League of Legends XXIV: Today's Noob Strat, Tomorrow's New Meta

[Tychris1]

Anivia

Just the sight of the champion Anivia makes me have a 50/50 bet on the game going horribley. Not that the champ is bad, just that I have the worst of luck whenever I see someone play her.

[Eldariel]

Troll Logic Gaming playing some tournament right now. They almost gave a free Baron for no reason already (and HS refuses to base; says "he's got it" - plays Tanky DPS Nidalee).

[Spartacus]

Okay, so, I learned that Shaco can facilitate easy pre-3 minute dragons. This led to the following game:

Lol at 0/0/0 top lane.

[TechnOkami]

Okay, so, I learned that Shaco can facilitate easy pre-3 minute dragons. This led to the following game:

Spoiler

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Surrender at 28 minutes. We had 5 dragons and 3 towers on the enemy. Mid Cait, Top Skarner, Bot Nasus, Bot/semi-roaming/semi-counter-jungling Shaco, Jungle Fiddles.

Dragon at 3. Set up, dragon at 9. Then 15, Then 22, then 28. Nocturne did nothing but gank mid for most of the game, hence Lego's problem. He ganked bottom twice. The first time, he ran into a box trap and Nasus and I split kills on Morgana and Nocturne, before pushing the tower. The second time, Fiddles is in the area and we sweep bottom lane.

Oh, yeah. That's right. I'm packing rally.

So, that was not at all a good test of the new Skarner. I need to play him again.

[Mtg_player_zach]

So I am sitting in Mumble listening to a game with aethernox playing support Anivia. Sounds like it is going poorly.

It did go poorly. Though, it was usually positioning problems. Anivia doing no damage certainly didn't help, but it was not the reason the game went poorly.

[ex cathedra]

It did go poorly. Though, it was usually positioning problems. Anivia doing no damage certainly didn't help, but it was not the reason the game went poorly.

Yeah. I really do feel bad when I realize that in recent memory, I play my weakest role and then pick champions that are bad at it whenever I play with you. Sorry. Given the choice, I don't generally do duo lanes, but oh well.

[Mtg_player_zach]

Yeah. I really do feel bad when I realize that in recent memory, I play my weakest role and then pick champions that are bad at it whenever I play with you. Sorry. Given the choice, I don't generally do duo lanes, but oh well.

You Troll me too hard. See, I don't duo lane. I usually jungle. Or I AP carry mid. Or I tanky deeps the top lane. The only situation I duo lane- is when I'm AD carry with a legit support- who I trust.


Of course, sometimes, getting people to work with me is next to impossible. Something as simple as ward your lane, and stop wandering around in the enemy jungle alone, can be difficult for people. Let alone team comp.

[Eldariel]

I'm intrigued by Panda's claims of "changing the Meta"; I know they've experimented with running mages bot and moving the CV onto the bruiser for more lane domination in bot but beyond that I don't have a clue of what he's talking.

[ex cathedra]

You Troll me too hard. See, I don't duo lane. I usually jungle. Or I AP carry mid. Or I tanky deeps the top lane. The only situation I duo lane- is when I'm AD carry with a legit support- who I trust.

Yeah. I'm comfortable with 8 or so junglers and 15 or so solos, not mentioning the junglers/solos who I vaguely understand but haven't practiced. That's not great, but it works. My duo lane champions? I feel like I'm passable, at best, with Alistar, Taric, and support GP. I don't even like playing them. I'm not confident enough to play a single duo-laning AD carry. It's highly unfortunate.

[userpay]

Finally played my first game vs Graves, very interesting I must say. Think I'll probably wait another week or two before considering buying him to see how any nerfs/buffs pan out.

[toasty]

I'm intrigued by Panda's claims of "changing the Meta"; I know they've experimented with running mages bot and moving the CV onto the bruiser for more lane domination in bot but beyond that I don't have a clue of what he's talking.

Support Teemo.

