League of Legends is one of the more recent supernovas in the world of online RPGs with a loyal and fervent community, a knowledgeable development team that has a good appreciation for character balance, and with one of the most unfortunate acronyms on the entire internet. LOL was launched in late October of 2009 by Riot Games, and has capped 32 million users as of this writeup, although it's true that duplicate accounts are almost obligatory on the site. That's probably because signup is free. And even though you could theoretically just throw money at the site and buy your way into its features and perks, there isn't a lot in the game you can't access the old hard way if you've got willpower, modest skill, and spare time out the ass. Here's a brief overview:

Leveling, Champions, and other out-of-game prep
The game has many familiar characteristics to versed and ventured gamers. It's level-based, with summoners(users) gaining XP from battles and leveling up once they pass certain XP thresholds. You still gain XP from defeats, but not as much as you do in victories, as would be expected. XP distribution and leveling is exponential, and summoner levels cap at level 30. The other two points systems in LOL are Influence Points and Riot Points. The IP system is distributed and scaled in a way similar to XP, even though you still continue to be rewarded IP after you cap at level 30 as a summoner. IP is more or less yo' moneys in this game. More than anything it's used to purchase champions, and also to purchase runes, which I'll address later. Riot Points on the other hand is basically the shortcut system, because the only way RP can be gained is by purchasing it through Riot Games, hence the name. You can use RP to buy champions, or to buy skins for champions you own. Skins are the main thing you can't just purchase with IP, and the only truly justifiable reason for purchasing RP. Most people who throw money at RP are either impatient, or actual seasoned veterans who can't get much better anyway, or maybe just despicable good samaritans who like to support their favorite sites. I don't really know their intentions but I'll probably judge them either way whether I feel good about it or not.

Runes and masteries are basically the way you customize and specialize your champions abilities to give you an edge before the match even begins. You can have multiple pages to compliment your different play styles. Runes can only be purchased with IP, and mastery pages are built by a points system based on your summoner level. A level 17 summoner has 17 mastery points they can distribute on any given mastery page, etc. They often, in fact usually make the difference between a win and a loss by the time you reach summoner level 12 or so.

The characters that make up League of Legends are called Champions and bring different skill sets to the table for their teams, and suggest certain play styles, though many champions have different build options and bleed into several different categories. For example, Ezreal is a character that's typically built as an AD character (melee fighter), but sometimes people choose to build him as an ability power character (magic damage) to throw their lane opponents off guard. Or just to have fun. Or both. But all the same, specific styles of play are implied by the nature of different characters. Obviously, some are more OP than others, but no character is impossible to counter. The development team at Riot is constantly changing the abilities and skill levels of champions in patch updates through buffs and nerfs to try to maintain a balance in the character pool. In draft games, counterpicking is a large part of the strategy to building a team. In many instances when a certain level of skill is reached amongst players, it's easy to tell which team will win a match just based on the balance and strength of the champions they've selected.

The most basic and major classifications of champions are in their fighting styles:

Carry - The champion that the team is centered around, the main source of damage output and leader in team fights. Should be getting the most kills, should have the most powerful build, should get their team out of the stickiest situation, and should basically 'carry' their team to victory. Can be built as AD or AP.

Support - Self-explanatory. A character that's designed to hang back and support the team, ideally by healing them or giving them mana, slowing or stunning or otherwise preoccupying enemies, should ideally have many assists but few kills. Needs to have a very strong sense of map awareness and selflessness.

Tank - Familiar character scheme to many gamers, a tank is a character that's designed to move slowly and attack modestly, but more than anything is designed to take a fuckface of damage in team fights and live to tell the tale. There's a big difference between 'being' a tank and just building tanky(lots of armor).

There's also another specialized kind of character, a jungler, which I'll explain in a minute.

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Gameplay
The objective of a classic game of League is to help your team pierce the enemy team's defenses and destroy their Nexus before they do the same to you. Typically, champions will start in a lane, fighting against other champions for control of their lane. In the game, constant waves of mindless minions are sent to attack the enemy for each respective lane on the map. By killing these minions, champions receive bonus gold which they can use to more quickly buy items from the shop towards their builds. Though, you only get credit for the minion kill if you get the last hit in, so it's a skill in and of itself to not let anyone else get your minion kill. The act of building up minion kills to harvest as much gold as you can is referred to as farming. Even if you don't farm though, for whatever reason, (like if you're playing support and letting your lane partner take all the farm(good idea)) you still gain gold continuously throughout the game after the first minion spawn. You also start out with a certain amount of gold every match. It's typically 475, but there are abilities and masteries that can boost this. You can also boost the rate at which you automatically gain gold through masteries.

