League of Legends XXXVIII: Featuring Mumble, The Giant Halibut

[Forrestfire]

Originally Posted by Qwertystop

I'd be up for playing some games, but I don't want to play with someone who's never played any non-bot games. Are you that, or are you gust getting to know how to play Anivia with bot games?

I've been playing anivia since early May, it's just that I'm still wonky with her autoattack animation. It's mostly just practice with mid in general.

[LordShotGun]

Originally Posted by sonofzeal

Okay, how did this happen?

PVP Dominion. Both teams had a Poppy who ended up going #1. The enemy team's Poppy went 16/6/10; I went 10/6/4. A couple other champions on my team had decent KDA ratios, but I remember nobody on my team was even close to my total score, so it's not like we had four arsekickers and one feeder. And yet, somehow, we absolutely clobbered them - won with about half our nexus health left. I mean, I know you can win without necessarily winning fights, but the final kill scores compared to the nexus scores just seemed totally out of whack.

Let me guess. You had been losing the early game hard but made a major comeback about halfway into the match.

Yeah, if I am correct you had the dominion "balancer" take pity on you and made your respawn times a fraction of the enemy team's. This is very important as it leads to a fresh from spawn team engaging an already half dead team and taking points.

This leads to the enemy team having to suffer unduly long respawns while our team is free to take a few points, grab some health relics and defend with the home turret advantage.

So yeah, I have had games where I almost lose because the enemy team has a 5 second respawn and we have a 20-30 second one.

[Nadevoc]

Originally Posted by Forrestfire

Would anyone be up for playing some games tonight? I need more practice as anivia, and don't really want to throw myself into solo queue...

I'm up for games. Do you Mumble, or do I need to track you down other, sleazier ways?

[sonofzeal]

Originally Posted by LordShotGun

Let me guess. You had been losing the early game hard but made a major comeback about halfway into the match.

Yeah, if I am correct you had the dominion "balancer" take pity on you and made your respawn times a fraction of the enemy team's. This is very important as it leads to a fresh from spawn team engaging an already half dead team and taking points.

This leads to the enemy team having to suffer unduly long respawns while our team is free to take a few points, grab some health relics and defend with the home turret advantage.

So yeah, I have had games where I almost lose because the enemy team has a 5 second respawn and we have a 20-30 second one.

Well, we lost the initial fight for Top, but exchanged three deaths for one and then recovered admirably. We were winning solidly through most of the rest of the game too.

Also... I haven't heard of this "balancer". AFAIK, Dominion spawns work on "waves" - if one person drops early in the fight, their respawn time sets it for anyone else who dies during that period. So if one drops at exactly twelve minutes in, and the rest of the team gets instaquadra'd ten seconds later, they all spawn when the first person does, effectively shortening their respawn by ten seconds.

I guess we were just that epic at defending points? We had a few champions who are really hard to get off a point, and the enemy team simply wasn't that together with defending, mostly charging around the map picking up the occasional undefended points and getting jungle/lane ganks, rather than knocking defenders off their points or defending their own points all that well.

[Eldariel]

Originally Posted by LordShotGun

Let me guess. You had been losing the early game hard but made a major comeback about halfway into the match.

Yeah, if I am correct you had the dominion "balancer" take pity on you and made your respawn times a fraction of the enemy team's. This is very important as it leads to a fresh from spawn team engaging an already half dead team and taking points.

This leads to the enemy team having to suffer unduly long respawns while our team is free to take a few points, grab some health relics and defend with the home turret advantage.

So yeah, I have had games where I almost lose because the enemy team has a 5 second respawn and we have a 20-30 second one.

The spawn timer weaving has been heavily reduced to the point of being almost a non-factor. However, if a team gets advantage and enemy starts running one-by-one to points and picking off (as happens awfully often when the tempo is lost and respawns aren't synched and enemy controls the majority), you just kinda win by default.

