Wild Rift Beginner’s Guide – Vocabulary and Roles

By: u/Tigger3584 of r/WildRift           Edited by: Siege Roberts

This is a guide directed to people who have never played League of Legends before. Knowing the vocabulary and roles is an important part of adjusting to the Wild Rift and MOBA community. This guide will help you ease into the learning experience and make it more enjoyable for you.

Lol Wild Rift & MOBA Terms

Abilities: QWER and Wards – It can also be called 1 2 3 4 or 1st 2nd 3rd ult because the keyboard is not used in mobile.

Auto Attack = basic attacking, the basic move all champions have.

AD = physical damage, known as Attack Damage, and reduced by Armor. Increases the damage autos deal.

AP = magical damage, known as Ability Power, and reduced by Magic Resist.

Adaptive Damage = a type of damage bonus that changes based on your higher stat. (Can be influenced by itemization) It is commonly seen on runes such as Conqueror and Gathering Storm.

Mana = a resource most champions use, abilities consume this resource but it regenerates over time.

True Damage = damage not affected by resistances.

Lethality = flat armor penetration that scales with your champion’s level.

Auto Reset = an ability that refreshes your auto-attack timer. This is commonly abused to attack faster by autoing- then immediately using the ability to instantly attack again.

Recast = abilities that can be used multiple times.

Channel = your Champion cannot use abilities and typically can’t move during this ability.

Lifesteal = you heal off of the damage your auto attacks deal. Also called physical or magical vamp. In some cases, it can be an omnivamp (gives both physical and magical vamp.)

Grievous Wounds = Debuff that reduces a percentage of the champion’s healing.

On-hit = effects that only apply on auto-attacks or certain abilities that state they apply on-hit effects.

CDR/Cooldown Reduction = reduces cooldowns on most abilities, capped at 40%

CC = crowd control – has 2 types Hard and Soft:

• Soft CC = slows, silences, etc. these CC don’t stop enemy characters from moving.
• Hard CC = roots, stuns, knockups, knockbacks, etc. these stop enemy characters from moving.

Tenacity = a stat that reduces the duration of most CCs. This stacks multiplicatively.

Unstoppable = cannot be CC’d during this ability or effect (however CC will be applied after, if it lasts long enough).

Turret/Tower = the structures that shoot lasers, defending each of the 3 lanes. These will prioritize minions but will target enemy champions if they damage an ally champion.

Lead = advantage; can be through gold (and as a result: items), or experience (levels).

Kiting = Auto-spacing, orbwalking, etc. Basically when you walk between each auto-attack or spell cast to maximize your movement while dealing damage.

Trade = exchanging abilities and/or autos with your opponent (typically done in Laning Phase), basically when you and your opponent damage each other.

Shove = to push the minion wave as fast as possible under the enemy turret.

Priority = the ability to immediately respond to help teammates or force trades with your opposing laner- typically when you’ve shoved your minion wave under the enemy turret.

Collapse/Flank = to surround an enemy team, either by letting them push towards your side of the map, or circling around to the side or behind the enemy team.

Baiting = Intentionally taking a bad trade or not recalling while low on health, in an attempt to get them to stay so that your teammates can Collapse on them.

Diving = attacking an enemy champion under tower, typically to secure the kill.

Peel = keeping enemies away from a teammate- typically done through CC.

Execute = an ability or effect that deals more damage based on the targets missing health.

Takedown = getting a kill or assist on an enemy champion.

Champions = the characters you play as.

Epic Monster = neutral monsters that help your team gain a lead: this includes Dragons, Herald, and Baron.

Herald = Herald is a neutral monster that either team can kill to gain an Eye of the Herald. The team that kills it can have 1 teammate pick it up, replacing their ward with the Eye, this player then gets an enhanced recall to recall faster.

The Eye can then later be summoned to help push turrets (note: it will not target enemy champions when summoned, but can damage them with its charge).

The Herald has an eye on its back that opens periodically (both when it spawns or when either team summons it) that deals a massive amount of true damage to it.

A small jungle tip is to use the eye to finish the Herald instead of using Smite, because of how much more damage it deals.

Baron Nashor = the purple worm that replaces Herald later in the game.

This neutral monster, when killed, grants surviving members of the team that killed it the Baron buff, which grants bonus Attack and Ability Power for a couple of minutes. Teammates with this buff also gain an aura that buffs nearby ally minions to gain extra Attack, Attack Speed, Movement Speed, and Resistances.

You lose the Baron Buff when you die. Barons are typically taken by teams to end up games or to help siege turrets. Some strategies include splitting the team up to push 3 lanes at once, then rotating to the lane with fewer enemy teammates defending. They also gain faster recall channels.

Dragons = Another neutral monster. This grants bonus stats or effects depending on the dragon. The buffs are permanent and it stacks. After a certain amount of time passes, the Elder Dragon is summoned and gives a superior buff.

