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[zkylon]

Nope. A few golds, a plat, and a silver.

well if their team was bronze level then it doesn't really matter

like my ranked 5s team is made up of mostly gold players and we're still low silver I think mostly because we got matched against really awful people lol so winning against them didn't really boost up our mmr

 

[Nekofrog]

Two games in a row with a ragequitter. Ngfegfggfdgfggghhh jesus lord let me survive this.

 

[zkylon]

THIS IS WHAT YOU WORKED SO HARD TO GET OUT OF BRONZE FOR

you think I don't have ragequitters in gold?

the important lesson is everyone sucks

 

[brian!]

iv nwver had a leaver in ranked

 

[Mothman91]

If all the Gold Draven mains did a battle, I wouldn't be surprised if Newt won that battle.

 

[Newt]

If all the Gold Draven mains did a battle, I wouldn't be surprised if Newt won that battle.

<3 <3 <3

 

[faridmon]

I'm NA and it seems you are EUW

Damn

 

[Blizzard]

iv nwver had a leaver in ranked

I tried ranked after a break for a while, and one out of three games had someone go afk.

We would almost certainly have lost it too, but the other team's ADC left like 55 minutes in.

 

[Crab Milk Mickey]

Aatrox before he was nerfed (haven't tried him much since then), Elise I guess (I don't like it though), Udyr and maybe Olaf are the ones that come to mind.

Others that I haven't tried it with but could potentially do it would be Nocturne (super iffy I'd say) and maybe Trundle (but why would you play Trundle really?).

Plenty of reasons to play Trundle; he's a victim of solo queue misconceptions if anything rather than actually being weak. He never liked Mundo though.

eh, assassins are like that, I don't think assassins as a whole are that bad, it's just that there's a few that get kind of out of control

khazix right now by process of nerf-elimination is pretty much the king of mid lane assasins (I don't really count kass since he's permabanned in gold at least) and there's little you can do about it. you can come back from base with a chain vest and he'll still kill you. you can ward both sides but your team will still be dumb and give him a double kill and maybe double buffs.

he'll get ga as third or fourth item and if he's far enough ahead it's pretty fucking hard to deal with

tbh I liked him better before his rework

Those few that could get out of control wouldn't be so bad if the average player wasn't so stubborn in their ways by deciding to still go with a squishy AP champion in a futile attempt to deal with said assassins. Or they simply don't want to disobey the meta standard.

Those champions still have a shot against Kha'zix et al, don't get me wrong, but most players are handling those match-ups very poorly.

 

[Terbinator]

Those champions still have a shot against Kha'zix et al, don't get me wrong, but most players are handling those match-ups very poorly.

What would be your suggestion for dealing with Kha mid as AP?

 

[Nev]

What would be your suggestion for dealing with Kha mid as AP?

Armor runes, 300g armor even, autoattacks, close to turret. Barrier, why not. The worst part is surviving "the blow".

 

[FODEA]

If you're AP rush Zhonyas and get 1-2 Doran's Rings and either you beat his all in or you poke him and avoid his all in as best you can.

Also - until 6 you should be able to bully him easily by staying in your creep line and throwing out autos (so 1-3 autos, run back to avoid his creep damage), skills against him. It wouldn't hurt to ask for a gank or two as well.

Barrier sounds like a good idea as well. I should have thought of that yesterday when we played against a Khazix, oh well.

 

[Crab Milk Mickey]

What would be your suggestion for dealing with Kha mid as AP?

I just choose picks like Elise or Mid'gath to keep him in check or shut him down entirely, for instance. I forego 'traditional' picks if the alternative is (for me) much easier to pull off when your goal is to control him or push him under the tower. Your other option is to just take someone you'd otherwise only see in top lane; both sides will have an AD mid, sure, but it won't really matter if you play your cards right. Of course solo queue players will yell at you because they're a fickle bunch, but oh well.

With a "normal" champion though: just use your ranged harrass as much as possible before both of you reach level 6 and adapt your summoners / runes / masteries / opening itemization where applicable. Don't need to go overboard with a more defensive set-up and I don't think many AP champions can pull off the Zhonya's rush (well enough I mean) mentioned in the post above me, but I've seen too many players go crazy with their self-imposed squishiness and play right into an assassin's hand when it could've been avoided all along. Not letting someone like Kha'zix snowball and not letting him roam is more important than being kill-hungry and possibly having your 1 vs 1 aggression backfire.

