League of Legends - F2P MOBA (like DOTA) part 2

[zebano]

yeah I somehow deleted part of my post while typing and retyped it... I guess it didn't delete all of it. A Soraka that gets ahead and buys Aegis/Bulkwark to become just a little bit tanky is a terror in the mid game IMO.

 

[HumblePie]

Almost....what?

I think your experience with offensive Soraka here sums it up. She can be aggressive against a no non-ult CC lane and get away with it. She has no fear of being locked in place and taking significant harass. So she's able to move in on you, poke away with E and AAs, and then run back and heal herself. But against a lane that can and will lock her down if she tries to approach? She'll likely survive, but then her next couple of heal cooldowns are going to be spent on herself.

Yep this. Offensive sorakas don't heal as well and against a lane that can smack her for trying to poke, isn't going to do well in lane. The problem is an offensive soraka early on is still very squishy, doesn't do all that much damage, and doesn't heal for much. Her Q takes a few cycles of attacks to start dealing significant damage, which you aren't going to be able to do with her early on without getting crushed in return.

For a time, offensive soraka's worked because people didn't expect it, and there wasn't as many lane counters to it. Also, defensive/passive soraka is just harder for any lane combo to break on the bottom lane. Not only that, offensive soraka by nature pushes the lane since her Q is an AoE. Which puts her lane out of position.

I've destroyed offensive sorakas with any support champ that can blind fire into bushes. An offensive soraka relies on stepping out of the bush to hit E and Q and then step back in. And keeping that bush ward free to do so. Any support that can blind fire into that bush is going to stop that long before it becomes a factor. If a soraka continue to focus on offense against my ziggs support for example, then they aren't going to have the sustain to overcome my damage output after a few levels. It is just a fact. If soraka focuses on healing though and just there as a heal/mana battery, no 2 lane combo against her is going to be able to crack that nut.

 

[hydroponik]

The biggest issue I've been seeing is people won't ward. Flat out refuse. One game (the entire team) told me that if you had map awareness you don't need wards. The funny thing is, I was telling them because THEY kept getting ganked. People just won't listen out of spite now because they know if they keep playing, and don't say anything, YOU come off looking like the asshole in the reports.

It's all luck of the draw. In season 3, rolls happen faster. In Riots effort to ...move the game along, they just made it worse. A game is for the most part decided in the first 15 minutes. Some can turn it around, but if you have 2-3 incompetent people on your team (which seems to be every other game) it's really just a waste of time. After playing this game for so long, you get a sense of what is possible and what is not. Unfortnately , many people don't see it that way and will draw a losing game out forever. They won't actually change the way they play because they refuse to listen to what anyone says, so you still end up losing. The sad part is YOU are forced to remain in the game or YOU'll be the one who's banned.

This is the biggest flaw in the Tribunal. People don't get banned for trolling. If you say anything to anyone (no matter how nicely), you are the asshole. They've figured out that since only chat logs are really used, they can just not say anything and a report is useless. Enemy teams are very unreliable as reporters as well. Ultimately, the Tribunal is a failure in the end because anyone can just start over. The only real way to fix this is to have streams of every game that is reported, however, who wants to sit through those?

I know someones going to try to counter everything I just said, however realize I'm talking solo queue. Not teams, not tourney players who practice with each other and are on voice chat and all those other things that don't apply to the standard players who are just trying to get a decent random team to play with. Like the last pick who didn't get the role they want because the first pick with 2 wins takes it so rather than dodge they just afk at the game start and since the person who took it has so little experience they feed, but you have the 1 person who's carrying the team and so 20 minutes draws out to 40 minutes, then you lose. It really doesn't matter if it's normals or ranked.

"Good games" are practically non existent anymore. You either win or you lose. There is no "close"


**After typing this out I realized, that no..I do not enjoy this game anymore. It puts me in a bad mood and makes me hate humanity. Even when you're winning you have people being hateful and just plain vile. I keep playing for those glimpses of wins that make you feel good, but since as I stated above, there are no what are considered good matches, just rolls...there's not much enjoyment in it. It's too predictable. I played Eve for over 4 years and never raged at my screen as much as this game makes me rage. LOL.

I, too, on my second account have been getting very frustrated with the game, however I think it helps to play champs that can carry the game. Since I've been playing ADC exclusively lately, I've been winning probably 85% of my games. Definitely puts you in a better mood and you don't mind the occasional loss.

You can add me (CoronaDeluxxx) or my original account (Duroz) if you wanna team up.

edit - actually according to lolking, my win % for the past 7 days is only 81%

 

[zebano]

Yep this. Offensive sorakas don't heal as well and against a lane that can smack her for trying to poke, isn't going to do well in lane. The problem is an offensive soraka early on is still very squishy, doesn't do all that much damage, and doesn't heal for much. Her Q takes a few cycles of attacks to start dealing significant damage, which you aren't going to be able to do with her early on without getting crushed in return.

