Hi! This tutorial aims to teach you the basics of using the LoLValues web app.
On the main page you probably see something like this:
The main page of the app contains a list of all champions. There are a lot of numbers here. What this app tries to do is reduce stats and abilities from the game into a gold value. On the main page, the app is showing you the gold value of various aspects of champions. By default, it's ordered according to their total value, which is the combination of the value of their stats and abilities, without any items, at level 18.
Let's talk about level for a moment - if you wish to change the level at which you're viewing the value of champ stats and abilities, you can change it at the top of the page, here:
You can find out more about many aspects of the page by hovering over them, to display a tooltip explaining things, like so:
Also, all of the columns of the table are sortable, when you click on the top of the column.
Let's say that you want to pick a champion and try to find an optimal build for it. You can do this by going to the champion's build page, which you can get to by clicking the champion's name, the "Select" button on their row, or selecting from the drop down at the top of the page (all shown below):
Selecting your champion will take you to a champion's build page. Here, we'll be using Alistar as an example. On Alistar's page you will see something like this:
This table contains information about the champion's current stats and the gold values of each stat, along with the total value of all stats combined. If you want to keep track of such things as a champ's current CDR, or their attack speed, this is the place where you can do it.
Below the stats table is the abilities table, pictured below:
Here you can view the value of abilities and their various components. One the most useful parts of this table is the second column, which displays the "Average Total Value per Upgrade" of each ability. This can help with deciding what to rank up first, since it tells you approximately how much value you're adding to your kit each time you upgrade that ability.
You can also change the rank of abilities, to see their power level at various points. Note: if you set your champ's level to 3 or less, all abilities are automatically set to rank 1 (though it is undisplayed), and any level 6 ultimates are turned off. By level 4, all basic abilities obey the ranks in the ability table (by default, they're set to the highest rank), and by 6, any level 6 ultimates are turned on again (also at highest rank).
Below the abilities table, you'll find the "Added Runes" and "Added Items" sections - but notice that they're empty now:
Yes, you can add to them! But before we look at how to add runes or items, let's talk briefly about the "Show Build Summary" button:
Pressing this button reveals the following:
Here you see an easy-to-copy summary of various aspects of your build. Whenever you make changes to your build, this summary will change too, and get selected. This can be useful if you wish to keep a running list of build summaries for various champions, for comparing builds, or for just as something to quickly check before you head into a game with a given champion.
You'll notice that in the build summary, there's "TotStatValPerSec" and "TotAbilValPerSec". Why are these per second? Because valuation of stats and abilities is based off of what takes place within a given period of time, called the "combat period". You may have noticed this at the top of the page:
By default, your champ will be in combat for 10 seconds. You can change this by typing a new value in the box and clicking the "Change" button. During the combat period, it's assumed that you are spamming your abilities and auto attacks, and that the enemy is spamming their autos. The strength of their autos, given your tankiness, determines how long you live for, which is shown in the text "Survive for 64.1 seconds." If you ever will survive for less than the given combat period, the combat period is automatically shortened.
So how do you change enemy damage output? By default, your enemy is set to reflect the average champion's stats at the given level. Realistically, though, they'll have some items. You can select a different type of enemy by clicking the drop down next to "Enemy Type:", as shown below:
The two other options here are "Tank" and "ADC". Given that only autos are calculated for enemies in this app, "ADC" can be used as an option for general high damage, rather than just physical. No matter what enemy you select, their damage, by default, is considered as split 50/50 between magic and physical damage. If you wish to change this, you can do this in the following area:
Changing this will affect how much value is given to Magic Resist vs Armor in your build. If you are seeking a pure damage/utility build, you can set the bottom option (0% damage both types), and armor, MR, and HP will no longer be valued according to how much damage they can protect you from.
Okay, time to add some runes! As you can see there are four tables below the Build Summary, for Marks, Seals, Glyphs, and Quintessences. Each table lists the value of the stats given by each rune, and sorts them by their level 1 value. You can also sort by the current level value (which by default is lvl 18), depending on what level you wish to optimize your runes for. If you haven't added any items or masteries, rune values will be based purely on your empty build. Remember that by default, at level 1 all abilities are set to rank 1, and lvl 6 ultimates disabled, so you don't have to bother with switching the ranks on your abilities to simulate a low level scenario (although there is currently no way to turn an ability off completely). To add runes, fill in the amount of runes you'd like to have (by default the max amount), and click the "Add" button, as shown below:
For this example, let's add flat Health runes to Alistar. You'll notice that the "Added Runes" table is now filled out, to reflect the change:
Here, you can keep track of the value of the runes you've added so far, which will likely change as you add to your build. At any time you can also remove your runes, by clicking the "Remove" button.
