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

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Chiropteran

Diamond Member
Nov 14, 2003
9,811
110
106
dodge rune refund caught me by surprise. I thought it was just quints, forgot about the yellow dodge runs.. 15k ip to spend now. Picked up the AD lifesteal quints, probably get spellvamp too. Haven't been playing much lately though.
 

xSkyDrAx

Diamond Member
Sep 14, 2003
7,706
1
0
I don't know if anyone wants to try this but:

go to the champ list page that shows all your owned champs and available champs.

find victor

press buy victor

Does it work?

I saw this yesterday. When I clicked the button it shows the purchase option that gives you the difference in IP. I didn't want to click it because I'm not sure about him yet but I'm curious if that works since Victor isn't released yet and this is some oversight by Riot lol
 

douglasb

Diamond Member
Apr 11, 2005
3,157
0
76
I don't know if anyone wants to try this but:

go to the champ list page that shows all your owned champs and available champs.

find victor

press buy victor

Does it work?

I saw this yesterday. When I clicked the button it shows the purchase option that gives you the difference in IP. I didn't want to click it because I'm not sure about him yet but I'm curious if that works since Victor isn't released yet and this is some oversight by Riot lol

Just tried, does not work. "Purchase cannot be completed at this time"
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
There was a patch yesterday, but no notes as to what it was for. In conjunction, I was horrible with Ahri in every game I played with her yesterday. She just does no damage at all now...coincidence? I'm not sure...might have just been a bad day.
 

Snock514

Golden Member
Jul 20, 2009
1,071
2
81
12/21 Minor Patch:

PVP.net v1.50
Fixed a bug with Mastery Pages where players couldn’t remove points correctly

Ahri
Soul Eater renamed to Essence Theft

Items
Fixed a bug where Warmog’s Armor would go beyond 350 bonus health on assists

General
Baron Nashor found his holiday hat
Fixed a bug where death timers weren't displaying the correct time until respawn
 

ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
Riot is giving free RP to everyone over level 6 who hasn't been banned by Tribunal. Interesting...
 

crownjules

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2005
4,858
0
76
You can also get an extra 300RP with any RP purchase you make until Jan 10th or something.

edit: Damn, the free RP amount is a nice 450.
 
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Snock514

Golden Member
Jul 20, 2009
1,071
2
81
Shameless bragging bump :D

ryzel.jpg
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Had fun with a few games with Alistar this past weekend.

I ended up doing some major wreckage with him using the standard support build. Here is how I built him.

Runes:
AP quints
MagPen reds
Mana/lvl yellows
MR/lvl blues

Masteries:
9/0/21 - support selection.


Start Dorans ring. Get philo stone as soon as possible. Get boots next. Get Heart of Gold and then Kage's Lucky pick next.

That's 3 GP/5 items that are all very useful for him. Especially in a pure support build. With the AP from the runes, ring, and pick you'll do decent damage and heals with Alistar's abilities. I then complete the boots to Merc Treads AFTER I get the 3 GP/5 items. After that I build a sheen which I complete to lichbane.

Depending on how the game is going I then start to complete the GP/5 items. Reverie, Deathfire Grasp, and Randiuns Shield are all great items for him in the final build. You end up with decent base tank stats at around 140 ish armor and MR. A nice amount of CDR from DFG and Reverie. A good amount of AP at around 270ish. And still some decent movement speed which is where Alistar sucks cause hes slower than a real cow. You get armor from Randuins, MR and move from Merc treads and Lichbane, AP from Lichbane and DFG, Health from Randiuns and Reverie, and Regen from Reverie. You end up with 3 clickable activates that speed ou up plus any one on your team around you, a slow down that slows any enemies around you (which is easy to get close since you have a gap closer with headbutt), and a tank buster with DFG. The only other item I would consider is getting a deathcap after selling off the Dorans ring. However I never ever made it that far before the game was over. A good Alistar forces the game to be over quickly. His ability to tower dive with his ult means that the enemy can not use towers for cover as effectively. Which allows your team to push through the enemy defensively. Just headbutt + pulverize combo on a group of enemies hugging a tower. Let them all blow CC and ults on you. Pop your ult to break any CC and then laugh as your team mates clean up while you spam heal. Flash out way from the tower if you need to. It's seriously disgusting how Alistar makes towers damn near worthless to defend at.