Each lane is divided equally in half on the map and is protected by a series of turrets pushing back in layers to each team's base. Turrets are very strong, and will kill just about anything if you give them long enough, including champions. They're far from indestructible though - the main objective in a classic game is to destroy the turrets in any given lane to clear a path to the enemy's nexus and destroy it. Turrets can only attack one target at a time, and will lock in on a target and continue to attack the target until the target is either destroyed or out of the turret's range. This includes your minions though. Once you've pushed out the enemy champions in your lane pushed your minion wave to the turret, you're free to help your minion wave attack the turret while the minions tank the damage. Don't feel bad about it though, they're literally meant to charge and die and that's it. You probably won't be able to take down the turret's health all the way and destroy it the first time you're able to attack it though. It takes time, tactics, precision, and well-timed pressure. Any team that can knock over a turret in the first 8-10 minutes of a 5s match is doing a damn fine job.

Before the start of the game in the champion selection queue, you are allowed to take two summoner spells with you into battle from a short list of spells that help champions in various different ways, depending on their strategy and style of play. Some of the spells are available immediately upon opening an account, most are summoner level-based. By the time you've reached level 12, all summoner spells will be available to you.

At the beginning of the match, your champion starts at level 1, and is granted a spell distribution point. Every champion has 3 basic spells or abilities, activated on the keyboard by pressing the q, w, and e keys respectively. Each summoner has a different set of spells, though many character schemes have similar sets of basic spells to them. You gain Experience points through your exposure to kills, through minions or champions, in your lane. It doesn't matter whether or not you actually get the kill - if you're in proximity to an enemy minion or enemy champion's death, you gain XP. You also gain XP and gold when your team destroys a turret, regardless of where you are on the map. As you get more experience in the game, your champion begins to level up. Each time your champion levels up, you're allowed another spell distribution point for your q, w, or e spells. You must level up each spell at least once before you can use it, and each other leveling up of the spell will merely improve its power or efficiency. You can't simply max out any one skill by adding your spell distribution point to it every time you level up. The game will make you alternate between the spells you level up until you've eventually distributed all your spells evenly. Once you reach level 6, you can unlock your character's ultimate ability(ult, colloquially), which is cast by pressing the r key. Ults are highly unique, and usually what will make or break fights between other champions. With most characters, you'll want to level up your ult as much as possible. Your 3 soonest opportunities to level up your ult come at levels 6, 11, and 16. Once your champion has reached level 18, it's maxed out, and all your spell distribution points will have been distributed evenly - 5 levels for q, w, and e, and 3 for r.

Spell casting isn't exactly an unlimited thing though - many spells cast mana to cost. Your level of mana you have depends on your character, your level, and your build. There are some mana-less champions out there that require no mana to cast any of their spells or activate any of their abilities, and they are pretty fuckin cool. Mostly. Though, regardless of how much mana a spell costs to cast if any at all, all spells have a cooldown time in which you can't cast the spell again until it cools down. Typically, the cooldowns for your q, w, and e won't be too draconian. But most character's ult abilities have a pretty long cooldown associated with them. Unless your name is Kassadin. Riftwalkin all ova' tha' fuckin place! And yeah, there are some others with low cooldowns too, just not many. Your mana regeneration and cooldown times are both things you can improve through builds, if your play style and champion style necessitate them.

All champions also have at least one unique passive ability that remains constant throughout the game. Passive abilities can also be added to the character through certain items. There are even a few items that will grant your champion a new activated ability (Quicksilver Sash, Zhonya's Hourglass, some others). These are generally pretty expensive though. So farm up!

