League of Legends (Old)

[theelkspeaks]

I play league, on NA, same name as here, and I'm not that good. Was Silver V last season but thanks to the Yi Rework and support items rework, am much worse this season (used to main AP Yi mid and Sona support). Got placed in Bronze V to start the season after some poor games and poor luck in my first ten of this season, made it up to a promo series to Bronze II but lost, and have been fluctuating in the Bronze III-IV range ever since. Recently demoted to Bronze IV after a horrible losing streak (7 games in a row and counting) . I tend to be a low-death player (ignore the Vayne travesty in my match history) but often low-kill as a result of playing safely.

Current mains in order of preference:

Syndra, Tristana (ADC), Nami, Ziggs, Miss Fortune, Lucian.

I like long range champs without too-excessive micro; I'm better at builds/decision-making/countering than I am at actual mechanics.

I play on a 3v3 team with two friends from another site I'm active on, where I main Ziggs and Syndra. Currently 3-2 and in Bronze II, lack of overlapping schedules makes it hard for us to get more games in.

Welcoming champion suggestions! Also feel free to add me on NA and hit me up for a game sometime! I love Dominion and ARAM too! *goes back to grinding soloqueue and trying to get better*

[theelkspeaks]

I play league, on NA, same name as here, and I'm not that good. Was Silver V last season but thanks to the Yi Rework and support items rework, am much worse this season (used to main AP Yi mid and Sona support). Got placed in Bronze V to start the season after some poor games and poor luck in my first ten of this season, made it up to a promo series to Bronze II but lost, and have been fluctuating in the Bronze III-IV range ever since. Recently demoted to Bronze IV after a horrible losing streak (7 games in a row and counting) . I tend to be a low-death player (ignore the Vayne travesty in my match history) but often low-kill as a result of playing safely.

Current mains in order of preference:

Syndra, Tristana (ADC), Nami, Ziggs, Miss Fortune, Lucian.

I like long range champs without too-excessive micro; I'm better at builds/decision-making/countering than I am at actual mechanics.

I play on a 3v3 team with two friends from another site I'm active on, where I main Ziggs and Syndra. Currently 3-2 and in Bronze II, lack of overlapping schedules makes it hard for us to get more games in.

Welcoming champion suggestions! Also feel free to add me on NA and hit me up for a game sometime! I love Dominion and ARAM too! *goes back to grinding soloqueue and trying to get better*

Those are all pretty OP champions right now, though the nerfbat is coming for Lucian.

Sona's still really strong; she's top 10 in ranked team Diamond right now, and just started getting picked in LCS in the last two weeks or so. Enjoy her now before her rework comes -- though they just buffed her PBE rework slightly, so maybe she'll end up in an OK place.

I think the viability of tank supports in season 4 (especially early game) is what's made Sona so much harder to play for me this season, and why I've switched to Nami (and Morgana to a lesser extent).

I started playing Trist around the release of Yasuo (had been maining MF pretty thoroughly before that) as a way to synergize with Yasuo's ult, and she's a really fun champ to play. The recent itemization changes make me fear for the inevitable nerf though.

I really need a good safe jungler and top laner to play, most of my champ pool in those roles is either out of date or situational (I sometimes get away with a mage (Ziggs or Syndra) top if the matchup is right, but otherwise have to play an old tank like Amumu, Malphite, Volibear, or Shen, and often get bullied by the Wukong/Pantheon type. Jungle wise it mostly comes down to Tiger Udyr or Amumu for me, but neither of those is really happy in this meta either.) I'm trying to pick up Irelia, but it's not going great so far.

[theelkspeaks]

Got placed in Bronze V to start the season after some poor games and poor luck in my first ten of this season, made it up to a promo series to Bronze II but lost, and have been fluctuating in the Bronze III-IV range ever since. Recently demoted to Bronze IV after a horrible losing streak (7 games in a row and counting) .

Welcoming champion suggestions!

There's no one champ that will get you out of Bronze. Likewise, there is no one build that will get you elo. There are no magic bullets in this game. One of the biggest myths I've seen in my climb is the thinking that if some player could just get that ONE perfect build, that ONE perfect champ, then everything will be gravy and it's Diamond time! Riot has done a fantastic job of making sure this never happens. If you want to get back to Silver record your games via your favorite method and then watch them. Note your mistakes and don't do those again. Watch a few pro streams and note how they position, the decisions they make, their item choices and warding patterns. (suggest you look for Geranimo type streamers vs Dyrus type streamers)

gl hf dd

Yeah, I'm not looking for a get-elo-quick magic bullet in asking for champion suggestions, just asking for tips on who's worth learning to play well and either fits well with the playstyle I already have (for example learning Syndra for her similarities to Ziggs) or fills gaps I need filled (I don't really play any early-game junglers and should probably learn one). Finding champs who are on the strong side is useful too.

Any suggestions for good streamers for learning to ward better, especially as ADC and mid?

[theelkspeaks]

I think it's much more important to play a champion well than to play an "OP" champion.

Sssshhhh, we don't want to start an uproar with these blasphemous preachings.

That's how I feel about MF (and used to feel about Karthus, though I've liked him a little less lately than I used to - even if not in vogue, they're solid picks that I know what I'm doing on).

[theelkspeaks]

Learn Malz.

He's super fun, has crazy overtuned damage, and nobody knows how to play vs him.

In all seriousness, just get good at stuff you enjoy..

I was playing him during early 2014 pretty regularly, I really love Malzahar! (I actually discovered him in Snowdown Showdown and decided to play him SR as well) Any good tips you'd like to share for playing him? I tend to use my E for safe farming in lane, and try to stay as far back as I can, and use a tanky AP build (ROA -> Hourglass -> Void -> Deathcap, for example)

[theelkspeaks]

I usually ran heal/flash on Malz, but I'll consider running Ignite. Might give me more early game.

Edit: Still ran heal because I was against Ziggs, it worked pretty well!

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... 9/50095874

Thanks for the tips guys!

[theelkspeaks]

I'm falling slowly in love with MF. There's this weird point though where her ult feels useless if it hits any less than 4 people. I mean, my q was doing INSANE damages (crazy ratios, man) by the endgame, but my ult was still doing a little bit.

I've been loving duelist MF since preseason, she's so fun! Getting triforce on her, while not the most popular build, actually has some decent results - with it, almost no other ADC can beat her in a straight 1v1 thanks to both Q and W.

And the ult can also be used like Lucian's if the other team isn't grouped up (i.e. hitting someone out of range of your regular skills).

[theelkspeaks]

A while ago I remember seeing an AP Maokai mid who used saplings to bully midlaners much like a bombing Ziggs. Anyone know if that still works post-rework?

[theelkspeaks]

I have lost every single game that I have built Essence Reaver on an ADC.

it will never be worth it no matter how much more they buff it



like, really.
no.
pls no.

please do not ever fucking buy this item.

Looks like it might be worthwhile for some non ADCs now, like Jayce? Maybe Pantheon?

[theelkspeaks]

I just played Gragas top in a game and I enjoyed playing him, but I'm not sure what buildpath is strongest on him.

I started ring and pots, rushed RoA, then went for Sunfire and Visage, into Sorc Boots, Iceborn, and a 6th item Liandry's because I wasn't really sure what to get on him. The game itself went 64 mins, so everyone was at full build, and I felt kind of underwhelming late. Is that just his power curve, or was that a poor build?

[theelkspeaks]

gragas build:

targons, sightstone, mobi, then branch with wardens/randuins, locket, frozen fist (esspecially for glacial) and visage as the bigger options depending on the opposing team.

I was playing top, not support

If I were playing support, I'd just play Nami or Sona

[theelkspeaks]

How do I survive early game as Ryze? I just got owned by Ahri really badly.

[theelkspeaks]

Dear former Sona mains,

Nami is your new friend.

(But seriously)

[theelkspeaks]

I'm also on PBE. Starting playing right around the release of Elise, forget the date. Got onto PBE several months after I applied, which was like April of this year.

Also I've had honor ribbons literally since they were released, occasionally changing color - I've had all 4 at different points in time, but have been on a green for at least 5 months. Not sure if that helped me get on.

[theelkspeaks]

I'm just about to start playing mid for a Ranked 5's team with a couple friends from another site, and I'd like to expand my champion pool a little. Currently I primarily play Syndra, Ziggs, and Malzahar in the midlane, with occasional niche matchup-based picks in Solo Queue like Akali or Rammus that probably aren't as well suited for 5's play. (Thanks for tipping me off to Malzahar by the way!)

What does that champion pool lack most? What champions should I practice so that I can play them? I own nearly all champions, but I'm not an especially high APM player, so champions that require high APM are probably not well suited for me. Our team's bot lane are our two highest ranked players, so supportive midlaners are probably worth learning - but I don't have good ideas of which ones I ought to practice.

[theelkspeaks]

Last time I tried Zed, he was a little too high on the APM for me. I might try him again though, he could be useful. How's Talon APM wise?

Forgot to mention, but in case it's important - our ADC mostly plays Cait and Trist, and our Support plays Leona most often, followed by Morg and Thresh. Which does mean that Morg is unlikely to be available to me.

Orianna synergizes well with Leona, right?

[theelkspeaks]

Anyone have a favorite mid lane streamer? Preferably one that commentates a lot for the benefit of bad players?

[theelkspeaks]

elk here! I've been checking out that factions thing, and I think I'm going to declare for Bilgewater, but I'm not sure how to join - the link on the site for joining appears to still point to the last arc.

Summoner name is also "theelkspeaks", on NA, Bronze II mid main, but hoping to play mostly ADC in factions (former ADC main, MF was one of my main ADCs then, and Graves is currently my go-to ADC when someone else takes mid).