Even if your CS score is low early on the GP/5 items and some assists keep you right on up there. Once you get the GP/5 items and sheen you can actually clear a minion wave with Pulverize and then Triumphant Roar with your passive. Which is great once the laning phase is over and you no longer have to baby sit the carry.

Alistar's headbutt + pulverize combo early is just to massively annoying early on if the AD carry in your lane is on top of it and follows through with what you are doing. You WILL get first blood at level 3 if your carry is paying attention. I think graves works the best because I had a graves dash in immediately as I headbutted in to unload all 3 buckshot on the target I would combo. It was instant kill at level 3 to anyone we did that to. It was insane.

Even later it is funny as hell as the foes you are laning against then start to tower hug. Once I hit 6 a tower doesn't stop me. Pop ult, Flash in, Pulverize someone up, then head butt them away from the tower. Let my carry finish them off as I run out of tower range with barely a scratch.


Alistar's main downside is right now he can't really kill anyone 1v1. They can't kill him either though if he has his skills up at least :)
 
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Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
So I got Ahri and pretty much love her. She is the kind of champ that perfectly fits my play style, aggressive but able to stand back a bit. I went 21/8/18 in this last game I played. Lost of course, since my team was scrubs as usual. Pretty much dominated the other team, including their Ahri. In fact the only time I saw her use her ult was when she was getting away. I notice Ahri is difficult to mid against longer range champs like Brand or Lux.

I honestly don't play around her passive at all and don't even know if it makes any difference. I use it early on in laning to keep health up, but otherwise...
 

crownjules

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2005
4,858
0
76
Graves is going to get an early kill in bot lane if he has anyone with him with any form of CC, so also Taric and Janna. I cringe when I'm playing Graves and my support is Soraka. He has such a potent early game kit which scales extremely well into the late game. His passive is also really nice and allows him to take some damage that other AD carries wouldn't take so well due to their squishy nature.

Haven't lost a game yet as Malphite. He's a beast out of the jungle.
 

Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
As zebano says, Malz isn't that great.

He's a GREAT pub stomper, no doubt about that. But against skilled opponents he's not all that. Also level 6 doesn't give him an auto kill either in mid. You need to have malefic visions, puddle, ignite AND ult going to finish someone. That and you have to have the person dumb enough to stick around for that and NOT be a instant killer first either. For example, if I'm playing Warwick mid, you are dead as a Malz. You have ZERO chance of reaching level 6 before a Warwick.

Just gonna stop you right there. Everything you say about Malz is incorrect. Everything. I probably play Malz more than anyone. WW is lucky to hit 6 before me. I WILL kill you at lvl 6, and I won't even have one point in puddle. It has nothing to do with someone being stupid, people just don't see flash/ult coming usually. I, being someone that does it enough, will assume that it will come, but I have never even seen another Malz do it against me. Most people don't get how to use the champ, and how to increase the potential of winning a 1v1. I have gotten double kills on ganks in mid with Malz. I've gotten quad kills, killed countless people trying to run away thanks to malefic visions, including double kills when they run into their own teammates also fleeing. He is one of the few champs that can 1v1 tryn and ignore tryn's ult. As far as AP casters go, only maybe LB can take him easily. The biggest weakness he has is fighting tanks, he is just useless against tanks. Everyone else is fair game.

A smart team could certainly build their items around Malz, buying things like sash and veil, but ultimately that just means you forced them to spend what money they had to counter a single champ. That's a success in my book, but I RARELY see a sash and when I do I just don't attack him. Even if they buy just one MR item it is meaningless with the amount of spell pen I will have.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Malak, I'm talking straight from the kit of the character. Malz has zero built in sustain without items, runes, and masteries from his kit. He has zero escape. He has no CC except his ult which is a CC unto himself.