[Eldariel]

Support Teemo.

It's a flippin' genius idea tho; free Wards + good anti-AD ability for lane fights and a champ that kinda does nothing else anyways.

[PersonMan]

So. I'm planning on returning to playing Ranked(primarily due to having recently had an awesome game with a great team), but before I do I'd like to cover my bases and ask for tips on, well, mid.

At the moment I'm comfortable with jungling, being a support or tank or whatever bot, but top and mid I have little to no experience with. I've played mid in one(non-ranked) game, as Heimer, and at the beginning I had an advantage, but eventually I kept getting harassed out(although it could be that the enemy was Caitlyn, she kept getting me with those shoot-through-minion things). So: What should I do differently from a duo lane to be able to mid/solo top well?

[Duos]

It's a flippin' genius idea tho; free Wards + good anti-AD ability for lane fights and a champ that kinda does nothing else anyways.

Don't forget teemo's global taunt! He can keep the enemy carry/assassin/anti-carry off your carry too!

[toasty]

It's a flippin' genius idea tho; free Wards + good anti-AD ability for lane fights and a champ that kinda does nothing else anyways.

I like the idea of support ashe more, honestly.

[Eldariel]

I like the idea of support ashe more, honestly.

The prob I see with Support Ashe is that Ashe+Ranged AD will probably have some trouble against strong AD + Support lanes (though Ashe's passive definitely shines when she's not the one farming; I've had some luck with AD + AD bots before so maybe it could work - I really like the built-in tension between Hawkshot-empowered farming and her passive, honestly), while Teemo + AD is actually brutally efficient since Teemo takes the AD out of the fight for a long duration at a range.

I don't know how happy Ashe is running 21 Utility for Sufficient CV either. That's actually my biggest problem with many unconventional supports; you need 21 Utility for optimal CV use (and the difference is huge) and most unconventional supports would rather run 21 Offense or something. I totally wanna start outsourcing the CV to team mages who have 21 Utility anyways.

[Spartacus]

Just played a game of Dominion, and now I really agree with Eldariel that the score is borked. Defended my point like a boss, forced the enemy to keep two bot at all times just to discourage me from pushing, and capped it a couple times besides, but ended up with the lowest score, because my team was full of people who seem to think that as long as you capture a point, it doesn't matter if Rammus comes in 4 seconds later and takes it back.

But yeah, Jax is kinda unfair if he gets some items. I managed to sit by the enemy bot, killing the minions as they spawned so the enemy either had to come at a Jax that is fully spun up with stun up, or watch the lane slowly shove their tower down. Graves and akali eventually decided to force the issue, and once I jumped clear of all the stealth (my god, Shroud+grenade is annoying. Hidden Akali forever) I just turned on them and had a double kill in no time, with 80% health remaining.

[Dogmantra]

Yeah, but the time I saw him using it, the entire minion wave was still there. I'm pretty sure he just threw it on Xerath as harass, not farm.

Then he was probably not too hot. I've done the matchup a couple of times as Malzahar, and if you can dodge Xerath's Lux Ult, you can play just like how you would against anyone, namely: walk up, Malefic Visions, walk away. Most Malzahars waste so much mana trying to do fancy things like harassing with Call of the Void.

I'm pretty sure you have to stage those, nobody takes revive.

Ahem.
Revive Vayne is SO OP.

Trying to get a friend off Yi.

He says he likes the backdooring aspect.

What are some viable alternatives I can steer him towards?

EDIT: Thinking Jax, Xin Zhao, and/or Teemo. Tryndamere is too hit-or-miss, and Shaco takes more finesse than he's capable of. He already plays Alistar, could he work well with an AD Build?

If he doesn't want to stop playing Yi, presumably he plays a squishy Yi, you should try to get him to try a tanky DPS Yi, Ghostblade, Randuin's, Quicksilver Sash, Frozen Mallet, that sort of thing. I like getting two or three gold per second items which is why you see the Randuin's in there. Oh, also item actives are OP.

