League of Legends XL: Season on Hold 'til Morello gets Gold

[Thrawn183]

This WE vs CLG.EU game is great.

[ex cathedra]

I don't know, I think it's a lighthearted, almost whimsical thing now. And I'm always in more favor of more whimsy. Every community needs its little nonsensical traditions and in-jokes.

I don't really have a problem with in-jokes, but I think they're best in moderation and hearing ward kills dozens of times a game really grinds on after a while.

[Thrawn183]

I don't really have a problem with in-jokes, but I think they're best in moderation and hearing ward kills dozens of times a game really grinds on after a while.

I don't mind in that the break up a lot of the monotony of delay tactics. It makes watching the games more like watching a sports event.

[Forrestfire]

Wow, that game was amazing to watch. So much tension for both teams

[PersonMan]

I don't mind in that the break up a lot of the monotony of delay tactics. It makes watching the games more like watching a sports event.

Aye. It also gives something to listen to while the camera is following a jungler taking wraiths, then finding an enemy ward and killing it.

[McDouggal]

So, it turns out that Zhonya's Hourglass interrupts Absolute Zero.

FUUUUUUUUUUUU!

(was getting wasted by stuns/silences whenever I tried to channel it, and remebering that it doesn't interrupt Morg ult, went and built it. Well, position perfectly, ult, hourglass stops the ult.)

[ZeroNumerous]

Has Captain Jack forgotten how to get away, or is Azubu Blaze just making bad decisions?

@Ward Cheers: It's more interesting than just "Oh, another ward kill".

EDIT:

(was getting wasted by stuns/silences whenever I tried to channel it, and remebering that it doesn't interrupt Morg ult, went and built it. Well, position perfectly, ult, hourglass stops the ult.)

It doesn't interrupt Morg ulti because Morg ulti isn't channeled.

[Eldariel]

Has Captain Jack forgotten how to get away, or is Azubu Blaze just making bad decisions?

They don't know how to deal with Evelynn. Stands to reason they've never faced Alex Ich Eve. I'm seeing a ban G2.

[Litewarior]

I saw Froggen playing Anivia in IPL, and he was dominating without blue buff or any mana items. Does anyone have any tips? Whenever I play Anivia, I seem to press R or Q and immediately run out of mana.

[Eldariel]

I saw Froggen playing Anivia in IPL, and he was dominating without blue buff or any mana items. Does anyone have any tips? Whenever I play Anivia, I seem to press R or Q and immediately run out of mana.

R eats mana like hell; don't use spells when not necessary if you don't have blue. You absolutely want Tear or two mana items without blue. Don't try to push aggressively unless you're about to base. Use Q to push over R; it's generally more economical if you can afford the wait. Other than that, play normal, roam, use autos, hit your Qs, use short ulti bursts to proc Es outside teamfights. It's really just in the mana management.

[toasty]

Scarra has said on stream that after the Eve/DFG nerfs Eve isn't easy to play anymore, yet both Alex Ich and Misaya have used Eve to great success at IPL5. Is that because the enemy teams didn't know how to "handle" a hero like Eve, who punishes misplays a lot harder than many heroes, or is it because they're just really good at Eve? Or both?

Also: HOLY ****ING **** WORLD ELITE IS AMAZING THAT CLG.EU v WE 2nd game.

Actually in general, I'm really glad we have these big international LANs now. I remember World Elite from last year's IEM in China and I was so surprised they won the finals v CLG. It seems strange, but I find the chinese teams (WE and iG) are my favorite at this point. I have no attachment to China whatsoever, and don't even want to visit, but for some reason at this point I'd say my favorite teams are iG, WE and Crs/CLG.Prime. I really enjoy watching old school teams like Fnatic and SK, who have been around forever, and I obviously follow all the NA teams respect the top 4 (Crs, CLG, Dig, TSM), but I just... enjoy watching the Chinese.

[Qwertystop]

I usually go Boots-3, Catalyst, Chalice, RoA, Grail, then defenses. Do you think switching the Catalyst/RoA for a Tear/AA Staff would work better? I typically manage to get blue and keep it.

EDIT: This is as Anivia.

[Eldariel]

Scarra has said on stream that after the Eve/DFG nerfs Eve isn't easy to play anymore, yet both Alex Ich and Misaya have used Eve to great success at IPL5. Is that because the enemy teams didn't know how to "handle" a hero like Eve, who punishes misplays a lot harder than many heroes, or is it because they're just really good at Eve? Or both?

Really good. Tho enemy team being inexperienced against Eve also helps.

I usually go Boots-3, Catalyst, Chalice, RoA, Grail, then defenses. Do you think switching the Catalyst/RoA for a Tear/AA Staff would work better? I typically manage to get blue and keep it.

