[League of Legends] Preseason is upon us!

Red Raevyn · November 2016

Pay homage to the OP lineage of pilferage:

This OP was originally created by one Bobkins Flymo, who is now being credited for his work before his lawyers find this page.

This OP is shamelessly stolen from Hiryu, so that we may have a new one before it gets locked again. May the op never be made anew!

This Op is stolen from Roz, who I believe in turn stole it from Burnage.

This OP was shamelessly stolen from my good friend Burnage who is a totally awesome dude that doesn't play League anymore. RIP burnage, you will be missed.

This OP was adapted from the source work of PrjctD_Captain, who left just before their promotion to Modern Major General

If you're updating this, look here:

pastebins of post code to make it easy for the next person: post 1 & post 2

In loving memory of Dominion, the little game mode that wanted to be great and kinda sorta comes back to haunt us on random weekends: 2011-2016.

League of Legends (popularly known as LOL) is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game created by Riot Games.

You play as a summoner that controls a champion and looks forward to replays for half a decade. During games, your champion will level up, get gold for better equipment and hopefully destroy the enemy nexus. Outside of games, you will wait several months for new champions and your summoner level will rise. This will unlock new runes to enhance champion stats, bestow mastery points for further champion customization, and rank up champions with the Mastery system for an emote. At max level you can then compete in ranked matches, meaninglessly judge player behavior in what is called the Tribunal and weep over the lack of Dominion.

Thread Layout
OP - The Basics - General LoL Tips and Tricks
2nd - PENTAKILL! (and spillover because OP is now op in length)
3rd through page 100 - Nice people talking about a rad game

The Basics

New Player Guide. For those who want some tips to start out.

1. Make an account: NA, EU(West), EU(Nordic & East), Oceania - wherever you are located in the world!

There is no longer any kind of referral system, so don't worry about getting a link from your besties - just get hyped and fire it up!

2. Download the client: Right here.

There exists a Mac client - we are gaming in the future! Go play!

3. Play the tutorials and read the New Player Guide!

The game can be a bit overwhelming, and I highly suggest you play the tutorials OR find someone willing to do a few vs. AI games with you.

4. Join the "Penny Arcade" Chat Channel to find helpful people and people to escape solo queue with!
(does this still exist?)
Click the little double speech bubble looking thing at the bottom right of your screen. Click the + speech bubble right above it. Type in "Penny Arcade" and introduce yourself. Not everyone you see in the thread will be there, as not everyone plays on the same server. You can ask these people how to play champions, we pretty much have someone who plays each champion.

5. Play vs. People

Do it, damn you. The AI is not going to give you the legitimate LoL experience. You don't want to hit your 20s solely from bot matches. If you do use bot games, focus on practicing basic mechanics such as getting the last hit on minions for sweet, sweet gold.

6. Get yer free champs.

Subscribe to Riot's Youtube and get a free Alistar skin! You can also get a free Tristana skin if you're into the Facebook thing. Finally, click on the woobox link they have here to get a free Garen skin. Promo skins always include the champion if you've not already bought them, so this is an easy way to pick up two champions.

Want some more help? Watch the series of videos below! (some are playlists) And don't be afraid to ask questions in thread! Most of us have been playing for a long time, so we may skim over some stuff we consider basics. This is not to make you feel bad! Its just that we forget what its like to be all new at this game

This is a sort of course on how to play, it's worth revisiting again after you have some experience:

These Team Fight Breakdown videos can give you an idea of positioning in team fights. In them someone who works for Riot goes over teamfights from pro games.

In this playlist are videos of the 2016 World Finals best of 5 matches, with commentators speaking specifically for new viewers.

The Do's and Don'ts of LoL

1. Don't buy champions randomly!

LoL has two currencies: Riot Points (RP), which are bought with real money, and Influence Points (IP) which are earned solely by playing games. Champions can be bought with both, but every week there will be ten free champions to play with. Play these champs instead. Get a feel for each type of champion and see which you find more fun. It's far better to do this as opposed to buying a champ randomly and ultimately being unhappy with it. You can also get three refund opportunities for both IP and RP purchases.

2. Don't leave your rune pages empty.

Tier 2 runes now cost only 1 IP, so you may as well pick them up. They're quite helpful in the early game when your champion is at its weakest. Ask in thread if you are unsure what to buy.

3. Do queue with friends.

Playing with randoms is a crapshoot, and playing with a friend or two can put the odds in your favor. Play complementary champs and request feedback on how you did in each game (even if you won). Likewise, you can offer advice to others you saw having trouble in a polite manner.

4. Do learn the champions.

When a new rotation occurs, it is wise to play a few games with each champ. Knowing what each champ is capable of will be useful even if you hate how they play and never intend on using them. For example, Karthus has a skill that does damage to every enemy champion, regardless of location! If you know this, then you can be a jerk and take Soraka (who has a skill that heals all allied champions).

5. Do read guides.

There are multiple ways to play a champion. This combination of skills, runes, masteries and items is called a "build" and are the general strategies for any champion. The recommended items in the game store are not always ideal, and the order you level skills can have a big impact on how the early stages of the game play out. Sites like lolking and probuilds.net offer builds for just about every champion. It's cookie-cutter, but a great foundation for new players. Once you learn the ins and outs, you can tweak a build to better suit your playstyle or as a reaction to enemy or ally players.

6. Do be polite and do report.

Sometimes people will suck or do shit wrong. It's a game, so try to keep that in mind when things get a little unhinged. If you insult or yell at people, even if they did do something wrong, you're likely going to get that person defensive and things will very quickly begin to break down. Instead of focusing on the game, you focus on hurling insults at each other. Stay calm, and politely offer advice when needed.

