League of Legends: The New Thread

[mastina]

Why

gf plays it
i like playing with her

This is me in a nutshell; I play ADCs on the Oceana server.
Usually Ashe, occasionally Caitlyn.

I'm pretty much shit tho.

[mastina]

You play on Oceania from america? Yikes

Don't see the problem with that. I don't get any lag as far as I can tell. (If I did, I could plausibly claim it as an excuse for my failures, but no, I just suck that badly. )

Vice versa, girlfriend who has no problem on Oceana, wouldn't be the case; they'd lag like hell if playing on the American server.

So it's a simple matter of convenience. I have no trouble with their server, they'd have trouble on my server, I'm playing mostly for them, so I do the obvious.

[mastina]

Lucian is a much better win lane champion for low elos.

Ironically when I am UP AGAINST Lucian he seems to be one of the easiest champs for me to consistently beat in a firefight?

So maybe that's coloring my perceptions in being a little hesitant to buy that. I'm shit, but I can usually beat Lucian; that kinda tells me Lucian's beatable by shit and thus more shitty.

He has mobility, unlike Ashe.

Mobility and I don't get along in general. I like hitting fast and hitting from range, and Ashe/Caitlyn are pretty good in those two fields respectably.

What do adcs even build nowadays

According to the guide for Caitlyn which I lazily also use for Ashe even though technically speaking I know it's not the

most

optimal, Doran's Blade as an initial purchase for help in early firefights (I used to just use the 500 gold to as a bonus gold, but my girlfriend talked me into it), then rushing Infinity Edge via BF Sword+the other two, then going into The Bloodthirster (via a second BF Sword + two longswords + the upgrade for the longsword), then going into Berserker's Greaves (via Boots of Speed plus the dagger), then going into both Rapid Firecannon + Statikk Shiv (which use the same items, and accessed best via the dagger to upgraded dagger first to get the shock effect earlier rather than later for crowd control).

Granted that's just what I was read in a guide linked to me by my girlfriend (which I don't actually understand the order of perfectly, this being just my guess/interpretation of it), so.

I feel that there's 0 chance in hell that your ping isn't like 250-300 on the Oceania server.

Oh you mean that blue circle thing at the top of the game screen? Caps out at about 200. At most, 220. Never goes above that, actually. Sometimes drops as low as 180.

My internet has two speed settings:
"Stupidly slow as donkey's ass, shitty as to almost be dial-up speeds" and "Stellarly fast"; there's no middle ground between the two. If I'm the former, NOTHING using the internet (not even low-resource sites like forums such as mafiascum.net) will load yet alone a game; if I'm the latter, EVERYTHING using the internet will load incredibly fast.

Ashe is great, but my point is that you need to scrape your knees to get to a level beyond "I do the shooting from behind the big boys".

I was pretty much advised to do exactly that--hide behind people and let them soak the damage first.

Get chastised all the time for being too far forward, honestly, tho that's something which isn't always my fault (and when it is, it's usually because I KNOW it's stupid, but I'm trying to make a power play anyway, e.g. trying to basically solo-destroy a tower).

Better jungler wins

In my experience, limited as it may be, yeah; I've had games where a team didn't have a jungler (albeit half the time assigning someone to the jungle ANYWAY, just clearly ill-suited for it) and the team without one/with a makeshift jungler lost each time.

[mastina]

yuumi feels terrifying to play
still curious to know what optimal play as her looks like

Apparently in spite of being meant as support she's a really good adc right now?

Haven't gotten the chance to play her (I don't have the money to buy her ), but I've SEEN her played and she can be devastating.
Even someone who's incompetent can do a lot with her; she's OP as hell. Prolly gonna get nerfed a ton, so, uh...enjoy it while you can, if you can?

[mastina]

played a couple games
fun but I suck

I've played and I've gotten a fairly consistent strategy which while it's not unbeatable and is somewhat unreliable, isn't too hard to get started and is a consistently GOOD performer.

Nidalee-Warwick-Ahri-Gnar-Kassadin-Kha'ziz-Cho'gath-Shyvana-Aurelian Sol as your nine person combo.

Wild 4, Brawler 2, Void 3, Sorcerer 3 Dragon 2 Shapeshifter 3 synergies.

