League of Legends XXXI: I'll Start My Own Team! With TF! And Janna!

[Math_Mage]

Bloodthirster stacks from minion kills.

I suspect she doesn't have the inherent "screw you" mechanics to compete with Yi and Trynd for melee carry (less damage and ignoring slows than Yi, less invulnerable than Trynd) and her ult isn't strong enough to make her an ultbot in the same realm as Katarina, so I think she's relegated to being similar to Riven, a melee damage dealer who has to build fairly tanky despite that. At least she has the inherent damage to get away with building some bulk.

As a champion, I'd rather be 'relegated' to Riven tier than to Yi/Tryn tier.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

We ought to put together some short guides on the role and responsibilities of the different positions in game, with maybe two or three archetypal characters named specifically.


Like...
Ranged carry, melee carry, assassin, burst mage, control mage, tank, brawler, support.

Would make a good starting point for new players, give them an idea of what is expected of them.

[Terribad]

I swear he's like the third best designed character.

Except for his stupid auto attack

[Joran]

Triforce is always a good idea on Yorick. I like sheen because . . . sheen.

This is coming from Dominion Yorick.

I don't like Sheen on Yorick because it's pretty difficult to interleave his abilities to get maximum procs. I end up just jamming all the ghouls at once and waste the procs :(

A ton of Yorick's damage still comes from whacking people with his shovel. I tend to like the Manamune + Frozen Heart and maybe Spirit Visage depending on what lane matchup I get. If I need to close with the enemy, then I get a Frozen Mallet + Phantom Dancer.

[fred dref]

As a champion, I'd rather be 'relegated' to Riven tier than to Yi/Tryn tier.

I actually agree overwhelmingly, I just meant in terms of full carry>tanky carry>tanky DPS>Tank. I probably could have worded it better, however.

Bloodthirster- do you gain stacks from only champ kills or minion kills, too?

If you needed to get 40 champion kills before it filled up and lost them all on death, well, that'd be one heck of a difficult to use stacking item.

[Nadevoc]

(Also, if you assume she's powerful based on using Riposte and Burst of Speed as often as possible.. she'll also be out of mana most of the time.)

She might not be able to spam them on CD but, from my experience, she can use them quite freely with no issues. I had nothing giving me mana or mana regen, and had zero concerns using them whenever they seemed useful. Though it should probably be noted I was maxing Riposte first and mostly relying on the passive AD boost; I didn't start really using Burst of Speed often until around level 10.

[Neoseanster]

What's everyone's thoughts on summoner spells to take as support? I sometimes find myself getting flak these days for sticking with clairvoyance/flash over grabbing heal or exhaust, but CV just still seems too useful to be without, even if it means your bottom lane's a little weaker early on.

[Mtg_player_zach]

Bloodthirster stacks from minion kills.



As a champion, I'd rather be 'relegated' to Riven tier than to Yi/Tryn tier.

But yi's the best and I win all my games I play him. YIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

[Math_Mage]

What's everyone's thoughts on summoner spells to take as support? I sometimes find myself getting flak these days for sticking with clairvoyance/flash over grabbing heal or exhaust, but CV just still seems too useful to be without, even if it means your bottom lane's a little weaker early on.

CV for counterjungling/invading
Heal if your AD carry didn't take it
Exhaust if your AD carry took Heal
Flash if you're worried about getting initiated on, or ganked, or you're Alistar/Janna and need initiation positioning
Ignite in a kill lane (not really recommended)

All combinations are good in different situations.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Yi. A ring for each hand followed by any items at all.

It's wondrous.

[Mirrinus]

What's everyone's thoughts on summoner spells to take as support? I sometimes find myself getting flak these days for sticking with clairvoyance/flash over grabbing heal or exhaust, but CV just still seems too useful to be without, even if it means your bottom lane's a little weaker early on.

