I like Wriggles/Merc/Spirit Visage on my WW personally. Ive been finding going wriggles first is a really good choice on ww, free wards save you a lot of money.
Kog'Maw, yeah. Especially Butterfly Kog who is the counter to everything except rainbows and unicorns
Malzahar is a really good tank killer in team comps with enough CC
Well, the way I / we build him, maybe. I see tons of WWs rush Madreds, and some even with Zerkers. Pure DPS WW is fragile like a spider web in a hurricane.
My personal WW build is Wriggles / Merc / Heart / Chalice / Blood Razor / (flex) though, and that is probably the best sustained tanking* in the entire game of LOL with blue / red.
* To define this term, if he isn't bursted, a defensively built WW can take 5 people's worth of damage while remaining at / near full HP. I've aced teams before that kept saying, "Well, he's at 50% and his ult is down, I'll go finish him off!" No, you won't.
My build is Minirazor (sometimes Wriggles, sometimes save it for eventual BR), Guardian Angel, then either [more tank shit if I'm dying] or [Bloodrazor if I'm not]. Oh and obviously Merc Treads somewhere in there.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
Man I want a new champ that can hard counter tanky dps.
Like a mechanic that increases your damage or whatever based on the target's max HP.
Kog Maw already does this, why would you need another champion?
You can also run trundle and throw a BC on your carry. Focus people down one at a time starting with the guy trundle ults (even if its the tank, trundle ult + BC = nearly no armor). Also make sure you are running some kind of support. Tankydps teams damage outputs tends to be much lower and a few clutch heals is going to keep your squishies in the fight. Tankydps thrives on just outsurviving you.
Wondered when Trundle would come up. Cut out the middleman, give him the black cleaver and he can smash Mordekaiser like a beer can. As mentioned, though, he is himself somewhat tanky.
The other thing about tank DPS teams is that the well-put-together ones involve damaging a lot of people simultaneously, which is really hard to do much about. You'd think Karma or Sona would be more popular because of it but the range on their heals is iffy at best.
This I vehemently disagree with. A player who bought Merc treads every game without any thought to champ or enemy build would be better than most LOL players at buying boots. Merc Treads are so very, very important.
I like Wriggles/Merc/Spirit Visage on my WW personally. Ive been finding going wriggles first is a really good choice on ww, free wards save you a lot of money.
Exactly. Wriggle's is easily one of the five best items in LOL. 2 on a team means free wards at both Baron and dragon for the entire game.
Is it possible for an item to be really overrated and still really good? Because I think that applies to both Bloodrazor and Merc Treads.
People just auto-buy Merc Treads far too often and that means it is purchased when it's not the best choice for the game more than probably any other item in LoL. At the same time, there are a lot of situations where it is the best choice.
To expand on the Merc Treads thing: A lot of times people don't even ask "do they have enough affected CC that this item is worthwhile?" That's obviously the first question you should ask. If it's like countering one slow, then why would you buy it?
But at the other end of the spectrum which very few players think about, you need to ask "Do they have so much CC that I'm going to die if I get stunned whether I have Merc Treads or not?" If you're a high-priority target and they can chain-CC you, having Merc Treads isn't going to save your life. You're going to have to rely on positioning to survive anyway. So you might as well go for boots of more DPS.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
This I vehemently disagree with. A player who bought Merc treads every game without any thought to champ or enemy build would be better than most LOL players at buying boots. Merc Treads are so very, very important.
I like Wriggles/Merc/Spirit Visage on my WW personally. Ive been finding going wriggles first is a really good choice on ww, free wards save you a lot of money.
Exactly. Wriggle's is easily one of the five best items in LOL. 2 on a team means free wards at both Baron and dragon for the entire game.
Not to mention 2 people who are going to vastly outfarm their opponents and the thing actually has decent stats on it.
Especially with team pop-up appearing more often, merc treads aren't a requirement. They're not going to reduce the amount of time you're popped up, after all.
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SaldonasSee you space cowboy...Registered Userregular
edited March 2011
I've been mulling over my WW build but I'm still pretty new to him. I was one of those silly newbs that build Bloodrazor and treads right away. Playing a match last night I had almost finished my GA but I probably should go with this advice of holding off until after GA is done. Once the team fights started getting crazier I'd ult their carry and then get blown up but my team was right there to clean up. The game consisted of my one death for every 4-5 of theirs.
surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
Is it possible for an item to be really overrated and still really good?