Also, especially lower level players are horrible at fighting fights that count and going for the points. They might win on top while bot lost and got capped; mebbe they got a point for it too but they lost another one and make no progress and eventually just lose. It happens all the time in solo queue even if you personally position correctly; premades with good understanding of the map logic and good map awareness have an insane advantage because of this (the reason competitive Dom teams routinely trash Diamond Elo SR teams without sufficient Dominion experience).

Originally Posted by sonofzeal

Well, we lost the initial fight for Top, but exchanged three deaths for one and then recovered admirably. We were winning solidly through most of the rest of the game too.

Also... I haven't heard of this "balancer". AFAIK, Dominion spawns work on "waves" - if one person drops early in the fight, their respawn time sets it for anyone else who dies during that period. So if one drops at exactly twelve minutes in, and the rest of the team gets instaquadra'd ten seconds later, they all spawn when the first person does, effectively shortening their respawn by ten seconds.

I guess we were just that epic at defending points? We had a few champions who are really hard to get off a point, and the enemy team simply wasn't that together with defending, mostly charging around the map picking up the occasional undefended points and getting jungle/lane ganks, rather than knocking defenders off their points or defending their own points all that well.

The losing team does have slightly shorter spawn timers. For this reason many competitive players wait a bit to make the first capture to be slightly behind in score during Windmill for the spawn timer advantage. It's not that big anymore tho; the difference was heavily reduced in a patch.

[Forrestfire]

Originally Posted by Nadevoc

I'm up for games. Do you Mumble, or do I need to track you down other, sleazier ways?

I'm forrestfire15 on league. I would use mumble/skype/whatever, but I have no mic that can plug into my PC.

[Lix Lorn]

You started a new thread again. I keep missing them. O_o

[Forrestfire]

That... was I think the worst I've ever done as a support. I am SO sorry, Qwertystop

Spoiler

I don't even know how to describe it. I screwed up the first time, and then it just sorta reverse-snowballed. Support fiddles is not so good against blitz, it seems.

Again, sorry for ruining that, Qwerty.

[Math_Mage]

Originally Posted by Forrestfire

I don't even know how to describe it. I screwed up the first time, and then it just sorta reverse-snowballed. Support fiddles is not so good against blitz, it seems

Three ways to interrupt Drain? Insta-die to pulls if you Drain? Yeah, support Fiddle is SUPER high-risk against Blitz. I mean, it can be done if you play VERY carefully, but that's a really hard game to play. To be fair, blind pick.

[Eldariel]

Originally Posted by Math_Mage

Three ways to interrupt Drain? Insta-die to pulls if you Drain? Yeah, support Fiddle is SUPER high-risk against Blitz. I mean, it can be done if you play VERY carefully, but that's a really hard game to play. To be fair, blind pick.

To be fair, Support Fiddle rarely even skills Drain before level 8-12. It's mostly Dark Wind-spam with the tactically timed Terrify on lane. But yeah, any lane vs. Blitz forces you to stand on the edge all the time due a single pull generally winning the enemy the lane if they have any reasonable follow-up. Well, any lane aside from playing Alistar/Leona/Taric at any rate. Playing vs. Blitz is just incredibly unforgiving.

And yeah, enemies snowballed, it happens. Don't kick yourself too hard over it; Adumbration and I have had our fail duolanes too in spite of us supposedly knowing how to play bottom

[Qwertystop]

Originally Posted by Forrestfire

That... was I think the worst I've ever done as a support. I am SO sorry, Qwertystop >.<

Spoiler

I don't even know how to describe it. I screwed up the first time, and then it just sorta reverse-snowballed. Support fiddles is not so good against blitz, it seems

Again, sorry for ruining that, Qwerty.

Nah, I didn't do too well either.

[Forrestfire]

Normally I play Sona when I support, and at least she can deal with blitz better than fiddles. I'm almost to leona, though.

[Tychris1]

So, can Kha'Zix solo top or is he "Teh Weaks" outside of Jungling? I need to expand my jungler list anyway but I rather like solo top champs (And just the cut throat mentality that comes with it).

[Laudandus]

Originally Posted by Tychris1

So, can Kha'Zix solo top or is he "Teh Weaks" outside of Jungling? I need to expand my jungler list anyway but I rather like solo top champs (And just the cut throat mentality that comes with it).