I grab CV only when playing with premades over some sort of voice chat program. That's because when I take CV, it's not just for me or my lane; it's for the whole team. I can't tell you the number of times top lane tells me to CV their bush, or the jungler asks for a CV on the enemy red buff. With randoms, it's very rare for them to ask me for stuff like that, so CV feels less useful then.

If I'm playing support with randoms (which is rare nowadays, since I usually don't trust them to carry), I'd rather go with heal or exhaust.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Wanting to pick up Katarina again after trying her out in a game today.

What sort of options does she have? 21/9/0 or something tankier? Brutalizer for early cooldown? I know BB scales well with AD, but I understand AD is unpopular on her.

[Nadevoc]

What's everyone's thoughts on summoner spells to take as support? I sometimes find myself getting flak these days for sticking with clairvoyance/flash over grabbing heal or exhaust, but CV just still seems too useful to be without, even if it means your bottom lane's a little weaker early on.

I go CV/Heal. Apparently going without flash is terrible, but I very rarely miss it as support. Really, the AD carry should probably be packing the heal, but solo queue AD carries tend not to. If they take heal, I'd probably swap mine out for exhaust. Or just run a second heal.

[toasty]

This is coming from Dominion Yorick.

I don't like Sheen on Yorick because it's pretty difficult to interleave his abilities to get maximum procs. I end up just jamming all the ghouls at once and waste the procs :(

A ton of Yorick's damage still comes from whacking people with his shovel. I tend to like the Manamune + Frozen Heart and maybe Spirit Visage depending on what lane matchup I get. If I need to close with the enemy, then I get a Frozen Mallet + Phantom Dancer.

Meh, this is true, I admit. However, the fact that you are pretty much assured to be constantly attacking with your spells means you will get a lot of procs anyways.

Manamune is good, however, I feel as if Fratmas might deal similar damage with more CC. I dunno, I haven't played Yorick enough to know which builds are better when, in general Yorick's kit is so strong that you can basically build him anything (except AP) and he will be useful. He's more useful if you build him tanky-dps.

[Arbitrarity]

We ought to put together some short guides on the role and responsibilities of the different positions in game, with maybe two or three archetypal characters named specifically.


Like...
Ranged carry, melee carry, assassin, burst mage, control mage, tank, brawler, support.

Would make a good starting point for new players, give them an idea of what is expected of them.

I was about to recommend the generic guides on the normal guide sites, but they seem to be mediocre. So. WORDS.

Ranged Carry:

Ranged carries are ranged champions that rely on autoattacks to deal damage. They are primarily useful for lategame damage, poking, and tower pushing power. Their lategame scaling comes from critical hits for powerful sustained damage. Characteristics of typical Ranged Carry: Dash/Blink, long ranged autoattack, long ranged poke, attack speed steroid, low base health and defenses.
Typical ranged carries are: Ashe, Caitlyn, Corki, Ezreal, Graves, Kog'maw, Miss Fortune, Sivir, Tristana, Twitch, Vayne
Some champions CAN be built as or act as ranged carries, but are not as often: Kayle, Kennen, Nidalee, Sona, Twisted Fate, Teemo
Urgot is a funny case. He builds differently, scales worse than most ranged carries, but has a ridiculously abusive laning phase, so acts like a ranged carry in some ways. Read a more specific guide for him.

In the current metagame, ranged carries usually go bottom lane with a support champion. The choice of support usually defines how the lane will be played.
Common bottom lane support picks include: Alistar, Blitzcrank, Janna, Leona, Nunu, Sona, Soraka, and Taric.
Some uncommon choices for support include: Fiddlesticks, Gangplank, Karma, Lee Sin, Lux, Maokai, Morgana, Nautilus, Nidalee, Pantheon, Yorick, and Zilean.
Ranged Carries are also being considered in top lane again, since they can harass typical top lane champions in lane very effectively. We won't be covering that specifically in laning advice.