They're great... on some champions. But people buy them way too much especially against teams with very little cc when they're not a cc target anyway. Or they get both banshees and mercs
So I'm finding one of my biggest productivity problems right now is knowing where all the items I want are located. I've moved past the terrible advice my friend gave me when I first played a match that the recommended items where right on the money at least but I'm still at the stage where I don't know which category each item is in at the store so sometimes I feel like I'm wasting time digging through each section.
I am starting to learn what builds into what a little so if I see the end result I can click it when I'm trying to find one of the components or vice versa.
I'd love a search function in the store. That would speed it up I think. Other than that I'll probably start to know more and more what's where the more I build them
If you were typing something into the item store you'd already be taking way more time than you should
Fastest way to buy is just to memorize all the items and which components go into what, then click on a recommended item with one of the components you need, click the component, and click the item you want on top
Of course sometimes you have to dig in the sluggish crappy category menu and that sucks
@Riot please let us set our own recommended items for champions thanks.
OremLK on
My zombie survival life simulator They Don't Sleep is out now on Steam if you want to check it out.
I wish I could play Kog better. Mostly because the Chinese New Year skin is so great. Why can't they make legendary skins faster. I demand pizza delivery or Tron Sivir.
If you were typing something into the item store you'd already be taking way more time than you should
Fastest way to buy is just to memorize all the items and which components go into what, then click on a recommended item with one of the components you need, click the component, and click the item you want on top
Of course sometimes you have to dig in the sluggish crappy category menu and that sucks
@Riot please let us set our own recommended items for champions thanks.
man i thought i just did this for fun but apparently it is good
it is such a fun game
"i wonder if i can get to black cleaver from sheen..."
this is also the easiest way to discover what items riot hasn't put in the "builds into..." menu yet
i think guinsoo's still only shows up from pickaxe but not blasting wand
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SaldonasSee you space cowboy...Registered Userregular
Now imagine if instead of dying you could not die, take part in the ace, and proceed to stomp down their nexus in a single push.
Imagine the glory.
Taste the tears.
Now reach out and tear out its liver.
I think with this build change-up I will.
Also had a game with a crazy BDing TF. He was such a boss. I saw him lock in and was all like "Global Ults go!" and locked in Shen. Not only did he demolish towers but anyone that tried to come after him died quickly as well.
surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
Actually I will offer the following pearl:
If you're buying merc treads on non-tanky dps champions, get a quicksilver sash and offensive boots and you will be better off in almost every conceivable situation.
I wish I could play Kog better. Mostly because the Chinese New Year skin is so great. Why can't they make legendary skins faster. I demand pizza delivery or Tron Sivir.
If you're buying merc treads on non-tanky dps champions, get a quicksilver sash and offensive boots and you will be better off in almost every conceivable situation.
But nobody likes using qss so meh
Dude I am a huge fan of QSS. If it gave health I would never by a BV. But the health on BV makes it sexy
I love quicksilver sashes against enemy morde/ww/malz/morgana/urgot etc
I also am SUPER happy with my decision to stop automatically getting merc treads every game
yeah I'm starting to get a feel for it but i'm in that middle ground where I'll kind of remember what component I need and what other items use it so I can get to it quicker. I've been finding a lot of times the recommended items tend to have a component I need so I can go to that then the component then the item I need.
Being able to set your own recommended items would be awesome though. Make it so much faster
I lost a 5v5 match last night which my team should have won easily. We had 41 kills vs 20 kills. Yet, other team was able to push other lanes with minions and overwhelmed us. 3 of my team mates were excessive gankers. They would wait around doing almost nothing till they find single champ to gank. I beg them to push mid but they laughed it off and said we will win soon. Me and one other guy try to counter push and do our push but we are usually out numbered.
After game was over, 3 gankers called us noob and reason for losing the match. They pointed to their superior kill records as proof. The other team just about fell over laughing...
Is it possible for an item to be really overrated and still really good?
They're great... on some champions. But people buy them way too much especially against teams with very little cc when they're not a cc target anyway. Or they get both banshees and mercs
etc
They have MR on them too, which is a large part of the point.
Great example:
Veigar (me) vs. Annie mid. I rush Merc treads, she rushes Sorc boots. We trade harrass a bit, level 6 happens.
