Overview of Objectives

In order to have a better overview about what's going on in the game, I did some research about the most common objectives (and similar things) in a LoL game. I tried to cover the information that is useful for us to know ; I'm certain most of you know most of that already (and anyway, the fact that I didn't know all of it makes it worth to write a topic about it). I will basically give a quick overview about those objectives, add some useful information (don't expect something groundbreaking, it's all basic), and I will use what I write here to draw conclusions ingame regarding our actual strategical play.

Even though not everything of it counts as "objective", the following list is what should be considered for ingame-goals and be balanced mutually:

Herold/Baron, Drake, towers, inhibs, buffs, vision, Nexus, kills

Now I don't have a clue about Herold, and I don't find a wiki-page online explaining anything about it, so I skip it for now and we can talk about it at one teaming (for now I think it doesn't have that much of an impact anyway, but we'll see later). I get right into the others:

Baron

• respawn time: 7min
  
• buff lasts: 4min
  
• buff improves dmg and regen and buffs minions
  
• slaying grants mass gold and xp also
  
• generally to enable greater push / splitpush, but due to gold and xp bonus basically always worth
  

Drake

• respawn time: 6min
  
• slaying grants mass xp to the team who is behind with levels
  
• 1st drake: grants 6% ad and ap
  
• 2nd drake: grants 15% dmg to towers/buildings
  
• 3rd drake: grants 5% movement speed
  
• 4th drake: grants 15% dmg to minions/monsters
  
• 5th drake: doubles previous bonuses + attacks burn enemy for 150 true dmg, lasts 3min / until death
  
• upon attempting drake, pull him into the river to avoid steals from behind the wall
  

Towers

• there exist 4 types of towers (t1, t2, t3, nexus towers), destroying a tower of one level enables the tower of next level on a lane etc.
  
• t1 towers allow early pressure and shifting the game to the enemy half of the map, river area is less dangerous
  
• t2 towers mainly give global gold, unlock base pushes
  
• t3 (inhib towers) give global exp, unlock inhib pushes
  
• nexus towers can be destroyed when one inhib is destroyed
  
• towers (even if destroyed) interact with poppys stun, gnars ult, vaynes stun and nautilus grab
  
• for dives: tower attacks mid-air deal no damage if tower is destroyed, if a tower loses its current target it priorizes targets in the following order: zzportal, trap, pet, siege, melee, caster, champ
  
• for farming: melee minions die by 2 tower hits and one autoattack, caster minions die by 1 tower hit and two autoattacks
  

Inhibs

• respawn time: 5min
  
• announcement "respawn soon" means 15sec
  
• at least one inhib needs to be destroyed to attack nexus tower and nexus
  
• buffs minion waves of said lane
  

Nexus

• primary goal due to instant victory
  
• both nexus towers need to be destroyed to make it vulnerable
  
• destroying it grants 50 gold to the slayer
  

Buffs

• respawn times: 5min
  
• red buff gives bonus true dmg and slow for autoattacks
  
• blue buff gives mana regen and cdr
  
• for counter jungling: not killing the small minions will stop the buff from respawning
  

Vision

• protect lanes from ganks, especially in early game
  
• ward buffs (own and enemy ones), river wards to prevent enemy from infiltrating our half or the map
  
• ward drake for alert, ward whole area if attempting (same for baron but it doesn't need to be warded permanently)
  
• ward side bushes on lanes for lane control
  
• ward for tp ganks in all spots mentioned, also enable to backdoor with deep wards
  
• kill the crabs in the river (especially on the drake side) for vision on drake/river and gain movespeed thus roaming power and map mobility
  
• the crab respawns 3min after being killed and the ward lasts 75 seconds
  

Kills

• no clue what I should specially mention
  
• gives gold for those who assisted
  
• especially in lategame disables enemy for a long time which is crucial
  

That's just a checklist basically, tell me if anything is unclear. I can add some more stuff to those points, especially some strategial conclusions.

