9 Most Common League of Legends Mistakes Every Beginner Makes

Everybody starts out as a total beginner in League of Legends and as a beginner, there are a lot of things we tend to think are the logical choice but turns out to be a total mistake. Here are some of the most common League of Legends mistakes that every beginner makes in their career. Players that are trying to tutor other beginners or want to improve their own performance might want to check out this list. What mistakes do you guys think would be making the list?

Most Common League of Legends Mistakes

League of Legends players are prone to making mistakes no matter how good they get in the game. Beginner’s mistakes might seem ridiculous and excessive but let’s not forget that most of us were making the same League of Legends mistakes on this list if not, all of them. These are the most common mistakes that come up when you observe players who have been playing for less than a month on regular games.

Let’s discuss the common mistakes that beginners make, the reasoning on why most beginners make these mistakes, and how we can help them improve their performance in a way that they can understand. The hardest thing to do is explain to a beginner why these habits they have are wrong and should be changed if they plan to improve in the game. Make your friends take a look at this list if you’re not confident in translating what we’re trying to say so that you can have an easier time teaching them.

1. Not Maxing One Ability At A Time

A common League of Legends mistake that beginners make is balancing upgrades on their abilities. The misconception is that all their abilities need to be strengthened equally so that one ability won’t become too weak. Unfortunately, this means that you don’t have a strong ability either and that means your champion isn’t dealing as much damage as it should. Also, this means that all your abilities have long cooldowns and cost more mana/energy than you can manage.

Each champion has a Main Ability. This main ability is the one that the champion will use the most because it helps deal the most damage, clear waves, and doesn’t cost too much mana. Max this ability first before upgrading any other ability (or until you can’t upgrade it anymore). Most secondary abilities, even if they’re damage dealing types, aren’t worth upgrading until later in the game since it will reduce your overall damage done rather than increase it because of issues in CD and Cost.

2. Not Buying Vision Wards

We get it. Whenever you buy Vision Wards, the enemy laner just kills it after a few seconds of placing it in the bush and cashes in a quick 30 gold. Vision Wards are also really easy to forget to buy, especially with the Reworked Item Shop where the Ward Section is really small. The issue with both these reasons is familiarity and the lack thereof. Buying and placing Visions Wards are, and will always be, the most important thing you can do as a laner to help your team.

This League of Legends mistake is due to a player’s lack of knowledge on where to place the wards. Most players place Vision Wards where they usually place their Stealth Wards. This is only done to clear enemy wards and not as a defensive measure. Try placing your Vision Wards in inaccessible areas where the enemy can’t easily take them down. You can also try defending your wards whenever the enemy attempts to clear your wards by harassing them since they’ll be forced to retaliate instead of attacking the ward.

3. Not Pushing The Wave Before Recalling

The idea is that if you need to buy items or are low in health, you need to go back home. On the contrary, there are other things you need to do before recalling. Before going back to the base, the minion wave needs to be pushing towards the enemy base and not towards you. The reason behind this is because if the minion wave is pushing towards you before you recall, your tower will eventually kill all of those minions and you’ll lose anywhere between 100-300 gold for the wave you lost depending on how many minions were lost. With that money, you could have bought an additional item.

Unless you have teleport or you really have no choice but to recall because an enemy has over a 70% chance to kill you under tower, it’s high unacceptable to recall when the wave is pushing towards you. You can easily manipulate the wave to push towards the other direction by killing the entire minion wave or killing a portion of it depending on how quickly you want to move the wave. Here’s an in-depth Reddit Guide on Wave Manipulation to help you understand the importance of having your wave at the right place.

4. Overchasing Kills

This one is the most difficult League of Legends mistake to get rid of. Overchasing kills means trying to get the kill no matter what it takes even if they have to cross the enemy jungle, enemy team, or worse, diving the enemy tower. Kills are not as important as objectives. If you’re not the game’s primary carry, there’s no point in you getting risky kills as it doesn’t help the team increase the win chance. If you’re the primary carry of the team, it’s not worth overchasing kills just for the enemy team to kill you which will leave your team without a carry. In short, it’s a lose-lose situation.