Early Laning:
As a ranged carry, your expected role in lane is simply to farm. Read up on last hitting, and practice.
However, support/carry lanes are becoming much less passive as of late, since heals have been nerfed significantly, and Soraka/Sona are falling out of favor. Know your matchups, and know how to play with your support. Aggressive supports, like Leona, Blitzcrank, and Alistar (and to some extent, Janna, Nunu, and Taric) help you primarily with damaging and killing the enemy laners, so be prepared to help them fight, and capitalize on advantages.
Learn how to control the minion wave. This lets you zone and deny, avoid being zoned and denied, back safely, avoid ganks, and avoid getting giant waves that kill your jungler when he tries to gank.
Learn how to spot enemies placing wards, and where they are placed, so your jungler can gank. Learn how to bait, and how to engage, to maximize your ganks and trades.
Keep track of enemy cooldowns. Calling enemy Flash and Heal being used in chat can be useful, especially with timestamps. Generally be aware of shorter cooldowns, like enemy ults, stuns, and defensive spells like Soraka's Astral Blessing. Engaging and losing half your damage to Astral Blessing is ANNOYING.

Midgame:
As bottom lane, you should have dragon warded, and be present for fights around it. If you lose your tower, you have the option of freezing the wave at your second tower. Freezing is a concept for minion control, where
you last hit and attack minions enough that they don't push into your tower, but also so that your minions are constantly outnumbered. This causes the wave to "freeze" near your tower, preventing the enemy from farming. However, this is limited in usefulness; the enemy laners can gank lanes, put pressure mid, or take dragons while you farm. Nonetheless, it can put you ahead, and is very safe, so it's great if you're behind on farm and just need to catch up.
On the flipside, if you took the enemy tower, you should be warding, roaming, taking buffs, putting pressure mid, taking dragon, and repushing the lane if necessary. You can also continue to deny the enemy laners, if they stay in the lane and you are reasonably near your tower.
An important consideration when winning a lane is if/when to take the enemy tower. If you have a large minion wave, and the enemy laners are dead/back, it may be better to let it crash into the enemy tower, and deny them the wave, than take the tower and give them those creeps. The possibility of the enemy freezing the lane is also a consideration.

Lategame:
You have lots of items, and can shred most members of the enemy team in seconds. Buy elixers in preparation for fights; Green is strongest if you have Infinity Edge, Red is generally solid. Make sure Baron is warded, and be careful going bottom lane. You expect a few important teamfights.
You're also your team's primary tower pusher. Be wary of enemy initiation, but when sieging a tower, you can usually get a few safe shots off.

Teamfights:
Depending on your champion, you may be a major source of poke on your team (Ezreal, Ashe, Urgot, Caitlyn, Sivir, Kog'Maw, Corki). Be wary of enemy initiation if you're doing so, and watch your mana.
STAY IN THE BACK. I forget this every now and then, and promptly die. STAY IN THE BACK. You do NO GOOD if you explode and die instantly. You're the team's primary damage source in lategame, and can usually clean up fights as long as you stay alive.
Kite people coming for you. Even as a fed lategame carry, many bruisers can kill you if they close, because you have a tiny health pool and mediocre defenses (Unless you're Graves with Sona on a team with an Aegis, and have full stacks of Grit with a Guardian Angel or something). Just back up and hit them, use Flash or dashes if they close, slow them if you can, and do your best not to die.
Prioritize enemy threats appropriately, but remember that you need to stay as safe as possible. Usually you want to target:

1. Ranged Carry/Fed Champion
2. AP Carry
3. Support
4. Bruisers
5. Tanks

But this is only if you have a true choice of targets, and that's pretty uncommon. Since tanks and bruisers are usually in the front, you can't really hit ranged carries or AP carries without being in range to be killed by the entire enemy team.

Masteries:
Most ranged carries run 21/9/0 or 21/0/9 masteries, depending on mana dependency. In offense, they usually get all damage and armor penetration masteries, and either Havoc or Vampirism. In defense, they get armor, and a bit of health. In Utility, they get mana and mana regen, along with improved recall, and possibly improved buff duration. Corki and Ezreal are two champions who might take utility mastery.

