Reign of Gaming

I know someone who AD Akali jungles, or used to.

While not that far fetched, Support Ashe works well and builds into a frightening off-carry.

Umm, Mana-warwick is scary. You just have to rush Manamune fast, so it's not too reliable. Actually, Spell Pen Warwick mid is sorta funny if you're laning against someone like Kassadin or Fizz.

Oh, Tank Brand. A friend of mine plays this. And has not lost a game that doesn't have something awful mess it up. Literally, Brand built as a tank, dishing out CC and HP% damage. It's frighteningly effective and a pretty good lane bully mid.

Nami also works pretty well as an ADC. You do really need to know Nami, but of all the supports, she has a good base range, I believe the highest base attack speed and damage of a ranged support. A steroid to her auto attacks. (her E) and Nami generally has to auto attack pretty often due to her long CDs. I've also seen her built as an AP bruiser, sort of like Kennen.

The old fashioned AD Annie is sorta classic odd playstyle for the champion.

Umm, as soon as her rework is out, Sejuani's going to be a pretty scary support with a level 1 Alistar Combo. People've talked allot about jungle Leona, and having tested it recently, it really isn't that bad. The triple-reset's what does it, and her damage can really get brutal with typical AD jungle sortsa builds.

Oh, AP Trundle. Becoming a tank by nuking a tank with a rather scary DoT ultimate. Dunno if it'll still be possible in the rework. But it's still sorta lulzy and funny.

Oh, and AP based Xin Xao. Relying on the ult's percentile to health and unlimited sustain from his W (even on towers) as well as reasonable ratio for his E.Though, admittedly this isn't much of a dramatic change for Xin in playstyle, but you'll be generally less tanky, but more pushy. Generally I'd still throw a Sunfire cape on though. You're melee, and burst'll shut ya down'n all.

Soraka works for this, if your ADC is really bad, isn't doing anything, just start leveling Q, farming nonstop. Only problem is you really need liandri's/rylai's to become a goddess, and sturdiness. Her ratios aren't great, but her MR strip throws people into the negatives fast in the current meta.

As people have said though, she neeeeeds farm to become a lategame destroyer. You will be yelled at if you turn her into a carry from a support role.

Also, as strange as it seems, Nami works really well as a support-to-carry. She can be built very, very effectively as an ADC. Her AP ratios are crap, but with CDR and ADCy items, you can become really, really scary. Especially a Sword of the Divine+Her E. It gives her insane, sudden burstiness.

It should also be noted, Nami has the fastest attack speed of any ranged support. (except Leona) and a higher attack damage then any ADC but Quinn, Graves, Draven and Vayne. And her range is possible. Also, she has very strong CC and engages that really benefit much from AP.

Finally, the most obvious support-to-carries out there are Annie and Ashe. Annie has reliable harass, reliable CC, reliable damage, and can be built as an ADC (like ye olde Annie) benefits from a range second only to Caitlyn, and has fantastic AP ratios that still end up hurting even with moderate AP.

Finally, Ashe is a great support who's also a fine ADC. She has a constant slow to harass with. An AoE stun/slow initiation, a passive that benefits support far more then it benefits an ADC, And AoE slow cone attack with surprising range. Can provide plenty of CC and some peel, though generally only in slow form, kites like a boss, and has a free Clairvoyance.

Also, build Zekes on her, if you're a support Ashe. It's kinda necessary. Heck, Zekes and Aegis and then building her like an ADC makes a surprisingly durable and damaging 'second' carry, even if you're maintaining a support role. Also, her ult still benefits from AP, and allot of support centric items do grant AP.

I've played allot of Sejuani, and I'll tell you my experience.

While she works very, very well as a pure tank, you really want spell penetration and CDR. Honestly, my first items on her tend to be Spirit Stone, Boots, (either Boots of Swiftness  for the slow reduct/higher overall speed or Ninja Tabi if there's allot of attack. usually Ninja Tabi, but I prefer boots of swiftness if I can get away with it)  and immediately two to three health crystals. Your tankiness and damage will increase dramatically, and you're more cost efficient, which is something you need in the jungle. Then I usually pick up a Haunting Guise or Kindlegem, oftentimes at the same time. Locket is just a great item, and pretty much always worth buying. But lately I've been more often then not avoiding Warmogs, grabbing two kindlegems and building a Locket and Shurelya's both. The actives for both really help teams follow up on engages, as well as helping Sejuani with her CDR--and then I build LIandri's. While it massively increases her damage, I feel her utility is a better feature, and Haunting Guise is damn, damn good on its own.

Though, if you get fed to hell as Sejuani, which occasionally happens, I'll occasionally top off builds with a Void Staff.  While it seems a bit odd, in the rare extreme late game, it turns your damage, by itself, into something truly nightmarish.