EDIT: This is as Anivia.

That build is fine. If you get blue it's doubly fine; RoA's 700 Health goes a long way towards making you unkillable and Catalyst trounces Tear on lane. AA Staff is for skipping Grail or when you really absolutely must not run out of mana without blue.

[Joran]

That was the earliest snowball I've seen. TPA vs Curse.NA. Voyboy gets donated Blue as Elise and TPA sends Caitlyn/Nunu top. Voyboy walks up river into the brush and a Caitlyn trap. Caitlyn gets first blood TPA sends their jungle up top and gets the tower in under 4 minutes. They swap bottom, take out the bottom tower, then take dragon and are up by 3-4 K. One minor mistake by Voyboy basically lost the game.

[ZeroNumerous]

Is that because the enemy teams didn't know how to "handle" a hero like Eve, who punishes misplays a lot harder than many heroes, or is it because they're just really good at Eve? Or both?

Don't forget that both players had teams following a very basic principle: Nuke one guy. In particular, Alex Ich's sole job was to nuke Captain Jack's face off as soon as he saw Vayne anywhere in a fight.

Recall that he did this with Haunting Guise, Sorc Shoes, and DFG. That's 49 penetration, on top of DFG's 25%~ max HP + Eve's 35%~ max HP nukes, and Jack lacked any MR except for Aegis. He wasn't using Eve/DFG in the standard "NUKE ALL THE THINGS" mode it was used prior. Instead, he was using Eve as a direct counter to a lynchpin player on the opposing team.

[LordShotGun]

Dang, TPA versus CLG.EU. Someone tell me the outcome tommorow later today, I am going to bed.

[ChaosOS]

TPA picked up 2-1 over CLG, coming back from being down game one. Basically yellowpete kept getting behind in CS compared to Bebe and as a result Bebe just tore through CLG faster than yellowpete could through TPA, especially since neither team had assassins (Rengar doesn't count with the health stack build). CLG game 3 went an AOE comp and just couldn't get the grouping that they needed, because either snoopeh on mumu and wickd on rumble would get bursted down before they could blow their ults or their ults didn't hit enough people.

[Renegade Paladin]

I played Garen.
Other guy played Miss Fortune.

I went 10/4/3
Miss Fortune went 10/12/1

Guy playing Warwick went AFK three minutes in, so we were 4v5.

Miss Fortune's natural reaction? Spam "NOOB GAREN" ten or twelve times in post-game chat.

[TheShrike]

So, 5 tank teams are pretty silly. Played one last night, ours was Volibear top, Cho mid, Mundo jungle and Blitz/Leona bottom lane. I was the Mundo, and first of all 60+ hp regen per second (before Baron buff) is really fun, and so is taking so long to kill that you kite the enemies from your inner mid tower, to Baron, to their Blue (they were Blue side) and then back to your tower for your team to help and managing to get off three (3!) ults during the chase. Wtf Mundo, why so tanky?

Also, Singed was both the most annoying and most useless character on the enemy team. He made it annoying to get to the real damage dealers (Varus/Kha'Zix) but once they died he did nothing, though we could never kill him. I actually healed faster than his poison did damage to me, it was silly.

EDIT: It was a fairly weak teamcomp (especially bottom lane) but we decided as a team that we wanted to be really tanky, not necessarily bruisery. We thus decided that Jarvan/Lee Sin/Irelia/Jax etc weren't Kosher, and tried to work from there. Mundo cleavers OP.

[Arbitrarity]

So, 5 tank teams are pretty silly. Played one last night, ours was Volibear top, Cho mid, Mundo jungle and Blitz/Leona bottom lane. I was the Mundo, and first of all 60+ hp regen per second (before Baron buff) is really fun, and so is taking so long to kill that you kite the enemies from your inner mid tower, to Baron, to their Blue (they were Blue side) and then back to your tower for your team to help and managing to get off three (3!) ults during the chase. Wtf Mundo, why so tanky?

Also, Singed was both the most annoying and most useless character on the enemy team. He made it annoying to get to the real damage dealers (Varus/Kha'Zix) but once they died he did nothing, though we could never kill him. I actually healed faster than his poison did damage to me, it was silly.

EDIT: It was a fairly weak teamcomp (especially bottom lane) but we decided as a team that we wanted to be really tanky, not necessarily bruisery. We thus decided that Jarvan/Lee Sin/Irelia/Jax etc weren't Kosher, and tried to work from there. Mundo cleavers OP.

Mundo (and Leona, I think) are the masters of non-scaling base damage. Volibear is mostly good in sustained fights with his ult.
To counter in draft, I'd probably want... hm. Probably just Vayne with some good persistent slows, to peel against a team with no real gap-closers. Singed/Anivia would probably be good there. Throw in Trundle (or Amumu, but Trundle pillar too good) and Support Zyra for tons of peel for Vayne.

