League of Legends (or any other MOBA for that matter) can be hard to get in to. Matches last longer than typical shooters, and the mechanics are completely different from your standard RTS.

While it has in-game tutorials to teach you how to play, it's still good to get some advice from the experts. We consider ourselves to be fairly well versed on League, but we know some people who are even better at it than we are: Riot.

So we teamed up with the developers to bring you some fun tips and tricks, helping you gain the advantage on the rest of the chumps you play with.

"If you want to check a patch of Brush but don’t have Clairvoyance, you can use skill shots like Dr. Mundo’s Infected Cleaver and listen for the sound of a hit. As another example, Cassiopeia’s Noxious Blast will give you a buff when it hits a champion, so look down to see if you’ve gained that buff after casting it."

"If you’re chasing a lone enemy into a Brush, you can attack-move (A + left click) into it to immediately attack them, avoiding jukes. Be careful with this, though, because if other enemies are in the area, you might start targeting them."

"You can place a ward half way through a cliff and it will pop out on the other side, increasing your ward casting range!"

"Wards can be used in conjunction with blink-strikes (ie. Shunpo, Leap Strike, Shadow Dance*, etc.) to "Flash" to a location."

*Shadow Dance requires an enemy ward

"All spell cast ranges are actually a little longer than the casting reticule suggests."

"As a rule of thumb, attacks against champions will attract aggro from lane minions, but spells will not (spells that apply on-hit effects are the main exception). Keep this in mind while harassing in the laning phase."

"You can cast Clairvoyance while using Recall and it won’t interrupt the channel."

"You can start the game with boots and 4 health pots (instead of the usual 3) without missing any experience if you wait at base for the 15 gold and move quickly to lane."

"The timer on any Elixir doesn’t start until you use the potion, so save it until you’re about to go into battle to use it!"

The timers are:
Golem/Wolf packs -1:00
Wraiths - 0:50
Lizard Red Buff - 5:00
Golem Blue Buff - 5:00
Dragon - 6:00
Baron - 7:00

"A monster camp only respawns after it’s fully wiped out. If you are killing monsters in the enemies’ jungle, you can leave a single unit alive in a camp to prevent it from respawning, denying them gold and experience points."

"Smite always deals exactly how much damage is indicated in the tooltip (true damage). If you check your smite damage and keep track of your target’s health (by left-clicking it and looking at its status panel), you can time the smite just right to prevent enemies from stealing the kill."

"If you want to start a Dominion game going towards Windmill (top-center point), follow the “fog of war bridge” to the haste pad to get there quickly and covertly."

"You can tell if you hit a target as Morgana with Dark Binding if you’re not at full health, and see your health jump up a bit (because of her built-in spell vamp)."

"Using abilities that generate multiple attacks or auto-attack resets (Shyvana’s Q, Renekton W) can be really useful for killing wards before they become stealthed."

"Using Rumble’s Q and then pressing H holds him in place, so he can still flame things, without necessarily having to get close to scary things like towers or champs."

"If you use Rumble’s flamethrower while running back to lane, you can get into the danger zone, where he moves 30% faster, thus getting you back into lane faster."

"Abilities such as Tides of Blood, Soul Shackles and Death Lotus can "lock on" and target invisible units, firing their projectiles and damage as normal."

"Vlad’s Tides of Blood hits whatever is in range, whether or not you can see it- can be valuable when trying to hit a target you know is in a bush and trying to Recall."

With those tips, you should be able to stay competitive in League of Legends, using the developer's knowledge against others.

Be sure to check back whenever a new champion is released, too, for our Champion Roundtable, where we discuss and review each new addition to the game. Here are two recent examples to whet your appetite: