The Relentless Storm
Volibear’s Attacks and abilities grant Attack Speed, and eventually cause his Attacks to deal bonus magic damage to nearby enemies.
Q: Thundering Smash
Volibear gains speed towards enemies, Stunning and damaging the first one he Attacks.
W: Frenzied Maul
Volibear damages an enemy, applying on-hit effects and marking them. Casting this ability again on the same target deals bonus damage and Heals Volibear.
E: Sky Splitter
Volibear summons a lightning bolt at a location, dealing damage and Slowing enemies while granting Volibear a Shield if he’s inside the blast radius.
R: Stormbringer
Volibear leaps to a target location, Slowing and damaging enemies beneath him while gaining bonus Health. Enemy towers near his landing location become temporarily disabled.
Bear. Bear! BEAR! Anyway, Volibear is great for a beginner for two big wins. He has an easy-to-use stun that can’t miss – simply activate it and auto-attack an enemy. He’s also tanky as hell and generally builds items that make him more so. You’ll want to be on the frontlines as often as possible, locking down targets and dealing damage. Advanced tactics include using your ultimate to lock down towers and learning the exact timing of your lightning strike to catch fleeing enemies.
Best League of Legends support champions for beginners
The erroneous belief that the support role is easy in MOBAs has been mostly dispelled in this more enlightened age. However, it still has less pressure on it than solo roles, and can feel impactful with key item choices, control of vision on the map, and big plays with your abilities. Remember to buy wards.
Nautilus
Passive: Staggering Blow
Nautilus’ first Attack against a target deals increased physical damage and roots them briefly.
Q: Dredge Line
Nautilus hurls his anchor forward. Colliding with an enemy pulls them and Nautilus together, dealing magic damage. Colliding with terrain pulls Nautilus towards it.
W: Titan’s Wrath
Nautilus gains a temporary Shield. While it persists, his Attacks deal damage over time to his target and surrounding enemies.
E: Riptide
Nautilus creates three exploding waves around himself. Each explosion damages and slows enemies.
R: Depth Charge
Nautilus fires a shockwave into the earth that chases an opponent. This shockwave rips up the earth above it, knocking enemies into the air. When it reaches the opponent, the shockwave erupts, knocking his target into the air and stunning them.
Big and seabound Nautilus is our primary recommendation due to impactful, easy-to-use abilities and his tanky nature. Nautilus’ iconic anchor hook is definitely his hardest ability to use, being a fully-aimed skillshot. However, it has a wide hitbox, moves fast, has a long range, and is an absolute killer in the right circumstances. This is the perfect champion to start learning how to hit skillshots on. He also has a self-shield, a slow, and can use the hook to escape enemies. His ult being a point-and-click disable is great as well, and learning the combo of hook, hit, shield, hit, ult, hit, slow will deal serious damage, especially with backup.
Soraka
Passive: Salvation
Soraka runs faster towards nearby low health allies.
Q: Starcall
A star falls from the sky at the target location dealing magic damage and slowing enemies. If an enemy champion is hit by Starcall, Soraka recovers Health.
W: Astral Infusion
Soraka sacrifices a portion of her own health to heal another friendly champion.
E: Equinox
Creates a zone at a location that silences all enemies inside. When the zone expires, all enemies still inside are rooted.
R: Wish
Soraka fills her allies with hope, instantly restoring health to herself and all friendly champions.
Arguably League’s most traditional support, Soraka has heals for every situation and disables for everything else. She isn’t the easiest to play, but her pure power will make you a boon to the team, and once you’ve mastered nailing enemy champions in lane with her damaging spells, triggering her heals, you’ll be good to go. She’ll also teach you how best to play many other champions. Note she lacks an easy escape and isn’t so great at healing herself, so be careful and use your healing power to let your lane partner do the work.