 

[zkylon]

Those few that could get out of control wouldn't be so bad if the average player wasn't so stubborn in their ways by deciding to still go with a squishy AP champion in a futile attempt to deal with said assassins. Or they simply don't want to disobey the meta standard.

Those champions still have a shot against Kha'zix et al, don't get me wrong, but most players are handling those match-ups very poorly.

eh, I used to play chogath mid to counter assassins but he feels so clunky now it's not really worth it for me anymore, so I just play whatever and what happens happens

what am I supposed to pick anyways?

also in my experience going barrier mid is useless against assassins. fizz and khazix don't really have a 200 cooldown spell to kill you, they just wait 20 seconds and try again

the key thing with regular ap mids is just being doubly careful not to make any mistakes. pay attention to their cooldowns and don't even bother fighting, just poke a bit, then wait for a gank and only dive if it's a sure thing

 

[Crab Milk Mickey]

eh, I used to play chogath mid to counter assassins but he feels so clunky now it's not really worth it for me anymore, so I just play whatever and what happens happens

what am I supposed to pick anyways?

also in my experience going barrier mid is useless against assassins. fizz and khazix don't really have a 200 cooldown spell to kill you, they just wait 20 seconds and try again

the key thing with regular ap mids is just being doubly careful not to make any mistakes. pay attention to their cooldowns and don't even bother fighting, just poke a bit, then wait for a gank and only dive if it's a sure thing

Yeah, Barrier doesn't keep you completely safe, but it's moreso something to help you out of a pinch early on since how you handle the early laning phase will matter the most. Captain Obvious statement but whatever.

Mid'gath with a proper build (read: no Rod of Ages) still works quite well against Kha'zix - Zed - Fizz. Also helps that you have a relatively long silence to help with ganks, never mind that it's easy to set up a Rupture + Feast when they go in on you. And Vorpal Spikes makes pushing minion waves effortless; your primary concern will be the jungler, not so much the assassin by himself.

You're right that he can be a bit clunky and requires overall experience to make up for that, but on a good day I'm comfortable enough on him that it becomes a non-issue.

 

[Stone Ocean]

also in my experience going barrier mid is useless against assassins. fizz and khazix don't really have a 200 cooldown spell to kill you, they just wait 20 seconds and try again

You're not supposed to use it just to save your ass, but so you can kill them. Barrier is meant to give you a window when they jump at you to kill you so you can fight back and kill them after they spend their shit. Kha Zix jumps at you and spends his shit, if you survive you can explode him instead.

 

[Type2]

Double dorans are not to be slept on for those kinds of matchups the extra health will help you survive the burst to counter attack.

Additionally baits and jungle support are a good alternative for getting ahead in lane.

 

[Fracas]

I main Ziggs and usually play mid, but I think I want to try someone else to get some variety. Anyone familiar with Swain? A tanky mage seems interesting.

Lux seems good too. I love champs with poke.

 

[Q8D3vil]

Decided to play rank (didnt play since s03) and of course i will get worse khazix eu who went 1-8 against akali
Elo hell in plat 1 FML

 

[Dreams-Visions]

I main Ziggs and usually play mid, but I think I want to try someone else to get some variety. Anyone familiar with Swain? A tanky mage seems interesting.

Lux seems good too. I love champs with poke.

Swain is top tier right now. A good call if you want a DoT AP alternative.

Lux not so good right now. I wouldn't invest a lot of time into her right now unless you reallllly like her. Stronger AP mids out there.

 

[brian!]

i mean think about how ppl dealt with the dearth of assassin mids when they were really popular, those kinds of things still apply even tho vision is a bit different
yah seekers is not a good way to deal with dem ads its a tarp

barrier is good in sum cases, better for baiting and discouraging in lane than as inevitable getting shit on like ads use it for.

but you don't want to fall in the trap of hey I can survive ur shit you asshole assassin, but now you are going to assassinate my team and I can't do shit type of builds

asking about "ap" vs. khazix is broad, like the "safe" aps that ppl were playing a month or so ago are still pretty safe you just have to keep farm up and not sit around like a f00l. like nid, graggy, and ori arent that hard to survive with if u arent the town buffoon, I mean every matchup you play shuld be a reanalysis of a changing situation

also don't barrier a khazix all in thinking you are going to own him because he's just going to hit you again, and also try not to think too much about a 1v1 type situation in lane imo, plus I probably suck at mid

