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

[Arbitrarity]

I just bought Pantheon, and gave him a spin in the jungle. Good times. Going to try toplane soon, but I'm not sure how he works there. Poke lots with Q, I guess? I get the impression he's a somewhat situational pick, but I'm not sure which matchups to look out for both for countering and getting countered. Tips?

Also, what's a good item build when laning? 2-3 Dorans into Atmallet+Maw?

Build for your lane. Get Brutalizer, Phage, and Hexdrinker when you need it.
Pantheon top is good for getting ganks, and dealing with non-hypersustain champions. I expect him to lose to Udyr (unless he gets ahead early), Lee Sin (hurr durr safeguard sustain), maybe Poppy (78 armor at level 1). Probably loses to Olaf, since Olaf doesn't care about Panth passive. Renekton should win because it's his job. Yorick wins.
Riven should be roughly even, depending on how well she shields spears. Not sure about Irelia, since her sustain isn't superlative anymore. Rumble depends on spear shielding. Not sure about Shyvana; she isn't good at tanking spears, but can push really hard, and wins direct engages.
Pantheon should be at an advantage against Gangplank, Teemo, possibly Kennen, Wukong, Vlad, Nasus, and Jax.

[tyckspoon]

As I understand it, a lot of Pantheon's lane matchups depend on how much his opponent cares about Aegis. Ryze, Vlad, Kennen? Don't bother. Ranged autoattackers? Alright, you can soak a hit while you get in range for a minion and fire back with Spear Shot, but it's not ideal. Gangplank? Win harass all day erry day- Aegis blocks Parrley, throw a spear back in trade.

Mostly, you'll want Panth either as a counterpick or to work in concert with certain jungle types if you expect to see a lot of ganks; if your jungler can put out a lot of damage but doesn't have any good CC (like Shyvana, or Nocturne who has to stay on target for a good 2 seconds before his CC goes off) you can support their ganks with your stun and then finish off the kill with Heartseeker Strike's passive bonus. It's rare to see those 'Whew, just made it to safety with 5% health' escapes in a fight involving Pantheon; HSS bonus and low cooldown on Spear Shot make him an extraordinarily good kill-stealer (er.. securer. >.>)

[shadowwalker64]

I just bought Pantheon, and gave him a spin in the jungle. Good times. Going to try toplane soon, but I'm not sure how he works there. Poke lots with Q, I guess? I get the impression he's a somewhat situational pick, but I'm not sure which matchups to look out for both for countering and getting countered. Tips?

Also, what's a good item build when laning? 2-3 Dorans into Atmallet+Maw?

Top lane, you generally want at least a wriggle's and a single doran's blade again most matchups, since you need the sustain to stay in lane and keep up with your opponent's sustain. Mid, you generally want to start boots and then build into a quick hexdrinker and then some doran's blades. Bot, Doran's blades, boots, brutalizer and phage work wonders.

But yeah, Atmallet works well, and is the most efficient build IMO. Maw is decent if their magic damage is worrying, but generally you want youmou's and bloodthirsters/infinity edge/last whisper to further increase damage output, otherwise your damage output will be too migitated to mean much late game.

[Dienekes]

Top lane, you generally want at least a wriggle's and a single doran's blade again most matchups, since you need the sustain to stay in lane and keep up with your opponent's sustain. Mid, you generally want to start boots and then build into a quick hexdrinker and then some doran's blades. Bot, Doran's blades, boots, brutalizer and phage work wonders.

But yeah, Atmallet works well, and is the most efficient build IMO. Maw is decent if their magic damage is worrying, but generally you want youmou's and bloodthirsters/infinity edge/last whisper to further increase damage output, otherwise your damage output will be too migitated to mean much late game.

I'll be honest after trying it out a few times I never really get wriggles on panth in lane. Maybe it works for you, but

boots, 2 dorans, brutalizer, phage, if the enemy team has a lot of AP grab hexdrinker. A relatively cheap build that leaves you strong in the middle game so you can keep your momentum going. Lategame I agree with you though, Atmas (at least until the patch then I'll recalculate), Frozen Mallet, Bloodthirsters, Last Whisper (if they're getting armor), Maw (if against heavy AP), Infinity Edge (if you can).

For boots, zerkers, tabi, or treads depending on teamcomp and how aggressive you feel you can be.

[Math_Mage]

The main issue here is that Kog'Maw just doesn't lose that trade because He gets 1/2 free autos in before you dash into range and then he just Q's away your passive. You're also in range of Janna Tornado/Slow or Nunu Iceball and in both of these cases Kog'Maw is out-DPSing you even face-to-face. It gets even worse for Graves when his E expires, because Kog'Maw (and especially Nunu+Kog'Maw) still has his steroid and he's going to get two or three additional free autos once you leave his range. It's pretty dumb.