Sometimes, even with this in mind, people will still be jerks. It happens! Simply /mute them and quietly report them after the game. Taking their bait is probably what they want you to do. Do not give them the satisfaction! Keep your cool.

7. Buy skins.

Having a skin for a character is a great way to say "Hey I'm fucking awesome with this champion so get the fuck out of my way." If your team is using more skins than your enemy team, you basically have already won. Some skins do offer very minor alterations in the way that a champion plays - skins with sunglasses, for instance, take 1 less damage from the sun-based champion Leona's attacks.

Game Stuff

1. Do not be aggressive.

There will be a serious urge to want to kill enemy champs. Resist! Death is an all-around loss: your opponents get more cash and experience, you miss out on experience and your lane risks getting pushed. If you set-up a kill and fail, do not continue chasing. In many cases, you will just die to a tower or get ganked. While later on you will learn when to take risks, early in your career it's best to be less aggressive and just let the other guy get away.

2. Do not focus on KDR.

Your kill-death-ratio is not the end-all of your value. It is possible to lose despite having a serious kill advantage over the enemy team! Certain champions, once getting the right items, can be unstoppable murder machines. Even if you do kill them a lot, if they reach this threshold, it's possible for a dramatic reversal to occur. It is far more important to support your team's objectives: push towers, protect your own towers from being pushed and keep your team informed of enemy activity. It is far better to have a modest KDR and win, than be the team killer and lose.

3. Do watch the minimap and your enemy.

Enemy locations are important! In your low-level games you will likely have two champs tops lane, one mid and two bottom (in later level games, one from top will be off "jungling," so top will have just one champ). If a player in YOUR lane is missing, let the team know. The player might just be heading back to base to buy items, or they could be trying to jump your friend in another lane. And mention when they came back to your lane! But this doesn't mean you should rely wholly on team recon. Watch the minimap yourself for enemy locations in other lanes whenever you can. People aren't perfect, and sometimes that warning comes a bit too late. Another set of eyes is always useful.

4. Do use wards.

Wards are items that grant you vision of an area for 180 seconds. You spawn with a warding totem trinket (default button 4) that lets you place a ward. Back in the good old days when we walked uphill both ways in the snow to get to lane, we had to BUY them. That's right we paid for them, and you young millenials just get em for FREE! They are, without a doubt, one of the best things you can use. You can plop them along the river and have advance warning of ganks. They'll grant you vision of the brush. They'll alert you of enemy attempts on big-reward neutral monsters like the dragon or baron. If you attack them in the middle of something like that, you could mob up their entire team. Or maybe you are aware of a gank attempt on you. You could alert a nearby friend, bait the ganker in and turn the tables. Use wards. USE. WARDS.

5. Do use wards.

Wards are items that grant you vision of an area for 180 seconds. You spawn with a warding totem trinket (default button 4) that lets you place a ward. Back in the good old days when we walked uphill both ways in the snow to get to lane, we had to BUY them. That's right we paid for them, and you young millenials just get em for FREE! They are, without a doubt, one of the best things you can use. You can plop them along the river and have advance warning of ganks. They'll grant you vision of the brush. They'll alert you of enemy attempts on big-reward neutral monsters like the dragon or baron. If you attack them in the middle of something like that, you could mob up their entire team. Or maybe you are aware of a gank attempt on you. You could alert a nearby friend, bait the ganker in and turn the tables. Use wards. USE. WARDS.

And BUY control wards. We had to spend 100 gold on pink wards, and now you can get a control ward for 25% off! Such a good deal!

6. Do something.

So you just wiped the enemy team out. Hooray! But...what are you doing now? Did you just go back to your respective lanes and farm? Incorrect! You now have precious map control, and should be taking advantage of it. Gather up as a team and take out a tower. Head to the dragon and get a clean kill. Steal enemy creeps (especially their blue and red buffs). You can always check the status of both teams by pressing tab. If multiple enemies are waiting on respawn, then you need to press that advantage.

7. Don't just wait around all day when you're in a position to win.

8. Do use wards.

Seriously, kids. If Hargaad can do it, so can you. I know you have 75 gold just laying around sometimes. Don't feed us with your bullshit of, "But I need to save for x item!" No! Fuck you, and your high horse. If you don't use wards, and you die a lot, nobody on your team is going to be able to save you from a beefed up (whatever) lane. Upgrading your yellow trinket can help too, but there is no substitution for vision. Use and buy wards!

9. Learn to speak ping.

All you really need to communicate effectively in this game is to be able to use the pings it provides.

To use these pings, hold down the Alt, Ctrl, G, or V keys while clicking to show the ping overlay. Then, move your mouse in the direction of the ping you want to issue, and release. You can perform this action either on the terrain or the minimap for precision pinging. You can also hold alt and click virtually anything in the interface to communicate that information quickly to your team - for example you can hold alt and left click your health bar to have the game say "Awesome New Player - Lee Sin - 5% Health" to let your teammates know you're running away because you're low health, not because you're chicken.

It is unacceptable to blame players that aren't typing at all, or players that are not speaking in English.:

Meet the Team

Like any group activity, stuff is usually broken down into roles and after years the meta has solidified into sending 1 player top, 1 mid, 1 to roam the jungle, and 2 people to the bottom lane. The pair in the bottom lane are customarily a marksman and someone to accompany them. When picking champions, it's a good idea to see what people are doing and fill in any holes. It's worth noting that champions don't always fit neatly in categories. A champion's role in the team may depend on what build has been chosen, and sometimes you may fill several roles depending on the group composition. Here is Riot's official site on roles.