[Cogwheel]

So, 5 tank teams are pretty silly. Played one last night, ours was Volibear top, Cho mid, Mundo jungle and Blitz/Leona bottom lane. I was the Mundo, and first of all 60+ hp regen per second (before Baron buff) is really fun, and so is taking so long to kill that you kite the enemies from your inner mid tower, to Baron, to their Blue (they were Blue side) and then back to your tower for your team to help and managing to get off three (3!) ults during the chase. Wtf Mundo, why so tanky?

Also, Singed was both the most annoying and most useless character on the enemy team. He made it annoying to get to the real damage dealers (Varus/Kha'Zix) but once they died he did nothing, though we could never kill him. I actually healed faster than his poison did damage to me, it was silly.

EDIT: It was a fairly weak teamcomp (especially bottom lane) but we decided as a team that we wanted to be really tanky, not necessarily bruisery. We thus decided that Jarvan/Lee Sin/Irelia/Jax etc weren't Kosher, and tried to work from there. Mundo cleavers OP.

I would have thrown in Amumu or Singed, myself, unless they're not tanky enough for you. Fun comp, though. One of my favourites is still the Amumu/Rammus kill lane for bottom. Yes, it worked.


Renegade Paladin: Disregard the stupid, you can't avoid it but you can at least avoid thinking about it too much.

Also, I think I added you? Can't recall, it's been a while. Either way, we should play some matches some time. Could use a third Treeline player anyway, if you'd be up for that - a good team for Normals that doesn't have fifty billion matchmaking ELO. As an added bonus, Garen is a monster there.


Not that I'm playing anything until I get this mess of work cleared away, but anyway, thought I'd throw it out there.

[Lix Lorn]

More reviews:

Thanks, will bold replies and try to return the favour soon :)

Selene:

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Ok, creepy hivemind vibe. Alright, I like the flavor.

The passive is good. It rewards you for safe play, and it isn't too strong.

The Q is good; I'd imagine it would move about the same speed as Anivia Q for balance reasons. Good flavor, too.
Thanks, and yeah.

W is kind of a no-no; Any snare longer than 2 seconds should not be point and click, it should not have 400 base damage, and it shouldn't grant 50% spellvamp. I'd cut the spellvamp and either spread the damage out over the snare or just frontload it. Either way, I'd heavily reduce the damage.
Guess the snare is too long, lowered. Also wow I did NOT realise how much scaling I'd put on that. Damage majorly lowered. The spellvamp remains, however, since it's the major point of the skill.

E is neat. It's like Vlad's pool, right? I might cut the AoE damage vulnerability; drawbacks on abilities kind of feel bad. I'd also up the CD buy quite a bit, since untargetability is really, really strong.
Both fair.

R is like a hybrid of MAlz ult andCho'gath ult. I can dig it, although the stacks it gives each grant a ton of free stat, I might cut some of them and change the remainder from percentage to flat stats jsut to make them easier to balance.
Fair

Karen:

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I'll be honest, her lore reads like bad fanfic. It was kind of painful.
This was effectively the point.

Passive looks good. It makes her naturally tanky.

Her Q is pretty good, fairly straightforward. A dash on that low of a CD worries me, but Riven is a champion that exists, so eh.

The damage portion of W is fine, but the healing is waaaay to high. I would definitely nerf it.
It's based on Xin's heal. She's not utterly silly built with AP, though, so it's not QUITE as high. Or shouldn't be.

E is has the same problems that Nika's Q had: It's trying to do too much. It's a blink that snares, blinds, shields, and does damage. Cut three out of five and it will be ok.
It's trying to reference all of her aunts. She has a lot of them. It's rather inconvenient.

R has a HUGE range and a massive pull. The damage AoE is really small compared to the pull AoE, and there's no listed duration, so I'm assuming 2-3 seconds. It's a really high AD ratio, so I might change it a bit. I would change the pull range, decrease it a bit. I'd also up the CD a bit, since that's a REALLY low cooldown for such a powerful forced movement ability.
It has to have decent range to actually pull them into the AoE. Possibly I overestimated how large 500 is. Five Teemos is a bit much.
If it's not obvious, it's based on Garen's Judgement. The final cooldown is so low because she should be able to do it pretty often, same as Garen does it all the time. You couldn't have garen+kat without a significant amount of spin2win.

Hooray for champions!

[TheShrike]

I would have thrown in Amumu or Singed, myself, unless they're not tanky enough for you.

Yeah, obviously Amumu would be good for damage, CC etc. but sadly we were fairly limited by champion pools. One of our players was sub-30 and owned only AP/AD carries, so he grabbed free week Blitz, for example.

