Locked or Unlocked? 4 Game-Changing League of Legends Camera Settings

You can say that you play on the unlocked camera and call it a day, but it’s not that simple. Actually, there are at least a few more League of Legends camera settings that separate casual players from the best players.

League of Legends Camera Settings: Locked or Unlocked

You can’t (or at least shouldn’t) try climbing the League of Legends ladder with a locked camera. It limits your view to what is around the champion you’re playing. Even if your position is Top or Mid, a locked camera still limits your perspective of ally and enemy Junglers. In the bottom lane, not being able to check on your ADC/Support partner is quite dangerous as well. The unlocked camera is the way to go.

I do, however, recognize the sentiment that the locked camera makes it easier to keep track of your champion. If you struggle with that, I suggest hitting the spacebar whenever you feel lost or confused. Some players have developed a habit of using the button every few seconds to focus the camera on their champion.

You may have missed if you’d been playing for a while, but there is actually a third option here. You can use League of Legends’ in-game camera settings for a third option, semi-locked. It allows you to move the camera around but only as long as your champion remains on the screen. This is a solid transitional solution to grasp the idea of moving the camera away from the champion. Besides, your friends who play League casually may find the semi-locked camera to be easy enough for them while being beneficial.

League of Legends Camera Settings: Move Speed

Long story short: you should experiment with this setting and not keep it on default. You should be moving the camera at a pace where you can adjust it fast but not overshoot the angle. Just spend half an hour in the practice tool to find the right option.

You may be tempted to simply adjust the DPI but it depends on how you play the game. I’m a high DPI player (something pros do not recommend), so I want a crazy fast cursor while not jumping with my camera too much. If you’re meticulous enough to play League of Legends on a low DPI (and move the mouse A LOT), you probably won’t even have to adjust the move speed in the camera settings.

While looking through the settings, you may also find the option to tweak the move speed for adjusting the camera with keyboard buttons. This is a total no-no: you can’t let the off-hand leave the spells/items unattended or drop the mouse in your dominant hand.

League of Legends Camera Settings: Teammate Hotkeys

Although technically not a setting, the camera hotkeys help you pay attention to what’s going on the map. Once again, not doing that ruins the climb. The F2-F5 buttons put an ally in the center of your screen. You can change the bindings in the League of Legends camera settings.

This is how you should not be using the teammate hotkeys

Also, there’s more to customization than adjusting the hotkeys. Depending on personal preference or game mode, you may want to reassign allies to different buttons. You can do that with the scoreboard (Tab). With default bindings, the uppermost teammate will be on F2 while the last on the list goes all the way to F5. Naturally, your position on the scoreboard is not considered here.

Note that teammate hotkeys only work with the unlocked camera. This is another reason to ditch the lock. If you’re worried about getting killed while looking at allies, simply use the teammate hotkeys to check on allies. You can easily go back to your perspective with the spacebar.

League of Legends Camera Settings: Offset

This one is relevant only for players who still won’t switch to the unlocked camera. Basically, you’d normally have the same amount of real estate to the left and to the right of the character. The fault with this approach (among other things) is that the Summoner’s Rift is not perfectly symmetrical. Using the per-side offset compensates for that, so playing the bottom lane on the blue side is a bit less annoying.

Perhaps, per-side offset could be the very first step on the way to the unlocked camera. Still, I would recommend making the camera settings switch to every League of Legends player who wants to climb faster.

League of Legends Camera Settings