10 Basics every new VainGlory player should now

What is VainGlory?

VainGlory is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) released on November 2014 for iOS devices and on July for Android. The game is created by Super Evil Megacorp, which consist of developers from Riot, Blizzard, Rockstar, and more. The game is heavily influenced by League Of Legends especially like the bush, skins, free hero rotation and so on (so, basically, it's a League Of Legends rip-off).

VainGlory boasts precise and easy controls made for touch-screen devices. VainGlory also started drawing some attention in the eSport scene with sponsorships of Amazon and Nvidia recently.

The Jump to VainGlory

Whether you are new in this kind of game or coming from other MOBA elites like Dota 2 and LoL, VainGlory had a slight different mechanics. This list is aimed at both complete beginners and advanced players; if you are already a skilled player, it is still nice knowing the very basics of the VainGlory.

Know What Your Roles Are

First of all, you need to know the roles in MOBA games like VainGlory. Basically, there are two main roles called, "Carry" and "Support". Carry is the killer of the team and "carry" the game to victory while Support obviously supports the carry and the whole team overall. In VainGlory, roles are Lane, Roam and Jungle.

The Lane

The Lane role is one who will control the only lane in the map. The lane offers more gold and experience than Jungle because of the waves of minions. Long range heroes are best in the lane for killing minions, harassing the enemy, and damaging turrets while sitting safe at a distance.

As a Laner, you are expected to be strongest in the early and mid game as you have the most gold and experience on the team. You can help and response to your teammates when fighting in the Jungle. Also, mind the bush, there should be always a scout mine under your bush to reveal ganking enemy heroes.

The Jungle

The jungle is much safer than the lane. You have to control your jungle camps and maybe invade enemy's jungle camp too. After you've finished all the camps, try visiting the lane to help or snipe a kill.

As a jungler, try to have an impact on the game as early as you can.

The Roam

Roam is the equivalent of support in other MOBA games. Make sure you know how to use Ironguard Contract and other consumable items like Scout Traps, Flare, and Minion Candy.

Buy utility items that can help the team, initiate team fights, and you shall not let your carry die.

Know How To Use Ironguard Contract Properly

Ironguard Contract is the bread and butter first item for Roam/Support role. Here is the item description:

When a nearby ally kills a minion or monster, you earn 60% of the bounty as bonus gold. If that monster has attacked you, you heal for 120 HP (200 for jungle bosses) and your ally also earns a 30% bonus.

EpicGeekery provides and awesome Ironguard Contract: The Complete Guide video and I strongly recommend to watch it.

Know the Benefits of Scout Traps

Scout trap plays a major role in VainGlory. It serves as a scout/ward that can reveal a small area around it and also deals damage to enemies who step on it. Here is the item description:

Place a trap at your feet. Trap grants vision & will explode on contact with enemy heroes after a short delay. Deals splash damage and reveals affected enemies for 5 seconds.

Scout traps should be provided by Roams but only if you have an extra 50 gold. Buying scout traps will help you if placed correctly.

Commander Alex provides a useful video uses and placement of scout traps above.

Know When To Use Minion Candy

Probably one of the most overlooked consumable item in VainGlory is the Minion Candy. Here is the item description of the Minion Candy:

Empowers nearby friendly minions for 60 seconds and friendly jungle bosses for 30 seconds.

Its main usage is to buff your minions when pushing and sieging enemy turrets, but it is best used when getting an Ace or after capturing Kraken. But it can also be used in friendly jungle bosses (Goldmine and Minion mine).

Watch Nogstafari's video above shows where he turns a fight and get an ace with a Minion Candy, which costs only 50 gold.

Proper Usage Of Pings and Visual Indicators

As Pings are the only way to communicate in VainGlory, every player should know how to use them properly. Don't spam a ping or use it as any form of embarrassing your teammate. Don't be a toxic player.

Basic Ping are:

• Question mark: Used to tell you about enemies out of vision (can also be used to ask for flaring bushes/certain area) or used by Laner to indicate enemy is missing so beware of jungle fight. (Missing In Action)
• Caution: Avoid a certain player or area. Can also mean take care for some instances.
• Go: Attack or Go there or focus a player
• Come together ping: Group together and wait for an easy kill or come up and gank the lane. Regroup.
• Running Man: On my way.

