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League of Legends |OT6| My AP Mid Can't Be This Cute

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SeigO

Banned
Vlad is still good in capable hands, even if he's not in the top tier picks at the moment.
Definitely!

I disagree that Vlad isn't a strong pick against the current tops. He's not T1, but maybe T2. He matches up pretty well with most of them and he has one of the safest early games with great escape, sustain, and ability to freeze the lane. Renekton and Shyvana are easy match ups and Jax is difficult at some levels but there are windows where Vlad has the advantage. I have a pretty good win % as Vlad in ranked. I'm at 78 wins/62 losses I feel like he's a pretty consistent top. He does struggle with team synergy on occasion though, that's definitely an issue when you have a Nid middle and a squishy assassin jungler.
 

Nev

Banned
Vlad is fine as long as you don't screw up before level 9. If the lane is tied by then (that's the hard part), he'll be able to dominate most if not every popular toplaner. Oh, and use ghost, please. Every time I see a flash Vlad I lose three divisions.
ashe is fucking broken, this is reminding me of when i first started dota and would get shat on by drow bot

She's currently bottom tier tho.
 
Top Nunu is definitely in troll/cheese tier, a bit like Leona. You can't be killed and can't kill them without a gank, but in the process, you ruin their lane and still bring a a tank and utility to your team.

----------

Lost four games in a row last night, all three Morg ones where my team couldn't finish and a Zyra one where I was just bad a long with a Cait who insists Q > AA. Unbelievable.
 

Sande

Member
Any champion suggestions for a beginner? I started with Ashe and have been doing pretty well with her, but every time I try to branch out, it doesn't go too well. I always end up feeling I would have done much better with Ashe.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
Any champion suggestions for a beginner? I started with Ashe and have been doing pretty well with her, but every time I try to branch out, it doesn't go too well. I always end up feeling I would have done much better with Ashe.
are you looking for auto attack carries only or would like to play other roles too?

if you would like to play mages annie's cheap, easy and deals tons of damage by summoning a giant flaming teddy bear
 
Any champion suggestions for a beginner? I started with Ashe and have been doing pretty well with her, but every time I try to branch out, it doesn't go too well. I always end up feeling I would have done much better with Ashe.

If you're a real, real noob then Garen is probably the best champ to play IMO. He has passive health regen once you're out of battle and is inherently more tanky than Ashe.

Get used to the game mechanics first - last hitting minions for the gold, knowing when to back off, generally just trying not to die.

The life of a waifu support.
 

Ferga

Member
kha zix still soo strong and fun. Mmmmmmm

Sucks that I lose more than a quarter of my life doing red now since the isolation change. Gotta buy more pots.
 
Uhg. I'm sure this is a long shot but I really, really need some help.

Ever since I got home for summer break I have been experiencing crashes every single game that I am not plugged into ethernet. It is just so strange. My ping doesn't change at all yet when connected to ethernet I am yet to experience any lag or crash. When I play without ethernet, however, I IMMEDIATELY crash when the game loads. Usually the crash happens within 10 seconds as I am purchasing my first item. I just tried updating my Macbook and deleted ~75 gigabytes of stuff and the crashes are still happening just as frequently. My internet is not the greatest, but I can't imagine it is the internet alone causing such frequent crashes that occur at the exact same time. The furthest I've gotten was into combat directly upon reconnecting from a crash, but of course the game crashed right as I attacked. The screen freezes and if it doesn't exit out automatically (which is about 50% of the time), I have to do a hard shut down. Then I try to reconnect and it crashes again within seconds of leading.

I am using a Macbook Pro form 2011, pre-retina.

EDIT: Should I try a client repair? Reinstalling?
 

Tizoc

Member
Vlad needs to make it to level 9 almost untouched and doing generally well in order to do his thing later in the game. Most of the current top picks won't let him do that. He also doesn't have lots of team synergy these days in regards to other common picks. Junglers are skewed towards dealing damage so the onus of tanking has fallen to the top laner and do a lesser extent the support. That said, Vlad actually does get tanky as far a mages go, but it takes lots of levels and gold to get there. You're seeing Vlad doing well likely because your games are going on long enough that he can reach the point where he becomes a real menace.

As far as Nunu goes, like dimb said he was banned (and picked? I can't remember) at All-Stars. I'm not sure what the story is behind that, but I wouldn't be surprised if he works in the top lane like Warwick. Just sits there, essentially unkillable and relying on his late game utility to help his team. In the right composition and against certain enemy champions, I imagine his attack speed boosts and slows can really anchor some strategies. In solo queue, you can't really depend on that sort of strategy. You teammates won't pick around you champion and even if they coincidentally do they'll just futz around like idiots not making use of what you bring to the team anyways.
Hmm I see, but I find it that in the end it's the player who can make any character work well, I've seen enough matches where character A got wasted so bad, then in another that same character could wreck my team.
 

