League of Legends XXV: Who is your Summoner, and what does he do?

[balistafreak]

Right now the best junglers:

For Ganking: Lee Sin, Nocturne, Nunu

For Control of the Jungle (Counter-jungling): Skarner, Lee Sin, Nunu, Udyr, Trundle

For Farming the Jungle: Skarner, Udyr, Olaf

I'd like to add some of my personal favorites:

For ganking, giving a Blitzcrank a free blue buff and then instantly ganking a lane with him can completely crush a lane, sometimes even two if the enemy is bad/you are a Rocket Grab God.

Also for ganking, Xin Zhao can do a Golems to Blue route to level 3, immediately gank with most of his HP and both his CCs, and if he didn't get too low, walk back into his jungle/the enemy jungle and heal up just fine on small camps until another gank presents itself. His CC is terrifying - you run in from behind or the side, landing a standard autoattack and "double tapping" with the auto-attack resetting Q. Pop W immediately to try and apply your knockup as soon as possible. When the enemy inevitably Flashes, either to escape your Q or immediately afterward, use your E charge to get back to him and apply the knockup anyways/finish him off.

Xin Zhao has easy mode ganks and sustain, the problem for him is his poor late game. I actually (hilariously) turn Xin Zhao into a Support-Tank - I'll grab a Heart of Gold for some extra money, build to become tanky in whatever way I need, and usually end up with an item that supports my team/carry (anything from Aegis of the Legion to Frozen Mallet for pinning down targets for my AD carry to Starke's Fervor). And I buy millions of wards, because my late-game gold is far less important than that of my carry.

For jungle control/farming, add the new Shyvana to that list. She can rip through her jungle in record time, and thus use that speed to start invading enemy camps both buff and small at hilarious speeds. She's also has many favorable duelling matchups, because while she might lack CC, her damage is godawfully high.

Finally, Amumu can potentially be best at all three. If you're a Bandage Toss king, his ganks can be terrifying, even without red. As long as you have mana, he can take camps in record time with W and E, although without said mana he's damn useless, which is why he's "easy to counter jungle" - deny him blue, and he'll have to make drastic compensations or else simply fail.

Same with Cho'Gath. His Q basically reads "land this, win target gank", although landing it is an issue. His sustain means he can trundle around camps both on your side and his without fear, and his trifecta of AoE abilities gives him great speed. His jungle dueling is a little weird; you have a lot of burst but after that you should probably just leave.

Although if you simply want to own the jungle and have a decent mid/lategame, go Atmog's Leesin. He's God Tier for a reason.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Warwick might not be considered top-tier anymore, what with the glut of junglable champions being released/buffed, and him being left largely by the wayside, but he's still one of my favorites.

Get Razors, turn them into Wriggles if you like, but it's not required. Get Spirit Visage and Wit's End, then whatever else you want. Generally, it's best to build tanky and just dominate teamfights. Make people try to kill you, make them fail, ult their carry and let your carry rip them up.

Warwick is one of the junglers who can start sword+pot and still clear extremely well, and this puts you just that much closer to your razors. I like to level W primarily in the jungle, and start ramping up Q when teamfights start becoming a reality. E is seasoning, and obviously get R whenever you can.

[Astrella]

In other news:
whenever I draw Teemo he looks really really evil

That's cause he is, duh.

[toasty]

For jungle control/farming, add the new Shyvana to that list. She can rip through her jungle in record time, and thus use that speed to start invading enemy camps both buff and small at hilarious speeds. She's also has many favorable duelling matchups, because while she might lack CC, her damage is godawfully high.

Her problem is that she can't respond to ganks, because she herself brings little to the ganking table. As such she is easily countered. Set up an aggressive laning set up with heroes like Brand, Caitlyn and Taric and then throw a ganking jungler that scales moderately well into the late game like Nocturne and you have a recipe for a useless enemy jungle.

A control jungler like Trundle is a better pick because while his ganks are not as strong as gankers, his ability to control dragon, set up amazing early game fights, and fend anyone off his jungle makes him always an asset during the early-mid game. He doesn't scale into late game well, but few of the junglers that have good early games do (the exception might be nocturne. And nocturne's early game is not BRILLIANT).

Finally, Amumu can potentially be best at all three. If you're a Bandage Toss king, his ganks can be terrifying, even without red. As long as you have mana, he can take camps in record time with W and E, although without said mana he's damn useless, which is why he's "easy to counter jungle" - deny him blue, and he'll have to make drastic compensations or else simply fail.