Also, looking for a good "easy" jungle champ to play when I end up jungling in SoloQ - it's my weakest role right now, and I'd just like to add a champ or two who's rarely banned/picked by the other team, doesn't have hard counter matchups (at low elo) and isn't mechanically intense. Basically, a jungler who's there to let his team carry him while contributing in some way. I've been jungling Yi or Tiger Udyr (as Feral Farmers), and I used to jungle Shen, Malphite, and Vi (as tanky junglers). Not sure how strong any of those are at the moment. I play some Maokai top when not picked/banned, but I don't know how to jungle as him. Any suggestions?

[theelkspeaks]

Also I'd be willing to do some coaching. If you can make a Mac-friendly recording of your games, I can do an ls-style coaching (but not as good because I'm not that good)

Are OP.gg replays Mac-friendly?

[theelkspeaks]

Suddenly digging up Nautilus to practice for Factions - this champ is so hard!

[theelkspeaks]

Wukong top shouldn't even be a thing it's a horrible idea that's punished so much by so many things mother of god please stop doing it

Also, nautilus isn't that great right now because of how much weight has gone into more mobile, more flexible champions. Why pick naut when you can go kz / j4 / etc who all have better damage, more mobility, better dueling in the jungle, and still respectable/good ganking capabilities?

I mean, nautilus can't really be built damage if you need to snowball that way. Meanwhile, champs like j4 / kz can build damage items or build tankiness and be really good

either way

.

I'm trying to learn Nautilus because of Factions, where he's basically Bilgewater's only jungle option. I plan to play mostly ADC (MF/Graves) and support (Nami), but figured I should have some practice on our jungler in case it's needed.

[theelkspeaks]

Opinions on how strong Maokai top and Maokai jungle are after the recent nerfs? I mostly stick to mid/supp/adc, so I'm not really sure if he's still worth picking.

[theelkspeaks]

The stacking rate doubles once you get AAs, if you didn't know. It's +4 vs. +8 per spell cast.

Tear -> RoA -> AA to maximize your ramp-up rate. Get a glacial thing along the way if you need the armor for your match-up, though.

+8 is only Crystal Scar, all you gain is the ability to stack off Auto's (which means you don't have to spam spells.)

Nope. +8 is for Seraph's, but you don't stack off autos. +4 but also stack off autos is for Manamune.

[theelkspeaks]

Hmmm, sounds interesting. How do I Fiora?

[theelkspeaks]

I've long felt that Tristana's Q is one of the most fun abilities in the game. Then again, I love destroying turrets

[theelkspeaks]

I'm surprised not to see MF on the best ADCs list. I've been playing her again a little and she's still really strong. Might be a low elo thing though - maybe high elo players can take advantage of her weaknesses better (much like Malzahar).

[theelkspeaks]

Yeah everyone build's Gnar way too squishy for what he is, i saw one get 3 shot by a vayne because of him being full squish, couldn't stop laughing.

What are people's thoughts about TF on MF? The 3s CD on her Q works nice with it, she has AP ratios to use the AP bits of it, and the mobility should be handy on an escape-challenged ADC. But it's never really built on her.

I think the main problem would be (personal opinion) that the Tri force would proc on the first shot of her Q, and that is generally designed to be the lead to a champion.

Personally i find her strong with IE, BC, BT.

I love Triforce on MF, though I've always valued her for her dueling potential nearly as much as for her ult. I'm not personally a fan of BC on her, but I can see why people like it. For me, something like BT > IE > LW > TF is reasonable, as is Vamp > TF > BT > LW > IE. Getting Sheen if I have to back somewhere between 1200 and 1500 gold early game does give a nice powerspike.

[theelkspeaks]

There are painful losses, and then there's this loss. In my promo series no less .

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... 0/50095874

[theelkspeaks]

Mostly it was the losing after having both nexus turrets down at 36 minutes and getting the nexus to half health twice. We thought we had a lead from the 25 minute mark (when I got a lucky triple) until the enemy's first Baron, though, so seeing the total gold graph shows that it was worse for us than we thought.

[theelkspeaks]

(when I got a lucky triple)

and just before, Malph stole a penta

Actually, Malph got a kill on Trist right at the start of the fight, then I cleaned up the four survivors at the end of a fight. Lucian and I were pushing, Trist came up and tried to stop us, I went for the penta hoping it was still in time, but Lucian got the kill.

[theelkspeaks]

Champions I don't currently own: Gnar, Vel'Koz, Lissandra, Varus, Skarner, Wukong, Cassiopeia, Olaf. Current IP: 7108. I'm thinking I'd like to buy a champ soon, but I can't decide who - anyone on that list worth getting and learning?

[theelkspeaks]

TBH I don't know anyone who is invested in the lore. Find it interesting, sure, find it fun, sure, but invested?

You realize quite a few of the players in this thread play factions, right? (FOR BILGEWATER!)

[theelkspeaks]

I believe Oman!

Lofty fuckin' heights!

Where you up to, mate?

Summoner name, server, main role/champs?

I've been up and down between BII and BIII on NA, if you're also NA we can duo sometime!

Main roles for me are
Mid: Malz, Orianna, Akali, Orianna, and niche pick Rammus as a Talon counter.
ADC: MF, Graves, Trist, sometimes Ashe or Sivir
Supp: Nami, Sona, Morgana
when top, I tend to play Malphite, currently training Fiora in normals with hopes of moving her to ranked soon.
please don't make me jungle. But if my team needs, I can play J4 or something. I love jungle, but I've been sucking at it basically all season

[theelkspeaks]

That awkward moment when the guy you agree to swap with in champ select swaps you Elise instead of J4 for no apparent reason....

That happy moment when you win anyway thanks to that guy playing Darius and an epic Syndra carrying you.

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... 8/50095874

On a related note, how do I midgame as Elise? I went from 3/1/2 to 4/11/16, so something clearly went wrong in my midgame.


EDIT: Also, hey Saki, how do you mid/late game as Fiora? I've been practicing her a little in normals and stuff, and the laning is going ok, but I'm not sure what to do after that (how to teamfight and/or splitpush as Fiora, basically).

[theelkspeaks]

That awkward moment when the guy you agree to swap with in champ select swaps you Elise instead of J4 for no apparent reason....

That happy moment when you win anyway thanks to that guy playing Darius and an epic Syndra carrying you.

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... 8/50095874

On a related note, how do I midgame as Elise? I went from 3/1/2 to 4/11/16, so something clearly went wrong in my midgame.


EDIT: Also, hey Saki, how do you mid/late game as Fiora? I've been practicing her a little in normals and stuff, and the laning is going ok, but I'm not sure what to do after that (how to teamfight and/or splitpush as Fiora, basically).

If you listen to Saki you'll never get to mid or late game.

I'm in NA Bronze III. Every game gets to mid or late game because everyone sucks and no one can end games.

[theelkspeaks]

Bronze advice: to get through mid game you need to group earlier than your opponents. Once you knock one tower down, get together with your now free laner and run to bot. If your free laner is bot, run mid, then hard shove that turret down.

No, it's probably not best practice, but in bronze they won't react, you'll get the turret (or dragon or both) then you'll all go do what you want. Also, my own advice as a jungler is rush jungle item then sightstone then ward aggressively mid game in the jungle paths between their lanes. You're looking to stand with a damage dealer and use your cc and what tankiness you have to get them a kill or two.

Bronzies are fucking hard to predict because we don't play optimally, so vision is an important part of it all. With a cc jungler like Elise you want to get your buffs together, then go after their buffs, pick off roamers when you can. Basically be the first team to move from laning into team fights so you have the numbers advantage for the first fight or two. If you get a few kills for your carries but don't take objectives that's okay, so long as you're keeping to the gold advantage.

I'd add to what panzer says with "wait for their carry to run out front to poke, which they will because they're retarded, then cc them and pop"

Mine was pretty fiora specific. If you're jungling, just play Amumu. seriously.

Amumu, Malph, and J4 are my most preferred junglers for pretty much that reason - your team (more or less) can't miss the fact that you're initiating. Just figured I'd ask about Elise after the way that game went, because my jungling's been my worst role this season, and I know she's a strong pick.

[theelkspeaks]

Honestly one thing I recommended to a bronze friend that has helped him is to create a notepad page with champions in each role that he can play very well (and learn what each of them counters, which out of the ones listed is correct to pick in different situations, etc), and only play out of that pool. And open that every time you're in champ select. It helps you focus during champ select SOOO much. Because what ends up happening in lower elo is people sometimes people just pick champions based on "hunches", etc.

Here's an extremely good example (might or might not be biased because it's mine )

TOP: Ryze, Fiora, Tryndamere, Malphite, Wukong
JUNGLE: Amumu, Fiddle, Wukong, Rammus, Shaco, Hecarim
MID: Karthus, Malzhar, Fizz, Soraka, Zilean, Talon
ADC: Lucian
Support: Morgana, Zyra, Braum, Brand, Zilean, Karma

BANS: WW, Braum, Maokai, Zed, Tristana, Alistar, Fizz, Yasuo, Leona

some of it is a little outdated (raka mid being the obvious one) but you get the point.
also obviously have a main position (ex i play about 90% mid, and then 95% of it is either Karthus or Talon right now).

I really like this suggestion, and I've been trying to do something like this - though I'll admit I don't always know which champion from my list is right for a situation. Any chance you could take a look at my current list and help me out with figuring out the cases for when to pick what?

my list from best role to worst role

MID (main role): Malzahar, Orianna, Heimerdinger, Syndra, Ziggs, Akali, Rammus (vs. AD melee only)
ADC: MF, Sivir, Ashe, Graves
Support: Nami, Sona, Morgana, Braum
TOP: Malphite, Amumu, Maokai, Shen, Fiora
JUNGLE: Amumu, Jarvan IV, Master Yi, Vi

[theelkspeaks]

disclaimer: my opinions

I really like this suggestion, and I've been trying to do something like this - though I'll admit I don't always know which champion from my list is right for a situation. Any chance you could take a look at my current list and help me out with figuring out the cases for when to pick what?

my list from best role to worst role

MID (main role): Malzahar, Orianna, Heimerdinger, Syndra, Ziggs, Akali, Rammus (vs. AD melee only)

Okay so since we're both mid mains and I'm somewhat busy, I can do a your mids vs mids for you to generally show you what you should be picking.