Best League of Legends top champions for beginners
Top lane is an odd and somewhat complex lane to play, but it’s easier to learn than the other two due to its more forgiving and remote nature. Note that dying every 30 seconds isn’t going to lead your team to victory in any role, but you’re less likely to be constantly pressured here than in mid or bot. Watch out for the enemy jungler coming to you when you’ve pushed too far and you should be able to get on okay.
Garen
Passive: Perseverance
If Garen has not recently been struck by damage or enemy abilities, he regenerates a percentage of his total health each second.
Q: Decisive Strike
Garen gains a burst of Move Speed, breaking free of all slows affecting him. His next attack strikes a vital area of his foe, dealing bonus damage and silencing them.
W: Courage
Garen passively increases his armor and magic resist by killing enemies. He may also activate this ability to give him a shield and tenacity for a brief moment followed by a lesser amount of damage reduction for a longer duration.
E: Judgment
Garen rapidly spins his sword around his body, dealing physical damage to nearby enemies.
R: Demacian Justice
Garen calls upon the might of Demacia to attempt to execute an enemy champion.
The most swordman of all the swordmen, Garen is League’s sliced white bread, but no worse for it. His suite of easy-to-use moves are a boon, but Garen’s passive is where he can really help out the new player. You’ll heal to full fairly quickly outside of combat, meaning a quick retreat can solve most bad situations. Once you’re a tad ahead everything he does is good for finishing a fight with an opponent you have an advantage against. An execute ultimate is the icing on the cake that makes for a satisfying and effective champion.
Darius
Passive: Hemorrhage
Darius’ attacks and damaging abilities cause enemies to bleed for physical damage over 5 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Darius enrages and gains massive Attack Damage when his target reaches max stacks.
Q: Decimate
Darius winds up and swings his axe in a wide circle. Enemies struck by the blade take more damage than those struck by the handle. Darius heals based on enemy champions and large monsters hit by the blade.
W: Crippling Strike
Darius’s next attack strikes an enemy’s crucial artery. As they bleed out, their Move Speed is slowed.
E: Apprehend
Darius hones his axe, passively causing his physical damage to ignore a percentage of his target’s Armor. When activated, Darius sweeps up his enemies with his axe’s hook and pulls them to him.
R: Noxiam Guillotine
Darius leaps to an enemy champion and strikes a lethal blow, dealing true damage. This damage is increased for each stack of Hemorrhage on the target. If Noxian Guillotine is a killing blow, its cooldown is refreshed for a brief duration.
The axe to Garen’s sword and the baddie to his heroic persona, Darius brings an executioner’s spirit to the battlefield and a lot of damage besides. Nobody can inspire quite so much terror as Darius in top lane, bleeding enemies out and winning 2v1s with his true-damage, cooldown-resetting ultimate. Trade hits all day to build bleed stacks and heal yourself with abilities, learn spacing, and you’ll be a master in no time.
Best League of Legends ADC champions for beginners
The ADC, or bot, role is one for carrying games and being the cornerstone of a team. It’s also about being careful, taking the right fights, and getting as much gold as possible, as quickly as possible. You’re going to win the game for your team later on, or at least play a huge part in it. The natural skill floor here is just generally pretty high, but you can help yourself out with the right picks.
Tristana
Passive: Draw A Bead
Increases Tristana’s Attack Range as she levels.
Q: Rapid Fire
Tristana fires her weapon rapidly, increasing her Attack Speed for a short time.
W: Rocket Jump
Tristana fires at the ground to propel her to a distant location, dealing damage and slowing surrounding units for a brief period where she lands.
E: Explosive Charge
When Tristana kills a unit, her cannonballs burst into shrapnel, dealing damage to surrounding enemies. Can be activated to place a bomb on a target enemy that explodes after a short duration dealing damage to surrounding units.
R: Buster Shot
Tristana loads a massive cannonball into her weapon and fires it at an enemy unit. This deals Magic Damage and knocks the target back. If the target is carrying the Explosive Charge bomb, the bomb detonation radius is doubled.
