Gameplay and Matchmaking FAQ

IV. Matchmaking and Gamplay


Q: What counts as a magical attack and what counts as a physical attack?


A: The general rule of thumb is that auto-attacks (where you right-click an enemy) are physical and spells (cast with Q,W,E,R) are magical. However, there are exceptions to this rule. In the case of Ashe's Frost Arrow it still appears to deal physical damage, but the slowing affect is magical. This is why if you have Morgana's Black Shield on (blocks magical damage) you still take damage from the attack, but you do not get slowed. Another notable exception is Gangplank's Parley, which can both be dodged (can only happen with physical attacks) but can also be absorbed by Morgana's Black Shield.


Q: How do towers work?


A: Tower aggro is relatively straightforward. Going from highest priority to lowest priority (this is observed, not necessarily 100% always true):

1. Enemy champions damaging friendly champions
2. Other enemy units (Rally flag, Teemo's mushrooms)
3. Closest enemy minions
4. Closest enemy champions

Where this becomes complicated is when people start talking about 'tower juggling'. What happens is that two champions (A and B) are attacking an enemy near his tower (champion C). Champion A deals damage to C and the tower begins to attack him. Occasionally, if champion A stops dealing damage to C, and champion B starts dealing damage to C, the tower will switch targets from A to B, even though it should have continued targeting A until A was either dead or out of range.

The other important thing to know about towers is that when they attack heroes they gradually increase their damage. Ex: We'll assume the tower deals 100 damage, increases at 10% per shot, and maxes at 155%. If a champion tower dives alone and takes all tower hits, it would look like this:

85 damage (starts at 85% standard)
95 damage (increased by 10%)
105 damage (increased by 10%)
115 damage (increased by 10%)
125 damage (increased by 10%)
135 damage (increased by 10%)
145 damage (increased by 10%)
155 damage (increased by 10%)
155 damage (damage is maxed)

When the tower switches targets between champions, the damage will decrease to 125% standard if it is above that. Using the previous example:

85 damage (starts at 85% standard)
95 damage (increased by 10%)
105 damage (increased by 10%)
115 damage (increased by 10%)
125 damage (increased by 10%)
135 damage (increased by 10%)
145 damage (increased by 10%)

*Tower switches to Champion B*

125 damage (reduced to 125% standard)
135 damage (increased by 10%)
145 damage (increased by 10%)
155 damage (damage is maxed)

The only way that this damage increase will go away is if the tower hits a minion or doesn't perform an attack for 4 seconds.


Q: How does ELO work? What does it mean? Where can I see it?

A: ELO is the ranking system used in LoL. The way is works is that when you get matched up against a team, your team will be expected to win or expected to lose, depending on your ELO.

Ex.

Team A - 1250 ELO Ranking
Team B - 1350 ELO Ranking

In this scenario, Team B is expected to win. If they win, they will gain less ELO because they were the stronger team going in.

Team A - 1250 -> 1242
Team B - 1350 -> 1358

However, should Team A win, they will gain more points than usual because it was an upset.

Team A - 1250 -> 1263
Team B - 1350 -> 1337

Note that this is acting as if the entire team has their own ELO, what actually happens is that a team's ELO is considered depending upon the players inside and other factors. As an example:

A pre-made comes in with these players:

Noob - 1000
N0ob - 1000
Noobie - 1000
Newbie - 1000
Newskis - 1000

Now, this team doesn't have a 1000 point rating when it gets put into the pool. What happens is that they get a slight modification (between 25 and 200 points, I think) because they are a premade, and are expected to be stronger than simple pubs. So, even though all the players are 1000 ranked, the actual team would probably be ranked 1100-1150.

There isn't any way to see your ELO ranking from Normal games. The idea there is that the matchmaking is for fun, and that you shouldn't be worried about losing. When Ranked games come in, those are where the ladders and competitive play will be shown.


Q: How is IP gain calculated?

A: You gain a set amount of IP based upon whether you win or lose (winning gives you more). However, there are also a few other modifiers as well. If it is your first win of the day, you get a sizable chunk of bonus IP (so try to win at least once a day!). If you win the game in a short amount of time, you get some bonus IP. Conversely, if you lose, but the game took an hour you will gain IP for fighting the good fight. In addition, you gain extra IP for playing streaks of games without leaving. Then, if that isn't enough, you can always try out the double IP boost from the Riot Store.