It does require maximum level to get or force of nature (get spatulas, lots and lots of spatulas), and you'll want to be beefing up key units (Warwick, Nidalee, Kassadin, Aurelian Sol, maybe-Gnar, maybe-Ahri), and depending on what items you get it can be amazing or just be kinda okay.

You'll want to get economy going and you'll want to AVOID leveling up until you get a T3 Nidalee/Warwick/Kassadin/Kha'ziz (as they are all 1-cost champs, the lower level you are, the higher chances of you getting them). That or give up on getting T3 once you get T2. Don't aim for T3 on Gnar, Cho'gath, Shyvana, or Aurelian Sol as you're never going to get nine of those units. And DO get T2s of all your units even if you don't get the T3s.

There's a fair share of luck involved, but it is a pretty good champ combo once you get going.

I can find other combos that give similar results, but I run this combo every time because it's just plain and simple the most FUN one for me. Most fun and yet still produces results. (I'd aim for Glacial 6 if going for pure fun but 1, that comp doesn't work for producing results, and 2, is ridiculously hard to obtain. Whereas this comp is ridiculously easy to obtain.)

[mastina]

Hey look, mastina came up with the exact comp that was the best thing on pbe before nerfs.

Yes and I did it on my own without looking anything up, thankyouverymuch.

Kinda annoyed that so many other people play it to be honest; it makes it harder for me to do it if everyone else is trying for the same thing.

[mastina]

I had a team that seemed soooo strong lose by landslide to glacial in a finals.

IF you can get them going, Glacial 6 with any accompanying synergies (e.g. Guardian, Ranger, Demon, Knight, Elementalist) is literally hands-down the strongest comp in the game bar none.

The problem is, that's one big huge gigantic 'if'.
You need to get Anivia, a 5-cost unit that's ultra-rare; you need to frequently roll Lissandras, Braums, Ashes, and Volibears and while getting a T2 Ashe isn't too hard (and maybe, MAYBE T2 Lissandras/Braums/Volibears/Sejuanis), getting T3s is basically impossible yet you need at least one T3 glacial for the comp to work.

If you can get it going, it's ridiculously broken...but you'll never be able to get it going in time 95% of the time and you'll just...DIE. (Same thing applies for Noble 6 btw; 6 nobles is brokenly powerful...but it relies on getting Kayle and rolling lots of noble units to get T2s. T2s on Lucian, Fiora, Garen, and Vayne are easy and you might even get T3s for them, but the remaining two are quite a bit harder to get T2 on.)

Is something I wanna do for fun tho.
(I've played around with max-Shapeshifters and max-Brawlers; max-Glacial's one I want to try out.)

Honestly I think that any team with heavy CC on units that don't die, is pretty damn strong. (For an example, I hardcore lost to a team with a triple-spear of shojin-Pyke, whose ult stuns your entire team...and this was POST NERF ON PYKE but even post-nerf his stun is OP when given triple shojin.)

The game doesn't have tenacity or cleanse effects.

I legit do think that's what the game needs most of all.

Assassin comps are hard-countered by Phantom Dancer as an item because it shuts down their ability to instakill units. (Well, there are other counters to an assassin comp...among them being the glacial comp. But Phantom Dancer is a fairly reliable, easy to obtain counter.)

I legit think that for all the comps that stun, they need a counter in the form of an item doing exactly that, giving immunity to stuns.

[mastina]

Am fully convinced she's OP now that I understand better what can be done with her ult. The mix of top-tier utility and damage she has right now seems sure to make up for her lack of sustain in capable hands. Much like old ryze, the core of her kit is super reliable even if the overall package requires situational decision-making and mechanics. People are gonna get better and better with her and then she'll be gutted.

Yeah my prediction is that her ult gets hard-nerfed.

The rest of her mechanics seem pretty similar to most other assassins, e.g. Akali. Maybe she's a bit stronger in some ways, maybe she's a bit weaker in other ways, maybe she's slightly different, maybe she's overpowered even without her ult, but those abilities aren't going to need radical changes to be balanced. They might require fine tweaking, but they're as a concept just fine.

Qiyana's ult though is busted. It can be used on most areas of the map. Yes, it can't be used inside a base; yes, it's hard to use in a lane (hard, not impossible, as if someone gets knocked/goes on their own too close to the map wall...she can ult on said wall), but on like 80% of the map she can use it to delete whoever's hit...and she can hit basically anyone with it.

