The best LoL champions for beginners 2024

Which are the best LoL champions for beginners? Understanding who is easy to play is half the battle if you want to find success early in your League of Legends career. The Summoner’s Rift map can be a daunting place for those starting on their MOBA journey, especially when you find yourself dying over and over. With over 150 options to choose from, the sheer amount of playable champions can also feel overwhelming.

When you begin playing League of Legends, it’s best to get a grip on the core concepts of the game before committing to a role, and ultimately, a champion. Playing through basic training will familiarize you with the broader concepts of the free PC game, such as minion waves, towers, skills, and items. We’ve got the best LoL beginner champions for each role below, followed by an explanation of exactly how they work, and how you should play your role. With the Arena game mode back in rotation, these champions would also make an excellent starting point for building the best LoL Arena team comps.

Best League of Legends top champion for beginners

Garen – The Might of Demacia

Garen is a big guy with an even bigger sword. He spins around, takes little damage, and he moves very fast. His W ability gives him bonus defensive stats. His passive, Perseverance, allows him to regenerate health much faster than other champions, which means you can stay in the lane longer. Garen can also put out a lot of damage, especially if you’re able to chain your offensive abilities together.

• Passive ability – 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 resistance 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 – Judgement: 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.

Garen’s innate tankiness makes him a good champion to help you learn to navigate the often-isolated top lane. He struggles against ranged champions, but if you manage his skills well he can hold his own against most melee champions. His Q ability silences the recipient, which can be incredibly useful against opponents who rely on their abilities a lot. The playstyle here is to whittle your opponent down with Q and E so that Demacian Justice will execute them.

If things aren’t going your way then make use of your defensive capabilities. Garen gains defensive stats passively, and the fact that he automatically builds up armor and magic resistance helps him out against anyone he might come up against.

Warwick – The Uncaged Wrath of Zaun

While it’s rare to find a Warwick player in the upper echelons of League of Legends, the human-wolf hybrid is a perfect fit for beginners. His set of abilities is simple but can be extremely effective, and his ability to heal himself on command is exceptionally useful for those who are learning the jungle role.

• Passive ability – Eternal Hunger: Warwick’s basic attacks deal bonus magic damage. If Warwick is below 50% health, he heals the same amount. If Warwick is below 25% health, this healing triples.
• Q – Jaws of the Beast: Warwick lunges forward and bites his target, dealing damage based on their maximum health and healing for damage dealt.
• W – Blood Hunt: Warwick senses enemies below 50% health, gaining movement speed toward and attack speed against them. When they fall below 20% health, he becomes frenzied and these bonuses triple.
• E – Primal Howl: Warwick gains damage reduction for 2.5 seconds. In the end, or if re-activated, he howls, causing nearby enemies to flee for 1 second.
• R – Infinite Duress: Warwick leaps in a direction (scaling with his bonus move speed), suppressing the first champion he collides with for 1.5 seconds.

The fact that Warwick can heal himself from his passive ability and his Q makes him a formidable fighter, especially if the enemy team has no means of keeping him in place. Jumping into the fray as you activate Blood Hunt can often result in several enemy champions being feared and unable to move, enabling your team to capitalize and finish the kills.

His ultimate ability, Infinite Duress, enables Warwick to cover a lot of ground, and once you hit level six, you’ll be able to gank lanes with ease. You can buy items to increase Warwick’s damage, or simply equip him with multiple defensive pieces of armor, essentially making him unkillable if played correctly.

Lux – The Lady of Luminosity

Mid laners come in many different shapes and sizes, and often you’ll find that there isn’t one champion that works in every single scenario. With that in mind, Lux is a great pick because she can play safe, has an easy time when it comes to farming minions, and can output serious damage with a few items under her belt.

• Passive ability – 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, this triggers Lux’s passive ability and refreshes the Illumination debuff duration.

Playing Lux in the mid lane will depend on your opponent. If your opposition is ultra-aggressive, keep them in check with Light Binding and the constant pressure you can keep by pushing waves of minions into their tower. They will want to roam to other lanes, and there won’t be much you can do to stop that, so ensure that they are punished for roaming by clearing their minions quickly – this means that your minions can reach their tower and be destroyed, denying them gold and experience. Once your lane has been pushed in, you can follow their roam safely by utilizing the long range of your ultimate ability.