HOWEVER

(I can't emphasize this enough) your pick should not only be based on your lane opponent. It also depends on things like your team's front line, their team's front line, how much ap vs ad you have, how much ap vs ad they have, how many people with gap closers do you have, how many do they have, how strong is your team's late game, how strong is your team's early game, their team's early and late game, your team's cc vs their team's cc, etc etc.

For example, personally I would never pick talon into a team with a maokai, because he generally hard counters assassins extremely hard.

This also assumes that you play every one of those champions equally good. But you know yourself best, so adjust accordingly.

First, general trends:
- Syndra is the best lane bully you have in terms of harass and poking.
- Malzhar is best lane bully to deny farm and shove lane, strong late game tank buster. Note that he also does fairly well vs ad champions (by far the best from your list).
- Akali most mobile, easiest to get to backline, best roamer post-6. She's also not someone you generally want to pick VERSUS a particular lane opponent, but rather VERSUS an enemy team as a whole.
- Ziggs best champ to stall to late game (for example lets say your have a ryze top kog bot and they have a very strong mid game, dont try to fight them - tell your team to farm up and you just clear waves).
- Orianna is somewhat of a jack of all trades. But she doesn't really excel at anything necessarily. However she provides some really nice cc and engages if you have something like a zac on your team.
- Heimerdinger is a HIGHLY niche pick, and generally can be replaced with one of your other champions anyway even in the rare situations.
- You really don't need to be playing mid rammus - like ever. Again, Malzhar does fairly well vs AD meeles.

Now for actual mid vs mid. (First it's best champ to pick, second is second best, etc. Again, theoretically assuming you play them all around same level)

Spoiler:

Ahri - Malzhar, Syndra, Orianna
Akali - Malzhar, Syndra
Anivia - Ziggs, Malzhar, Orianna, Syndra
Brand - Syndra, Ziggs
Cassiopeia - Ziggs, Orianna, Syndra
Diana - Malzhar
Fizz - Malzhar, Akali, Heim
Galio - Orianna, Malzhar
Heimerdinger - Syndra, Malzhar, Orianna, Ziggs
Karthus - Malzhar, Syndra, Orianna
Kassadin - Malzhar, Syndra
Katarina - Malzhar, Orianna
Kayle - Orianna, Syndra, Malzhar
LeBlanc - Malzhar, Syndra
Lissandra - Orianna, Syndra
Lux - Syndra
Malzahar - Ziggs (

though really hard to do well against with any of your champion pool

)
Orianna - Malzhar, Syndra, Akali
Ryze - Malzhar
Swain - Syndra, Malzhar
Syndra - Malzhar
Talon - Malzhar
Twisted Fate - Orianna, Syndra
Veigar - Syndra, Malzhar, Akali
Vel'Koz - Malzhar, Orianna
Viktor - Syndra, Malzhar, Orianna
Xerath - Orianna, Ziggs
Yasuo- Malzhar
Zed - Malzhar
Ziggs - Orianna, Syndra, Akali, Malzhar
Zilean - Orianna, Malzhar

Wow, thanks so much for that - that's some good things to keep in mind! I've found Malzahar tends to get popped a little too easily against Talon and Zed - any tips on those matchups specifically?

[theelkspeaks]

Vs Zed if you rush seekers then go liandry's->rylais you really shouldn't have any problem vs him. you might be building malzhar too squishy. reason he does well vs ads and general bursty heroes is his build path allows him to build tanky.

The talon matchup is admittedly very very harder. Talon will give almost every midlaner a lot of trouble, but malzhar is actually one of his closest counters. If you can land some good Qs and either have Es bounce to him or just E him you can deal with him fairly easily because he should always be chucking potions and scared to engage you. Thing is, don't be afraid to go aggro level 1/2 on Talon to establish lane dominance. Talon generally doesn't all in you till level 3.

Edit: Oh right to add to wait Ani said, if they ever DO leave lane, Malzhar actually can take towers pretty quickly compared to other APs. And in fact, Malzhar rarely gives breathing room for opponents to even roam.
Edit 2: Oh lol I spell Malzahar without the other a ;_; Maybe it's because that's the way I pronounce it :p

Rushing seekers is a good idea. Most of the time on Malz I play the Liandry's->Rylai's build, but going for the early Armor before that might help keep me alive. Thanks!

[theelkspeaks]

The recent itemization changes were kind to Tristana, as was the buff to the range of her ult. I picked her up slightly before that buff and was happy with where she was, but that buff pushed her over the top and into FotM status.

[theelkspeaks]

INHOUS still going on? I'm theelkspeaks on NA.

[theelkspeaks]

Got my butt whooped in my first inhouse, sorry team.

At least I learned something! (Thanks Ray for chatting with me afterwards)

[theelkspeaks]

Akali vs. Yasuo for me now, should be an interesting lane.

[theelkspeaks]

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

I probably should destroy that lane (I picked into it on purpose), but I play a little too scared of Yasuo and get bullied off the CS pre-6. I have trouble reading when yasuo can just triple Q Quad E at me and kill me vs. when it's safe to engage. Still, I went 1/0/0 in lane (the kill was on the jungler), got picked off a couple times to end up 4/7/4, but got a triple in the last teamfight to end 7/7/5.

[theelkspeaks]

Don't engage when he has his tornado, or at least don't trade with him when he has it. Let him waste it then smash his face in.

This is what I like to call the "Bronze Yasuo problem"

When I play him (in normals for fun, I suck at him so he's not for ranked for me), I feel like I never have tornado up to cast when I want it.

When I play against him, that damn thing has like a 1 second cooldown. Have another tornado, and another, and another!

[theelkspeaks]

God, I hate teams that bicker to no end. Our Ashe, Malphite (AP Mid), and Gnar (Top) were bickering basically the entire game. I was on Sona support. Malph and I both connected a little late, and Gnar just kept screaming at the jungler for camping Malph's lane because "he connected late, he deserves to lose lane". Meanwhile, I've gotten Ashe to 4/0/0 and I'm 0/1/2. Malph uses ignite when we have a 3v1 on the enemy Volibear (to prevent passive's healing), and Ashe blows up at him for wasting a summoner spell since we should've been able to kill him anyway. Later, Malph and I overextend trying to get a kill on the enemy Xin, but we get collapsed on and malph dies. Ashe and Gnar both blow up at Malph, and Malph blows up at Ashe for not ulting to try to save us (it wouldn't have worked anyway).

We eventually win thanks to correctly womboing a teamfight at the enemy mid inhib turret, but jeez. I just needed somewhere to vent about people that won't shut up.

(the game in question linked): http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... 095874/eog

[theelkspeaks]

God, I hate teams that bicker to no end. Our Ashe, Malphite (AP Mid), and Gnar (Top) were bickering basically the entire game. I was on Sona support. Malph and I both connected a little late, and Gnar just kept screaming at the jungler for camping Malph's lane because "he connected late, he deserves to lose lane". Meanwhile, I've gotten Ashe to 4/0/0 and I'm 0/1/2. Malph uses ignite when we have a 3v1 on the enemy Volibear (to prevent passive's healing), and Ashe blows up at him for wasting a summoner spell since we should've been able to kill him anyway. Later, Malph and I overextend trying to get a kill on the enemy Xin, but we get collapsed on and malph dies. Ashe and Gnar both blow up at Malph, and Malph blows up at Ashe for not ulting to try to save us (it wouldn't have worked anyway).

We eventually win thanks to correctly womboing a teamfight at the enemy mid inhib turret, but jeez. I just needed somewhere to vent about people that won't shut up.

(the game in question linked): http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... 095874/eog

puh-

leeease

you can't even call this bickering in solo queue
its just your ordinary conversation over a cup of tea

I'm just summarizing the key highlights. They basically never stopped yelling at each other all game, and Gnar kept trying to /ff every 3 minutes because "I'd rather lose than keep playing with this Malphite".

[theelkspeaks]

Then again, I tend to have pretty calm and good-spirited teammates, I never really see the kind of ragers most people talk about, so maybe I'm just not used to it.

[theelkspeaks]

Who's the best ADC for a bad player who just wants to get a shit-ton of CS and not die in the first 20 minutes? I feel like my farm game has been a little lacking, and my ability to play any given ADC is roughly equal aside from say Ezreal, Quinn, or Caitlyn (all three of which I find lacking in endgame damage and myself too poor a player to close out the game before it reaches late game.

When I play ADC (my second-best role, so reasonably often), I used to have really high CS on my best champs (MF and Trist at that time) compared to the other players in the game, at least once outfarming a proxy Singed on the enemy team, but lately I've been getting less CS and I'm not really sure why. I liked the power that having tons of gold gave me, and at my ELO, having consistent high CS is a pretty good way to have more gold than the other team.

My current ADC pool is MF, Trist, Ashe, and Sivir, with Ashe pretty much only picked if I see a Twitch, Trist, or Cait on the enemy team, and Sivir picked if I see a Blitzcrank on the enemy team - MF or Trist in all other cases. I own all ADCs except Varus, and as I said, can play most of them at roughly similar levels.

[theelkspeaks]

With respect to the Caitlyn suggestion, how do I make Caitlyn still matter after 30-40 mins? I feel like her late game damage has been underwhelming most of the times I've played her, which is why she's been one of my least favorite ADCs.

[theelkspeaks]

Can't decide whether or not I'm abusing Alistar in my current ladder climb. Something like 8-0 since I started using him again.

Under what circumstances do you pick Alistar? (also, top or supp?)

[theelkspeaks]

I'm very firmly in the "never mute anyone" camp, though I also have more patience than most people. If you're going to rage back, mute them so you don't, but if you can stay calm, don't mute them, instead try to calm them all down, and try to be the best shotcaller for your team you can be (even if you don't usually shotcall). If two teammates are bickering, they'll never listen to each other's calls, so you have to step up and do it yourself.