Kha'Zix is a ballin' solo top and I've been loving my experiences with him so far.

LAUDANDUS GUIDE TO KHA ZIX SOLO TOP :

Max R > W > Q > E. Buy mana potions or you will run out of mana. My builds aren't very flexible yet, I've just been going Brutalizer -> BT -> GA -> LW, though sometimes I've been skipping Bruta.

Evolve W then E then I haven't figured out whether R or Q is better. Once you have W evolution, you are an unstoppable laning monster who has a poke that is also a slow that does 2 kinds of damage and heals you (provided you can angle it so that you fire while standing next to a minion, so that a few of the missiles hit your lane opponent and the explosion still heals you).

He's really good at roaming once you pick up E. You can probably evolve E before W if you want to roam real hard, but it's risky because your lane dominance starts at 11 instead of 6.

BUY MANA POTIONS, they're a lot cheaper than philo or chalice

[Neoseanster]

New Soraka is so pretty. I am also still so unable to achieve success with her.

I want to play with new pretty model, but every game I try her I find myself very hard pressed to not just say "screw it I'm playing Janna."

[PersonMan]

Originally Posted by Neoseanster

New Soraka is so pretty. I am also still so unable to achieve success with her.

I want to play with new pretty model, but every game I try her I find myself very hard pressed to not just say "screw it I'm playing Janna."

How are you playing her? I generally do well with my particular brand of Soraka, but that might depend on the enemies.

[Zen Master]

Originally Posted by Eldariel

Also, especially lower level players are horrible at fighting fights that count and going for the points. They might win on top while bot lost and got capped; mebbe they got a point for it too but they lost another one and make no progress and eventually just lose. It happens all the time in solo queue even if you personally position correctly; premades with good understanding of the map logic and good map awareness have an insane advantage because of this (the reason competitive Dom teams routinely trash Diamond Elo SR teams without sufficient Dominion experience).

My most basic though on Dominion (and LoL in general) is that having any coherent plan - even a bad one - is far better than having 5 different plans, one for each player.

Once the panic sets in, once you get the feeling that this is going to be a loss, each player decides everyone else on his team is an idiot, and tries to save the day solo. Including me, of course.

By this time, frustration has already set in, which means that making suggestions in chat will get response based on the above - you will get called an idiot. The game is thus beyond saving, except by sheer, dumb luck.

The one trick that I know - and that sometimes works - is to find the guy on my team who's doing the best, and just follow him around, helping him do even better.

[sonofzeal]

I've been trying Ziggs in Dominion, and... wow. Awesome. His Q works just as beautifully as I expected, and his E is excellent for blocking the approach to a turret and either forcing them to abort the rush or accept extra damage and a speed penalty for doing so.

Best moment though? I'd swung up to mid to grab the Storm Shield when I saw a 4v2 developing against our bot. The four enemy champions were circling, poking, pushing.... and riiiiight as their Garen initiates (he'd been playing superbly all game), I R from way outside vision range. In the chaos of abilities flying everywhere I'm not sure any of them even noticed the targetting icon, but they sure as hell noticed the nuke! Caught two right in the center, and the other two in the outer ring. What was likely going to be two deaths and a lost point became two KILLS and no damage to the point. All from way beyond vision range.

Ziggs is awesome.

[Miscast_Mage]

Yeah, ziggs is pretty awesome on dominion; being able to Q people from capping top tower while sitting in the brush is quite nice. Funny thing, actually; if you play against bots on dominion, Ziggs can just sit in that brush all day, and the bots keep grouping up, trying to cap that tower to no avail, over and over. Being able to interupt caps with the range on his ult is very handy as well.

Speaking of dominion, I just played my first Talon game in weeks, maybe over a month:

Spoiler

That was fuuun~
I think a lot of the success came from a good fight for top at the start; I was able to get in a burst lux after capping mid, was on low health and the enemy team was between me and my team then. I kept darting in and out of the fight, baiting them to break and chase me, which of course let my team mates shred them from behind. When I saw someone on the skirts of the fight use their abilities or otherwise unable to retaliate, I'd E in, AA+Q, and W while running away, so they can't hit me with spells because of silence and can't chase because of slow.