Again I stated that the champ is a GREAT pubstomper. You have done well with him while pubstomping over noobs. I have also seen you fail miserably as Malz as I've played with you. Malz is inconsistent because he is EASILY countered and can be shut down hardcore early. Good players will shut down the champ. Late game he doesn't add anything to a team fight except his ult which is single target and easy to counter against if a team is playing smart. You'll still catch the occasional idiot wandering alone in the jungle and is still somewhat squishy. If you are ahead enough you'll destroy that idiot as Malz. But then again, many other champs can and will do the same thing.

Malz is gimmicky one shot pubstomping champ much like Katarina. I've seen Katarina's do AMAZINGLY well. Seen one get MULTIPLE pentakills in a game. Does that mean that Katarina is some awesome OP champ that should be auto played or auto banned? No. No high elo player will touch the champ for a reason. She is an amazing pub stomping champ but adds NOTHING to a real team fight. In higher competitive games some champs just aren't good enough and/or are easily surpassed by other champs when it comes to TEAM fights.

For the record, Malz can't deal with Tryndamere. Suppression doesn't stop Tryndamere's ult. Nothing does. That's the point of Trynd's Ult. Malz doesn't have the burst damage enough without using his ult to take Trynd down fast enough to force him to pop his ult and THEN stop him from doing anything once Trynd's ult has been used. Trynd right now is so OP he's auto banned or auto picked in high elo games for a reason. He has no effective counter as I stated above except the skill behind the player knowing when to use his abilities. A dumb trynd is still easy to kill. A smart one is impossible to kill.

So if everything I say about Malz is incorrect, would you can to do some 1v1 later on against me?
 
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ImpulsE69

Lifer
Jan 8, 2010
14,946
1,077
126
I don't know how you say he has no CC. He has a large scale silence that does damage. His ult when fed can be crazy in full team fights if used right. I've seen malz single handedly take down an entire team multiple times. Like any character, if they are fed early, they can do some pretty amazing things late game that they may not be able to do otherwise.

Fed makes all the difference in the world for pretty much any character in this game. Team comp makes up 2nd. You can have a good team comp and still get stomped by a fed character.
 

crownjules

Diamond Member
Jul 7, 2005
4,858
0
76
When talking CC, it's usually in reference to knockups, stuns, suppressions, snares/roots, and fears. The "hard" CC that completely immobilizes your champ. Silences, blinds, and slows are "soft" CC, stuff that you still mostly have control of your champ during.

Malz's silence is hard to land on a consistent basis. It's such a small area and almost anyone who's paying attention can move out of the way before it lands.

edit: Here's a new rule we should enact. If you're talking about the strength of a champion and are going to use the qualifier " when/if/has been fed", just delete your argument. :p
 
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HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
I don't know how you say he has no CC. He has a large scale silence that does damage. His ult when fed can be crazy in full team fights if used right. I've seen malz single handedly take down an entire team multiple times. Like any character, if they are fed early, they can do some pretty amazing things late game that they may not be able to do otherwise.

Fed makes all the difference in the world for pretty much any character in this game. Team comp makes up 2nd. You can have a good team comp and still get stomped by a fed character.

No, being fed is easily countered. How? team comps, smart playing, and TIME. A fed player can't be everywhere at once. But usually there is a reason someone is fed and that reason is because they are playing against idiots. If the reason is because they are just getting the lucky last hit in, ala normal Katarina players for example, then there is a chance that the other team can come back and crush a fed players team with smart playing. Malak has stated he keeps getting fed as Malz and losing for example.

Silence is also a soft CC, not a hard CC. Malz silence is a skill shot and thus it is possible to dodge by a good player. Which makes it so that Malz has only ONE reliable CC and that is his ult. It has problems though. While it is a hard CC and does quite a bit of damage, it can be countered easily. Cleanse and QSS both remove it. Banshee Veil can stop it from happening. Using either cleanse or QSS can make it so that malz is now vulnerable to counter attack by the person he was using his ult on just a moment before. Some heroes like Alistar, Trynd, Singed, Irelia, and Olaf can ignore his ult.

