LoL Objectives: A Drilldown

There are many objectives in the game of League of Legends. Sometimes people get preoccupied with laning, farming and team fighting, having these things overshadow the actual objectives of the game.

Structures

Destroying structures is the overall goal in a map of LoL. When a champion autoattacks a structure, the damage done is based off of whatever is higher: 100% of the champions AD or 40% of their AP. The respective resistance of the turret (armor or magic resistance) will be used.

The Nexus

This is the most important objective. It is worth more than anything else in the game, since once it gets destroyed you win. It doesn't matter if you're 20 kills or 30,000 gold behind the enemy team, if you destroy the nexus you win. It also grants the champion who destroys it 50 gold for some reason.

Each nexus has 5500HP and regens 25HP every 5 seconds. It is unable to be targeted, unless one of your inhibitors is down and both nexus turrets are destroyed.

Inhibitors

Three of these on the map. They are only able to be targeted when their protecting tower is destroyed. They have 4000 HP and no armor or magic resistance. Once destroyed they will respawn in five minutes, with a global announcement being made 30 seconds before. If a champion lands the last hit on an inhibitor, that champion receives 50 gold. When an enemy inhibitor is destroyed, your Nexus will spawn Super Minions in that particular lane.

Super minions are stronger and more resilient that normal minions and they are often tough for even a champion to take down. Furthermore while an inhibitor is down, the regular minions will have greater health than usual. If all three inhibitors are down, there will be two super minions spawned for each wave.

All of these things mean that when your team has destroyed an inhibitor they have placed incredible pressure on the enemy team. An enemy team without inhibitors cannot contest far from their base for fear of the minions killing the nexus. Usually they must devote 1 or 2 champions, perhaps even their AD carry, to keeping the pushing minions at bay, causing any fights you pick during this time to be a advantageous for you. When all three inhibitors are down, it is almost impossible for the enemy team to leave their base, resulting in your team having control over the entire map and the spoils that are contained there.

Towers

There are 11 towers for each team at the beginning of a match. There are three towers in each lane and two protecting the nexus. The first threes towers that can be targeted by the enemy are known as the Outer turrets. These must be destroyed before the next line of turrets, the Inner Turrets, can be targeted. After taking down the Inner Turret, the Inhibitor turret becomes targetable. Destroying an Inhibitor turret is a very big objective, as you can now destroy the Inhibitor and it will be vulnerable to attacks for the rest of the game. Destroying a tower earns 150 global gold and 300 global experience for you and your teammates.

Towers will attack the closest enemy unit first and will continue to damage this target until it moves out of range or dies. When there are multiple enemies for the targets to focus there is a simple priority algorithm that towers will follow: Towers will try to kill enemy pets (Shaco clone or Mordekaiser ghost) first, then enemy minions and finally enemy champions. The only thing that can override this behavior is an enemy champion damaging an allied champion in that turret's range, when this happens the turret will focus the offending enemy champion.

Towers have lots of quirks that are very helpful to know. Towers deal physicals damage and gain AD throughout the game, up to a limit. Towers also have 20% armor penetration. Each hit against the same target deals more and more damage up to a cap that is reached on the seventh successive hit. When there are no enemy minions around, friendly turrets gain armor and magic resistance. This mechanism increases the difficulty of backdooring (destroying a turret without a minion wave) but in no way makes it impossible. Nexus turrets will recover health if they are not destroyed. They are the only turrets to do this.

Neutral Monsters

On Summoner’s Rift there are many neutral monsters scattered throughout the map. Any team can kill any of these creatures for gold and experience. They will not attack any champions until they have been attacked.

The following Neutral monsters hold the buffs that are the most common in the game and hold importance throughout it. The neutral monsters holding these buffs spawn 5 minutes after their camp has been cleared. The champion who delivers the final blow to the neutral monster will receive the buff. Another way of obtaining this buff is to kill an opposing champion who currently has the buff. When you obtain the buff this way, the duration is reset. Due to this mechanic there can be more than two blue or red buffs on different champions at one time.

Ancient Golem

Usually known as Blue buff or simply “Blue”, the ancient golem lives in the upper blue and lower purple jungle. It holds the Crest of the Ancient Golem buff which lasts 2.5 minutes (3 with runic affinity) and grants greater mana or energy regeneration as well as 20% CDR. The mana regen is a flat 25 mana regen per 5 seconds as well as 0.5% of the holders maximum mana per second. The energy regeneration is limited to the 0.5%, which increased the usual rate of 50 energy per 5 seconds to 80 energy per 5 seconds.

