League of Legends XXXIII: Game of Mundo

[Math_Mage]

Baylife is a statement that somehow relates itself to the "lifestyle" of the SoCal Bay Area

The what? No such animal.

But yeah, apparently I should know where Baylife comes from, because it comes from where I live. Shows what I know.

[toasty]

The what? No such animal.

But yeah, apparently I should know where Baylife comes from, because it comes from where I live. Shows what I know.

Shows you A) how much I know about California B) how shrouded in mystery the "saying of Baylife" is.

[Silverraptor]

Shows you A) how much I know about California B) how shrouded in mystery the "saying of Baylife" is.

And when did you become so knowledgable about where I live Toasty?

[Math_Mage]

So, Varus officially released. Looks like Ashe. Weak steroids, good range, HOLY BALLS THAT CC. Duo lane with Alistar, acquire free kills at level 6.

[TechnOkami]

And when did you become so knowledgable about where I live Toasty?

You live in Cali Silver? So do I!

[TFT]

...Yea, I live in the area too. I've heard baylife before(It's such a silly thing that I don't even remember hearing around here any more in recent history, which thankfully has gone away) I've never heard of it called Cali silver before though.

Also, SoCal bay area may not be a used term, but it does accurately describe silicon valleys location in the bay area XD

On a league related note... As a support player, I'm really worried Varus is going to become the new Graves. Or maybe more like the new corki, what with the significantly long ranged ult... and a snare.

Okay, I'm quite terrified of Varus as a support player.

[TechnOkami]

So Cal is basically the southern 1/2 of california. The Bay Area is in Northern California, which has Silicon Valley in it.

[Mirrinus]

I grew up in southern California, but did my undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley, so I too am familiar with the Bay Area. That's what I figured the phrase meant when I first heard it as well.

Anyway, I'm interested in learning jungle Riven, but I'm unfamiliar with what to build or what route to take. Any advice for me would be greatly appreciated.

[Talesin]

I grew up in southern California, but did my undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley, so I too am familiar with the Bay Area. That's what I figured the phrase meant when I first heard it as well.

Anyway, I'm interested in learning jungle Riven, but I'm unfamiliar with what to build or what route to take. Any advice for me would be greatly appreciated.

A friend of mine plays her boots/cloth -> 2 dorans -> BT -> Hexdrinker if magic damage is a real problem GA if not -> Hex drinker -> Maw

He's done really well with her and says the lack of survivability is less of a concern given the shield scales so well and she's not designed to be a tank. I assume that means he'd pick her into a naturally tanky top but I do question how well she would do in team fights.

I'm going to watch him play a few at some point but the duels i've seen him in he just destroys people. I've seen the ult damage drop people from just under half health.

[fred dref]

Riven joins the list of champions who are really good at skirmishes and as the second man into a fight. You never want to jump in while all the ults are flying, but unlike Yi (for example), once that's done her shield, stun and general movement can keep her alive through a surprising amount of punishment.

[Talesin]

Has anyone got any advice on Galio's ult? Do you want to get the AD and/or AP carry everytime or is it enough to just lock up 3-4 of their team?

I find its hard to get to the back line and really hold their carries up especially if they're playing with Cait. My 3 ults I had yesterday, 1 I messed up totally and only got 2 people, the second one I got Riven, Janna, Ahri and whoever their fourth was and the final one I got Riven, Janna and Ahri again.

I was primarily aiming to get Ahri after she'd blown her first R dash but also pick up as much as their team as possible. The two times I taunted Ahri she died very quickly to focus fire but we ended up losing the team fights overall.

My build tends to be Mercs, Chalice, Abyssal, Glacial (FH if I need the armour), Rylais, then build whatever I feel is needed. I've never had a game go much further than the above build but i've heard good things about Spirit Visage, Deathcap and then someone recommending Warmogs, though I probably wouldn't build it myself.

[Darth Mario]

Has anyone got any advice on Galio's ult? Do you want to get the AD and/or AP carry everytime or is it enough to just lock up 3-4 of their team?