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Fields of Justice, jungling, Dominion

In League of Legends, matches are fought on The Fields of Justice(maps). In classic gameplay, there are two Fields of Justice to choose from: Summoner's Rift and Twisted Treeline, aka 5s and 3s. As implied, Summoner's Rift is a map designed for 5 summoners and Twisted Treeline is designed for 3. Summoner's Rift has 3 lanes (top, bot, mid) and Twisted Treeline only has 2. Typical game length in 5s is about 45 minutes, 3s is closer to 25 or 30. That's not to say you can't have a 70 minute game or a 12 minute game in either. Shit happens. Especially amongst heroes. With weapons. And egos. You saw this in mythology all the time.

I digress. The space beyond the team's main base that falls in between the lanes is known as the jungle. The jungle is full of naturally neutral jungle creatures that will attack you if instigated. There are many benefits in ignoring lane play and focusing only on the jungle creatures for your farm. This process is known as jungling, and the characters who specialize in it are junglers. Or at least they were. Instead of explaining how the jungle used to be before the massive overhaul a few weeks ago (or masturbating about how much better it was before they fucked it up made it more accessible), I'll just explain the way it works now. At this point, every jungle creature gives you some kind of temporary buff that you can use to help you in battle. Leveling up by fighting jungle creatures is pretty slow now, and isn't as reliable as traditional laning. But it can still be done. The main purpose of a jungler in terms of the team is setting ganks. If there is any part of the map that isn't being occupied by you or an ally(including your minions), then you can't see exactly what's happening in that part of the map. The temporarily invisible parts of the map are referred to as the fog of war. When a jungler is out of jungle creatures to kill, it will often roam into a lane where two or more opposing champions are fighting each other, and assault the enemy champion. The act of sneak-attacking a champion in a lane that you weren't previously laning in is called a gank. It's an important part of the game, and it's the reason why it's very important to have a good map awareness, and to have the location of all your enemies accounted for at all times. A good jungler can make all the difference in clearing lanes to take down turrets in the early stages of a match.

One last thing - a variant of League of Legends that was released in September of this year is called Dominion. In dominion, two teams of five play on a map with 5 capture points spread out like a starfish. There are no lanes, few jungle creatures, the gold regeneration is quicker, the builds are quicker, the demand for map awareness and split second decisions is higher, the necessity of team organization, communication, and cooperation is higher, and it just gives a much more wide open and adrenaline filled experience to the game. Basically it's a 95 mile-an-hour clusterfuck. Try it some time.

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Jargon:

Farm - Collecting gold, most typically by killing minions in your lane.
Gank - An ambush, basically. Successful ganks result in champion kills.
Jungle - Can refer to the jungle, the area between lanes covered by fog of war, or the act of jungling, to stay primarily out of lane and build your character up by killing jungle creatures, roaming, and ganking until later levels.
Jungle Invader - A jungler who has a knack for stealing jungle creatures from their opponent's side of the map
Carry - Leader of a team, who ideally 'carry' their team to victory
Support - Character that provides support in team fights or 2v2 laning.
Feed - To continuously be killed by other champions. Used sarcastically by the LOL community a lot. (ex: Report Teemo for feeding/lolsurf I agree, report/Teemo uninstall plz)
Dive, or Turret diving - to attempt to kill a champion by diving within the range of a turret and taking the damage from the turret as you're pressing your attack. Can also just refer to attacking the turret directly without any minions around you, mostly just done by intentional feeders.
Intentional feeder - Trolls, and assholes, that die to help the other team.
Smurf - Duplicate account, often made to play with friends you're introducing the game to, or just to fuck around.
MR - Magic Resist
AP - Ability Power, determines effectiveness of spells
AD - Attack Damage
AS - Attack Speed with autoattacks
KS - kill steal
OP - Overpowered
AOE - Area of Effect damage
CC - Crowd Control (stuns, taunts, fears, slows, etc)
MIA - missing in action, when an enemy champion isn't seen on the board in the lanes your team is fighting with, usually means they're getting buffs, or even worse, on their way to gank someone on your team
Squishy - opposite of tanky, relatively easy to kill, especially early game when you haven't built any health, MR, or armor
Sustain or Lane Sustain - your ability to constantly stay in the lane to push, defend, farm, kill your lane opponent, whatever you need to do to be doing your job, without having to constantly retreat back to base. Hand-in-hand with squishiness.
Roamer - Mobile characters who don't necessarily stay loyal to one lane. An aspect of junglers, but doesn't necessarily denote a jungler. Can be a tank and/or support.
Bush - tall grass spread throughout lanes and the jungle in which champions are invisible if they're the only ones occupying the bush.
Face-check the bush - Occupying the bush by diving face-first into it. Often results in you getting your face blown off.
Nerf - Decrease of a champions power and abilities by the development team in a patch update.
Buff - Opposite of nerf, increase in ability in a patch. Can also refer to the temporary abilities gained by killing jungle creatures.
Fog of war - Invisible part of the map where none of your allies are there to illuminate it. Typically 70-80% of the map is in the fog of war at any given time.
n00blord - One of the more infamous inside jokes in the history of League of Legends. Get dunked!