Edwardo

Member
League of Legends All-Stars 2014 Day 2

All-Star Paris 2014 Preview

SPOILER FREE All Stars 2014 VoDs


All Star Invitational

Approx. 8:00 AM EST (Probably closer to 8:30-9:00)

skt.png
VS.
OMG2.png


Cloud9_Logo-onBlack_0.png
VS.
300px-Azubu_Tpa_logo_1.png


fnaticlogo.png
VS.
skt.png


OMG2.png
VS.
Cloud9_Logo-onBlack_0.png


300px-Azubu_Tpa_logo_1.png
VS.
fnaticlogo.png



Use the LCS Season 4 thread for discussion. Some people will want to watch the matches later and don't want the results spoiled in here. :)
 

Edwardo

Member
Uhg. I'm sure this is a long shot but I really, really need some help.

Ever since I got home for summer break I have been experiencing crashes every single game that I am not plugged into ethernet. It is just so strange. My ping doesn't change at all yet when connected to ethernet I am yet to experience any lag or crash. When I play without ethernet, however, I IMMEDIATELY crash when the game loads. Usually the crash happens within 10 seconds as I am purchasing my first item. I just tried updating my Macbook and deleted ~75 gigabytes of stuff and the crashes are still happening just as frequently. My internet is not the greatest, but I can't imagine it is the internet alone causing such frequent crashes that occur at the exact same time. The furthest I've gotten was into combat directly upon reconnecting from a crash, but of course the game crashed right as I attacked. The screen freezes and if it doesn't exit out automatically (which is about 50% of the time), I have to do a hard shut down. Then I try to reconnect and it crashes again within seconds of leading.

I am using a Macbook Pro form 2011, pre-retina.

EDIT: Should I try a client repair? Reinstalling?

Try restarting your router before you play too
 
Thanks a lot. Will do both.

EDIT: How do I reinstall GPU drivers on a Macbook Pro? I didn't even know what a GPU was until I looked it up...heh

Is it Nvidia? Just go through Apple's website, or Nvidia's? Maybe even Intel's.

If you have Steam installed there is a 'check for latest drivers' option there too where Steam will grab it for you.
 

Tizoc

Member
Just won a match with Fiora.

Twitch went top with me but face poked in a brush and got killed by LeE Sin and Jax. Zac came to and told twitch to go bot which he did.

Sadly our Twitch plyer was using him for the first time and him and Akali fed bot who were Lux and Caitlyn, oi vey.

We did not start really good; I died trying to kill lee sin and then so did Zac. Fortunately afterwards we timed our assault and I managed to get a good number of kills off of them. My first items were Ninja Tabi and Hydra. Since their Lux was fed I decided o make Zephyr just in case. After that I made Last Whisper, by then the opposing team surrendered. Me, Zac and Fizz managed to get a big number of kills off the opposition which might've been a reason for that.

Curious though I thought Jax's parry/helicopter spin increased his armor but seems it allows him t dodge attacks? I kept atacking him and did my ulti but he wasn't damaged.
 

TomShoe

Banned
God, I hate duo top lanes. Playing Nasus vs. Zac and Blitzcrank.

Had 300 stacks by end game, only won because Jungle Rengar carried.
 
Curious though I thought Jax's parry/helicopter spin increased his armor but seems it allows him t dodge attacks? I kept atacking him and did my ulti but he wasn't damaged.
Counterstrike lets him dodge auto attacks and some skills that apply on hit effects like Fiora's ult. The thing that increases his armor and MR is his ult, when he goes SCHIIING and gets an energy ball around him
 
Jax E also reduces all AoE damage by 25%, which means you shouldn't always immediately end it. Combined with R, it makes him VERY tanky.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
Counterstrike lets him dodge auto attacks and some skills that apply on hit effects like Fiora's ult. The thing that increases his armor and MR is his ult, when he goes SCHIIING and gets an energy ball around him
really you can dodge fiora ult?

i know it doesn't work against tf w
 
really you can dodge fiora ult?
It's why the Jax match up is a nightmare if you don't have any experience in it. You can turn it into a skill match up if you play accordingly, bait/force the Counterstrike and take advantage of the downtime but otherwise it can be pretty much unwinnable.
 

