League of Legends
 

The Warcraft 3 scenario Defense of the Ancients is probably the most popular scenario out there, Well, The same guys that made DOTA have made a whole game out of it. It's got quite a following and if you like DOTA, you'll probably like LOL. It still pretty much looks and plays like the Warcraft 3 map.


Edit: I took out the beta stuff from this post to avoid confusion. The game is out now and free to play. Thanks go to Cynthetiq and Zeraph for gettin the title changed. :)

League of Legends - Index

I have 2 invites left. Turns out I had 6 invites.

I have 3 invites remaining. You can PM me if Reese is out.

Have not noticed if I got one of Reese's yet or not, but I just wanted to say thanks guys for posting em up here.

The invite might get filtered into the spam folder but I've sent out invites to all the people that's pmed me with their email.

Nope, no spam folder, maybe they're holding back on sending out their e-mails yet, unless its coming direct from you? No idea.

I, as well, have five invites. Holler.

You guys have like a group or whatever? Thanks to YaWhateva, I'm in and I guess it would be easier for me to play with people who can teach me a little :)

my name in game is 'thejuanald' add me as a friend. I probably don't have much time this week until Friday (fuck grad school!) but this weekend I can probably catch a game or two with you.

Ok. I guess I'll take some time after I finish all my work to learn how to play later today/this week. My in-game name is Phamily.

Hey so I finally got in, turns out their automailer filters my e-mail address.. yay. My name is "Orchrist" so if anything wants to look me up go for it. After playing DotA for so many years its going to take me awhile to UN-learn using A for attack move, seriously who thought using X was a good idea, I hate them. =(

I was thinking the same thing, Orchrist. I never played Dota, but I'm still so used to A+left click. X+left click doesn't even make sense. MY FINGERS AREN'T THERE NATURALLY!!!

I just hope to God LoL isnt LIVE or Steam. . . just good 'ol fasioned log on and play that Sh***.
PLz dont sell us Icefrog . . .

I don't think it is but why would it being on Steam be bad?

I have to admit I'm not enamored with it so far, the graphics are so incredibly cartoony it's a turn-off. The recommended items system seems to cheapen the variance of items people will buy to build there character, sure people will still do it, but its less likely they'll try. I have not even tried to change the controls yet, hopefully that's possible because X as attack move and A as a insanely long refresh heal is just something that needs to go away. Now I need to find a Heroes of Newerth beta invite...(complete DotA clone with different names).

The items aren't that hard to navigate through. Just pick a couple of things you want or think your dude needs and buy the best in that category.

I never use the recommended items system and I dont think hardly anyone does.

I wouldnt mind being the only dude in South Africa having a beta key invite. I cans hav key plox.
Why Steam? The endless bombardment of updating every scrap and corner of your Steamy products. I can go on and on, but time and place.

PM me an email address and I will get you one.

Ok I've been playing this game for the past 2 days and holy cow I'm addicted to it. It's like WoW PVP and items except you don't have to play for hours at a time. Matches are around 30-60 minutes so it's over quick. Since I switched to using Master Yi as my champion, I'm 15-0. Who cares to try and break my streak??????

Back after a couple months guys. Guess which game has been keeping me away from TFP? ;D

I'm willing to play any 5 of you guys anytime. My IGN is Skystriker. Adding TheJuanald, Phamily, and Orchrist to my list after the patch. Please list off your SNs :D.

I officially challenge yoU lasereth since you seem the most confident :D. Name your terms!

Not sure how many of you follow the competitive scene on LoL: is the first part of the first game of the finals in the last tourney. Had $850 worth of prizes I believe. Not bad for a game in beta ;D. The person frapsing it has their vent key sounds, which are somewhat annoying, but don't really detract from the video imo.

I've tried some different champions and I keep going back to Master Yi. He definitely requires a ton of gold and items to be truly great but once he gets the items he needs...watch out!!!!!!!! The match before last, I ambushed the other team on 3v3 and I killed all 3 of them in under 10 seconds using highlander and wuju style over and over (because if you kill a champion using highlander, all your CDs refresh). He is simply sick at end game. Taking down turrets in 3 seconds.

Yi is most definitely a carry. And he's fantastic at that. However, he's the squishiest of the melee DPS (big downside), plus lacks any CC entirely. His escape mechanisms are modest, but at least not nonexistent. A (rarely) situational blink and an ult that gives immunity to slows is decent.

Yi will perform better on TT due to less CC. Many heroes that are merely modest picks on SR are much better on TT. Still, if you were able to 1v3 the other team, I have my doubts that they were on your skill level :P.

But anyways: What is your summoner name Lasereth? I want to add you :(.

It's Razerwind.

Also, this game is getting annoying because all it is after level 10 is gank squad mode. If you show your face on the minimap after level 10, you're dead. I'm glad they are proposing changes to put at least SOME incentive in the game to kill turrets and push your lane by yourself or with little help. Right now after level 10 you're not even playing LoL anymore, you're playing hide in the brush until an enemy shows his face and then 5v1 him. Boring and annoying.

