Last week, I talked about Ranked Anxiety. This week, I’m going to be talking about League of Legends terms and jargon.
Lots of people have been asking me what the different terms in League of Legends mean. I remember when I first started playing, I had no idea what any of these things meant. That’s why I thought of doing an article with the most common League of Legends terms and their definitions. For a complete reference, you can check this page of the LoL Wikipedia.
Here’s a list of the terms that I’ve already made articles about:
- Objectives: The Key to Winning Games
- Trading: Winning the Exchange
- Last Hitting: How to CS
- Ganking: When, Where, and How to Gank
Now it’s time to get on to the main list!
- AA (Auto Attack) — A champion’s default attack activated by right-clicking on a valid target.
- AoE (Area of Effect) — It is the total area where an ability or many abilities take effect. (e.g. Annie’s Incinerate, Nasus’ Spirit Fire, Xerath’s Eye of Destruction)
- B (Back) — The act of retreating in the general direction of your base or away from the enemy. It can also mean the Recall spell, which is bound to “B” by default.
- Bait — A tactic to act weak to lure the enemy into a trap.
- BD (Backdoor) — It is attacking the enemy team’s Nexus while most of them are focused elsewhere.
- Burst — The act of doing a large amount of damage within a short time. It is also called Nuke.
- CC (Crowd Control) — A category of status effects that limit movement or actions. (e.g. Nasus’ Wither)
- Collapse — A coordinated attack performed by converging into the enemy team.
- CS (Creep Score) — The total amount of minions you have managed to last hit.
- DoT (Damage over Time) — Persistent damage done over a few seconds, in intervals/ticks. (e.g. Malzahar’s Malefic Visions, Rumble’s Flamespitter, Ignite)
- DPS (Damage Per Second) — A measure of how much damage a champion or team can do each second.
- Face Check — A champion walking into a brush to see if an enemy champion is hiding in there. Due to the potential risks of this action, this is discouraged.
- Farm — The act of seeking out and killing minions to get experience and gold.
- Feed — The act of dying often to the enemy team, giving them gold and experience.
- Freezing — The act of farming a lane by only last-hitting minions.
- Ganking — The act of ambush unsuspecting enemies. This is usually done by a Support or a Jungler.
- Invade — The act of going into the enemy’s territory, particularly their jungle.
- Juke — The act of feinting an enemy in the wrong direction, usually done by breaking the line of sight.
- Kite — The act of maintaining a safe distance from a pursuing target. This makes the enemy have a hard time retaliating.
- KS (Kill Steal) — An ally, who contributed less to killing the enemy, delivering the final blow.
- Meta/Metagame — The game’s current most effective playstyle. This consists of aspects such as lane setup, jungling, and team composition.
- MMR (Match Making Rating) — A hidden rating that determines your skill level.
- Overextending — A situation where a champion is moving too far in lane/enemy territory. This might open them up to sudden engages.
- Objectives — A valuable monster or structure whose acquisition goes towards winning the match. (e.g. Turrets, Rift Herald, Dragons, Baron Nashor)
- Peeling — The act of using Crowd Control abilities to stop enemy champions from attacking an allied champion.
- Poke — The act of using long-ranged attacks to cause small to moderate damage to weaken an enemy. Usually done while keeping a safe position.
- Proc — The activation of an item’s/ability’s effect.
- Proxy — A high-risk, high-reward strategy. This involves farming enemy minions between the enemy turrets. Doing so prevents the opposing laner from pushing or farming.
- Push — The act of advancing forward in a lane, clearing it of minions and towers.
- Smurf — A secondary account of a lower-level or rank than a player’s primary account.
- Split Pushing — The act of continuously advancing in one lane while teammates are focused elsewhere.
- Snowball — A situation that occurs when a champion or team gains an advantage that allows them to progressively grow stronger.
- Trading — A situation where players from each side deal equal injury to each other during a confrontation.
- Ult — A term that references a champion’s ultimate ability. These are the ones that you would unlock when your champion hits level 6 (with a few exceptions).
- Wave — A term used to refer to a group of minions. (e.g. A wave of minions spawn every 30 seconds)
- Zoning — A tactic used to prevent enemy champion(s) from gaining gold/experience.
That’s all for now! I hope you learned something from this article. Good luck on the Rift!