For a time, offensive soraka's worked because people didn't expect it, and there wasn't as many lane counters to it. Also, defensive/passive soraka is just harder for any lane combo to break on the bottom lane. Not only that, offensive soraka by nature pushes the lane since her Q is an AoE. Which puts her lane out of position.

I've destroyed offensive sorakas with any support champ that can blind fire into bushes. An offensive soraka relies on stepping out of the bush to hit E and Q and then step back in. And keeping that bush ward free to do so. Any support that can blind fire into that bush is going to stop that long before it becomes a factor. If a soraka continue to focus on offense against my ziggs support for example, then they aren't going to have the sustain to overcome my damage output after a few levels. It is just a fact. If soraka focuses on healing though and just there as a heal/mana battery, no 2 lane combo against her is going to be able to crack that nut.

That's not how you levelan offensive Soraka support, you still max the heal first. It's more of a playstyle that relies on the fact that you can heal so much so you're constantly poking the enemy and attempting to maximize the 3 second of bonus armor to kite around and get another starcall or two off. The flask is a godly item for this as well both due to the extra mana and the fact that you can self heal with it while using W on your ADC. yes if the enemy pokes too hard you stop playing this way but you do it as long as you can get away with it.

 

[zebano]

oh a big fyi though I don't think I have any problems with any of the people here warding. When playing support consider this

P. Stone = 5G/10 = 30G/min = 90G/3 min

Sightstone = 75gold per ward placed (and it's reasonably easy to always have 2 up) = 150G/3min

tl,dr; Sightstone is way way way better than a P. Stone as your first item.

 

[EDUSAN]

Back to the VI discussion... i find that she needs too many stats and they are not cheap

she needs HP, she needs AD , she needs AS.

So i start with machete and pots... upgrade machete to the blue stone, get the tenacity item, i find that i need some life steal, some camps are still hitting me too hard, and i think that a phage is a must have to be able to catch up people when ganking... once you hit your Q they ran away and you cant stop it.

Thats why im running GHOST on VI instead of Smite.

i havent bought the tenacity item lately but i will try to buy it.

My normal build is: Machete (or cloth armor, havent decided yet). Use machete to get lantern.
Boots
Phage
Frozen Mallet

and thats where my build normally ends

i suck with vi haha

 

[crownjules]

oh a big fyi though I don't think I have any problems with any of the people here warding. When playing support consider this

P. Stone = 5G/10 = 30G/min = 90G/3 min

Sightstone = 75gold per ward placed (and it's reasonably easy to always have 2 up) = 150G/3min

tl,dr; Sightstone is way way way better than a P. Stone as your first item.

Oh yeah, Sightstone/Ruby SS is easily the single best improvement to supports (and junglers who like to ward) in S3. It frees up a huge amount of gold to be spent on stuff other than ward stacks. Like pink wards so your jungler might have a chance at ganking unseen.

 

[Ashenor]

Any melee/rogue type heroes good for beginners?

 

[crownjules]

Some interesting changes on the PBE today:

Amumu's ult now just a root whereas before it also prevented AAing.
Blitz's passive is now every 60 seconds instead of 90.
Lee's losing the Armor off W, the energy refund when the shield breaks is gone, but the lifesteal/spell vamp is going up 4% per level. Also Cripple's slow is getting reduced at all ranks but 5.
Udyr's passive now also grants 4% AR/MR

 

[zebano]

Any melee/rogue type heroes good for beginners?

If you're just starting out I'd suggest trying out the various champs that are free that week, but if you're looking for stealth/assassins Akali & Shaco are the obvious choices. I would also recommend you try out Zed and Master Yi or Fiora as they might be what you're looking for. Playing a champion is the fastest way to understand what they do so I do suggest if at all possible that you try each free champ in a given week out even if it's just in a custom game for 10 minutes against a bot.

 

[Ashenor]

Ok its been awhile since i played and did not play long. Will try some out tonight.

Thanks

 

[xSkyDrAx]

An easy to play melee champ is Garen especially if you're just starting out in the lower levels. Hide in the bush, when they come to check, Q them then E them and watch their hp go down hilarious levels. Press W during the process to mitigate dmg. If they're low enough you can Ult them or ignite them ult them.

 

[thejunglegod]

Saw this game with an Anivia, zilean, kayle together. Anivia is fed, so is the focus of all attacks. She gets a GA and a team fight erupts with Anivia of course being focused. Kayle ults Anivia, and when the shield expires zilean ults her. She dies and comes back to life thanks to the ult. Gets focused and dies again proccing GA. Is killed again and goes into her egg form.
Easily my greatest moment in spectating history. Hope someone recorded that.