Annie: "Tibbers! I choose you!"
/stunned
Unreal Tournament Announcer: "HEADSHOT!"
"An enemy has been slain."
Mage vs. Mage goes to Merc Treads almost every time. They cost a bit more, but after we both buy boots 2, Sorc Treads actually does less damage relatively, as well as having weaker CC.
Again, they aren't always the right choice, and you personally, I can say, are good enough to make good calls and play with the increased CC danger, but they are so consistently the best / 2nd best choice as to be the best boots in the game.
ww is so god damn common that merc treads feel dumb now. especially when I play MF where being CCed out of position means you are going to die anyway
WW does a shitload of magic damage, so, again, Merc Treads are still the best bet vs. WW. You could try zerkers, but that would make me smile like the devil at the thought of all the extra kills.
People are talking like having 90 MR isn't a good idea, and that is simply wrong in most games. You can afford a few defense items on any character, including carries, especially if you aren't doing well.
This is doubly true as the laning phase seems a bit longer now due to minion changes.
I lost a 5v5 match last night which my team should have won easily. We had 41 kills vs 20 kills. Yet, other team was able to push other lanes with minions and overwhelmed us. 3 of my team mates were excessive gankers. They would wait around doing almost nothing till they find single champ to gank. I beg them to push mid but they laughed it off and said we will win soon. Me and one other guy try to counter push and do our push but we are usually out numbered.
After game was over, 3 gankers called us noob and reason for losing the match. They pointed to their superior kill records as proof. The other team just about fell over laughing...
Heh, won a 4v5 that way the other night. We would sorta push with 3, distracting their team while our Nasus backdoored. We'd usually lose 2 and maybe get 1 of them, but we'd get them all low and a tower each time. After about 4 times they caught on, so the main push just killed the 2 they left there and the nasus ran.
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MonkeyConQuesoNo more MH ClawHappy handsRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
How's this for a Jarvan build?
Ghost/Exhaust
11/9/10
ArmPen Reds/Mana per 5 per level yellows/CDR Blues/1x ArmPen&2x MS Quints
Skill order according to taste, but I liked E, Q, W, Q, Q, R, E... R>Q>E>W
Obviously you can swap around the order according to need, but I found that the order up to and including Phage was really good. Still want to tweak it a bit, but enjoying the build so far.
If you were typing something into the item store you'd already be taking way more time than you should
Fastest way to buy is just to memorize all the items and which components go into what, then click on a recommended item with one of the components you need, click the component, and click the item you want on top
Of course sometimes you have to dig in the sluggish crappy category menu and that sucks
@Riot please let us set our own recommended items for champions thanks.
I'd just love the ability to have a tab for user set favorites. I've noticed a lot of high elo streams, they'll start going through the build menu while waiting to teleport back so it's literally a double click or two, and you're back on your way.
wow...Riot needs to put some -Crit armor into this game...just played as malphite who I main, again Twitch, Trynd, and a shaco who all were heavy crit/attack speed. There's no ammount of armor you can stack to deal with it, I felt like a caster it was so bad, and they weren't even fed at that point, but once they got up to that point, my randuins and ruins and belt/ruby crystal were no match at all.
If you're playing malphite you have the perfect autoattacker counter:
Frozen Heart
Randuins
Ground Slam
Ult autoattackers, pop Randuins and Ground slam, watch them attack at 0.4
This is good in theory, but it doesn't work when I tried at the time, had Randuins at about the time things turned in their favor, at this point in the game they were running generally 1 phantom dancer (two on tryn) and the twitch had the large crazy crit damage sword also since he had a few kills.
Even at low attack speed, with all three of them they were able to kill me well before I would get out of their CC, and usually twitch wouldn't be in melee with the rest of them so he wouldn't be affected by randuins or my ground slam.
After the first team fight which we lost even after I was able to initiate with my ult on Trynd and their Shen (lux was further in the back, shaco/twitch stealthed somewhere) and we killed the Trynd during it, we were almost aced because shaco and twitch just ate me in seconds and then flashed into the rest of the team.
So yea, that team comp isn't cheesy since all those characters take skill to play, except trynd :evil: , but there wasn't anything I felt a tanky character could do with so much crit bursting through.