Again, this is pre rework. I imagine she's going to still be similar, from what I've read. CDR, Health and Spell Pen are her holy trinity.

You wouldn't have pounce, I've accidentally leveled that way a few times. It's annooooying. But yeah, if you don't level an ability at all, you won't have the cougar version of it.

While not a normal jungler, a bruiser built Fiora will shred almost everyone else in the jungle. Trundle is the classic 'don't duel him', as he basically steals your defenses, and Mundo and Skarner are also frightening duelists. Actually Volibear is a very strong duelist as well, in so long as you still have his passive.

I'm going to be honest, a new player should find someone they like. Visually, if nothing else.

I've had plenty of friends that didn't get into lol for the longest time because people kept having them play champions they just weren't interested in, primarily Nunu and Taric, who they considered just 'stupid looking and gay'. Meanwhile, Jax is something I've seen lots of new players just fall in love with. He may be harder to use effectively, but those rare moments of jumping on a carry and exploding them is something I've heard numerous giggle fits over on Skype.

For me? I picked up Soraka as my first champion. I thought her hooves were neat and she was cheap. At the time, people loved her as mid because of her unlimited mana thing, so that's what I did. But she didn't really click with me until I started playing with friends after getting back into LoL. (I quit and did little more then player versus AI.) When I tried to play Twitch because I liked the idea of an evil poisony rat assassin. I was godawful and failed the lane so hard it wasn't funny. (helped it was me, a level 13 with four 30 players, one 1800 elo, and I was routinely facing people far far higher then me in level) but I was so shamed and felt so despicable, I just played Soraka on recommendation after reading off my champions I liked/had. And honestly? She taught me allooooooot.

I constantly watched hitpoints of my team. Learned what my ult could save people from, learned allot of map awareness due to (I think luckily, my friend who was babysitting me through those early games being a dedicated jungle main. who foooooorced me to learn how to ward and counterward, even giving me a game in which my job was literally, 'do not die. Kill wards, and ward. Buy an oracles', just for education. Only sticking to the fringes of teamfights) and learned things like, who Soraka synergies with, and when to avoid her as a pick--and in turn. What makes lane pairing important, and things like, "what the fuck builds do, and how they effect your team". Seriously, I can say the moment I fell in love with the game is when someone in my party said, "You know, you're the best Soraka I've played with." It just blew my mind. A week before I had been 6/24/10 on twitch. And my score had suddenly switched to something more like 1/4/18.

However, I like support. I play a healing or support class most often in MMOs. I really, really liked being someone who helps people do awesome stuff, so Soraka not having a high kill count didn't bother me.

Personally, though, if I had to list champions that are good for new players, I think item builds are the most important thing to consider. Garen is good, because he's big, he's strong, and he 'looks' tough, he feels tough. You can do very well building 'tough' items on him. Like Warmogs, Randuins, Iceborn Gauntlet, Frozen Mallet, whatever. A new player can feel like they did something just by going through tanky items and playing Garen. He also is forgiving for small mistakes, as you can always get out of combat and regenerate. Something that makes Garen a good choice for me is his passive has a visible effect. You can't get away with not noticing his passive--and passives get forgotten about quickly but play a vital role in many champions. Soraka for instance, was a poor choice as it actually didn't teach me much about passives. I didn't even notice they existed until I was nearly a hundred and fifty wins in. He also lacks the Tryndamere/Xin Xao/Darius effect. The "Oh I'm good. Because my champion is just really good at killing people who don't understand the game very well."

Meanwhile, I think a great starting mid laner is actually Morgana. She is forgiving to an extent (spell vamp), has awesome utility that will allow you to feel like you've contributed even if you're playing badly. She's easily understood, and she teaches you a skill I think is very, very important. Watching your enemy. Black shield has a short duration, but is immensely powerful. Whilst Annie is good, I think honestly she loses out on being one of the three primary burst APs in the game. Utility mages are simply more popular. Also, Morgana is cooler. Also, she benefits from items that look like they belong on her. She's an evil succubus thing, and she works well with an item called "Deathcap", an item that's a necronomicon pun, and something called "Abyssal Scepter" It's pretty straightforward.

My favorite starting support would probably be Alistar. He's cheap/free. His combo is an awesome thing to discover, and even if you don't know how to do it, you can learn to smack people into walls. He also has a visible passive, and teaches players about cleansing/CC. He also does well with his recommended build items.

