Not all League of Legends champions are cut from the same cloth and some of them require existing knowledge about the game to get the most out of them, making them poor fits for newcomers.
Bard
Bard is a champion that new players will find fairly difficult to pick up since he has such a high skill floor. Because this champion wants to constantly be roaming around the map to collect his chimes, it leaves his ADC vulnerable, meaning that players need to understand lane priority and have good map awareness. If there is an opportunity across the map, Bard has little time to think and must act fast in order to get the most value out of his roams.
His ultimate ability, Tempered Fate, is also rather complicated. Being able to use this ability at the right moment takes a while to learn since it takes time for the ability to reach its destination and, if done incorrectly, can turn the tide of a team fight in the enemy’s favor. Since this takes a fair amount of experience to learn, it is important to practice a lot with this champion before taking it into a ranked game.
Irelia
Prior to her rework, Irelia was a fairly straightforward champion. However, after some heavy changes to her abilities, she became much more powerful but also harder to learn.
Her E ability, Flawless Duet, is a prime example of how difficult this champion can be. Using this ability in conjunction with the rest of her kit is important in solo duels or team fights and is required in order to play the champion in a ranked match. However, because it is so hard to land, if Irelia can’t constantly hit this ability, fights will become much more difficult, especially toward the later part of the game.
Aphelios
Aphelios is complicated on a different level than most other champions. This is because the way his abilities work is completely different and is difficult to understand at a cursory glance. He doesn’t have the typical QWER abilities and leveling them up is confusing if players do not already know how it works.
For his Q, Aphelios can change what weapon he is using out of the two that he can hold at once. His W allows him to store away a weapon that he can use later for a potential team fight, and his E is an attack ability that changes with whatever weapon he is currently using. Then, his R is a more normal ultimate ability which also changes slightly based on what weapon he is using.
Aphelios’s passive can be a bit complicated, but what it does is allows him to change weapons from the five possible options: each weapon can only be used as long as he has enough ammunition for it. Knowing what each weapon is meant for in a given scenario is difficult since there are so many different combinations players can use.
Nidalee
Looking at just her kit, Nidalee doesn’t seem like a very complicated champion, but it becomes evident why she is so difficult once she is in a game. Her clear speed is slower than other junglers’, and this matters difficult for players that do not know the correct jungle pathing for her. It is key to know how to accurately clear specific camps in order to make the most of Nidalee’s early game power.
Nidalee is also fairly squishy, especially during her first few camps. Because of this, knowing how to kite jungle camps is very important. However, learning this can be difficult for new players, meaning that there is a much higher chance of dying to jungle camps which will only slow her clear and put her so behind that it will make it difficult to bounce back.
Azir
When it comes to straight gameplay, Azir is certainly one of the harder champions to learn. Similar to Irelia, Azir has a high skill floor, but, once understood, can easily win games by itself.
In order to properly make use of Azir’s kit, players must understand how to do the “Shurima Shuffle”: correctly using all of Azir’s abilities simultaneously in a certain order to allow him to move himself and his soldiers to make a big and flashy play. Without learning this ability combination, playing Azir will be much harder and will have a much lower impact on the game.