Your Q ability binds two enemies, so often you will be able to catch out your lane opponent if they’re standing behind a minion. The core combination of abilities for Lux is to Q, throw E, use R, and then press E again. This combination will bind the enemy, place your Lucent Singularity, damage them with your ultimate, and then pop the Singularity for extra damage.

Best League of Legends ADC champion for beginners

The best League of Legends ADC champion for beginners is Caitlyn.

Staying completely safe in the bot lane is a tricky thing, you are often the focus of the enemy jungle champion, as well as the opposition’s ADC and support. Taking an ADC with range and escape potential will serve you well when learning this role.

Caitlyn – The Sheriff of Piltover

Caitlyn is, for the most part, the champion with the longest range in the game. She can be surpassed by Tristana and Kindred, but that’s not until very late into the game, so most of the time she can deal damage even when she’s a long way away from potential threats. Caitlyn has a simple kit, and much like many ADCs, relies on auto attacks for her damage.

• Passive ability – Headshot: Every few basic attacks, or against a target she has trapped or netted, Caitlyn will fire a headshot dealing bonus damage that scales with her critical strike chance. On trapped or netted targets, Caitlyn’s Headshot attack range is doubled.
• Q – Piltover Peacemaker: Caitlyn revs up her rifle for 1 second to unleash a penetrating shot that deals physical damage (deals less damage to subsequent targets).
• W – Yordle Snap Trap: Caitlyn sets a trap that, when sprung, reveals and immobilizes the enemy champion for 1.5 seconds, granting Caitlyn an empowered Headshot.
• E – 90 Caliber Net: Caitlyn fires a heavy net to slow her target. The recoil knocks Caitlyn back.
• R – Ace in the Hole: Caitlyn takes time to line up the perfect shot, dealing massive damage to a single target at a huge range. Enemy champions can intercept the bullet for their ally.

As an ADC, you’ll generally want to stay on the fringes of a fight, rather than being the center of attention. You’re able to output a tremendous amount of damage, but you can be caught out and killed very easily if you are overextended. Caitlyn’s E does propel her away from the way she’s facing, which can be used as an impromptu escape tool, but try not to rely on that to get out of trouble. Stay near your support, and if things start to get too heavy in a team fight don’t be afraid to run away.

In the early game, utilize Caitlyn’s extreme range to poke at your lane opponents when you can, while also last-hitting as many minions as possible. Eventually, your opponents will be low enough that you should be able to finish them off with Ace in the Hole. A devastating combination in the bot lane is Caitlyn paired with anyone who has a stun or root in their kit. If your enemy is frozen in one spot, you can put a trap underneath them to ensure they remain in place and bag yourself a free empowered headshot.

Leona – The Radiant Dawn

When your ADC watches you lock in a Leona support, you’ll be glad to know that they’ll nearly always breathe a sigh of relief. Leona had a ton of immobilizing abilities in her kit, and with a long-range pull on her E, she’s excellent at initiating fights for the whole team.

• Passive ability – Sunlight: Damaging spells afflict enemies with Sunlight for 1.5 seconds. When allied Champions deal damage to those targets, they consume the Sunlight to deal additional magic damage.
• Q – Shield of Daybreak: Leona uses her shield to perform her next basic attack, dealing bonus magic damage and stunning the target.
• W – Eclipse: Leona raises her shield to gain Damage Reduction, Armor, and Magic Resist. When the duration first ends, if there are nearby enemies, she will deal magic damage to them and prolong the duration of the effect.
• E – Zenith Blade: Leona projects a solar image of her sword, dealing magic damage to all enemies in a line. When the image fades, the last enemy champion struck will be briefly immobilized and Leona will dash to them.
• R – Solar Flare: Leona calls down a beam of solar energy, dealing damage to enemies in an area. Enemies in the center of the area are stunned, while enemies on the outside are slowed.

Leona is what LoL players would call an ‘engage support’. These are generally champions that can close the distance between you and the enemy very quickly; they can take a lot of punishment and are there to enable the rest of the team. Being a support can sometimes be a thankless task, but just know that if you’re doing well, the rest of your team appreciates you.

