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

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Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
Ok guys, what do you want see for picks on a team? I am thinking:

1. Heimerdinger
2. Rammus
3. Janna
4. Gangplank
5. ?

Seems like there are a number of possible 5th picks but I think the other 4 are solid.
 

Taejin

Moderator<br>Love & Relationships
Aug 29, 2004
3,270
0
0
Haha. Alistar is insanely hard to play properly. He is very positionally reliant, and headbutt+pulv combos are tough to land effectively on groups of people. He's been pretty balanced since the nerf to his ulti. I've played with some really bad alistars in the last few days. My buddy Prizmm plays a really good Ali, he can pretty much win the team all the fights.

Wukong has been intriguing me lately. He's pretty strong in top lane with his reliable strong harass. He's also getting buffs sometime, the possibility I've heard is a speed buff on his w, which would make ganking solid. Another buff to his e, or possibly a life steal component to his q could make him a decent jungler. His ulti wins teamfights.

never thought alistar was that difficult. fun as hell to play. huge bully in lane.
 

zebano

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2005
4,042
0
0
Haha. Alistar is insanely hard to play properly. He is very positionally reliant, and headbutt+pulv combos are tough to land effectively on groups of people. He's been pretty balanced since the nerf to his ulti. I've played with some really bad alistars in the last few days. My buddy Prizmm plays a really good Ali, he can pretty much win the team all the fights.

Wukong has been intriguing me lately. He's pretty strong in top lane with his reliable strong harass. He's also getting buffs sometime, the possibility I've heard is a speed buff on his w, which would make ganking solid. Another buff to his e, or possibly a life steal component to his q could make him a decent jungler. His ulti wins teamfights.

Yeah I don't know about super hard but there are basically 2 ways to play him now.

1. AP, not nearly as strong as before, but start with W, farm up a sheen, deathcap then lichbane and win. W scales better than q for damage to a champ, but q / e farm waves better usually R > W > e > q is appropriate once you have a point in everything.

2. 0-cs support. With Janna, Sona &Soraka losing popularity this has worked out nicely for me. 0/9/21 with flash / cv or 1/21/8 with flash/exhaust. I run full tank runes but you can grab different reds & Gold/10 quints if you want. Start with regen pendant and w and build p stone, boots 1, HoG, Sheen, whichever boots2 you like... I Prefer merc or Lucidity. From there build whatever defense you need. Remember to buy wards on every trip back.

In lane: w, q, e in some order your first three levels, I like that order usually. Own the bushes if you can. If you headbutt into a wall they will be temporarily stunned allowing you to walk up, autoattack then pulverize. w followed instantly by q emulates Malphite's ult and if you want to play Alistar well you must be able to do this; Flash q > walk around, headbutt emulates Singed's fling so you're quite versatile. It's important to coordinate your level of aggression to either keeping your carry safe or as aggressive as they/your jungler want to be. Don't waste mana if it doesn't accomplish anything.

Your ult is no longer as good as it used to be so you have to learn when you've drawn aggro and pop it around 2/3 - 3/4 health rather than at 50% or less as I used to do. This is mostly a matter of experience. If you build shureliya's or Radabons (great items) be sure to use their actives. If it gets to be late game and the sheen is no longer enough offense or you don't need more defense ghostblade is a great item. I would work avarice blade into my core items but it just seems to delay everything a little too much.
 

Firsttime

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2005
2,517
0
71
His mechanics aren't what's hard. I find him to be in the same boat as say an AD carry in that the person playing him has to have an instinct for positioning, and split second decision making when it comes to target priority. His cd's are long enough that if you blow your q or w you will loose your team fights, or initiate them horribly.

When you could play him as an AP carry it was a little more forgiving, because you have items to supplement your tankieness. But when you play him as a 0 cs support, which is the only real way now that his ratios are shit, you have to be smart because unlike a lot of the other supports it's Alistar's job to be in the middle of things. He is the most unforgiving of the traditional bot lane supports. Supports that die are fucking themselves and their teams over.
 

Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
110
106
Yep, they didn't waste any time. People doubted quick release, and even with hints didn't expect it before tomorrow.

