League of Legends XXXII: Cupcakes and Kittens and Squirrels. Oh my!

[Sila Prirode]

Yup, that's the video that got my hopes up. Let's hope that Riot delivers now.

[Dogmantra]

Twisted Fate so strong.

So underrated but so flipping good.

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[Penguinizer]

When the client patched it had the files you usually see when they put up a new skin. So it's either legit or they're going through a lot of trouble.

[TechnOkami]

You know... I think the 3d thing is a hoax and very VERY not so subtle advertisement for, you know, THIS!

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[Silverraptor]

...WHAT IS THIS MADNESS

Since this forum's complete conversion to Ponyland, I find that it is highly appropriate to post this.

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This should go in the OP.


In other news, happy Aprils Fools day My Little Ponies!

[Fredaintdead]

You know... I think the 3d thing is a hoax and very VERY not so subtle advertisement for, you know, THIS!

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As soon as I saw that skin was available I bought it. URFMASTER FIZZ WILL CONQUER THE WORLD!

[ex cathedra]

Whatever happened to Orianna? Wasn't she like, first picked/banned in all the tournaments a little while ago?

Took a hit to her damage, possibly her mana costs (I don't honestly recall), and most importantly her spell range. She was considered to be OP on release, and like only a single high-visibility pro player still uses her (and it's pretty recent) so pretty much no one else in the community has picked her up. I think that her skill floor is considered a bit too high for most players considering that her damage and CC aren't particularly great.

To be really honest... I kind of want to hear Sweet Rein's opinion on the Skarner matter.

That's fine and all, but it's worth pointing out that this conversation is completely unrelated to her job. As far as I'm aware, she isn't on the balance team and so her opinion, while still worthwhile, is just that of a normal player who occasionally plays Skarner.

[TechnOkami]

That's fine and all, but it's worth pointing out that this conversation is completely unrelated to her job. As far as I'm aware, she isn't on the balance team and so her opinion, while still worthwhile, is just that of a normal player who occasionally plays Skarner.

True... but she can, ya know, talk to the balance ppl and ask for their opinion on the matter, but that bit's entirely up to her.

Also: I can't believe how much I missed Akali. Too much fun.

[ex cathedra]

True... but she can, ya know, talk to the balance ppl and ask for their opinion on the matter, but that bit's entirely up to her.

Perhaps, but that seems like it's asking a lot.

Regarding Skarner, I just don't see the point of giving him zero mana reliance. How did that make any sense? Like, it cost less mana than Evelynn's Q and was several times more useful after it got buffed. I don't see how anyone could possibly argue that Skarner's pre-nerf Q was 'good design.' It made him stronger, but that doesn't make it good design.

[PEACH]

I'm not sure how "no mana reliance" is inherently bad design when most all the top junglers are either manaless or less mana reliant than Skarner with his cheap Q (Udyr, excepting early levels).

[Eldariel]

Second second place in a Dominion tournament *sigh* I need an Eternal Bridesmaid sign.

[Reinboom]

True... but she can, ya know, talk to the balance ppl and ask for their opinion on the matter, but that bit's entirely up to her.

Also: I can't believe how much I missed Akali. Too much fun.

As my competency with Skarner is abysmal, I would rather do that than give a solid opinion on the subject.
For the few times I've played him, my personal feelings is that his mana drains much too quickly early game.

I'll bring him up the next time I talk with live design.

[TechnOkami]

I'll bring him up the next time I talk with live design.

And this is why I do so anyways. Thank you Rein.

[ex cathedra]

I'm not sure how "no mana reliance" is inherently bad design when most all the top junglers are either manaless or less mana reliant than Skarner with his cheap Q (Udyr, excepting early levels).

I didn't say that manalessness was inherently poor design. For Skarner, specifically and as a mana-using champion, reducing his mana costs to the point where they are literally meaningless is bad design, especially considering how relatively powerful Crystal Slash's effect is.

