The towers in League of Legends are extremely strong buildings that defend the base, especially at the beginning. Since the behavior of towers differs greatly depending on the moba, you will find out everything you need to know about towers in LoL in this guide.

Each of the three lanes in League of Legends is defended by towers. In order to progress on the map, it is essential to destroy your opponent's towers to win the game. Turrets are an invincible obstacle to play around, especially at the beginning.

Minimap in League of Legends
On the minimap in LoL you can see all structures of the red and blue team.

Three towers defend the lanes and the inhibitors can only be attacked after they have been destroyed. In the community, these towers are often referred to as "tiers". The first armored turret is therefore referred to as "tier 1 turret" (Outer Turret), the second correspondingly "tier 2 turret" (Inner Turret) and the one in front of the inhibitor "tier 3 turret" (Inhibitor Turret).

If the enemy inhibitor is destroyed, super minions spawn in this lane, who can withstand significantly more and cause more damage. After five minutes, the opposing inhibitor respawns, then your team will no longer spawn super minions.

In front of the Nexus there are two more towers (Tier 4 / Nexus Turrets) that protect it from being attacked. All towers in the base are able to regenerate hit points over time, the towers outside the base can not.

Turret Platings

For the first 14 minutes of the game, the tier 1 turrets are protected by turret platings. It consists of five parts, each of which can withstand 1.000 damage.

Outer turret of the midlane in League of Legends with active turret armor shoots minions.
The outer turrets are protected by five turret platings up to minute 14.

For every destroyed part (plating) of the turret armor, your team receives 160 gold for the champion who is standing next to it. If several champions are standing next to the tower while the plating is taken down, these 160 gold will be divided equally.

The armor of the tower increases for every plating that is destroyed. That means it becomes more and more difficult to destroy the tower the less HP is left. That's why the Rift Herald is often used to get the last two platings out of the way.

This is also an effective way to get the gold for the first tower destroyed in the game, because: The first tower destroyed in the game leaves extra gold on the table. In addition to the fifth turret plating (160 gold) and the usual gold for destroying towers, the champion receives an additional 150 gold.

One rune that is particularly good for farming the gold of the turret platings is Demolish (among the Resolve runes). This does that the next automatic attack after three seconds next to a tower causes serious damage to the tower.

Turret Aggro

When do you get attacked by the tower? For this, you first have to know how far the range of the tower is. In botgames the range of towers is still displayed, there you can practice estimating the tower range. In normal play it is no longer displayed, then you have to know by hard how far the range is.

In general, the tower always fires first at the enemy who is first in range. If that is a minion, it will be attacked first until it dies. Then the turret aggro changes to the next minion. The tower aggro immediately switches to champions when an allied champion is attacked. Then the tower fires at the attacker until he can no longer, either because he is dead, he has run out of tower range, or can no longer be targeted.

Pets from champions (such as Tibbers (R) from Annie, or Daisy (R) from Ivern) can also tank turret aggro - this can be particularly helpful if the minion wave is very small and you still want to deal considerable damage to the tower.

Changing the tower aggro can be used well for turret dives. If two or more opponents attack the champion under the tower at the same time, the turret aggro changes to the one who attacked first.

To change the aggro of the tower, e.g. because the champion who first had to tank the turret slowly has run out of hit points, he must either run out of the tower's range or cast a spell that makes him untargetable. Various items and spells can come into play for this: Zhonya's hourglass, guardian angel, rappel (E) by Elise, tempered fate (R) by Bard, or playful (E) by Fizz, to name just a few examples.

It is also important to know that once the turret has targeted you and the shot is fired, it will hit you too. This way, you can also get hit out of range of the tower.

Priority of Turrets

Destroying towers not only brings gold, but also opens the map for your team. This allows your team to advance further into the enemy territory and also gain control of the enemy jungle.

The middle lane tier 1 tower has the highest priority because it opens the map up and down. When that tower falls, the midlaner can more easily roam across the map without being penalized. A strong midlane can then help the side lanes (top / bot) more easily to tear down their tier 1 towers.

If both towers on the sidelanes have also fallen, the next focus should be on the tier 2 tower of the midlane. Then the same as before. With the destruction of the enemy's entire lane turrets, the jungler now has full control over the enemy's camps.

Turret Items

Towers also have some "items" that are supposed to explain the effects of the tower. If you click on a tower, you can see in the top left which effects are currently active for this tower.

Champion Brand is attacked by the tier 1 tower in League of Legends.
With a click on the tower you can see the stats and items.
  • Ohmwrecker: Towers have armor penetration and deal more damage the more often they hit you (limited to 120% of the original value)
  • Reinforced Armor: Towers take 67% less damage from champions when there are no minions nearby.
  • Warden's Eye: Reveals invisible units within range.
  • Turret Plating: Extra armor for tier 1 towers up to minute 14.
  • Fortification: This tower takes 50% less damage up to minute 5 (applies to mid / top tier 1 tower).