[Cogwheel]

Yeah, obviously Amumu would be good for damage, CC etc. but sadly we were fairly limited by champion pools. One of our players was sub-30 and owned only AP/AD carries, so he grabbed free week Blitz, for example.

Ah, I see. That explains it.

Some other ideas if you do this in future, though. Alistar and Shen may both be good picks, and aside from that, Taric makes and excellent burst damage-based AP champion for an all-tank team if you build him for it. Weird, but true. AP means he still has the armour from Shatter/gives everyone else armour/has enormous heals, too, so you lose some tankiness, but not a ton. As an added bonus, it's incredibly silly/outrageous.

[Postmodernist]

So, I've returned with another noob question:

I'm working on a pretty generic rune sheet (armor, magic resist, etc.) as per the recommendations I was given here. I'm currently working on the glyphs, and I'm curious to know what the community consensus is about scaling runes. Is it better to get flat magic resist runes (Greater Glyph of Warding) or the scaling ones (Greater Glyph of Shielding)? If so, why? Scaling runes seem to win out by level 9, which makes perfect sense. What are your preferences and why? Any other suggestions for a noob nearing 30?

[tyckspoon]

I'm currently working on the glyphs, and I'm curious to know what the community consensus is about scaling runes. Is it better to get flat magic resist runes (Greater Glyph of Warding) or the scaling ones (Greater Glyph of Shielding)? If so, why? Scaling runes seem to win out by level 9, which makes perfect sense. What are your preferences and why? Any other suggestions for a noob nearing 30?

Mostly depends on where you think you'll be laning. In Blind Pick Normals, the safe picks are scaling in most lanes and flats for Mid, because Mid is the meta-designated AP lane so you're likely to be taking much more magic-based damage there. In the other lanes, most of your incoming damage is likely to be physical (from lane minions, jungle monsters, and autoattacks/AD-based abilities), and by the time you start having to worry about major magic damage from a roaming mid or group fights you'll be at or near the switchover point where the scaling runes are more powerful.

(That said, if you are only putting together one page, I'd probably go flats unless you plan to jungle a lot, because there's a lot of magic damage around even from otherwise-AD-using champs and you can't reliably know what kind of weird stuff you might have to fight against.)

[Eldariel]

A new team, another Dominion tournament, another second place. Somebody needs to make me a Bridesmaid Humanoid Anivia avatar.

Game 1 (unfortunately I seem to have forgotten most of the picks/bans so I won't be listing those unless I figure them out from somewhere):

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Game 2:

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Game 3:

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Technical difficulties cost us a lot here; we didn't notice Lulu DC until after a fight and our ADC was playing with 130 ping due to some German operator being ****.

[Postmodernist]

Mostly depends on where you think you'll be laning. In Blind Pick Normals, the safe picks are scaling in most lanes and flats for Mid, because Mid is the meta-designated AP lane so you're likely to be taking much more magic-based damage there. In the other lanes, most of your incoming damage is likely to be physical (from lane minions, jungle monsters, and autoattacks/AD-based abilities), and by the time you start having to worry about major magic damage from a roaming mid or group fights you'll be at or near the switchover point where the scaling runes are more powerful.

(That said, if you are only putting together one page, I'd probably go flats unless you plan to jungle a lot, because there's a lot of magic damage around even from otherwise-AD-using champs and you can't reliably know what kind of weird stuff you might have to fight against.)

Thanks! I think I'll go scaling. Seems to make the most sense.

[Mephit]

Holy crap, Fnatic is completely crushing TPA. It's not even close. Kha'zix/Diana/Ezreal is pretty brutal in terms of damage+mobility.

Edit: And one minute later it's over.
Edit2: Aaaand Hatperson fanboyed over Fnatic so much that he shook their hands, but not TPA's. What the hell, man. I used to get annoyed by his lack of game knowledge, but now I'm convinced he's really too socially oblivious to ever make it anywhere as a caster.

[Renegade Paladin]

Renegade Paladin: Disregard the stupid, you can't avoid it but you can at least avoid thinking about it too much.

Also, I think I added you? Can't recall, it's been a while. Either way, we should play some matches some time. Could use a third Treeline player anyway, if you'd be up for that - a good team for Normals that doesn't have fifty billion matchmaking ELO. As an added bonus, Garen is a monster there.


Not that I'm playing anything until I get this mess of work cleared away, but anyway, thought I'd throw it out there.

Yeah, I know. I don't think you did; the only people on my list are Godskook, his alt, and my sister. I'm not so much a Treeline player as a player of the game; I see no need to constrain myself to one map or game mode. I'm willing to play Treeline or not; either's fine with me. Remember I'm not Renegade Paladin in the game; there's an imposter running about in there. You're looking for New Clean Garen.