1. The Marksman (aka ADC, attack damage carry):
Examples include Caitlyn, Ezreal, Ashe and Vayne.

If your team is a car, then the marksman is the engine. It's what makes the team function. The marksman, when doing its job, will be able to easily destroy the whole team. But, just like an engine is useless without any other parts of your car, the marksman relies on its team to get the gold necessary to buy the items needed to kill swathes of enemies. Early on, however, marksmen tend to be more vulnerable and weaker than other champs.

2. The Tank:
Examples include Leona, Sejuani, Zac and Nautilus.

Following the car metaphor, the tank is your steering. It'll guide the team into battle, and in many cases will be the one starting the fights. Tanks are there to absorb damage and lock down the most dangerous champions on the enemy team so you can position yourselves to win the fight. Some tanks do this with CC, whereas other tanks have some damage and will soften up the enemy team instead. Tanks still tend to need the rest of their team to back them up.

3. The Support:
Examples include Soraka, Sona, Nami and Janna.

I guess support are your tires or something? Maybe the AC. Either way, supports help the team out with buffs and generally shields or healing. Supports tend to assist the marksman by allowing the marksman to stay in the lane longer. Unlike, well, just about everyone else, supports don't rely so much on gear and thus will purposefully AVOID getting last hits so that their lane partner can farm gold faster. Because of their reduced need of gold, support should also be buying and placing wards when needed. It's worth noting that EVERYONE should generally buy wards, but as a support you can afford to take the financial hit.

4. The Assassin:
Examples include Kha'zix, Talon, Zed and Evelynn.

If we're sticking with the car metaphor, the assassin is like your car having a button you can press which will make that other car's engine implode. Assassins generally specialise in high single-target damage and mobility, allowing them to quickly eliminate enemy marksmen and mages with ease. If you're playing as a squishy and vulnerable target, these guys are going to be your biggest threat - ask your team to try and keep them from harming you. Assassins also generally need to get kills early in order to stay competitive into the later stages of the game.

5. The Mage:
Examples include Brand, Syndra, Lux and Annie.

Mages are a broad category, with their defining feature being that they primarily deal damage at range through their abilities and not auto-attacks. Some, like Lissandra, focus less on dealing damage and more on being able to control the enemy team's movement. Others, like Brand or Ziggs, have relatively less utility and are instead capable of putting out high amounts of damage. Mages benefit strongly from their role's innate flexibility, and can have a huge impact on team fights.

6. The Fighter:
Examples include Garen, Renekton, Trundle and Vi.

Fighters are melee attackers with a mix of offensive and defensive capabilities. They're not as hard to kill as a tank, and not able to throw out as much damage as an assassin, but they can still prove to be fearsome opponents - especially if they stay alive and are allowed to deal their damage over time. Like mages, the fighter role is incredibly versatile, with each fighter having a different mixture of damage and utility.

7. The Jungler:
Examples include Warwick, Udyr, Xin Zhao and Jarvan IV.

Although not a label Riot applies to their champions, the jungler is a role that you'll begin to see at higher summoner levels. This is due to runes and masteries allowing for more efficient jungling. It is still possible during lower levels on a few champs, even at summoner level 1, but very uncommon. As the name implies, the jungler moves through the jungle (the parts of the map in between lanes) and kills neutral creeps (or "monsters"). This benefits your team by creating a second solo lane (top lane), resulting in more experience and gold for your team as a whole. Once the jungler hits a certain gear/level point, they look for opportunities to gank enemies. This is generally done via strong CC abilities, such as Warwick's ultimate or Nunu's slow coupled with his speed buff. Skills such as these will enable the jungler's teammate in that lane to easily assist with the kill. When not ganking, the jungler will return to the jungle regularly to keep up in terms of gold and experience. Due to their roaming, the jungler has plenty of opportunities to place wards for its teammates.

This is a very simple guide, and is only a rough outline of the basics! Roles can easily overlap, and a champion can fill more than one role! Ezreal is a marksman/mage, for instance, and Taric is a support/tank.:

What's this I hear about different maps?

There are four different maps in League of Legends, each of which has a different style of gameplay. In some cases, different items will be available on each of them, and champions might be altered slightly.

1. Summoner's Rift.

This is the most well-known map, and what you'll probably be spending most of your time on. Featuring five players on each team, the goal is to destroy the enemy's team base (or nexus). Waves of friendly NPCs ("minions") will attempt to help you reach your objective, although standing in their way are increasingly strong sets of turrets (alongside the enemy team and their minions). In between the lanes which your minions will travel along are neutral monsters which you can destroy for more gold. There are also large monsters, the Rift Herald, dragons and Baron Nashor, which can require your entire team attacking them to be taken down - but the rewards for doing so are great.

2. The Howling Abyss.

The simplest map, this is essentially a single lane version of Summoner's Rift. Five players on each team control a randomly chosen character, and aim to destroy the enemy team's nexus first. Things are made more complicated by the players being unable to buy items, unless it's the start of the game or they've recently died. This map also has creatures called Poros roaming it, making it the best map by default.

Recently the Howling Abyss underwent a pirate makeover! It is now Butchers Bay. No special gimmicks or anything, just a new look for an old friend.

3. The Crystal Scar.

This is the only map for the game mode known as "Dominion". Again a 5v5 mode, the novelty here is that the map features control points that players must "capture" and hold onto in order to win. There are five control points, and the team that holds less of them slowly lose health from their nexus - until it reaches zero, and they lose. Dotted around the map are speed boosts and health packs. The basic strategy for Dominion involves sending four players to the top point, and one strong duelist or pusher to the bottom lane of the map. Tip; take Revive.