List of Champions:
Ahri, The 9 Tails Fox
She's just another assassin with decent CC. Good at ganks, and some nice range, but ultimately not as much damage output or sustain as Akali. Also all skill shots, kind of difficult to play.
Akali, The Fist of Shadow
A more proper assassin. The best assassin as a matter of fact. Better call MIA on this champion.
Alistar, The Minotaur
Pretty dangerous tank on top lane 5s or 3s anywhere. A decent support and makes a terrifying bot lane comp with Ashe. Isolate him when you can and DON'T EVER DIVE HIM unless you're, like, fed-up-the-ass Riven and Guardian Angel's up.
Amumu, The Sad Mummy
Funny little guy who's got a pretty flexible play style. He's naturally a tank, but he's a fun jungler, good initiator, carries well even when you're not trying to...not recommended for n00bs though.
Anivia, The Cryophoenix
Solomid Anivia lvl6 with blue buff? Fuck that, start a surrender vote. Really great help when you're pushing bottom lane though, a rare solomid that can roam well. Also grounds for the best moment in the League's brief history.
Annie, The Dark Child
Good basic caster, has a lot of spells she can throw at you. Flash in and use her (extremely fun) ult and you've basically just won your team fight. Also one of the most terrifying bots in the game. The proof, and the pudding.
Ashe, The Frost Archer
Decent AD Carry to have on your team, but there are better. Good range, good late game if you build her right. But she's a bit squishy early game, slow to farm, and can't solo top so you don't see her too often in draft games and ranked games. Also I personally find her a little boring to play.
Blitzcrank, The Great Steam Golem
YOINK!!
Brand, The Burning Vengeance
Typical bad guy persona. Typical AP Carry. Generic caster who'll outrange the hell out of you and push you back easily. Typically played by douchebags. But also one of my best characters, so go figure.
Caitlyn, The Sheriff of Piltover
What a bitch. She's got some amazing range, pretty good AD carry. Build attack speed, then attack damage, then more attack speed, and you'll have to really suck to be caught out of position. Good way to rack kills, but another character that's played a lot by assholes in the community.
Cassiopeia, The Serpent's Embrace
Seems like a pretty hard character to use. I don't see her too often at my level for that reason. A good solomid though, but again, very tricky and specialized. Most terrifying intermediate bot.
Cho'Gath, The Terror of the Void
Cho is big. Real big. Some CC, will typically outfarm you, and his rupture is kinda hard to see in the snow map they use around Christmastime. Terrifying solotop opponent. He makes a decent mid too. Best you can do is play tentative, go for farm, and call MIA as he roams to gank because you don't want this guy fed.
Corki, The Daring Bombardier
Fun little guy looking like he came strait out of a Miyazaki film. Lane with Soraka, get yo mana fed and boost your lane sustainability and this guy will go positive in kill/death ratio every time.
Dr. Mundo, The Madman of Zaun
MUNDO GO WHERE HE PLEASES. Fuck it. Stack warmog's.
Evelynn, The Widowmaker
Blegh. Easily the most useless ult in the game, and an even worse passive. She wasn't that good to begin with and since they changed her stun into a slow she's become absolutely unplayable. Wait for a buff.
Ezreal, The Prodigal Explorer
Fun to alternate between building AD and AP. So-so mid, but pushable. Also, hitting a champion on the other side of the map with your ult as Ezreal is WAY cooler than doing the same thing with Ashe.
Fiddlesticks, The Harbinger of Doom
Ult from bush. GG.
Fiora, The Grand Duelist
A lot of hype surrounding her when she came out, but as melee carries go you can do a lot better. IMO underpowered.
Fizz, The Tidal Trickster
Solid solotop, solid mid, and very hard to chase. Great wildcard in team fights, can turn the tide of a game, no pun intended.
Galio, The Sentinel's Sorrow
Tanky support, I never really liked him all that much. Good ult, but just kill his MR and you're fine.
Gangplank, The Saltwater Scourge
Can be played as a dangerous solotop or as a decent jungler. Very good ult. Take brawler's greaves at lvl1 and you'll almost definitely draw first blood. Also check out Phreak's pro build for GP. (disclaimer - I'm being sarcastic, this is a terrible build, don't do it)
