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

[Lix Lorn]

Teemo .

I need to get Teemo now? Awwww.

I wrote an assessment of every champion on the map pre-Xerath with Dominion in mind. While it's a bit out-of-date, it could still prove to be of interest to you (more so the individual assessments of their strengths and weaknesses than the list itself).

>infodump>

...I think I get it!

[Tychris1]

Anyone know how to build Shyvanna on SR? I've been wondering because she's free this week and I want to eventually buy her when the week expires.

[Dogmantra]

I need to get Teemo now? Awwww.

Still crappy on him. Sorry, it's just a really bad item :(

Kitae's Bloodrazor, Wit's End and Malady just do it so much better. Heck, even Sword of the Divine is better with the active.

[Eldariel]

Dominion Advice from the resident Dominion-Only Player!

1. Take Ghost. Everyone takes Ghost unless they plan on being the backcapper (the one who caps your close top point and joins the fight mid after). But really, unless you have a /very/ good reason (read: your champion set-up won't work without two other Summoner's), take Ghost.
2. Experiment with Revive. If you're a player who typically goes mid for the first fight, try taking revive the next time. It means you can die early, and rejoin the fight going twice as fast and with lots of extra health. It's not a playstyle that works for everyone, but some people love it.
3. Try backcapping. If your team is being locked down at your two closest points, try running across the map and capping their top or bottom. Generally, capping their top is easier to do, but it's very situational. Be careful to avoid the light patches in the center and in the jungle around the point so as to give yourself more time to at least neutralize the point.

If I think of more, I'll add it later, but this is what I have for now.

Seriously tho, don't buy all the "must have Ghost"-stuff. It's a useful summoner but Flash is still better in fights and Ignite still competes with Exhaust depending on how much self-heal the opponent has and whether you need extra burst or not. Ghost is more used for getting into fights; the better your positioning and map awareness the less you need it (though obviously it has in-combat use too - just less than Flash - and some champions absolutely want the speed boost, such as Singed).

Conventional wisdom holds that Ghost/Exhaust is the best summoner setup but conventional wisdom doesn't necessarily mean anything but A setup that works. Your summoners depend on the champion and the team comp (generally you want multiple Exhausts and Ignites even post-patch). Flash/Revive on Soraka. Ghost/Revive on Singed. Flash/Ignite on Zilean. And so on and so forth. Oh, and Cleanse is pretty good now, even with the increased CD. Cleansing Exhaust+Ignite+CC = Lulz.


Much of the Ghost-cult is ironically formed 'cause everyone else takes Ghost. Much the same story as the classic 2-bot 1-top setup on Twisted Treeline; it's what people do, not necessarily what's the best idea (though again, Ghost isn't bad; just not as omnipotent as people think).

[Math_Mage]

Much of the Ghost-cult is ironically formed 'cause everyone else takes Ghost. Much the same story as the classic 2-bot 1-top setup on Twisted Treeline; it's what people do, not necessarily what's the best idea (though again, Ghost isn't bad; just not as omnipotent as people think).

The Ghost-cult is like almost every single other Tulipmaniac FotM in the game: can't try anything new because solo queue.

[tribble]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the stupidest match in my entire gaming career, including non-league of legends games.

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[Qwertystop]

Well, the playerbase is certainly undecided on Fizz.

My last game, everyone on both teams said Fizz (our team) is incredibly UP. Our Fizz did pretty badly.

Two games prior, there was another Fizz. He had more kills than the rest of the team put together. Only slightly less than the total kills of both teams. Everyone was screaming OP by the time he got his first kill.

[Morph Bark]

First solo Dominion queue win ever.

Udyr, I have finally found my use for you. <3

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the stupidest match in my entire gaming career, including non-league of legends games.

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...what.

How did that even work?

[Psychotic]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the stupidest match in my entire gaming career, including non-league of legends games.

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Did you just play team AD Carry and win?

...Nice.

Anywho, I've finally gotten back into playing ranked Solo's and after a few losses, I finally figured out how to win again. Be the jungler. Always be the jungler, especially since I'm the only one who wards and the only one who likes to check on how my teammates are doing, who in the enemy lane is pushing too hard and etc etc.