Remember the golden rule of shotcallling: 5 people following a bad call is better than 3 people following a good call.

[theelkspeaks]

I'll also add this: I play at least 10 ranked soloqueue games a week, and I've had maybe 3 games with truly horribly obnoxious teammates since May. Those who are bad are pretty bad, but most of the time you won't get horrible flamers/ragers/trolls.

[theelkspeaks]

And that'll be my perfect icon for Ascension.

5 total Ascensions this game: Sivir, Jax, Jax, Lucian, Sivir

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... 4/50095874

[theelkspeaks]

First thoughts meta-wise:

Gragas is super useful for protecting your Ascended champs.

And then there's Ascended Mundo *shudders* you can't ever kill that thing.

I feel like "long range peel" (Gragas E, Alistar W, Maokai E, and so on) is super super important. Also, stealing Xerath from the other team is surprisingly fun and (at least at my ELO) easy. Since there's no such thing as smite for Xerath, any champion with a skillshot or gapcloser has a chance to steal it.

[theelkspeaks]

Based on some in-houses with RL friends yesterday, Ascended Xin Zhao is a thing of terror.

[theelkspeaks]

I mean, I'm in Bronze, and I complain about and/or take advantage of Bronze logic all the time.

I totally get away with shit half the time that I can only get away with because the people I'm playing against suck. Then the other half of the time I suck.

P-edit: To elaborate on Panzer's post, I'm trying to both find the Bronze logic in my own play to get rid of it, and also to find how I can win games because of opponents' Bronze logic. Grouping as 5 mid and just shoving would probably lose in high-level games, but it works wonders in Bronze because the other team won't react in time half the time and you get free turrets, for example.

[theelkspeaks]

And after one game of lulu, i am now adding her to my ranked list for mid lane (there are unavoidable times of getting mid sadly), what matchups are bad for her in mid?

The problem with solo lane Lulu is that you can't carry hard enough in low ELO - she's an awesome supportive midlaner who can help your teammates carry, but it's hard to carry as a Lulu, according to a Bronze/Silver friend of mine who used to main Lulu (recently promoted to Silver).

[theelkspeaks]

I'm not sure if this is just me or if this applies to anyone else, but I've found that I can only snap severe losing streaks by picking the less common champs in my pool. i.e. recently, I've been playing mostly Malzahar/MF/Nami in the three roles you'd expect, but I hit a nasty losing streak and eventually broke it by just instalocking Akali. For comparison, I have about 10 Akali games and 40 Malzahar games on the season at midlane, and my Malzahar is usually more reliable (I've even gone even in lane against a Platinum Brand in Team Builder on Malz once when queueing with four friends who were higher ranked than me). But for whatever reason, the champs I know I'm competent at but play less often are more effective at snapping losing streaks than the champs I main. Maybe something to do with mental state, though I'm not sure what.

[theelkspeaks]

I'm not sure if this is just me or if this applies to anyone else, but I've found that I can only snap severe losing streaks by picking the insanely-easily-fed champs in my pool.

So...FTFY? This used to serve me quite well on Master Yi in the month(s?) leading up to and after Feral Flare's release. ETL can attest; we'd be doing a Normal and I'd yologank her extended mid-laner, drop ult when counter-ganked, and we'd double handily then take tower. Those were the days. Psure I got my first penta on Yi.

It hasn't always been the insane snowballers - I took a quick look through my document of stats for the season, and I've broken my worst losing streaks this season with Tristana, Udyr, Malphite, Lucian, and Ryze, in addition to the most recent Akali. Of those, only Lucian and Trist are champs I've played more than 10 times this season, and Lucian only 13 times total.

I think it's more that my losing streaks come from excesses of confidence, and playing champs I'm less confident (but still competent) on helps to reset my mind. At least, that's my best guess.

[theelkspeaks]

Akali gets shut down in lane, then randomly gets three kills in a teamfight and explodes into "I can one-shot every single one of you". Unless she's laning against Syndra, in which case she just gets shut down forever.

Syndra vs. Akali hardest counter in the game? Or am I missing a harder counterlane somewhere?

[theelkspeaks]

With the rise of Zilean, I figured this would be an interesting question to toss to fellow LoLers - what champions gain the most from an early level 2, 3, or 6?

[theelkspeaks]

On the other hand, I'll start an /ff vote in a normal if I feel like we're unlikely to win, but if my team doesn't vote with me, I'll play on as hard as I can.

[theelkspeaks]

Who's tito?

[theelkspeaks]

I always vote "no" if I know that any of my teammembers are in a series. I figure that for series games, fight to the bitter end. If it's not a series, I /ff if the game is good and truly lost, but if we have the late game comp, I'll usually ask my team to fight on even if we're down. Like, if you're down 10K gold but you're Trynd/Yi/Karth/Trist/Alistar, you still have a respectable chance to win. On the other hand, if you're 10K down and you're Lee/Shaco/Lux/Graves/Leona, then yeah, we're done.

[theelkspeaks]

I hate jungling in Season 4, but I have to say, jungling for an Orianna as J4 was some of the most fun I've had jungling in a long time.

Also, with that win, I'm promoted back to Bronze III after just one day of being demoted to Bronze IV. Now to get back into Bronze II, where I was at 90 LP a week or two ago.

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... 095874/eog

[theelkspeaks]

At first I thought I needed the change of champion to reset my mental state for playing, but now I'm thinking Akali might just be OP. At least at my ELO where Zed and Teemo have less CS in 10 minutes than Akali because no one can CS properly.

[theelkspeaks]

Akali for low ELO, summarized:

Magic Pen Reds, Flat Armor Yellows, Scaling MR Blues, AP Quints
21/9/0 masteries (The "Mid def" page if you look at my lolking, which I took from some reddit thread at some point).
Heal/Flash. Heal will give you sustain in lane.

start cloth 5 and a yellow if against AD mids, null 2 and a yellow if against AP mids.

start Q at level 1, farm with Q as much as you can. Try to minimize damage taken.

Take E at level 2 for better CS under tower. You'll probably be pushed to tower around this point in time.

Take W at level 3, drop veil in the middle of the wave and clear it, then back off to tower while the enemy kills their wave. Q-auto them if they get close.

Max R>Q>E>W. Try to have no deaths on either side pre-6.

If you're low, back as soon as you hit 6 so you can charge up stacks of your ult. Buy as many components of gunblade as you can on your first back, prioritizing revolver. Buy a health pot or two as well.

When you have three stacks of ult, Ult>Q>AA>E the enemy mid, then drop W and run. Rinse and repeat as needed until they're low enough to kill.

Finish Gunblade, roam, get kills. Kill your enemy mid any time they go past the middle of the lane. Always shove to turret after they are dead.

Get hourglass, Soc Boots, Lich Bane in that order. If any gold left over, get a defensive item, usually Sunfire or Spirit Visage, depending on the most fed enemy champion.

Getting a kill is always worth, even if you die getting it. Your gold is worth more than theirs because you're motherbleeping Akali.

Run around and kill whoever's clearing a wave somewhere when the enemy team mostly groups. There's always somebody just clearing one more wave. If there isn't, split push to turret and take turret, especially if you already have Lich Bane.

If there's a teamfight, just wait until someone is within kill range of your ult>Gunblade>Q>AA (a low HP tank or a carry anything below 70%.) Do that, then drop W and wait. Kill anyone else within range of death whenever you see them, or just run away from the enemy team.

Win lots of games.

P.S. If someone is running away from you in a lane, especially an ADC, you can probably afford to burn one charge of your ult on the enemy minion wave to get close enough to ult the ADC.

In the Bronze II-IV range, this has gotten me 8 wins and 1 loss, and I was 10/7/5 in the loss. The enemy team had several good tanks with peel, including a fed Blitzcrank, and I couldn't get the kills in the teamfights.

Unsure what ELO this works up until.

[theelkspeaks]

Akali works for different reasons at different ELOs. I know that the method I described won't work once I get to the point that people can smoke me in lane, for one. At high elo, Akali (if I understand correctly), in order to work, has to either A) be part of a pick comp, B) split push all day and all night, or C) bait out the pink/red eye in one place, then get their team to start a teamfight elsewhere before it's off CD again.

[theelkspeaks]

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."

As for the Q-AA part, can't you do that then retreat into your W to drop minion aggro? I usually only get Q-auto off if the enemy is dumb enough to walk close to my W.

[theelkspeaks]

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

I tend to drop it whenever I'm clearing the wave early, so that I don't eat free poke (assuming the enemy is ranged).

[theelkspeaks]

That awkward moment when you just go along with your jungler's build suggestions and suddenly you have more gold than either solo laner because you keep accidentally killing people with Q-AA?

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... 9/50095874

[theelkspeaks]

I have a friend who recently hit 30 and is trying to decide whether to play his 10 games right now in the hopes of getting a banner/icon, or whether he should wait til next season to start playing ranked. He's finishing off his rune pages in normals now in preparation for ranked. Opinions?

[theelkspeaks]

I'm sure it'll go on their upcoming album, yeah.

ALSO YES I HAVE CHAMPIPN THRESH IM SO HAPPY

Such a good skin!

[theelkspeaks]

also while you're at it add theelkspeaks and 450master

[theelkspeaks]

Is it just me or are assist streaks absolutely broken right now? I've been playing a decent amount of Sona and J4 lately, who are basically free assist machines, and I don't remember nearly having this much gold before.

[theelkspeaks]

Why is Janna suddenly considered good? She's been like D tier support like all season, but now she's getting picked everywhere? What changed?

[theelkspeaks]

IMLS made a tier list awhile ago that left out Janna altogether and then put her in the D tier when he was asked about it later. I was annoyed. That may be what TES is referring to.

I am happy that he is eating his words. ^^

Basically every tier list I've seen this season has had Janna as the lowest support on the list. I don't remember whose lists they were, I read whichever ones show up on the r/LoL frontpage

Who's IMLS?

I couldn't imagine not having a gaming mouse in this game

active items...how do people use them on time without a gaming mouse?