Garen, The Might of Demacia
Do NOT face check the bush. This is why. Great as a solotop.
Gragas, The Rabble Rouser
Fat Irishman throwing barrels. K.
Graves, The Outlaw
Tankiest Ranged AD carry, falls off late game but he's dangerous.
Heimerdinger, The Revered Inventor
Was pretty good back in the day, when he could throw 3 turrets instead of 2. He's a very interesting, unusual character, throws a lot of people off guard.
Irelia, The Will of the blades
Dominant solotop, one of the better characters in the game, but she isn't rotated free weeks too often it seems. Against another solotop is an interesting matchup but as a 1v2 she will win as solotop just about every time.
Janna, The Storm's Fury
Never played her but I lane with her often. She's a great support with some good CC. Throwin' tornadoes 'n shit. She's on my to do list.
Jarvan IV, The Exemplar of Demacia
A viable Garen, basically. Still not my style but good at poking and a good lane partner bot. Trolling with his ult is pro.
Jax, Grandmaster at Arms
Lame as melee hybrid carries go, not a lot of early game damage output. You could do worse.
Karma, The Enlightened One
Can't care.
Karthus, The Deathsinger
Bark is worse than his bite. He's annoying in team fights and his ult might get some kills and interrupt some pushes, but he usually won't break your game.
Kassadin, The Void Walker
Assassadin is OP. I refuse to acknowledge him as an anticarry but after he hits lvl6 he's a damn good character. AP is most viable but Tanky AD Kass is actually pretty serious late game. And funny the rest of the time.
Katarina, The Sinister Blade
I love Kat but she doesn't really have a place in classic play right now. Her ult is too easy to interrupt, which is a bad sign for an assassin, and I doubt if she'll be buffed any time soon. Not a bad Dominion character, if only anyone cared about Dominion. If you do play her on 5s, build AP and get used to spamming your E cause it's your best spell by far.
Kayle, The Judicator
Support Kayle is expected but kinda lame. Hybrid is okay, but strait AD Kayle is the way to go. In ur bot lane, destroyin ur d00dz, etc.
Kennen, The Heart of the Tempest
Boy is he up my alley. Ranged assassin caster. A little squishy but a good solotop or solomid kennen is dangerous as hell. His ult is one of the best team fight initiations in the game. Awesome team fighter.
Kog'Maw, The Mouth of the Abyss
Fuck your lane. And no, he ain't cleanin' his own mess up.
LeBlanc, The Deceiver
Generally regarded as one of the best mids in the game. But here's a secret - buy a negatron cloak your first time back as any character. You'll probably win.
Lee Sin, The Blind Monk
This guy's the reason why the jungle is a dark and scary place. Because he's waiting for you. You better have someone with CV or you're quarantined to your lane all game. Best counterjungler/invader in the game.
Leona, The Radiant Dawn
Wonderful roaming tank, great support, great ult. Just take heal and build mobility boots then get auras as necessary. AP Leona also terrifying, eventually. Highly recommended.
Lulu, The Fae Sorceress
What? What's that, you're gonna, you're pushing? You're ganking my lane, you're rushing my carry, ah. Nope. You're a squirrel.
Lux, The Lady of Luminosity
Lasers! FUCKIN LASERS!!!
Malphite, Shard of the Monolith
Hot-and-cold character for sure. Acts like a second turret in many ways. Don't dive. If you're playing him, Tiamat Malphite is fuuuuuun, even when it doesn't work. Mostly bad char though.
Malzahar, The Prophet of the Void
Another good solomid AP caster. Also he has a pet.
Maokai, The Twisted Treant
Viable as a jungler, tanky top, team fighter, and Dominion character. Beast early game. Spend some time with this guy.
Master Yi, The Wuju Bladesman
So damn fast. Do not feed. I repeat, do not feed. If he gets Trinity Force up he will beat your ass, especially on 3s. He's also very easy to play with and there are a lot of people out there who use him. Right click on the enemy and you'll probably win.
Miss Fortune, The Bounty Hunter
She's just annoying. Annoying to chase, annoying to dodge her AOE spells, even more annoying to lane with than lane against, she just takes a lot of fun out of the game.
Mordekaiser, The Master of Metal
