League of Legends

[kirant]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

Any suggestions for good top laners?

Teemo is one of the hardest counterpicks in top. I'd also assume Gangplank is pretty good top.

[CaramonLS]

What about Twitch?

[cDnStealth]

Some of the best top laners are Morde, Garen, and Olaf.

[kirant]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

What about Twitch?

I'd avoid stealth based champions until Riot gets to fixing them. What's the count now? A year since they promised to do it?

[SHOGUN]

Originally Posted by kirant

I'd avoid stealth based champions until Riot gets to fixing them. What's the count now? A year since they promised to do it?

Been playing Twitch a lot lately.. such a good ganker early-mid game but drops off hard late game when a team is smart enough to purchase oracles. Twitch is basically useless when the team has at least one oracle to my experience, being the most squishiest champion, they cc and focus you down within secs. Until they get rid of the oracles, why should people play champions like Evelynn and Twitch which they are at a severe disadvantage once champions can visibly see them? I really hope the stealth remake comes soon.

[CaramonLS]

I haven't played Ryze since the patch, how have the changes affected him in terms of burst potential, tankiness and build?

[CaramonLS]

New Champ Varus released yesterday. Seen a lot of people playing him as an AD carry, but also as a mid (likely a counter, but he was doing OK vs some APs as he is kind of tanky and has a good skillshot poke) and some top (idiots, as they just feed).

Played Vlad for a little bit last night - cool champ - played one game vs. AP Nidalee and absolutely destroyed their team, played vs a Nasus and got wrecked (with some ganking help from Shaco, their shaco had 8 kills at the 10 minute mark, that game was a 20 min surrender). After Nasus got ahead of me it was Slow, wither and Q. I couldn't even harass w/o a turret.

Not quite sure what to think of him for viability though - he is an epic farmer. You don't miss a lot of CS with vlad unless you've been zoned badly. He isn't all that effective until you get your Hextec / Cooldown boots. I know lots of people play him Mid or Top.

Doesn't have a huge burst, but has pretty solid sustain for a caster and is consistent with low cooldowns (mid game). You can also build him quite tanky. Is he mostly a counter character or can he be good in all situations?

[Kavvy]

Just started playing this game based on a friends recommendation, it is pretty fun. Getting good at a few chars, but they might be the "cheap" ones, Teemo, Ash.

Teemo is so much fun to play.

[CaramonLS]

Ashe is pretty good. She isn't the best carry at the moment (Ezreal is), but is always one of the decent ones. As long as you can hit your arrow, there is always a place for a decent Ashe.

Teemo is really strong at the moment if you are building him AP. Like incredibly strong. They recently buffed his AP ratios by a good margin - he works best if you rush a DFG. With your blinding shot, you can burst them down extremely fast. And of course, you're the single most annoying champ in League of Legends because of those damned shrooms.

Kavy, what level are you?

[Blaster86]

Te'emo is a terrible champ. Becomes useless late game and is easily countered early game. Mid game he needs support to be strong. He can't carry. Ashe is a better choice.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by Blaster86

Te'emo is a terrible champ. Becomes useless late game and is easily countered early game. Mid game he needs support to be strong. He can't carry. Ashe is a better choice.

As long as you aren't playing bot lane Teemo, you're fine.

Mid Teemo and top Teemo (AP only) are the only real viable builds for him. If you try to build him as ADC, it is a very bad idea.

The AP ratio from 0.14 -> 0.4 is huge in terms of damage. But he is more of a counter pick as opposed to a first pick type champ. He can get killed easily with certain team comps and chars.

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by CaramonLS

The AP ratio from 0.14 -> 0.4 is huge in terms of damage. But he is more of a counter pick as opposed to a first pick type champ. He can get killed easily with certain team comps and chars.

He just has no real viability unless he's ahead in my mind. If you fall behind even to an assist you're ####ed.

[Thor]

I see teemo getting a fair bit more play now at higher levels, and its always AP teemo mid that these high elo's are playing.

Hes not an ideal champ for mid though, but I decided to start playing him again a bit and have had great success with him, you just have to be super careful until you hit 6 so you can safeguard yourself from ganks.

Teemos poke is based on his movement speed, 3 speed quints is a must with him, and as long as you play him well he can really tear down champs with an ap build, not to mention his shrooms can turn games giving you a huge advantage with great map awareness.

[GreenLantern]

So I haven't played LoL, but I have played HoN and Dota quite a bit, how does this game stack up ? Same fish different pond?

Will I be getting constantly sworn at as a "newb" ?

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

So I haven't played LoL, but I have played HoN and Dota quite a bit, how does this game stack up ? Same fish different pond?

Will I be getting constantly sworn at as a "newb" ?

LOL is the first MOBA that I have picked up and played, but from what I have been able to understand, a lot of the core mechanics are simplier than HoN or DOTA. LOL is much easier to pick up and get into the grove of things. But in the simplicity there is layers of complexity and strategy.

It is also a lot more snowbally.

It isn't that bad for getting sworn at - you'll probably get it as much as those other games. If you start out, you'll quickly realize that you're playing with a bunch of other people who really don't know what they're doing either.

The biggest problem is though, you will occasionally run into very good players who are creating a second account (because they were banned by Riot for being toxic) and of course, they aren't very pleasant to deal with.

There is a pretty good match making system where you are matched with people of roughly the same skill - these players who have a lot of experience will likely raise their "normal elo" and not end up playing you.

BTW this is the game I am still putting the most hours in. There is something just plain addictive about this game. I would recommend signing up and of course you can add me (Coltaine00).