I use 2-3-4 for my actives, and T for trinket. (2 is for Gunblade, BoRK, Mikaels, or Seraphs, 3 is for Zhonya's or GP10 actives, 4 is for potions or sightstone/wards).

[theelkspeaks]

I followed theelkspeaks's example and added notes to my accounts by right-clicking the account name and selecting "Insert comment".

I can't see your comments - not sure why.

[theelkspeaks]

Does anyone build Lucidity on Lucian? Was just wondering if that might be a better choice than Zerk's on him.

[theelkspeaks]

So I think I found a use for Essence Reaver

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... 3/50095874

Maybe it only worked because the other team was bad, not sure. Seemed like it was a mismatch from the get-go.

[theelkspeaks]

wouldn't you prefer a bloodthirster?

Varus has some amount of mana problems, and generally stays fairly safe without the extra shield, I think.

Will have to test further.

[theelkspeaks]

My second game on Varus had a Soraka support, so didn't build the Essence Reaver. Varus is either really strong right now or Support Azir is a bad idea. Possibly both.

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... 7/50095874

[theelkspeaks]

I imagine Azir support isn't great, but it could also be that two games of Varus in Bronze may not be enough data.

Varus has a 46.37% win rate in Bronze, 48.21% overall. Azir overall has a 36.84% win rate.

I didn't really play Varus much at all before the first of those two Varus games I linked (like a handful of normals/bots/dom), so I feel like I'm not that good at him - hence my concluding that Varus himself is good, since I'm not good at him yet I'm still snowballing hard with him. Obviously sample sizes are small.

[theelkspeaks]

Why do some people not like being able to post? #smh

Does the new ranked restrictions thing also ban you from the official LoL forums? I'm confused.

[theelkspeaks]

Re: new Viktor. Color me interested: How do I play him?

[theelkspeaks]

I'm surprised at the comment earlier that new Viktor doesn't want to build tons of CDR - based on a quick play in CS/TT, he seemed like a prime candidate for Lucidity even (for more deathrays and Qs).

[theelkspeaks]

Also totally off-topic but of way more importance to me- anyone have a line on a decently cheap headset/mic that doesn't wear/sound/feel like absolute shit? I'm used to studio cans for audio, but my current setup has gotten more and more ridiculous where I'm having to load my protools interface just to use skype. I had the best headset of all time, a logitech g330 that had the behind the head headband so it didn't mess up my hair which made me so happy, but it broke because it was made of chinese lead plastic and the replacement I bought also broke and now I can't really find anything like that so I guess I'm willing to drop some bucks on a really shitty set of cans with a mic attached. Definitely happy to check out any suggestions, thank you

I use a plaintronics Audio 236 when I use a headset. It's pretty good, and it was only like 20 bucks on Amazon. Got it for skyping with my gf when we had to go long distance for a period of time, but it works awesome for gaming or anything else.

Most of the time, I use separate earbuds and mic - the earbuds are pretty generic 10 bucks at Walmart stuff, and the mic is a Telex brand, I've had it probably 10 years, and it's an awesome unidirectional recording mic. I used to do audio recordings of spoken text on it (think audiobooks) and it was awesome for that. When I use it for gaming, I just plop it on the desk next to me.

[theelkspeaks]

We def need more how to smash out of bronze lessons. If someone wants to donate a bronze account, I'll take a turn smashing it out.

The inhouse we played tonight was a perfect example of how to turn it around and dominate. I was very busy typing and raging about our rice-related afk player, I let my guard down in lane, and before I knew it I was 0-2. I said nonono, not today, roamed up top for a kill so I had a handful of change, and never looked back. I did get "caught" bot by a tp on top of my 1v2 engage, but aside from that I thought my play was pretty high class. Nid is a skirmish champ and that's what you do: go in and out and in and out and wait for an isolated target or a favorable engage. A LOT of Nid play is just running around, splitpush, getting people to chase you, run away from you, etc. There's a method to my madness, I'm not actually just running around in their jungle like a chicken with its head cut off. Usually. The thing about "getting out" of low mmr is that you HAVE to be better than the ranking. You HAVE to win every single lane. If you are somehow in a low mmr game in a lane you can't win, you HAVE to be able to make up the money by roaming out. Winning your lane in no way guarantees you can win the game, but it ensures you start in the best possible position, (which is certainly not 0-2 but it did piss me off and lit the fire that would burn bright through many chases and dives).

The big thing is that coordinated play beats unorganized play every time, but it was in effect a solo queue game for me because I wasn't on voip, I don't know if anyone else was. I had the benefit of having players on my team who I already know are very aggressive, so a lot of times my stupid cat adventures brought us to a winnable fight. You can categorize your teammates in solo queue too, the one you want to look for and latch onto (in low mmr) is the guy who will fight to the death every time. He's the only one you want to fight next to, because you know he's not going to flake out and fuck you over. When you know your teammate will bulldog clamp down on his man, you can use him as a proxy to set up your next play. He's going to buy time for you and deal damage, so get in and around him. Use him for a distraction or bait, so you can do what you need to. The big thing for this is when guys always tower dive when a turret has only a couple hits left on it. Use your crazy bronze diver teammate to soak up turret shots while you kill the turret and move on with the game, DON'T get caught up in his shitty dive and end up dancing around in their base with the turrets still up.

Even though it was a 4v5 against a weird adc comp, there were plenty of examples of the old "hit em where they ain't". Keep rotating, keep applying pressure. Pressure means ACTIVELY pushing lanes and attacking towers, having a visible aggressive position on the map! Don't fall into the trap behavior of "split farming" where you just run up for cs and then disappear into the jungle. When you are off the map, low mmr people forget you exist. Low mmr players also beeline for the closest guy to them, so if you have a splitpusher on your team, the rest of the team needs to keep applying pressure. You can't splitpush when your team all backs/jungles because you will get killed by 4+ people.

Play high-impact champs who are strong in the midgame, because that's when you should be finishing the game. Make your presence felt on the map. Be aggressive and roam out, show that you mean business. When you show up on the enemy's screen, they should think OH SHIT! and then you take them down. Always use pings to show teammates to hit towers when they are backing next to you. Ideally you want a champ who (if ahead) can 1v1 anything. I think I'm 75% in about 17-18 games on the cat. Omg I lose so many games! Nid is a priority ban right now which is annoying, so I smurf with Lux because I prefer midlane and she has almost global ult presence and a very strong/safe lane vs almost everyone. Even in lanes that Lux should lose horribly, your skill differential will carry you easily over the bronze Fizz/Zed/Pantheons of the world who will get smashed by your early passive-proc autos and have to give up the level advantage. There are lots of guys who have easier, stronger lanes, but not ones that have the utility and roam/teamfight presence that Lux gives me. Know your target numbers for a kill and aggressively press the advantage, when you hit your target kill number, decisively all-in and collect your money. When you see your kill number, a giant red flashing sign should go off in your head and you should pounce for it and not stop until he's dead. Don't puss out of your early all-in! You don't commit unless you're sure it's a kill, that's why you know your numbers, so once you're in GET THE KILL. If they flash the kill and you can't follow flash to secure it, just let them go, slam the wave into the tower, and go spend some money if you're low. If you're not low? Stay in lane and continue to build the advantage. You can stay in lane at half health because when the guy gets back he will do something stupid and greedy and you'll take half his health off in the first bad trade he forces. Are you actually scared of bronze players? I'm not. They practically (and in some cases, literally) kill themselves in bad minion trades, all you have to do is hit them once so you get credit.

If you actually understand applying map pressure/"real splitpushing" as opposed to just running up for a big cs wave, and you can consistently win your lane, bronze will never be able to hold you. Unless you're a bronze support main, cause you are never ever getting out. I should have access to a B5 acc with like 200 games this season soon, so I should be able to run some bronze clinic games. B5 is the wild west, anything goes and you are gonna have to do it all yourself to break the game before it breaks you. The end of the season is a super exciting time to play ranked because tensions are so high and the boosters are out in force, but don't worry- there's enough idiots piled up on top of each other that you can still climb out over their dead bodies.

Can you talk to me about top lane in Bronze? I'm trying to smash my way out atm, and top lane is currently my weakest role now that I've remembered how to play J4 again (making jungle no longer my worst).

[theelkspeaks]

If top lane is your worst role, just don't play it. You might not always be able to get your best role, but you can usually avoid a role like mid or top.

I try not to, but sometimes I get stuck with it . I try to be the good teammate and listen to what roles teammates call, I could probably be more insistent on the not-top-lane thing, but I tend to have non-terrible games if I play Maokai or Malphite or something, and I'm hoping whoever I ceded a role to can carry if I give them their best. Is that bad logic?

[theelkspeaks]

Yay it worked!

I played through the first tutorial, so I at least understand what I'm doing. I mean, I know it's going to be more complex than that was, but I can do the basics. :/

Welcome, Chevre!

[theelkspeaks]

There's reason to pick Taric over Leona but picking Taric over Braum in the current meta seems nonsensical

I could see him being now what Talon was for a while (i.e. never pick when Braum/Zed is up, but a reasonable fall back if he's banned? I don't play Taric at all, so I could be wrong.

[theelkspeaks]

How do people deal with Pantheon top?

[theelkspeaks]

Also, just going to say that Miss Fortune is arguably one of the most dangerous bots (in terms of the AI actually being smart) right behind Trundle and Annie. So don't get too down, I'm sure we all have screenshots like that from when we started.

[theelkspeaks]

Update on my Essence Reaver Rush Varus play: I'm now at 15 wins, 6 losses, with an average KDA of 9.6/6.4/8.5. 4 of those games were Duos with a random Leona/Blitz main I found in one of those games.

This is mid-Bronze play, so it might not be strictly optimal in high Elo (in fact, it's probably not). Generally, I've found it to be functional because of the ability to spam Varus's Q more with the extra mana and the CDR. Before I get Reaver, I often am low on mana just from the amount Varus needs to use his spells to poke, though a better player could probably manage mana better, thus making this less a reason to use this build.