What are League of Legends champions?

A champion or hero in any MOBA is the character on the map that the player controls. Each one is unique, and possesses at least – but is not limited to – four abilities that are triggered by the Q, W, E, and R keys. The ability bound to the R key is known as an ‘ultimate’, and is usually a champion’s most powerful ability.

In League of Legends, there are over 150 different champions to choose from. Much like an MMO or class-based shooter, these can be divided into categories that pertain to the unit’s purpose within the team. Some are marksmen, some are mages, others are damage-absorbing tanks, and some champions don’t comfortably fit into any of these descriptions.

In a standard League of Legends match there are five champions per team. Each champion’s abilities are steadily unlocked and then upgraded by earning experience and buying items using gold. Key to both of these enhancements is the killing of minions – AI-controlled monsters that attack enemy fortifications and champions. Kill scores of minions in addition to racking up kills against the enemy team and your champ will become extremely powerful in no time at all.

What are the different roles in League of Legends?

Here are the League of Legends roles:

• Top – Tanks
• Mid – Mages, Assassins
• Bot – Support, ADC
• Jungle

On League of Legends’ main map, Summoner’s Rift, there are five main roles, all of which play very differently. These are based on your physical location in the map, whether that’s in the top lane (‘top’), middle lane (referred to simply as ‘mid’), bottom lane (‘bot’), or jungle.

But that’s only four roles, surely? Well spotted. For various reasons, the bot lane is home to two players, rather than just one. One of these is called the ADC (short for Attack Damage Carry), with the idea being that they will eventually be able to carry a game almost solo, given their huge damage potential. To do this, however, they first need to be protected through the early game so they can level up and buy the items needed to hit their power spikes.

This is why the ADC is always joined in the bot lane by the support. This is the only character on the Rift whose job isn’t to murder people, but to set up kills for the ADC and keep them protected and well-fed so they hit their power spike as soon as possible. This allows the ADC to last hit minions and farm gold, knowing that the support has their back should anything untoward happen.

On the opposite side of the Rift lies the top lane, which due to its slightly isolated nature – away from the chaos on the bot lane – generally hosts the tankier group of champions. While a lot of people dismiss the top lane’s importance, it can be vital in securing objectives around that side of the map. Expect to see hulking great champions, who can survive through a lot of damage.

In the mid lane, you’ll meet mages and assassins with huge damage potential, and because of that, they can often be the carry of your team. The champions that find themselves playing in the center of the map are generally ones with less HP, as the short lane means they can be safe as long as they don’t overextend – pushing too high up the lane leaves you exposed on your flanks and vulnerable to ganks. High-mobility champions are also favored in the mid lane, as they can utilize that movement speed to help out either the top or the bottom lane if needed.

Finally, the jungler lives in the space between lanes, where neutral monsters roam. Their job is to hide away in the shadows, farming money from the Rift’s more aggressive fauna and jumping out to surprise enemies in each of the three lanes. This is called ganking. There are also some neutral objectives that the jungler is expected to keep under their control.

Each side of the jungle has a blue buff and a red buff – these are large monsters that grant you temporary boosts when you kill them. Blue buff grants cooldown reduction for your abilities, increased MP regeneration, and additional Ability Power. While the red buff slows enemies hit by your basic attacks, as well as deals additional damage over time to them. It also heals you if you stay out of combat.

What League of Legends role should I play?

While every role has its pros and cons, it’s generally accepted that both jungle and mid lane are the toughest roles to master, as not only do they require a certain level of mechanical skill, but you must also understand the flow of a League of Legends match. Knowing when to push a wave, knowing when to gank another lane, and knowing how to get powerful enough to take over a game are all key if you want to win consistently.

Those are our picks for the best League of Legends champions for beginners. Once you’ve mastered these champions, we have the LoL tier list with the current meta champions so you can start putting the sword to your enemies. Once the basics are yours to command, consider branching out – the champion pool is huge, and half the fun is experimentation. If you think you’ve found your new main, you can maybe pick up a skin or two – just make sure you’re checking how much you’ve spent in League of Legends now and then so you don’t go overboard. Alternatively, our list of the best multiplayer games has other options for you if LoL isn’t what you’re looking for after all.