Okay, I'll grant Kog has a lot more in his harass arsenal than Cait/Ashe, but 2v1 analysis simply isn't fair. Give Kog Nunu or Janna, fine--give me my Soraka and I'll force early trades against a non-sustain lane. Which is what happened the last time I played this matchup, with some success. Graves is really good at forcing trades.

[Octopus Jack]

So I just bought Kog'Maw and played a couple of games with him. I can truely say I am in love, havn't had this much fun with an AD carry in a long time, though what would the most optimum damage build for him be? Straight AD, On-hit or AP? I've gone straight AD since I got him, grabbing boots and stacking a few dorans then getting an infinity edge, phantom dancer, bloodthirster, another phantom dancer and then a defensive item currently and it seems to be working.

[fred dref]

In most cases you want to grab a Last Whisper instead of the second Phantom Dancer, but AD carry Kog is a generally really strong pick. AP Kog is strong in a poke lineup, however. Send him mid, of course, in that case.

[Octopus Jack]

Ah yes I always forget about Last Whisper, luckily I rarely foray into ranked and the people I seem to play against in normals with Kog didn't seem to stack much armour. Hopefully I will be doing more ranked games now so that should probably change.

[fred dref]

So far as I can tell, it is a very good thing they delayed the patch. Some examples of the bugs that were in the patch are: Unspecified problems with the surrender function, champions sometimes became untargetable, and any effect that transforms champions sometimes bugs out (Kog'maw sometimes resurrecting instead of exploding after his derp-around time, Lulu sometimes perma-cupcaking people).

[toasty]

On Hit Kog has a couple of problems:
1) Lack of Crit
2) mixed damage means Last Whisper/Void Staff are not particularly useful

I think the first one is the most important. Kog Crits HURT a LOT and because of his long range he and dish them out and just... wreck people. Having said that, there is some appeal to the build that bigfatjiji used at Gamescom: Madreds Bloodrazor+Frozen Mallet. At least, IMO. I just love Frozen mallet as an item though, tbh.

In general Kog'maw works best with some sort of build that eventually includes Phantom Dancer and IE. You can build either first, it depends on how the game is going and what your team comp is, etc.

AP Kog'maw is... weird. He's not really a late game mage and he's not really a teamfight mage, he's 100% a poke mage. But he's BRUTAL at poking. Once you get a Tear of the Goddess and a Rylais you can just snipe people at their towers all day, especially if you ever get blue buff.

[Elite_Lurker]

I'm relatively new at League (been playing only for a month or two), and almost have enough for a 3150 IP champ. I was thinking about getting Anivia, because I like playing mages and ice-phoenixes are cool. Any tips/builds I should know?

[Lix Lorn]

I'm relatively new at League (been playing only for a month or two), and almost have enough for a 3150 IP champ. I was thinking about getting Anivia, because I like playing mages and ice-phoenixes are cool. Any tips/builds I should know?

Landing your wall right is the single hardest thing ever.

Blue buff is rightfully yours as soon as you can take it, and earlier if you have a helpful jungle.

If you build Guardian Angel, you will make the other team cry.

[ex cathedra]

AP Kog'maw is... weird. He's not really a late game mage and he's not really a teamfight mage, he's 100% a poke mage.

wat.

5-item AP Kog'Maw approaches 1000 AoE DPS with nothing but ulti. At level 16 his ult is >500 damage on a ~.72 second cooldown.

His DPS happens to double as poke, but that doesn't mean that it's nothing but poke.

[dgnslyr]

To put it in perspective, it's got the same AP ratio, 0.3, as a multi-target Karthus skittle and a much higher base damage, AoE, and range, though it's mana costs are likewise much higher. On the other hand, the problem with AP Kog is that he has one real damaging spell, though his acid spit and bulimia-ball have decent ratios of 0.7 and 0.6, respectively. It should be playable, though I've never seen it work myself.

Erm, so apparently, I'm blind and can't read numbers. Karthus single-target skittle has a 0.6 ratio, not 0.3.

[ex cathedra]

It should be playable, though I've never seen it work myself.

Several great players have been toying with it for months, but this is a notably recent example.

[Eldariel]

To put it in perspective, it's got the same AP ratio, 0.3, as a single-target Karthus skittle and a much higher base damage, AoE, and range, though it's mana costs are likewise much higher. On the other hand, the problem with AP Kog is that he has one real damaging spell, though his acid spit and bulimia-ball have decent ratios of 0.7 and 0.6, respectively. It should be playable, though I've never seen it work myself.