I find its hard to get to the back line and really hold their carries up especially if they're playing with Cait. My 3 ults I had yesterday, 1 I messed up totally and only got 2 people, the second one I got Riven, Janna, Ahri and whoever their fourth was and the final one I got Riven, Janna and Ahri again.

I was primarily aiming to get Ahri after she'd blown her first R dash but also pick up as much as their team as possible. The two times I taunted Ahri she died very quickly to focus fire but we ended up losing the team fights overall.

My build tends to be Mercs, Chalice, Abyssal, Glacial (FH if I need the armour), Rylais, then build whatever I feel is needed. I've never had a game go much further than the above build but i've heard good things about Spirit Visage, Deathcap and then someone recommending Warmogs, though I probably wouldn't build it myself.

Galio ult usage is hugely situational (and before I go any further and forget... why the hell are you building Rylai's on him at all?). Sometimes it's part of your burst combo, sometimes it's to lock up a team as/in conjunction with your team's initiation, sometimes it's to peel off a key target. The way you SHOULD be using it varies game to game, based on your composition/fedness and the enemy's composition/fedness.

My general advice with initiator-type ults is this, however: Don't rush a commitment you can't back up, know who is POSSIBLE to hit, and know who you NEED to hit. If you're fighting Cait, yes, she's going to be very very difficult to catch in range, but her late game DPS is quite low for a carry (obviously still significant, but comparing to, say, Graves or Vayne or Trist). This means that the necessity of catching her is lower: tying up 3 or 4 of her teammates in CC may zone her out of the fight alone, since coming in when they can't protect her may be a death sentence.

Characters that rely on mobility and casting for survival, like Ahri, are almost always high priority for Galio's CC. I wouldn't blame yourself for losing those teamfights, it sounds like you did your job fine in those moments. The difference is more likely to have been in gold differential, or your teammates play.

TL;DR: Ult their high-mobility champions, don't build Rylai's.


Edit to avoid doublepost: So Boompje's crew almost has a fix for the spectator patch up, I may be back within a couple days.

[TheLogman]

Has anyone got any advice on Galio's ult? Do you want to get the AD and/or AP carry everytime or is it enough to just lock up 3-4 of their team?

I find its hard to get to the back line and really hold their carries up especially if they're playing with Cait. My 3 ults I had yesterday, 1 I messed up totally and only got 2 people, the second one I got Riven, Janna, Ahri and whoever their fourth was and the final one I got Riven, Janna and Ahri again.

I was primarily aiming to get Ahri after she'd blown her first R dash but also pick up as much as their team as possible. The two times I taunted Ahri she died very quickly to focus fire but we ended up losing the team fights overall.

My build tends to be Mercs, Chalice, Abyssal, Glacial (FH if I need the armour), Rylais, then build whatever I feel is needed. I've never had a game go much further than the above build but i've heard good things about Spirit Visage, Deathcap and then someone recommending Warmogs, though I probably wouldn't build it myself.

Galio is hyper flexible, that's what I like about him. A lot depends on how you're playing him though. I generally play him as an AP mid. I main Anivia in mid, but I've found that Galio is a strong counter to guys that usually counter Anivia in lane (Akali, Kassadin, Morgana), and a pretty good counter against most other AP champs (stacks on stacks of MR). Plus his farm is glorious, since a Q and a E cleans most minion waves once you're well leveled.

As for my build, I generally start Boots+Pots or if I'm going against a champ with really strong early game magic damage I'll get a Mantle. From there I rush Chalice (with less concern about Chalice if my jungler can feed me a blue or we can steal the enemy blue). Mercs boots for sure, and from there I actually generally get Banshee's, since the HP, MP, Sustain, and big MR boost is nice. But if I'm the primary source of AP on the team, I'll usually go for Abyssal, since that combination of AP and MR (to turn into AP) works nice for Galio, or if I'm super fed, I'll go Deathcap (assuming I don't think I need the MR).

Spirit Visage is nice and I've gotten good results from it, but I don't fined myself healing enough for its Passive to be fantastic until later game, so I wouldn't rush that.

