Some of my champions with Mastery and Eternals. I main Lux the most, then Poppy, and had Morgana and Xerath as comfort picks. Yuumi… While being the proverbial e-girl pick, is actually too weak for me…

League of Legends: 172 Champions — Should You Learn Them All?!

Why you should not, and the nuanced reality…

I. Introduction

It’s a no-brainer to first answer you shouldn’t! Instead, to just play more…

Some champion-specific abilities are so traumatizing that experience alone sears them in your brain. The first time your entire team gets caught up in Sona’s CC ultimate, they usually remember it forever, let alone the rest of the game.

But learning champions is way more difficult than just memorizing abilities. It means knowing game modes and synergies, team compositions, itemization (which can be pertinent to change on the fly), archetypes, cooldowns (yours, teammates’ and opponents’ — though for summoner spells it’s a little more universal)…

League of Legends survives [Figures 1, 2] partly because it contains many experiences inside one client ecosystem. League of Legends is not just Summoner’s Rift. There are SR Swiftplay, All Random All Mid, ARAM Mayhem, Arena modes… Each changes relevant mechanics and thus what it means to “know” a champion. Not to mention mode-specific (de-)buffs or patch kit reworks…

Figure 1. Patch vs. Total ARAM Games, “Follow-up: Patch 15.22 saw 58 million fewer ARAM games played globally.”, u/running_76, r/ARAM, Reddit, November 19th, 2025. [1] We can see total ARAM games peaked in July 2025 with 112 million ARAM games. The lesser stats down the line are due to Mayhem release.

Figure 2. Total SR Games vs. Patch, “Follow-up: Patch 15.22 saw 58 million fewer ARAM games played globally.”, u/running_76, r/ARAM, Reddit, November 19th, 2025. [1] 106 million games for Summoner’s Rift means ARAM was played a bit more than SR in the peak period. Therefore it can be theorized both SR and ARAM are equivalent in playerbase, just that the lesser ARAM commitment drives up its popularity.

A jungler such as Kindred fundamentally changes value in ARAM because jungle camps disappear. According to 16.9 *ARAM Stats* data [Figure 3], Kindred has the 111th place in terms of pickrate (0.41%), for a place of 94th in winrate with 49.84% out of 22'072 sample games, though one has to consider whether there are differences at low or high MMR due to a higher skill ceiling**.

Figure 3. Kindred’s stats in ARAM Stats sorted by Winrate in Patch 16.9, screenshot by Emilia Lilith-Lolita Hoarfrost, ARAM Stats, May 11th, 2026.

Jungle is thought by some [2] to be one of the most difficult roles due to how you impact tremendously the game, having to both master your kit and the macro. Sure it’s in ARAM, but the stigmatizing aspect of jungle complexity surely affects jungle champion pickrates…

“There are definitely roles that have more impact on the game and I’d say by far it would be the jungler [in SR]. Because the jungler has access to all other roles in a sense [maybe the variability of Smite items is referred there] and act as another laner. Or as a power force, to either equalize a lane from someone being behind, or to push someone who’s already ahead. […] Junglers also have the ability to make calls on the map and influence how their laners play, to specifically get objectives. Often when I play jungle, I will say that I want to wait for midlane to push in, or I want the botlane to aggressively push in now, so that I can get the dragon. And in doing so, then that would affect their decisions on how to play.”

[embed]“Is League of Legends Balanced? 1 Rioter vs 20 Redditors (feat. Phroxzon)”, 10:00, Team Liquid League of Legends, YouTube, April 10th, 2026. [2]

Vision-impacting champions like Ashe lose part of their strategic identity due to the reduced importance of map control — although ARAM does feature bushes, champions with Stealth passives or abilities, and spots where you can abuse vision…

Meanwhile, champions like Viego or Sylas, as argued in my previous article [3] on why playing ARAM could make you a better League of Legends player, become even more demanding, because their skill ceiling depends directly on how much of the roster you understand. ARAM and draft SR alike can level up the versatility of opponent and own team compositions, due to banning or RNG.

So the question is not simply whether you should learn all champions, but rather:

• why you may want,
• why you might not decide to,
• and what “learning” them even entails!

II. Why Not to Learn Every Single Champion

The obvious argument is efficiency.

Most players specialize.