According to veterans of the game, at one point this was basically the only character in the game. And then inevitably went through the biggest nerf in the history of the game and is now just average all around. Haven't tried him myself but I'm discouraged by history. Almost feels like I'm playing with a shell of something that was once sacred and troublesome, or something.
Morgana, Fallen Angel
Ugly little mid to have to put up with. Trendy ban. Hourglass+Ult, and watch them drop like flies.
Nasus, The Curator of Sands
You'd better farm up your Q or you're worthless. If you're doing solotop Nasus and you have 37 cs at 16', please uninstall this game.
Nautilus, The Titan of the Depths
Support, solotop, jungler, it's all good. Looks like a big daddy. At lvl 18 this bastard just will not die.
Nidalee, The Bestial Huntress
Meow!
Nocturne, The Eternal Nightmare
A little boring, a little too easy to counter. Very fast though, and a fast jungler, some good damage output, ult initiate is a good way to gank. Just not to my taste.
Nunu, The Yeti Rider
Pretty slow, but some decent power behind him. Has an extreme ult that never hits.
Olaf, The Berserker
Whatever. Is he jungling? Counter him. Is he laning? Beat him.
Orianna, The Lady of Clockwork
Unfortunately her strongest aspect was her range, which they nerfed. She's got some great poking and harassing power, but she just can't keep up at the top level anymore. It's unfortunate because she's such a unique character and can be a really fun mid, but now she's mostly a smurf character.
Pantheon, The Artisan of War
You'd better know how to play him if you're taking him seriously. A lot of bad Pantheons out there in the world.
Poppy, The Iron Ambassador
The true anti-carry, and one of my favorites. Such a good character at positioning and taking down enemy carry in team fights, her terrible early game is almost always worth it. Her role in ranked and 30s games is a little awkward though, because it's hard to solo a lane with her. Viable as AP, AD, or hybrid.
Rammus, The Armordillo
Serious business as a jungler. Tanky as fuck. Can push a tower like it's nothin'. Great team player. Banned a lot.
Renekton, The Butcher of the Sands
A really good top character, really good early game character who can disrupt your farm without even really trying. He's not that great late game but the point is that it doesn't matter by then.
Riven, The Exile
Absolutely terrifying. I don't know why people are constantly overestimating this champion. She's maybe the best solotop in the game, you can only really counter with Cho or Rene, possibly Yorick, and you have to be damned good. Vicious AD Carry if there ever was one, and not going to get nerfed any time soon. Seriously good.
Rumble, The Mechanized Menace
What a quirky ass character. Makes a nice solotop. And he's got some good output if you know how to control his heat meter thing.
Ryze, The Rogue Mage
My first, and one of my worst. Yeah, the snare is kind of nasty but he's pretty easy to push. Not very good as casters go.
Sejuani, The Winter's Wrath
Tanky AP jungler, lots of CC, just extremely useful in a team comp. Also easy to counterjungle unfortunately.
Shaco, The Demon Jester (rhymes with "fake-oh")
So easy to jungle with, a great jungle invader too. About as dangerous as Fiddlesticks but harder to get rid of. Also slightly easier to escape from. He's a solid ban though.
Shen, Eye of Twilight
All his spells buffed recently. Not changed per se, but his AD has been super buffed. Getting banned a lot and for good reason - he can finally win top again.
Shyvana, The Half-Dragon
Once she gets rolling she's hard to stop, but just gank her early game and she's much less threatening mid-game. A slow but viable jungler, I usually prefer to go top and build tanky AD.
Singed, The Mad Chemist
Fuck this guy. I mean yeah, I admit, he's got some awesome skins. It's just that any champion who can win his lane by running around in circles is gonna piss me off. If you do play him though take ghost.
Sion, The Undead Champion
He'll wail on you but he's only very dangerous in team fights.
Sivir, The Battle Mistress
She recently went through some nice buffs, and is a relatively easy ranged AD carry to support.
Skarner, The Crystal Vanguard
SKARNER SKARNER SKARNER!!!
Sona, Maven of the Strings