And yes Master Yi can get shutdown so easily that I rarely play him now. I always get #1 damage, gold earned, minions killed, turrets killed, health restored, etc. when I play him but we always end up losing because the moment I show my face I'm dead versus the stunners.

BTW I would love to play against you 1v1 or 2v2 but me and my friends still suck at 5v5 so forget that. We hate playing gank squad mode so we always lose.

I haven't played in a while, but for a little bit I was using one of the new heroes. The german engineer guy, whatever his name is. I watched some dude playing as him on my team go 21-0 in a match and I was sold. Those turrets he sets up are monstrous. When I tried it, I literally took on a 1v5 with almost no problems. (Yeah, they sucked, but still...) I've found what he needs is +speed and +ability power. The speed is to kite the opponents to your turret farm which is nicely tucked away behind the bushes. Three games in a row gave me 12-0, 8-0, and 8-3.

Lasereth, in such a short time your analysis has improved immensely o_O. I wonder how far down the metagame trickles and how fast ;o.

I'm also glad you're current on the changes they are doing to combat this new metagame. Yi is still viable, just you really need to construct a team around him.

Also, I'm not a huge fan of 5v5 gank squad so my friends and I try to avoid it as well. I'm down for 3v3 TT if you are especially, that's my favorite map.


@Ironpham: Hahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahaha ha. Heimerdinger. xD.

If you haven't played in a while, you might've missed the nerf to him. He's pretty much the only hero I don't consider viable right now. :(. I liked him too, it was a shame. Personally I think he needs to be reworked, he affects the metagame very negatively.

Aww damn. That's a shame he got nerfed. I guess, then again, he was really overpowered with a good team. Ahh well. You might have to teach me how to play with other heroes though when we play.

For sure. I've always loved teaching people to play games I play. I love watching them improve.

Razer and his friend and I just pwnt some peeps on Twisted Treeline. No contestttt. Maybe we can get a full 5s team going from TFP one of these days :3?

Btw, use vent ;D. Makes such a diff ^_^

Maybe someone should suggest to the LoL team to put some sort of % damage reduction per person. So like, a 5v5 might have a -20% damage reduction in game to slow down the combat and keep ganking type strategies to a minimum. They do this in many PvP MMOs to keep people from being one shotted. There are many ways to do such, like another method is to cap maximum incoming damage. Like you can't take more than 50% hps within 1 sec. This keeps the game away from insta gibbing.

Insta gibbing is not discouraged in LoL, but it's generally difficult to do against an intelligent player.

The problem is CC dependence right now. The next 2 patches are implementing SO many gameplay tweaks that are going to drastically transform the metagame. The game in less than a month will be entirely different from today. There will be new metagame monsters, and Riot will conquer them. They have some of the best designers in the industry on their team :3.

Yeah the CC dependence is exactly right from my experiences.

BTW, this is sorta out there, but it seems to me like the game should be built around 4v4. That way 3 people can be in each lane and 1 person can be ganking. This way most ganks will be 2v1 which is much more interesting. The possibility for 3v1 is there also, but if it were 4v4, players would be forced to give up a lane until the gank is over with. Give and take. Right now, even in the beginning, you can put 1 person on each lane, and then still have 2 leftover for ganking which is ridiculous.

They've run Summoner's Rift with both 6v6 and 4v4. They felt both inadequate as compared to 5v5. Personally, I don't find it ... 'ridiculous'? that you can gank with 2. It is very very very rare to have two junglers, and very very difficult to pull off well competitively (I've never seen it done well, each time that team failed hard). In a competitive team, with everyone on vent, you try to keep everyone updated on the enemy teams whereabouts. So if 2 people suddenly disappear from their lanes, -someone- should be calling it out on vent, and each lane preps itself to be ganked. They might move closer to their tower, dig in, or idk. Perhaps they might go missing as well, try to get a couple people together and do a gank of their own or try to countergank the ganking party.

That being said, it's totally possible to go host a 4v4 in practice games right now. I will say it is a slightly different experience, and not negatively.

Yeah the 4v4 is way funner IMO. Though I am really starting to like 3v3 TT.

Are you online atm? I can't tell cuz of the buggy friends list. Can't wait for the next 2 maintenance patches. It's going to fix like 95% of the stability issues in the game :P. Now they just need to switch ISPs or w.e so we don't lag at peak times :p

EDIT: It seems the hotfix last night was for the lag, nvm :D

I always liked the lower pop dota games. When I played it always annoyed me that people insisted on waiting for a full 5v5 (which could take a looong time).

1v1 was ok between friends just to chat, 2v2 was cool only mid. 3v3 was pretty horrid (whether you used all 3 lanes or only 2). 4v4 was fun, but 5v5 was best imo. I like LoL in that it made 3v3 just as appealing (even more so to some people) as 5v5. In LoL waiting for 5v5 is near instantaneous if you queue. Their practice game (same method of hosting as DotA) implementation is pretty sucktacular right now. I can't wait for them to retool that.