After that, it was generally the same battle plan of jump in, murder someone, run away giggling like a madman and hang around the skirts of the fight, darting in and out, E+Q+AA+Wing people when I could do it reasonably safely, or if chasing me meant dying to my team mates.

That got me far ahead enough that I could burst Vayne in bot lane from 100-0 in one combo, even when she exhausted me halfway through the combo, under her tower. The most satsifying feeling in the world~

I still have to yet to give him a proper few goes on SR though; any advice or build tips? I plan on playing him in mid, so I assume a build like this?

1. Boots/three pots start.
2. Build boots in either mobility(for ganks and roaming, especially if I can push their tower down early), or mercs(for AP+CC heavy teams/mid)
3. Double dorans(or one or just skip, depending on how the lane is going)
4. Brutalizer(Damage, ArPen, and CDR on an AD caster? Yes please!)
5. Hexdrinker(Assuming I'm going against AP.)
6. Bloodthirster
7. Finish Youmuus and Maw, depending on whether I need a "Screw you, AP carry!" shield or better chasiness.
8. Maybe a frozen mallet? I like the idea of the slow for his passive, plus better chasing for his Q+AAs, but it feels like it'll damage his damage output too much.
9. Another Bloodthirster? I honestly doubt I'll ever get this far in a build, but still, it'll be handy to have an idea if there's any good items I'm missing.

Also, about Bruta/Youmuus; is it worth grabbing Avarice Blade for the GP5 on champs like AD casters who don't really care for the crit chance? It seems really pointless, but I really don't like the idea of wasting a GP5 item income... Maybe if I really wanted to rush Youmuus, for whatever reason?

Edit: Completely forgot about runes+masteries; silly me.

I'm undecided about whether to go 21/9/0(AD Carry) or 21/0/9(AD Caster); I like the mana regen and extra blue buff of 21/0/9, but then having the health and MR durabilty of 21/9/0 is great too.

For runes I run:

• ArPen reds.
• Flat mana reg yellows.
• Scaling CDR blues.
• Movespeed quints(Have to see about getting AD quints at some point though).

I have scaling MR blues, so tempted to swap them out, though I'm wondering would it be worth it to save up for flat MR blues, for defence against early harrassment?

[Winthur]

Spoiler

Hit 1500 elo on EUW, played two more games to 1580, can retire in peace. 100% win ratios on Alistar, Janna, Warwick, Amumu and Mundo. Aw yeah. Also, last game I played was with AD Anivia top, Ahri mid, Vayne/Katarina bot lane and jungle Amumu. Dat solo queue.

Originally Posted by Miscast_Mage

Also, about Bruta/Youmuus; is it worth grabbing Avarice Blade for the GP5 on champs like AD casters who don't really care for the crit chance? It seems really pointless, but I really don't like the idea of wasting a GP5 item income... Maybe if I really wanted to rush Youmuus, for whatever reason?

I'd say you'd be hardpressed to ever actually finish Youmuus; most of the time I see just a Brutalizer that is sold in the late game. It *is* cost-effective, but on most champions the stats it provides are subpar and it generates a black hole in your wallet that might cause you to delay other core items or your tankiness. I'd probably not get Ghostblade on Talon; I'd consider it on someone like Fiora or Master Yi.

Which means that Avarice Blade seems like a cash sink that gets you pretty much nothing on Talon and should be skipped.

Your build probably will require a Last Whisper against late game armor (you can sell Brutalizer for it, but not necessarily). I'd consider Trinity Force over Frozen Mallet though that's way more expensive.

Originally Posted by Miscast_Mage

I'm undecided about whether to go 21/9/0(AD Carry) or 21/0/9(AD Caster);

I believe 21/0/9 is actually better on AD carry because of buff duration and movement speed or mana regen. On Talon, I'd probably want the mana regen.

