League of Legends (Old)

[RayFrost]

I seriously hate vayne. I don't enjoy anything about her as a champion.

I do enjoy doing well, but that's regardless of the champion. I hate everything to do with jungling but will still enjoy doing well in the role.

[RayFrost]

She was just the free week adc and I figured I'd play something I'm really really really really really really bad at

[RayFrost]

I'm fully convinced that karthus is freelo. I say this because he's gotten me my promos to plat 2 which I've been hovering at 81-99 lp for ages trying to get.

3-0 winrate on a champ I don't play. Based lichgod

[RayFrost]

Vel'koz, wukong, cass are all pretty good champions, wukong is probably the easiest to pick up

[RayFrost]

It's okay bulge, you got some learning in. Main thing to learn there is to not ult the morgana every fight and to not chase the morgana just because he's at 100 health. You literally had no chance of catching me every time and it got you killed / prevented you from helping the rest of your team.

[RayFrost]

I get miffed only when people spam back pings when I'm already in the middle of going b.

I'm two/three seconds away from being in base while backing in a bush and their entire team has shown on the map in a ward five seconds away from being able to come within range of flashing for me. Why the fuck do you need to spend your entire ping reserve on me?

Aside from that, I don't really get bothered by them.

P-edit: I agree with lilg

[RayFrost]

Don't listen to venmar.

#2 and #3 aren't the right path.

If you can't get better, just play to have fun.

[RayFrost]

Support: Morgana, Leona, thresh, sona, janna, nami, zyra, braum, lulu, alistar, lux, anivia, annie, taric, soraka, every other champion in the game except blitzcrank because blitzcrank is terrible
Mid: Malz, Karthus, Brand
Top: Lee, Aatrox, Renekton
Adc: trist, cait
Jungle: pls god no

[RayFrost]

lists are fun.

MID: Leblanc / Lux / Swain / Nami / Velkoz
TOP: Swain / Lux / Leblanc / Ashe / Veigar / Velkoz
ADC: Sivir / Ashe / Caitlyn / Leblanc
SUPPORT: Nami / Velkoz / Lux / Lulu / Leblanc / Veigar / Ashe
JUNGLE: Nunu

Hey dan what are your feelings about current lb? Still super strong in lane, or are you finding yourself aiming for roam more than lane pressure these days?

[RayFrost]

I've been hitting and losing promos to reach plat 2 a bit these days. Get super amazing teams for the one / two wins back, luck runs out, rinse repeat.

I gave up on tryharding and have just been playing outside my normal comfort champs a bit. Had a surprisingly good nami performance (with ez) into a vel'koz / cait lane after being 4 man camped hard for the early game. Turned that shit around and pulled clutch wins in the 2v2 situations that came later.

[RayFrost]

I'm like 100% sure akali destroys that lane.

[RayFrost]

My opinion:

Guys, stop being dicks to each other.

Ignore the people that you feel aggro towards instead of fighting with the person. Making the situation worse, not better. This is true both in and out of league games.

[RayFrost]

People end up not playing their games due to timezones / lack of motivation / etc.

We can't exactly do team-based inhaus, so it's a 1v1 tourney. And if I enter it's eventually me vs someone that is never on when I am.

If I'm not involved, it's eventually "when will those two fuckos actually play jesus christ it's been ten years"

[RayFrost]

Nothing wrong with playing an okay support and doing well.

[RayFrost]

Welcome to my first game in plat 2.



Ended up losing because tristana always thought it was a good idea to rocket jump INTO the enemy team. Every time. Without fail. We did pretty good aside from that, though.

[RayFrost]

It's really weird. Lately, I do well and end up losing the game.

But then I suck and my team carries the shit out of me and we win.

I don't wanna have to be the worst player on the team for my team to win. Pls.

[RayFrost]

I'd say lulu doesn't necessarily lose any lane, but she also can't snowball into an insane monster like other mid laners can. She's got good presence, but she'll never have godlike steamroll level presence on her own. She works best

with

other champions.

Whereas a lot of mid laners can achieve amazing results alone and with their team. Rather than it being just team-oriented.

[RayFrost]

I'm fairly sure that malzahar shuts down yasuo harder than syndra shuts down akali.

[RayFrost]

Guys, my streak of "be bad get carried be good lose game" ended.

I was bad and lost, I was good and won. FINALLY THE CURSE IS LIFTED.

[RayFrost]

I refuse to believe that any kill on me isn't just the other guy getting lucky so I keep going in trying to kill him because I KNOW I can win

[RayFrost]

Support is actually one of the two main shotcalling roles early on, idk what you mean by that.

But yeah I was pointing out a really bad line of logic that I've actually heard and found funny

[RayFrost]

I mean obviously if the player is bad that's not the case but the shotcallers are fairly commonly the support / jungle in teams so thinking the support shouldn't normally be shotcalling isn't accurate

Congrats on the win, though.

[RayFrost]

ADC is focused on farming / positioning, the support has to spend more time being aware of the map in a team setting anyway, so letting them shotcall is just a convenient way to make use of the fact they're already staring at the map (just like the jungler is)

But in soloq the shotcaller is everyone that says something because fuck communication and teamwork

[RayFrost]

As someone that's played a fair amount of akali mid, she does fine into a lot of mid laners but I'd go boots pots instead of null magic just based off of the fact that early akali needs sustain and the ability to dodge around skillshots / get in range to q e people. You shouldn't be super pushed by level two because you can literally walk up and q auto a lot of people if they try to push level one. You USUALLY don't want to be doing q auto after you have e because it draws minion aggro and you can do more dmgs with q e (it has better range anyway, so it means you take less damage when they poke back). A key thing about akali's matchups is playing her into things that don't have super sexy level 6 power. Meaning don't fuck with malzahar, don't fuck with cassiopeia, don't fuck with syndra, etc.

Anything that's squish and has little to no reliable disengage / hyper burst at six is free game. Veigar? Ziggs? Yasuo? Easy. Zed is a skill matchup because of his ability to hit you through your shroud allowing him to still do trades / etc but it slightly favors akali due to lower ult cooldown and better itemization options (seeker's for akali is a good item anyway, cloth start doesn't gimp her damage, etc).

The thing about top lane is that a lot of bruisers can afford to not give a fuck about akali's damage early, but she quickly outscales them in terms of consistent damage output. The q cooldown is short and the damage scales well, so she can build that early seeker's and at around level 7/8 she's just pushing out more numbers than the other guy. Pretty much how winning that goes. You survive the early game abusiveness, then you win the mid game.

I wouldn't ever really build lichbane on her as an early item. Gunblade, zhonya are pretty core. Past that, dcap, dfg, abyssal, rylai's are all pretty good depending on the situation. Obviously the void staff is necessary after a point but that's w/e. I actually haven't built lichbane on akali a single time this season. I don't like it.

The thing with people having pinks at high elo is it means you can't let yourself get caught out, but it doesn't mean as much as you'd think it does in a teamfight into the mid to late game. Them dropping a pink looking to kill you specifically when you've just burnt your cds means you can casually press zhonya while your team does stuff, which shifts focus away from you and lets you pop out of it ready to go again. Your team wins the fight, you clear the pink for free gold. Not to mention this means they don't have those pinks in other places that'd give vision control. Same for oracle trinket value. If you get caught then you're fucked, but that's an issue of getting caught out and not an issue of "oh pinks counter akali."

[RayFrost]

W is too long of a cooldown to burn just to drop aggro when you can q + e to harass without drawing aggro. W is your only escape early, so using it freely is really bad

At around level 6, you can use it a bit more freely after you burn an ult charge to harass since you have the ability to ult back to the minion wave that's behind you as an escape option, but pre-six you're reliant on that stealth walkaway.

