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

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Talon getting his mana regen cut almost in half hurts. Hurts real bad.

I had to get a Philostone, but then I turned it into a Shurelia's and used it + Ghostblade to enter Sprint Mode.

"I guess I just can't exhaust Talon... wtf..."
"I have Sprint."

[toasty]

Talon getting his mana regen cut almost in half hurts. Hurts real bad.

I had to get a Philostone, but then I turned it into a Shurelia's and used it + Ghostblade to enter Sprint Mode.

"I guess I just can't exhaust Talon... wtf..."
"I have Sprint."

Really?

All the talons i played with destroyed people.

Though, maybe it was the Fiddle+Talon+morgana+Taric combo...

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Really?

All the talons i played with destroyed people.

Though, maybe it was the Fiddle+Talon+morgana+Taric combo...

I guess I should say hurts his early lane. I still destroyed people (10/2/10), but it was inconvenient to get started.

[tribble]

I guess I should say hurts his early lane. I still destroyed people (10/2/10), but it was inconvenient to get started.

God forbid an assasin who is also good at pushing should have to manage their mana in the early laning phase.

[Draken]

In their defense, people got really coddled by his humongous regens.

Hell, it is surprising that they were left as they were for as long as they did (10 mana regen at level one, wat).

[toasty]

God forbid an assasin who is also good at pushing should have to manage their mana in the early laning phase.

people don't like Assassins in solo queue. Kassadin received what seem to me token buffs (buffs, but not enough to make a difference) and suddenly everyone is playing him again. And you know what? I'm banning him. Not because he's good, but because in solo queue, an 3-0-0 Kassadin is godmode.

[Spartacus]

As always, I am late to the party, but Definitely Not Blitzcrank has the best skin, and better yet, it's his default!

[Silverraptor]

So, I bought renekton awhile ago and just didn't seem to know how to play him well. It hit me just now to do Trimogs Impaler on him. It worked beautifully!

Spoiler

Show

I also witnessed first hand how scary Skarner is now.

[TechnOkami]

I also witnessed first hand how scary Skarner is now.

I approve of this message.

[ArcanistSupreme]

So, I bought renekton awhile ago and just didn't seem to know how to play him well. It hit me just now to do Trimogs Impaler on him. It worked beautifully!

I like playing him on Twisted Treeline. Wriggles, CD boots, Ghostblade, Spirit Visage, Sunfire or Frozen Mallet, Last Whisper, GG. Mostly cheap, and unless the other team gets super fed you will roll over the top of them consistently throughout the game.

[Draken]

Yeah. Being able to spam Crystal Slash like there is no tomorrow, that little bit of extra oomph on his attack speed and Fracture finally not being counter-intuitive in lane* (seriously, the bloody thing encouraged you to not last hit with it. >_>) did wonders for him, just feels much better to play now.

*Draken is not a very good jungler, not the type who go and get their ass executed by creeps, just poor at the ganking part.

[toasty]

So, I've decided I really need to learn some mages. However, I apparently SUCK at laning middle. I'm fine after the laning phase. I mean, my play isn't perfect, but its acceptable for my skill level. Yet today I was outlaned by Ashe as Gragas.

What do I do to improve my laning as a mage?

[9mm]

So, I've decided I really need to learn some mages. However, I apparently SUCK at laning middle. I'm fine after the laning phase. I mean, my play isn't perfect, but its acceptable for my skill level. Yet today I was outlaned by Ashe as Gragas.

What do I do to improve my laning as a mage?

depends on the mage honestly.

[Draken]

So, I've decided I really need to learn some mages. However, I apparently SUCK at laning middle. I'm fine after the laning phase. I mean, my play isn't perfect, but its acceptable for my skill level. Yet today I was outlaned by Ashe as Gragas.

What do I do to improve my laning as a mage?

That is a hard question. Can you identify what the problems were? Poor sustaining? Missed spells? Low AP? From my experience (of being on the other side >_>), Gragas wins lanes by having lots of AP early and having scary burst on his barrels as well as regenerating nonstop with his drunken rage.

[toasty]

That is a hard question. Can you identify what the problems were? Poor sustaining? Missed spells? Low AP? From my experience (of being on the other side >_>), Gragas wins lanes by having lots of AP early and having scary burst on his barrels as well as regenerating nonstop with his drunken rage.

I lose my lane.

I have less health, less CS, less kills and less towers (LOL) against other mid laners.

This doesn't help when I know how to lane top. I try to trade harass and it doens't work, then Ashe zones me with contast slowing and I miss CS. >_>

Edit: the three matchups i did today were:

A) Zilean vs Cass (I admit, this is bad no matter how it goes, but I really fed her far to much

B) Ryze v Brand (... yeah, again, bad. I did okay, but it would have been better if I knew what I was doing)

C) Gragas v Ashe (this was an ashe that was actually good and knew what she was doing, I didn't. It showed).

[Draken]

Losing your lane is the terminal stage, low health, low cs, low kills and low towers are the symptoms of the disease. I wanted to know the agents.

In your gragas vs Ashe. Barrels outrange Ashe and at... Some rank (dunno, don't play gragas) they one-shot ranged minions.

What was your runepage, starting item, masteries and most importantly, what did you do? From experience, Gragas' just sit back and chuck barrels until the feel like using drunken rage to regain mana (and health, yay healing passive...). And then when they feel sure of the kill, they belly-flop in.