Runes:
Ranged carries currently run Armor Penetration/Flat Armor/Magic Resistance (flat or scaling)/Flat Attack Damage or Flat Attack Damage/Flat Armor/Magic Resistance (flat or scaling)/Flat Attack Damage
While the first generally results in better damage, it's slightly weaker for the first 3 or 4 levels, which can make a difference. Also, since minions have next to no armor, the second page is significantly easier for last hitting.

Summoner Spells:
Flash plus Heal/Exhaust/Cleanse. Hypercarries like Vayne prefer cleanse, because it helps them continue killing things lategame, counters exhaust/ignite, and lets them escape other CC. Heal is good for baiting and turning the tides in combat. Exhaust is generally useful for fighting other AD, though cleanse counters it.
Currently on non-hypercarries, Flash/Heal on carry, flash/exhaust on support is normal. This maximizes the heal on the carry, while the support is usually nearby in skirmishes and can exhaust as needed.

Items:
Most ranged carries will start with either Doran's Blade, Cloth Armor and 5 health potions, or boots and 3 health potions. Doran's Blade is good in either very aggressive lanes, or lanes with a healer. Cloth Armor is for laning in a hard matchup, where you expect to take a lot more damage than your support can heal you for (if they can heal you). Boots and 3 health potions is the usual choice, and is used in lanes where you expect the matchup to be even, or where movespeed advantage is useful.
Typically in early-midgame, Ranged Carries will build 2 Doran's Blades, and Berserker's Greaves. These items add some bulk and damage, for laning fights. More than 3 Dorans are not recommended, though they are useful if you are slightly behind.
(everything after this point does not apply to Urgot)
After this, usually carries either go for BF Sword, or Wriggles Lantern. Lantern is for difficult lanes, where you need the sustainability and armor (and is helpful for wards and taking dragon). BF Sword builds more rapidly into strong lategame items, particularly Bloodthirster and Infinity Edge. However, if one carry has Wriggles, and the other has a BF sword, the Wriggles is stronger in the absence of other items. Ezreal and Corki may build Phage or Sheen in preparation for Trinity Force, though they also are fine building like other carries.
After that, builds become somewhat more nebulous. Usually you see Infinity Edge or Bloodthirster, though Phantom Dancer following Wriggles is becoming more popular. Many champions like getting a Vampiric Scepter with Infinity Edge, because they otherwise have very little health sustain. Ezreal and Corki may build Trinity Force here instead.
Big AD items like Infinity Edge and Bloodthirster are followed with AS and crit, usually in the form of Phantom Dancer. After that, either survivability (Guardian Angel, Quicksilver Sash) or more damage (Last Whisper) are favored.
Getting a couple of wards does not hurt. Supports can't ward everything, and even if they can, they're not everywhere.
Elixers are quite strong. Green Elixers add a lot to your damage once you get Infinity Edge or some other crit source. Red Elixers are good for acting like a mini-heal, for baiting, winning fights, and generally living. Some people advocate carrying around a Red Elixer just for such situations, though I don't do that much. Elixers are important to buy before expected teamfights, like over Baron.

[fred dref]

STAY IN THE BACK. I forget this every now and then, and promptly die. STAY IN THE BACK. You do NO GOOD if you explode and die instantly. You're the team's primary damage source in lategame, and can usually clean up fights as long as you stay alive.

But this is only if you have a true choice of targets, and that's pretty uncommon. Since tanks and bruisers are usually in the front, you can't really hit ranged carries or AP carries without being in range to be killed by the entire enemy team.

I am going to emphasize these points. Focus order comes last in terms of who you should focus, first place is always surviving. If you are alive and the enemy AD is not, you'll almost always be able to win the fight. The damage that you suddenly lose by not have a carry is immense, and often means you can't deal with the bruisers anymore.