Dominion is never going to receive a ranked mode. It is also the best.

4. The Twisted Treeline.

The 3v3 gametype known as Twisted Treeline was fully launched in March 2010, but it was relaunched with an entirely new map in October 2012 because of some serious design flaws in the original map that Riot decided were unfixable. The new map is still in beta, but will be exiting beta Soon™. However, 3v3 still at least gets more support than Dominion. While still fundamentally the same gameplay, there are some key differences from Summoner's Rift to keep in mind - the lack of wards and altered objectives being the most important. Much more info here!

5. Rotating Game Modes

In the old days we prayed to the gods and made many sacrifices, and occasionally they let us play strange new game modes like Doom Bots of Doom or URF for short periods of time. Eventually the gods tired of our pathetic cries and put a number of the wacky modes into a rotating queue, allowing us to play one of them each weekend from Friday to Monday. Which mode is coming up is announced here, and this is an example post. For information about each mode's gameplay, look on the first link or google the mode's name.

Red Raevyn · November 2016

Other useful LoL related websites!

http://www.surrenderat20.net/ - For all the latest LoL news and a sneak peak at any upcoming content on the Public Beta Environment.
http://www.solomid.net/ - A more advanced and polished version of Mobafire. Solomid offers intricate guides on champs that've been tried and tested by the community. Best for more advanced players of lvl 20+
http://www.lolking.net/ - A site useful for looking at skins, as their splash art can be quite different from their in-game appearance. It's also good for looking up summoners, statistics about the game, and guides for champions.
http://www.leagueoflegends.com - The standard LoL website! Info on the game can be found here.
http://www.probuilds.net/ - Wonder what the Pros build on your favorite champ? Check here! Just remember that these guys are pros and you should always try to find whatever build works best for you!
http://champion.gg/ - Wonder how other top players (Plat and higher in ranked) build their champs? Check here!
http://na.op.gg/ - A site that can help you break down a game by the numbers. Just plug in your summoner name and reap delicious match history.

What's this crafting nonsense I hear about?

To sum it up: play games to get keys and boxes. Once you earn a box on a champion, regardless of how you earned it, you cannot earn another on that champ. After games, you have a chance to get key shards. 3 shards = 1 key with which you can open 1 box. Boxes contain shards for champions or cosmetics (champ and ward skins, icons) that you can make permanent on your account by spending essence. Earn essence by breaking down shards for things you don't want.

Basically, play games, receive loot. Hope its loot that you actually care about. Repeat.

Dunks?

https://youtu.be/4GK_zO4s-1k

How do you kill Zilean?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpe-JoGyPsY

Stuff You Should Know
- Yes, a promo skin will unlock that champion for free.
- Some promo codes will work on multiple servers. Some will not. Yes, this is confusing.
- Map vision wins games - USE WARDS.
- It is a team wide effort, everyone uses wards.
- When in doubt, take Ignite/Flash.

For emergency use only: open in case of shipping chat:

Brought to you by Infidel.
Instructions: replace the "WhiteShark" portion of the url with the name of the intended target.

PENTAKILLS
facetious / Bonhomie

Dr Lamy Koreg

https://youtu.be/ySvYAnl0bcM

Mad Spooky

I needed anime to post. · November 2016

buff eve

Joshmvii · November 2016

I have a feeling Ivern's sky high win rate comes from high elo, because the few times I've seen him at silver/gold he's been insanely ineffective. He's basically an extra support who levels really quickly, but either the teams don't know how to play around him, or the Ivern himself doesn't get how to play the champ in fights.

JAEF · November 2016

Joshmvii wrote: »

I have a feeling Ivern's sky high win rate comes from high elo, because the few times I've seen him at silver/gold he's been insanely ineffective. He's basically an extra support who levels really quickly, but either the teams don't know how to play around him, or the Ivern himself doesn't get how to play the champ in fights.

Ivern is super high utility. He has a skillshot that makes what would otherwise be an impossible 4-melee-roster-vs-a-kiting-team viable. Understanding how to play Ivern is very difficult as he's not just a spam-abilities-do-damage kind of champ.

As such most people who could understand how to play him well are going to be at the higher elos. If you look at op.gg you can actually see winrates by elo, they definitely fall along with tiers.

Mr Fuzzbutt · November 2016

haven't played in a while and

oh no

what did they do to my poor birb waifu?

vagrant_winds · November 2016

JAEF wrote: »

Joshmvii wrote: »

I have a feeling Ivern's sky high win rate comes from high elo, because the few times I've seen him at silver/gold he's been insanely ineffective. He's basically an extra support who levels really quickly, but either the teams don't know how to play around him, or the Ivern himself doesn't get how to play the champ in fights.

Ivern is super high utility. He has a skillshot that makes what would otherwise be an impossible 4-melee-roster-vs-a-kiting-team viable. Understanding how to play Ivern is very difficult as he's not just a spam-abilities-do-damage kind of champ.

As such most people who could understand how to play him well are going to be at the higher elos. If you look at op.gg you can actually see winrates by elo, they definitely fall along with tiers.

Yep. The slow/snare and the grass are super annoying.

Ivellius · November 2016

Joshmvii wrote: »

I have a feeling Ivern's sky high win rate comes from high elo, because the few times I've seen him at silver/gold he's been insanely ineffective. He's basically an extra support who levels really quickly, but either the teams don't know how to play around him, or the Ivern himself doesn't get how to play the champ in fights.

Also if you play with bad people you'll feel useless because he's a support and isn't going to win games on his own

He's good right now, though.