[Math_Mage]

Today's LoL matches were full of
-EPIC RAGE!
-DRAMATIC SHAME!
-VINDICATION!
-KARMIC JUSTICE!!!

Game 1: 0/8/4 Alistar. I legit feel this was not my fault, but rather the fault of the Kog'maw I laned with, who felt 300 HP lost to harass per CS was a fair trade, and bitched at me when I died to keep him alive.
Game 2: 1/12/12 Udyr. I started off well, but then kept trying to put the enemy behind instead of farming up, and got way behind myself. Utter failure.
Game 3: 5/4/16 Urgot (TT). Against three quasi-melee champs (Renekton, Kayle, Vlad), this was a cinch. Especially when my friend's Twitch was involved.
Game 4: 7/2/7 Singed. Enemy Blitz was a trash-talking foe from game 2 who I'd eventually ignored; I thought Blitz-Poppy lane was gonna starve me pretty hard, but they let me get every bit of XP and then Blitz started roaming. Poppy was a free kill, tower was free, and I was so far ahead I built Deathcap while still being tankier than their entire team.

Highlight of the night: Chasing a low-health Poppy at 1/3 health in top lane, I run into Blitz and they rapidly take out most of the rest of my health. I'm also out of mana, so I run while firing off intermittent spurts of poison. Poppy eventually gives up the chase before her health gives out; Blitz is still after me, and I start juking him in the top lane brushes, back and forth and back and forth...about 10 times before I realize that he's out of mana too, and I just walk away. This is the first time I've ever all-chatted "TROLOLOLOL" after a play.

[Spartacus]

I started off well, but then kept trying to put the enemy behind instead of farming up, and got way behind myself.

Maybe it comes from mainly playing characters like Nasus, Alistar and Jax, but I find my response to an enemy farming is to also farm. I realize that Alistar and Jax, at least, can often force the enemy out of lane, but I prefer safe farming. Once you're ahead, you fight to stay ahead and keep the advantage. Day[9] had a bit on the marginal advantage that I rather like.

[Talesin]

Played a few games last night but the one i'd like to mention is on my game as Amumu.

I went bot lane, yeah I know he sucks but its unranked, with Ashe. We had Tryna and Irelia top and Cait in the mid. We faced and Evelyn and a Corki in our lane, had a Graves solo top, Annie mid and Lee Sin jungling. We tried to counter jungle Lee Sin at level 1, after a short engage with Corki, but couldn't find him. Moving back to lane I checked blue on the way and he wasn't there but a bandage toss later I killed Corki at level 1. Well stunned him and then let Ashe get the final hit. We pushed Evelyn out of lane pretty quickly so got some time on the tower.

Thought we were doing fairly well here, setting up a second kill on Corki and almost getting Evelyn before Annie showed up bot and forced us to retreat. However then the bad started. A Lee Sin gank up top killed both of our team before ganking mid forced Cait to return and only the swift intervention of myself and Ashe stopped the tower going down. Returning bot we ganked Corki, who then Dc'd and went for Eve before Graves showed up and killed both of us on his own.

Alarm bells rang a little here, given I was the tank so I assumed I would be able to kill him fom 30% to 0 but I thought nothing of it and carried on. We lost the top tower quickly after, dragon and the mid tower a little after that and after our Trynda had finished getting himself killed repeatidly we had 8 kills to their 16 with 10 of them going to Graves and the other 6 to their Lee Sin.

We warded quite well this game and caught them going 4 man Baron, which I was expecting so we were all nearby. We jumped them, assuming we'd get them or Baron, and we got torn to pieces. They aced us, losing Eve in the process, but were too weak to get Baron. We lost about 15 minutes later but I couldn't believe the power they had.