I've found the most essential item for me to get is the Chalice though, because it gives me the mana I need to stay in lane and farm meself up.

As for the Galio ult, getting the AD carry is a fantastic idea, since their higher attack speed makes the damage from your ult go up significantly, and locking up the AP carry means shutting down spellcasting for a teamfight (YES) but I wouldn't worry primarily about them unless you can ensure a kill. I've found that in practice, locking up the majority of the enemy team is enough to get your team a really good number of kills. Obviously if their carry isn't doing very well, multiple kills are more valuable, but a fed carry that you are sure you can shut down is the most valuable.

Something like my Galio value list:

1. Shutting down a powerful caster or fed AD carry at the start of a teamfight.

2. Catching 3+ enemy team members (and killing them).

You shouldn't be ulting unless you are sure you can get a kill or you need to use the ult to let your teammates escape a bad fight (but you should be initiating with that ult, especially if you flash in).

[Dada]

I see three main uses for the Galio ult:

- Start a fight when the enemy team is in a bad position
- Lock down their main damage (AP carry early/mid, AD late)
- Protect your own carry, either by peeling the enemy team away, or placing your ult so they have to run through it to get to the carry

These will very often overlap, especially the first and second, since if you generally only able to land an ult on their main damage if they are out of position.

[Talesin]

Galio ult usage is hugely situational (and before I go any further and forget... why the hell are you building Rylai's on him at all?)

I went for Rylais mainly for the health and AP as i'm not a huge fan of 200-300 resistances and a relatively low health pool. What other items would you suggest to build some HP from or does Galio not really have to think about that because of the healing from his W?

I'll give BV a go though i'm really not a fan of it. I can see its uses and the shield can make or break a team fight, espeically on Galio's ult, but I find its popped more often than not.

I totally agree with not rushing a commitment and that's actually how I did the failed ult I mentioned in my post. I was lucky enough to have an Udyr who wanted to initiate fights so I let him go in first and then just followed him in with EQ and was able to position myself where I needed to be.

[toasty]

Galio:
Don't buy Rylais, you don't need the slow, you don't need the HP. You get about 2k HP base on him anyways. Besides, he's more of an AP caster than a tank. If you are afraid about not having enough HP get a Shurelias.

Core build for Galio played middle is usually Chalice of Harmony, Merc Treads and Abssyal. Sometimes you might want a Bveil instead of Abssyal but your damage will suffer if you do this.

After that core you can build a lot of different things. Frozen Heart is actually pretty good. A Deathcap rush makes you deal a LOT of damage. Shurelias, Aegis, Spirit Visage, I suppose Guardian Angel are all good buys from this point on.

Using your ult: Again, situational. If you have someone like Alistair or Amumu on your team then its likely that you'll want to hang back and use your ult to catch out the AD carry as much as possible. if you are the only form of initiation your team has then you need to just... initiate. Obviously initiating on the AD carry or AP carry is always the best thing (Forcing Vayne to auto you for the duration of your ult is like... a free win), but sometimes you can't do that. Your ult is great counter-initiation and if the enemy tanks/assassins get to your AD carry then maybe you're gonna have to ult anyways. Another then to realize is that you don't wanna stack CC. If you are running Amumu/Galio then don't ult right after Amumu ults, give the CC 1.5 seconds to wear off AND THEN ULT.

Also: Try not to ult when you will get canceled out of it instantly. Stuff like Bear Stance, Wukong Ult, Chogath Q, Garen Q all stop your Ult. Don't ult when these are about to hit you.

[PersonMan]

I hate how, sometimes, you know the enemy GP in your lane is bad and that the rest of their team is fairly meh, but lose anyways. We weren't outplayed, we just had a Garen who raged and DCed early after going 1/4, as well as a Fiddle who was executed twice early on and ended up 0/6 or so.

TL;DR: I hate 3v5s and losing to inferior teams.

[fred dref]

Sounds like they sorta were the better team.

[ex cathedra]

Sounds like they sorta were the better team.

My thoughts exactly.

It's a bummer that you lost and everything, but it's hard to imagine how a team could be more inferior than one with the players that you described.