Here are situations where overchasing kills aren’t worth it:

• The enemy is under the safety of their own turret (even if he has less than 10% HP, it’s generally not worth it)
• The enemy is within the safety of their teammates
• The enemy has a higher movement speed than you
• Your HP bar is below 30% (He might just be waiting for cooldowns)
• The enemy is going towards their own jungle
• An enemy from a nearby lane has suddenly gone missing

Overchasing kills might result in the enemy outplaying you instead or their turret outplaying you. There’s also the chance that the enemy’s carry will suddenly arrive to which you’ll be donating a free kill to them and dooming your entire team. The only reason you need to get kills is to propel your team’s lead or help the team remove a threat. Kills aren’t taken for the sake of vanity or padding your KDA. Having a lot of kills doesn’t make you a good player.

5. Facechecking Alone

This one is League of Legends mistake that even veterans make often. Facechecking is the act of moving towards an area where your team doesn’t have vision. The most common area where facechecking ends in disaster is going towards the enemy jungle. This is most commonly tied with lack of vision but if you are forced in a situation where you need to check an area, you should have at least one other person with you to avoid a disastrous ambush.

In addition, carries shouldn’t be facechecking areas as the enemy team won’t hesitate to rain down on you with everything they have. Tanks have an easier time facechecking since it’s not worth ambushing a tank. That doesn’t mean that you should facecheck areas recklessly. A good tool to have when facechecking is the Sweeping Lens trinket which will let you know in advance if an enemy is hiding in the bush or beyond the wall.

6. Not Reporting Enemies Missing

It’s very difficult for a learning individual to keep tracking so many things at once so this is one of the more forgivable League of Legends mistakes. Failing to report if an enemy is missing can be fatal since your other laners might be unaware that the enemy is setting up for a kill. Your duty as a teammate is to ensure that your allies are safe from these opportunistic plays so reporting is important to achieving this goal.

Players should learn how to use the Ping system that League of Legends has to report that their enemy laner is missing. You report that an enemy is missing by using the “?” ping where the enemy laner is missing or typing something like “Top Missing” to let your teammates know. In relation to that, players should also learn to read the chat bar to check if one of your allies is pinging if their enemy laner is missing so that you know when to retreat.

7. Trying To Build Too Many Items At A Time

Items are confusing, that’s true especially if your teammates are pestering you on what items you should be building next or if the build path you’re currently following is wrong. One thing you should remember when building an item is COMMITMENT. Once you start building an item, don’t jump to another build and complete that first. Don’t buy unnecessary items just to increase your stats like suddenly buying defensive items just because you’re dying.

The Item Shop Rework has made it easy for players to know which item they need to buy next. Follow the build path, complete the item, and move on to the next. If you keep buying different item ingredients, you might end up having weaker overall stats compared to your opponents. The importance of a fully-built item is that it gives you passive ability bonuses that will enhance your champion’s abilities. If you got your build wrong, don’t sell it, commit to it and complete the item you were building.

8. Not Using Abilities For CSing

Most beginners use their abilities for two things: Killing and Harassing. Let’s reiterate that OBJECTIVES are more important than KILLS. One of these objectives is ensuring that you have a high CS than your opponent in lane. Using abilities on minion waves is important because it helps you clear the minion wave faster and helps with wave manipulation. In fact, it’s more important to use abilities on minions than it is to use it on the enemy champion.

Playstyle has nothing to do with using abilities on things other than minions. The most common excuse that beginners make is saying that they have an “aggressive playstyle” which is why they prefer kills over objectives. You can have an aggressive playstyle but still use your abilities on the minions. If you can use your abilities on both the minions and the enemy champion in one go, you’re doing it right. Just make sure to only use the abilities to LAST HIT the minions so you still get the gold.

9. Buying Too Many Potions

The final League of Legends mistake prevalent among beginners is buying too many Health Potions. While it’s true that Health Potions only cost 50 gold a pop, cumulatively you’re bleeding out gold by buying potions. The main idea here is that players “need” health potions because they are always low in lane. In fact, you can stay in lane with just a single health potion as long as you don’t play aggressively and try to avoid unnecessary fights.

If you’re having trouble staying healthy in lane, don’t keep buying Health Potions. Instead, you’ll want to buy a Refillable Potion instead as it saves you a relevant amount of gold in the long run. It only has 2 charges but that’s everything you’ll need when laning. If 2 charges isn’t enough to keep you healthy for more than 5 minutes, your playstyle is the problem so you need to learn how to avoid getting into fights. Never buy more than 2 health potions no matter what the circumstance may be.