Except, y'know, Karthus's damage spell doubles in ratio if it only hits a single target. Kog's ratio is .3 for real while Karthus's is actually a .6. Also, obviously the real reason you want a Karthus is the combination of Defile and Lay Waste and immortality. AP Kog's DPS is nothing to write home about. Hell, Deathcap isn't even generally worth building; it's not usually even +100 damage.

AP Kog should just build items that have utility effects and ones that provide mana; Tear/AA, Rylai, Void are pretty good. Cap can be a consideration but really, that's like building a Deathcap on Ryze. I'd just stick to utility and go from there. The thing about "AP" Kog is the base damage on Living Artillery. That's what it's based on. Focus on being able to apply that base damage as often as possible for as long as possible. That's the important part.

EDIT: For the record, the difference between an AA Staff/Rylai/Void Kog and an AA/Rylai/Void/Zhonya/Deathcap Kog in DPS is 100 per ulti hit. Yes, 7k worth of AP gets you from ~500 to ~600 damage per hit. I daresay that's just not the best use for your gold ever. Though I don't really see anything else useful to do with it either; build IE+PD, I guess? Hell, the AD scaling on his ult would compensate for some of the lost value.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

Smartcast Ryze is wicked fun on TT.

Utterly destroyed a Fiora in the top lane, with our Lee Sin jungling and an Urgot wrecking bottom lane.

Perfect game, think I went 10/0/1 or something crazy like that.

[ex cathedra]

Except, y'know, Karthus's damage spell doubles in ratio if it only hits a single target. Kog's ratio is .3 for real while Karthus's is actually a .6. Also, obviously the real reason you want a Karthus is the combination of Defile and Lay Waste and immortality. AP Kog's DPS is nothing to write home about. Hell, Deathcap isn't even generally worth building; it's not usually even +100 damage.

To be fair, Lay Waste won't do more single target damage than Kog's R until Karthus has 530 AP.

EDIT: For the record, the difference between an AA Staff/Rylai/Void Kog and an AA/Rylai/Void/Zhonya/Deathcap Kog in DPS is 100 per ulti hit. Yes, 7k worth of AP gets you from ~500 to ~600 damage per hit. I daresay that's just not the best use for your gold ever. Though I don't really see anything else useful to do with it either; build IE+PD, I guess?

Zhonya's utility is hard to overstate on a champion like Kog'Maw, especially against Kassadin, Irelia, Akali, Nocturne, etc. Given the recent blue buff nerf, I honestly think that RoA might provide more value than a deathcap for that slot. Deathcap does offer quite a bit for Kog's Q/E, though. Q would be better if not for its dangerously short range, but E is a very serious part of AP Kog's arsenal.

Edit:
Also, there's nothing wrong with comparing very slightly poorly to the champion with the highest AoE DPS in the game.

[Eldariel]

To be fair, Lay Waste won't do more single target damage than Kog's R until Karthus has 530 AP.

Yeah, but that's not really the point.

Zhonya's utility is hard to overstate on a champion like Kog'Maw, especially against Kassadin, Irelia, Akali, Nocturne, etc. Given the recent blue buff nerf, I honestly think that RoA might provide more value than a deathcap for that slot. Deathcap does offer quite a bit for Kog's Q/E, though. Q would be better if not for its dangerously short range, but E is a very serious part of AP Kog's arsenal.

Eh; my experience with AP Kog is that once you have Tear, Void and Rylai you're pretty much full build. The rest could just as well be Warmog's and Guardian Angel for all you care. The only problem is, he's way too safe to bother with that much defense against any team without Kassadin/Nocturne so I'm kinda at a loss on what to do.

Best idea I've heard thus far is just building AD; it's not like your ulti damage suffers much and I much rather take 600-700 damage autoattacks at ~2.0 ASpd than 600 damage Es since Kog AAs a bit more frequently I wager. Hell, get Manamune instead of AA for all it matters. I do like Rylai though, and Void seems kinda necessary for the poke to truly take its toll though I guess you can switch to Greaves from Sorcs late.

[9mm]

Eh; my experience with AP Kog is that once you have Tear, Void and Rylai you're pretty much full build. The rest could just as well be Warmog's and Guardian Angel for all you care. The only problem is, he's way too safe to bother with that much defense against any team without Kassadin/Nocturne so I'm kinda at a loss on what to do.

In my experience bulking up is always a good idea if your playing extreme range champs. Now this could be my horrible micro, but battles tend to become long running fights that will invariably catch up to you. The basic bulk from RoA can give you just enough time to get back to a safe spot. The AP and mana (that AA will turn into AP) are nice bonuses.