Give a shorty a gun and see what happens. For someone lacking a bit of confidence in their ADCing, Trist represents a little bit of everything. She has long range, keeping her out of danger naturally, and a nice escape with her rocket jump for when you get in trouble. Naturally, she pumps out damage at a ludicrous pace, and is as adept at taking out towers as enemy champions – if not more so.
Ashe
Passive: Frost Shot
Ashe’s attacks slow their target, causing her to deal increased damage to these targets. Ashe’s critical strikes deal no bonus damage but apply an empowered slow to the target.
Q: Ranger’s Focus
Ashe builds up Focus by attacking. At maximum Focus, Ashe can cast Ranger’s Focus to consume all stacks of Focus, temporarily increasing her Attack Speed and transforming her basic attack into a powerful flurry attack for the duration.
W: Volley
Ashe fires arrows in a cone for increased damage. Also applies Frost Shot.
E: Hawkshot
Ashe sends her Hawk Spirit on a scouting mission anywhere on the map.
R: Enchanted Crystal Arrow
Ashe fires a missile of ice in a straight line. If the arrow collides with an enemy Champion, it deals damage and stuns the Champion, stunning for longer the farther arrow has traveled. In addition, surrounding enemy units take damage and are slowed.
The other side of the coin, Ashe can’t get out of jail quite as easily, but is much easier to pressure opponents with, catch them, and kill them. Her abilities are all relatively simple, with minimal aiming and wide effect ranges. You can use her E to see a large swathe of the battle at once, keeping yourself safe, and her ult is one of the most satisfying, and powerful, to connect with.
Best League of Legends mid champions for beginners
Mid probably isn’t the best role in the world to pick if you’re just starting out, but we respect jumping in at the deep end. You’re vulnerable from both sides if enemy players decide to roam around, and letting your opponent get massively ahead is very damaging to your team. That said, if you can dominate, you’re a major asset.
Annie
Passive: Pyromania
After casting 4 spells, Annie’s next offensive spell will stun the target.
Q: Disintegrate
Annie hurls a Mana-infused fireball, dealing damage and refunding the Mana cost if it destroys the target.
W: Incinerate
Annie casts a blazing cone of fire, dealing damage to all enemies in the area.
E: Molten Shield
Grants Annie or an ally a shield, a burst of Move Speed, and damages enemies who attack her with basic attacks.
R: Summon: Tibbers
Annie wills her bear Tibbers to life, dealing damage to units in the area. Tibbers can attack and also burns enemies that stand near him.
Annie takes our top spot for learning mid, purely because her last-hitting becomes a lot easier with the passive effect of her Q. A powerful fireball, it allows her to hit enemy minions and get the mana back if they die. Even for the best, it’s a useful tool, so for noobies like us it’s a godsend. She also represents a standard mid-lane archetype – a powerful, nuking mage that provides valuable stuns and AOE damage in the late-game. You’ll never be hated on for playing a decent Annie game.
Lux
Passive: Illumination
Lux’s damaging spells charge the target with energy for a few seconds. Lux’s next attack ignites the energy, dealing bonus magic damage (depending on Lux’s level) to the target.
Q: Light Binding
Lux releases a sphere of light that binds and deals damage to up to two enemy units.
W: Prismatic Barrier
Lux throws her wand and bends the light around any friendly target it touches, protecting them from enemy damage.
E: Lucent Singularity
Fires an anomaly of twisted light to an area, which slows nearby enemies. Lux can detonate it to damage enemies in the area of effect.
R: Final Spark
After gathering energy, Lux fires a beam of light that deals damage to all targets in the area. In addition, triggers Lux’s passive ability and refreshes the Illumination debuff duration.
A somewhat similar playstyle to Annie, Lux trades some ease of last hitting for range and even more ability to lock down a target. She also has some fairly simple combos that, when locking an enemy in place, allow her to deal huge damage. Getting ahead is relatively easy since grabbing a kill can come at any moment, and you’re always useful giving shields to your team. Plus, a huge laser beam – always a plus.
Written by Ben Barret on behalf of GLHF.