They took almost a whole month. I think they wasted enough time :p That said, I'm glad they got it out without any apparent major bugs.

I'm still a little pissed at them for cancelling magma chamber.
 

Firsttime

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2005
2,517
0
71
The huge elo swings are back. I accidentally que'd for a ranked game and got matched in literally 1 second. So I obviously pick Lee Sin, go solo top, proceed to go 10-2 and win in 20. Then I see when they give up that my elo went from 1277->1322. I'll take that haha. Just an fyi for you guys who benefited from the reset, some of these games in the 1200 range are just stupid easy to carry right now. I would que up and try to boost my elo.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
The huge elo swings are back. I accidentally que'd for a ranked game and got matched in literally 1 second. So I obviously pick Lee Sin, go solo top, proceed to go 10-2 and win in 20. Then I see when they give up that my elo went from 1277->1322. I'll take that haha. Just an fyi for you guys who benefited from the reset, some of these games in the 1200 range are just stupid easy to carry right now. I would que up and try to boost my elo.

I've been dreading not playing solo queue with out a duo partner because the games are being played by trolls and super bad players.

I watched bigfatlp lose 16 games in a row one day from solo queue. The CLG clan are doing tricks right now to boost their elo in the match making.

They are basically going 4 at a time and duoing. SV with Chaus and GG with LP. More than half the time the match making system puts all 4 on the same team and they rolfstomp the opposing team. The few times they get split they take turns losing and winning. It is stupid to watch them doing it on the streams. They are staying away from doing solo queue straight up because most of the time they lose to trolls.



Oh and to give you guys an example of a pure troll I was teamed up with At3c, thayorn, and some guy name Chance or something like that. Can't remember his name. We had 4 people and picked up a random 5th. Usually I do jungle but the fifth quick locked in as jungle shaco. I was like, no biggie and decided to do something different and go for AP poppy since I hadn't done that. At3c was Ashe, Thayorn as Jarvan, Chance as Zilean, and myself as poppy.

We were doing well and no one was really dying. We were up on kills with 9 to 7 kill. We hadn't lost any towers yet, but when shaco came to gank a few times the enemy managed to get away. He also ended up dying twice and basically started blaming it on everyone. Talking the biggest crap of how we all suck, this game was lost, and everyone but him on the team sucked. All 4 of us on vent together were basically laughing at this WTF troll.

Well about a minute later he decides to rage afk on the summoner pad and taunt us. So we were stuck 4v5. We ended up going 29 kills versus their 7. We were stomping them hard, but it was hard for us 4 to separate which allowed them to take a couple of towers from split pushing and dragon a few times. That kept them competitive on gold as a team at least even if they were dying in the team fights. Finally they managed to nab baron and pushed through after acing the 4 of us. It was the first time they managed to kill any of us in 15 minutes or so. Which made us lose the game. The other team wasn't bad at all. The 4 of us were better than them. But that lack of a 5th cost us the game. If that shaco had kept playing we would have won that game with zero problems. But he was a baby because he didn't have 10+ kills by the 15 minute mark and 2 deaths already. Actually shaco was 3/2/2 when he decided to stop playing.

It's times like that I wish we could kick out a player in the game and have someone else rejoin his position.
 

crownjules

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2005
4,858
0
76
The huge ELO swings happen for the first 10-15 games as they're your placement games. After that, you'll go back down to 12-13 point gains/losses.

I also imagine a lot of the "newbish" players will shift to Dominion for awhile. Meaning the SR queues will be full of more "dedicated" players.
 
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Firsttime

Platinum Member
Mar 31, 2005
2,517
0
71
The huge ELO swings happen for the first 10-15 games as they're your placement games. After that, you'll go back down to 12-13 point gains/losses.

Yeah, just saying when they reset things I played a few ranked games and there were no swings, now it's been randomly reinserted. I was unaware is all, just letting others know. I wasn't looking forward to grinding back up ~200 elo to where I was last season, but I'll probably duo and see where it takes me here now.
 

AyashiKaibutsu

Diamond Member
Jan 24, 2004
9,306
3
81
So I was queuing for dominion and my team picks kogmaw, caitlyn and teemo right off the bat... so as a joke I picked ashe... and no one complained... I dodged.
 

Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
110
106
I've decided my ranked champion is twitch, I do consistently well with him.

However, lost the last 2 games.

The last game was particularly annoying, as I went solo mid, owned my lane, got first blood and 3rd and 4th kills, ganked both top and bottom. Ended the game 24-8-8 (most deaths occurred at the end), but we lost because the rest of the time we incapable of doing anything useful.
 

Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
I keep getting my ass handed to me by AP Poppy in Dominion, think I'll start playing her.
 

zebano

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2005
4,042
0
0
The huge elo swings are back. I accidentally que'd for a ranked game and got matched in literally 1 second. So I obviously pick Lee Sin, go solo top, proceed to go 10-2 and win in 20. Then I see when they give up that my elo went from 1277->1322. I'll take that haha. Just an fyi for you guys who benefited from the reset, some of these games in the 1200 range are just stupid easy to carry right now. I would que up and try to boost my elo.

Yeah I've only got 3 ranked games in so far because I'm being careful to only play when fully awake/un-inebrieated but I'm 3-0 as Alistar so far. Only one bad teammate (a garen) and we lane switched him so he could be aggressive with me to save his ass and our Caitlyn took the solo top and we won without too much trouble.
 

Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
Well I've tried all kinds of champs, but heimerdinger is it for me. I don't think I've lost one dominion match as heimerdinger. I'm still working on the best build for him, knowing I need to tank stuff. Rylai's then Zhonya's is how I've been going.
 

Ultralight

Senior member
Jul 11, 2004
990
1
76
Any of you guys have issues of your game suddenly freezing tonight (Tuesday)? My son and I were playing a custom warm-up when the entire game froze. I was connected via ethernet and he was wireless and we both experienced the same thing.

At first I thought it was my router/modem but there has been no issues with connecting to the internet. In fact my daughter was connected wirelessly to the net at the same time without issue.

Just wondering...
 

Fenixgoon

Lifer
Jun 30, 2003
32,156
11,025
136
alright guys, any ideas on how i could pull of either twisted fate or gentleman chogath for halloween?

TF should be fairly easy, i'd think
chogath - i tried finding masks for the violator from spawn, but everyone just has the damn clown face (not the actual violator monster). for the arms/legs, i'd have to find some sort of plushes and work with them.

clothing wise i figure i'll just go to a local salvation army or something and see what they have.

brolaf could also work. in fact that'd probably be the easiest. i can fab some axes out of aluminum we have lying around at work and just grind the edges smooth. finding a helmet might be tricky.

corporate mundo would be hard i think :(
 

Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
110
106
I had an extremely satisfying ranked game.

First, some basic background info. I've decided to stick with 1 champion primarily, and that champion is twitch. Despite what some people think, he is perfectly viable and even very strong at my elo level (which is damn low right now). So, at the start of each game I let my team know that I am going twitch, and sorry if you want me to tank or jungle but I can't do it. Most of the time this works, the team builds around having a twitch. Sometimes someone queue dodges.

Last night, the team captain (of my team) decided to counter me by banning twitch. Sucks, but after a few picks someone else queue dodged. Yay! Got into a new game, with a different team captain, no twitches were banned, and I got to play my champion. Loading screen comes up, and guess what? The previous team captain is playing warwick on the enemy team.

Proceeded to go 15-3-7, in disrupting warwicks jungle, and generally doing my part to lead my team to victory. Couldn't help myself from taunting that he should have banned twitch again. Ah what a satisfying game.

Ranked win percentage of 70% for twitch now, I think sticking with one champion at this elo level is the right move.
 

Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
110
106
Do you roam him?

I do when it's appropriate. A smart team won't overextend with a missing twitch, so sometimes you can't get easy ganks. But I work around that- I start with doran's blade, buy boots next, and build a wriggles lantern. Once I have the lantern I basically live in the jungle, so the other team gets into a bit of a dilemma. I am always missing, so they either have to always hang back and play it safe, or risk pushing despite MIA twitch.