• Cloud Drake: Gain 6% movement speed, doubles when out of combat
• Ocean Drake: Gain 8% Omnivamp
• Mountain Drake: Gain 6% of maximum HP as a shield after 5 seconds of not taking damage
• Infernal Drake: Deal 6% increased damage.
• Elder Dragon: Attacks burn enemies, dealing True damage. Also amplifies the effect of its Elemental bonus based on the number of drakes killed by your team. For example: The Elder Mountain Dragon grants a 6% plus 3% for each additional drake killed. So if you killed a total of three drakes including the Elder dragon, you will have 9% + 3%x2 = 15% of your HP shield.

Objectives = stuff that helps your team win the game directly or indirectly: This can be Dragons, Herald, Barons, or enemy structure such as Turrets and Inhibitors

Early game/ Laning Phase = the first couple minutes of the game where all turrets are up. The jungler typically Ganks a couple times during this period to give teammates a lead.

Mid game = the time when the first turrets start to go down and people group up to take turrets and maybe a couple of Dragons. This is usually when laners (non-junglers) begin to kill jungle monsters as junglers also start taking minions from lane when setting up for objectives.

Late game = when most turrets are down, most people are close to completing all their items, and teams try to end the game.

Tank = Champions with strong base stats who builds primarily defensive items and serves to block damage from the enemy team and disrupt them with CC.

They typically have abilities that scale with defensive items. They are strong early-mid game, but once DPS champions start ramping up or finishing builds (like ADCs), they start to get shredded down.

Bruiser = high statted champions that are strong early to mid game but have restricted mobility to compensate. These champions typically build 1-2 offensive items before going into defensive items.

These champions tend to be more offensive than tanks, but are less resilient as a result, being easier to kill. They also tend to have some form of sustain in their kit to regenerate health.

Duelist = strong 1v1 champions with a powerful defensive ability but pretty frail defenses. These are also known as Split Pushers who prefer to go solo and pressure lanes rather than team fighting due to their lack of defenses.

Not that they can’t team fight, just that they’re a lot weaker in team fights than other champions.

Poke Mage = these AP champions have long ranged AOE abilities that tend to whittle opponents down, before comboing them down once they’re low enough. They tend to have slightly weaker abilities to compensate.

Burst Mage = these AP champions tend to have shorter range AOE abilities, but deal immense damage with their combo.

Battlemage = these AP champions tend to have shorter range abilities, but excel in dealing DPS rather than bursting enemies down.

Assassin = high damage high mobility champions that single out an enemy carry to kill and escape after. Their frail defenses make them extremely squishy, so CC is typically a great answer against assassins in a teamfight.

Enchanter = a healer or shielder support champion with frail defenses, these champions help keep their team alive and are typically paired with the ADC in lane. These champions tend to have a cheaper pool of items that provide them with the stats they need.

ADC = your Attack Damage Carry, or marksmen. These are champions that primarily deal damage through ranged auto attacks.

They have very frail defenses, but scale extremely well with items, outputting massive DPS later into the game. Due to their item dependency however, they tend to need a lot of gold and items to scale up.

Top Lane (Herald/Baron Lane) = the lane next to Herald/Baron. Tanks, Duelists, and Bruisers typically go this lane as the long lane makes extended trades common while laning.

Their long distance away from other lanes and Dragon means that most champs either Split-Push, or take TP (Teleport – a boots enchantment upgrade that teleports you after a channel to an ally turret, ward) to join team fights.

Jungle = the jungler takes the monster camps in the area between the lanes. They are typically objective controllers as their summoner spell Smite deals a massive amount of True Damage to jungle monsters. They are also responsible for Ganking lanes (going to a teammate’s lane to help kill the enemy). They tend to receive less Gold and EXP than solo lanes due to the balance between clearing their jungle and ganking.

Blue Sentinel = More commonly known as the blue buff. Grants a buff that provides Health and Mana Regeneration. After a few minutes, it becomes a stronger, larger version of itself and the buff will now also provide bonus ability haste.

Red Brambleback = More commonly known as the red buff. Grants a buff that adds true damage and a slow effect to attacks. After a few minutes, it becomes a stronger, larger version of itself and the buff will now also provide bonus adaptive damage.

Rift Scuttler = creates a speed shrine in the river, granting sight of the area and an out-of-combat movement speed boost when traveling through that area.

Mid Lane = the lane right down the middle. Assassins and Mages typically go here as the shorter distance between towers allows for more safety while laning.

Champions in this lane, due to their location, tend to Roam (when non-junglers gank another lane) to help either Top, Bot, or Jungle.

Bot Lane (Dragon Lane) = the lane next to Dragon. This lane primarily consists of an ADC and a Support, as their close proximity allows them to assist their jungler to contest the Dragon early on.