Now to get 6300 IP for Lee Sin.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the stupidest match in my entire gaming career, including non-league of legends games.

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I had a game like that once. My team was Ez, Corki, Tryndamere, Caitlyn and MF. The other team I've forgotten but was something quite ordinary. We utterly and completely destroyed them on every lane, taking all but the three inner turrets by the 20-minute mark.

[EternalMelon]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the stupidest match in my entire gaming career, including non-league of legends games.

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I've played too much solo queue. I failed to see what was wrong with this until someone pointed it out

[TechnOkami]

I've played too much solo queue. I failed to see what was wrong with this until someone pointed it out

No worries, I typically miss the point anyways, even when it's painfully blunt to everyone else.

[Daverin]

But, you see, it works so well! Twitch as assassin/roamer, Ashe as initiation/support, Graves a tanky dps, Kog'Maw as magic damage, and Tristana as primary nuker!

Also, Ryze gets to be fun when you start learning to smartcast. It helps that I've dedicated my ZXCV row to smartcasting, too.

[Ivellius]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the stupidest match in my entire gaming career, including non-league of legends games.

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Note too that the enemy team has 3 Smites as well as Blitzcrank and Alistar. (What is that I don't even)

[tribble]

Y'all who are wondering how we won that game, take a look at the other team's summoner spells.

What makes it sweetest of all is that we weren't even premade. It was a random solo Que game, Graves, Kog, and Ash all instapicked, so I grabbed twitch and said "5 carry gogogo" and this happened.

Also related to that game: Debilitating poison is really, really OP. It slows by a huge amount even if you haven't hit anyone, and if they have even one or two stacks of poison on them it's practically a snare.

EDIT: Irelia'd.

[Sila Prirode]

Note too that the enemy team has 3 Smites as well as Blitzcrank and Alistar. (What is that I don't even)

And Alistar has higest CS on their whole team. With only tank items

[tribble]

And Alistar has higest CS on their whole team. With only tank items

And he also bought like 5 oracles over the course of the game and made it his mission to poop on me in every teamfight. That cow knew his focus order.

[Istari]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the stupidest match in my entire gaming career, including non-league of legends games.

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Also notice the almost total lack of armor itemization.

[tribble]

Also notice the almost total lack of armor itemization.

Look at Kog's build and kills and then tell me you can blame them with a straight face.

[Darth Mario]

Look at Kog's build and kills and then tell me you can blame them with a straight face.

I blame them. Lich bane does physical. Though frankly, since you went 5 AD carry, they should have been building armor and lifesteal/spellvamp.

[ArcanistSupreme]

Look at Kog's build and kills and then tell me you can blame them with a straight face.

There should be at least a chain vest on every single person on their team, and so many pairs of dodge boots. That's just dumb.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Any advice specifically on Kayle, as far as builds/runes/masteries, for Dominion or SR?

[tribble]

I blame them. Lich bane does physical. Though frankly, since you went 5 AD carry, they should have been building armor and lifesteal/spellvamp.

The vast majority of Kog's damage was coming off of his ult. Guy was a wizard with that thing.

Dodge boots I'll give to you guys.

[toasty]

Rune page cap raised to 20.

BRB spending all my money on Riot.

[Eldariel]

I'm pretty sure Vladimir likes these new Masteries. Also, Ryze got a lot tankier.

Overall, it seems like the CDR/Level in the Defense-tree really enables lots of champs that were previous pigeonholed into Utility to pick Defense without giving up core functionalities.

[Daverin]

Would you say 0/21/9 is better than 9/21/0 on Ryze? Admittedly, the AP is no good, but getting the CDR means you only really need 2 ranks in the CDR defense talent, and 10% MPen is decent. Of course, mana is mana, speed is speed, and dat buff duration...

Also, I wonder who would last longer, Ryze or prenerf Vlad (I would ask current Vlad, but I suspect I know the answer to that one...)

[Makensha]

Also, I wonder who would last longer, Ryze or prenerf Vlad (I would ask current Vlad, but I suspect I know the answer to that one...)

Can't say about modern Ryze or Vlad, but I distinctly remember crushing old Vlad with old Ryze with Frozen Heart and Merc Treads.

