To achieve a great result and win the game, it is important to learn to communicate properly with your teammates and opponents also. The League of Legends game creators made every effort to provide their players with various ways of communication. There are many ways, from text chat to in-voice chat, sending emotes, or the popular use of the Smart Ping option; there are many ways, and in this article, we will focus on the pinging option.
Pinging is one of the key ways of communication between League of Legends players. Longtime players have perfected the use of the Smart Ping option so much that it has become their only source of communication with the team. There are different pings options, and each is useful for a specific part of the match.
For example, there is a ping when you want to inform your teammates that one of the opposing champions is missing. Timely pinging can save your teammate or let him know to prepare for a possible attack. It is important to learn which ping is used in which situation, and it is also important not to overdo it with ping as it can confuse or annoy your teammates.
Probably the most famous ping option is Smart Ping. Smart Ping consists of four warnings that directly and quickly inform your teammates about a possible danger, your arrival on their lane, or something else. It is advisable to learn how to use ping as soon as possible because sometimes it takes too long to write in chat, and there is a possibility that some of your teammates have muted the option to receive direct text messages during the match.
Smart Ping Options
Also read: Best ADCs to Pair With Senna
To select the ping you need, you must first open the Smart Ping menu by holding Ctrl, Alt, G, or V keys and left-clicking at the same time. After that, select the ping you want, drag your mouse’s cursor to the direction of the desired ping, and release the mouse button. In addition to the lane, you can also choose ping on the minimap.
Pings are most easily recognized by different visuals – each is different and represents one ping. For example, if you want to warn teammates of the dangers of pinging, a red triangle will appear, and if you want to ping Enemy Missing, a yellow question mark will appear.
In addition to these regular Smart Pings, there is a ping with which you can signal to your teammates if a vision ward has been set up in a certain area. This “The Area is Warded” ping cannot be used by default. If you want to get to this ping, you have to press the Esc key and, in the menu, select “Hotkeys,” expand “Communication,” and add the key for “Area is Warded Ping.” This ping looks similar to a minimap danger ping but sounds a little different.
UI Pings are also useful if you want to share certain information with your team, such as health level or time of respawn.
| Selected Element | Information |
| Health bar (Self) | % amount of health |
| Mana bar (Self) | % amount of mana |
| Experience bar (Self) | % amount of level experience |
| Champion level | Level |
| Statistic | Statistic amount (champions only) |
| Rune | Rune |
| Player Portrait | Alive or Respawn timer |
| Monster Icon | Respawn timer |
| Ability icon, Spell icon or Ultimate indicator | Ally: Cooldown remaining/Activation details/Ability in range Enemy: Ultimate/Spell |
| Recall | Recall |
| Item icon or Trinket icon | Item Self: Cooldown, Charge |
| Gold | Gold amount |
| Bounty | Bounty amount |
| Ping | Ping (Latency) |
| Vision Score | Vision Score |
One of the things that often confuses new League of Legends players is how to ping enemy ultimates and Summoner Spells. Players who learn in time how to use ping in situations like this are at a great advantage during a match because that way they can get enough time to get to the second lane or start a team fight while the opposing champions are weakened or do not have ult (R) ready.
Also read: Best ADCs for Leona
How Can I Ping Enemy Abilities?
Firstly, you need to open the scoreboard, and there you can see stats for your team and enemy team. Clicking the small bubble with a number in it next to a champion’s portrait will ping that champion’s level, and clicking on the empty bubble on the other side of the champion’s portrait will ping that champion’s ultimate ability.
This is a great way for your team to gain kills, improve their stats, set back a rival team, and make it harder for them to win. For example, if your team in a team fight knows that the opponent’s champion is missing his Ultimate (R), then he can take advantage of that opponent’s disadvantage and go on the attack. This is especially useful information if there is a champion in the opposing team who owns a global Ultimate (Soraka, Nocturne, etc.) that can harm the whole team.
If you want to let your team know what spell you are skilled at level one, you need to alt-click your spell icon – your team will know your level one capabilities. In addition, you can alt-click your experience bar to share how close you are to leveling up, which is good in case you are playing a duo last year and want to let your teammate know how much more you need to level 6 to keep your Summoner Spells aligned in the attack.
What can also often be seen in a match is how much gold each player has. So by pinging, you can show how much unspent gold you have by Alt-clicking your gold total in the HUD. This is useful information if team fights are planned so that all players know how much power each champion has and how much more he needs for the desired item that can contribute to the whole team.
You can also alt-click active items to share their cooldown status with your team, which is great if you want to inform your team that you have 45 seconds of cooldown left and that it would therefore be better to delay the attack until the desired Summoner Spell is ready. When your Spell comes off the cooldown, you can ping that your item is “Ready,” and the attack can begin.
Pinging your Health or Mana bar to share the remaining percentage of your pool is also an important ping for the whole team because sometimes, in the middle of a team fight, the champion weakens so much that there is a high risk of continuing the attack. In that case, it is better to retreat and recharge. If notified in time, your teammates can withdraw the attack and wait for you to return, ready to avoid unwanted deaths.
And lastly, you can use the left-click on Dragon, Baron, or Buff Timers to let your teammates know how much time is left to respawn. So your team can attack Baron Nashor together without waiting in vain. In this way, the whole team cooperates, and it is easier to win the game. This is certainly a faster option than to get a misunderstanding within the team chat about who will and when to head to the jungle and may run into an opposing team waiting in ambush.