[RayFrost]

Since you become visible when damaging the wave anyway, it's not really worth doing unless you're taking a LOT of free poke. In which case you're better off either trying to assert pressure on your enemy laner with q / e or simply backing off and using your q to farm. Akali's fine with being slightly behind on cs since she has such huge level-based power spikes.

[RayFrost]

Team "we lock down one person and hope we can kill them without getting cc'd or attacked" works pretty well when people will literally watch you die, but otherwise doesn't do as well as you'd think it does in my experience.

[RayFrost]

Morgana shield blocks malz ult ww ult malphite ult and every other cc in the game, but it doesn't stop damage on malph ult.

It does stop the damage on malz and ww ults if you cast it before they cast because it's a channel that relies on the suppression to be cast.

[RayFrost]

Just for the record mikael's doesn't cleanse suppression but it does cleanse other cc

[RayFrost]

The heal still works, though!

[RayFrost]

Morgana shield blocks malz ult ww ult malphite ult and every other cc in the game, but it doesn't stop damage on malph ult.

It does stop the damage on malz and ww ults if you cast it before they cast because it's a channel that relies on the suppression to be cast.

I would expect that either way, but I imagine it doesn't even allow those ults to be cast on Black-Shielded champs... which is lame cuz I would want ppl to be burning their ults on it. lol

It allows those ults to be cast on black-shielded champs.

If malz or ww ult someone with black shield, these things will result:

Malz's ult will go on cd, he'll do no damage, the sound and animation for his ult will play for about half a second.

WW will teleport to the target as normal, he'll do no damage, the sound and animation for his ult will play for about half a second.

[RayFrost]

It's just really cool design stuff now, obviously.

Edit:

I really like this comment + reply on the video for the Warriors song

Some dick: Stop fuckin advertising the game and start improving the game. Like making new maps. Fuckin riot 

A guy I now really like but don't know: sounds like a great idea. let's take the marketing team and have them program, animate, and model. what could possibly go wrong?
it worked in the 50's when china forced the farmers to forge iron. oh wait, there was a famine and millions died.

10/10 would read comments again

[RayFrost]

Morello's is a spell-based on hit, not an auto-attack based on-hit, so that's fine. Nashor's won't *proc* off the soldiers but the item has amazing synergy either way with providing attack speed and cdr for even more attack speed.

[RayFrost]

As someone that doesn't run cdr in runes and has been denied blue for entire games / not had the opportunity to get blue pot due to being able to get real items, I can see an argument for going 4 in attackspeed mastery instead of cdr mastery and running 40% cdr in itemization

[RayFrost]

I generally only go double doran's on people because of the fact that getting more doran's items tends to overfill the item slots (and it gets to the point where the value you're getting out of the third is debatable on whether it's worth more than saving up for say a codex or w/e)

[RayFrost]

Morello's is a decent item but a large part of the value of it is the passive, so you gotta make sure you can get actual value out of that (facing high-heal champs a la mundo / zac) - otherwise, you can get a different item such as athene's which fills the mana regen slot and gives slightly better stats. At least, imo

Also, I can't see how you'd have any issues with mana on double doran's. If you really have mana issues on that level and aren't getting blues, buy a couple of mana pots.

[RayFrost]

Nashor's is a terrible itemization for the early game on lulu

I also am not a fan of abyssal unless they're ap heavy

Athene's is almost core on lulu given that she's a utility oriented mage, making cdr godlike

[RayFrost]

You'd be correct in thinking that morello's helps into them, there's nothing particularly wrong with the item. It's, as you said, the more offensively oriented item choice.

I do feel that athene's is far far better mana sustain in a teamfighting situation, though. The mregen on morello's works over time, but in a teamfight you're burning mana hard and fast to do the things, and the atheen's passive is burst mana sustain which vastly outperforms morello's.

But overall I'd say you aren't particularly wrong, maestro

[RayFrost]

You are also technically correct, if you like ~

[RayFrost]

Brandi

[RayFrost]

Flash on D master race.

[RayFrost]

Leona I feel is a vastly more consistent and reliable choice than braum in soloq and would recommend her over him most of the time in part due to the fact that braum's got pretty much no damage output and his stun relies on *other* people activating it for it to be consistent.

Leona stun is immediate, her base damage is high, and her kit is very direct: go in, do things.

Braum's stun is delayed, his base damage is low, and his kit is very indirect: block dmgs, give tankiness to squishy.

I agree with oman on the soloq theory stuff. It's why most of my soloq support games are leona / thresh even though I absolutely love playing janna/sona/zyra/nami

[RayFrost]

Wazza: Always be/ban morgana is a pretty solid soloq motto

If you are not picking up leona because you're bad at doing hard engages, then you're just avoiding learning a powerful soloq tool because you're not good at it right now. Gotta get used to it. Go in, learn your limits, learn their limits, and eventually you're 1v2 cuz your adc died and pulling off the double kill.

Also, nami is super super super team reliant as well imo. If you're going for a support that doesn't need an adc, go an ap support. A la zyra, brand, vel'koz

Zyra has huge playmaking ability in solo queue, though. She can basically 1v2 lanes.

Maybe in Bronze you don't have reliable enough ADCs to make braum effective, but by high gold/low plat ADCs know what they're doing enough that a braum+anything lane basically just beats everything that isn't a bullshit morg lane. It's pretty fun, actually.

I haven't gotten to play braum since hitting plat since he's been banned every game or he AND morg are open.

So I wouldn't know about braum+thing in high elo, but I know that low elo isn't reliable enough - my advice was specifically for wazza.

I'd agree that zyra is probably one of the best soloq supports for low elo based off of sheer pressure provided.

[RayFrost]

If you are not picking up leona because you're bad at doing hard engages, then you're just avoiding learning a powerful soloq tool because you're not good at it right now. Gotta get used to it. Go in, learn your limits, learn their limits, and eventually you're 1v2 cuz your adc died and pulling off the double kill.

I know my limits, it's just a matter of me not liking being passive.

If you're passive on leona, you're doing it wrong and need to practice to improve your limits

[RayFrost]

Zyra is the good version of lux support

[RayFrost]

If this is not for stream it is a colossal waste of entertainment value

[RayFrost]

As someone that has done the grind to 30 four times, it's only fun if you're not actually doing the grind. It's fun if you're playing with friends and chillaxing

[RayFrost]

I'd say the intentional feeding increased significantly around season 3. Before then, people were more into making dicks with wards or straight up going afk / leaving. Since rito's cracked down on leavers, people choose to feed intentionally instead.

notscience: your father was a hamster and your mother smelt of elderberries

[RayFrost]

NEW SORAKAAAAA

SOOOOOO HYPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

SORAKA IS LOVE SORAKA IS LIFE

I missed my season 1 baby.

[RayFrost]

People keep amusing that win rates mean direct correlation to how good a champion is.

Janna is a good champion.

But the player has to be good for her to be good. As with EVERY CHAMPION IN THE GAME.

She's fine in soloq. Just that you have to know what you're doing. The only issue with soloq janna is your adc might be really bad at knowing how to work with janna since she's not as braindead easy to work with as say leona, the champ that just requires you to walk in and auto while she holds the enemies very still.

[RayFrost]

The fact you have no idea what janna does isn't that big of a deal, but I am offended that you are saying one of my favorite champions is useless.

Fakegod: I got forced to go out and find something

[RayFrost]

Quinn and fiora are generally considered bad

Irelia's never considered bad

[RayFrost]

Restart your computer, that sometimes fixes the issue with that

[RayFrost]

Am I one of the few people left taht knows how to have fun in league

[RayFrost]

Max one of r q, don't try to max both. That's really the only thing with udyr that doesn't work.

[RayFrost]

I picked up thresh today. I figured I need to learn him sooner or later, might as well be pre-30

Nah. I don't play Thresh and I *can* call myself a "support main."
Pick up Janna.
Or get good at the new Soraka.