Nowadays, I can't imagine Ryze losing to Vlad (pre 4 second Q cd). He might not win, but I can't see him losing. Superior damage, and less skill shot dependent. Spell vamp on ult at the very least negates Vlad's Q sustain-wise.

[Eldariel]

Would you say 0/21/9 is better than 9/21/0 on Ryze? Admittedly, the AP is no good, but getting the CDR means you only really need 2 ranks in the CDR defense talent, and 10% MPen is decent. Of course, mana is mana, speed is speed, and dat buff duration...

Also, I wonder who would last longer, Ryze or prenerf Vlad (I would ask current Vlad, but I suspect I know the answer to that one...)

0/21/9. Movement Speed is immense, CDR goes over the cap (he gets 10% unlisted from his Passive on Q), MPen is good but not as strong as the composite combination of Expanded Mind, Swiftness, Summoner's Insight (you want Flash anyways) and Runic Affinity. There's also Improved Recall which I'm personally actually quite fond of.

This is doubly true for early game Ryze who can often take flat penetrations to town with Sorcs, Haunting Guise and E negating the need for the mastery entirely until enemies begin stacking MR (at which point you bring Voidstaff to bear).


EDIT: Wow, Rumble hurts now.

[Daverin]

True, Improved Recall is actually very nice. The rest sounds good, but keep in mind what I said about only going 2/3 in the defense CDR; even with Frozen Heart and Q, it is JUST below 40%, not over.

And huh, I would've at least figured old Vlad vs old Ryze would go to Vlad. Then again, I think the Ryze rework came before the dawning of hextech on Vlad, and I recall the prior Vlad builds really weren't "doing" anything, at least nothing that made Vlad become so infamous at his job (even with the extremely low Q CD.) Then again, old Ryze bursted like a boss.

EDIT: Rumble has always hurt. His ratios are amazing. If anything, any problem he has is that he needs more tankiness to make the most of it.

Also, I've never heard of Haunting Guise on Ryze. Interesting. That, and I tend to get Merc's on him. Then again, a very well thought out guide I'm considering suggests using Spell Pen blues as well as Reds, so... that could be that. And after that, you only really need percentage when you can get it, it seems. So yeah, 9 in utility really does sound better.

[Eldariel]

True, Improved Recall is actually very nice. The rest sounds good, but keep in mind what I said about only going 2/3 in the defense CDR; even with Frozen Heart and Q, it is JUST below 40%, not over.

And huh, I would've at least figured old Vlad vs old Ryze would go to Vlad. Then again, I think the Ryze rework came before the dawning of hextech on Vlad, and I recall the prior Vlad builds really weren't "doing" anything, at least nothing that made Vlad become so infamous at his job (even with the extremely low Q CD.) Then again, old Ryze bursted like a boss.

EDIT: Rumble has always hurt. His ratios are amazing. If anything, any problem he has is that he needs more tankiness to make the most of it.

Also, I've never heard of Haunting Guise on Ryze. Interesting. That, and I tend to get Merc's on him. Then again, a very well thought out guide I'm considering suggests using Spell Pen blues as well as Reds, so... that could be that. And after that, you only really need percentage when you can get it, it seems. So yeah, 9 in utility really does sound better.

Mercs are fine on him; just adaptation on the fly. But there's the "Pierce Your MR To 0"-plan at works with him; Sorcs are definitely a rather commonly solid item on him too (and go hand-in-hand with Guise). Mana Blues are generally better than MPen Blues on him tho, since he has the tendency to already nuke peoples' MRs to 0 with E; Mana Blues hurt like **** at that point while MPen Blues can't reduce MR below 0 and thus do jack ****. Not to mention, level 1 you do damage with Mana, not base values so you really need Mana from Runes.

Tho I've played around with the idea of full flat pen page some time (not on Ryze, he scales too well with Mana). Unfortunately, you can only get 19 MPen without items (that's Quints, Blues & Reds) and base values are 30 so it's hard to get to the point where you want to be at. And once you get Sorcs or Guise you go way over the base values outsider scalers, and still have trouble against builders (you can get 60 MPen/MRReduction from items in Sorcs, Guise & Abyssal).