[ex cathedra]

If you're going to get into AA range in the first place, why not build Deathcap to significantly increase your Q/E burst?

Also, even though the AP conversion is fairly small relative to the base damage, over the course of time you end up turning your AP into a great deal of additional damage., Sure, you don't scale as well with gold as Cassiopeia or Karthus, but who does? And, seriously, if you can't think of anything else to build why shouldn't you increase your poke damage?

[Duos]

I would posit that for once, Nashor's Tooth has a place in a build. It's AP and CDR, which are really important, but it also gives attack speed, which you CAN use-kog's W still has an AP ratio, and with all of your AP, it winds up around 8-10% of max hp per hit.

Speaking of CDR, morello's would be fine, and Will would be good too, seeing as you can spellvamp back whatever poke you're taking.

Other potential options would be malady (again, AP and attack speed, the shred is just a bonus) and moonflair spellblade (tenacity is good and you don't get mercs.)

[ex cathedra]

I would posit that for once, Nashor's Tooth has a place in a build. It's AP and CDR, which are really important, but it also gives attack speed, which you CAN use-kog's W still has an AP ratio, and with all of your AP, it winds up around 8-10% of max hp per hit.

Speaking of CDR, morello's would be fine, and Will would be good too, seeing as you can spellvamp back whatever poke you're taking.

Other potential options would be malady (again, AP and attack speed, the shred is just a bonus) and moonflair spellblade (tenacity is good and you don't get mercs.)

Depending on masteries, this build hits either specifically 34% or 40% CDR naturally. No CDR itemization is necessary.

Moonflair Spellblade is strictly worse than Hourglass for slot efficiency and utility value. Will would be okay, but your own team will almost never benefit from it in a teamfight due to range constraints, someone else could easily pick one up, and literally the only character capable of consistently poking AP Kog'Maw is another AP Kog'Maw so that's a nonfactor. Malady requires you to be really close to apply that shred, so I'd rather just have Abyssal instead.

[Adumbration]

Any bright ideas on how to gank a Lee Sin top lane?

[lord_khaine]

Stuns and lots of them?

Or try and time it so that he doesnt have minions to dash back towards?

[Eldariel]

If you're going to get into AA range in the first place, why not build Deathcap to significantly increase your Q/E burst?

'cause the damage increase from IE and PD is vastly superior to the damage increase Deathcap + AP items gives your QWE.

Also, even though the AP conversion is fairly small relative to the base damage, over the course of time you end up turning your AP into a great deal of additional damage., Sure, you don't scale as well with gold as Cassiopeia or Karthus, but who does? And, seriously, if you can't think of anything else to build why shouldn't you increase your poke damage?

If your AP scaling is bad, you just don't build AP items. It's silly to; you invest a lot of gold for a marginal improvement - whereas most AP champs double-triple their damage output, Kog's increases by like 25% or so and your base is so high that you don't even really need the increase (and your ult has a .5 AD scaling too). If your base damage is massive and your scaling is terrible, why not just roll with the base damages and build more useful items instead? Building Deathcap on Kog is like building it on Ryze; sure, it gives you some extra damage but it's hardly as good as the alternatives.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Or try and time it so that he doesnt have minions to dash back towards?

I think this is the main thing when ganking Lee. It's something to take into account any time ganking a lane with skillshots, but very important vs Lee.

[Zen Master]

Sometimes, you get these perfect games - in this case, my 500th win (thank god it was a win).

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While I have my doubts on their builds - Nasus in particular - it's not like they played badly. Despite his score, Jax in particular was actually very good, he just mostly had to employ his skill at making impressive escapes.

[DeusMortuusEst]

I've just started playing and unlocked Kassadin yesterday. So far I've only had time to play to games with him, and so far I like him. Being a total noob I thought that I should come here and ask for some general advice.

So, Kassadin, anything special I should have in mind when playing?

[† Dran †]

q,w,q,e,q,r,q,e,q,e,e,r

(pretty sure thats right) is how I skill Kass, I like RoA over AA (strange I know) void staff is a must imho (unless they are noobs and build no MR) jump one just in front of you before engaging to stack your jumps as it amps the damage, but dont try and stack it more then 3 times unless you have blue. Try really hard to learn to last hit under a tower as any mid is going to beat you until your 6 really. Remember you are really the most mobile character in the game and unless you do something wrong, they shouldnt be able to gank or kill you.

Oh and look up the map of all the areas that you can jump to/through, some of them are MUCH larger jumps then you should be able to do cause of how the terrain works.