Generally, I try to get BF Sword or Pickaxe on the first back, depending on gold. I then prioritize Vamp Scepter and try to build into Reaver/IE/PD, in that order, sometimes with an early Zeal. LW and BT finish the build if I reach full build, or sometimes I sell the Reaver to get BT and go for another AS item, like Shiv. Defensive items (usually Veil or GA) are options, but luxuries.

So yeah, it's been effective in low elo, largely because the CDR and free mana helps me dominate the later portion of the laning phase, and also because no one at this elo knows how to lane against a Varus (and thus I get free poke for days).

[theelkspeaks]

How's Riven in 3s? I feel like I don't have any AD champs for 3s and should probably learn one.

[theelkspeaks]

I heard someone mention Mad-stone on a stream, but I don't really understand - is that just building Wriggles and Spirit Stone in the same game, and if so, why would anyone do that?

[theelkspeaks]

But doesn't that sink like another Spirit Stone's worth of gold into "useless" stats? Is it really that much faster as to be worth it?

[theelkspeaks]

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... 095874/eog

Proof that an afk hurts a team more than even a blatant feeding troll.

(Though I can't view match histories right now, not sure if this shows up for anyone else).

[theelkspeaks]

Eh.

I was kinda thinking syndra a bit. Also mebbe karthus could work. Lulu is eh - I don't like playing lulu too much because I always feel like an asshole (too much toplane lulu does that to you). Also too supportish.

Like, grey is kinda right in what I'm looking for. Strengths/weaknesses don't really matter to me now. I'd kinda prefer it not to be supportish midlane boredomness. I do however want the mechanical complexity and buttonpressingness to be at a similar level (yuckleblancishard)

I'm in Bronze III, and Viktor is reasonably non-complex. Builds are kinda weird, but the mechanics aren't too bad once you get the hang of his E.

[theelkspeaks]

Or even just find a support main from one of your games to duo with. I had a great leona in one of my better Varus games, and we've duoed together like 10 times since, with pretty great success.

[theelkspeaks]

To anyone suggesting that support can't carry, two words: "Flash Crescendo"

[theelkspeaks]

I love arcade sona, but I hate that the ult particle is "hollow" between the two lines. Pentakill Sona, my next favorite Sona skin, keeps the original ult particle. Though I haven't played anything but Arcade Sona since Arcade MF came out

[theelkspeaks]

I might drop one of the teams I'm on if there's an opening anywhere for me. Gotta get that ward skin

(I tried to start a ranked team of Bilge people, but didn't get a whole lot of interest - likely that'll be the one to go)

[theelkspeaks]

I will be in for this, not today though. I have an exam in like 2 hours.

What voice chat do you all use? One of them, I think it was Raidcall, used to BSOD me regularly, but Weconspire and Skype are A-OK by me. I think Teamspeak was fine too, but not sure about that one.

[theelkspeaks]

ok, closed my Bilge ranked team, which gives me a slot to join one with scummers. Will be around most of the morning and afternoon tomorrow.

[theelkspeaks]

Awake for a day of playing - will be playing solo queue for now, but hoping to get some team play going later!

[theelkspeaks]

I don't know like any of their names. I just recognized Annie, Garen, Lux

And...there can't really be a champion who looks like Uncle Sam, can there?

That's Ryze. Wearing the Uncle Sam Ryze skin. Some skins make really patent references to stuff.

The Uncle Sam reference probably would've been better with Gangplank.

but but but Minuteman Gangplank??

[theelkspeaks]

I just had an AD Jungle TF on my team, and he was astonishingly powerful. Is this actually a legit pick, or is that just somebody's pet random build that works for them? (Flare into Bork, IIRC)

[theelkspeaks]

Is there still room on the Urgot team for me?

[theelkspeaks]

thanks for letting me play a game at your inhouse! Sorry I wasn't very good

[theelkspeaks]

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.

[theelkspeaks]

Finally won my promo series on like the 4th try. I kept going WLL, then getting a win to get back into series. Bronze II now, Silver is in sight!

[theelkspeaks]

BTW there was some comment earlier about somebody "never being excited about Gragas support" and I'd 100% agree, but it's not just Gragas. Most sub-par AP supports I see are people pushed into support who would rather take their champ mid and who don't understand the mechanical differences of taking that champ support instead of mid.

My own pet peeve, Lux, never excites or even gives me positive vibes. Just from a kit and numbers standpoint, she's sub-par in every way to Morgana, and if Morgana is banned you usually need to counter whatever they didn't want Morgana to be around for (usually Thresh/Leona/Braum or other hard engage supports, correct me I'm wrong here).

I ban Morgana whenever I plan to play adc and have any input into bans, she's just hell to lane against regardless of who your support is. Basically if you get hit ever by her Q or ult, you just die. (Bear in mind that I tend to play less-mobile ADCs like Varus, MF, and Ashe.)

My personal three "default bans" are Blitz/Fizz/Morgana, as those are the champs I hate playing against the most, but I'm usually open to my teammates' suggestions.

[theelkspeaks]

but her ult requires you sitting near her and STAYING near her to achieve maximum effect,

What I find most annoying about the ult is that you start to go in on the enemy ADC for a trade, morg runs at you and presses R, and you have to back off to avoid the stun, probably taking lots more damage than you were able to deal because now the ADC is hitting you while you run away.

[theelkspeaks]

Trying to grind out ward skins. Any spots on inhouse teams?

[theelkspeaks]

I want my Arclight Varus skin

[theelkspeaks]

Ashe's ult can't directly hit baron, but the splash damage when you hit an enemy champ does damage baron. (Thus making it generally one of the harder steals and rather epic when done!)

[theelkspeaks]

q isn't a skillshot, that means you literally cannot miss on whatever you're targeting if its in range.

im so confused at how one can miss something that isn't a skillshot.

you won't 100% get the AA damage off the Q but when you spend your first 1000 gold on the hexcore Q upgrade and you get a 2.5s MS buff that basically lasts until your Q is back up again... it's not so hard. but you actually cannot *miss* a Q.

I asked this before but didn't get an answer so maybe now: Lucian's q isn't a skill shot in that you target somrthing but it can be dodged. Is that the only non skill shot where that's the case?

I'm pretty sure that's the case, yeah. Unless you count things like Cait's ult which are targeted but can be intercepted.

[theelkspeaks]

I have a feeling Gnar is awesome. Can anyone confirm?

Gnar is super popular and high-tier in high elo play.

I personally find him one of the least exciting champs to play as, but that's just personal bias. I feel like he's a high skill floor champion, though maybe I just approached him all wrong.

[theelkspeaks]

My problem was that he's like a tank, just he doesn't have reliable durability. Like, you can't build him like he has full in-kit tanking, or you die when you're small, and you can't build him like he's a kit-damage tank, because then you only do damage when you're small. And also his kit makes you want to build AS, but you can't really afford it.

IDK, to me he's just a mess.

[theelkspeaks]

I used to (read: about a year ago) play Veigar support. I thought he worked well as a counter-engage support, dropping cage when the enemy Leona/Ali tried to engage, keeping the enemy ADC out of the fight and often stunning the enemy melee support.

And the teamfights are amazing, so many chances for aoe stuns

[theelkspeaks]

Just played a game of Legend of Poro with quadz and others, and Singed is really fun in it. You can help kill enemy king, zone enemy off your king, and also it's Singed with a possible gap closer on a 20 second cooldown.

[theelkspeaks]

I self referred my two smurfs and I'm scared of the crackdown right now :/

[theelkspeaks]

Battleborn Kayle

Also, any of you up for Fantasy LCS?

[theelkspeaks]

Is this RoA Malz, Liandry's -> Rylai's Malz, or something else altogether?

[theelkspeaks]

0-2 so far. The first was an absolutely shitty Malph game where I held even-ish with a Fiora in lane for about 15 mins with both of us at 1/1/0 and me down about 5-10 CS, before imploding and finishing at like 1/9/3, and the second was a heartbreaking game where I got an early lead as the Varus in a Varus/Morg vs. Jinx/Leona bot lane, but played too aggressively trying to win the eventual 4v5 (after our Top Jayce had internet issues) and threw. Final score was 13/6/3, but I wasn't happy with my play.

[theelkspeaks]

I like playing with supports that have good CC, Zyra included, when I adc. Nothing's better then getting 3-4 free autos because your Zyra just snared their ADC. Heals are nice too, but at least at my ELO, most supports can't time their shields well enough to be good.

[theelkspeaks]

If you say you're THAT much more experienced on a champ that you'll do significantly better on something that's off-meta, I'm gonna wonder whether you're supposed to be in my division and then I'm going to think you're trolling. Sorry. IMO, there's no real reason to pick Gragas over something like Alistair; there's no real reason to pick something like Lux over Morgana; and I'd even prefer a Karma to a Zyra. That's just my opinion.

I'm mostly in agreement with this part for the support rule, but I disagree with the third example, mostly on account of having seen far too many god-awful Bronze Karmas. A bad Karma is devastating to lane with, and is apparently a fairly hard champ to learn. I personally dislike her and can't comment on the difficulty except by observation of other play; my support preference is to play Sona or Nami, and very occasionally Braum.

I do think that in a player's less played roles, however, a past-meta support might be a pretty good option for a given player. For example, Shen isn't really in meta right now, but I still play him better than most other toplaners because I played a lot of toplane when he was in meta, and top is one of my least played roles in solo queue now, so he's who I have the most experience on when it comes to top. And if not him, other tanky walls like Malph are my first fallback.