[TFT]

CV for counterjungling/invading
Heal if your AD carry didn't take it
Exhaust if your AD carry took Heal
Flash if you're worried about getting initiated on, or ganked, or you're Alistar/Janna and need initiation positioning
Ignite in a kill lane (not really recommended)

All combinations are good in different situations.

This is pretty much what I would say. Though I would say CV is 100% must have in any game ever, as knowledge of who is where is OP for knowing when to fight. I personally never use flash on a support ever, opting instead to either grab heal or exhaust in the situations Math_Mage said. In my opinion most supports (Read, all but aggressive bruiser supports like Leona, Ali, and maybe Nunu. I disagree with Janna needing flash. Ulting to save the carry and push back tanky bruisers usually works better then ulting to split up which flash is usually used for.) should be able to position well enough/be a low enough priority teamfight target that they don't need flash.

I may make the Support guide in the next day or so if I don't get distracted by League...

[TechnOkami]

You know, I am so glad that I spent my IP and purchased Yorick and didn't waste it on Fiora.

I feel like such a Yorick boss right now, and I have a picture that says why, which will be posted later.

[Talesin]

Kog'maw, where have you been all my life.

Love this little guy. Had a pretty bad laning phase, against Teemo and Kat bot and I was laning with a very passive Akali. Everytime we tried harass Teemo would blind me and the Akali I was with was attempting to push the lane at all times so she could "gank mid" despite never actually going.

However after you get the items he is an unstoppable killing machine, who admittidly gets blown up the second you're out of position. Built Double dorans, boots into BT/Zeal into wits end as I needed some MR to stop Kat pincushioning me. Finished off PD and brought IE then Frozen Mallet.

They didn't focus me anywhere near enough, though Kat did ult me in every team fight, and I just got triple kill after triple kill when it came to team fighting. Was reassuring as we were 9 v 18 down in kills at one point with our Akali trying to surrender and their Graves and Nunu calling us noobs. Finished up 12/4/11 having died 4 times in lane.

[EternalMelon]

I mean I'm apparently blind and couldn't find myself at first glance. Though now I see that I somehow got my GitP username added for both columns. Hrm... I think I have a smurf using that name... Must go level it.

Oh no, I went in and added you, but I swear I fixed your name the second time around...

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Can/should Wukong jungle?

[Eldariel]

This is pretty much what I would say. Though I would say CV is 100% must have in any game ever, as knowledge of who is where is OP for knowing when to fight. I personally never use flash on a support ever, opting instead to either grab heal or exhaust in the situations Math_Mage said. In my opinion most supports (Read, all but aggressive bruiser supports like Leona, Ali, and maybe Nunu. I disagree with Janna needing flash. Ulting to save the carry and push back tanky bruisers usually works better then ulting to split up which flash is usually used for.) should be able to position well enough/be a low enough priority teamfight target that they don't need flash.

Ever since the CV nerf, and even before then, it's been kinda situational. Even top teams don't always run it and it's arranged teams we're talking there. Fact is that what you gain in map vision, you lose in botlane. If enemy effectively has an extra summoner over you, your life on the lane will be hard in any sort of reasonably even trades. As such, aggressive lanes rarely should run CV while passive lanes generally can.

And Janna Flash is just one of those things, whether you need the initiation or not; I'd always run it since having the capacity to offensive Janna ult especially in rout fights is just massive. Alistar should always run it tho. Flash > Pulv > Headbutt = near-guaranteed lane kills and his best form of initiation.

Can/should Wukong jungle?

Can? Yes. Should? Not necessarily, he's a very solid toplane. Either is fine. As a jungler he isn't the best but he's still solid.

[Dogmantra]

Except for his stupid auto attack

I sometimes resort to using Decrepify for farm since it's instant damage. Good lord his autoattack is bad. Other than that though, I absolutely love his design. Right up there with Maokai, Blitzcrank and of course the absolute best designed champion in the league, Ezreal.

What's everyone's thoughts on summoner spells to take as support? I sometimes find myself getting flak these days for sticking with clairvoyance/flash over grabbing heal or exhaust, but CV just still seems too useful to be without, even if it means your bottom lane's a little weaker early on.