Good lane support, possibly the best in the game, and awesome in team fights. Also hilarious to build AP and have her Q deal a million damage.
Soraka, The Starchild
Criticized as being a boring support, but I don't care, this is my best character. She can heal, like, 1200 health with 3 spells, not even building strait AP. AP Soraka by the way is also fun to catch people off guard. Support is a hard role to play, but if you want to do it, this is where you start.
Swain, The Master Tactician
I've had some bad experiences with Swain but I'll try him again some day. Interesting to play, I'll say that. AP caster, good to send mid. Has the best dance in the game by far.
Talon, The Blade's Shadow
WTF
Taric, The Gem Knight
Nasty stun, annoying bot, but you can beat him heads up if you farm and build right.
Teemo, The Swift Scout
The most either/or character in the game. Extremely hard to use but he can be so amazingly good if you do it right. Like the offensive counterpart to Amumu. Can lane anywhere.
Tristana, The Megling Gunner
Good ranged AD, nice to play bot lane with a support. Her range ramps as you level and Rocket-Jump initiating for team fights is so boss. Good character.
Trundle, The Cursed Troll
Yeah, whatever. He might be the one to catch you running away and he throws out some decent damage in team fights but he's not all that great.
Tryndamere, The Barbarian King
It's all about solomid Tryndamere.
Twisted Fate, The Card Master
Strait AP TF is making a comeback, very interesting character to play. His Q really hurts after a while.
Twitch, The Plague Rat
Oracle's elixir. This guy's done.
Udyr, The Animal Spirit
He can be a pretty beast jungler, very fast jungler. The unexpected carry.
Urgot, The Headsman's Pride
Maniacal laughter. Ridiculous damage output but he definitely falls off.
Vayne, The Night Hunter
Similar to Caitlyn, just a lot more likeable. Build attack speed and kill everyone with autoattacks. It actually works. Good solomid but I prefer to lane her as a traditional ranged AD carry role - bot lane with a support. Epic scaling, late game will destroy you.
Veigar, The Tiny Master of Evil
He's a powerful little guy. Some of the best strength in strait casting of any champion. If you're good with Annie but getting bored then this is the next step for you, friend.
Viktor, The Machine Herald
So awkward.
Vladimir, The Crimson Reaper
Goddamnit.
Volibear, The Thunder's Roar
Another recent champion. The throwback's a little fun, but more effective playing as Singed. He's another boring tank that falls off late game. Great passive though.
Warwick, The Blood Hunter
He's an alright jungler, he'll freak you out. Just buy a bunch of wards, call MIAs, protect your jungle, and keep on top of where he is on the map because he'll know where you are. Difficult to counterjungle or to invade though because he's a very fast jungler. What's most interesting is when he solotops.
Wukong, The Monkey King
Easily the most uninteresting character in the game. He's...balanced? I guess? That's the nicest thing I can say. Actually no, he's a great character, it's just he's really annoying on a personal level.
Xerath, The Magus Ascendant
I've never played him but he seems like he's not that good of a mid. Even with some pretty impressive range it seems like you have to do a lot to build him right.
Xin Zhao, The Seneschal of Demacia
I don't know how this guy gets to me every time. I know he's not that good but for whatever reason he always gives me problems. But yeah, ultimately he's not too good for a melee carry.
Yorick, The Gravedigger
One of the better solotops in the game if he can farm right. Dat undead-ness is scary.
Ziggs, The Hexplosives Expert
Another good mid ap caster with great harass, decent range, and most of all just a very fun play style. Asplosions.
Zilean, The Chronokeeper
I didn't find him too fun to play but he's pretty useful. He really does a good job of controlling a lane, whether pushing or defending. A tricky support role but he's great with a tanky damage output like Shyvana.

And that's the gist of it. I recommend this soul depriving time vampire. It's most fun with your nerd rage-y friends, as long as you're good enough friends that you can shout at them for being retarded enough to build sheen on Soraka or going solomid Tryndamere :)