So I only just started, but I always thought Nasus was a dumb hero for some reason. I just tried him and *killed* 21 kills in like 40 minutes (maybe not that impressive but my personal best). I was like taking on 2 heroes at once, it was amazing. Granted, "newb" game, but still.

So does anyone else think that the mage dps types are underpowered? They just don't seem to scale well at all. Aniva and the like are fine of course for their CC usefulness.

Also, anyone know if anyone else has stealth besides twitch and evelynn? I love playing assasin characters but besides twitch none of them feel very assasiny (evelynn feels too casterish even tho she's melee).

And one more question, (I'd search their forums but they seriously hurt my eyes for some reason) anyone know what the deal with cost for this game is? Its technically out right? So the accounts we have now arent going to be wiped? I take it its like one of those free 2 play mmos that have items banks for real cash?

Alright, I'll go through 1 by 1.

Nasus is RIDICULOUS. There are 2 strong builds for him. 1, if you're new to the game/him/aren't very good in general (no offense): Max spirit fire. Its cruise control for farming. Sit in a lane and just kill each creep wave with spirit fire. Endgame, you've got ridiculous items and you run around and wtfkerpwn everyone.

Option 2: (Much more active): Take a level of your SS first, and farm it like -mad- for the rest of the game. Every time it's off cd you should be grabbing a lasthit with it. MAX your wither. One of the BEST slows in the game. Ridiculously awesome. Slightly more fluid after that. I go: Q W Q W W R W E W E R, max q, max e. Basically e is good to lay down in a teamfight for the debuff, not really for the damage (unless you go option 1...in which case you're useless after you lay down your e).

What do you mean by mage dps? Do you mean like, veigar? (Who nukes the crap out of everyone), or corki (who is a hybrid, a dps that's also a caster). The first (nukers) were the most easily shutdown 'class' before today. Now with triple the mpen (magic penetration) items after this patch, they are going to be a LOT more viable. Hybrids were always scarily strong (despite the lack of cc, Corki is imo one of the strongest carries in the game right now).

Others with stealth: Shaco. He's a BEAST. (And VERY assassiny) He got hit pretty hard with the nerfbat today (as always with Riot, a wide selection of tiny nerfs). Here's hoping he's a lot more fun to have in a game now. Teemo also got his passive reworked with this patch, except:

Riot f'd up with this patch. They introduced a bug which basically makes the game unplayable for over half of the playerbase. Obviously, they are working on this right now and will have a hotfix out A.S.A.P.

So once the patch is all up and working, Teemo's new passive (lie in wait) makes him stealth if he's stood still for 6 seconds. Taking damage, or moving / any action will break teemo's stealth. Seems interesting, gonna have to wait and see how it works.

There will be no more wipes, period, unless something catastrophic happens to their servers xD. Riot's business model: unnecessary microtransactions.

Right now we're living the good life with all champs unlocked (but no runes T_T). Come the 17th, the store opens (hopefully, assuming it's not delayed again), and we lose all free access to all champions.

There will be a rotating roster of 10 free champions each week. You are also able to unlock champions with either IP (earned by playing) or RP ($$). I have about 10k IP (curse you school). This is enough to unlock 3 of the most expensive champions permanently, about 6 midtier champions, or over 10 of the cheapest. Unlocking a champion is permanent. Also, if you choose to BUY the game (the collector's edition for $30), one of the many perks you will get is 20 (half!) of the champions unlocked permanently. Not to mention $10 in Riot points, which is probably enough to unlock another couple.

You can unlock EVERYTHING by playing (long enough), or pay to unlock champions. Runes will only be available with IP, not $$. I will probably spend my IP on runes and purchase the collectors edition + a couple champions that I really enjoy with $$.

The reason Riot chose this business model over a flatout box is they need continued income over the years. They plan on working on LoL for years to come (LimaBeans said that their minimum goal, if everything goes wrong and they can't sustain the game, is 2 years. He said their real goal is over a decade), so just like a MMORPG, they need continued revenue.





Now for my feelings on the patch.

Riot is amazing at fixing things that need to be fixed. Over 20 of the worst bugs have been fixed. Thank you jeezus.

They have balanced SO many things that need to be balanced.

Yet the biggest thing that we've been bitching about, the baron buff, stays nearly untouched. It's quite possible that all the other changes in this patch will so severely affect the metagame that this isn't necessary. Who knows, tho. Either way, we've gotta live with this baron for another week or two :P

Thanks tons for explaining. I don't know what it is about their website (must be the color scheme) that just plays games with my eyes.

mage dps (mage nuker would be a more appropriate title i spose): Ya, like veigar. Glad to hear they're fixing it.

I played DoTA forever (since it originally came out till like a year ago)..I wonder if I should buy the CE. Especially since I like playing random. 30$ is pretty reasonable so long as they don't keep springing new fees.