Also, his Q mana costs aren't even that bad. It's less than 30 mana per cast. Relative to his buff, it's high, but seriously? Assuming you cast it often enough to proc the perma slow, it costs roughly as much mana per second as Poison Trail. Between Shurelya's, Sheen, Frozen Heart, and the mana return on jungle creeps, a player has more than enough options to cover basic mana needs. Skarner requires fundamental mana management. You can't just use QW and especially E every time they're off cooldown, that's just misplaying. If you treat Skarner like a manaless champion, and then you run out of mana, it isn't Skarner's fault for having mana costs, it's your fault for wasting resources.

Skarner is a fine-ish jungler, inasmuch as everyone who isn't an absurdly strong jungler is a fine-ish jungler. He isn't weak as a champion, he just doesn't offer as much as other champions in similar roles and ostensibly people don't understand how to conserve mana. Seriously, it's a problem. I'm fairly certain that the popularity of manaless champions is that (aside from the fact that all but one or two of them are really cool) most players suck at using mana efficiently. Also, too many people use blue buff as a crutch to win their lane. Blue buff = potentially bad for the meta.

[Qwertystop]

Any idea why the FWotD is every 22 hours instead of once per day? Plenty of times I've had time for one game and it's ended a few minutes short of FwotD, so it's kind of annoying.

[Dogmantra]

It's easier than having to handle different time zones since even if everyone plays on the server for their continent (which isn't the case, see me playing on NA but living in England) there are still three or so different time zones at work. As for why it's 22 hours rather than 24, it's so that it if you got it at, say, 7pm on day 1 it will be available for you to get again at 7pm on day 2. If it was 24 hours it would get slightly later each time.

[Eldariel]

Any idea why the FWotD is every 22 hours instead of once per day? Plenty of times I've had time for one game and it's ended a few minutes short of FwotD, so it's kind of annoying.

'cause if it were the exact same time, it'd invariably roll slightly forward every day (a lot on some days) causing you to eventually have to miss a WotD. I've played games with a 24 hour cycle and every time I've been thinking "man I wish this used the LoL system". Basically, 22 hours enables for you to actually get that win every day as long as you play every day.

Even more so, since you actually need to win a game (not everybody wants to play bots for it), it's not a guarantee so the 2 hours allows for more leeway (also game ending times aren't exact science to predict so it'd be impossible to get it at the same time every day).


EDIT: Realized you asked why it isn't daily; that's simply because yeah, server time only works on a given timezone and enables silly doubledipping of WotDs and is weird for people from other timezones. So less of a mess with fixed times.

[ex cathedra]

Second second place in a Dominion tournament *sigh* I need an Eternal Bridesmaid sign.

Uhm, bummer I guess? Getting all of that free RP must be the worst.

Real top 1% dominion Elo problems, right here.

[Qaera]

I got a quadra kill~ :D

~ ♅

[dgnslyr]

Thank you, Dogmantra, because reading about the Glorious Revolution puts a smile on my face.


Also, first time shamelessly bragging about my mad skillz. I'm much prouder of this game than I should be, because our team had a Karthus who rushed Morello's Disturbing Dictionary against an AP Amumu, who he fed hard, a jungle AD Sion who was generally underwhelming, and an Urgot who had a bad time against Renekton.

Their team, on the other hand, had Amumu who decided building pure AP sounded like a good idea, and somewhat mindboggling decision of sticking AD TF and Leblanc bot.

Somehow, Amumu went 10/0/1 in the earlier stages of the game, but then Vayne got money and started shooting his face off really, really fast. Eventually, Karthus's build normalized out, and Amumu became increasingly useless, so after a long-time kill deficit, we managed to almost miraculously pull ahead.

Yeah, I dunno what some of these people were thinking.

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[toasty]

For someone as good as Reginald is, you think he'd be smart enough to realize that building a Frozen Heart on your main source of AP damage, against a team with 1 big source of physical damage, is probably a really bad idea. But nope, 30 minute game, stomping like crazy, and he builds a Frozen Heart instead of a Deathcap.

I don't think Reginald understands multiplicative scaling and how it works. Honestly, if he wanted to be tankier, a FoN, BVeil, Spirit Visage or Rylais would have ALL been BETTER choices. Especially a Spirit Visage or FoN.

Or he could have bought a Shurelias. Or a deathcap.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Going to pick up Kennen.