Mr Fuzzbutt wrote: »

haven't played in a while and

oh no

what did they do to my poor birb waifu?

Azir had to be dumpstered because pros and an overloaded kit. They've said he'll probably get a rework eventually.

Spectrum · November 2016

vagrant_winds wrote: »

JAEF wrote: »

Joshmvii wrote: »

I have a feeling Ivern's sky high win rate comes from high elo, because the few times I've seen him at silver/gold he's been insanely ineffective. He's basically an extra support who levels really quickly, but either the teams don't know how to play around him, or the Ivern himself doesn't get how to play the champ in fights.

Ivern is super high utility. He has a skillshot that makes what would otherwise be an impossible 4-melee-roster-vs-a-kiting-team viable. Understanding how to play Ivern is very difficult as he's not just a spam-abilities-do-damage kind of champ.

As such most people who could understand how to play him well are going to be at the higher elos. If you look at op.gg you can actually see winrates by elo, they definitely fall along with tiers.

Yep. The slow/snare and the grass are super annoying.

And the shield isn't a joke and his ult seems infinitely more annoying than Annie's and why does it fucking regen when I try to kill it off instead as it's chasing me argh why

Tcheldor · November 2016

Where is my ele luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuux.

Spectrum · November 2016

By the way, don't build Guinsoo's right now. Shit is bugged, you hit yourself with your own on-hit effects.

Spectrum · November 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K5BDZXDjwM&feature=em-uploademail

Polaritie · November 2016

Nothing like losing the game because Akali wants to be split push hero and is off bot when a fight breaks out at baron. She can't kill Sion solo, but guess what? Sion has tele and she doesn't it.

It's apparently our fault we didn't let them take baron uncontested.

She more or less did that the whole damn game, always off pushing when fights break over objectives, and it led to the enemy team coming back because they could always 5v4 us to equalize the lead we had from laning.

I WAS on track for S rank or something with Cait, 7/0/6, but... yay for team never grouping.

That game swung from a 8.2k gold lead in our favor to 7.7k in theirs over the last 15 minutes. Just so painful to play:
http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/2355712406/32070201?tab=stats

Edit: I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that anytime anyone says "why did you fight without me" or something, it's their fault for being out of position (excluding the case of them being dead). Fights aren't something your team just decides to start in gentlemanly fashion, they happen because someone's making a play for objectives, and not fighting means conceding an objective.

Spectrum · November 2016

Polaritie wrote: »

Edit: I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that anytime anyone says "why did you fight without me" or something, it's their fault for being out of position (excluding the case of them being dead). Fights aren't something your team just decides to start in gentlemanly fashion, they happen because someone's making a play for objectives, and not fighting means conceding an objective.

Nope, 100% wrong. If you see that you don't have all of your team (or the strongest member of your team) there, it's on the rest of the team to play more conservatively. They need to either not contest a neutral objective and also play the rotation game to take something else or they need to not be sitting in the middle of the lane/outside an enemy tower or something and open for a fight.

Mr Fuzzbutt · November 2016

Ivellius wrote: »

Joshmvii wrote: »

I have a feeling Ivern's sky high win rate comes from high elo, because the few times I've seen him at silver/gold he's been insanely ineffective. He's basically an extra support who levels really quickly, but either the teams don't know how to play around him, or the Ivern himself doesn't get how to play the champ in fights.

Also if you play with bad people you'll feel useless because he's a support and isn't going to win games on his own

He's good right now, though.

Mr Fuzzbutt wrote: »

haven't played in a while and

oh no

what did they do to my poor birb waifu?

Azir had to be dumpstered because pros and an overloaded kit. They've said he'll probably get a rework eventually.

I meant Anivia, who seems to have been hit particularly hard with the nerfhammer lately.

Why does Riot hate birds?

PotatoNinja · November 2016

New Shyvana seems strong, although honestly most of the changes to her weren't major buffs or nerfs except for her ultimate.

Her ultimate is now a *big deal*, and she can have it up nearly 100% of the time because of her fury generation while jungling.

New E feels mediocre, and I miss the old W because the burning ground was Singed levels of "why am I taking so much damage for following this person?!"

Extra HP on ult is great, and its now a reliable dive or great way to ignore predictable CC.

Can't decide if she should go Bloodrazor or Cinderhulk. Probably Bloodrazor, although the ridiculous amount of HP she can get late game with Cinderhulk is tempting.

Been running Fervor, but Undying Grasp might be a solid competitor against CC-heavy teams.

Polaritie · November 2016

Spectrum wrote: »

Polaritie wrote: »

Edit: I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that anytime anyone says "why did you fight without me" or something, it's their fault for being out of position (excluding the case of them being dead). Fights aren't something your team just decides to start in gentlemanly fashion, they happen because someone's making a play for objectives, and not fighting means conceding an objective.

Nope, 100% wrong. If you see that you don't have all of your team (or the strongest member of your team) there, it's on the rest of the team to play more conservatively. They need to either not contest a neutral objective and also play the rotation game to take something else or they need to not be sitting in the middle of the lane/outside an enemy tower or something and open for a fight.

In normals? No, I'm going to go with "stop running off alone where you can't regroup in a reasonable amount of time". If you're off alone it needs to either be very brief where there's no chance something is at risk, or you need to have teleport.

Putting the team at a disadvantage to where they have to concede Baron or something because you want to push bot in is 100% on the person doing it.

Edit: The whole rotation thing applies more in coordinated groups, you're going to have a hell of a time getting randoms to do that, and you're still getting the short end of the stick still - it's eventually just a matter of losing slower, so every time you have to do it because someone's off alone you're falling behind.

