LOL - Have you heard about it?

League of Legends (LOL) is a free game based of the extremely popular DOTA mod. In this blog entry today I'm going to explain what LOL is, how to play it, and show you a video of my gameplay style.

 What Is DOTA?

DOTA was originally a warcraft 3 mod that became arguably more popular then the game itself. As a result many games were mad with similar play styles, LOL is one of them. Whats great is LOL is free to play and all champions can be gained by simply playing the game. 

How do I get LOL

To get LOL just simply head over to this link on their website where you can Download a installer. Launching the .exe will open up the installer. Choose a download path (I chose desktop as example) and press next.

Now the actual game will download. Note: Its a big game but the installer saves its progress!

While Its downloading I suggest you set-up an account here! Its completely free and your account name WILL NOT be your in-game name.

Once you finish all the training I suggest you play against AI to find what champion will be your favorite

Gameplay

So now we can play! The game is very self explanatory but hopefully these picture will make it crystal clear. After you go through the steps and start the game this is the first screen you will see.

Here is where you get to wait for your game to begin. Once all summoners get to 100% or summoning the game will begin. NOTE: What I like to do is quickly alt-tab and surf the web until I hear the game say "Welcome". The UI can be a bit confusing to someone who just started the game so allow me to clear it up.

1. This is your collection of items. What I have bought is a health potion.
2. This is where you see the amount of gold (or "gamepoints") is. Clicking the will open up a buy menu.
3. These are your character stats, keep track of what bonuses you have. Black 3: This is where you have your abilities. Each level you get to choose 1 new ability to upgrade/learn.
4. These are summoner abilities you pick at the beginning of the match.
5. This is your map. It shows info about where enemies are/where your team mates are.
6. This is where you learn/upgrade an ability choose wisely :)
7. This is general data about how are you doing in game, keeping track of: Time spent, Kills, Deaths, Assists.
8. This is a total of team kills and enemy kills. This gives an idea about how the game is going.
9. This is general info on team mates.

Now you have a character you like, knowledge of the game, and hopefully an idea on how to play the game. But starting a class is always hard especially when you have a giant menu like so:

Thankfully this menu has great categorization and also recommends items for beginners. However these recommended items are what you should be generally getting. So what I do is head over to Mobafire for great build ideas. Remember the only way to get good is to PRACTICE!

Where is that video you promised?

Video will be uploaded tomorrow. I just need a good recorder feel free to offer one in the comments.