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by Thor

I see teemo getting a fair bit more play now at higher levels, and its always AP teemo mid that these high elo's are playing.

Hes not an ideal champ for mid though, but I decided to start playing him again a bit and have had great success with him, you just have to be super careful until you hit 6 so you can safeguard yourself from ganks.

Teemos poke is based on his movement speed, 3 speed quints is a must with him, and as long as you play him well he can really tear down champs with an ap build, not to mention his shrooms can turn games giving you a huge advantage with great map awareness.

If you properly place shrooms, it can be an absolute nightmare for any Jungler to gank. You need to rush an Oracles ASAP.

Also it can help prevent the enemy mid from roaming.

I was playing as Morgana in ranked (1400 elo) and while I found I had slightly better pushing power (although he 2-shots creeps), if you stepped on a shroom without your black shield on - anywhere near Teemo - you die. Simple as that. You're slowed, he is faster than you and bursts harder (especially if he rushed DFG). The only way you live is if you manage to land a clutch binding.

He seems to counter a lot of AP mids, especially if they don't have great range / CC. Morgana is kind of an extreme counter example, because she is countered by Auto Attackers.

[Thor]

I did a jungle teemo for the lolz, 0/21/9 and built speed and armor for my runes. With solid help on blue I did quite well and actually did quite well that game.

I find there is too much pigeon holeing for champs these days, especially at lower elo's where its not so much a must to only select certain champs like is often required at top elo's.

[kirant]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern

So I haven't played LoL, but I have played HoN and Dota quite a bit, how does this game stack up ? Same fish different pond?

Will I be getting constantly sworn at as a "newb" ?

As per comparing games:
- League of Legends is a bit more of an action game than the other two. It tries to get you into being aggressive over denying creep kills or being support. Its own unique mechanic, bushes, make it really easy to ambush someone.
- League of Legends is more friendly in atmosphere. You don't lose money if you die, there's an AI vs humans mode (great if you've got nothing more than 40 minutes to spare and want free points ), and an all-action "Dominion mode" (kind of like capture the flag).

As for name calling, I think this comic puts it best:


I find if you play more casual atmospheres, like humans vs AI or with preset teams of friends, it's a great experience. If you play solo ranked games, people start treating you a bit like DoTA or HoN gamers. I by no means think I'm bad at the game (though I have a nasty habit of attempting to trap opponents by running behind them. Even as SONA), but if you happen to be off or you end up in a bad lane match up and nobody attempts to adjust that, you'll be called a low ELO feeder or something like that. Actually, I've heard you get called that even if you have a good game, but your "score" (Kills/Deaths/Assists) don't reflect it.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by Thor

I did a jungle teemo for the lolz, 0/21/9 and built speed and armor for my runes. With solid help on blue I did quite well and actually did quite well that game.

I find there is too much pigeon holeing for champs these days, especially at lower elo's where its not so much a must to only select certain champs like is often required at top elo's.

Ranked? Absolutely. People tend to take it pretty seriously. You don't usually get to jungle Teemo or take Ashe mid without getting serious flak from your team.

Normals - hit and miss. There are plenty of players who are pretty casual about it as long as you don't feed or mess up completely. However, there are those real internet badasses who will be critical of your choice. I jungled Zyra and Morgana the other day and no one said a word. Both are actually pretty decent - sick ganks. Morg has good health sustain in the jungle post 6 as well, but needs blue. Zyra clears really quickly. Problem with lots of AP Junglers is that they don't itemize into late game (not enough gold in the jungle), so they really aren't viable in any sort of serious play. They also have to start Cloth / 5 and need at least 9 points in defensive masteries.

[CaramonLS]

Originally Posted by kirant

I find if you play more casual atmospheres, like humans vs AI or with preset teams of friends, it's a great experience. If you play solo ranked games, people start treating you a bit like DoTA or HoN gamers. I by no means think I'm bad at the game (though I have a nasty habit of attempting to trap opponents by running behind them. Even as SONA), but if you happen to be off or you end up in a bad lane match up and nobody attempts to adjust that, you'll be called a low ELO feeder or something like that. Actually, I've heard you get called that even if you have a good game, but your "score" (Kills/Deaths/Assists) don't reflect it.

This is probably one of my biggest struggles with League - the snowballing. Your team can be put at a huge disadvantage so fast and so quickly, that it can be nearly impossible to recover from.

Example in Ranked last night. Was playing Skarner in the jungle. Ended up that game with the most gold on my team, was 10/4/14. We also lost the game.

Why we lost? Bot lane isn't paying attention and they are guarding the tri-bush at 1:30. Other team invades, our AD and Support get caught not paying attention and give up first blood, one kill / one assist already on their opposing AD carry. The enemy AD returns to lane with a Dorans blade.

That advantage snowballs hard from there. By the time I hit level 4 (and actually reach bottom for the first time), I already have a kill on me (Caught their jungler trying to counter jungle me), but Bot lane managed to give up a double kill to their AD. He is now 3/0/1. Since they are dead, I can't gank their lane for them.

I recall back, finish my first item, and go back bot lane with the other 2. Enemy AD has 1 level up on our AD and 2 on our support. Our AD has 1 Dorans, the other AD finished his boots and has 1 dorans and a pick axe.

They've already warded River and Tri bush - I can't gank as they see me right away and back off.

Long story short, end game rolls around. Our AD is 4/11, theirs is fed to hell with 15 kills. They win. Was their AD significantly better than ours? Probably not. But the snowball allowed them to basically walk into lane and get kills.

This is a pretty common occurance. Lanes can snowball early advantages and win games outright and there isn't a lot you can do about it. That is one reason why players rage so hard.