So you seem to know quite a bit about the game. Who are the top 10 hero picks (for pwning...I understand a pro team would have support heroes). So I can start to focus and make a list of which ones I want available before they lock em all out. Should help me decide if I want to buy it or spend time unlocking.

granted the patch prob just changed a lot...

So it sounds like (for ex)
Nasus
Shaco
Corki...

...Teemo and Annie?..
?

Hey hooo.

I love explaining things :3. Satisfies some unconscious need to be useful I guess ;D.

I think the CE is well worth the money. I'll be buying it soon. As for new fees: they're going to be introducing new content to the game. However, they don't want to follow a model like WoWs: power creeping. They don't want new heroes to be BETTER. Have to stay balanced. New runes shouldn't be BETTER. Etc. So at some point, you WILL have a fully powered up LoL account that there's no need to ever buy anything again for. If you want the new flashy skins they make, or blah blah, you're free to do so.

And of course, you can get to that powered up acct without spending a dime (it'll be quite the grind for a FULL runebook, I'm the first to admit :P).

Top hero picks are a rough thing. The fact is, if any top 1% player entered even a middle-high game, he would destroy with whatever hero he picked (except maybe Heimer...).

I'll list some heroes that if you get really good at, really let you shine while solo queueing:

Tryndamere
Corki
Teemo
Annie
Jax
Kassadin
Twisted Fate
Twitch
Katarina
Shaco

Thanks, just the list I was looking for.

Hah, just saw someone own with Tryndamere. Other team was like, rigged hero! But I can tell he'd be a hard one to master. Everyone else I've seen with him sucks so far.

Kassidin I'm not surprised, I had a good run with him, almost as good as my first time with nasus. I love his mana regain ability.

So far I havent figured out twisted fate, I've stunk with him and so has everyone else I've seen. Which is too bad cause his theme is really cool. Is it learning when to use his TP thats so important?

How come Nasus and Tristana didn't make the list?

Sorry to burst your bubble but Kass' W is his worst ability. Here is my recommended skill build:
Q E E Q E R E Q E Q R Q.

Twisted Fate takes serious timing skill to use. His gold card ability DESTROYS. His combo of: set gold card, ult, quickly find low hp hero unless you already have a target, teleport in, and smack them, is just ridiculously powerful. He's not godtier in high elo games but he's solid enough. If you have good timing skills you will go far with TF.

Nasus: Option 1 with him (farmfest) is pretty standard in low elo games. I'm not there, so maybe he does destroy. He's definitely top-tier in high elo, but going option 2. I just don't find him easy to destroy with: might just be I'm not a nasus player :).

Tristana is a great carry. However, she's not the most mobile thing in the world, and stomping usually requires you to surprise your opponents. Add a phage/mallet on her and you might be able to destroy though ;o.

My trist build would be: Cleaver (#1 item for her), infinity, phage. Those 3 in some order.

Btw, hop on AIM :o. Mine is Trinity of Self.

lol I keep missing you by like 1 minute.

Mind if I friend you lasereth? My summoner's name is Zeraph.

Anyone else playin can feel free to friend me too.

No probz.

BTW the top tier champions also have the highest learning curve. Anivia or Twisted Fate is absurdly hard for new people. I totally suck at Twisted Fate but once you get the card picking down pat he's ridiculous. Also, play a good Anivia enemy and you'll rage.

I've seen a good Annie do consistent double and triple kills in this game also.

For sure. Corki's up there too :D.

Before I started using Heimerdinger or however you spell it, I used Corki. He is pretty hard to use. I'm still not sure of the best items to get with him. But still, he could 1v1 anyone and dominate them.

Corki -is- hard to use to his max potential, and that's what I love about him. Heroes with a very high skill ceiling naturally perform phenomenally if you are able to use them to their potential.

What are suggested items/builds for him? I think I'm going to start using him since Heimer got nerfed.

Where'd everyone go <_<. Lol after that last game we all kinda dissipated.

Btw lasereth I saw your post on the metagame.

Personally, I think the tools for changing the 5 man gank squads are already in place with this patch, people just aren't using them enough.

90. Gold. Wards.

They last for almost FIVE minutes.

These are so cheap it's not even funny.

If you have map control/awareness, that makes 5 man gank squads far less effective. Wards give you that control. I find myself buying between 2 and 12 of these every game now for my team.

Next patch comes a further tool: CC invuln item. (I think/hope it's next patch). This will further increase the viability of not being in a 5 man pack. If you're caught in a bad situation, you at least have an option that gives you a chance at surviving instead of being chain CC'D to death.

With both of these tools, the metagame surely has the POTENTIAL to change. And if the other team is still 5 man squading? LET THEM. Go farm multiple lanes (with your map control, you know exactly when to get out :D), farm 3/4 of the neutrals on the map (wherever they aren't), grab dragon when they're on the left side, baron when they're on the right. Teleport to pushed minion waves to quickly down a tower and get out, get to your lane when that 5 man squad decides to actually push. A 5 man squad is SLOW. Out maneuver them.

Finally we have the tools that it shouldn't be a dominant strategy; people just aren't using them enough.