[mastina]

Tft is like 83% luck.

Yup, just about. There's skill involved in figuring out how to work with the cards you're dealt, but what cards you're dealt are random, and if you are in the late game, had a great comp, but need a unit to keep you in the win, and no such unit spawns (think: noble 5, or any unit you have 8/9 for T3 that refuses to spawn the ninth no matter how many times you reroll), you can be fucked over by having no fallback.

I've actually been finding, then, that in the current meta, until late game, having a scattershot approach where you've got like five different 2/3 synergies yet no 4/6 ones is of the best counters to bad luck. If your comp is improved by almost any unit, it's less important what you roll. And late game, you can switch out the units/synergies less effective IF you have the units to complete the synergy you are committing to.

BTW, in general, I'm also finding that there's only a few good items. Warmogs is the only Giant's belt item worth building, unless you are up against units which heal (in which case, you need red buff to counter said healing). That, or you're at Glacial 1/3/5, have a spatula, lack the glacial unit, and have a unit who'd benefit from being glacial.
The only time you use capes for anything besides the dragon's tooth is when you need healing (bf sword), or are running a Veigar carry comp(recurved).
The chain vest is mostly worthless unless needing situational items, e.g. needing a final knight. Thornmail for some damage reflection is nice, but really the main reason to put thornmail on is for the 40 armor.
Tears are only good for spears of shojin, making a demon, or doubling up on tears to make that 20mp after spellcast item. Statikk Shiv is an item of desperation most of the time, tho thematically I admit that I waste them on Vayne because her passive being every third shot matching Statikk Shiv's triggering every third shot appeals to me.

Spatulas are mostly only for Force of Nature.
And so on and so forth.

[mastina]

I'm glad you are wrong about everything including agreeing with me cause last patch they literally made the variance lower by decreasing death speed.

Didn't make a difference to be honest. The decrease in my opinion was minimal.

[mastina]

Also: have tried the Hextech units.
Short version: their synergy is usually worthless, occasionally detrimental, easily countered, but the units themselves are still worth it, mostly.

The hex bomb hard-counters/nullifies Zephrs, Zeke's, and Lockets (three already pretty worthless items most of the time), but can actually HELP the enemy team if the items nullified included either a giant's belt or tear…
…Because once those items are back online, the unit INSTANTLY gains 200/20 HP/mana. Which is usually actually more dangerous than if they had that health/mana at the start of the fight.

The one exception: if you kill the unit before their items come online, obviously there's utility, but the hextech units themselves are rather shitty at doing that; you need an augmenting synergy. I've found that Hextech + Assassins is stupidly powerful, so if you run Hex-Assassins, you get good mileage out of it, but otherwise it does not help.

THAT HAVING BEEN SAID.
Jinx is the strongest ADC in the game bar none. She's a glass cannon/fragile speedster, sure. She's easy to kill. But even a T1 Jinx with no items can DESTROY the enemy team if she has a tank to protect her for like, five to ten seconds. (That's all she needs.) She needs no mana, either. I legit think she should be 5g with how strong she is right now.

Jayce is a lightning bruiser: good attack speed, good attack damage, and tanky as fuck. His ult's knockback is 50/50: it can knock a unit you need to focus to safety, and can knock units to the corner; in a melee centric comp, corners allow for a bottleneck allowing some units that'd be deleted if surrounded to 1v9. That's bad. But on the OTHER hand, it can knock units you shouldn't focus out of the way, exposing the units you need to kill. Also, it has some CC built in, which is always useful.

Vi has decent stats, and her ability works similarly to Jayce's. It can be detrimental if she 1v1s a unit you needed to focus fire on, but a godsend if she 1v1s a unit she can solokill, especially given the CC effect.

Camille is the only unit who is mostly worthless. Even at T3, her stats are dismal. Her ult is mostly worthless, too. It does have one benefit tho: as the only non-stunning root ability, it HARD counters units relying on moving abilities: Pyke, Warwick, Rengar, Gnar, Shyvana, etc.

