Roles in League of Legends: A Beginner’s Guide to Finding Your Main

Your role in League of Legends can often determine the outcome of a match. Each role has its own responsibilities, and proper coordination is required to get the most out of them. Some of the most popular roles in LoL require years of practice to perfect, and while they might look lucrative to beginners, you must understand what each role does before you go on planning your match.

Beyond understanding all the League of Legends roles, every position has a dedicated hero, so you need to be careful while picking your heroes for every match.

What Are Roles in League of Legends?

To put it in short, roles in LoL are different positions with different responsibilities on the Summoner’s Rift map. There are two teams on each map, and the final goal is to destroy the enemy’s Nexus, which is a central structure in their base. The entire map is divided into two identical halves, each with four lanes, namely:

• Top lane
• Mid lane
• Bottom lane 
• Jungle 

The roles that you see in each game are based on these lanes and are as follows:

• Top Laner
• Jungler
• Mid Laner
• Bot Laner
• Support

Here’s a quick breakdown of what each of these roles means, and how their responsibilities play out in every League of Legends match.

Top Laner – The Solo Bruiser or Tank

Best Heroes: Sett, Skarner, Zac

Top laners in League of Legends are often found holding down the upper side of the map. Since they play solo for the most part, these characters are usually Tanks (characters that can absorb a lot of damage) or Damage Dealers (characters who have a strong damage output and are capable in one-on-one fights). 

Top laners are responsible for maintaining lane control and creating pressure on the enemy team. Since tanks are durable, they’re somewhat easy to play, but the position itself requires a lot of map awareness.

Jungler – The Map Controller

Best Heroes: Viego, Karthus, Nidalee

Jungler is probably one of the most complex and versatile League of Legends roles. In this role, you need to move around the jungle to kill the neutral monsters, while helping your teammates with ambushes (also known as ganks) and securing objectives. 

You need to have a lot of game sense to be good at this role. You need to know when to push for objectives, when to farm, and when to gank with your teammates. If you’re looking to start your journey in LoL, then this isn’t a role that you want to start with.

Mid Laner – The Playmaker

Best Heroes: Ahri, LeBlanc, Tristana

The Mid laner occupies the central lane in the map, but isn’t restricted to just that lane. If you’re playing this position, you have the freedom to move about the three lanes, assisting your teammates to put pressure on the enemy or gain map control. 

Since this position lets you access both sides of your side of the map, you can easily farm gold and XP. You need to know when to move to different lanes to support your teammates, because that’s the only way you can make plays for your team to give them an advantage during ganks or team pushes

Bot Laner – The Damage Dealer

Best Heroes: Jinx, Caitlyn, Draven

The Bot laner, also known as the ADC (attack damage carry), is the damage dealer for the team. This character usually lurks in the bottom lane and has access to rapid gold farm, which allows them to build items quickly and head into the endgame stages soon.

If you’re looking to play this character, then your primary focus should be to build items and level up as quickly as you can. To do this, you need to perform perfect last hits, which can help you gain gold quickly. Last hit is a technique where you land the last hit on an enemy creep. This way, you ensure that you get the entire gold amount for killing the creep. Once you’ve built your items properly, you can then go ahead and bully the lane, provided your enemy is still underpowered.

Support – The Team Enabler

Best Heroes: Nami, Rell, Leona

While many would dub playing the Support role in League of Legends boring, it’s basically the team’s backbone. From healing and vision to protecting you, Support characters are extremely vital when it comes to winning a match. While playing this role, you will usually find yourself running around in the Bottom Lane alongside the ADC, but you can float as and when necessary.

Support characters are usually mages, so Crowd Control spells are a part of their kit. You can either engage in a fight with this spell or use other spells to help your teammates deal more damage. This role is vital to the team, yes, but it’s also the best one that beginners should play first. Playing as a support will help you learn more about the map and will develop your game sense, which will eventually let you play the other LoL roles better.

Tips to Master Your Main League of Legends Roles Faster

Mastering your main role in League of Legends takes time, patience, and the right approach. Here are some practical tips that will help you improve faster and understand your role more effectively.

Practice in Normal Games First

When you start playing League of Legends, it’s best that you don’t dip into the competitive side of things from the very beginning. These are high-stakes games, so heading into them with barely any knowledge is not recommended.

Play normal games first. That should give you a good idea about the map, and it is a fine place to practice new characters or refine your skills with an existing character. 

Watch High-Elo Players

High-ELO players can often showcase some nuanced skills with LoL characters across different roles. Be sure to watch their gameplay to learn these skills, and then practice them in normal games to improve your gameplay.

League of Legends may look simple on paper, but the MOBA is extremely nuanced, so you will definitely need a lot of time to get the hang of the game. Although watching High-ELO players isn’t a shortcut to success, it’s still a good way to gain a head start.

Focus on Role-Specific Fundamentals

The five different roles have their own nuances, which can be difficult to grasp at times. So, if you’re looking to pick up a particular role, try to understand its fundamentals. For example, a Support role should never look for solo kills, especially during the early stages of a match. They’re somewhat squishy, and their damage output is low, so instead of hunting for kills, they might end up feeding the enemy team, putting your team at a significant disadvantage.

Review Your Own Gameplay

While practice makes perfect, it’s impossible to know where to focus if you don’t know where to improve. To know that, be sure to review your own League of Legends gameplay. Software like OBS Studio can help you record your gameplay so you can view it later.

If playing with friends, you can also discuss strategies and post-match performance to figure out where to improve.

When it comes to picking a role in League of Legends or any MOBA, the process gets a little complicated. If you’re new to the sector, then you should focus on learning the map and developing proper game sense before you experiment with the different roles. Heroes that are the easiest to learn are usually restricted to the Support role, which gives you scope to familiarise yourself with the mechanics. That said, it doesn’t really hurt to experiment with different roles either, so feel free to try out the other four as well.

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