Although it isn't 100% necessary to learn any

specific

support to be a support main, there's nothing wrong with learning thresh or any other support and being able to play them well. It's better to be solid/good on 3-5 than to be amazing/excellent on only 1 or 2.

Also, I don't consider saki to be a support main because he mains quinn and fiora.

And I sometimes wonder if I should call brandi a lulu main instead of a support main. ;P

[RayFrost]

He doesn't play janna on the same level that he plays quinn / fiora.

He plays janna. He mains quinn / fiora.

[RayFrost]

Oh.

Yeah, brandi does. I was just joking about calling her a lulu main.

[RayFrost]

Don't worry, we all sucked when we started.

Me especially.

[RayFrost]

OH MAN CHO'GATH BACKDOORING THE PURPLE SIDE NEXUS FROM FOUNTAIN WHAT A CRAZY GAME

Also, karthus is intensely satisfying to play.

[RayFrost]

Who else is a tanky top with ez waveclear that isn't Leona or Maokai

Shyvana, lee sin (e + hydra tends to instantly clear waves), rumble, vlad, alistar to an extent (q+passive), renekton (especially with hydra)

[RayFrost]

Who else is a tanky top with ez waveclear that isn't Leona or Maokai

Shyvana, lee sin (e + hydra tends to instantly clear waves), rumble, vlad, alistar to an extent (q+passive), renekton (especially with hydra)

None of these champions have Leona/Maokai/Cho'Gath levels of "fuck you I'm going to kill all the minions while facetanking all of your damage"

Kinda like what the AP mids do

If you want to just facetank damage, you probably shouldn't play any champion that doesn't have infinite built in sustain and doesn't care about getting ahead in lane. A la maokai and cho'gath.

Literally the only two champions that have this.

Other than ap nasus. You horrible person.

[RayFrost]

I find lee into ryze to not be that hard of a lane. Land q, go in, land e, land more q, go 5-0.

[RayFrost]

I quite enjoy the support role because of those games where my team's like "lucian da god" and I'm like

"I AM THE BACKBONE OF THE MANLIEST FUCKER IN THIS GAME"

[RayFrost]

I don't know anything about LoL.

But it seems like RayFrost and Saki are God/Jesus and the rest of you are basically the disciples, like Thaddeus.

Is this an apt summary?

Not even close.

Neither saki nor I qualify for being considered in any way to be having "disciples"

There's pocket groups of different scummers who have different attitudes about the game, though eventually all of them do end up interacting.

I think the coolest scummers are zito / peg tbh.

[RayFrost]

I think one of the demands should be that Taric remains Truly, truly, truly outrageous.

[RayFrost]

wait does her q heal her only if it hits a champion or any enemy unit.

Champion.

She gets the heal per champion hit, though.

Hit five, heal five times. Hit three, heal three times. Off one q.

[RayFrost]

Note that cho's silence and soraka's silence are, at this point, the only silences left in the game.

Also, soraka's ult counteracts the grievous wounds caused by kat's ult. So silence + ult = kat's ult 100% rekt

[RayFrost]

Blitzcrank
Cho'Gath
Fiddlesticks
Garen
Malzahar
Soraka


All have silence

Oh right, how could I forget malzahar.

I forget that garen and fiddle are champions considering how I see them once every like 70 games and have no respect for their place in the game right now.

I never really felt like blitz's .5 second silence meant much of anything. I mean, I know it's still a silence. But yeah.

I'm curious about where riot wants to take the silence stuff. They've removed it from lb and talon (giving lb no compensation and talon a 99% slow for one second) on the grounds of no counterplay on their single target silence.

But then they give soraka an aoe silence. Malzahar's q has a massive silence. Cho's silence is massive. Etc. Is it purely to remove the assassin's silence-death combo because they were point and click and, therefore, undodgeable aside from staying out of range? Soraka and cho silences are essentially point and click aoes given 0 travel time, etc with significantly greater duration. Is the fact they're not attached to a kit that can proceed to deal high burst that makes them okay (let's ignore the fact cho's ult is enormous true damage burst)?

[RayFrost]

There are no problems with skill or lack thereof!

Was mega fun. All that matters.

[RayFrost]

If anyone who played has tips for me to improve based on that game, that'd be great - I'm quite a bit below the rest of you all in skill I know I had a couple of sloppy-mechanic mistakes, for one.

Heading to a quick powernap, but I'll read the replies later.

Generally speaking, warmog's isn't that best buy if you're thinking about getting health. A mix of resistance and health works significantly better, meaning you woulda been better off with bveil instead of warmog's if your concern was karthus, especially given the shield can block ult etc etc.

[RayFrost]

How to improve new lee sin stuff so that he doesn't look like toast:

[RayFrost]

Is that from Reddit, or is that your own creation? I agree that it looks better.

Reddit.

I have absolutely no skill whatsoever with anything relating to drawing.
Unless it's drawing incorrect conclusions.

I think the issues with the kayle / lee sin icons/splashes comes in no small part from the fact they have large torsoes with awkwardly-facing-the-camera head positioning

[RayFrost]

I've been running scaling health yellows across the board, I heard that was supposed to be better after the armor yellow nerfs, am I doing it wrong?

I don't think you're doing anything wrong.

It's just that people like me set up their runes with armor yellows and the cost is kind of prohibitive to get the new runes when the current ones work just fine and there are other desirable things (more champoons)

[RayFrost]

I am amused that the one time you lose as karthus is the one game you don't get boots.

[RayFrost]

Yes.

[RayFrost]

I personally do not find veigar stun easy to hit.

J4 knockup is pretty easy, though.

[RayFrost]

R is amazing for getting your whole team back to lane when you cast it in fountain

[RayFrost]

Well, enemies with mobility, teemos, gnars, etc.

Also, I am a certified ryze pro. 0% winrate in ranked out of two games against riven players.

[RayFrost]

You were arguing against the whole "never be in auto range for trades" thing is all. Also, champs like lee / riven can get in on ryze to do the auto attack things.

And before you tell me ryze w should always stop lee / riven in their tracks, keep in mind that lee q second proc lasts longer than snare and that riven can e+q to close the gap of ryze's w range.

Also, ryze does pretty well into riven pre-six.

[RayFrost]

You have the right of how lee vs ryze goes in your edit.

Also add built in sustain/shield with w to make trades consistently favorable + low cd q with more levels

Lee can force trades, back off, heal up while waiting for cd, rinse repeat.

Ryze still beats lee levels 1-4 usually.

But levels 5-9 lee sin OBLITERATES ryze even if he falls a bit behind.

[RayFrost]

I enjoy destroying fioras in lane when I go top.

I don't enjoy being a support facing a 10/3 fiora with 300 cs in late game though.

[RayFrost]

Skarner top's fun except for the first 10 minutes of OH GOD MY MANA WHERE DID IT GO

[RayFrost]

Bro needs to take the next step and goml.

Kappa

[RayFrost]

I wonder if kalista ult into morgana R into zhonia's will be possible, because if so... yeah

I like kalista ult + thresh box.

Plus it's hilarious to think that kalista w passive + thresh e passive = tons of magic damage.

Plus thresh lantern + kalista r seems like it has potential for hilariously ridiculously strong engages.

Thresh w back, kalista r's thresh, ally clicks lantern to follow, throw thresh into enemy, thresh boxes, rip rip rip rip rip.

[RayFrost]

I agree with panzer re: katawa shoujo.

Also, cabd: if the thrown support doesn't get cd's back up quickly, the lantern engage still works nicely with the likes of j4 / amumu / etc that can keep them still as a follow up to the initial knockup.

I would like to know if kalista's passive lets her jump walls. Please say no please say no please say no please say no

[RayFrost]

Other end of the spectrum is that I lose almost all of my duoq games (20% winrate) and win more than 50% of my soloq games.

[RayFrost]

I won my first game in a while with pure freelo yesterday.