[theelkspeaks]

Taking stock of my current state of different roles for solo queue (not exactly the same as my pool for ranked 5's, where I tend to play mostly top or jungle and mostly tank):

Roles in order of preference, champs in order of preference within the role
1st choice: ADC - Varus, MF, Trist, Ashe - pretty happy but should probably try to start playing Corki again.
Mid - Akali, various safe mages but mostly Malz/Syndra, Brand/Lux? - probably need to add some champs. I tend to like safe-farming mages, but Akali has been the lone exception so far and is my favorite mid.
Support - Nami, Sona, a little sketchy after this but Braum, Morgana - Need to work on tanky supports, should probably try to learn Leona(?)
Jungle - J4 and Vi are my favorites, the former generally pretty full-tank, the latter a little aggressive. Need to work on pathing and decision-making in general, as well as knowing how much and what damage items I can buy instead of just building all tanky items.
Top - Malphite, Shen, Amumu, all built mostly tanky - I'm out of meta right now, and need to learn new champs. Also need to learn aggro in the top lane, as I'm used to safe farmers. Probably want to learn Gnar/Irelia?

I tend to be above my average play when on Varus, MF, or Akali, and to a lesser extent Nami/Sona but on any other champ/role, there's not much of a difference in my level of play between say Trist, J4, and Malphite, so I don't actually put that much priority on getting "my main", especially if Akali is banned by the other team. I want to get better at each role, and I care more about generally getting better at the game than at mastering a particular role/champion or just raw climbing (though I'd like to climb eventually, it's just not my first priority).

If anyone would like to play games with me and/or offer advice, that'd be awesome! I'm also looking to add champions with low skill floors but still reasonably good in basically any role, and suggestions are welcome there. I own most champions (all but 7) and have like 8K IP saved up, so that's not a concern.

[theelkspeaks]

Hmmm. Darius, Wukong, Xin, and Morde are ones on there I could see myself playing.

[theelkspeaks]

My reason for picking shen is to play a farm-under-tower type game early, with the threat of taunting into a huge gank or even solokill with tower if they overextend, then shielding my carries from across the map and peeling with taunts in the late game

[theelkspeaks]

Mid - Akali, various safe mages but mostly Malz/Syndra, Brand/Lux? - probably need to add some champs.

I tend to like safe-farming mages

, but Akali has been the lone exception so far and is my favorite mid.

I think I have the right champ for you!!1!1

Given that it's you, I'm assuming Karthus? I used to play him a lot season 3, but dropped him some time last year because I struggled with the supposedly favorable Yasuo matchup, and Yasuo was like 90% ban/pick at the time. Haven't gotten back into him - is he strong right now?

[theelkspeaks]

Into my 8th placement, playing Voli jungle because my teammates didn't want Vi or J4.

[theelkspeaks]

Enemy Morg ragequit after two solokills by our Ahri in lane (my one gank mid by this point burned a flash but morg lived). We proceeded to stomp the 5v4 as expected, and enemy Jinx says "I wish riot would force disconnect a player on the opposing team whenever a player disconnected." WTF??

[theelkspeaks]

9th placement coming right now, 3-5 overall so far. Playing MF because I'm on red side and I don't trust my red side Varus right now.

[theelkspeaks]

(I find certain abilities easier or harder to hit depending on camera angle (red v. blue), with Varus Q being much easier on the blue side. This is true regardless of whether I use locked camera, fully unlocked, or hold space, and is probably just a player flaw.) One example of a red-side skillshot for me is Lucian Q, which I actually find much more effective at aiming through minions onto champs on the red side.

[theelkspeaks]

I didn't say it wasn't real, I absolutely think it exists. I just wouldn't know where to begin in how to pick to account for it.

For me it's mostly based on experience - I know that I play certain champs better on one side or the other from having played them.

[theelkspeaks]

As for the game itself, we lost hard. Had a tiny bit of lag early which interfered with my CS, but my mechanics and decision making were shitty even after it cleared up, so it wasn't the lag that caused me to lose. All lanes lost and we got stomped, gg, ff at 20.

Gonna go play some basketball with friends, which should get me off tilt if I'm on one. Will likely play 10th placement tomorrow if not tonight.

[theelkspeaks]

Starting my 10th now, ADCing as Varus with a Teemo supp (o_O) into Cait/Malph.

[theelkspeaks]

Ended up being malph mid, lux support for the other team. Died a couple times to ganks and wasn't playing well, like 1/4/3 or so, but our Rengar jungle was carrying us. Then our top Renekton dc's. In the midgame we're playing a 4v5 but we have 4 drags to 0 and more kills, so we have a chance, and I've gotten to like 8/9/6, so I'm a legitimate threat, but we had a couple shit fights, partially due to being 4v5 and partially due to our sequentially running into the enemy team and dying. We lose, I'm 3-7 and Bronze V to start from.

Can't complain, I played pretty badly overall in my placements and probably deserve to have gone down several divisions due to them. I hope I'll be able to climb to where I was last season if not higher before too long, but yeah.

[theelkspeaks]

nope that's a real thing

riot sent out a tweet saying "we're committed to diversity and everyone playing and are working with our global leagues to align on this important issue" which is corporate-speak for "seriously, fuck that shit"

It kind of puts me off LoL E-sports in general, even with Riot coming out and "kind of sort of condemning it".

Not sure whether the tweet was edited, but the final tweet I saw was stronger than that. "LGBT players are welcome at official LoL tourneys. We're working with partners to ensure consistency with our values across all regions." Still leaves a foul taste, but is a much more thorough condemnation of that horseshit.

[theelkspeaks]

Yeah, basically. Fuck Garena.

[theelkspeaks]

UPDATE: http://esports.garena.ph/newsArticle.ph ... %20LEGENDS
.
Garena removed the restrictions. Thank finally.

Not shown in article: Garena being threatened within an inch of their business relationship with Riot. Riot has a lot of problems, but they've done a decent job trying to crack down on slur-users, and this seems like the sort of thing (combined with the tweet yesterday) that they just won't tolerate.

[theelkspeaks]

So can someone talk about building fighters like Irelia, Darius, Fiora, and so on? If I build sunfire/randuins, my damage is low, but if I build Tiamat first and then build into tankiness, I don't have enough survivability.

[theelkspeaks]

Don't build Fiora the same way you build Irelia.

The specific items in the post were mostly aimed at Darius, but the concept of AD first -> I die, tank first -> I'm useless applied to all 3 in my experience.

[theelkspeaks]

Given the fall of AP Malphite in the post DFG-world, wonder if tank triforce malphite will make a comeback

[theelkspeaks]

I would sometimes build it if ahead or in a super long game a while ago, it was respectable but IBG tended to be better.

[theelkspeaks]

most of my time spent playing League now is spent playing dumb shit that shouldn't work and it has made the game much more fun

IE: Support Jinx -

Curious how this works

Support Orianna -

A longtime favorite of mine

Support Velkoz -

A cool choice I haven't tried but have heard of

Jungle Jinx -

Wait, what? How do you survive?

Jungle AD Malzahar -

Been meaning to try this

AP Koggles -

WootWoot, I love this shtuff!

Top Tank Karthus -

What sort of stuff do you build? Is it like double RoA or something?

etc

It's just fun

Thoughts on these added in bold

[theelkspeaks]

3 games so far of Nemesis - one as supp Nami on a low damage team and got carried by our hybrid carry Janna, one as top Taric where we got rekt by a Lissandra, and one as Karthus mid where we mostly owned the crap out of them including me getting a quadrakill. All 3 of them were on champs I've actually played in the last year in ranked in the relevant role, so nothing too wacky for me (beyond supporting a Janna as Nami in lane, that is), though some of my teammates have been on adventures.

[theelkspeaks]

...You played top taric in ranked?

During Season 4 preseason right when relic shield came out and 2-1-2 was the meta.

EDIT: And possibly after the rework of his passive to the sheen-like thing, I remember him being strong then but can't remember if that was only supp or also top.

[theelkspeaks]

During Season 4 preseason right when relic shield came out and 2-1-2 was the meta.

Oh my god that was so dumb.

I'd actually love to see map objectives and support items balanced so that having a jungler or playing 2-1-2 are balanced enough that we sometimes see 1-1-1-2 vs. 2-1-2 in LCS/etc. One of the 5, probably the top lane support but no guarantee, would have to take smite for securing stuff, but if (for example) relic shield stacked faster but had a reduced heal, allowing the two players to share gold fairly efficiently, I think it could be balanced without being OP. A jungler of course has the advantage of being unseen most of the time and creating gank pressure, so it would be a trade-off of potential gank pressure vs. raw gold in my imaginary balanced universe.

Riot is committed enough to dedicated jungling however that I don't see this ever happening.

[theelkspeaks]

Apparently (from reddit) there's a small amount of ELO-helling going on in the ranked 5s ladder right now, where a lot of teams full of diamond/plat players are being formed and playing their initial placement matches, where they're getting matched up against other teams in their promo series (I think it was Silver III to II, might be off by one or two divisions). It's a feature of where the starting "neutral" MMR is and the fact that there are more games played by new ranked teams right now with high skill players than there are existing teams at the neutral MMR. Thus teams climb to that point, hit the "new team brick wall", and fall back a little. Like all ELO hell situations, this is temporary and will go away once the flood of new teams dies down.

[theelkspeaks]

Re: Jungle- Amumu is the low elo wrecker, good call. Voli can get super OP but he's also stupid easy to kite. If I were you, I'd play it like... tanky-AP Amumu... then pick a champ that does well as a real pure tank (like Nunu)... then get a bruiser in your lineup (J4 is OP obviously, Vi or Pantheon are always strong picks). Also just as a note, Fiddles is ridiculously good right now in the jungle, I've been playing a ton of him recently.

Ok, I'll bite - how does Fiddles jungle work currently? (items/early route/skill orders)

[theelkspeaks]

Got DJ Sona and played one game as her already, it's pretty awesome. Still need to fiddle with volume settings, I'm used to turning the music fairly low and need to find the right balance.

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... b=overview

Only thing I dislike is that using /toggle actually stops you the same as if you'd pressed S.

[theelkspeaks]

Doing at least the first game of my promo out of B V now if anyone wants to stream.

[theelkspeaks]

Jinx with a Morg support, I feel good about this.