Malz is capable of some massive single target burst damage. Of that there is zero doubt. But it all relies heavily upon his ult being successful. Puddle + ulting someone on top of it while having malefic visions going, pet pounding upon target, ignite going, and then a Q at the end if needed will practically kill anyone. But ALL that is too easily countered. Cleanse, QSS, or BV can stop his ult from the target of the ult. In a team fight it all a team mates has to do is silence, stun, or knock Malz away to cancel his ult upon his target. His puddle does massive damage but requires an enemy to stand upon it. Without being to lock someone down through CC that puddle isn't going to do much. Malefic visions is easily countered by regen as most DoTs in every game ar easily countered if they don't shut down regen during the duration of the DoT. So any sustain/regen that a player has is going to counter the DoT to a degree. The Q silence is dodge-able. The pet can be instant killed by a smite.

Again, smart players can shut down Malz to uselessness. There is a reason he is almost never picked or banned in high elo games. He is too easily countered. Everything he does can be done better and more reliable by other champs.
 
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HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Even if they buy just one MR item it is meaningless with the amount of spell pen I will have.

Saintvicious as well as other high elo players said this as well. 160 is the magic number for tankiness in either armor or MR. There just isn't enough Mpen or ArPen to counter 160 armor or MR. Why? Because anything over 60 in either is going to be at least 50% reduction. But once you get beyond 50% the amount of reduction you get per point in either armor or MR gets drastically reduced.

It is EASY for most heroes to reach that 160 number. Mr/lvl blues, Merc Treads, and another MR item is all it takes.
 

Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
For the record, Malz can't deal with Tryndamere. Suppression doesn't stop Tryndamere's ult. Nothing does. That's the point of Trynd's Ult. Malz doesn't have the burst damage enough without using his ult to take Trynd down fast enough to force him to pop his ult and THEN stop him from doing anything once Trynd's ult has been used. Trynd right now is so OP he's auto banned or auto picked in high elo games for a reason. He has no effective counter as I stated above except the skill behind the player knowing when to use his abilities. A dumb trynd is still easy to kill. A smart one is impossible to kill.

Trynd is VERY easy to deal with as Malz. It's a long-standing joke with me because Trynd's are always whined about and I've never had trouble with them.

So if everything I say about Malz is incorrect, would you can to do some 1v1 later on against me?

The dynamics of gameplay are such that 1v1 really isn't a test of how well a champ will really do in an actual game. It's an ego-stroker, something I certainly don't need. You can believe anything you like, but my stats would say otherwise if they tracked actual stats at all. I try to avoid ranked as much as possible, but it's the only way to get a record of your gameplay stats per champ, and even with my troll game I still have less than 3 deaths per game average on Malz.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Trynd is VERY easy to deal with as Malz. It's a long-standing joke with me because Trynd's are always whined about and I've never had trouble with them.



The dynamics of gameplay are such that 1v1 really isn't a test of how well a champ will really do in an actual game. It's an ego-stroker, something I certainly don't need. You can believe anything you like, but my stats would say otherwise if they tracked actual stats at all. I try to avoid ranked as much as possible, but it's the only way to get a record of your gameplay stats per champ, and even with my troll game I still have less than 3 deaths per game average on Malz.

There is NOTHING that Malz has special that can kill a good Trynd player. Killing a crappy Trynd is one thing, but killing a good one requires too much team work that any one player isn't capable of.

You must have armor and attack speed reduction items. You must have exhaust on your team. Even then you must have ignite and enough burst to burn him down to force him using his ult. Afterwards you need to place an ignite on him a couple of seconds after his ult goes off so that you have a remote chance of killing a good Trynd player in a scenario where you don't have multiple chained hard CC's to kill him. Even then it's NOT guaranteed to kill him. None of which really stops him from raping your face in the mean time without armor, exhaust, and/or hard CC. You most certainly can STOP Trynd from harming your team if you focus on him first and blow CC on him in sequence to prevent a good Trynd player from killing anyone. But that quite a bit of team coordinate to accomplish.