Hi guys, I am a font of soloq fortune.

[RayFrost]

If mogs is warmog's, then the answer to that is "never build new warmog's on malphite please dear god"

Because there's simply better items when it comes to efficiency. Every hybrid armor (or mr) / health item is pretty much guaranteed to be more efficient on malphite.

The mr suggestions from notscience are good, though. Merc treads are also kind of high up there value-wise.

[RayFrost]

Items that are superior to warmog's, with relative value when compared to the others on the list depending on the situation:

GA, sunfire, randuin's, frozen heart, bveil, abyssal, locket, iceborn, sightstone, void staff, rylai's

That's just off the top of my head. I think you wouldn't run out of stuff.

Warmog's is just really inefficient in t hat it's a straight health giving item - health by itself isn't a super efficient stat, it synergizes with resistances. So hybrid health / resistance with bonus special effects that are actually super useful in fights > flat health with some health regen. Compare: sunfire cape giving 45 damage PER SECOND to healing an extra 10 health per second. Compare: randuin's giving an aoe slow to follow up the ult engage to an extra 10 health per second. Etc.

[RayFrost]

Tears are for the enemy.

Malphite just needs his rock of the ancients.

[RayFrost]

This guy's reddit presence is beautiful.

[RayFrost]

Although I know nothing about emulators I wouldn't mind seeing some streamed star ocean gameplay.

[RayFrost]

Raised mmr. Pre-season impacts the upcoming season though you don't get direct rank transference.

[RayFrost]

So guys, new yi with challenge smite feels pretty satisfying.

HELLO TAKE THIS 180 TRUE DAMAGE PER AUTO AT 2.5 ATTACK SPEED

[RayFrost]

My understanding of placements is that everyone starts off fresh ranked at AROUND silver 3.

[RayFrost]

gp/10 is the casual way of referencing "gold generation via passive" items rather than just actual gold per 10 seconds.

[RayFrost]

123 - took me until the last like... 10 seconds to figure out some of them. PoE is literally the only reason I even got quinn, and I somehow took a long time on thresh. For shame.

Other ones that got me for a while: galio, volibear, and (strangely enough) mordekaiser

[RayFrost]

Note: I haven't played cho with new itemization options, but I'd feel that cho top is still the same as it has been. Cho's an immovable object in lane, but his scaling toward the late game is just not strong enough to make a good, consistent showing.

[RayFrost]

Twitch spray and pray was like that, not sure if it is anymore

[RayFrost]

Kscope: ww scales extremely well into the late game. That's his strongest point.

Ww being in jungle or lane doesn't change that his biggest pressure point comes towards the late game, not the early game.

[RayFrost]

I'm pretty sure that not every player on the enemy team worth initating on will be able to afford the item slot / gold cost of that 1250. Or that his ult is inherently gone just based off of that: you can ult after it's been used, use the ult as a jump initiation rather than for the suppress (except for super high levels of play, the ult usually sticks for at least half a second, which is enough time, really), or simply hold the ult as a pressure point. The ult never goes away, its use merely changes.

[RayFrost]

That too.

[RayFrost]

Rek'sai's tunnels can do hilarious things

[RayFrost]

You can watch about 5 minutes of it, I think, to see rek'sai tunnel through a wall to land farther than zac can jump in the early levels. Might be wrong on that one.

The rest is just cuz it's an interesting video.

[RayFrost]

pyramid or pyramid?

[RayFrost]

Can't see the match history, but nashor's tooth on cho is only viable if you're going full 100% ap squishy style type nonsense.

Proper cho is with wit's end, if you're choosing between one or the other.

Personally don't feel either one's particularly good.

[RayFrost]

I am trying to learn nidalee jungle.

I'd honestly say don't bother with nid atm, she isn't in any position to be played in any role.

Just go ad nidalee top with rageblade. There you go.

[RayFrost]

I think a funnier interaction than wind wall is the fact that Jarvan can use his e q to move even after being snared. He is so manly that he can pull himself to you and knock you up despite having magical powers binding him to the ground.

[RayFrost]

Panzer: if you're killing them level one or two, your best bet when running ignite is for the lane to *already* be pushing to their tower.

Push a bit for an earlier level two, and use that pressure to kill them when the wave is near their tower and pushed up already, back after the kill if you're low, and come back to lane. Most players tend to try and push the lane to ~punish~ you for not running tp when they tp back to lane early (plus, the lane naturally resets so you're not going to have a wave pushed for them to freeze), but you'll miss at most a third of the wave if you're slow at buying items.

Alternatively, if you're not low / are playing zac/cho/etc and can sustain yourself, just stay in lane. You're up in xp, and if they tp back they're not going to be any stronger. I've had cases where people tp back into the lane only for me to kill them again because whoops I'm level three and they're level one/two. Tp back to lane now, bitch.

[RayFrost]

we need a second set of scummers brave enough to take on myko and his gang of thugs in League of Legends

Am I part of his gang or no because I've played with myko

[RayFrost]

I'm just a free agent. Whichever side pays more.

Myko gives good benefits, though. Would be hard to out-negotiate.

[RayFrost]

Pretty sure those teams are in favor of the myko side for mid/top/jungle.

Bot lane's in favor of zito/peg because those guys are straight beasts.

I'm willing to sub in to either team if I get to lane against panzer. He's the funnest to lane against on MS.

[RayFrost]

Umm, you guys kinda counter picked our lane so I settled for outfarming you by a considerable amount. I was ahead of you most of the game. Basically until it got out of hand. I think before laning broke I was up by 30.

Oh, that's a shame I thought you had a shot there, didn't seem as clear cut.

The lane was janna / kindred vs lucian / leona right?

Leona's only really effective time to engage is by pushing for an earlier level two and going all in then.

After level two, janna q + kindred w q mobility basically punish leona if she tries to go in. At six, lucian and leona want to burst bitches down, but kindred presses r, then janna r's lucian and leona out of kindred's r, meaning they stay low and kindred gets the full heal. It's pretty abusive.

[RayFrost]

Successful game was successful.

[RayFrost]

Sivir, Varus, and Jinx are your best bets.

[RayFrost]

Wanna know who's great at wave clearing? Graves. Wanna know who sucks at wave clearing? Graves. :^)

[RayFrost]

I would if shanba would invite me to the team so I could play ranked with myko when we do treeline.

[RayFrost]

I find draynth's play more impressive on a technical level than I do the lee sin that had gnar miss ult on a guy that was standing next to a wall. Idk, when enemy makes super big obvious low skill level mistake, play becomes less interesting.

[RayFrost]

I love being top/support, doing well, and losing...

and then playing jungle/adc, doing horribly, and winning.

I need to get better at winning games when I'm playing well.

[RayFrost]

I find it more effective to focus on one thing at a time, rather than trying to keep an eye on everything at the same time.

If my allies are doing something risky or whatever that requires my attention, I expect them to ping when I am needed.

If that's not possible or my allies are incompetent, I back off my lane and monitor them personally on my screen.

Better to miss few cs than to miss a critical teleport play.

This.

[RayFrost]

He also said support isn't playing the game, so yeah. Fighting words.

[RayFrost]

I enjoy ranked and normal games, alone and with friends.

I'm weird in that I just enjoy playing the game. Unless it's aram.

[RayFrost]

So this is the shen game that got me into plat 1. http://www.replay.gg/search/na/rayfrost#2048737344

I was behind my lane opponent in xp and cs all game, but I was ahead in terms of game presence all game. I feel like it's an interesting one to look at.

[RayFrost]

depends on how safe he is i think
can he reasonably cope with counterpicks?

Cho'gath walks into a bar. He eats the counters.

[RayFrost]

Windspeakers vs thunderlord's is partially preference and partially based off the lane matchup, imo.