Personally I think CV is pretty ungood right now and I'd never take it over another spell. That said, I only used to take it a long time ago anyway, when it became really popular I tended to avoid it in favour of a Ghost or Cleanse.

Wanting to pick up Katarina again after trying her out in a game today.

What sort of options does she have? 21/9/0 or something tankier? Brutalizer for early cooldown? I know BB scales well with AD, but I understand AD is unpopular on her.

Brutaliser isn't that good, since her skills deal magic damage. That's why AD is unpopular, none of the multipliers (attack speed, armour pen, lifesteal, crit, IE) work with her skills, whereas all the magic multipliers do (CDR, Hat, magic pen). I'd probably grab a Revolver as my early item, following up with either a Hat or a Rylai's depending on how well the lane's going (skipping the Revolver straight for a Rylai's is good too sometimes). You need a Hat sharpish. BVeil is also something of a must. Depending on who's on your team, either upgrade that Revolver into a Gunblade or a WotA.

As an aside the reason I consider lifesteal a damage multiplier for AD but spellvamp just a bit of utility is because mages are typically burst characters, so getting your burst off with 1 HP left is functionally similar to getting it off with full HP, if you can retreat straight after. It is a bit of a damage multiplier if the fight goes on long enough for you to get your cooldowns back, and for sustained damage characters like Vlad and Karthus and Swaim and a little bit Viktor.


More support summoner spell stuff:
One often overlooked spell is Cleanse, if I've already got a Heal in my lane I will grab Exhaust, Ignite, Ghost or Cleanse in addition to my Flash. Cleanse is good on those characters like Janna, who can just keep someone (including themself) alive for pretty much ever provided they go un-CCed.

[PersonMan]

I'm going to make my first guide:

How to NOT Lane Against Veigar

Let him farm all the time.


By the end of the game, the enemy Jarvan was complaining about Veig being OP. I responded with 'only if you let him farm all the time'.

EDIT: Oh, and this is the 2nd 4v5 I've won. Both times our people left mid game after being bad early and the enemy team surrendered.

[Anonomuss]

I sometimes resort to using Decrepify for farm since it's instant damage. Good lord his autoattack is bad. Other than that though, I absolutely love his design. Right up there with Maokai, Blitzcrank and of course the absolute best designed champion in the league, Ezreal.

I just want to hop on to this thread of thought to say how well designed I think Vlad is as a character. I'm not commenting balance-wise or anything, just generally. The synergy between story and powers is something that only really struck me when I was watching someone play him on stream.

The way tides of blood works, in encouraging you to keep casting as it comes off cooldown, and maintain its level of power, but constantly costing you health, and forcing you to go find something to spellvamp off, or face your healthbar dwindling, is just genius. I think its probably one of the coolest implementation of the idea of vampirism in a game, where you are given the choice between maintaining your strength, and fuelling your addiction, or letting your power dwindle to keep your addiction in check.

I just wanted to say how much I liked it, but I suppose its nothing new to anyone.

[Mephit]

Love this little guy. Had a pretty bad laning phase, against Teemo and Kat bot and I was laning with a very passive Akali. Everytime we tried harass Teemo would blind me and the Akali I was with was attempting to push the lane at all times so she could "gank mid" despite never actually going.

Kog scales really really well, so you don't have to worry too much about harassing. Your laning phase is pretty weak, but if you can keep even cs with the enemy carry you'll usually win mid-to-late game.

[Dogmantra]

I just want to hop on to this thread of thought to say how well designed I think Vlad is as a character. I'm not commenting balance-wise or anything, just generally. The synergy between story and powers is something that only really struck me when I was watching someone play him on stream.

The way tides of blood works, in encouraging you to keep casting as it comes off cooldown, and maintain its level of power, but constantly costing you health, and forcing you to go find something to spellvamp off, or face your healthbar dwindling, is just genius. I think its probably one of the coolest implementation of the idea of vampirism in a game, where you are given the choice between maintaining your strength, and fuelling your addiction, or letting your power dwindle to keep your addiction in check.