Sande

Member
are you looking for auto attack carries only or would like to play other roles too?

if you would like to play mages annie's cheap, easy and deals tons of damage by summoning a giant flaming teddy bear
Anything goes. I do pretty well with Annie. I'm probably the second most comfortable with her.

If you're a real, real noob then Garen is probably the best champ to play IMO. He has passive health regen once you're out of battle and is inherently more tanky than Ashe.

Get used to the game mechanics first - last hitting minions for the gold, knowing when to back off, generally just trying not to die.
I tried Garen once but it was a massacre. We had 2v2 on the lane and both enemies were ranged (can't remember who) and they completely shut me down. I just don't know how the hell I'm supposed to get minion kills if the enemy is ranged. I was really squishy against them for some reason as well. That was so horrible that I haven't dared to try melee again.

I'm pretty good with the basics. Just need to get more familiar with items, different champs and especially how the hell to play melee.
 
Anything goes. I do pretty well with Annie. I'm probably the second most comfortable with her.


I tried Garen once but it was a massacre. We had 2v2 on the lane and both enemies were ranged (can't remember who) and they completely shut me down. I just don't know how the hell I'm supposed to get minion kills if the enemy is ranged. I was really squishy against them for some reason as well. That was so horrible that I haven't dared to try melee again.

I'm pretty good with the basics. Just need to get more familiar with items, different champs and especially how the hell to play melee.

Usually melee champions are in the top lane or jungle, so they don't have to deal with ranged champs THAT often. There are some ranged champions that show up in the top lane sometimes, like teemo, ryze, and jayce, and they're pretty much a nightmare for melees. Usually what you'll want to do if you play a melee is play someone with a gap closer, so you can get up close to them and outtrade them. Ranged champions (besides ryze) are usually pretty squishy.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
the free champions this week are kinda weird

out of them all i'd maybe suggest trying renekton out but it's still not an ideal selection
 
Nunu and vlad are pretty shitty right now.

Regardless, you're limited to starter champions for the first 7 levels.

Really? What was nerfed about them?
Wouldn't call Vladimir straight-up bad, but given the number of problems that he has I'd far from call him a safe pick. His early game is weak, when top lane as of late tends to favor immediate aggression. He does scale relatively nicely late game, but his team comp needs to compensate for him somewhat since he won't be the designated "beefy initiating brawler" most have come to expect for a top laner. He can splitpush, but he's nowhere near as proficient at whittling down towers as melees who buy Hydra (for instance).

Nunu on the other hand has no redeeming qualities anymore with how badly everything in his kit has been nerfed. Can't counter-jungle well because of the Season 4 changes not favoring this style anymore in conjunction with Consume being thoroughly subpar now. Loads of bad match-ups as a support nowadays; even back in his heyday he wasn't that strong for that role, because his primary purpose was "Blood Boil the everliving hell out of my ADC" whenever that skill was off cooldown and zoning with Absolute Zero (now ignorable with all the mobility). He used to be effective in top lane, but everything that made him a force there has either been gutted or removed (never mind how League changed since then).

I'm surprised he hasn't been due for a rework yet with how Riot dislikes him; instead they waste their time on Trundle, Skarner and Xerath.

You realize that Nunu got picked and subsequently banned in pro play today right?
Oh yeah, what an incredible pick and ban Nunu was for OMG and TPA respectively. During OMG's match all he really did was 'secure' a dragon after fnatic politely moved away from it, after having Baron stolen from under his nose. Nunu, unable to slay Baron with Smite + Consume. Incredible feat right there. TPA on the other hand got their shit pushed in regardless because (among other misplays) they were stupid enough to remove worst Season 4 champion™ from OMG's roster after said champion had a laughable performance, instead of banning a champion that's genuinely threatening. Amazing strategic call.

Pro players / teams are far from good enough to not make stupid decisions before individual mechanics even come into play, and I've seen plenty of that yesterday with or without Nunu enjoying competitive relevance. His brief appearance during the All-Stars tournament doesn't change the fact he's pitifully underwhelming; every dog has its day.

Top Nunu is definitely in troll/cheese tier, a bit like Leona. You can't be killed and can't kill them without a gank, but in the process, you ruin their lane and still bring a a tank and utility to your team.
I used to main him and top Nunu is garbage now. Level 2 cheese by killing golems is gone, his sustain has taken a big hit (unnecessarily so), his snowball isn't that potent anymore and top laners are now resorting to playstyles that he was originally weak against all along (hard-pushing the lane). Him fulfilling the tank role is an overstatement, but I suppose he still has some utility by being a "solo Baron at 15 minutes and use Blood Boil on auto-attackers" champion with the right build.