Spectrum · November 2016

Polaritie wrote: »

Spectrum wrote: »

Polaritie wrote: »

Edit: I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that anytime anyone says "why did you fight without me" or something, it's their fault for being out of position (excluding the case of them being dead). Fights aren't something your team just decides to start in gentlemanly fashion, they happen because someone's making a play for objectives, and not fighting means conceding an objective.

Nope, 100% wrong. If you see that you don't have all of your team (or the strongest member of your team) there, it's on the rest of the team to play more conservatively. They need to either not contest a neutral objective and also play the rotation game to take something else or they need to not be sitting in the middle of the lane/outside an enemy tower or something and open for a fight.

In normals? No, I'm going to go with "stop running off alone where you can't regroup in a reasonable amount of time". If you're off alone it needs to either be very brief where there's no chance something is at risk, or you need to have teleport.

Putting the team at a disadvantage to where they have to concede Baron or something because you want to push bot in is 100% on the person doing it.

Edit: The whole rotation thing applies more in coordinated groups, you're going to have a hell of a time getting randoms to do that, and you're still getting the short end of the stick still - it's eventually just a matter of losing slower, so every time you have to do it because someone's off alone you're falling behind.

No. Normals is not code for "5v5 deathmatch".

Obviously, it's situational and Baron is a bad trade generally, but 2 towers for giving up a Drake because of split pushing is entirely possible.

Joshmvii · November 2016

Spectrum wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K5BDZXDjwM&feature=em-uploademail

I expect this team to not make it to the LCS, but I will absolutely love it if they bring some fun stuff to the challenger series.

Joshmvii · November 2016

Spectrum wrote: »

Polaritie wrote: »

Edit: I'm just going to go out on a limb here and say that anytime anyone says "why did you fight without me" or something, it's their fault for being out of position (excluding the case of them being dead). Fights aren't something your team just decides to start in gentlemanly fashion, they happen because someone's making a play for objectives, and not fighting means conceding an objective.

Nope, 100% wrong. If you see that you don't have all of your team (or the strongest member of your team) there, it's on the rest of the team to play more conservatively. They need to either not contest a neutral objective and also play the rotation game to take something else or they need to not be sitting in the middle of the lane/outside an enemy tower or something and open for a fight.

Oh god, this. There will be a massive wave on its way to hit the bot tower and I will back ping my team mid, say "I'm going bot to farm this wave then I'll regroup," and they will straight up engage and fight anyway and often lose 4v5. Not get engaged on by some godlike engage comp. Like they'll go in on their own. That shit ain't my fault.

Joshmvii · November 2016

PotatoNinja wrote: »

New Shyvana seems strong, although honestly most of the changes to her weren't major buffs or nerfs except for her ultimate.

Her ultimate is now a *big deal*, and she can have it up nearly 100% of the time because of her fury generation while jungling.

New E feels mediocre, and I miss the old W because the burning ground was Singed levels of "why am I taking so much damage for following this person?!"

Extra HP on ult is great, and its now a reliable dive or great way to ignore predictable CC.

Can't decide if she should go Bloodrazor or Cinderhulk. Probably Bloodrazor, although the ridiculous amount of HP she can get late game with Cinderhulk is tempting.

Been running Fervor, but Undying Grasp might be a solid competitor against CC-heavy teams.

Her new E in dragon form is insanely good. The damage the fireball does is far higher than her dragon E used to do, and the burning ground is a better targeted zoning tool than the old burnout path.

As for bloodrazor v cinderhulk, that's all about whether or not you're trying to kill shit or be a tank.

Jookie · November 2016

Rylai's Crystal Scepter
Total cost lowered to 2600g from 3200g
Recipe now: Blasting Wand + Amp Tome + Ruby Crystal + gold.
Stats & Effect :
"+300 Health
+75 Ability Power
UNIQUE Passive: Damaging spells and abilities reduce enemy movement speed by 20% for 1 second."

On the PBE. Still has a relatively easy build path but has nearly a one thousand combine cost. Not going to be as many mid laners looking to abuse the item anymore. Syndra, for example, probably won't look to build it anymore unless she's in need of a durability boost and even then I'm not sure, more AP means you can just delete your target and she's losing not insignificant damage amounts on her ult.

Spectrum · November 2016

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7-85hfoW8Q&feature=em-uploademail

Koreg · November 2016

So I have been playing a lot of Velkoz midlane and I want to know what I can do to get better. My general strategy is as follows:

In the beginning I sit and farm trying to keep the minions meeting just slightly closer to my side of the map. I do this for levels 1-4 or so depending on my matchup. I start with my W then Q and poke whenever I can focusing on farming though. Mainly just trying to outpace my matchup.

Once I either get a lucky kill due to over eager mid or ~1400 gold I back and start on my NomNomicon. By the time I hit 6 I finish it and push more aggressively hoping for a full wombocombo of stun, rift, q and ult for a kill and hard tower push.

I have yet to start using the jungle mobs other than the occassional late game blue. And full kit is essentially nomicon, mask (that applies a DOT), sorcerer boots, fedora, voidstaff, and ludens echo (i think that's the name). Generally in that order.

Is mid supposed to be more aggressive? Or do I play the stall game and try to coordinate with Jungle for ganks to feed? Any other good suggestions or tips?

Joshmvii · November 2016

There's no one right answer to how to play mid lane. Sometimes you should be agro in lane, sometimes passive, sometimes roam, etc. It all depends on the game.

Sounds like you have a pretty good hold on the general stuff.

PMAvers · November 2016

Don't forget the emote spam. That's quite important for V'K.