To call Amumu a strong control jungler would be plain wrong. At best he is a ganker, at worst he is a weak farmer. You never pick amumu for jungling ability, you pick him for his late game strength.

Same with Cho'Gath. His Q basically reads "land this, win target gank", although landing it is an issue. His sustain means he can trundle around camps both on your side and his without fear, and his trifecta of AoE abilities gives him great speed. His jungle dueling is a little weird; you have a lot of burst but after that you should probably just leave.

Chogath i have so little experience with, but my experience with him in lane kinda screams "why would you jungle???"

[Silverraptor]

In other news:
whenever I draw Teemo he looks really really evil

Its time for you to accept the truth Dog.

[Raistlin1040]

So ranked teams/clans/whatever are becoming a thing soon. If anyone wants to be on a team with me, I'm super up for it, although I'm not great. I'm about a 1200 player, 1300 on a good day. Still, I think premades are my best chance to get better, so just throwing it out there.

[efdf]

Right now the best junglers:

For Ganking: Master Yi
For Control of the Jungle (Counter-jungling): Master Yi
For Farming the Jungle: Master Yi

I fixed that for you.

[Mc. Lovin']

I understand this is the place you come to show off about good games. So I played a game as leona just now, and went 3 0 7, with our Kassadin ragequitting at 4 mins after dieing twice. The enemy team actually surrendered, it was unbelieveable. I am pleased

Also I feel like I am no longer so sucky I shouldn't play with you guys, so my account name is B1GB1RDB4G3L, I play on EUWest

[toasty]

Teams are coming. This is a reminder to my friends:

The Cool Kids Table needs to actually start, you know, playing REGULARLY. TOGETHER.

Zach, Yocham, Arb... umm... magical 5th person that may or may not be, Math_Mage/Zach's friend/Aranoi. It'd be nice if I could get confirmation that you'd like to try to play regularly this season.

edit: PS I might be interested in trying to find a few people for our team. Its likely that said person will have to be a Carry or Support player. But don't get your hopes up.

[dgnslyr]

Well, after jumping into solo draft normals and ending up last to pick, I tried out a support for the first time since playing JANNA when I first started, and dang is Sona fun. I ended up taking a solo lane for most of the game because one of the players had connection issues, but she is fun. Also, solo draft normals have a significantly lower likelihood of the absolute derp found in solo normal normals.

[Raistlin1040]

So, Cho'Gath was the first champion I ever bought with IP, and I used to play him a lot as a tanky AP type, RoA and Abyssal Scepter and such. However, we needed a solo top today and we already had an AP Nunu and a Veigar, so I decided to play Hotshot Cho'Gath. I had Merc Treads, Frozen Heart, Wit's End, FoN, Frozen Mallet, and an Atmas. With Baron buff and pots, I had over 4K HP, 250 Armor and 210 MR, 300 damage with another 150 from Wit's End and Spikes. At the end of the game, I had all 4 pots and sold my Wit's End for a Triforce and still had 2K gold left over. I went 14/6/16 AS TANK CHO'GATH.

We still lost. This is why I need to play in premades.

[Daverin]

I fixed that for you.

Oh efdf, why you so silly?

[tribble]

Nonviable tier:
LeBlanc (or perhaps not)

Teach me your ways of not feeding Leblanc, oh mighty Dogmantra. I can't seem to stay far enough away from the good ones in the laning phase.

[ArcanistSupreme]

edit: PS I might be interested in trying to find a few people for our team. Its likely that said person will have to be a Carry or Support player. But don't get your hopes up.

Ooo! Pick me! Pick me! I enjoy both roles quite a lot. I'm probably not the best at either, but I usually know what I'm supposed to be doing due to the excessive streaming I watch. I really just need a team to practice with.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Uhm, boots + potions start as usual, I think CV is a bit silly so you should totally take Cleanse (you will never die unless you make really dumb mistakes), which is also slanted a bit more towards your tanky DPS role. If you need regen in lane, Philo Stone is your go to guy, but you want to be getting a Sheen because unless you're fed, even if you're trying to farm, whoever you're laning with is going to get more last hits than you by a long shot. After your Sheen, upgrade boots. Normally I recommend Mobility on Taric, but you're gonna be getting a Triforce, so pick up some Treads instead (in the rare occasion the enemy entirely lacks magic damage/CC first off, laugh, secondly, grab Stompers). Then you wanna finish your Triforce (Phage before Zeal). After that, CDR is a big must, so Shurelia's if you bought a Philo Stone, otherwise Frozen Heart/Spirit Visage are both strong picks. Then grab mostly health and defenses, GA is great, QSS also good. Don't expect to get much further than your first item after Triforce because you're Taric and you sure as heck can't farm.