[mastina]

Also. I've found that, if you can get a T2+ Braum and a Leona, that guardians are bustedly broken. For multiple reasons. They're naturally tanky with tons of armor and health, and if you field them next to each other, they give their partner an additional 50 armor. Plus, because it stacks, the units directly in front/behind them gain 100 armor. This works with just about every comp, but is particularly devastating with Knight/Noble/Yordle synergies as it makes units which were already hard to kill even HARDER to kill. (Imagine 6 units dodging half of every attack…who receive almost zero damage when they ARE hit.)

But the actual real danger? They give an easy access to the two strongest synergies in the game, Noble6/Glacial6. You obviously can't have both at the same time (well, in THEORY you could…with level 9 and three force of natures, or three frozen mallets. Which, in practice. Obviously you never could.), but you can get ONE of the two with only 7 units. (That said: Nobles can still use Ashe for Ranger2; Glacials can still use Vayne + Garden for Ranger2 + Noble3.)

In particular: imagine Ashe and Sejuani with an extra 100 armor, making them hard to kill, whilst they spam their freezing ults.

Or imagine two units receiving 175 armor, 75 magic resist, 15 damage reduction, and built in health regeneration. Done with zero items.

Worse: Braum can be a carry unit on his own. Warmogs received a Nerf via capping health regen and via the Overtime mechanic reducing health regeneration, but EVEN WITH THE NERFS it's still an absurdly powerful item on him due to how frequently he spams Unbreakable plus his natural armor. Sure, he deals zero damage…but get him wearing Thornmail? And suddenly he will kill the entire enemy team just by the enemies attacking him. Add in a third item which counters abilities (say, Dragon's claw), and while he's not utterly unkillable at T2, he's pretty damn close to it.

Admittedly, yes. You DP need a T2 Braum (preferably T3) because T1 Braum is worthless. And you do need to give him some ways to survive, e.g. knights, nobles, glacials (to stun enemies so he doesn't get focused down faster than he can heal).

And he is strongest only if you get those items/champions.

So this is not a combo you can reliably pull off every game.

But if you can, and often, you CAN, it's absurdly powerful and the recent patch did nothing to stop it from being strong as fuck.

[mastina]

Also also: pretty much the only 6strong synergies in the game that you want are those 3. Glacial, Noble, and Yordle. All other synergies just…aren't worth it.
Brawler 6 MIGHT be worth it …
…If Blitzcrank wasn't currently buggy as fuck, with that massive delay between his pull and his knock up, which utterly ruins him as a unit. Also, brawlers give you a monstrous melee front line, sure, but virtually no back line.

Sorc6 is literally trolling. The powerful part of that synergy is the double mana, not the spell ability power.

Assassin 6 is squishy as fuck. If you don't have a front line to soak up damage and you have no back line to deal damage from a distance (as all assassins are melee units, you can run into the issue of half your team standing around doing nothing while the enemy wails on you), you just die. This is probably the closest to being easily fixed (sayyyy, by Jinx as a backliner and Jayce as a frontliner that can also become a backliner), but Assassins IN OF THEMSELVES as a six man comp are not viable when your opponents can cc you, can tank you long enough to burn through your health, etc. They need help, whereas Nobles/Glacials/Yordles at 6 do not. (Yordles BENEFIT from any given sorcerer for Sorc3--I prefer Kassadin to give a much needed front line--and as I mentioned benefit a lot from Guardians, but you can win the game at level 6 with all Yordles, no need for more, if you get Gnar early. Glacials BENEFIT from Knight, Noble, Ranger, and/or Elementalist, but don't NEED it. Just those six units can win the game, although good luck getting Anivia at a lower level. Nobles BENEFIT from Guardian, Ranger, Knight, etc., but don't NEED them to win. Again, good luck getting Kayle so early, tho.)

Blademasters can work, but have the same issues as Assassins: they're all frontliners, so you can run into the problem of half your units standing around doing nothing. They're also mostly glass cannons; with the exception of properly fed Yasuos and/or Shens, they're squishy and die quickly. That said, via Gangplank, you have excellent synergy with gunslingers, especially if some of said gunslingers also become blademasters.

Gunslinger 6 has the built in Pirate synergy, but while Gangplank and Graves are technically frontliners, they're glass cannons; deal a ton of damage, but are squishy. You need a bigger front line than just them. That said: as mentioned, via Gangplank, they synergize well with blademasters. A gunslinger 6 comp augmented by blademasters is probably one of the highest most reliable damage dealing comps around, but like I said, this is more of a 9+ unit comp.