A Summoner’s Rift player usually narrows themselves into one or two roles, a limited champion pool (beyond the more or less free Blue Essence you get starting the game), and often a handful of comfort picks.

If you one-trick a champion or mainly play one lane, you can climb surprisingly far without knowing all there is to know about game knowledge. Repetition alone teaches you the most common matchups naturally.

Eventually, broken champions punish you enough that you learn to respect them, common crowd controls become instinctive to track, and popular picks become familiar through sheer exposure.

You do not necessarily need to know every interaction involving obscure passive mechanics, rare off-meta builds (although they do make for great and entertaining videos to watch!, consuming League of Legends community content is one of the best ways to learn passively and to space your learning, a condition to learning the game), or champions with extremely low frequencies (on that: modes have different pickrates!).

In fact, attempting to learn everything at once can become counterproductive. League of Legends already has over 170 champions, it may grow! Dozens of regularly viable items, multiple map-specific adjustments, and frequent balance patches.

Trying to fully internalize all of that immediately creates cognitive overload. Experience teaches organically.

III. Why Learn Them All Anyway?

Even if mastery is unnecessary, broader champion knowledge improves understanding of the game.

The moment matches leave fragmented laning phases, every role interacts: junglers gank, mids roam, supports rotate, objectives force teamfights (perhaps Baron the most decisively so, but once Atakhan?).

As a support/mid main (champion pool includes: Lux the flagship e-girl must, Xerath as comfort pick, Aurelion Sol because scaling fun and terrain clutter favoring the W…, Morgana for CC skillshot, Sona for mass CC ult and other champs, maybe Leona for tanking too as support, Poppy works provided you build sustain?), I can guarantee I’d benefit more from knowing more the different junglers, ADCs/botlaners, supports and roaming mids. Which is why I’m spamming ARAM Mayhem, though this disconnects me from the need to understand runes… Whoopsies.

Knowing champions reduces cognitive load.

Instead of asking “What does this champ do, already?”, you go towards “What’s its cooldowns like?” And this change in perspective is absolutely huge!

Understanding champions also improves:

• replay analysis (not just the replay videos, mind you but also the statistics breakdown in your match history or OPGG profile),
• drafting (as any ARAM try-hard knows, the game begins even before with the champs you own!),
• shotcalling (ie. should I all-in as Singed with Rylai based on CCs having been exhausted, ulting for sustain and dying with my AoE Q so my teammates pick up the slowed, weakened, E’d opponents?),
• positioning/spacing (going behind creeps against Morgana/Lux/Xerath stun skillshot anyone?…),
• teamfight focus,
• and itemization.

For example, recognizing that an enemy composition stacks armor naturally leads to understanding why lethality becomes weaker. And percentage armor penetration gains interest.

Likewise, understanding mixed damage champions may make you itemize differently.

Champion knowledge also improves communication. If you force an Ahri Flash, pinging it immediately informs your team:

1. a major escape tool is unavailable,
2. a gank timing opportunity window,
3. an upcoming objective fight becomes favorable.

That single detail can alter the next five minutes of a game. But to be able to time your pings you need to play with honor (a metric ingame rewarded for playing well, avoiding spamming, inting or trash-talking!), and play with timestamps.

An interesting thing to stress is that even OTPs, and perhaps firstmost OTPs, should have an acute awareness of other champions. That way, they can outplay the different match-ups, build differently with awareness… This video [4] is a good discussion of one-trick ponies overall.

[embed]“Should You One Trick to Climb? | League of Legends”, Vars, YouTube, August 22th, 2021. [4]

IV. What It Means to “Learn” Champions

Learning champions does not mean becoming mechanically proficient on every single one.

There are layers to champion knowledge…

At minimum, you should understand: the champion’s role, damage type, mobility, crowd control, durability, and general threat pattern.

You do not need to main Akali to know she punishes lonely squishy targets.

A deeper level means recognizing:

• important cooldowns,
• engage ranges,
• mobility,
• scaling spikes,
• and ultimate impact.

This matters especially for teamfighting, objective contests, and dive timings.

But champions are inseparable from builds.

A champion can radically shift identity depending on: lethality, critical strike, tank, bruiser, poke, or utility-oriented itemization.

Learning champions therefore also means learning: common item paths, defensive counters, and scaling patterns.