Other Pings are on the top left side and pretty straightforward like the Cheers and OK pings.

Here is a guide from Vaingloryfire.com explaining a specific Visual Indicator Guide.

Know the Specific Details of Jungle and Minions

The jungle is very vital for the team. If the enemy invaded your jungle, your team will have less gold and experience. So, here are the most important things every beginner should know about the Jungle and Minions.

This specific details about minion is provided by Doovy in VainGlory forums:

• The first lane minion spawns at 0:26

• It takes (give or take a second) 24 seconds for the leader (first in line) lane minion to spawn after the previous leader lane minion has spawned.

• All jungle camps spawn at 0:45

• All jungle camps take 50 seconds to respawn

• Dual jungle camps (camps with two monsters) will only respawn if both monsters are killed

• The 50 seconds for dual jungle camps to respawning only begins after both minions are defeated

• The furthermost dual jungle camp from your base (on your side of the jungle) has a small creep, which appears to have less health and less damage than the other jungle creeps

• All jungle creeps (including Minion mines and, obviously, the Gold miner) are worth more gold and experience the longer they are left alive

• Big muscular jungle creeps with a green aura give a potion effect to the hero that death the last hit

• The Minion mines and the Gold miner spawn at 4:00

• The Minion mines and the Gold miner respawn 10 seconds after being killed

• Jungle camps can be seen on the map briefly when they spawn

Note: As the meta changes almost every update, this guide can be outdated. But as the time of writing it is pretty accurate.

Learning the Element of Surprise and Escaping

Bushes are a very useful feature in the game. Just like in League Of Legends, they serve as hiding places where players outside the bush can't see you. You can use the bush to hide when teleporting or when trying to gank the enemy. If used properly, they can be really useful.

Here is a Subzerolink1221's guide to Bush tactics:

Agressive:

1.Never Head to another bush without not letting your team know.
So if every enemy hero disapear on the mini map,do not head to a bush without yourteam, instead head to the bush next to it.

Doing this will make the enemy wonder where you are and where the rest of you are,so they'll probably go searching in other bushes. Or they'll move around in the bush there in and you'll atleast see a glimps of a enemy, or they have already read this thread and they probably know what your going to do.

Fleeing:

1.Do the opposite of the enemy.
So head to the nearest bush since you've got low health, wait for the enemy to head to the bush,then head to her/his direction and activate your boots. This way your enemy will have to turn around and head to you,you will have 0.7 seconds to activate the boots and run.Then he/she will go for you, so repeat this again and head to your base while doing this.

Only do this tactic if you have a kind of perk that is related to "Shadow's empower me" perk from Krul.

Note: Do be careful while doing this over and over again,your enemy might expect you doing it again.

Learn New Heroes

Don't treat buying heroes is just for collection. Try as many heroes as you can and learn how to use them. By the word "learn," I mean know the hero's strengths and weaknesses.

Make sure you've tried all the heroes available on every Free Hero Rotation. It does not only give you an experience with the hero, it also gives you an idea how to can counter them.

Learn the Awesome Stutter Step

While stutter stepping is for advanced or intermediate players, this should be practiced as early as possible. Shinkaigan has an awesome video explaining and teaching how to stutter step above. 

I have a slightly different version of stutter step from Shinkaigan, here's how I do my stutter step:

1. Tap the ground
2. Tap the target
3. Wait for a moment for the attack to happen (sound and visual) and THEN repeat

Play With Friends And Have Fun

Remember that the purpose you are playing the game is to have fun. If you played a casual match and teamed up with good players, try to add them as friends and start a party.

Join a guild or team to meet new players in your region. Ask other's for opinions and item builds. Maybe suggest the game to your "real-life" friend or relatives who like MOBAs or other mobile games. Watch pro VainGlory games together to have an idea how a pro plays the game.

Don't forget to have fun. You can add me on VainGlory, my IGN is Toxic08. Cheers!