If you wanted to keep a single ward alive before this in the game, it cost you 15 (45 minutes/3 minutes duration) * 150, or 2250 gold. That's a very high gold investment for only one area of the map, but it IS the entire game. Now? It's 9 (45/5) * 90, or 810. Almost 1/3 the cost. Wards are triply useful now. Use them :). EVERYONE. Even the carry can spare one or two, and the support should be buying them out the rear end. No one's item build is so critical to the game that you can't drop 90 here and there to help your team out.

Yes I think you're right. I'll be buying them along with pots everytime now.

As a note, I don't think it's necessary to get them at gamestart (generally other items will increase your laning potential more). Unless their team has a jungler, early game map control is pretty unimportant because you can see them at almost all times.

It's once the laning starts to break down/first ganks are happening or expected to start happening that you should think about whipping out some wards.

/groan
Ugh, I hate consumables :P Don't ask me why...never liked them in *any* game. Its not the price or anything, I think its something about having to manage them...no idea really whats at the root of it. Oh well, not that I'm complaining if they really needed it for pro games.

Could someone explain the terms to me? Like Jungler, carrier..etc I can kind of guess (besides pusher; that's obvious).

Also, is Katarina and Tryndamere the only two characters without mana?

So I practiced some more on Kat and Shaco, Jozrael, and while I got a bit better I still basically suck with em :P I still own with nasus/kass/twitch though.

I've had some friends in DotA that didn't like consumables because they didn't provide a permanent benefit. It's really silly tbh when you realize that they give a ton of gain. You should always (99%) after buying your 1 (2?) items at gamestart round out your purchase with potions with w.e money you have left.

Jungler: Generally means someone can go into the jungle/forest/neutral creeps from level 1 and make his own way there. If you enter the jungle later on in the game (when you have a considerable amount of levels), you're probably just going there because there's no good farm in lanes atm, and that's really just neutral creeping.

Carry: Someone who is item dependent and becomes very powerful lategame if he is properly farmed. See: Corki, Yi, Ashe, Jax, etc.

The third char without mana is Dr. Mundo. He uses his health instead, like Tryndamere.

Shaco got hit with the nerfstick this patch, so it might be a bit harder to play him. It highly depends on whether you build atk or ap shaco: both shine in different areas. He's very good at mindgames, so you might want to put him off until you're more familiar with the game as a whole. 1v1 he's not very strong.

Katarina...is weak :(. She's been nerfed in so many patches in a row. She's fantastic for stomping low games if you're pro with her, but upper tier games rarely if ever see her.

I recommend AP kat, and rushing Rylai's. It's kind of necessary on her (Frozen mallet if you go physical).

I became a huge fan of Tristana, she is super squishy though so I might need to rework my items a bit

im a huge fan of phage early on her. Black cleaver destroys, and sometime upgrading to a frozen mallet :)

yeah i usually get vamp. scepter, avarice blade, beserker's greaves, infinity edge, then zeal, black cleaver and finish off phantom dancer if the game is still going. If the game goes after that I go for frozen mallet.

After I got cleaver in a game today I was critting for almost 800 and my biggest crit was 830 or something. I would kill two heroes instantly but usually die because they had a Teemo and I would die from the poison after I killed him and another.

In games like that I might need more armor or health because she is pretty squishy. Phage might be pretty good to work in there as well.

So how's cho'gath? He seems pretty good although he must have the worst passive...Seriously wtf

But the rest of his abilities seem great and with an AP build they seem like they'd do great dmg.

How does his Ultimate work though if the hero is above said amount? It still does damage but I can't tell for sure how much.

Oh, you have much to learn young padawan. Cho'gath is a tank. Through and through. He's not meant to do damage. He's meant to nom nom creeps and get really big (from his ultimate. Quick cooldown cooldown and all). You get a few high HP items on him like a Warmog's, and he becomes an unkillable beast. His passive allows him to stay out much longer than most other heroes, as it regens him like whoa (both mana AND HP) once you've mastered the art of last hitting.
Don't bother with an AP build on him, his skills don't scale well with it. Get big and fat with him, run around stunning and silencing everyone, and no one can stop you.

Just played Warwick. Mhmmm ownage. His ult could be a bit better tho for its long CD. People were practically fleeing at the site of him :P I didn't even get that many KBs either (mostly assists).

EDIT OMG Now I have a pwner for blitzcrank

EDIT Damn Nunu is pretty damn good too. That speed buff is sick. Now I just wish Q was more worth while (it being a minion only power).

Wow. A lot of interesting talk going on here.

YaWhateva: I recommend putting the cleaver and phage earlier in your build, but whatever works for you. She's pretty versatile, and with that much needed buff I think we'll be seeing more of her. Her e is pretty atrocious though, it needs redesigning.