If you want to be a pain-in-the-ass for top lane melees with loads of late game utility, just pick Karma instead.
 
Still not sure how I feel about J4 top.

He really has no trouble surviving...and can escape most ganks without even needing to flash is you are reasonably conservative with your Q spam. But...idunno. His damage output is a really nice burst, especially with an early brutalizer or sheen, but he usually will still need help to get kills that a lot of solo tops convert all by themselves. That aspect is a bit troubling, as I feel like a top laner should be good enough to kill independently. J4's high cool downs tend to make that difficult until you get something like a hydra online.

And with most tops, their level 6 steroid is better than J4's for bully dueling. Champs that are really popular like Jax, Riven, and Ryze really bust his chops when they hit 6 or finish a single item.

Could be my build or early items. Will continue to experiment.
 
Hopped on to aram for my first win of the day

Enemy: Xerath, Kog, Liss, Annie, Xerath
Team: Twitch, Elise (me), Cho, Khaz, Ryze (dc)

There was absolutely no way we can drag this long enough to stack craptons of MR for Twitch. There's way too much poke with zero sustain.

Back to bots for first wins
 

drawkcaB

Member
Hmm I see, but I find it that in the end it's the player who can make any character work well, I've seen enough matches where character A got wasted so bad, then in another that same character could wreck my team.

Absolutely. Experience using a champion trumps the innate strengths and weaknesses of a champion's match-ups. Also consider play style as well. Some players are simply more suited to playing late game champions like Nasus, Vlad, etc.

Tizoc said:
Curious though I thought Jax's parry/helicopter spin increased his armor but seems it allows him t dodge attacks? I kept atacking him and did my ulti but he wasn't damaged.

Correct and even worse than you think. His "helicopter spin" (I love this description) increases in damage for every auto it absorbs up to a cap. Fiora's ultimate works as a series of blinking autoattacks*, if that makes any sense. So when you ult him when he's using Dodge, every one of Fiora's strikes are negated and he gains damage to boot. You have to bait out his Dodge prior to using your ult. Don't beat yourself over it though, I'm fairly sure Jax is among Fiora's worse match-ups.

*The on-hit aspect of Fiora's ult is why Hydra is core on her. Every blink-strike will proc Hydra's passive AoE and lifesteal.

Dreams-Vision said:
Still not sure how I feel about J4 top.

He really has no trouble surviving...and can escape most ganks without even needing to flash is you are reasonably conservative with your Q spam. But...idunno. His damage output is a really nice burst, especially with an early brutalizer or sheen, but he usually will still need help to get kills that a lot of solo tops convert all by themselves. That aspect is a bit troubling, as I feel like a top laner should be good enough to kill independently. J4's high cool downs tend to make that difficult until you get something like a hydra online.

And with most tops, their level 6 steroid is better than J4's for bully dueling. Champs that are really popular like Jax, Riven, and Ryze really bust his chops when they hit 6 or finish a single item.

Could be my build or early items. Will continue to experiment.

As someone who actually spectated parts of a match of yours last night, I can offer some commentary. Don't expect Jarvan to deal tons of damage. It'll be a rare occurrence. He really isn't the type of champion who will often carry on his own. But you did recognize something that he is good at: gank assists. Use that to your advantage. Pair Jarvan top with a high damage jungler (Kha'Zix, Nocturne, etc.) and encourage them to come pre-6 and even maybe once post-6. Although it isn't glorious, try letting that jungler get the kills. You'll do the typical tank thing and become unkillable while your jungler will be a high damage threat able to apply pressure anywhere on the map. And of course consider him in AoE heavy comps.

For items, I don't think I've seen a Jarvan do well with Sheen and upgraded items. His skills rotation comes out too quickly and you'll generally only get one sheen proc in the process. From there, unless you're building significant CDR, his abilitiy cooldowns are too long to get additional sheen procs. You actually got a taste of this last night vs. Soraka top. After the sheen buy your burst was good, but the trades would become even after you had to disengage because your skill rotation was now on long CD and she could heal up and beat you down with several Starcalls. The one time you died to her in lane this is how she got you. Without that ~level 5 Elise gank things could have gotten really bad.

Brutalizer into a later Black Cleaver on Jarvan is good because it'll sync with his Q. Hydra is good as well. Don't skimp out on a Doran's blade early on (vs. Soraka I think you would have done much better had you gone Doran's blade + Negatron Cloak/double Mantle instead of sheen on first buy). Hexdrinker vs. AP tops is a good choice. Last Whisper is a potential buy. Straight AD is Jarvan's best offensive stat because he AAs a fair amount and his Q and R scale well enough. That said, I still think Jarvan is a tank/tanky bruiser and should be generally built that way unless you're just bulldozing your lane. Don't spend too much early gold into offensive items. Mix it up. Try being too tanky to kill solo but also a threat.
 