I just wanted to say how much I liked it, but I suppose its nothing new to anyone.

Vlad's a weird one, like Irelia, in that his kit is obscenely synergistic, but his individual mechanics are so so awful. His passive is a ridiculously good X to Y to X passive, which is like one better than just X to Y (X to Y passives are silly because a] they're kinda boring and b] they are very nearly always horrendously OP, see also Galio, old Kayle, old Jax). Transfusion is instant damage that heals you, point and click too, so there is zero counterplay to the skill itself (Power Transfer is a much more elegant implemenation I think), Sanguine Pool is... well, Sanguine Pool. Tides of Blood is interesting and probably the best bit of his kit, but it's still difficult to balance his numbers between being viable when you have no stacks without being OP when you have four stacks. Then his ult isn't particularly objectionable.

Actually, I think Viktor is just a much better designed version of Vlad to be honest. Except the part where you have to buy your passive. That's silly.

[Arbitrarity]

We ought to put together some short guides on the role and responsibilities of the different positions in game, with maybe two or three archetypal characters named specifically.


Like...
Ranged carry, melee carry, assassin, burst mage, control mage, tank, brawler, support.

Would make a good starting point for new players, give them an idea of what is expected of them.

Melee Carry

There are very few true melee AD carries in the game. Most melee characters are bruisers, since they have or need defense to avoid instantly dying. Melee carries are characterized by having multiple steroids (Attack damage, Attack Speed, Critical Chance), some sort of gap closer, and some sort of defensive ability. They itemize for lategame critical hits, and clean up fights.
The only four characters I would say can be melee hypercarries are: Fiora, Master Yi, Nocturne, and Tryndamere.
Arguably, Gangplank, Jax and Sion could melee carries. Talon and Pantheon are both assassins, and Riven/Jarvan are more of bruisers. Jax's itemization is a bit unusual though.

When built as melee carries, each of those champions has enormous damage potential, and the ability to get pentakills in cleanup. Yi is the prototypical example, with Highlander giving enormous movespeed and attack speed, and refreshing his cooldowns after kills and assists.

Yes, Warmogs+Atmas and other defensive items are viable and often good on these characters. This is for melee carries. Not bruisers.
Melee carries are very rare at higher level play, because they are very reliant on getting farmed/fed, and are vulnerable to coordinated teams.

Early Game:
Melee carries usually go top lane, or in the jungle.
In lane, melee carries start out somewhat fragile, and don't really have that much sustain compared to typical top lane bruisers. (Exception: Gangplank has really strong early laning, due to his passive and Parrley). Generally, they need to trade carefully, and be aware of enemy cooldowns. Last hit as best as you can, though it's not as easy as it is for ranged carries.
In jungle, melee carries are generally quick at clearing, and have good to great health retention with some lifesteal. Their early ganks are usually pretty poor, since they have little CC, and haven't scaled up in damage yet (Nocturne, Jax, Sion, and Gangplank all have solid early ganks), and they don't really want to encounter stronger enemy junglers (like Udyr, Lee Sin, Skarner, and Shyvana). If you see overextended enemies though, go for it.

Midgame:
In lane or jungle, usually a Wriggles has been acquired. In lane, this means you can push quite hard, which can be advantageous (against Yorick, for example), and roam. This lets you counterjungle, gank, or go help contest dragon. Alternatively, you may be able to deny or kill your opponent.
In jungle, you're of course a major dragon threat. Typically your ganks have also scaled up, and you now deal pretty decent damage. Keep wards on the map, invade jungle with caution (or aggressively, against weaker junglers). Start warding Baron.
You're VERY strong at taking towers after ganks or when the enemy is away from lane. Feel free to do so, since tower advantage is a lot of global gold and map control.