The ability to burn the thunderlord's to help increase your burst on your poke can be extremely useful in lanes where you can be aggressive / trade effectively (i.e.: not-thresh, not-blitz, not-leona bot lanes). In a lane where you can bully, the ability to potentially snowball super hard or simply poke them out of lane thanks to the extra damage is significant. It also lends itself to any sona that plans on being converted mage rather than proper support.

Whereas in lanes where you're not going to be going for outdamaging them / will have to be more passive, you're better off going windspeakers for bonus trading / sustaining / survival power (i.e.: going against soraka, thresh, blitz, leona lanes).

[RayFrost]

for what it's worth, i've always thought thresh lanes were pretty easy as sona. Leona and blitz are much harder, and I've tended to go coin against them.

Thresh and blitz are pretty equally punishing, to be honest. Blitz has a stronger burst cc, whereas thresh has ~more~ cc. He can effectively pull you 2/3 of the way to him, but keep you cc'd for the entire duration, then also give you an extra slow on top of it. He also does more sustained damage than blitz (blitz has stronger burst damage), and has stronger gank-enabling with lantern. Also, hook cd much shorter on thresh than on blitz, so one hook just leads to more being landed sooner whereas blitz has to wait out the long cooldown every time.

So... it's mostly an issue of the threshes you face are bad? Idk.

[RayFrost]

In theory, you could survive a blitz hook because flash is more effective against blitz than it is against thresh. Sona ult is also in theory more effective against blitz than it is against thresh as a counter engage in that using it negates blitz if he's just burned his cd's in a way that it doesn't negate thresh (in that thresh's cds are shorter, his auto attacks are stronger, etc).

In theory, you could avoid getting engaged on effectively by blitz just by standing in the minion wave to harass since his only engage tool with range is his q. Meanwhile, thresh's e is also ranged (it's not as long as sona's q range, but casting times, the pressure of the flay itself, etc - also, sona can't afford to auto in that time span because it will put her in range for flay due to animations, whereas blitz q is still being blocked by minions).

Edit: I'm not trying to say blitz is bad, I'm just saying that thresh is good. I would with 100% confidence pick thresh into sona and have no qualms.

[RayFrost]

I wasn't trying to argue that blitz is bad. Blitz is great into sona. I was arguing for Thresh not being a "pretty easy" lane for sona.

[RayFrost]

Some games genuinely aren't winnable, but most of the time you messed up as much as the guy who you are noticing messing up, even if you did it differently.

That being said, I'd like to get fewer unwinnable games in my promos to diamond. It'd probably help if I played earlier in the night rather than post-midnight.

[RayFrost]

I don't know, panzer, I've been a casual my entire league career and I'm about to hit diamond,

(no but seriously panzer is right)

I am also willing to volunteer for the loss review team. I haven't done it before in thread, so I figure I should make my debut!

[RayFrost]

Pausing at nine minutes to say you used heal twice when you didn't need to and fear flashed after lux already missed binding, your presence and pressure on the enemy laners is nonexistent and lulu is basically carrying the lane by doing all the work poking them down, slowing them, etc, while you sit there farming and ignoring the several opportunities you have to go in and be aggressive until the really silly enemy team stays so long that lulu has whittled them down low enough that you feel like you can walk in and last hit some kills.

Basically, you're playing extremely passively with a lead and just farming when you can afford to walk up and zone them more - the lux has terrible aim ,so it's not like you have to worry about that, and your constant pushing already shows you don't fear junglers or ganks at all.

Going IE first on vayne is super inefficient compared to bf sword -> rapid fire cannon for the very powerful mid game power spike. You have an ad steroid on ult + the everything on cannon synergizes with the everything in your kit. You missed at least two kills because you waited too long to just use your *very low cooldown ultimate* and instead ended up using it to do nothing really. Phantom dancer is also a really bad item that isn't effective compared to rapid fire cannon or statikk shiv.

You constantly are positioned way up front without any regard to the potential that they might engage on you, and this, by 17 minutes, has caused you to die twice, lulu to die once, and cost your team a dragon. Just looking at how you play, you play very much like someone that is thinking "I can outplay any of these guys so I don't need to worry, this is easy, I just dodge everything and kill them" - which works as a mentality if your opponents are bad enough that it works, but is really really really game losingly awful when they're not so dumb. My spectator client crashed and I'm too lazy to get it working again and getting back to when it left off, so I'll leave it at that.

[RayFrost]

Other than that, good job punishing them for being silly and landing the e's on walls. You wonzored and your cs'ing is good. Shouldn't use so much mana tumbling all the time while just farming, though.

[RayFrost]

I saw the binding and didn't look at where it was going before I flashed. Lux combo + ashe stun and her autoing me a little bit will kill me, I can't play that aggressive in front of minions. I go IE and max q because I like the tumbles and get like 450 dmg crits with just an ie when I use a tumble auto. Tumble is an aa reset so it allows me to go ie first. I need to work on ulting sooner, yea, I don't want to waste it and need it later. True. When did I make lulu die, though?
Thanks for the tips, I want to see of what you think of my reasoning. I don't want to play super far forward because even if I'm ahead a lux snare could end in my death.

Ashe and lux weren't six at the time, and you have tumble, lulu has bunnies, and you were ahead. There's no reason to not zone the enemy team and apply that pressure. You don't need to walk all the way up since they do have longer range, but standing way behind your minion line puts you too far away from your support to effectively follow up unless the enemy team positions really poorly as well.

Since the ult's a really short cooldown, you're not likely to need it in between the time when you all in and likely killed or forced person x to back and the next fight. It's one of the ults you can be less conservative with. Ank already addressed the item thing.

I don't remember the exact time stamp, but when you got engaged on in mid lane by rek'sai because you were standing in front of basically your entire team and near the raptor wall, lulu stayed to try and keep them off you but ended up just dying with you instead. Partially her fault for not judging how to protect you properly, partially your own for being so free to engage on to begin with. As an adc, you need to be more aware about where you're standing and what it means in terms of them being able to hit you or not. And then you gotta decide if them hitting you is actually a big deal compared to you hitting them, etc, etc.

[RayFrost]

IE requires you to crit to do damage comparable to the consistent, reliable damage of rfc. Rfc also provides movespeed, making kiting easier, an attack range buff that allows for better poking, and the proc helps to take towers. Attack speed and crit scale off of each other. Attack speed and AD scales off of each other. You have an AD steroid, and you have another ability which scales off of attack speed passively.

That said, bork first is better than either IE or rfc first because the everything is better for vayne in particular.

By the by, if you're going to try and argue that you know better and we're wrong because you have so many vayne games and you're great at vayne, I've seen this episode before and am going to change channels.

P-edit: Kalista is weird. It's like... she's either super mega godlike or completely shit and there's no in between. You're a god or you suck. Really punishing and uninviting champion.

[RayFrost]

Relying entirely on league of rng to win fights in the midgame is inconsistent and less likely to win you the game than just building items that allow you to pump out consistent, good dps.

[RayFrost]

Great joke, panzer. I really lost my marbles on that one.

[RayFrost]

Ad is better as a first item.
That is my point. You need AD to scale with your AS.

Translations, with RayFrost.

[RayFrost]

Also, you can q to dodge lucian q.

And e him out of his ult.

[RayFrost]

Ank never posts videos of the things I do with him.

[RayFrost]

I like the changes overall as a step toward making shen more modern, but I dislike the removal of any ranged harass / sustain for him. He's going to be bullied extremely hard by anything with range in lane and not really able to retaliate effectively against the likes of darius / etc unless his q is on a very very short cd. I feel like, on paper, they've made his laning a lot weaker and his teamfight a lot stronger. Everything about shen's new kit screams godlike teamfighting, but nothing says he's going to have any fun in lane.

[RayFrost]

I don't approve of making shen a better support option at the cost of his top lane presence.

[RayFrost]

I live in Japan so timezones would prevent me from being active in teams in all likelihood.