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

 

[zebano]

Saw this game with an Anivia, zilean, kayle together. Anivia is fed, so is the focus of all attacks. She gets a GA and a team fight erupts with Anivia of course being focused. Kayle ults Anivia, and when the shield expires zilean ults her. She dies and comes back to life thanks to the ult. Gets focused and dies again proccing GA. Is killed again and goes into her egg form.
Easily my greatest moment in spectating history. Hope someone recorded that.


Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

This is also fun with a Tryndamere and maybe a Yorick if you really want to have some fun.

 

[crownjules]

New champion coming up is Thresh, the Chain Warden. PBE patch notes for him:

- His passive is a soul collection mechanic. Enemies that die around him sometimes drop souls (the bigger they are the more likely it is to happen). He gains no AR/MR per level, he only does so by collecting souls.

- His Q is a skillshot grab that pulls an enemy a fixed distance towards him. He can hit Q again to pull himself the remainder of the distance. Also gives him a passive on-hit magic damage buff that builds up the longer he hasn't attacked.

- W tosses out a lantern on the ground. Allies that come near it will be shielded. Any ally can click on it to pick it up and be pulled back to Thresh.

- His E is a direction knock that he can shape - either knocking enemies away from him or towards him or to the side then applying a slow.

- His ultimate creates a 5-sided prison around himself with destructible walls. Enemies simply have to walk through a wall to break it, but will take lots of damage and have a massive slow applied.

 

[zebano]

Sounds like some awesome mechanics there except for the soul collection... Built in snowballing... It sounds like he'd be a good support or jungler but being forced to get kills for Ar/MR might be tough.

Edit: after some more reading you can collect souls from minions/jungle, I had read it as champions.

 

[zebano]

So Janna is the shit in solo queue, saves all sorts of bad plays =)

Anyhoo anyone have tips for Nami? I know Fenix plays a damn good one but I just picked her up and I don't have the timing on the stun figured out yet..

 

[Fenixgoon]

So Janna is the shit in solo queue, saves all sorts of bad plays =)

Anyhoo anyone have tips for Nami? I know Fenix plays a damn good one but I just picked her up and I don't have the timing on the stun figured out yet..

lol that was 100% luck. those guys made me look good. literally that was the first game i played w/ her


also, did anyone watch the S3 qualifiers this weekend? some pretty nice plays (sadly i watched most of it so i don't remember any one individual play)

 

[crownjules]

I don't think Nami's particularly hard to play. She doesn't have choices like Lulu about whether to use her skills on allies or enemies. Q is just about learning it's timing and range. You have to be predictive with it or else follow up someone else's CC. Ebb and Flow is pretty weak in terms of damage/healing numbers and additionally it does 15% less per bounce. And it's mana cost ramps up a huge amount. It does have good bounce range though. And E just goes on whoever's AAing the most at the time.

Her ult is by far the hardest part of her kit. It has massive range, but it's slow moving. So it's a bad initiation ult unless you're not seen by the enemy. But every ally it passes over gets your passive applied so it's good to use in lane as a Shurelia's boost of sorts. Due to its width, it's power is much stronger in the jungle where it will be harder to escape.

 

[zebano]

lol that was 100% luck. those guys made me look good. literally that was the first game i played w/ her


also, did anyone watch the S3 qualifiers this weekend? some pretty nice plays (sadly i watched most of it so i don't remember any one individual play)

That was a hands down amazing game, I don't think I saw you miss a single Q. She looked like a new candidate for the Goddess Slut of Assists title (which Janna won't give up without a fight btw).

 

[zebano]

If anyone hasn't read the patch notes today, do so! There are tons of fixes and we now have a SC2 ladder style system instead of visible ELO.

http://i.imgur.com/EKQFt.jpg

patch preview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drNRCr8KTPA&feature=player_embedded

 

[crownjules]

Some good changes.

Buffs to Nami were unexpected. That'll only make her better.
Nerfs to Eve are good. Now she can't just come in and snipe kills off low health people with her ult. Mana increase on Q will hurt her early game farm in combo with the nerf to Flask.
Don't think Lee's sustain is going to be hurt that much. Sure they take away the Armor but they've also increased the LS/SV.

 

[billbobaggins87]

im really hoping they cure some of the ranked isues with this! we shall see

 

[ImpulsE69]

Dammit...I'm 3 weeks clean...I may have to have a relapse when they make those changes...however, I suppose from reading, it doesn't really affect matchmaking at all.

 

[billbobaggins87]

doesn't seem to resolve that