League of Legends topic

[Shrooblord]

I played a few ranked games a while ago, and I think I ranked up to being a Silver scrub.

I used to play Maokai. He was very fun, but I kind of lost touch of how to play him. Hecarim is a beast. You should definitely try playing him in the jungle. I play LoL with a friend who masters Hec jungle frequently and he pretty much carries the whole game every time just because he pops in and out of the jungle at very unexpected times and Hec's kit means you basically can't avoid him when he does show up.

[saerleiya]

Hec's kit means you basically can't avoid him when he does show up.

His main weakness is his weak early game, and up until the last few months, all in the jungle was about early game carries like Kha'zix, Elise, Lee Sin, and Evelynn. Hecarim can't do anything against them early, but now they all got nerfed, he can come out of the jungle safely and wreck top and mid lane. Plus, if you flash while he's hitting with his charge, you are still getting displaced after it. ROFL.

I used to play Maokai. He was very fun, but I kind of lost touch of how to play him.

Seems he's back in business due to his ulti staying around him, so he's way more efficient at zoning than before. Them trees :3.

[Shrooblord]

Wait, his ult now follows him around if he moves?

[saerleiya]

Wait, his ult now follows him around if he moves?

Seems so: if he starts his ult, it's now a zone around him, kinda Fiddlestick's, but the other effects of it remain unchanged. That's actually more coherent with the character: why would he create a vengeful maelstrom somewhere and leave it there while the one very angry is the twisted tree himself? Better go man-mode and wreck people with his ult...

I also think that's why he's now played again in professionnal play, although I haven't watched some pro league since the beginning of July, when the change happened.

[Shrooblord]

His ult was the main problem I had getting used to him; I needed to time it perfectly to keep enemies inside it while I bashed them around and keep my eye on when people started leaving from it so that I cancelled it to preserve my mana. Like such, many an ults have gone to complete waste.

[saerleiya]

hehe, it can happen. But anyway it seems that now he's ban-worthy in the pro leagues, espaecially since he wrecks top lane more than jungle...

[Shrooblord]

I've gotten to playing Kayle recently and it's always a 50/50 guess whether or not people will ban her, so I've always got to have a backup for when they do, lol.

[saerleiya]

Because now Runaan/Nashor Kayle is OP as hell, and even more since many pros turned her from old-fashioned to godlike champ in the span of a few months. So she's ban-worthy too, but not as much as Kassadin. This guy was banned in 90% ranked games at the beginning of the season, and when he was available, the team who hadn't him was like "ok gg wpp let's surrender at 20, cuz' they have Kass' ".

I have a good microphone now and I've played with the settings in Vegas Pro to make it sound 'not too bad'. If I remember correctly you have the exact same one (Blue Yeti), so LoL session should be even funnier than intended.

I will post some footage here at the beginning of September, because I will be at PAX Prime for the semifinals/finals/3rd place matches of the NA Regionals for the S4 World Championship. Hell yeah that will be awesome .

[Shrooblord]

No, I have the EditorsKeys SL300 microphone.

Anyway, I thought Kassadin got a little less ban-worthy since he lost his silence. I played as a Kayle against him in one of my first matches with her and it was a breeze (although maybe that's an unfair matchup ). I love her style of having to look out all over the map for action because you could most definitely swing the outcome of a battle one way or the other depending on your timing.

[saerleiya]

No, I have the EditorsKeys SL300 microphone.

My memory is beginning to derp. That's not a good sign...

I played as a Kayle against him in one of my first matches with her and it was a breeze

Yep, now it's an unfair matchup because Kassadin lsot a lot of burst with consecutive nerfs, while Kayle's FOTM build has a godlike level of sustained damage, which makes any kind of trade for him worthless against her. The only way he can win against Kayle now is that he has more mobility/catch-up/assassination potential than Kayle, who in her current state is more teamfight oriented than him.

I love her style of having to look out all over the map for action because you could most definitely swing the outcome of a battle one way or the other depending on your timing.

Now that your ADC does tons of damage late game, ulti him and teamfight's won. Making your Twitch invulnerable for 3 seconds during his ultimate is truly terrifying. Vayne even more. Of course, if you are playing smart cast, avoid casting it on yourself XD.

[Shrooblord]

I don't use SmartCast because I find it too confusing, but I do use the self-cast commands for the heal+speedup quite regularly. What I enjoy most about Kayle is that she allows me to play her in any lane and I'll still be good. I'm still wanting to try her in jungle though.

[saerleiya]

Jungle Kayle's good, but not as good as she can be in the other lanes. In the same style, Jax is better for example.
You should try him jungle: build tank early, do a couple of ganks, and jump onto the carries in mid-game teamfights.
The only reason you can lose with him jungle is that you are too far behind mid-game to come back. If you are just a lil' bit behind, farm you way up to late-game, buy Trinity Force and Blade of The Ruined King, and make their team say "f***, we forgot about the jungler Jax".