A good Trynd player does the following. He either hangs in the back or goes around the side to flank for a team fight similar to how fiddlesticks would be played in that regard. Waits for the initiation to start from either team and then spins into the back row. By then many of the summoner spells and ults from both sides have been burned. He then proceeds to decimate a team by 2 shotting the squishies in the back and then working his way through the rest of the team. If any team is expecting this they may be able to CC him and start to burn him down to force him to use his ult. Remember his ult can NOT be stopped by anything in game. It is always clickable. If something like this happens to a good Trynd to force him to use his ult he then has to decide his next move. Does he stick around and see if he can finish making a kill more or two before dying? Or does he spin out and make his way to safety? Good Trynd's know when do the former or the later correctly. Mediocre Trynds always just hang around. Bad ones have no clue for the best timing on their Ults are always try to engage 5v5 time fights first. Trynd is NOT a tank. He's a hyper carry that blows through teams and thus needs a little bit of protection by his own team mates or surprise on his side.

So a Malzahar has NOTHING that can stop a good Tryndamere player by himself currently. In the past suppression DID work against hit ult and prevented it. That has all been changed. Ignite couldn't be cleansed either. Now it can. The recent changes to Cleanse, QSS, his Ult, his rework on passive, his Q healing, and the changes to Masteries to make the Offensive Tree worth a damn has made him into an unstoppable monster in a good player's hand. This is why Tryndamere is so OP right now and is about to be hit fairly hard with the nerf bat if the rumors are true.



As for 1v1, ummm how else do you do early to mid game as Malz? I was under the assumption that most Malzahar's go solo mid and not a duo lane. That's a 1v1 situation to me unless you are counting on ganks from the jungle. In which case you are no longer relying on YOUR skill, but the skill of the jungler to help you get fed. If that is the case then you are not helping your argument that Malz's is as great a champ as you seem to think or are countering any argument I have thus far made as to why Malz is not a good champ. If you can't reliably win as Malz in a 1v1 situation then that proves one or both of these suppositions. Either you aren't good, or Malz isn't a good champ. I'm not talking about using a "counter" pick champ against Malz like Kassadin either.

Let me put it this way. I can pick almost any champ and be reasonably assured of my success with that champ in mid lane in a 1v1 scenario against even the best Malzahar player in the game. It's not a ego stroke or a boastful claim. I'm trying to make a point that Malz is NOT a good champ right now and there is no better way I can prove it, besides showing that arguments of why, than to just pick a random champ and go 1v1 against him.
 
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Malak

Lifer
Dec 4, 2004
14,696
2
0
There is NOTHING that Malz has special that can kill a good Trynd player.

Actually the synergy of his skills to be able to do damage while you ult is why you can easily kill a trynd. They rarely have any HP so bursting him down is actually pretty easy, and all you have to do is wait a couple ticks before ulting then ult, he'll blow rage while still in ult, then ignite and flash away. Works every time. There's no magic formula, trynd's just never have resists or health so they are easy to pop. If it weren't for his ult, he'd stand no chance against anyone. With Malz's ult, he stands now chance against him. It's just that simple, nothing Trynd can do about it. At WORSE, it's a double KO. But most of the time I can get away.



As for 1v1, ummm how else do you do early to mid game as Malz? I was under the assumption that most Malzahar's go solo mid and not a duo lane. That's a 1v1 situation to me unless you are counting on ganks from the jungle. In which case you are no longer relying on YOUR skill, but the skill of the jungler to help you get fed.

In a 1v1 game you can build against a particular champ. You might not necessarily buy a QSS in a 5v5, but in a 1v1 of course you would. There is a lot that changes to the way you play when you know it is just you vs another guy.