@Zeraph: Cho's passive is decent. It really helps his laning. I'm not a big cho player but it's annoying as heck to face a good one. Probably one of the best laners right now. There's a pretty funny thread on the forums talking about how Cho has been buffed like 6 times in a row now, so obviously the trend is going to continue and it's going to become League of Cho'Gaths. He's quite flexible as well. Also, AP Chogaths are S.C.A.R.Y. He's typically a tank, but I find throwing an atmas or some AP on him does wonders at making you more terrifying. I believe if the hero is above said amount his ultimate does magic damage, which means it will be resisted. For example, if they have 50% magic reduction, and your ult does 800, if they have 799 hp they will be eaten, but if they have 801, they will survive with 401 hp.

Warwick is...interesting. He's a pretty ridiculous jungler, but good teams -shut him down-. It's a hobby of mine to play against some of my friends that like Cho'Gath but don't generally play high level games. Ward the jungle or guess where their (fairly predictable) circuit will lead them, gank them for free runes, and wheee. His ultimate is also...too easily countered. At least morgana's shield no longer breaks it (thank goodness).

Blitz is a solid choice (one of the top 3 initiators in the game, and a REALLY short cd knockup, which is my favorite type of disable). Nunu is VERY interesting. Extremely powerful but his ultimate is unreliable. He's going to be unstoppable once that BKB equivalent (magic invulnerability for a short time) is put in LoL (another patch or 2).

Keep up the theorycrafting guys and I'll do my best to give my 2 cents on it <3.

My fav char is definitely Tristana. Her buff in the latest patch has been much needed, since most AP dps builds own her badly. I normally prefer to play support heores, so the build I've come up with is Tiamat, Cleaver and Trinity Force.

Tiamat is the cornerstone though, since it boosts her E (which is too weak), and gives her farming ability. Also for the Tiamat my inital items are Faerie Charm, Rejuvenation Bead and a health potion, which helps to give her pathetic stats some staying power in early laning. I normally farm a Tiamat and boots outright before needing to recall.

The Cleaver is self explanatory. The Trinity Force gives her all round stats, which can be argued makes her less of a specialist, but I find that the HP bonus gives a good basis if my team tank fails, or if I get focus fired. The movement speed and slow bonus makes her a good chaser (combined with W) in case my team stunner fails.

Suggestions for alternate builds are welcome, but I find that the recommended items fail for me.

Recommended items are good for players who have never played the hero and want some tips on stuff that is generally useful for the hero. They will never put items in the recommended item list that require playing a certain way or with certain allies or enemies. For example, amumu should always get either mercury treads or ninja tabi, but they recommend boots of swiftness.

That being said, the recommended items are generally at least USEFUL to the hero. So yea, once you've played the hero a bit and have experimented, feel free to deviate from the recommended item builds.

In terms of farming ability, I don't really think Tiamat is necessary if you just practice your last hitting. It's true Tristana is no longer the beast farmer she was several months ago (when she was on EVERY team).

Trinity Force's main strength is its a freaking TON of stats for a decent price (it's the most expensive item in the game but has SO MUCH STATS). It is the BEST item lategame because it tucks all those stats into a single slot. However, mid tier items (and even some high tier) DO give more bang for your buck compared on the champion.

LoL keeps minimizing on me at random times. *Very* annoying as it has gotten me killed several times. Anyone else?

New bug, happened to me twice the night I got to play some. They're working on it, but if you have any info as to what might be causing it, that'd be fantastic.

My only hunch is AVG; I upgraded to version 9 the day it started happening for me. Probably a coincidence.

Actually, I think that's it, since a lot of other people were commenting on it interacting with their AVG.

I seem to be the only one it randomly happened to (but then again it was just twice in the span of a single minute). So maybe I was a freak occurrence.

Anyone gonna be on tonight?

Kept missing you tonight Jozrael.

Ugh, just had an hour and a half game. We were down a man (4v5) from the get go and doing really well considering. Basically winning (constantly destroying inhibs then getting pushed back), we even had both their final towers down, were just about to go for the win, and somehow it all fell apart. :( Soooo frustrating to lose after that long. And I only got 70 exp 80 ip?! Bah!

Stacking damage was fun with nasus though. I didn't go quite all out but I went pretty offensive. Ult (R) plus Q equal insane crits. My highest was at least 1300. Didn't even have any buffs on either (besides ultimate/personal items I mean). So what's your guy's highest crit and the situation?

I've been playing Cho'Gath a lot recently and I have to disagree. Sure the tank build works but if you stack AP on him it's absolutely hilarious. His abilities scale VERY well with AP since all of them gain positive damage from AP. Hide in the brush, wait for ANY enemy to get in Rupture range with less than 85% health, then Q => W=> R and they're dead. Then they rage ha ha ha ha ha.

Last night I went 7:0 ratio with him using an AP build. The enemy champs couldn't get near me because of the QWR combo. One guy rage quit after I ate him. Heck, even if all you have is ult ready, you can hit them at full health and it'll take them down to half easy. AP Cho'Gath is so fun. Gotta have some extra regen built in though.

Nasus Q is ridiculous in long games: props on properly farming it!

Lasereth: You have to consider AP ratios tho.