 

[zkylon]

yea the problem with barrier is that it baits you into thinking you'll survive their burst

and whenever I have barrier I always end up shitting on them early game but they always manage to escape with 10 hp and then suddenly they get to lvl 6 I make one mistake and they don't give a shit about my barrier

myself I just gotta learn to not be dumb and be more patient but I don't like being zoned

 

[DeadNames]

well if their team was bronze level then it doesn't really matter

like my ranked 5s team is made up of mostly gold players and we're still low silver I think mostly because we got matched against really awful people lol so winning against them didn't really boost up our mmr

Except we only faced bronze players about twice. We beat a silver 1 team too

 

[DeadNames]

I main Ziggs and usually play mid, but I think I want to try someone else to get some variety. Anyone familiar with Swain? A tanky mage seems interesting.

Lux seems good too. I love champs with poke.

Not really a mage, but jayce is pretty pokey. Also xerath is a poke centric mage, but he's pretty hard to play.

 

[DY_nasty]

That's a really good point. Barriers are nice but Kha has very fast cooldown on his Q. Blocking that hit will save you from his passive's damage but you'll still be effected by the slow from it. Generally you'd want to bully Kha'zix. If they're not aggressive and applying that Q, then you win. Kha has crappy sustain and isn't great at farming early on either. If you can strangle him early with some good pokes and ganks he becomes more than manageable going into mid-game.

Also, Kayle is the perfect counterpick imo. All of her abilities seem tailored to demolish him.

 

[dimb]

there's no slow on kha q.

 

[Sr Kitsune]

Hey Boken.

If the art department produces results more easily/faster, why wasn't there a winter version of Summoner's Rift for the holidays? Morello (I think) said that it's because of "geography changes" in the map, but there were hardly any in the end.
[...]

You'll see why in Q1 of 2014

Shurima Desert Patch confirmed? Believe. (Source)

 

[DY_nasty]

there's no slow on kha q.

The slow is on his passive (which usually comes right along with his q because the q is almost always the first thing you get hit with). Everyone forgets about it. Its also a great way to tell if an area is warded or not.

 

[Crab Milk Mickey]

I main Ziggs and usually play mid, but I think I want to try someone else to get some variety. Anyone familiar with Swain? A tanky mage seems interesting.

Lux seems good too. I love champs with poke.

Lux is still good, but she has a mean learning curve. Nidalee is another good poke champion, and Xerath is slept on (rework pending) alongside Karma. Heimerdinger might also be worth a try. If you want AD-based poke, Jayce might still be decent although you should shy away from Manamune-oriented builds. I think dimb knows what to build on him instead nowadays.

Swain's just... weird. I get that he's good and I've been meaning to pick him up, but it always seemed a little finnicky to pit him against the right enemy team or to place him in the right team composition as well. Maybe that's just me.

 

[zkylon]

lux is crap

 

[Jenga]

Lux is still good, but she has a mean learning curve. Nidalee is another good poke champion, and Xerath is slept on (rework pending) alongside Karma. Heimerdinger might also be worth a try. If you want AD-based poke, Jayce might still be decent although you should shy away from Manamune-oriented builds. I think dimb knows what to build on him instead nowadays.

Swain's just... weird. I get that he's good and I've been meaning to pick him up, but it always seemed a little finnicky to pit him against the right enemy team or to place him in the right team composition as well. Maybe that's just me.

just slap him in a team that could use a secondary off tank

all you need to do is know how to last hit in lane and land W consistently in teamfights

 

[Mothman91]

Where is Boken anyway?

Pls answer Boken.

 

[FODEA]

lux is crap

I still like her. I put on my hoodie and play spellthief lux and just wreck anyone. I'm like Froggen only a lot worse.

 

[zkylon]

I still like her. I put on my hoodie and play spellthief lux and just wreck anyone. I'm like Froggen only a lot worse.

dude, this is my mousepad, I love her

but until they give her a good skin I'll probably won't play her anymore

 

[Dreams-Visions]

If you want AD-based poke, Jayce might still be decent although you should shy away from Manamune-oriented builds. I think dimb knows what to build on him instead nowadays.