For Jungle.. Eh. Warwick or Fiddlesticks. They both have extremely powerful ganks and maaaassive baron/dragon presence. It's a neat moment when you realize you can solo Baron while your team is fighting at level 13. Also, Warwick has a very solid, simple build as his 'core'. (wit's, Glacial, boots) and Fiddles is just really good now. Cho'gath I've noticed just doesn't mesh well with low level players. Everyone I know bought Chogath and tried to play him to no avail. Nunu's probably a good choice, though. I Udyr's good as well, and some oddball 'junglers' can teach allot of interesting skills. Like a Cassio jungle, if someone really likes le'snake. But they're considerably more expensive, which makes them less appealing in my opinion. All in all, I think jungling is just kind of difficult to start as a lowbie. Maybe the new items help, I dunno. I should jungle on my lowbie EU account more I think.

As far as ADCs go, straight up, Ashe. I can agree completely with this. Not only is she awesome looking, having the effectively newest visual look of all ADCs, she's cheap, reliable, gives great utility, and can even play support. She has some global presence, a good AA range, and is just, all in all, a solid ADC. On the other hand, if they buy her, or play her free, I would say Miss Fortune is a fantastic secondary choice. (actually.. I think Draven's newer visually. But meh. Ashe looks friggin baddass) She also has easy to understand item builds, and both have a pretty visible passive, MFs moreso. MF actually has I think the most satisfying passive that occurs entirely outside of combat.

Support: Going to be the only one here, but honestly, straight up Soraka. Her global heal is amazing, her long attack range (and slow projectile) both contribute to getting more gold out of pickpocket if you so desire that mastery route. (two attacks in a row can often both trigger the proc, due to people's movements in lane) her armor buff, while less useful then it once was is still a serious boon in laning and can still deny a kill on someone ignited early. Her ult can easily save people from across the map and make Karthus a very unhappy mid. And with higher prices in magic resist, her Qs debuff and passive both are more valuable. Moreover, unlimited mana for a lane partner makes a very, very happy new Urgot. who can stack that Muramana faster, or allows an Ezreal to spam with (not quite reckless) abbadon.

Pros: Reliable, hard to counter, unlimited mana, massive defensive steroid, global presence and a very valuable debuff.

Cons: Relatively passive. (though a few lanes like a Hibrid Ezreal or an Urgot can still play aggressively simply due to their spam presence. No CC.

AD: I like Ashe. It's probably because I don't like AD much, but I feel Ashe, even an Ashe who has completely lost her lane--can still aid the team in a real way. Her utility is just so good she can work as an odd support.

Pros: Can lose a lane, can even go negative, and still be a massive boon to her team. Has a fantastic ult, great utility, can come back quickly from a poor earlygame due to her ability to rapidly gather gold and finally she can kite like no one's business.

Cons: Squishy, and very susceptible to CC, Ashe isn't exactly the blink-obsessed top of the line champion right now. A good candidate for a ghost and flash mastery setup.

Mid: While I would say Soraka, because it's hilarious to destroy a midlane as her I will go for Cassiopeia. She can outrange, perform great sustained damage, has some decent zoning abilities with her W. Is very, very hard to chase into the brush safely and I may just love how great she is at thwarting eager tower divers.

Pros: Has fantastic AP scaling, but even without many items her W's great range and vision granting ability is great, as well as its zoning potential. She also has great lane sustain due to her passive and post-6 can single handedly reverse a tower dive. Not only that, she is a rare sustained damage caster with a fantastic DoT.

Cons: Squishy, has no real escape of her ult's off cooldown.

Jungle: Right now, Volibear. I feel itemization has benefited him so damn much he's just a funny jungle, and flying into a lane at his very high movespeed and throwing someone is just satisfying. Moreso, he's a very strong duelist and can often destroy other junglers in moments. (especially as most junglers lack his primary laning weakness, an ignite)

Pros: Fun as hell. Explodes people and a very underestimated AoE slow/fear (much more valuable now that minion damage is drastically increased) also, a reliable execute. Scales off of health--which is right now, the best defensive stat in the game. Slow reduction and new masteries make him harder to CC. His passive can often cancel an ignite.

Cons: Ignite counters his passive. Must be very, very afraid of Morellonomicon and similar health regen disrupting items. Has a weak escape.

Top: It has to be Nidalee. She lanes strong, she has fantastic mobility. She can't be ignored and is hard to gank. Everything about Nidalee is pretty much good. If built AD, she's deadly, if built AP she's hilarious.

Pros: Very hard to counter. Pantheon's really the only one who straight up counters her. Also, quite a few players aren't entirely sure what you're building, or even what lane you're going to. Amazing mobility. A walljump, natural durability in kitty-form, good sustain.

Cons: Squishy if AP, her jump is a bit odd in comparison to other, aimed dashes. AP isn't going to drop a Viegar bomb and blow up a team.