That's why I always play him jungle in ranked: people are not used to seeing a jungler become a real threat in the late-game, aside from Hecarim maybe.

[Shrooblord]

I don't own Jax and I've only played him once. A mistake I shall correct!

[saerleiya]

Dude, this champ is terrific. Once you have trinity force and BotRK, you are already a nightmare for carries. Once you have some tanky items like randuin's omen/sunfire and banshee's veil, you are the doom to an entire team.

Jax is incredibly strong because he can use almost any kind of stats to its maximum potential. His kit sinergizes extremely well with some items, he's probably the best character for something like Trinity force, aside from Irelia. His ultimate is OP as hell : the more AD/AP you have, the more resistance you get out of it. And every ADC fears the helicopter eggplant because once he's on you, he will hunt you down because he can stun you, have as much burst as sustained damage, and he can jump every 5 seconds on EVERY SINGLE UNIT available on this map (including allies and wards).

His early is a bit weak, but that's why he's surprisingly good if played in the jungle. His dueling potential early is average as duels between junglers if they happen are not meant to be over extended periods of time, like it is in top lane where his early levels are very weak and he can be shut down with some ganks very easily.

EDIT : Plus he's particularly cheap for an OP champ (1350 RP if I remember correctly).

Oh yeah, I forgot to talk about Amumu. Always ban-worthy, godlike Jungler if well-played. Nothing is better than saving your allies with a well-timed bandage toss, or a won teamfight because you Q'ed/Flash/R the entire enemy team out of nowhere. I don't know if you were playing at the very beginning of S3, but at this time the wombos Curse of the Sad Bullet Requiem were pretty common (and so strong...).

[Shrooblord]

I started playing when Jayce was the new champion. I think that was mid-to-late Season 2.

[saerleiya]

Wait, let me see...

Yep, first Jayce was the 100th champion. Nice mark huh?

Second he was out in July 2012, which shows you have been playing LoL for more than 2 years now...impressive ! (personnally I started playing it in november 2010, which will be 4 years soon).

And in July 2012, it was still S2, close to the regionals period, although before S3 the selection for Regionals was made through circuit points acquired by participating to several tournaments like the IPL/IEM/Dreamhack if I remember, which is closer to the current Korean format than the LCS one. At this time, comps were "let's stall the game until late with our protect the Kog'Maw comp and our Anivia". However with Moscow 5 crushing everybody with a more aggressive style at that right moment, pro teams started to have a bit more aggressive compositions, and teamfight oriented ones.

DId yo uwatch some competitive play? FIrst time I did was for the finals of Season 2 World Championship.

[Shrooblord]

I've watched bits and bobs ocassionally, but I generally don't enjoy watching feature-length games if they're not done by commentators that are playing the game as they do.
Wow, so you've been around since, basically, the game launched! And here I was thinking I was a veteran.

[saerleiya]

Not really: I arrived at the beginning of Season 1 or so, But the game had already been out for one year. Or at least it had left the beta phase one year before I joined.
The first characters who went out after I joined LoL were Lux and Garen if I remember correctly.

Lux was a beast at that time, ans she still is, but now we ahve more and more mobility focused-champions mid-lane, which hampered her strengths by a good margin (looking at you Fizz, Zed and Ahri...).

I'm not a real veteran, but I'm one, I guess. I saw Darius stacking 4/5 Black Cleavers and dunkins a whole team 1v5, I saw Rengar getting perma-banned, and AP Yi getting Pentakills every game.

Now, time for top 3 favourite champs at every spot!

Top : Jax, Malphite, Renekhton.
Jungle : Fiddlestick, Jax, Hecarim.
Mid : Orianna, Lux, Kassadin.
ADC : Twitch, Caitlyn, Ashe.
Support : Fiddlestick, Leona, Alistar.

[Shrooblord]

Haha I saw Yi pentakills flying around in my earlier days too. The joy!

When I got my first Champion after Ryze, Nocturne, nobody knew how to counter him yet, and so I wrecked face playing as him, making him both my by myself most looked up to and then revered champion in possession. Since then, I've lost touch of how to play him. I cannot play one game with him where I don't end up being a total feed-arse. I'm sorry to admit it - he's still, in my mind, one of my favourites, even if my playstyle won't let me play him properly.

[saerleiya]

Difference is his ulti got nerfed...a lot. Distance was already a bit hit, though necessary because he could hunt you down from the other side of the map. But the increase CD on it proved to be too much : lvl 1 it's 3 minutes! If you fail a gank while using it, it can piss you off a lot. But I still play Nocturne jungle. He's a bit more carry-oriented now, and even if he doesn't have the same popularity as other ones such as Kha'Zix or Lee Sin, he's still a beast if fed, as like Vi he can simply tunnel-vision your carries and blow them off after using his ultimate.

You seem to like a lot junglers with heavy engages (Hecarim, Nocturne). Good boy ...