As the resident Jayce aficionado,

Legolas build if possible. BT --> LW --> TF/IE --> IE/TF --> GA

-or-

Fast Brutalizer --> typical adc items (LW, BT, IE, TF) as an alternate.

GA to finish any build, as per usual.

 

[zkylon]

my jungle tryndamere running cleanse

the fuck

 

[Nekofrog]

http://www.twitch.tv/nekofrog

First ranked of the day and already infighting at champ select. Also, I have to poo really really REALLY bad.

 

[Newt]

http://www.twitch.tv/nekofrog

First ranked of the day and already infighting at champ select. Also, I have to poo really really REALLY bad.

Trinity force Sivir. The horrors.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Trinity force Sivir. The horrors.

indeed.

 

[zkylon]

still won

mid riven got 22 kills on a 25 minute game

the fuck was this game

 

[ALN1031]

Dayum, this year's gonna be a good one for my elo. Lux is WAY too good at carrying.

Dang, some of those games it felt like it was me against the world. The most recent one had the enemy Zac come in with their Rammus for a double gank on me and I ended up killing Rammus when they dived. LOL.

 

[Nekofrog]

Here we go!

First time Swain ever, and I'm vs a Kassadin.

 

[ALN1031]

Here we go!

First time Swain ever, and I'm vs a Kassadin.

Be mindful of your mana, In an all in, you should beat him pre 6, if he tries to riftwalk on you post 6, root him and go ham.

 

[Fracas]

Swain is top tier right now. A good call if you want a DoT AP alternative.

Lux not so good right now. I wouldn't invest a lot of time into her right now unless you reallllly like her. Stronger AP mids out there.

Not really a mage, but jayce is pretty pokey. Also xerath is a poke centric mage, but he's pretty hard to play.

Lux is still good, but she has a mean learning curve. Nidalee is another good poke champion, and Xerath is slept on (rework pending) alongside Karma. Heimerdinger might also be worth a try. If you want AD-based poke, Jayce might still be decent although you should shy away from Manamune-oriented builds. I think dimb knows what to build on him instead nowadays.

Swain's just... weird. I get that he's good and I've been meaning to pick him up, but it always seemed a little finnicky to pit him against the right enemy team or to place him in the right team composition as well. Maybe that's just me.

Thanks for the advice guys. Might buy Swain tonight and give him a shot. Xerath looks good too.

 

[Newt]

How to lose a ranked game:


Have Nidalee and Master Yi on the same team.

 

[Achtius]

How to lose a ranked game:


Have Nidalee and Master Yi on the same team.

it's more nidalee, she never fight in cat form. lol

 

[ALN1031]

Thanks for the advice guys. Might buy Swain tonight and give him a shot. Xerath looks good too.

If no one else is really gonna vouch for her, I'll vouch for Lux. She has an absurd amount of burst post-6, built in self peel, longer range than most mids, a spammable long range ulti and iirc, the strongest aoe shield in the game.

If you get fed on her, it's extremely hard to stop you because you have so many ways of keeping yourself alive. You don't even need to be near the fight.

 

[Nekofrog]

Be mindful of your mana, In an all in, you should beat him pre 6, if he tries to riftwalk on you post 6, root him and go ham.

Yeah, I got first blood on him, and he decided to eventually start roaming (as Kass does). After laning phase I wasn't entirely sure how to approach Swain, but in terms of laning it's pretty straight forward (especially against a Kass).

 

[ALN1031]

Yeah, I got first blood on him, and he decided to eventually start roaming (as Kass does). After laning phase I wasn't entirely sure how to approach Swain, but in terms of laning it's pretty straight forward (especially against a Kass).

Yeah the problem with Swain post laning is that he can't really poke. He has to be in the middle of the fight to be doing a lot of damage, which makes him vulnerable to cc, ignite, etc. But his laning is actually some of the best I've seen. The amount of damage he outputs with just his E+autos is insanity. God forbid he land a root on you post 6.

 

[Nekofrog]

Yeah the problem with Swain post laning is that he can't really poke. He has to be in the middle of the fight to be doing a lot of damage, which makes him vulnerable to cc, ignite, etc. But his laning is actually some of the best I've seen. The amount of damage he outputs with just his E+autos is insanity. God forbid he land a root on you post 6.

I also have never had as much trouble last hitting with any champion as much as I did with Swain. He chunks with his autos fairly decently, but his attack speed and the travel time of his auto is really deceiving.