Shapeshifter 6 would be fine, if not for the issue of with the exception of Jayce, utterly lacking a front line to hold off the enemies long enough to unlock the transformations. Nidalee can't carry past midame; Elise can't carry late game; Gnar can carry if he doesn't get Ccd ever or killed pre transformation. Swaine can carry, but he's a 5g unit. Shyvana can carry, but she's squishy pre transformation yet is a melee unit per transformation. If you luck out on items/units, it MIGHT be possible, but you are PROBABLY going to need front line units beyond what the six shapeshifters offer.

Demon6 reworked is exactly like Sorc6; you get negligible benefits from 4/6 and really only need the two. Also, with no other synergies, just demons, literally the only unit which doesn't fall off late game without being properly fed is Swaine. Eve or Aatrox can demolish a team if fed, but you'd want their assassin/blademaster synergies for that, not their demon synergy. (And, see those sections; they're both glass cannons, who if they don't instantly delete the enemy team, get deleted in no time flat.)

Basically, most synergies you usually use only the 2/3/4 versions of; Nobles, Yordles, and Glacial seem to be the only 3 which can stand on their own as six.

EDIT: Small oversight on my part: Draven is a blademaster, so they are not all melee units. He is, however, rather squishy and is literally your only consistent carry unit. He's great if given the right items, but since literally everyone seems to prioritize grabbing him even if they're not running blademasters (since he's a strong unit even without the synergy), good luck actually GETTING him. He's literally the core blademaster unit tho. You can't successfully run a pure blademaster comp without him.

EDIT2: Now that I think about it, the reason people pick up Draven even when not running blademasters is that he is, bar Jinx, the highest damage dealing ADC in the game. I'm PRETTY sure that 2x takedown Jinx outdamages 2x stack Craven, but the two are neck and neck. Plus, an Imperial bonus'd Blademaster6 Draven definitely outdamages a Gunlinger6 Jinx. (Jinx might pull ahead again if she's made into a blademaster tho.)

[mastina]

Morello/Red Buff are both super important but they aren't versatile. I don't think any of the giant belt items are bad. I think they are the most important item. The negatron cloak is fine but most of the items are situational. I really like ionic spark tho. Shiv is a straight up game winner and goes in every comp. FoN is great but all the other items are good even though they are by definition situational(although a youmuu's off of a dragon has literally won me a game before). I probably should be trying to mix my comps up but I've basically just been jamming 4 Rangers + shivs

I DO love Ranger4 as a comp, but it does have some issues. Namely, a high reliance on Recurved bows, when Recurved bows are probably, bar spatulas, the highest demand basic item in the game.

Plus, Rangers are squishy and since literally everyone seems to run assassins, the assassins can usually kill them before Kindred can pop their ult. You can usually position your units with partial assassin protection, but the only full assassin protection is either lots of phantom dancers or putting your rangers in front of your frontliners (so the assassins jump onto your front line instead of your back line).

And while it's not an issue right now due to Blitz being buggy, unless you position your units specifically to counter his pull, he'll take out one of your four carry units.

I do admit tho: when I am playing to win rather than for fun, it's a ridiculously easy comp to execute on, so I use it frequently. It particularly works well with Knights, to help them be less squishy and give you the Phantom synergy to basically instantly delete one of the enemy units.

It does heavily rely on Kindred tho. But yeah, that comp is pretty much the only time I'll have use of Varus (because demons, post rework, aren't really worth investing much in).

And usually Kindred, too, tho Kindred for Phantom bonus can be useful even without Rangers.

I have quite fond memories of spamming Knight6 Ranger4 (with a force of nature or Knights Vow), so it is quite fun to run, it's just that I usually find that I can't get the items and/or units to make it viable. (There's other synergy combos than Knights for Rangers, but Knights are by FAR the easiest to achieve because three of them are 1g units that are readily available.)

[mastina]

Idk, I'm only Plat, but I think you're incredibly wrong about which synergies are strong.

Maxed 6 synergies with no other units, I am pretty sure I'm right.

When you factor in 6 synergies WITH EXTRA, and 2/3/4 synergies, of course there are other combos which are strong. Those other combos are what I actually use when playing to win rather than playing for fun.