Though if it came to it, I could go top or support and play just fine. Or I could l2jungle.

[RayFrost]

Initial positioning: sejuani starting dragon with yasuo and rest of team split away, annie is slow to walk in and walks in the wrong way, ending up burning her everything on xin for no result, fizz all ins on yasuo instead of killing the lucian who's squishier and doesn't have GA, lucian is basically not in the fight for the majority of it, karma doesn't do much of anything to peel fizz off of anyone and dies essentially without much relevance, thresh is super slow to use his hook in the fight, his ult is literally pointless and does nothing, and he basically wasn't relevant in the fight except for an initial hook on the yasuo that didn't have wind wall for it for some reason, ezreal misses a lot and then goes in after missing his everything to die for free after positioning himself across from his teammates, why are there so many guardian angels, why did shen ult ezreal instead of ulting the fizz that was going in, shen spent a lot of time walking around without actually casting abilities, nearly dies for it, misses at least two taunts, and autos tibbers at least twice instead of a champion in melee range of him, this isn't formatted because I wrote things as I thought of them and organizing this would be a pain

[RayFrost]

I mean every item they built is awful, at a glance at their buys.

[RayFrost]

Yasuo / sejuani vs lucian karma, with his team closer to lucian (who was out of position) than to yasuo, though

Karma abilities all on cd as well

[RayFrost]

Short range is the only limiting factor on lissandra.

[RayFrost]

Lux.

[RayFrost]

According to the stats myko posted, I have not improved as a player since season 3.

Feelsgoodman.

[RayFrost]

Yeah I'd like to think my skill hasn't changed since the time I was playing on 20 fp with a touchpad and was gold. I've just gotten worse since getting a mouse, having a consistent 200+ fps, and a more consistent internet connection with fewer ping spikes.

[RayFrost]

5-5, plat 3. I am okay with this.

[RayFrost]

And the plat players were the best players in the game. Unfortunately the other two were on the other team.

[RayFrost]

Being able to efficiently hit 45% cdr, proc thunderlord's off of just your muramana q's (because they're so low cd), and perform well into the likes of MF / Lucian are all selling points.

The ap was always pretty negligible. Having an extra 10% cdr is far more significant as far as dps goes, and it makes the igb power spike much stronger than it was before. Essence reaver requires you to be auto attacking to be efficient, which is hard for ezreal due to his lack of really effective attack speed steroids / close range bursties. It also is aimed more towards champions that synergize really well with crit and cdr, whereas ezreal is more of a caster-styled adc in that he's less auto attack reliant (and therefore crit is less efficient than flat AD in a lot of cases). Additionally, a lot of the really strong bruisers right now falter in the face of blue ezreal: trundle, fiora, et al are more vulnerable to kiting.

[RayFrost]

In lane against yasuo, you auto to break shield, and if he engages on you by actually e'ing into you, you just press q because then there's almost no projectile time (cuz range), then you w him, then you have a choice: kite him away from your w point, then w back, or use e if he hasn't wind walled to kite away, while using autos when he's snared to finish the harass.

If you're wanting to be aggressive first, then you've got to do it at level three to make sure you can chain to kite away OR be very fast on your q w w to be back in range of your minions so that he's taking minion damage and you're closer to your tower anyway when he goes for the trade. Choosing to stay in auto range is a mistake. Leblanc's w has almost no time between landing and being able to return, so you should at most take a q in damage if he even manages that. You can also keep in mind that your w hits *in an aoe* so you don't have to w directly at him to deal damage, you can w to the side and hit with the edges of leblanc's aoe to deal the damage which is more likely to avoid the incoming q attempt. Also, don't go in when he has tornado up.

Post-six, you can afford to just q to bait out windwall and then abuse the fact it has a 14 second cooldown to q w, w back, e, r, q for hilarious kiting if you think he's going to all in *or* just go for the q r w w back e to kite strat if you think he's not that greedy / that you can get away with it. Your cooldowns are short, abusive this fact.

Keep in mind that you *always have more burst* and that he *always has more sustained damage* - if you burst him and take less damage, you win.

Also, there's nothing wrong with going zhonya first on leblanc.

[RayFrost]

That's why you don't trade when the tornado's up. You literally never trade into tornado just like you wouldn't try trading with an annie that has stun up.

If he tries to go in, you start off with e as he e's into you, this will allow the snare to pop and enable you to w away or q, w away, r for damage, then use the blinks to kite around him.

[RayFrost]

Then you're clearly messing something up because you're *not supposed to be trading for that long*

Also, it's not 1.5 second cd at level two. He has no items. Don't be silly. And one dagger is not enough to get it to 1.5 second cd.

But even if it were a 1.5 second cd, you can q w w in approximately .5-1 second (depending on ping, button pressing skills, etc), if he follows you into the minion wave after you get your burst off, all you have to do is walk away, auto, or be willing to burn flash. That aside, for him to be able to even get to you he'll have to e to you, meaning he can't e+nado, meaning you can actually dodge it because it's a skillshot. You can also dodge his normal q, since it's a skillshot.

There is literally no situation in which you should die at level two as leblanc to anything within normal circumstances. Jungler ganks shouldn't happen that early unless they're from shaco, and nobody can get in on you hard or long enough to do shit. If you're dying, you're making several horrible, terrible, awful mistakes that you should be ashamed of. Not just one, but many. Because it takes a whole lot to die as lebonk.

If you'd like to play the matchup with me, I'd be more than willing to play leblanc into your yasuo. So I can show you what do.

[RayFrost]

I would feel completely calm, cool, and comfortable playing leblanc into yasuo. Skill based matchup.

Would personally recommend malzahar / lissandra / syndra for ap-based counterpicks into yasuo.

[RayFrost]

Back when I was gold, I destroyed a diamond level yasuo main because lolmalzahar.

[RayFrost]

dwlee, I would have no issues with playing yasuo for the first time in over a year against your leblanc.

Also, that shouldn't be happening wazza - I faced a kassadin just yesterday and they had no issues with instant w, so I think it might be something on your end. Idk.

[RayFrost]

Okay, when can you be on, ray? (EST Time)

Right now, EST time.

In an hour from now, EST time.

I live in Japan, what even is the current time EST.

[RayFrost]

Still gotta work on reflexively pressing e when the yasuo is clearly going to try and e into you.

Among other things, of course, but etc.

[RayFrost]

The thing with jungle shyv is that you're going to suffer more from being found at low health at your buff and getting killed there than you are by just having someone counterjungle a buff. Shyv's early jungle isn't even super good for ganking, so the loss isn't as significant as it is for someone that needs the red for ganking. And shyv is manaless, so losing blue doesn't impact her too much.

I mean, losing a buff is not happy times, but shyv jungle clear is insanely good after level 3/4, so waiting for her power spikes to get the buffs is more effective anyway.

[RayFrost]

Most of my ranked games are pretty silent with some late game coordination type stuff only. Other than that, majority is from pings. If people talk, about half the time it's a clownfiesta in chat cuz the game's going awfully and the other half the time the team's pretty positive and we keep it together, winning or losing (usually ends up in a W despite losing early).

My smurf is lulzy af because people talk so much more crap and do so much less. It's like everyone is in tilt before they even start the game and just go full speed ahead down shit creek.

[RayFrost]

I would suggest picking up jarvan for your top, mid, and jungle needs.

Pick up lee sin for this purpose while you are at it.

Also, azir.

[RayFrost]

Alternatives include but are not limited to: ahri, zac, ap/ad ez, ekko, kassawin, hecarim, renekton, kennen

Ones I would recommend for you (dwlee) from having seen your playstyle: ahri, ap ez.