Originally Posted by Miscast_Mage

I have scaling MR blues, so tempted to swap them out, though I'm wondering would it be worth it to save up for flat MR blues, for defence against early harrassment?

I'd say yes, scaling Mres runes are pretty much good mostly for late game if you're, for instance, an isolated top lane or jungle; but in mid lane, the magic resist blues are going to come in handy. I'm not a fan of CDR runes though come to think of it you could use the CDR since there aren't many AD caster items that give you CDR (other than Brutalizer)

[NineThePuma]

So, I got invited to join a ranked team. o.o;


Mostly because of my good attitude and belief that *******s shouldn't rule the game.

[Lix Lorn]

Originally Posted by Miscast_Mage

Speaking of dominion, I just played my first Talon game in weeks, maybe over a month:

Spoiler

That was fuuun~

I still have to yet to give him a proper few goes on SR though; any advice or build tips? I plan on playing him in mid, so I assume a build like this?

1. Boots/three pots start.
2. Build boots in either mobility(for ganks and roaming, especially if I can push their tower down early), or mercs(for AP+CC heavy teams/mid)
3. Double dorans(or one or just skip, depending on how the lane is going)
4. Brutalizer(Damage, ArPen, and CDR on an AD caster? Yes please!)
5. Hexdrinker(Assuming I'm going against AP.)
6. Bloodthirster
7. Finish Youmuus and Maw, depending on whether I need a "Screw you, AP carry!" shield or better chasiness.
8. Maybe a frozen mallet? I like the idea of the slow for his passive, plus better chasing for his Q+AAs, but it feels like it'll damage his damage output too much.
9. Another Bloodthirster? I honestly doubt I'll ever get this far in a build, but still, it'll be handy to have an idea if there's any good items I'm missing.

Also, about Bruta/Youmuus; is it worth grabbing Avarice Blade for the GP5 on champs like AD casters who don't really care for the crit chance? It seems really pointless, but I really don't like the idea of wasting a GP5 item income... Maybe if I really wanted to rush Youmuus, for whatever reason?

Love Talon. He's my main on dominion, when I play it. xD
I love ghostblade, and I ALWAYS try to build avarice first, but my love affair with GP/10s is a major thing. I build both frozen mallet and a guardian angel, cause I find being tanky enough to survive a burst is far more useful than having a slightly stronger burst of your own. Plus mallet+passive, ofc.

[Eurus]

Is it just me, or does the Kha'zix login splash art look... kinda pretty? All iridescent and glowy...

[Neoseanster]

Originally Posted by PersonMan

How are you playing her? I generally do well with my particular brand of Soraka, but that might depend on the enemies.

Well, I might just have poor luck with ADs when I try it, I've yet to play her with my usual duo queue partner. But...

Max W first, faerie charm/wards/pot start, harass with autoattacks and Q/E, heal people with W for sustain in slow times, when they're a bit damaged but still going to take burst in combat... sustain low mana people with E in slow times, silence enemies after they go so they can't follow up on combos... use ult to save someone cross-lane, or in team fights, ideally when everyone's taken a bit of damage...

1/(3-8)/(21-26) masteries, armor reds/gold or armor yellows/magic resist or CDR or AP blues/gold quints... build 2-3 GP/10s, build Shurelya's or Zeke's or Aegis as appropriate to the team.

Am I missing anything?

[Eldariel]

Originally Posted by Neoseanster

Well, I might just have poor luck with ADs when I try it, I've yet to play her with my usual duo queue partner. But...

Max W first, faerie charm/wards/pot start, harass with autoattacks and Q/E, heal people with W for sustain in slow times, when they're a bit damaged but still going to take burst in combat... sustain low mana people with E in slow times, silence enemies after they go so they can't follow up on combos... use ult to save someone cross-lane, or in team fights, ideally when everyone's taken a bit of damage...

1/(3-8)/(21-26) masteries, armor reds/gold or armor yellows/magic resist or CDR or AP blues/gold quints... build 2-3 GP/10s, build Shurelya's or Zeke's or Aegis as appropriate to the team.

Am I missing anything?