[theelkspeaks]

Our Vi and Akali bickered all game, I started out ok but got caught out, and now I'm 0-1 in the series

And onward to game 2!

Volibear Jungle for me.

[theelkspeaks]

A win there brought me to 1-1 in the series, helping a MF/Annie lane snowball off an underperforming Quinn/Morg.

Playing the decisive game now, Volibear jungle again, and my MF and Rek'Sai (top) from the previous game are in this one as an Annie supp and a Darius top.

EDIT: Lost it, enemy Yasuo got kills in trades, and we couldn't deal with him. He saved an inhib 1v3 against us and got a triple kill in the process, and a while later they got 5th dragon and won with it.

[theelkspeaks]

Got back to promo series after a win with on-hit Sona from the support position (after my team had a semi-rough early game). We won the game via split pushing through probably not the best strategic decisions, as the game from about the 20 minute mark on consisted of two of our team trying to push a lane, all 5 of them responding and killing those 2, but the other 3 pushing and destroying towers/inhibs in the other two lanes and sometimes getting a pick or two when the other team tried to react to the pushes. We lost the first 3 dragons, but got the timer on the third and took it very quickly when it came up the fourth time to ensure no 5 dragon shenanigans from the other team, and we got a decisive ace when they tried to defend an inhib around the 40 minute mark.

I'll probably be playing my series on Thursday afternoon or evening (starting around 1 PM East Coast US time, possibly).

[theelkspeaks]

Also, does anyone have good stats for what champs are likely to be on rotation for a given week? The esports prediction site proxy.gg started including a game where you predict what champs will be on free week and it has the potential to be very profitable if you can successfully get good predictions. I know I've seen a skin sale predictor going around that's not bad; wasn't sure if there was an analagous one for rotation.

[theelkspeaks]

playing first game of promo now. Going to go for my recent success jungle Volibear.

Ugh, we were doing so well, and then our Aatrox had a technical issue or something, he was stuck in base for 15 minutes or so spamming nonsense characters in chat. Not sure if troll or bugged

[theelkspeaks]

Depends on who you are, but probably not.

However, in low elo you can do stuff other than sightstone/support upgrade early if you have the right gold. Sheen on Sona is one I've done quite a few times if we get an early lead.

[theelkspeaks]

Leona blitz Taric for relic shield. Janna, zyra, annie, sona, Nami for not relic shield. Don't play other supports. Oh Morgana too

What happened to Braum? Last I heard he was still fine but I don't really play him so might have ignored a nerf.

[theelkspeaks]

sad about the new Ashe passive, I like the current one.

As for skillshots in low ELO, I'd actually expect more skillshots not less to be hit, because it's also low ELO players trying to dodge them. Diamond players can dodge better than Bronze players, so more skillshots should land in Bronze.

[theelkspeaks]

In Bronze you fire at his current position and he doesn't flash in time to dodge

[theelkspeaks]

Been loving Voli jungle lately, I should try Rammus again too

[theelkspeaks]

http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends ... now_about/

Just found this collection of links on reddit, some of these are plretty cool!

[theelkspeaks]

Ascension was best mode.

[theelkspeaks]

Morgana and Lux were my favorite urf-ers last year, will have to see if they're still good.

[theelkspeaks]

Since the patch before the most recent, I keep getting dc'ed from PVP.net while in client and even sometimes during champ select. Once I get in game, everything's fine. Anyone else having this problem?

[theelkspeaks]

I'd even argue that in solo queue the guy who feeds should shot call.

Everyone in that game is at the same ELO by some combination of their game sense and their mechanical play. If you're feeding because your mechanics suck, logically you have the most game sense in that game.

[theelkspeaks]

While it would still be far too few diverse characters even if true, I've heard it alleged that Ryze is supposed to be black also.

[theelkspeaks]

Why is Vi not crosslisted Fighter/Tank?

[theelkspeaks]

Except we do give a fuck because representation really matters in the quality of life for members of various groups, a fact which has been documented in study after study.

[theelkspeaks]

In case no one's named one yet, Kennen perhaps?

[theelkspeaks]

Sona is also 1350 if I remember correctly and is a great first support to learn!

[theelkspeaks]

Champion Suggestions Bot
Hi, you are theelkspeaks from NA.
Your top 3 most played champions in ranked games this season are: Varus, Volibear, Jinx
Recently, you have played: Nami, Graves, Sona, Volibear, Corki, Varus, Jarvan IV, Lux, Syndra, Lucian
Based on your personal records in comparison with hundreds of thousands of other players using data mining techniques, I will make the following suggestions:
Champions you might want to try: Vayne, Caitlyn, Ezreal
Other champions you might want to try: Kog'Maw, Kalista, Darius, Sejuani, Lulu, Twitch, Janna
If you wish to further test the bot, it is recommended that you do so here.
Champion Suggestions Bot v0.1.1 powered by PRAW, Riot API, and PostgreSQL. Champion Suggestions Bot is not endorsed by Riot Games and does not reflect the views or opinions of Riot Games or anyone officially involved in producing or managing League of Legends. League of Legends and Riot Games are trademarks or registered trademarks of Riot Games, Inc. League of Legends © Riot Games, Inc.

Anyone else tried this thing?

[theelkspeaks]

There are basically 3 playable tanks right now (Anub'arak, Diablo, Stitches), a few playable Pushers (Sylvanas, Vikings), and a few damage dealers of high tier (Jaina, Illidan, Valla, Nova (?)). Supports are ok balance-wise. Playing any non-healer not on that list puts you at a severe disadvantage.

That said, Anub'arak, Jaina, Malfurion (a healing Zyra) and Valla are super fun, so I've not gotten too grumpy yet.

[theelkspeaks]

There are basically 3 playable tanks right now (Anub'arak, Diablo, Stitches), a few playable Pushers (Sylvanas, Vikings), and a few damage dealers of high tier (Jaina, Illidan, Valla, Nova (?)). Supports are ok balance-wise. Playing any non-healer not on that list puts you at a severe disadvantage.

That said, Anub'arak, Jaina, Malfurion (a healing Zyra) and Valla are super fun, so I've not gotten too grumpy yet.

HEY WRONG THREAD BUT LEL

Was replying to the post directly above me

I just hit Lv. 40 in Heroes today, so I'll be back into playing League now! Put most of my other games on the back burner to get the beta hero portrait.

[theelkspeaks]

Anyone have a preferred site for looking up ranks/stats of other players in your game? I forgot which site I used to use

[theelkspeaks]

I personally do way too many checks in my own mind but meh.

OP.GG i use the multi search in champion select
Carry.GG i go over the broader game wide spectrum.

Thanks, carry.gg was in fact the one I was looking for!

[theelkspeaks]

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends. ... b=overview


Finally out of Bronze V in a season where I've played terribly for significant portions and haven't played that much altogether. Still feels great to be back on the right track!

[theelkspeaks]

First 10-game win streak!

http://imgur.com/OKjCE3d

[theelkspeaks]

Yeah, I learned a lot from that game.

Things like don't play Jax.

Especially not AP Jax


Even if you're stuck with top lane and your team's AD heavy.

[theelkspeaks]

Isn't there a mystery champ and a summoner icon reward in there? I own most champs, but one more would be nice!

[theelkspeaks]

Isn't there a mystery champ and a summoner icon reward in there? I own most champs, but one more would be nice!

I believe Panzer already owns all the champs.

Ah, ok! I'm still going for Azir, Bard, Cassiopeia, Ekko, Kalista, Rek'Sai, Skarner, and Wukong. At about 9K IP right now, so I can pick one of those up if/when I feel like it.

[theelkspeaks]

I'll probably get one after I get mysteried one, currently leaning Rek'sai but still deciding - is Wukong really that good right now?

[theelkspeaks]

I might be up for some games this week to get some points towards those team up rewards. Would be interested in making (temporary) ranked 5's teams so we can get wardskin points at the same time, but team builder is fine by me too.

Will be out of town most of tomorrow and Monday.

[theelkspeaks]

Haven't seen the item yet that you guys are talking about, but if it's a jungle item with Lich Bane ability, might make Akali jungle back to being a thing.

[theelkspeaks]

If you like to poke, join the ADC Varus main club! He's great, just poke forever with Q while rushing IE -> PD.

[theelkspeaks]

Just played a game with a few of you, was playing Voli jungle. We won, but I feel I definitely could've played better - anyone see any obvious mistakes to point out?

[theelkspeaks]

Been having a little trouble with new Ashe, seems I just don't do enough damage, anyone have advice on her?

[theelkspeaks]

I got a free gaming mouse with my new laptop a month or so ago, and it had two side buttons (as well as DPI adjustment button).

No idea how to use them effectively for gameplay, lol, so I just bound Sona toggle to one and laugh to the other.

[theelkspeaks]

Got Arclight Varus for my Mystery (only about 7 champs not owned). Best skin for my main champ, super stoked!

[theelkspeaks]

I'm gonna start hopping into the "Scumchat" public room on login

I am also doing this

I have mine set likewise.

[theelkspeaks]

I am mildly displeased to be solo ranked in Bronze 3. I am further displeased that both of my games after getting ranked were troll games where my teammates basically threw the game by not acting like a team.

I like to play top and mid and definitely prefer to play mage type characters. Malzahar, Mordekaiser, Kennen, Annie, Brand, and Heimerdinger all make me giddy.

My Summoner ID is tn5421 @ NA if anyone wants to play with me.

I primarily play both roles of bot lane (Varus and Sona, respectively), and just made it to Bronze II yesterday - I'd be up for duoing some time! I'm still called theelkspeaks on LoL (NA).

[theelkspeaks]

Maining a champ who's relatively underplayed but still playable is also an option for climbing ELO (currently me on ADC Varus for over a year). You almost always get your pick, and if you know how to play all the matchups, you just straight up win the game a decent amount of the time unless the other two lanes are way behind.

[theelkspeaks]

Pentakill Karthus anyone?

[theelkspeaks]

Lollipoppy is also definitely top 5, can't disagree there!