[Temotei]

Sounds like they sorta were the better team.

My thoughts exactly.

Disconnecting is still frustrating to deal with, though. I feel you, Man.

[Math_Mage]

LoL Forum thread: Toxicity of Low-Level Play. Initially about my concern that Tribunal bans just shift toxic players to low-level smurfs that turn new players off the game; however, the first red comment set me straight by pointing out that smurfs of banned players are a small percentage of the toxic smurf population, and the discussion has somewhat broadened since. Thoughts welcome as always.

[fred dref]

Actually, regarding what PersonMan said, I was in a game once where I was tearing it up. I was 14/2/X as Ryze, so totally dominating the game. The problem was our Vayne was a very weak player, our Fiddlesticks was only useful for ulting and our Malphite disconnected. The other team overall was probably better (and they did win) but with a full 5 players I might have been able to drag my team to the enemy nexus. Only in League of Legends are 3 people heavier than 4.

So yeah, I've been in that situation before, but stuff happens. The next game you'll get Malphite against a Nocturne/Yi/Fiora/Trynd team and laugh as they have no attack speed.

[Dienekes]

So was Varus the only change this patch or am I missing the patchnotes because I'm blind or something?

[Eldariel]

So was Varus the only change this patch or am I missing the patchnotes because I'm blind or something?

They fixed the "not-being-able-to-share-invite-rights"-problem at least.

[Silverraptor]

LoL Forum thread: Toxicity of Low-Level Play. Initially about my concern that Tribunal bans just shift toxic players to low-level smurfs that turn new players off the game; however, the first red comment set me straight by pointing out that smurfs of banned players are a small percentage of the toxic smurf population, and the discussion has somewhat broadened since. Thoughts welcome as always.

I liked how some of the tribunal forum folks came in and trolled about how useless tribunal is. (lol) However, I really liked that the conviction rate in Tribunal is now 60%. That makes me feel alot better.

[Qaera]

Leona is FUN! Any pointers?

~ ♅

[Silverraptor]

Leona is FUN! Any pointers?

~ ♅

Her light sword projectile speed is too slow for my tastes.

Oh, you mean actual gameplay? Can't help you there, been too long.

[ex cathedra]

Leona is FUN! Any pointers?

~ ♅

JUNGLE.

it used to be kind of legit i promise

But Leona is the best. She's up there with Anivia, LeBlanc, Volibear, and Ashe as my best support champion. Lane with Corki or Graves if you're boring or Jarvan if you actually want to have fun. Get E at level 1, get Q at level 2, kill somebody, and then get W when you get level 3 off of your massive kill XP. Focus W. Initiate with your ult. Build CDR. Ruin days.

Start either all-ward/potion or boots/ward/potion. As many defensive runes/masteries as possible. 1/16/13 is probably legit. Use AD/AS reds if you don't have Armor reds. Exhaust + Flash/Ignite/CV/Heal is your best bet, depending on comp.

Rush Ninja Tabi + Heart of Gold. Get Philo Stone afterwards. Get CDR from Shurelya's and either Zeke's Herald or Frozen Heart. Build Aegis of the Legion. Wreck faces.

[fred dref]

She's up there with Anivia, LeBlanc, Volibear, and Ashe as my best support champion.

I don't think you've ever won a game as support LeBlanc, and support Ashe is like 50/50 suck/decent in games I've seen you run it. I've never actually seen you run support Volibear, and don't you have a 100% win rate with support Anivia?

[ex cathedra]

I don't think you've ever won a game as support LeBlanc

It worked once D:

and support Ashe is like 50/50 suck/decent in games I've seen you run it.

I'm up to like 75/25. Or 66/33. Numbers are hard. Support Ashe Carry is harder.

I've never actually seen you run support Volibear

yeah, it's pretty underground

and don't you have a 100% win rate with support Anivia?

My walls are the things of legend. I miss like one stun a game.* Ask Eld; I give lessons.**
*only to give my enemy a false sense of security
**this post just might be FULL OF LIES
but it probably isn't