I never remember what these mixed combos are, mind you, but they're things which I notice that I have the units and items to capitalize on. Usually, I intended for said mixed synergies to be temporary while I figured out how to make a late game comp, but then said mixed synergies actually end up being strong enough to not be changed.

Most synergies (pretty much the only one I can think of which lategame REQUIRES being maxed for it to not be worthless is Noble) usually still work well even when not maxed. Imperial is going to land on your carry 50% of the time. Void, while post rework is mostly useless, can still prop up Khazix (who, pre Nerf, had a ridiculously strong ult), Chogath, and/or Reksai (and these two have built in brawler synergy). (Kassadin isn't a good carry unit anymore. He can be if he builds shield faster than the shield is depleted, but nowadays there's too many counters to him, e.g. Cc comps that stun him so he can't build said shield.)

[mastina]

6 brawlers + a void guy and Jinx is one of the strongest comps in the game.

Yes it is.

Blademasters is strong because of BotRK on Gunslingers so it's not all front liners(especially if you get hella lucky you can hit the 9 thresh hold with 4 gunslingers).

Yeah, I said exactly that.

6 knights + 4 rangers is still strong as fuck if you see there are no sorcerers(or only 1 sorcerer)

Sure is!

[mastina]

You're definitely wrong about void being bad, btw.

Old Void was so much better, applying the bonus to the whole team. Because it only applies the bonus to Void units now, it means you have to make your carries be one of the four Void units.

Kassadin if he could build his shield faster than it being depleted COULD be a carry unit, but it is ridiculously hard to get that shield building faster than it is depleted; usually by lategame he's worthless.

Cho'gath is such a good unit that he has had to be nerfed multiple times and yet is still frequently picked up by players anyway--but the reason he's picked up isn't because of the damage he deals with auto-attacks; the reason he's picked up is because of his ult.

Rek'sai is a mediocre enough unit that she's had to be buffed multiple times. Her stats aren't really the greatest, and while her ult can help her, aside from the knockup effect it is mostly worthless. She's not a BAD unit, she's just not a great unit, either; of the void units she's by far the weakest and of the brawler units she's still one of the weakest.

Kha'zix, as an assassin, is the only Void unit who truly gets mileage out of the Void passive. He doesn't even need Assassin6, and Assassin3 while useful for him is optional. He got hit with a nerf specifically because of the Void units he was one of the strongest in spite of being a 1g unit, and even post-nerf he is ridiculously powerful.

I've seen Brawler 6 Void 3 with the extra void unit being Kha'zix working into Assassin3 as the next synergy be gamebreakingly powerful (they won the game before they could get a third assassin) with like three T3 units and the rest being T2 units--but in that match, Blitz's pull wasn't bugged. If his pull had been bugged that match (like it has been every time I've used him), then I imagine it'd have been less effective.

I do want to run Brawler 6 Void 3 once the Blitz bug is fixed tho, and I admit that even with the Blitz bug it's an effective comp. Just an annoyingly-unreliable one thanks to the Blitz bug. (Get the pull bug and what effectively happens is that Blitz is taken out of combat for like five seconds, the unit he pulls gets in a few attacks before being knocked up, and is as a consequence actually put in a better spot. Don't get the pull bug and Blitz will work as intended and basically delete the pulled unit and even if the unit lives taking it out of combat for the intended period of time.)

The comp is melee reliant, but its abilities are usually good at spreading enemy units out (mitigating albeit not outright preventing the "only half your units can attack" problem) and give you an in to their backline. Unbugged Blitz pull + Rek'sai tunneling behind enemy lines + Vi pulling a unit half way across the map + Kha'zix as an assassin jumping on their backline, not to mention being a comp with a ton of CC (Vi, Warwick, Cho'gath, Rek'sai, and Blitzcrank ALL have abilities which stun; Volibear's the only one who doesn't by default but given that he's a glacial and his ult can trigger the glacial passive if you have the glacial synergy active then he joins them in being able to stun).

Also: Warwick is up there with Garen in being one of the units most likely to "bug out" and not attack enemy units even when by all rights there's nothing which should prevent him from attacking.

Basically, my only problem with the comp is bugs. There's nothing more frustrating than losing matches you should win, repeatedly, because your units are bugged out and not attacking when they should be. Presumably, tho: given time, those bugs will be fixed and when they are fixed the comp will probably get nerfed because it is just too strong otherwise.