Ones I would recommend for when you are competent on the above and need to branch out: kennen, hecarim

Ones I would recommend for when you can actually make good damage spike judgments: renekton, ekko

Ones I would recommend for when you understand the difference in playstyle between bursty high damage and sustained high damage (and also learn how to position well for a relatively weaker all in accordingly): zac, kassadin

[RayFrost]

Don:t bother going for insec plays, keep things simple with landing q:s, using your e intelligently, etc. Be aware of how much damage you:re actually dealing, keep active control over vision, and try to make use of the fact that you have so much presence to cause a snowball SOMEWHERE

[RayFrost]

If you're thinking of picking Vi, I'd pick amumu and go full ap instead.

[RayFrost]

Been playing league on the Japanese server closed beta. So far, there's only normal 5s allowed basically, but I get the experience of being in game with bronze level players. They're pretty easy to carry if I'm not playing something funzie like teeto or yorick.

Also, Japanese voice acting is fairly meh for some champions like zed imo, but good for others (like darius). The Japanese concept of "evil guy must sound like he's talking from a cave" is kinda meh.

Also also, the lower ping has caused me to miss a lot of cs, but I am actually able to dodge abilities without having to predict them a full second / two seconds in advance. Landing my own abilities hasn't changed at all for me though.

[RayFrost]

During the last season, I was smurfing and duoq and ended up playing against myko. I didn't notice until he did a smooth gank on me. Said hi, crushed my lane, then tried to let my team win it with me just pressuring top lane. Didn't work out for them.

[RayFrost]

mobility, cc, unpopularity, waveclear, feeling of ease in the face of an ad assassin

Jarvan.

[RayFrost]

I am not sure I would put orianna and "feeling of ease in the face of an ad assassin" together.

I see her less than I used to, but she's hardly rare. And her early game is extremely lackluster (and fairly low mobility, and lacking in cc), which is kind of the biggest point of snowball potential for the assassins.

Combine with the fact her only mobility is a rather small, mana consuming slow / speed boost that requires the ball, and she's not really someone I'd suggest for it.

Might suggest viktor if you're going to suggest ori. Pretty similar, honestly.

For actual serious recommendations, I'd suggest leblanc. mobility (w), cc (e), and wave clear (w). Also can outburst ad assassins. Only problem is that she's popular. Like Ahri.

Also wasn't joking when I mentioned Jarvan.

[RayFrost]

Yeah, but why are you doing a tanky nidalee build when you can just deal damage and actually play nyandalee properly?

This is like going rod's strength of ages fiddlesticks.

If you want a tanky ap jungler, amumu, cho'gath, diana, ekko, elise, malphite, maokai, mordekaiser, nautilus, nunu, rammus, sejuani, zac all would be better with a tanky build than nyandamew.

For ones that are actually meant to played tanky (or that I'd say it isn't worse than the alternative for), only diana is questionable on that list.

Edit: If you happen to just be enjoying experimenting with silly things on nidalee, that's fine, but please express it as such rather than expressing it as "omg this is the best thing ever" - you'll get people laughing with you rather than shaking their head at you.

[RayFrost]

Wazza is correct.

[RayFrost]

"Now for soloq carrying you probably go thunderlord's because you carry by doing more damage"

Heh.

[RayFrost]

I watched the full video. T'was a chuckle about the mindset being so very accurate.

[RayFrost]

The thing with ez even in plat is that ez requires players to understand that they can't do teamfights like normal. With the current standard build for ez being blue, he's not well suited to straight up teamfighting right off the bat. He needs to poke, then his team needs to be kiting backwards effectively to maximize his potential. His ability to just stand and shoot things is not actually as strong as other adc's. Additionally, his laning phase is awkward as hell due to the way his power spikes work. People around gold / plat start to understand how to be more abusive towards ezreal during their powerspikes. Even if that being abusive is just pushing down the tower, getting dragon, pushing down mid tower, getting riift herald, pushing down top tower, pushing down mid again with the herald advantage. It's still abusing the fact ezreal's not reached his power point as quickly.

Also keep in mind that ezreal is actually a weaker pusher than basically any other adc because he doesn't itemize the attack speed / flat ad necessary to be comparable for taking towers. And a lot of the problems in games around gold / plat actually come from "we just barely won that fight, but we don't have the ability to push as effectively with what we've got, so we are slowly getting chewed away at during the times the enemy team is alive."

P-edit: I know it's not what Ank is trying to say, but I have so many silver friends that say "plat isn't even good" that I can't help but read the first part of his post that way.

[RayFrost]

Ez's relative lack of damage is very relevant.

I'm not saying his teamfighting is bad, I'm saying that in the elo of plat / gold there's a lot of problems that make him less favorable than, say, lucian. Part of which being his "stand and fight" potential is weaker.

[RayFrost]

On the other side, higher elos can punish a mistake in positioning better and have better focus.

Blue ez's damage comes significantly from poke and good positioning, but also from the fact that it's harder to "punish" blue ez for positioning errors than it is to punish, say, an ashe. The built in armor in his kit combined with ezreal e being the best blink in the game make him hard to burst down before his team collapses in to keep him safe / etc. You can't as easily invest the same number of resources expecting to kill a blue ez as you can on basically any other adc. You have to invest more, which gets harder to do the more competent the enemy team is overall. This means ezreal's going to end up staying alive longer to do more damage. His range limitations are smaller than other adc's as well, so. Yeah.

Either way, though, kog'maw is a lil strong right now, which makes me wonder if Ank is gonna return to the koggles. You know you want to.

[RayFrost]

Case in point: I have a 100% winrate on support anivia across bronze, silver, and gold.

Doesn't make it a good support pick.

[RayFrost]

Ank: is one item power spike early enough for you? Koggles + rageblade (with fervor being keystone, obv) is insane powerspike. Also, go bork after that into runaan's for the power to kill everything.

[RayFrost]

The thing that really changed kog'maw was the fact they added a base damage to the onhit of his w.

He now does a flat amount + the percentage scaling, so he's no longer hitting for an extra 2 damage and it is actually relevant earlier in the game. His one item powerspike is at rageblade, second item bork is another significant power spike, and runaan's is only really a teamfight powerspike. After that, you can variably get frozen mallet, etc for better kill potential / etc etc.

[RayFrost]

If you have weak early laning as current kog'maw, you're not playing him properly. He's strong. Immobile, perhaps, but you're not gonna sustain your way out if you're caught. Better off going for the stronger powerspike than going for the "sustain" when you're more likely to just get killed in an all in if you're going to lose anyway. Or be so low you have to back.

[RayFrost]

He's not as weak early now. His level one is still weaker than other adc's, but his levels 3-6 are solid. You just have to play somewhat like vayne. You deal the deeps, just gotta avoid taking the burst at unfortunate times.

[RayFrost]

Without seeing the individual games, I can't necessarily point out the differences.

Some key things to keep in mind, though:

1) CS is important. If there's one thing you consistently want to do, it's getting gold.

2) Try to keep moving. If you're not moving, you're dead, d/c'd, cc'd, or in base and buying an item.

3) Try to adapt what you're doing to the game. Example: you're zed mid. One game, other guy is azir, he's bad and you devour his flesh and turn him into a pair of boots, a cloak, etc. Good job. Next game, you're facing a lux that is playing super super safely and doesn't even walk up to auto attack cs, just hangs back casting e a lot. In this case, you're probably better off pushing that wave in with w / e / q, walking out of vision, and roaming. Sure, you can try to kill the lux, but she's a bitch. Go kill bot lane instead. Devour their flesh, turn them into pairs of boots, cloaks, etc. Just like you can't build the same items every game, you can't play the same way every game.

[RayFrost]

Speaking of building items, I'm having a pretty hard time with my new building path on Talon.

Generally I go something like
Dirk -> hexdrinker -> BF -> Maw -> vamp/dirk/lucidity -> Duskblade -> hydra -> LW item.

Now, I wanna fit a BC in there, but I'm not sure when to build it.