Talk more after game xD

On the website it says his abilities gain 1 from AP. Isn't that a positive ratio or am I confused?

Id love to know too. Also, where are you seeing that on their website?

Yea, there's only a small bonus for losing slowly. They want games short and sweet: if they awarded bonus IP/XP the longer the game went on, there'd be incentives to just afk in game for hours :P.

The highest crit I ever saw was over 3000 when Kayle was bugged. Ah, good times xD.

And the queue isnt giving me long enough to finish these messages in between games lol.

The website is wrong it turns out. He still has decent AP ratios though. Rupture gains a lot more than I thought.

Ya, don't trust any site that gives u all the rates in whole numbers. 99% of abilities do not have a whole number ratio.

His AP ratios ARE good, but he's a multiple build champion, like twisted fate or nasus or others (unlike someone like rammus, for example, who generally only has 1 acceptable type of build).

is it just me or is the matchmaking system flawed? I've played games with players level 30 (me being level 5 at the time). I've asked my team a few times and it seems the only criterion is that the team has a mix of losers and winners. I find it extremely unbalanced to play against a team where everyone has Flash (i.e. are over level 12) and my teamies have ignite and heal as spells. Noobs vs Pro will rarely win, even if most ppl on the pro team lost their last game.

Fantastic MM thread. Pendragon just took my (troll T_T) friend to school.

Btw, where'd you go? We restarted after that game cuz we bugged. This is why we need vent! xD

Oh, I thought you were done. I needed to get to my chores anyway, before my wife kills me. Will install vent tonite.

Cya next tym.

So how does assigning the kill work? For instance I know doing most of the damage, while having a minion do the killing blow (KB) will result in me still getting credit. But how does that work with players and towers?

So far what I've gathered is that its a % system when it comes to PvE interactions with champs but a champ dealing a KB always gets the credit. So even if I do 99%--if my team-mate comes and finishes him he still gets the credit. But if I do over a certain % and a pve element like a tower or creep finishes the enemy champ then I get the credit. Is that right?

I've been wanting to play with you guys the past few days, the internet at my house had gone out this Sunday. Turns out, the problem was in the cord though, so I'm all set to go. Someone let me know when you guys get on again.

For sure we're on right now and playing :D. Drop us a line, and make sure you've added all of our accounts.

@Zeraph: If you do even a tiny bit of damage to someone, you mark them for 15 seconds.. If someone else gets the kill, you get an assist. If a tower/minion kills them, the most recent damage from a player (in the last 15 seconds) gets the kill.

Joz- hello? been sending you tells for the last several minutes. I'm sitting here listening to you guys on vent talking about me. I told you I don't have a mic set up. Ever since I built this computer last year my sound has been royally screwed and I haven't been able to talk on vent.

Ah zeraph you must've logged out of pvp.net chat.

If you don't think something is working properly, go to the chatroom part of your friends list (the right button). If you see 0 players in everything, you need to relog your client to be able to talk to anyone. They'll be fixing this bug soon.

Also, if you want to talk to us on vent without a mic, use comments :).

Sorry that we missed you. I assume you still wanted to play with us: but when you are logged out of the chat, we can't see you to invite you to a game :(.

I didn't log; I could still see you. People still showed on my friend's list.

And actually I did have a comment thing up, "No mic" but it was a little later in the conversation and I think I have it on send silently.

Anyways thats ok, but it was frustrating.

Sorry :(. If you want to get my/our attention, right click our name and send a page. When you do so, have you want to say in your comment :)

Arrrghh. Super frustrating. Had to uninstall and dl new client today. My conn is capped and internet is incredibly expensive where i stay, so I've actually paid like US$40 for the 4Gb spent on LoL in the last month. Pendragon and co need to find a way to FTP bloody patches.

Ouch.

Is there any way I can help you with that?

And the old client switch to new client is a one time kinda deal.

Nah, it just means no other dl's this month. I was just venting my frustration. I just hope that they find another way to update instead of through the installer, because then you can keep patches.

well you can download a fully patched client up to the day that standalone was made. The last one was like a week ago, so you'd have to d/l the patches from then on, until they made a new standalone.

EDIT: Just found out that standalones cannot patch, so they are a very bad idea for someone in your situation xD

Somehow I've still managed to keep a positive win to loss ratio. This game is definitely growing on me. So far Cho'Gath, Fiddlesticks, and Soraka are the champs I keep playing as. BTW Cho and Fiddle together are a devastating lane combo. Dark wind + Rupture at level 1 is terrible for the opposing laners.

I just had the biggest lawl game ever. Keep in mind this was a mid level game with summoners in their teens. I was actually the lead in kills and carrying the team as heimer and no deaths at all and a ton of assists. I wasn't even luring them into turrets or anything like that either. Was pretty amusing (and frustrating for how bad everyone else was doing).