I don't expect riot to change anything, but it is odd that there isn't a single item to protect you from or reduce your chance to be critted. Maybe if they had the armor stat also give a % of crit reduction so going above 150 would be meaningful it could help things at least.
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MonkeyConQuesoNo more MH ClawHappy handsRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
Just FYI, I have made it a mission, in almost every game, to go after the solo farming carry when their team is spread out and visible.
Trynd, Ashe, Sivir, Jax, etc... you can not let those guys just solo farm while their team defends objectives and your team takes it's time harassing them at their towers. It's pointless. Send one or two people after the solo farmers, and shut them down. I know it's not possible in every situation, but try.
E: To plug in my 2cents on a convo a few pages ago, I've found that playing Kog or Teemo or any somewhat hybrid AD/AP carry is perfect against the tanky DPS dudes. Buy Malady and Madred's, and watch them melt even with a decent amount of MR.
If you were typing something into the item store you'd already be taking way more time than you should
Fastest way to buy is just to memorize all the items and which components go into what, then click on a recommended item with one of the components you need, click the component, and click the item you want on top
Of course sometimes you have to dig in the sluggish crappy category menu and that sucks
@Riot please let us set our own recommended items for champions thanks.
I'd just love the ability to have a tab for user set favorites. I've noticed a lot of high elo streams, they'll start going through the build menu while waiting to teleport back so it's literally a double click or two, and you're back on your way.
I actually didn't know you could bring up the store while porting back until I saw whoever was streaming from here this morning do it.
I actually didn't know you could bring up the store while porting back until I saw whoever was streaming from here this morning do it.
I didn't know that either until I watched a streamer and found that the "P" button brought it up in the Keybind menu. Just make sure you can close it quick if you're low and they have tower divers on the other team. I've gotten quite a few kills with people just standing there at tower blue pilling and looking at the store.
I see so many tanks get merc treads now who should get Ionian boots instead. Like Nunu. You get a BV to help your ult go off, not because getting CC'd on Nunu matters. Because it doesn't. The more CCs the enemy team throws at you, the better.
However, merc treads + BV is necessary on some champions. Like most melee dps. Merc treads early game into late game BV so you don't just get kited the entire game.
P10 on
Shameful pursuits and utterly stupid opinions
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Liquid GhostDO YOU HEAR THE VOICES, TOO?!Registered Userregular
edited March 2011
I just farted up a storm on top with Maokai. Really just fucking bad.
surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
I see so many tanks get merc treads now who should get Ionian boots instead. Like Nunu. You get a BV to help your ult go off, not because getting CC'd on Nunu matters. Because it doesn't. The more CCs the enemy team throws at you, the better.
also the reason you don't want to get stunned on nunu is to avoid getting your ult interrupted
which banshees does
but merc's doesn't, it just means when it does get interrupted you can start to cry more quickly afterwards
I think my problem is a lot of people are building their "ideal" late game build, which should, if they are against good opponents, get them punished early/mid game.
The reason Merc Treads are so good is they are built by ideal laning items. Your first trip back, about half the time one of the very best purchases is the 400 cloak, and on your second trip back, you generally want boots 2.
And that CC reduction may mean the difference between dying or getting a kill in the first team fight of the game, when you don't have a Banshees on 95% of champs (Nunu can afford to rush a Banshee's due to the, in my opinion bad, mechanics of his ult, most characters cannot).
So, yeah, in an unannounced gamemode that starts at level 18 wiht 15K gold, CD boots + QSS is better. But when someone gets away with 5 HP after sustaining several magic attacks and 1 CC, it's because they bought merc treads.
Again, if you're a damn good ranged carry, you can forgo them. If you're newer, mediocre, or playing the champs I play and you skip them, you're a damn fool.*
Posts
My build is Minirazor (sometimes Wriggles, sometimes save it for eventual BR), Guardian Angel, then either [more tank shit if I'm dying] or [Bloodrazor if I'm not]. Oh and obviously Merc Treads somewhere in there.
Wondered when Trundle would come up. Cut out the middleman, give him the black cleaver and he can smash Mordekaiser like a beer can. As mentioned, though, he is himself somewhat tanky.
The other thing about tank DPS teams is that the well-put-together ones involve damaging a lot of people simultaneously, which is really hard to do much about. You'd think Karma or Sona would be more popular because of it but the range on their heals is iffy at best.