Blue buff is most commonly seen on the AP carry, usually the mid laner. Certain champions such as Vlad or Kennen might not want this buff early, but late game the increased CDR makes it very strong on them. Due to junglers commonly donating this buff to their mid laner early, manaless junglers, such as Lee Sin, Shyvana and Dr. Mundo, are very powerful.

Elder Lizard

Commonly referred to as "Red Buff" the Elder Lizard is a neutral monster that lives in the lower blue jungle and the upper purple jungle. Killing it gives you the Blessing of the Elder Lizard Buff, which lasts for 2.5 minutes (3 with Runic Affinity). When the holder of the buff attacks an enemy unit, that unit receives both a damage over time and a slow debuff. The values of these effects depends on the champion level of the buff holder and if the champion is ranged or melee.

From levels 1 to 5 the slow is 8% for melee and 5% for ranged, levels 6 to 10 have the effect slow 16% for melee and 10% for ranged and finally from level 11 to 18 melee champions will slow for 24% while ranged units will slow for 15%. This slow does stack with other slow effects, such as Frozen Mallet or Ashe's Frost Shot. The damage debuff delivers an amount of true damage twice. Attack speed isn't that useful for the Red Buff as reapplying it will not stack the damage, but rather just refresh the DoT.

This buff is usually taken by junglers early to make their ganks more effective. But later in the game the most common holders of this buff are the Ranged AD carry or a tank. Giving it to a ranged AD helps themkite enemy divers, while giving the red buff to a tank makes their damage scarier and harder for the enemy to escape.

Runic Affinity is located here in the Utility Tree and requires 9 points to get it.

There are two bigger neutral creeps on the map. They are usually very strong objectives that require good team coordination in order to kill safely.

Dragon

Killing the dragon nets the team 190 global gold, as well as 25 gold for whoever gets the last hit. This beast spawns 2 and a half minutes into a game and respawns 6 minutes after it dies. It gains health throughout the game, depending on champion levels. The dragon is immune to crowd control and armor/magic resistance shredding effects. Those champions that are attacked by the Dragon have a debuff applied to them, dealing damage over time as well as slowing the champion’s attack speed.

This is one of the main objectives early game and the first few dragons are often contested. This is due to his damage being very high early, so the champion who tanks dragon is usually low and thus the team who starts fighting the dragon first is at a disadvantage. Keeping timers on the dragon respawn is very important and can give you the ability to get better positioning for when the dragon spawns.

Baron

A highly contested objective, Baron Nashor is the strongest neutral creep in the game. He appears on the map at 15 minutes and will respawn 7 minutes after he dies. He has a very large health pool, which increases throughout the game. He has 600 AD, 120 armor and 70 MR. Like Dragon, he is immune to disables and debuffs. These however are not the most dangerous aspect of Baron, as he has a few different abilities at his disposal.

Wrath of the Ancients is an ability he uses, dealing magic damage and increasing damage you take from magic damage. Voracious Corrosion is an ability that deals physical damage and reduces the champions attack damage. These two abilities are the main reason that soloing Baron is difficult. It is suggested that teams swap the champions tanking baron, so that the debuffs will reset. Baron will prioritize attacking the champion closest to him.

Baron also has a AOE knockback that hits those close to him and a knockup. The knockup has a visual cue of green bubbles in the water where it will shortly appear, meaning that a player can move their character from this spot to dodge the knockup. Killing Baron Nashor results in your team getting 300 global gold, 25 gold for the champion who dealt the last hit, 900 global experience and every living member of your team the Exalted with Baron Nashor buff for four minutes (Runic Affinity does not affect this).

This buff, commonly referred to as simply Baron Buff is one of the most powerful buffs in the game. This buff is not transferred if the buff holder is killed, as the Blue and Red buffs are. It grants 40 AP and 40 AD, as well as 3% max health regen per 5 and 1% max mana regen per 5. It is a very powerful buff when teams are closely met, which is why Baron itself is so hotly contested. It’s powerful regenerative affects gives the buffed team a huge advantage in longer fights, meaning that most teams will attempt to poke at the enemy team under tower and eventually slow push their way to victory.

Be careful when doing Baron though, as the enemy team will want to fight you after or during, when you are weak and potentially try to steal it from you. It is essential to have strong map control when you are trying to kill Baron.