The game helps somewhat through recommended builds for new players, but true understanding stems from recognizing why those items are purchased.

Beyond individual kits, champions belong to broader tactical archetypes: bruisers, enchanters, divers, tanks…

The list goes on, not to mention there are hybrids.

It helps understanding team compositions much faster than memorizing every spell individually.

V. A Few Ways to Learn Champions

• Playing ARAM

ARAM is probably the fastest exposure tool in the game.

Because champion selection is randomized, you naturally encounter: unfamiliar kits, different teamfight structures (full poke comp for instance), and unusual builds.

It also accelerates passive learning: Xerath mana sustain, Viego possession mechanics, but also Leona’s passive buffing damages done by allies to focus on weaker targets…

ARAM Mayhem deepens this further through Augments, creating more emergent tactical situations (ie. making random champions build Heartsteel because of an Augment buffing the stacks) than runes, more pertaining to strategy. Though runes can be accessed through Augments so you’d do well to know them a bit.

Still, ARAM cannot fully replace Summoner’s Rift because:

1. terrain differs,
2. macro is simplified,
3. jungle mechanics disappear,
4. and some kits fundamentally rely on map structure.

• Watching video guides

A three-minute champion guide video before queueing (or during loading time) can massively improve matchup understanding, making the game feel more fair.

Although they are far from being exhaustive, they’re more like last-minute cramming tools, but you should move to more in-depth materials once you reach a familiarity with the champion. I recommend watching them while in the lobby, and after having played the champion once, to strengthen information retention, and also go slowly over them — maybe even pausing, comparing with Mobalytics builds...

Even passive listening helps:

1. identifying key cooldowns,
2. spotting powerspikes,
3. recognizing whether a champion is squishy or a tank,
4. and understanding engage conditions.

• Self-analyzing replays

Replays transform vague frustration into identifiable mistakes.

You begin noticing: missed cooldown tracking, positioning errors, poor engages and incorrect target priority.

But you don’t need to learn 172 champions simultaneously.

A more practical approach is:

1. learn your role pool,
2. learn common matchups,
3. learn frequently seen meta picks,
4. then broaden over time.

• Advisory tools

Guides, statistics sites (though one needs caution, everything can be told through stats if you can’t read them well, be critical around them…), and even LLMs can help explain team compositions, build patterns or even a detailed breakdown on your performance. OPGG has an internal LLM advising tool, pertaining to your profile!

But they should remain advisory! Especially in a constantly patched game, automated analysis can easily become inaccurate or outdated.

VI. Conclusion

Learning every champion in League of Legends is less about perfection, than reducing the unknowns of the various equations.

You are not trying to become a master of 172 kits simultaneously. You are trying to:

• recognize threats faster,
• understand fights better,
• communicate and calling shots more effectively,
• and reduce the mental load required to interpret chaos.

The more champions you understand, the easier it becomes to specialize. You know not only what your own champion does, but why it succeeds, when it fails, and how it fits into the larger web of the match-ups. That makes you derive much more pleasure from the game, because you get to a whole other level of understanding and nuance.

Whether through ARAM, replay review, short-form guides, experimentation, or simply experience, champion knowledge compounds gradually. Like most skills in MOBAs, it develops best through repetition combined with self-analysis.

VII. Bibliography

[1] Thread. “Follow-up: Patch 15.22 saw 58 million fewer ARAM games played globally.”, u/running_76, r/ARAM, Reddit, November 19th, 2025. https://www.reddit.com/r/ARAM/comments/1p1hqig/followup_patch_1522_saw_58_million_fewer_aram/

[2] Video. “Is League of Legends Balanced? 1 Rioter vs 20 Redditors (feat. Phroxzon)”, Team Liquid League of Legends, YouTube, April 10th, 2026. https://youtu.be/ngR9QvJuQU4?si=aXALFDGhBHxRi4yZ&t=600

[3] Article. “Why ARAM makes you a better League of Legends player.”, Émilia Lilith-Lolita Hoarfrost, Medium, May 2nd, 2026. https://medium.com/@emiliahoarfrost/why-aram-makes-you-a-better-league-of-legends-player-d1980295e181

[4] Video. “Should You One Trick to Climb? | League of Legends”, Vars, YouTube, August 22th, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT_Wz7_aUGo

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