Were you missing barrels? Were you trying to melee? Did you stick too close while drinking and let her take free shots?

Against Cass... My usual answer is to go boots first, helps dodge her poisons, which in turn kills her harass. I have only ever faced two or three Cassiopeias in mid, however, so no clue there.

Not much that can be said about Brand, I only ever recall fighting brands as champions that are bad against him or as... Brand.

[Math_Mage]

I lose my lane.

I have less health, less CS, less kills and less towers (LOL) against other mid laners.

This doesn't help when I know how to lane top. I try to trade harass and it doens't work, then Ashe zones me with contast slowing and I miss CS. >_>

Edit: the three matchups i did today were:

A) Zilean vs Cass (I admit, this is bad no matter how it goes, but I really fed her far to much

B) Ryze v Brand (... yeah, again, bad. I did okay, but it would have been better if I knew what I was doing)

C) Gragas v Ashe (this was an ashe that was actually good and knew what she was doing, I didn't. It showed).

Lane mid is totally different playstyle from bruiser vs. bruiser top. Only real solution is to keep doing it until you figure it out. For most mid lane matchups (mage vs. mage), the trick is about landing your combo while avoiding theirs with positioning/dodging/etc. For Zilean vs. Cass, this means boots to avoid her skills while you land your QWQ, and later you dodge with alt-E. Ryze vs. mage is always tricky because his CC doesn't stop them from casting, but because your cooldowns are so short you can usually get in free harass after a trade; take advantage of that. For mage vs. AD carry, you want to get some farm on, get a few levels, and then combo them down; this is superior to trading harass with sustained damage champions. Gragas can't beat Ashe in lane at level 1, but he can farm at range with barrels and level up to the point where Ashe can't stay in lane for fear of getting bursted.

[Ziren]

people don't like Assassins in solo queue. Kassadin received what seem to me token buffs (buffs, but not enough to make a difference) and suddenly everyone is playing him again. And you know what? I'm banning him. Not because he's good, but because in solo queue, an 3-0-0 Kassadin is godmode.

I disagree that those buffs didn't make a difference. Especially the projectile speed on Null Sphere was really important for him. Before the buffs an enemy mage with sufficient range could easily hit Kassadin with two spells while while that thing was still flying, giving Kassadin often the short end of the stick in a harrasment trade.

Increasing that projecitle speed has made his laning a lot easier.

[Moonshadow]

I have been waiting in queue for nearly 25 minutes.

WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!

[Dragonus45]

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.

If a teemo knows where to put his shrooms, they can be just as deadly as they are obnoxious.

[Eldariel]

I have been waiting in queue for nearly 25 minutes.

WHAT IS THIS MADNESS?!

What are you queuing for? I just had a 1 hour 30 min queue for Dominion Draft.

[Math_Mage]

I disagree that those buffs didn't make a difference. Especially the projectile speed on Null Sphere was really important for him. Before the buffs an enemy mage with sufficient range could easily hit Kassadin with two spells while while that thing was still flying, giving Kassadin often the short end of the stick in a harrasment trade.

Increasing that projecitle speed has made his laning a lot easier.

FWIW, I just laned against Kassadin with Urgot and completely shut him down, despite that Urgot does most of his damage with abilities. I didn't notice the projectile speed difference significantly affecting my ability to get off harass before it landed. It might improve his mirror match a little, but it won't really help him in the counter-lanes.

[Moonshadow]

What are you queuing for? I just had a 1 hour 30 min queue for Dominion Draft.

Dominion non draft. I gave up and played Bots instead. And man... Dominion has spoiled me with its passive mana regen ;-;

[Eldariel]

Well. Just had another Draft Dominion last 1 hour 30 or so. And got a guy who decided to troll 'cause I didn't pick or ban Rammus. Nobody else did either including him. Rofl. Way too much fun, this game mode.

[Dogmantra]

LoL's birthday coming up?
Entertainment from a SPECIAL GUEST?


It's going to be Surprise Party Fiddlesticks. And it will be wonderful.

[ArcanistSupreme]

Wow. I have never had a queue last longer than four or so minutes. And if it does, I restart it and usually get matched within a couple of minutes. Is waiting that long a normal thing on the European servers?

[Eldariel]

Wow. I have never had a queue last longer than four or so minutes. And if it does, I restart it and usually get matched within a couple of minutes. Is waiting that long a normal thing on the European servers?

No, it's just the fact that draft mode dominion doesn't have that many players and my matchmaking Elo for Dominion is probably stupid so it kinda doesn't wanna pair me against anyone... Doesn't help I was duoing with another player with likely stupid MM Elo. I had similar issues when I really played 3v3 Ranked actively, but not really outside that.

[Dogmantra]

So I have a 10 win IP boost. No emails about it, not showing up on my purchase history and nothing seems to have changed. Anyone else just got one randomly?

I'm not complaining of course.

Nevermind, LoL got the Golden Joystick.

Still, 10 win IP boost is a bit lame compared to the free rune page from last year.

[Spartacus]

Especially as I need just one more runepage to be able to have something moderately applicable to every champion I use/want to use. As it is, I have to choose between Generic AD Carry and Generic AP Carry when building pages, which leads to me typically just picking one of the two characters I have pages already build for.

[Eldariel]

Bloody hell, if I could get 40 runepages I'd be happy. 11 is way too few for any kind of meaningful rune builds... Better yet, they should just allow changing runes in champ select if you have 11 runepages or something. Then I'd actually buy those.