How to Choose your Champion in League of Legends

League of Legends has over 150 champions, so it’s difficult to choose which ones to play when you’re a beginner looking for an excellent place to start. Most of your friends may give you suggestions about some good champions you can play, but you should always have your own opinion on whether or not this is a good choice.

That’s why we’ve prepared some key points you need to look at which champion to play League of Legends depending on your roles, lanes, and other preferences.

Which Champions Should You Play?

Riot Games has designed League of Legends to make each champion relevant for certain players depending on their skill level and personal playstyle. That’s why certain champions are popular in different ranked divisions. If you played Wild Rift, you’d notice that the champions are almost the same, so you won’t have trouble adjusting to the game's PC version.

There are many factors to consider, such as your role in the team, the lane you’re playing, skill level, damage type, and win condition in the late game. It can be a daunting task to consider all of these things when you’re only a beginner, so we’ve narrowed down the main things you need to look at to determine the best League of Legends champion for you.

Assigning Roles & Lanes

Role and lane are the first things you need to keep in mind when choosing a champion. In normal games, your team will call out which lanes they’ll play on, so you might be forced to adjust if they manage to pick first.

On the other hand, Ranked Games are a bit more straightforward because you will be assigned a role at the beginning of the game from top lane, jungle, mid lane, bot lane, and support.

You may not know which champions belong in what lane, but the Riot Games champion select screen allows you to filter them out.

All you have to do is choose the best League of Legends champion from that list according to how your team plans to play it out.

However, this is not the primary factor you should consider when choosing a champion because the following tips are also crucial in making your decision.

Balancing Your Team Composition

Once you’ve secured your lane, you’ll have to balance your team composition based on damage type and tankiness. It’s a good idea to have at least one attack damage champion, one ability power champion, one tank, and one support unit.

This allows the perfect formula for success when it comes to team fighting since the enemy team won’t have a direct way to counter your composition.

Riot Games has designed the game so that players will be forced to make use of this formula. In lower ELOs, it might not matter as much, but it’s a good habit to learn how to adjust according to the needs of your team composition early on.

You don’t always have to pick a pure ability power champion since there are also hybrid damage dealers or true damage dealers that can supplement the lack of magic damage.

However, it’s recommended for beginners to follow the basic formula since these damage types become relevant in the late game.

Counter-Picking the Enemy

Counter-picking the enemy is a bit of an advanced tactic that you can only do in Ranked Games because the pick and ban phase allows you to see which champions have been selected by the enemy team.

You either have to know the specific lane matchup or look at League of Legends resources online to determine the best counter-pick for a particular enemy.

Counter-picks aren’t infallible since they still require players to showcase their ability to push their advantage over the enemy laner.

It’s also a good idea to be cautious about common lane matchups because some one-trick players have specific strategies prepared when they’re being counter-picked. If you’re a beginner, you’d rather go with a champion you are comfortable with than go for a direct counter.

Matching Your Playstyle

Each player has a specific playstyle that can dictate their success in playing the champion they want.

For example, a conservative player would rather go for a tank champion in the top lane than an assassin who likes to roam the map and pick fights independently.

This is probably the most important factor to keep in mind when choosing the best League of Legends champion for you.

It’s good to try out different champions in the practice tool before you use them in ranked games or watch videos that highlight to understand their unique abilities. By doing so, you can determine if a champion is good for you or not.

For example, you may want to play a champion like Master Yi in the jungle rather than someone like Lee Sin, who requires complicated combos to execute, especially if you’re playing for the late game.