EDIT: Obviously that's going into AP and a proper tank.

I question the build order of going maw so early. The money you invested there could finish a tiamat / get you a faster duskblade.

Early Maw's only really necessary if you're having extended combat / unable to survive a magic damage heavy team. Not just into a single ap.

I'd personally prioritize in the order of hex (if behind) -> tiamat (+ boots?) -> cleaver / duskblade -> other one -> lw -> finishing maw / hydra. The choice between cleaver or duskblade depends on how things are going: for single target assassination, duskblade is obviously the choice. For teamfight oriented all-shred, cleaver.

I'd also consider not going hex first at all if you're doing really well. Screw it, go youmuu's. Kill EVERYTHIING.

[RayFrost]

So, aatrox with the new warlord's bloodlust mastery.

I literally healed 26.6k health. A little more than half the damage I took total that same game.

I like this. A lot.

[RayFrost]

I'd only use warlord's on shyvana never.

Fervor or sota.

Yasuo mains won't be that upset because now they have a consistent heal on EVERY crit and every non-crit on both minoins and champions rather than a 2 second cooldown heal / attack speed steroid on champion-crit.

Better lane sustain, better late game sustain, a very slight hit to dps.

I can't think of any yasuos that I saw using it before the change, anyway. Fervor buffs.

[RayFrost]

It's not a true heal. Your HP scales up but then it scales back down when you revert to mini Gnar.

I was mostly wondering if Warlords would help Gnar survive those times when all-inning as mega-Gnar doesn't get the job done and you just get dumpstered when you revert having not killed the other dude.

You keep whatever health you got from the upward scaling when you return to mini gnar.

It's the same concept as lulu ult. Lulu's ult gives health, so you "heal" from getting it. But you keep any health you gained from it that's below your normal max health once the duration is over.

[RayFrost]

wiki says that when Gnar turns back to mini, he keeps the same health percentage as he had on mega right before reverting

That would not explain why I've consistently had more flat health after reverting than I did before reverting. Like more than simple health regen would provide.

[RayFrost]

No, as soraka is banned every game.

[RayFrost]

I used to have a mastery page for everything, now I just have one that I keep changing. In the end, I think critically looking at every two options in the tree is worth it then having a preset that might not 100% fit. And once youll get used to it it wont take extra time

I have two mastery pages that I use, even though I have 20 full, unique pages made:

One that's 0/12/18 for tank supports (thresh), one for ~everything else~ that I change constantly in about two seconds from game to game.

[RayFrost]

I'm pretty shit at league mainly because I only know how to play safe.

To be honest, I find it a lot easier to play in bot lane with you because you know how to play safe and then listen when I give you directions for how to put pressure on the enemy team. Feels great.

It's a lot less comfortable having someone that doesn't know how to play safe "moving back to zone" because to them that means moving back so we can dive them for a fight, chase them to tower, and get four man gankplanked.

[RayFrost]

Teamfight deaths are really difficult to determine the value of and require very very very game-specific information and analysis to really determine their merit, in my opinion.

Non-teamfight deaths are justified depending on the exact circumstances with, from my perspective, the following breakdown:

1) Which role are you?

If you're an adc, your death is probably one of the least justified in the game. Exceptions to this are things where it is clearly game-winning to die (getting baron + killing two people in exchange for your death isn't that bad).

If you're a support, it's justified if it saves a higher priority teammate (virtually everyone, save support-styled junglers that it might be better if you're alive or people that are too weak to be as relevant as you) or is clearly game-winning (a la the above).

If you're a top lane bruiser, it's justified if the map pressure gained from it achieves the goal of getting one or several objectives while the enemy team does not get said objectives (i.e. getting top second tier tower + team dragon in exchange for them getting your life and maybe top first tier tower), or if it is clearly game-winning (a la the above).

If you're a mid laner, death is justified if your team is happier with the trade (dying 1-1 into enemy adc is almost always not-bad, as adc's are the main objective getters a lot of the time) or if your death is clearly game-winning (a la the above).

If you're a jungler, death is justified if you secure an objective for your team or a lead in some other direct fashion (smite stealing baron IF your team is better off fighting the 4v5 instead of the 5v5 into baron, which is not always the case, or getting a two for one trade in a three man tower dive bot that enables your team to get dragon) or if your death is clearly game-winning (a la the above).

This is a basic breakdown by role.

2) What point in the game is it?

The shorter the death cooldown, the more justified any singular death is if it follows the above criteria list. This is because you are out of commission for less time, making the "cost" of dying smaller. As the game goes on, every death becomes less and less valuable for your team no matter what you get on the other end of it when compared to that same death earlier in the game. A dragon steal at, say, 16 minutes that causes you to die typically won't enable the enemy team to make use of your death timer to take baron, push down an inhibitor, etc. Meanwhile, that same trade at 50 minutes can cost your team the game because they won't be able to handle the 1-2 minutes of 4v5 the enemy team gets out of it.

3) What is your team's goal?

If you're running a team composition that requires you for a specific team-fight oriented combo (for example, malphite yasuo / alistar orianna comps), then your death is less justified as it cripples your team's ability to do anything after, EVEN IF it follows the above criteria. The enemy team gains a significant advantage that shifts the weight of things a bit more.

If you're running a team composition that doesn't require you to do that but instead wants you off split pushing (for example, you're against a malphite yasuo / alista orianna composition and are trundle), then your death can be more justified if it follows the above criteria. This is especially true if they use abilities that prevent them from properly following up the advantage of being 4v5 (if the malphite uses ult, the alistar uses flash, etc).

tl;dr: fakegod is right

[RayFrost]

You can try to not die by first applying enough pressure that the situation doesn't come up to begin with or being a champion that can afford to be in that situation and live.

For example, thresh probably dies in that hook example, but as thresh you can poke with autos / apply your own hook pressure to counteract this. Lulu does tons of poke damage, etc.

As ali, you simply probably don't die in that position. Same for braum / nautilus.

This kind of thinking applies for most situations, but not all. If you pressure the team that wants to all in and force them low, they can no longer afford to all in because they'll probably lose it. However, if you're facing a kalista alistar team comp down in bot, you can still probably die to the kali ult into ali pulv + headbutt combo + rend anyway, so you gotta think more carefully about your positioning, etc, etc.

[RayFrost]

The best choice is to walk forward AND press e.

[RayFrost]

So I just played wukong top with a group of five and faced a gnar that I dumpstered completely.

He was 0/10/0 at one point in the game and ended the game 1/12/2.

I feel terrible.

[RayFrost]

I just had the pleasure of going top and losing in a game with a riot player on the enemy mid lane.

And then I played support on the same team as bigfatjiji / bigfatlp. I did an amazing 1/10/5 performance against master tier 331lp adc / diamond 3 support bot lane.

How the fuck I got in a game with these people while being plat 3 60 lp, don't ask me. I have no clue.

[RayFrost]

Jarvan ult seems bugged out to me. Every single target ult did damage, but every aoe hit did literally 0.

Like I ulted a kalista, sona, and sejuani and their health bars didn't move. Meanwhile I'd ult nasus and chynk 1/4 of his health.

[RayFrost]

5% of your health and mana on a champion that rarely takes damage and has a lot of mana regen items built already does very little compared to having the 400 gold, which is an extra ruby crystal's worth of value, enables a faster sightstone (which reduces chances of giving the opposing team gold and enables sweeper, which increases the chances of getting gold for your team), etc. It's the same concept as taking a gp/10 item to begin with: you get fewer raw stats on it than you do with other things, but in exchange you get gold over time. Why don't you take doran's ring instead? It gives you more stats which is more impactful, but the impact differential is so slight you're better off having a better income. Same thing with dangerous game vs bandit.

[RayFrost]

Note that lux support still isn't great in plat because she's not as good as vel'koz, brand, or annie played well.

There's only very edge cases for lux over the above.