[mastina]

But I'm also done with mastins, so there''s that.

"Blademaster's isn't as strong as nobles/glacial" > "actual Blademaster is probably the strongest team in the game" > "yeah, I said that."

Apparently you didn't read what I said. I said that blademasters by themselves are worthless, but when paired with gunslingers are strong as fuck.

You said the same thing.

[mastina]

Reaching out here because I'm kinda desperate for this. I play on the Oceania server but I don't know enough people to get a five-man premade going.

It doesn't need to be a PvP game. It can be a bloody beginner bot game, PvE. The requirement is just having five people as a premade squad, and winning. But I need help because apparently nobody plays on Oceania anymore so am desperately reaching out on every possible avenue I can think of.

[mastina]

So I just had one of the wildest Ranked games of my life.

I'm Iron (admittedly, high Iron, Iron I with an average LP of ~50, so I legit think that if I pushed hard enough I could maybe reach Bronze), but the queue was 13 minutes long--so what did the client do?

It put me in a lobby exclusively full of Silver (with some Bronze) players. (Average tier was Bronze 1, a full rank above mine.)

I am an Ashe onetrick.

The enemy team picked Ashe away from me.

Our jungler wanted to be mid, but didn't get the swap desired.
Our support player thought

they

were the midlaner, so they didn't pick a support champion or item (Kalista).
I was playing Zeri.

Our toplaner abandoned midlane to go bot, but also didn't pick up a support item. (None of us did.)

So we had no real toplaner.
We had only a so-so jungler.
We had no botlaner.
We had no support.

I literally made up a build as I was going along for Zeri (Eclipse->Phantom Dancer->Ravenous Hydra with Boots of Swiftness), so it shouldn't have worked because it was neither the crit build nor the onhit/bruiser build (my runes probably weren't right, either; LT + tenacity + cut down + demolish + overgrowth).

We even went down 3 inhibitors near the end, and the enemy team got baron a couple times, maybe even three times, and were on dragon soul point repeatedly.

We had absolutely no right winning that game. We had no wards because of no support, we had no real adc because I wasn't on Ashe and I had no support during my laning phase so I was literally the last player in the game to hit level 18, never got a fourth item, and my opponent was full build like half way through the game (their Ashe even topped the damage charts for the game), I literally went 0/13 the entire game without a single kill to my name.

By all rights, we had no right winning that.
They had soul point, they got both rift heralds, they had all three of our inhibitors down, they got baron, I was never a real champion in the game and none of our players were really doing well. The best-performing player on our team (our midlaner) even died at one point, which should've spelt the death of us, especially with only 2 members of our team alive to their 3 or 4.

...And yet, somehow.

SOMEHOW.

We managed to win.

[mastina]

So I was dealing with endless constant frustration with trying to grind out the current Star Guardian event.

It was honestly destroying my life and crushing my soul.

I was giving up on doing other things that I wanted to do, just to try and get it grinded out.

But it was impossible.

The main story was progressing okay, but the character quests just...couldn't go up enough.

I was hating myself for putting time into a failed effort, but hating myself for the effort failing. Thinking if I put in even

more

time in spite of devoting way way way way too much free time into it, that SOMEHOW I would actually manage to 100% the free content, and yet also just wanting to just...give up, being disheartened at the impossibility of getting to level 3 for all the characters.

Slow progression, bot counts not counted, playing countless hundreds of games over countless thousands of hours, and it was just...weighing heavily on me.


...Turns out all of that was due to Riot fucking up tho.
So Riot Games gave me, and every, player all of the free content I was grinding out for.

I have mixed feelings on this.
On the one hand: vindication that I was right. It

was

impossible. It wasn't my fault. It wasn't anything I was doing wrong. I didn't need to put in more time; I put in the amount of time which

should

have been enough.

On the one hand, weirdly disappointed, both because others who didn't put in nearly as much as I did are getting the awards, and that I wasted all that time on this for it to be handed to me anyway.


It's still a huge relief tho. A weight off my shoulders. Has breathed some life into me.

[mastina]

1. This is incredibly dramatic.
2. You literally could have just checked the status bar at any point in the last 2 weeks. (Or been in a discord w/ ppl u know that play)

?