Lategame:
It doesn't really matter if you were laning or jungling. Ward Baron area, split push (since dueling you is suicide, and you take towers insanely fast), and don't get caught. If you die, your team is in a lot of trouble. Red and Green Elixers are strong, of course.

Teamfights:
As a melee carry, you're squishy, high damage, and have usually mediocre CC. Lategame, you're most effective acting like an assassin, showing up after CC and abilities have been used, and snowballing the fight to victory. If you get caught or focused, throw out your defensive abilities and flee, unless you think you can win. In early-midgame, you're a bit harder to focus and kill, because the enemy ranged carry haven't scaled up yet. Know your limits, and going in first is still probably suicide.
DO NOT GET BAITED. DO NOT CHASE TOO FAR. Number one cause of death for melee carries is overconfidence. If enemies are missing on the map, they're coming to help the teammate you think you caught. Towers hurt.

(This advice is given from the mindset of someone who has played Yi. Keep in mind that you can start fights if an enemy is out of position, and you can burst them and escape before the rest of their team arrives. Tryndamere can actually start fights.)

Masteries:
Most melee carries run 21/9/0 masteries, getting all AD and armor penetration masteries, and mostly Vampirism over Havoc. In defense, they either get armor and Veteran's Scars, or work up to Bladed Armor for jungling. If they have smite or cleanse, they get the defensive summoner spell mastery.

Runes:
Melee carries usually run Armor Penetration/Flat Armor/Scaling Magic Resistance/Flat Attack Damage or 8 Attack Speed + 1 Armor Penetration/Flat Armor/Scaling Magic Resistance/Armor Penetration.
The second page is used more for jungling, while the first is useful in laning. Other mixtures of offensive reds and quints will usually function, however. Attack Speed is also an option for faster jungling, but I find MR to be more useful.


Summoner Spells:
Some combinations of Ghost/Flash/Cleanse/Exhaust/Smite is the norm. All melee carries are capable of jungling, by virtue of their steroids, so if they choose to do so, they take smite. Cleanse is amazing for avoiding being locked down by CC while you clean up, Flash and Ghost are useful for chasing and escaping, and Exhaust is good for duels at all parts of the game (but is usually less useful for a melee carry compared with Cleanse)

Itemization:
Usually melee carries start boots+3, Vampiric Scepter, or Cloth+5. Vamp Scepter is only really for jungle. Boots are for lanes where mobility advantage lets you avoid dying (i.e. against Udyr), cloth+5 is for jungling with early invading or ganks, or really hard lanes (Riven, Renekton)
(Advice after this point may not apply to Jax)
Wriggles is a must on almost all melee carries midgame. It provides a bit of survivability, a lot of sustainability, and some damage.
On some melee carries, Phage is useful for chasing down enemies. Often they have enough movespeed and/or CC to forego it, however.
Mercury Treads are almost always the best idea. Berserker's Greaves are also usable, if the enemy has very few stuns/slows.
Transitioning into lategame, the big 3 damage items are Phantom Dancer, Youmuu's Ghostblade (remember the active!), and Infinity Edge. You should get at least one of those in midgame, depending on which champion you are playing (I.e. Sion prefers Phantom Dancers because he has a giant AD steroid already), and probably another by lategame. Last Whisper is also viable if the enemy has stacked armor, but only after you get other damage items.
Defensively, Guardian Angel and Quicksilver Sash are your best options. Some champions don't need these (Tryndamere), but they can keep you alive long enough to clean up fights.

[TechnOkami]

You know, I am so glad that I spent my IP and purchased Yorick and didn't waste it on Fiora.

I feel like such a Yorick boss right now, and I have a picture that says why, which will be posted later.

Here we are.

Spoiler

Show

I feel like such a boss.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Is there ever a point to go 9/0/21 with a fighter or brawler? Or even a carry? (I'm referring to AD here.) Just thinking of whether or not Awareness is still good/necessary for junglers, or if getting to 6 first would help a toplaner.

Also, Arbitrarity, thanks for grabbing the idea and running with it. These are great so far.