Hate
This I vehemently disagree with. A player who bought Merc treads every game without any thought to champ or enemy build would be better than most LOL players at buying boots. Merc Treads are so very, very important.
Exactly. Wriggle's is easily one of the five best items in LOL. 2 on a team means free wards at both Baron and dragon for the entire game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw44JdK3p9k
Got that on repeat, baby.
Is it possible for an item to be really overrated and still really good? Because I think that applies to both Bloodrazor and Merc Treads.
People just auto-buy Merc Treads far too often and that means it is purchased when it's not the best choice for the game more than probably any other item in LoL. At the same time, there are a lot of situations where it is the best choice.
To expand on the Merc Treads thing: A lot of times people don't even ask "do they have enough affected CC that this item is worthwhile?" That's obviously the first question you should ask. If it's like countering one slow, then why would you buy it?
But at the other end of the spectrum which very few players think about, you need to ask "Do they have so much CC that I'm going to die if I get stunned whether I have Merc Treads or not?" If you're a high-priority target and they can chain-CC you, having Merc Treads isn't going to save your life. You're going to have to rely on positioning to survive anyway. So you might as well go for boots of more DPS.
Not to mention 2 people who are going to vastly outfarm their opponents and the thing actually has decent stats on it.
Switch: SW-1493-0062-4053
They're great... on some champions. But people buy them way too much especially against teams with very little cc when they're not a cc target anyway. Or they get both banshees and mercs
etc
Imagine the glory.
Taste the tears.
Now reach out and tear out its liver.
I am starting to learn what builds into what a little so if I see the end result I can click it when I'm trying to find one of the components or vice versa.
I'd love a search function in the store. That would speed it up I think. Other than that I'll probably start to know more and more what's where the more I build them
Fastest way to buy is just to memorize all the items and which components go into what, then click on a recommended item with one of the components you need, click the component, and click the item you want on top
Of course sometimes you have to dig in the sluggish crappy category menu and that sucks
@Riot please let us set our own recommended items for champions thanks.
man i thought i just did this for fun but apparently it is good
it is such a fun game
"i wonder if i can get to black cleaver from sheen..."
this is also the easiest way to discover what items riot hasn't put in the "builds into..." menu yet
i think guinsoo's still only shows up from pickaxe but not blasting wand
I think with this build change-up I will.
Also had a game with a crazy BDing TF. He was such a boss. I saw him lock in and was all like "Global Ults go!" and locked in Shen. Not only did he demolish towers but anyone that tried to come after him died quickly as well.
Switch: SW-1493-0062-4053
If you're buying merc treads on non-tanky dps champions, get a quicksilver sash and offensive boots and you will be better off in almost every conceivable situation.
But nobody likes using qss so meh
Welcome to the club!
Dude I am a huge fan of QSS. If it gave health I would never by a BV. But the health on BV makes it sexy
I also am SUPER happy with my decision to stop automatically getting merc treads every game
zerks are amazing
Being able to set your own recommended items would be awesome though. Make it so much faster
After game was over, 3 gankers called us noob and reason for losing the match. They pointed to their superior kill records as proof. The other team just about fell over laughing...
They have MR on them too, which is a large part of the point.
Great example:
Veigar (me) vs. Annie mid. I rush Merc treads, she rushes Sorc boots. We trade harrass a bit, level 6 happens.
Annie: "Tibbers! I choose you!"
/stunned
Unreal Tournament Announcer: "HEADSHOT!"
"An enemy has been slain."
Mage vs. Mage goes to Merc Treads almost every time. They cost a bit more, but after we both buy boots 2, Sorc Treads actually does less damage relatively, as well as having weaker CC.
Again, they aren't always the right choice, and you personally, I can say, are good enough to make good calls and play with the increased CC danger, but they are so consistently the best / 2nd best choice as to be the best boots in the game.
WW does a shitload of magic damage, so, again, Merc Treads are still the best bet vs. WW. You could try zerkers, but that would make me smile like the devil at the thought of all the extra kills.
People are talking like having 90 MR isn't a good idea, and that is simply wrong in most games. You can afford a few defense items on any character, including carries, especially if you aren't doing well.
This is doubly true as the laning phase seems a bit longer now due to minion changes.