Also I keep on forgetting how dumb of a character Lee Sin is. Why he gets to be tanky, do a billion damage, and have great CC all at the same time... ugh.

Jookie · November 2016

Koreg wrote: »

So I have been playing a lot of Velkoz midlane and I want to know what I can do to get better. My general strategy is as follows:

In the beginning I sit and farm trying to keep the minions meeting just slightly closer to my side of the map. I do this for levels 1-4 or so depending on my matchup. I start with my W then Q and poke whenever I can focusing on farming though. Mainly just trying to outpace my matchup.

Once I either get a lucky kill due to over eager mid or ~1400 gold I back and start on my NomNomicon. By the time I hit 6 I finish it and push more aggressively hoping for a full wombocombo of stun, rift, q and ult for a kill and hard tower push.

I have yet to start using the jungle mobs other than the occassional late game blue. And full kit is essentially nomicon, mask (that applies a DOT), sorcerer boots, fedora, voidstaff, and ludens echo (i think that's the name). Generally in that order.

Is mid supposed to be more aggressive? Or do I play the stall game and try to coordinate with Jungle for ganks to feed? Any other good suggestions or tips?

As mentioned there's no real correct way to play. Playing safe means you don't have to worry about giving your enemy a huge advantage but playing aggressively means you could potentially force your opponent into making mistakes and stealing a huge lead. I tend to play more passive personally but when I know I can take fights I kick it up and try to be annoying.

A lot of it comes down to just knowing who's on the map and where. If you see the jungler going towards the top half of his jungle you can play up since you know you're less likely to be ganked unless you happen ro catch the enemy support just walked up river with relatively high HP. You can also impact the map by never actually leaving lane, especially as Vel'koz, by pushing the wave out (throwing out double Ws is amazing at that) and then just ducking out of vision. It forces the enemy to want to have to play back a little because a giant eyeball showing up can ruin an aggressive play.

Even if you don't roam at all it still can force the enemy into a safe, uncomfortable pattern. And even if you do end up roaming and getting nothing out of it, you can make it back to lane to catch the wave as it shoves back to you while only missing a creep or two in the meantime. It's hard to measure playing well through pressure created but...eventually being capable of making those decisions and having that kind of impact will make a significant difference in your game.

Sometimes roaming isn't the answer and if you trust your play you can drag enemy attention around mid, relieving pressure from your other lanes because the jungler has to babysit mid hard. It just comes from playing a lot and figuring what's best for you and your team. Sometimes you're in a matchup you can stomp early but if you wait too long you can't win trades anymore.

JAEF · November 2016

#1 most important thing about midlane is learning how to properly clear a wave efficiently with your champion's abilities and having your CS be on point mid-game. Mid lane is very snowbally, you need CS to get the AP to be able to rapidly clear your minions with very few abilities. This is what enables you to roam. This is also why zed and yasuo are so strong in lower elo, because they can spam abilities for no resource cost to shove the lane and roam or pressure.

Anytime you're thinking about playing a mid champ jump into a custom or AI game, CS with autos the first two waves, think about when to back (hint: not a cannon wave) for a key item, and then practice CSing with your abilities with the new AP you just got.

When you die early in lane and fall behind in levels and items it becomes incredibly difficult to clear your wave, meaning the enemy laner can just pressure you nonstop and shove you in. Leblanc is fucking broken in this respect with her new passive as she can just W the backline->Q and it's dead starting at level 2. That's dumb.

vagrant_winds · November 2016

Speaking of mid, how does one play NuKat?

Tcheldor · November 2016

JAEF wrote: »

#1 most important thing about midlane is learning how to properly clear a wave efficiently with your champion's abilities and having your CS be on point mid-game. Mid lane is very snowbally, you need CS to get the AP to be able to rapidly clear your minions with very few abilities. This is what enables you to roam. This is also why zed and yasuo are so strong in lower elo, because they can spam abilities for no resource cost to shove the lane and roam or pressure.

Anytime you're thinking about playing a mid champ jump into a custom or AI game, CS with autos the first two waves, think about when to back (hint: not a cannon wave) for a key item, and then practice CSing with your abilities with the new AP you just got.

When you die early in lane and fall behind in levels and items it becomes incredibly difficult to clear your wave, meaning the enemy laner can just pressure you nonstop and shove you in. Leblanc is fucking broken in this respect with her new passive as she can just W the backline->Q and it's dead starting at level 2. That's dumb.

I thought early on you wanted to back right as the cannon wave shows up because early on no one can clear that wave quickly and you'll lose minimal cs if you back. Once you can just one shot the wave it's different.

JAEF · November 2016

Tcheldor wrote: »

JAEF wrote: »

#1 most important thing about midlane is learning how to properly clear a wave efficiently with your champion's abilities and having your CS be on point mid-game. Mid lane is very snowbally, you need CS to get the AP to be able to rapidly clear your minions with very few abilities. This is what enables you to roam. This is also why zed and yasuo are so strong in lower elo, because they can spam abilities for no resource cost to shove the lane and roam or pressure.

Anytime you're thinking about playing a mid champ jump into a custom or AI game, CS with autos the first two waves, think about when to back (hint: not a cannon wave) for a key item, and then practice CSing with your abilities with the new AP you just got.

When you die early in lane and fall behind in levels and items it becomes incredibly difficult to clear your wave, meaning the enemy laner can just pressure you nonstop and shove you in. Leblanc is fucking broken in this respect with her new passive as she can just W the backline->Q and it's dead starting at level 2. That's dumb.

I thought early on you wanted to back right as the cannon wave shows up because early on no one can clear that wave quickly and you'll lose minimal cs if you back. Once you can just one shot the wave it's different.