I've been playing a bit with tarric (gem knight) recently and while I don't get many kills I notice that there's a much greater chance of my team getting an early win...which is like 300exp/ip I realized compared to 100ip/exp for a longer game/no surrender win. Does anyone know any good builds for him? He seems like he literally needs everything..AD, AP, hps, and mana. His recommended build feels like crap as he has almost no staying power vs good teams.

1. I usually go early mana regen, then hps, and mana, and AP and tend to stay away from melee in team fights unless their team sucks or if its for the coupe de gras. Which is a shame because his ult is melee based. Wish they'd change it. It drains mana way too quick and feels like crap unless the team is designed around it.

2. Also, So what item procs don't stack? For instance, I know Sheen, Lich Bane and Trinity Force proc's don't stack. But what about other items? I know boots don't, and their's diminishing returns with other move speed items past a certain point. I also know slows don't stack. Anything else?

Tbh I've seen some pros play Heimer lately: I guess me and most of the other competitive players just haven't been playing him right. He's still def not top tier, but at least somewhat viable.

Taric is insanely awesome. Definitely a competitive pick.

In terms of XP/IP, you probably got your first win of the day bonus on that game (roughly +150 to both). Winning early gives you like +10-15 IP I think.

I wouldn't go damage on Taric. Tank Taric is interesting, as is AP Taric. He's probably one of the best recipients of the golem buff of any champion. Most good teams get it for him often (since he's not a very fast jungler :P).

Taric's ult is -ridiculously- awesome. For a teamfight, the dps boost is insane (and the heal doesn't hurt either). But you definitely have to turn it off before it starts ticking hard (you can let it run an extra second or two with golem buff).

As for stacking items: You're correct with S/LB/TF, and the -movement speed- bonus of boots doesn't stack (so yes, only get one xD). MS has diminishing returns when it hits certain values, it's not item dependent. Slows do stack, up until a point.

Hmm, that's interesting. That bonus for the day thing is weird, I only sometimes seem to get it. I'm looking at my history for the last 3 days or so and I only have the bonus on 1 victory, the rest are 100exp/ip ish.

If they surrender we get bonus experience tho right?

Nope, just for winning quickly. Nothing special for surrender.

Taric is awesome but I think Soraka can be just as good if not better. Soraka now has 2 instant heals and a mana regen spell. Try laning with a good Soraka and you won't port back until you're 8 or 9.

I find Taric's ult good for healing more than anything. That heal during a team fight is crazy. I don't know, both are good but Soraka seems to yield more tangible results with the two insta-heals. Take the heal summoner spell and then you have 3 instant cast heals during a team fight which is ridiculous.

BTW blah @ Cho getting nerfed again. Oh well.

This patch is gonna change a lot methinx.

So what's with the character rotation? It's been nearly a week and a half since we've had these 10. And now with the patch, I can't decide if I want them to change them or not since they reworked Ryze and I want to try the changes :P

This patch is gonna be awesome. Soraka is definitely as good as Taric: I think a tad OP right now. Her main strength isn't just keeping you alive in lane, it's letting you do crazy shit that push them to their tower and back and still be fine on hp/mana.

Cho getting 'nerfed again'? Wtfhax? It's been a joke that he's been buffed for like 7 patches in a row (slight exaggeration). Thank god for those rollbacks xD.

@Zeraph: No idea, but you'll notice no one's complaining haha. It's probably getting changed tomorrow, though.

And ryze is INSANELY AWESOME NOW. Buybuybuybuybuy.

1. BTW how does heimer's ult work exactly? It gives cd reduction to all his abilities right? So does that count toward the max 40% or is it an exception?

2. I wish there were more ways to fortify positions like heimers ability. But I mean something between a permanent turret or shroom and the very brief "wall" type abilities. Like I'd like to see corkies valkyre ability last for ~20seconds, anivias walls be passable(just super slow), but also last for ~35 seconds, have fear ward type sanctuary pots/wards at shop that your party could run to if it got into trouble, etc.

It counts towards the hardcap. Basically he only needs to get 20% to max out.

I personally dislike the passive gameplay that Heimer's turrets promote. I can't wait for his redesign :\.

I don't mind jester nests so much.

Wow, that's lame. Maybe I'm misremembering but doesn't the ult by the third point provide like 35% reduc? And the recommended item build has like 30% worth of CD reduc items in it. wtf. But maybe I'm misremembering.

I agree with the passive part. Maybe auto apply the upgrades/ult per point in turret skill (so by point 5 they come out red and fully upgraded) and make his ult teleport all his turrets to him (may need to lower their damage, but then they could increase theyre hps so they didn't die in one hit late game).

That's assuming they don't want to *completely* redesign him. Otherwise I can't see a way to make him much more mobile. But his ult definitely needs to be changed and turret hps needs to be higher by late game (maybe make them scale with heimer's hps or AP).

EDIT:
OMG har har, so funny. While the server is down and Amumu sad face is up if you hit up, down, left ,right, up, up, down, down (with arrow keys) it goes to Teemo's happy face and brings you to the login screen (can't actually login tho). Wonder what the purpose of this little code is; pretty amusing though, reminds me of old NES games.