Sorc boots, Hourglass, and Revolver are all still core on him, yeah? I don't think I've seen anything recently by our resident lightning squirrel expert on any changes that might have to be made to his usual build.

[Cute_Riolu]

Thank you, Dogmantra, because reading about the Glorious Revolution puts a smile on my face.


Also, first time shamelessly bragging about my mad skillz. I'm much prouder of this game than I should be, because our team had a Karthus who rushed Morello's Disturbing Dictionary against an AP Amumu, who he fed hard, a jungle AD Sion who was generally underwhelming, and an Urgot who had a bad time against Renekton.

Their team, on the other hand, had Amumu who decided building pure AP sounded like a good idea, and somewhat mindboggling decision of sticking AD TF and Leblanc bot.

Somehow, Amumu went 10/0/1 in the earlier stages of the game, but then Vayne got money and started shooting his face off really, really fast. Eventually, Karthus's build normalized out, and Amumu became increasingly useless, so after a long-time kill deficit, we managed to almost miraculously pull ahead.

Yeah, I dunno what some of these people were thinking.

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AP Amumu is, increasingly, a thing in high ELO, which is probably why you're seeing it here. The reasoning is that Nautilus does the things Amumu does so building Amumu grenade style is the only thing going for him. :P

[ex cathedra]

Going to pick up Kennen.

Sorc boots, Hourglass, and Revolver are all still core on him, yeah? I don't think I've seen anything recently by our resident lightning squirrel expert on any changes that might have to be made to his usual build.

Boots+3 > Revolver > luxury core of Abyssal, Deathcap, Hourglass, or Rylai's, depending on game. Yup yup yup.

I got a quadra kill~ :D

~ ♅

Sexy. ;D

[Math_Mage]

Going to pick up Kennen.

Sorc boots, Hourglass, and Revolver are all still core on him, yeah? I don't think I've seen anything recently by our resident lightning squirrel expert on any changes that might have to be made to his usual build.

WotA, Deathcap, Zhonya's, Rylai's are Kennen's Big Four. The order gets mixed up depending on game, but you basically always end up with those items. I could see Abyssal, Void, GA, possibly even Lich Bane filling out the final spot (Abyssal in particular is a nice way to finish out that Negatron Cloak you might have bought against a pure burst lane like Kassadin or Annie); boots, of course, are either Sorcs or Treads in 95% of games. I suppose a case could be made for Ionians.

[fred dref]

So if you have two Mejai's and 20 stacks, dying brings you down to only 11 stacks.

[Laudandus]

For someone as good as Reginald is, you think he'd be smart enough to realize that building a Frozen Heart on your main source of AP damage, against a team with 1 big source of physical damage, is probably a really bad idea. But nope, 30 minute game, stomping like crazy, and he builds a Frozen Heart instead of a Deathcap.

I don't think Reginald understands multiplicative scaling and how it works. Honestly, if he wanted to be tankier, a FoN, BVeil, Spirit Visage or Rylais would have ALL been BETTER choices. Especially a Spirit Visage or FoN.

Or he could have bought a Shurelias. Or a deathcap.

Who was he playing?

[toasty]

Who was he playing?

He as playing Galio.

[Duos]

AHHHHG.

All of my games these days are going like this.

I went 6/0/8 top as Teemo by rolling their Malphite and helping Lee Sin intercept and kill Tryndamere every time he tried to take buffs. I pushed down two towers in 23 minutes.......

But we lost because in the same time, the enemy Kayle bot got fed to 16/0/1 off of our bot lane.

Seriously, how does that happen?

[Dogmantra]

Going to pick up Kennen.

Sorc boots, Hourglass, and Revolver are all still core on him, yeah? I don't think I've seen anything recently by our resident lightning squirrel expert on any changes that might have to be made to his usual build.

I haven't played Kennen in forever, I've been moving on to bigger and better mages (Viktor and Twisted Fate right now mostly) but I still maintain that Sheen is so much better than Revolver. Hourglass is still pretty much the best thing though. Even with Kennen being horrendously overplayed recently, people still don't initiate with Hourglass so people don't know what on earth to do against it.