Baron is generally a very strong buff with massive bonuses, but due to its strength also the most risky. Before we attempt it we should make sure to have enough sustain against it combined with a better teamfight than our enemy, unless we make sure parts of them are trapped on the other side of the map or busy defending their base. The bonus damage also help with teamfights so unless it's not safe there is no situation where it's bad / unnecessary to get it.
The 1st drake is very important as the bonus ad and ap can be used for anything (lasthitting, teamfights, poking, pushing, etc.). The 2nd drake is important for pushing, the bonus itself is quite particular. I'd say it's a bit useless in case of the game taking place in our half of the map but at some point we need this additional pushing power anyway. The 3rd drake is however versatile again, movespeed helps with map mobility and certainly also in fights. But 5% is not really a lot. The 4th drake gives bonus dmg to monsters which I consider useless, assuming teh 4th drake is killed in mid-late game most of the time no one really needs it because jungle camps can be cleared in no time so it's only important for getting the 5th drake faster or for baron (consider doing 4th drake before baron to make use of the bonus dmg). The bonus dmg against minions is useful whatsoever, for pushing mainly because farming is not a thing later in the game. The 5th drake is obviously the most important, in my opinion wothier than the baron buff in most cases. I wrote down these thoughts because depending on the number of drakes it can be better to only deny the enemy the drake instead of trying to get it for ourselves for all one's worth (I'm especially sceptical towards the importance of 4th drake).
As my playing style generally has a pretty safe approach, I want to point out that it's sometimes worth to only take the inhib towers and NOT the inhibs (even though we all know how powerful a destroyed inhib can be). A tower at least can't respawn so it's a permanent objective, and unless we make absolutely sure to not die while taking the inhib, only taking the tower is powerful enough.
In general, I prefer taking towers first over getting drake or something similar, because taking towers / inhibs forces the enemey to defend which gives us more time to accomplish other goals on the map.
I don't think I need to say a lot about the buffs. We already know how to distribute them among the team. We have little experience in stealing enemy buffs for now but I'd say the most important is to defend our own ones for now.
About vision: I added this point because I consider it as objectives just as drake, etc. Placing a single ward can sometimes be a real adventure (or killing the crab). We already know we have to (smartly) spam wards throughout the game, but sometimes - especially when we don't have the advantage - I hear sentences like "I wanted to ward but I die immediately.". I think this is the perfect example to show that warding is like taking objectives. I observed how it is handled in pro games and they rarely go as one to put a ward.

So yep, that was just a bit information about objectives and the surrounding strategy, and I think this info can give us (well, me) a solid basis on how to decide for mini goals in the games.

Tell me what you think.

EDIT: (22.12.15) added respawn info about the crab

What you think.

Ok, seriously now, it's quite interesting that you've written this topic, though it's not very new to us. Indeed i agree to a few points :

I want to point out that it's sometimes worth to only take the inhib towers and NOT the inhibs [...]

The 5th drake is obviously the most important, in my opinion wo[r]thier than the baron buff in most cases.

"I wanted to ward but I die immediately.". I think this is the perfect example to show that warding is like taking objectives

Actually, i don't know what else to say, the list you built is very complete and correct, and as long as you base your deduction from this base, i shall agree to your strategical conclusions. ^^

Thanks for your feedback.

In our session on Sunday I admit I was a bit overwhelmed, because our opponents played well.
Don't get me wrong. I have the objectives and goals on mind but I was unable to create a clear plan how to achieve them.
Especially in our second ranked game I was upset by the way our enemies always moves together, it was clearly not possible to set up any fight without 5v5. And they caught us solo many times.

So I noticed strategy is a lot more than just knowing when to and when not to get which objectives.
In our next games we have to focus heavily on vision in my opinion because it was partly missing vision that prevented us from being able to create plans.
Furthermore I will think a bit about the global positioning of our champs because that just sucked.

Our opponents where indeed good.
Don't worry for me to get you wrong, I know you know what to do. But as usually, theory and practice are different quite enough.

Alright, focusing on vision and positioning suits me. I think we aren't this bad in knowing when to take objectives.