League of Legends is one of the most popular Free To Play games around – and why shouldn’t it be? Riot games, the company behind the the spiritual successor to the Warcraft 3 mod “Defense of The Ancients,” has rather outdone themselves. With new content every few weeks, a huge roster of characters to choose from, a plethora of unlockables, and a reasonably functional matchmaking system, League of Legends has not only put the MOBA (Multi-User-Online-battle-Arena) genre on the map, it’s defined it.
There’s a lot to the game, it’s only natural a few things might slip through the cracks. To be sure, everyone knows the basic hotkeys: QWER for abilities, B teleports you back to your base, D and F use your Summoner abilities…what else do you need?
L: Cycle Through HP Bar Displays
If you notice that the health bars above your minions and creeps have suddenly disappeared, you might have accidentally jostled the “l” key. It’ll cycle through up to four settings – display none, display hostile, display friendly, or display all.
Y: Lock/Unlock Camera on Champion
Some people prefer to play with their camera locked. I’m one of them. If you don’t want to press on the small eye at the bottom right corner, you can simply hit the “y” key and it’ll rocket the camera towards your character.
Spacebar: Center Camera On Champion
If you’re playing with your camera unlocked, it can be pretty easy to lose track of your champion. The Spacebar is your friend, in this case. Use it.
Alt+Q-R: Level Up A Skill
Instead of having to click on one of your skills to rank it up when you level up, you can simply use this command. Simple, right? These commands will also cast the spell on yourself, if it’s self-castable.
Shift+Q-R: Cast A Targeted Spell
Use one of these hotkeys and your champion will cast the spell wherever your cursor happens to be pointing.
1-6:Use Items In Your Inventory
Though most people at higher levels know about this command already, a lot of newbies to the game don’t. Instead of having to click on the item in your inventory (which, let’s be honest, is a complete and utter pain) you can simply press one of the numbers from 1-6, and the item in the corresponding inventory slot will be used. The inventory’s laid out as follows:
1-2-3
4-5-6
Shift+1-4:
Instead of typing in /joke or /taunt in chat, you can simply hold down shift and press one of the above numbers. 1 corresponds to your champion’s joke, 2 is their taunt, 3 is their dance, and 4 is their laugh.
H: Hold Position
Trying to avoid attacking creeps so you can last-hit them, instead? Just hold down the H key. Your champion won’t do anything unless you release it.
Shift+K: Turn on/off summoner names
Don’t care who you’re playing with? Use Shift+K to turn off summoner names in chat – you’ll only see their champion’s name.
F1-4: The “Select” Commands
F1 selects you, F2-4 each select one of your teammates. Handy if you’re trying to use an ability on one of them, or on yourself.
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