I also use the lantern to push and farm fast, side pushing is very effective as twitch because by the time anyone gets near you you will be stealthed. Early oracles are not a 100% counter, because early game that 400 gold is a very high price, and a team that loses a few oracles early on is put at a huge gold disadvantage.

I like twitch for the control he gives. Sometimes you are most useful to your team when you aren't even there, it's a huge psychological advantage. I could be soloing dragon, but the enemy team will be afraid to engage because they don't know where I am, for example. He forces a team to play a certain way, and then I take advantage of that play-style's weaknesses.
 

zebano

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2005
4,042
0
0
I do when it's appropriate. A smart team won't overextend with a missing twitch, so sometimes you can't get easy ganks. But I work around that- I start with doran's blade, buy boots next, and build a wriggles lantern. Once I have the lantern I basically live in the jungle, so the other team gets into a bit of a dilemma. I am always missing, so they either have to always hang back and play it safe, or risk pushing despite MIA twitch.

I also use the lantern to push and farm fast, side pushing is very effective as twitch because by the time anyone gets near you you will be stealthed. Early oracles are not a 100% counter, because early game that 400 gold is a very high price, and a team that loses a few oracles early on is put at a huge gold disadvantage.

I like twitch for the control he gives. Sometimes you are most useful to your team when you aren't even there, it's a huge psychological advantage. I could be soloing dragon, but the enemy team will be afraid to engage because they don't know where I am, for example. He forces a team to play a certain way, and then I take advantage of that play-style's weaknesses.



I'm not sure if you're runed for it, but I've seen a couple of jungle twitches in the past month. The most successful of them started at red with a decent leash, immediately hit level 2 and ganked mid hard with stealth + expunge. At low elo a jungler more focused on ganks than on jungling can be devastating.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Brolaf would certainly be the easiest, Lime green polo over a hot pink polo with popped collars on each. Fashiong two axes out of some Bud Ice boxes. Although how you go about getting rid of the Bud Ice I shudder to think about. Some poor soul has to drink that piss they try to pass as beer. some frayed stone washed jeans, some mandals, and a beer hat from spencers. That's the easy parts. Then you need a nice beard and furry leather vambraces. With some yellow and pink rubber wrist bands. Voila! Brolaf in a pinch. Definiately the easiest of the bunch to do.

Next would probably be yi. Items would be a fake katana (or you can get a real one if you want although a blunt training version would be better for a costume), black trench coat, black leather pants and boots. Then fashion a head thingie with some green googles and glue some extra goggles around it. Grow a soul patch and color it black. All set for Master Yi.

If you are big enough of a guy you might try for going as tibbers. At least he would be scary looking.


As for the game. I tried a couple solo ranked again. Lost them both. Got self described trolls in both. Went 6/4/24 first game with Sona. Second game I started 8/1/3 as a master Yi. Ended 12/10/8 for that game. Had trolls the entire time talking crap the entire time. First game was a Malphite and Teemo combo on bot. They both blamed me for losing the game yet the Malphite was 5/10/10 and the Teemo was 6/12/8. I had MORE CS than both of them. The graph at the end of the game showed I out tanked them, out dps'd them, had more kills, more assists, more gold, more towers killed, less deaths, and did basically more than them. They kept saying since champ selection, "Sona sucks so we are going to feed." Then spamming U MAD BRO any time I type anything or pinged for the others to go somewhere. Despite the two trolls we still almost won that game. The other team just happened to not be very good. Which really ticks me off because if those two weren't trolling we would have won that game for sure.

Next game was almost as bad. I had a tristana that was being an absolute troll and blaming everyone else. Stacking phantom dancers. Does tristana really need 4 PD's? retarded. Why the hell these people play ranked is beyond me. Wish they would not play rank if they are just going to be retarded. Didn't help that we also had a bad amumu. Not that he was a troll but that he was just not very good. He was stacking armor when the other team only had AP chars except a nocturne. Who was always on me constantly and not him. So I would typically blow up the nocturne as I could and the rest of my team would die. It was annoying as I ended up being the tank and main dps of the entire team as a Master Yi.

Grr. I was itching to play ranked to get my elo up I hoped, but alas it wasn't meant to be. Learned my lesson and going to only go duo ranked from now on.