Masteries have more options than that, I find; I often use 0/21/9 or 0/18/12 vs. high damage lanes, and if I want to kill people I might go 9/0/21 Season 1 style. Also, if we're pressuring hard and getting one-sided harass or if I'm with a very manahungry laner (basically Corki) I often max E first. Q I rank around 4-12 first and of course max it last.

Really, if you're doing something wrong it's probably in the mechanical positioning and play though, or maybe you've just had bad ADs. I wouldn't know. I do know she's viable in competitive play though and I personally have never had trouble winning with her in solo queue.

[PersonMan]

Originally Posted by Neoseanster

Well, I might just have poor luck with ADs when I try it, I've yet to play her with my usual duo queue partner. But...

Max W first, faerie charm/wards/pot start, harass with autoattacks and Q/E, heal people with W for sustain in slow times, when they're a bit damaged but still going to take burst in combat... sustain low mana people with E in slow times, silence enemies after they go so they can't follow up on combos... use ult to save someone cross-lane, or in team fights, ideally when everyone's taken a bit of damage...

1/(3-8)/(21-26) masteries, armor reds/gold or armor yellows/magic resist or CDR or AP blues/gold quints... build 2-3 GP/10s, build Shurelya's or Zeke's or Aegis as appropriate to the team.

Am I missing anything?

Well, my playstyle clashes with yours to...a great extent.

Max E, faerie charm/1 pink+2green wards (if they have a support). E->W, then max REWQ. Take over bushes with warding/counterwarding in them, silence people (it scales with 0.75 AP and does 50/level, it's pretty good harass) to make counterattacks even more impossible than normal bushcamp harass. W yourself or carry when you need to. I generally don't even get Q until laning is over, since trying to harass with it pushes the lane.

Masteries: 9/0/21, getting +AP, +AD, Enhanced Aggressive Summoner Abilities, CDR. I run Ghost/Exhaust so the EASA is worth it.

Build Philo Stone + Kage's (if you're losing, HoG), then AP or tankiness depending on how invulnerable you want to be. Your job in fights is to make sure they lose before it even starts via poking/anti-poking (healing/mana regenning your team), then ensure they lose by mauling enemy squishies (or just silence their caster).

Generally:

-Hyper aggression via free E poke, W to make one absurdly tanky early, AD from runes/masteries.
-Ult for real help or assist farming, depending on how much or little your team is winning
-You are "squishy", but this shouldn't matter because the enemy can never actually retaliate due to being silenced. If they rush you...Exhaust/self-W. Unless your carry is a rock, you should win.

[Qwertystop]

Who else thinks there should be a Monowheel Corki?

EDIT:
Also, Best Dominion Game Ever. We got top at the start, promptly took their bot and mid, and kept them for the full six minutes.

Spoiler

[TechnOkami]

Man, I haven't AD Carried in a while...

Spoiler

Then again, I wasn't the one who was really carrying. But yeah, AIDS wanted to play Eve (he was bot w/ me) and between Twitch and Corki, I chose the latter to run around as. Early game was a little annoying (Ashe and Soraka) but man does Soraka's new model look pretty. Then the both of us just kind of snowballed, and Jax was ballin' with us, Teemo won his lane, and Xin Zhao hated Evelyn (AIDS kept on running into him in the jungle at half health, dying to her in fights, and initially he jumped on Eve and I basically strolled by and shot him to death, it was rather funny).

Anyways, I've basically learned to stay behind my allies and be less forwardly aggressive. I out-farmed Ashe, which was a good thing, but I'm rather confident that most of you reading this are cringing that I only got 203 cs after roughly 40 mins.

[Temotei]

So, I'm looking to buy a champion from the following list:

Spoiler

• Corki
• Diana
• Draven
• Fizz
• Graves
• Kha'Zix
• Lulu
• Nautilus
• Nocturne
• Renekton
• Wukong

Help me choose, please? I'm not looking for anything in particular, since I have every role covered in multiple aspects.

[Eldariel]

Pick Lulu 'cause Lulu. Easy peasy money.