Does Taric spam enough for a Sheen to really show its damage potential? Or is it just a really good tankydeeps item in general (triforce, that is)?

[Mutant Bunny]

Does Taric spam enough for a Sheen to really show its damage potential? Or is it just a really good tankydeeps item in general (triforce, that is)?

Well, it gives him AP, mana, and slightly improved last-hitting in lane: it's not gonna be GREAT in early fights, especially since you're Taric and aren't going to be using your autoattack to harass, but it'll give you a little bit more healing power and a little bit more damage when you actually do get the chance to hit something. Seems to me like Sheen is just a good idea for Taric...

Also: OLAF IS FREE. YES. It's about time!

[Moonshadow]

You know what works well with Shyvana?

Malady. You should look into it some time.

[tribble]

In other news I own six of the ten free champions, and have little to no interest in the others. Caitlyn, Teemo, Nasus and Shen, woop de doo.

[Mutant Bunny]

In other news I own six of the ten free champions, and have little to no interest in the others. Caitlyn, Teemo, Nasus and Shen, woop de doo.

Fid/Shen/Cait/Olaf for me. I all have the others. Olaf is someone I've wanted to try out for a while, if only to understand how exactly he works.

Also, tested out Sheen on Taric in an AI game. Yes, it was just intermediates, but it was still the best Taric game I've had. Taric, being Taric, can basically get a Sheen proc anytime he wants. If only he had an autoattack reset...

I bought elixirs at one point... and all three work VERY well on him. Just saying.

[Dragonus45]

So who would like to get together with me on making a team, this premade teams idea seems cool.

[Volatar]

Wish I could play enough to worry about teams.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

Hm, teams. I'm actually rather looking forward to that...sounds like a mode of Ranked that I might actually enjoy.

[Draken]

You know what works well with Shyvana?

Malady. You should look into it some time.

I have found that what works best for me with her is:

Boots + 3 pots opening.
Wriggles
[Frozen Mallet, Wit's End, Atma's] - Whatever order best fits the game.
...
...
>>
<<
Gunblade. I dunno, lately I just always want to fit a gunblade somewhere, and burnout does so much damage that the spell vamp shows.

It is noteworthy that I lane with her, and generally I lane, and lane, and lane until I have farmed enough for the wriggles on the first return.

[Joran]

Wish I could play enough to worry about teams.

Also, wish it was for Dominion. That said, I think my group of friends will finally get our put together a team.

Now I need to learn to last hit =P

[toasty]

Also, wish it was for Dominion. That said, I think my group of friends will finally get our put together a team.

Now I need to learn to last hit =P

They may implement it for Dominion, eventually. But I think its very clear that currently Dominion is currently still being both fixed to better Suit Riot's design goals and that it is was also marketed as the more "casual" version of League of Legends.

[Eldariel]

They may implement it for Dominion, eventually.

What "it" are we talking about, here?

[Moonshadow]

I have found that what works best for me with her is:

Boots + 3 pots opening.
Wriggles
[Frozen Mallet, Wit's End, Atma's] - Whatever order best fits the game.
...
...
>>
<<
Gunblade. I dunno, lately I just always want to fit a gunblade somewhere, and burnout does so much damage that the spell vamp shows.

It is noteworthy that I lane with her, and generally I lane, and lane, and lane until I have farmed enough for the wriggles on the first return.

Really? I really think you should look at Malady for her. Remember that Burnout does magic damage, despite using an AD ratio.

My build is;

Mercs
Starks
Cleaver
Sunfire
Malady
Youmuus

Not in that order, or course. But you're sufficiently tanky, you shred the everloving crap out of their defensive stats, and you have enough Aspd to beat in anyones face.

[TechnOkami]

What "it" are we talking about, here?

Ranked Teams.

[Croverus]

Not sure if I'd ever play ranked Dominion. It seems too casual and fast paced, will less reliance on teamwork than SR or TT. I like how it is now, Ranked for Solo que SR, Team SR, and Team TT.

[Math_Mage]

Toasty, ask me again after November. Maybe I'll have time then.

In other news, don't hand Ashe a triple kill, don't lane Nocturne top against Tryndamere, and if you do both it's GG.

(On that note, who should lane top against Tryndamere? Lately I've been seeing that a lot, and it's been doing well. I'm thinking Galio or Shen or Akali.)