Heh, won a 4v5 that way the other night. We would sorta push with 3, distracting their team while our Nasus backdoored. We'd usually lose 2 and maybe get 1 of them, but we'd get them all low and a tower each time. After about 4 times they caught on, so the main push just killed the 2 they left there and the nasus ran.
Ghost/Exhaust
11/9/10
ArmPen Reds/Mana per 5 per level yellows/CDR Blues/1x ArmPen&2x MS Quints
Skill order according to taste, but I liked E, Q, W, Q, Q, R, E... R>Q>E>W
Cloth Armor+5HPots>Boots1>Brutalizer>HoG>Boots2>BFSword>Recurve>Phage>Stark's>Black Cleaver>Frozen Mallet>Infinity Edge
Obviously you can swap around the order according to need, but I found that the order up to and including Phage was really good. Still want to tweak it a bit, but enjoying the build so far.
Destiny! : Warlock - Titan - Hunter
I'd just love the ability to have a tab for user set favorites. I've noticed a lot of high elo streams, they'll start going through the build menu while waiting to teleport back so it's literally a double click or two, and you're back on your way.
This is good in theory, but it doesn't work when I tried at the time, had Randuins at about the time things turned in their favor, at this point in the game they were running generally 1 phantom dancer (two on tryn) and the twitch had the large crazy crit damage sword also since he had a few kills.
Even at low attack speed, with all three of them they were able to kill me well before I would get out of their CC, and usually twitch wouldn't be in melee with the rest of them so he wouldn't be affected by randuins or my ground slam.
After the first team fight which we lost even after I was able to initiate with my ult on Trynd and their Shen (lux was further in the back, shaco/twitch stealthed somewhere) and we killed the Trynd during it, we were almost aced because shaco and twitch just ate me in seconds and then flashed into the rest of the team.
So yea, that team comp isn't cheesy since all those characters take skill to play, except trynd :evil: , but there wasn't anything I felt a tanky character could do with so much crit bursting through.
I don't expect riot to change anything, but it is odd that there isn't a single item to protect you from or reduce your chance to be critted. Maybe if they had the armor stat also give a % of crit reduction so going above 150 would be meaningful it could help things at least.
Trynd, Ashe, Sivir, Jax, etc... you can not let those guys just solo farm while their team defends objectives and your team takes it's time harassing them at their towers. It's pointless. Send one or two people after the solo farmers, and shut them down. I know it's not possible in every situation, but try.
E: To plug in my 2cents on a convo a few pages ago, I've found that playing Kog or Teemo or any somewhat hybrid AD/AP carry is perfect against the tanky DPS dudes. Buy Malady and Madred's, and watch them melt even with a decent amount of MR.
Destiny! : Warlock - Titan - Hunter
I actually didn't know you could bring up the store while porting back until I saw whoever was streaming from here this morning do it.
I didn't know that either until I watched a streamer and found that the "P" button brought it up in the Keybind menu. Just make sure you can close it quick if you're low and they have tower divers on the other team. I've gotten quite a few kills with people just standing there at tower blue pilling and looking at the store.
Destiny! : Warlock - Titan - Hunter
However, merc treads + BV is necessary on some champions. Like most melee dps. Merc treads early game into late game BV so you don't just get kited the entire game.
also the reason you don't want to get stunned on nunu is to avoid getting your ult interrupted
which banshees does
but merc's doesn't, it just means when it does get interrupted you can start to cry more quickly afterwards
This confused me cause I thought at first this was some reference to amumu.
Annie
Teemo
Malphite
Warwick
and... and.... i can't get comfy with anyone else...
Joe's Stream.
The reason Merc Treads are so good is they are built by ideal laning items. Your first trip back, about half the time one of the very best purchases is the 400 cloak, and on your second trip back, you generally want boots 2.
And that CC reduction may mean the difference between dying or getting a kill in the first team fight of the game, when you don't have a Banshees on 95% of champs (Nunu can afford to rush a Banshee's due to the, in my opinion bad, mechanics of his ult, most characters cannot).
So, yeah, in an unannounced gamemode that starts at level 18 wiht 15K gold, CD boots + QSS is better. But when someone gets away with 5 HP after sustaining several magic attacks and 1 CC, it's because they bought merc treads.
Again, if you're a damn good ranged carry, you can forgo them. If you're newer, mediocre, or playing the champs I play and you skip them, you're a damn fool.*
* Warwicks without Merc Treads, you're on notice.