Turns out Graves and Lee Sin were both 30, so going toe to toe with these guys meant they ate through me fairly quickly. Graves had 4 levels on me by the time team fights really kicked off and I only just had more Armour and MR when he was fully stacked. He did do a good job keeping his stacks up, so credit to him there. We managed to kill him twice, both times involved blowing everything to get him down, only to find us smashed to pieces by Lee Sin/Annie after.

Actually enjoyed it though because it became a real test of skill trying to keep people alive as if I engaged I was almost certainly going to get myself killed just saving someone else, so it really pushed my play. Shame they had 2 30s and our highest was a 22, but win some lose some.

[Math_Mage]

Maybe it comes from mainly playing characters like Nasus, Alistar and Jax, but I find my response to an enemy farming is to also farm. I realize that Alistar and Jax, at least, can often force the enemy out of lane, but I prefer safe farming. Once you're ahead, you fight to stay ahead and keep the advantage. Day[9] had a bit on the marginal advantage that I rather like.

I play chess. I know marginal advantage. I just had my brain switched off for most of the night.

[Winterwind]

My EU West quasi-account I use to check on EU-pros runepages, talk to Elealar about the Civ4 succession game, and maybe play a light game on a good free week.

Ah, I see. Alrighty, will add you, then.

[potatocubed]

Blitz is still after me, and I start juking him in the top lane brushes, back and forth and back and forth...about 10 times before I realize that he's out of mana too, and I just walk away. This is the first time I've ever all-chatted "TROLOLOLOL" after a play.

I had a moment like that during a game last night, except I was playing Karma. I'd been split-pushing with her fantastic minion-clearing power (R-E-Q-what minion wave, I see no minion wave) and left it just a fraction too late getting out, so I ended up with their entire team chasing me the length of top lane. They flash, I flash. They slow, I slow. (Hello Rylai's.) They ghost, I use tether. I drop my shield on myself whenever it's off CD, spam mantra'd Qs back down-lane to harrass them and heal myself, run for the base turret.

They knocked off 90% off my health but I kited them right into my team - who, credit where it's due, had come running for me the moment trouble showed up - and they wiped up.

That was actually a pretty boss game all round, really - we went from being 6-14 down at minute 15 or so to a pretty solid victory, thanks to better teamplay and a Veigar with over 1000 AP.

[Misery Esquire]

I don't think a champ can currently get more annoying...

Teemo.

Cave Johnson, we're done here.

[Dogmantra]

I had a moment like that during a game last night, except I was playing Karma.

Karma is just amazing for this. She's sooooo fun and almost as good as Singed at running and not caring even one bit.

[PersonMan]

Played a 5v5 as Morgana, my first game with her in a long time. Was in a 2v1 lane(we had a jungler) for a while, in the end we lost and I was 4/4/3.

Played a game of Dominion, decided to try going bot for once.

Spoiler

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It was fun.

With everything ready, I found that I could basically 1v1 anyone and win with Binding-Soil-Ignite-Ulti. I only used the Hourglass once, at the very end, to survive while 3 of the enemy were attacking me at a point.

[ArcanistSupreme]

It's a flippin' genius idea tho; free Wards + good anti-AD ability for lane fights and a champ that kinda does nothing else anyways.

It's too bad that his range is so short that you need to be pretty tanky in order to pull it off. Also, it doesn't really work against champs like Urgot and Ezrael. It's not ideal for the same reason that AP Teemo isn't. Sure is fun, though.

[Dogmantra]

It's too bad that his range is so short that you need to be pretty tanky in order to pull it off. Also, it doesn't really work against champs like Urgot and Ezrael. It's not ideal for the same reason that AP Teemo isn't. Sure is fun, though.

Yeah, I'd actually want Teemo on the carry role if I was to duo lane him (that said, I think he solos a bit better, and you'd need to pop a lot more physical damage in your solos than usual)

[Daverin]

Teemo.

Cave Johnson, we're done here.

To be honest, Teemo is, in fact, less annoying to me. Although mainly only because he doesn't actually do anything beyond early game/shrooms, whereas Shaco is obnoxious AND deadly.