And trust me, I tell gankers to stay away from mid. I never want help mid, I quite often go gank another lane actually.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Actually the synergy of his skills to be able to do damage while you ult is why you can easily kill a trynd. They rarely have any HP so bursting him down is actually pretty easy, and all you have to do is wait a couple ticks before ulting then ult, he'll blow rage while still in ult, then ignite and flash away. Works every time. There's no magic formula, trynd's just never have resists or health so they are easy to pop. If it weren't for his ult, he'd stand no chance against anyone. With Malz's ult, he stands now chance against him. It's just that simple, nothing Trynd can do about it. At WORSE, it's a double KO. But most of the time I can get away.


You don't realize the nature of Trynd's heal with his Q since the changedo you? On top of that Trynd just needs PD and IE, then they build health and slows usually with FM. Trynd does more with more health and consequently he's not being built the way you are used to seeing. Watch higher elo trynd player's and you'll see what I mean. He has enough sustain to laugh at any DoT damage now and only a hardcore burst will make him use his ult.
 

hans030390

Diamond Member
Feb 3, 2005
7,326
2
76
Recently started playing ranked games. Are people usually such assholes while playing? I thought it could be bad on normal games...wow.

Also, Humble, not sure why you seem to be hating on Malz. I'm no good with him, but I have a friendly who is ungodly with him. If you have masteries/runes specifically tailored for him, know how to play him right, and don't have a crappy team, Malz can dominate just about anyone from what I've seen. He's not a champ I see played well often (almost never), but he can definitely be one of the scariest champs in the game when things are done right.
 

sash1

Diamond Member
Jul 20, 2001
8,896
1
0
Recently started playing ranked games. Are people usually such assholes while playing? I thought it could be bad on normal games...wow.

haha. people take ranked very seriously and thus rage that much harder. the other problem with ranked around the 'elo hell' level is that there are a ton of baddies that all believe they're stuck in ELO hell because of others, so they just continually lay blame elsewhere for why they're terrible.

gets a little better as you get higher ELO, but 1600-1800 is still full of idiots who will do anything possible to lose a game. it's pretty bad, (but hopefully i can break out this season, last season i was stuck around 1700 as well.)

i'd recommend using the ignore feature often. really is best to just ignore the baddies and focus on your own game.
 

HumblePie

Lifer
Oct 30, 2000
14,665
440
126
Recently started playing ranked games. Are people usually such assholes while playing? I thought it could be bad on normal games...wow.

Also, Humble, not sure why you seem to be hating on Malz. I'm no good with him, but I have a friendly who is ungodly with him. If you have masteries/runes specifically tailored for him, know how to play him right, and don't have a crappy team, Malz can dominate just about anyone from what I've seen. He's not a champ I see played well often (almost never), but he can definitely be one of the scariest champs in the game when things are done right.

Not hating on him, just saying there are better champs for what he does now out there. Just like at one point Warwick was a viable jungler. Warwick can still jungle, but there are champs out there that just do it much better. If warwick wasn't good in solo lane, he'd be a really weak champ right now.

Again, personal anecdotes aside, Malz as an ability kit is weak right now. Let's compare him to Xerath for example shall we?

Range, which is greater? Xerath.
Escape ability? Xerath when he toggles Locus on and off for speed boost.
Reliable hard CC? Both but Xerath can do it more often and for far longer.
Wave pushing speed? Xerath because he can hit an entire wave with one shot while malz can't.
Survivability? Xerath with passive armor bonus.
Burst Damage? Xerath. He does it all up front where Malz takes time which can be countered.


Why would you pick Malz over Xerath then? Heck, I can do this comparison with other AP champs. Ahri for example. Lux for another one. Brand for a third. Leblanc for a fourth. Swain for a fifth. Morgana for a sixth.

I could keep going. All those I listed above do what Malz is capable of doing, burst AP damage, but do it SOOOO much better because they have built in sustain and/or survivability that Malz lacks. It is not about hating. It is about facts of what can be done. I've listed that all up above.