Abilities in League of Legends refer to the unique spells and powers that a champion can activate over the course of a match. Every champion in LoL has four abilities - a passive, three basic abilities, and an ultimate ability. These four abilities define a champion's skillset and playstyle.
League of Legends Abilities Explanation
A champion's passive ability is always active or triggers automatically when meeting certain conditions in-game. For example, Ashe's Frost Shot passive makes her basic attacks and abilities slow enemy movement speed. Passives provide champions with special bonuses or effects by default without needing to press any extra buttons.
The three basic abilities make up the bulk of interaction with a champion's kit. Q, W, and E activate a champion's core spells on demand with cooldowns limiting use. For instance, Ahri's Orb of Deception is her Q ability - sending out an orb in a line to damage enemies. Her Charm is the E ability that crowd controls a target. Basic abilities determine much of a champion's power.
Finally, each champion unlocks their ultimate, or R ability, starting at level 6. This ability tends to be more powerful or game-changing compared to basic abilities. Some signature ultimate abilities include Shen's Stand United to globally shield allies or Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy to damage/stun multiple enemies in an area. Ultimates have longer cooldowns but make big plays.
Managing cooldown windows between abilities factors heavily into champion mastery and showing skill expression in League. Knowing ability ranges, damage outputs, resource costs, and how different skills combine enables players to outplay opponents with their equipped spells. For example, an expert Azir can shuffle enemies with his ultimate and then trap them under tower summoned with his passive.
Understanding ability interactions across over 160 different champions also develops with experience. Learning in detail how your champion's toolkit measures up against others while laning, jungling, team fighting, etc is vital. Countless matchups and skirmishes boil down to creative ability usage - bringing depth to League.
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