This depends a lot on when your opponent decides to back. If they haven't, and they shove in that cannon wave you're gonna have a bad day.

Jookie · November 2016

JAEF wrote: »

Leblanc is fucking broken in this respect with her new passive as she can just W the backline->Q and it's dead starting at level 2. That's dumb.

That's a trend that I kind of just hate. LeBlanc's passive/Q interaction is very similar to Ryze's E-E-Q setup and I feel like they kind of forced it upon themselves. Because one champ can start hard shoving waves and roam early, all champs kinda just have to. Like their trend of ultimates that traverse the map - it was unique when Shen, TF, and Pantheon had it. And then Sion got it. And then they just throwing it on almost every champ it feels like. Taliyah revolved around hard shoving with a pair of abilities and then running bot and walling them off. Aurelion Sol does the same thing starting at level three, etc etc. Kled can't push as hard as the others but the ult is the same in effect. Tahm's thing is that he lets someone else show up alongside him. Ryze doesn't go as far but he can teleport numerous people that way (by the way I never understood why his Q has six points but his ult has two, I guess it gates his power spikes to a little later in the game if his Q had five levels but fit the same damage line?). I don't know, it stopped being a cool an interesting mechanic when they threw it on every champ that came out.

Red Raevyn · November 2016

And cherry on top to come full circle, LeBlanc can make it look like she's literally anywhere on the map, so her ultimate is in the same camp, just in a LeBlancy way.

vagrant_winds · November 2016

When your AP Support out-APs your AP mid.

This is what happens when the enemies constantly camp you while your JG gives you no love, but bot just snowballs.

JAEF · November 2016

vagrant_winds wrote: »

When your AP Support out-APs your AP mid.

This is what happens when the enemies constantly camp you while your JG gives you no love, but bot just snowballs.

Bot is just a brutal lane. Sometimes you're just going to take it up the tower all game long, scrapping for farm, getting dived by every single flash the enemy jungle and top laner have to spend while you desperately squeeze gold out of the tiny little raptors you can steal from your jungler.

Then you finally get to 6 items and.. win.

Or you lose in 20 minutes. You know, one of those. That potential is always there though. Sometimes you get fucked, and sometimes you get to fuck back.

DasUberEdward · November 2016

blind pick solo queue is so peaceful

Red Raevyn · November 2016

For those on the new client, rotating game mode isn't implemented but it is still happening. You've got to launch the old client (via button in bottom right before you put in your password) to even see what's live this weekend, never mind play it. It's One For All this weekend and next, followed by Nexus Siege Dec 9-12.

Spectrum · November 2016

http://tsm.gg/news/thank-you-weldon

Despite the positives of working with Weldon, we have decided to mutually part ways. We found that working with him in short periods of time proved to be more effective and will instead continue to consult and work with him for bootcamps. We are extremely grateful for all the work he has put into helping the team, and the lessons he has taught us will still be applied in his absence. We wish Weldon the best in his future endeavors in esports, and hope to maintain a genial relationship with him.

We would also like to take this opportunity to clarify some statements that arose during this year’s Worlds. Team SoloMid as an organization has always valued our bootcamps leading up to worlds in Korea, and we have always been extremely grateful to the top Korean teams that choose to scrim with us. These scrims have traditionally been some of the best practice our team gets in the competitive season, and we always learn a great deal during these bootcamps. To shed further light on this topic, Samsung White in Season 4 was our primary scrim partner throughout Worlds, and they played a huge factor in our tournament run that year.

Saw that one coming.

Joe K · November 2016

Mr Fuzzbutt wrote: »

Ivellius wrote: »

Joshmvii wrote: »

I have a feeling Ivern's sky high win rate comes from high elo, because the few times I've seen him at silver/gold he's been insanely ineffective. He's basically an extra support who levels really quickly, but either the teams don't know how to play around him, or the Ivern himself doesn't get how to play the champ in fights.

Also if you play with bad people you'll feel useless because he's a support and isn't going to win games on his own

He's good right now, though.

Mr Fuzzbutt wrote: »

haven't played in a while and

oh no

what did they do to my poor birb waifu?

Azir had to be dumpstered because pros and an overloaded kit. They've said he'll probably get a rework eventually.

I meant Anivia, who seems to have been hit particularly hard with the nerfhammer lately.

Why does Riot hate birds?

Poor Anivia??

Poor Karthus.

Joshmvii · November 2016

vagrant_winds wrote: »

Speaking of mid, how does one play NuKat?

You hit people with passive daggers and they die. Her wave clear is worse than ever before especially early game, so what you want to do is start fighting early. Level 2 when you just have Q and E you can Q the opponent, E to your dagger or the opponent and get off E dmg plus passive dagger, and get most of the CD back on E so you can get an auto or two in and then shunpo back to your minions. Do this after they've used one of their abilities to try to harass you or CS.

At level 3 and then for the rest of the game, you can get huge damage by Q->E and hit W when you arrive. Once you have enough AP the dmg from Q->E and the two dagger pickups can almost kill a squishy without needing to ult if you can get both daggers.

Also remember that picking up daggers resets shunpo now so even if you've used E and somebody is getting away, you might be able to hit W, pick up your dagger and get a new E to get in/out again.

Really, watch some of Scarra's VODs lately, as he does some great work on Kat as always.

facetious · November 2016

I got carried by a mid Ivern with smite earlier.

Also I tuned into Bjergsen's stream just in time to see him get kicked out of pick/ban because he didn't realize he was running out of time to pick a champ in the new client. He apologized/explained to WildTurtle over voice chat, then you just hear Turtle from the other room go "OH MY GOD".

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