Below the rune tables is an area to add Masteries, as shown below:
Here, you can see the value of all masteries, and add them to your champion. If you're wondering what a given mastery is, you can hover over it with your mouse to get a full description. Note that once added, an option to remove masteries will appear, like so:
Maybe, at this point, you want to add masteries quickly. However, every time you add some, all values are recalculated, making the process somewhat time consuming. In order to save time, you can use the "Pause Value Updates" feature. It's in the area at the top of the page, as shown here:
All you have to do is check the box, and value updates will be paused. Remember to uncheck it though! As soon as you do, values of everything will be recalulated to reflect the changes you've made. Wait too long, and you might not get an accurate picture of the values of build choices as you put them together.
At last, it's time to add some items! Here is a snapshot of the item's table (at the bottom of the page):
All items are shown in this table, and are ordered by their total gold efficiency. What is "total gold efficiency"? It's just the gold value of the item (calculated by the app), divided by the item's cost. This can give you a picture of how effective your purchase will be for your champion.
A note about gold income items and the math behind them: You may notice that many of the top-tier items are gold income items. This is because gold income is being measured by how much you'll approximately make from that item over the course of the time it takes to get to your current level, in this case, 18. It's estimated that one will get to lvl 18 at 30 minutes, so at this point, it's looking at the gold generated over the course of 30 minutes. However, if an item generates 100 gold, it isn't valued at 100g, but instead at the average efficiency of the top 10, non-gold income items. For instance, if the top 10 items have an average gold efficiency of 300%, then 100g on a gold income item will be worth 300g, due to the purchasing power you have with that money. This same principle applies to wards. For a sight stone, if you are saving 75g every time you use a ward, then the value of the sightstone's wards is based on how much spending potential you have from those saved ward purchases.
Okay, so with all these items, how are you going to find the ones you want to buy? One thing you can use are Filters. Let's say you want to only look at items over 2000g - big money items only. To do that, go to the box near the top of the "Cost" column (by default it says 'e.g. >1000'), and enter ">2000", like so:
You can also look for starting items, by entering "<475". And there are also filters above most of the other columns, too. This can allow you to look up a specific item, or an item with a specific stat. Note that when searching for stats, you have to use an abbreviated form. For instance, if looking for bonus movement speed items, you can use "b_ms". If you look through the list of items, or look up specific items with the stats you want to look for, you can see how to spell a given abbreviation.
As you may also see, you can sort items by their "% Stat Gold Efficiency", which only takes into account the value of an item's stats, and leaves out abilities. Note that some stats are added in the ability (such as the AP on runeglaive), due to the way riot stores item stats in their database.
When you're ready to add a first item to your build, you can click the "Add" button for that item. Let's add Face of the Mountain and Thornmail to Alistar, and go look back at the "Added Items" table near the top of the page:
This table, like the "Added Runes" table, will keep you up to date on the current value of all your items. You can remove items at any time by clicking "Remove". Note that build order is from top to bottom. You can add up to six items.
Okay! Now that our build is complete, we can look at our build summary and copy it to a location of our choice.
As you can see, the item build order is displayed in the build summary, allowing you to quickly reference it later, like when you're about to start a game.
The last two options I want to mention are AoE and range. You can find these options at the top, as shown below:
By checking "Use Max AoE", all abilities, on your champ and in items, will have values reflecting if they hit their max number of targets. The max number of targets is usually five, but sometimes is less, either because there are literally fewer targets, or if the aoe radius is quite small, which minimizes the probable max number of targets one can realistically be capable of hitting. This can give you a better idea of your champ's potential in team fights.
By checking "Use range", values of abilities and auto attacks will be changed to reflect their range. How is it changed? Well, it is according to a comparison between a given ability's range, and the average auto attack range of all champions (317). Checking this option can give you a better idea of how the range of an ability affects its value during combat, since the further you are from an enemy, the safer you'll be, and with long poke, you'll be able to do damage over a wide area. Note that global ulties are considered as having a range of 10000, or roughly half the length of SR, diagonally.
Alright, that's the end of the guide! Hopefully it will help you to make the most of this app as you use it to improve your play experience and optimize your choices in league. Click here to return to the main page.