As someone who actually spectated parts of a match of yours last night, I can offer some commentary. Don't expect Jarvan to deal tons of damage. It'll be a rare occurrence. He really isn't the type of champion who will often carry on his own. But you did recognize something that he is good at: gank assists. Use that to your advantage. Pair Jarvan top with a high damage jungler (Kha'Zix, Nocturne, etc.) and encourage them to come pre-6 and even maybe once post-6. Although it isn't glorious, try letting that jungler get the kills. You'll do the typical tank thing and become unkillable while your jungler will be a high damage threat able to apply pressure anywhere on the map. And of course consider him in AoE heavy comps.

For items, I don't think I've seen a Jarvan do well with Sheen and upgraded items. His skills rotation comes out too quickly and you'll generally only get one sheen proc in the process. From there, unless you're building significant CDR, his abilitiy cooldowns are too long to get additional sheen procs. You actually got a taste of this last night vs. Soraka top. After the sheen buy your burst was good, but the trades would become even after you had to disengage because your skill rotation was now on long CD and she could heal up and beat you down with several Starcalls. The one time you died to her in lane this is how she got you. Without that ~level 5 Elise gank things could have gotten really bad.

Brutalizer into a later Black Cleaver on Jarvan is good because it'll sync with his Q. Hydra is good as well. Don't skimp out on a Doran's blade early on (vs. Soraka I think you would have done much better had you gone Doran's blade + Negatron Cloak/double Mantle instead of sheen on first buy). Hexdrinker vs. AP tops is a good choice. Last Whisper is a potential buy. Straight AD is Jarvan's best offensive stat because he AAs a fair amount and his Q and R scale well enough. That said, I still think Jarvan is a tank/tanky bruiser and should be generally built that way unless you're just bulldozing your lane. Don't spend too much early gold into offensive items. Mix it up. Try being too tanky to kill solo but also a threat.
Ty for spectating!

Yes, that lane was difficult, but I think Soraka top is a nightmare regardless of build. :-( as you say, the cooldowns really stop Jarvan from being a lot more than a setup man of sorts. We kept her at 1-4 early with those nice ganks, but the hero is just too strong for most melee champs IMO. I'm not sure how a melee wins that lane without regular ganks. It's too easy to push, and harass is too free. And that's before even mentioning the heal options she has.

I'll try out a hex drinker early. I was was experimenting with the Sheen at the time to see what the burst would look like. It was nice burst, but I think the Brutalizer or straight up lifesteal is a better choice because of how high j4's cooldowns are. I'll try him with just one offensive item today (which probably means Hydra) and see how I feel about it. But yea, rotations are fun. Not being able to 1v1 very well is not so fun.
 

drawkcaB

Member
Yes, that lane was difficult, but I think Soraka top is a nightmare regardless of build. :-( as you say, the cooldowns really stop Jarvan from being a lot more than a setup man of sorts. We kept her at 1-4 early with those nice ganks, but the hero is just too strong for most melee champs IMO. I'm not sure how a melee wins that lane without regular ganks. It's too easy to push, and harass is too free. And that's before even mentioning the heal options she has.

I wanted to see how the buffs affected J4 top so you were my lab rat =).

At least you could assist in the ganks with E-Q and ult. I blind picked Singed into Soraka and this was just as she started getting regular play in the lanes. I was completely lost. I took it on the chin at first but by level 4 I noticed her mana wasn't dropping at all. Had to B and check out lolwiki to see what was going on exactly. I had no reply. I kept up in levels and after falling behind I was able to keep up in farm, but Jesus what a horrible experience.

Is there any particular reason you're interested in Jarvan? Doesn't seem to mesh with your other favorite champs and there are more independent tank/bruisers you could pick.
 
I wanted to see how the buffs affected J4 top so you were my lab rat =).

At least you could assist in the ganks with E-Q and ult. I blind picked Singed into Soraka and this was just as she started getting regular play in the lanes. I was completely lost. I took it on the chin at first but by level 4 I noticed her mana wasn't dropping at all. Had to B and check out lolwiki to see what was going on exactly. I had no reply. I kept up in levels and after falling behind I was able to keep up in farm, but Jesus what a horrible experience.

Is there any particular reason you're interested in Jarvan? Doesn't seem to mesh with your other favorite champs and there are more independent tank/bruisers you could pick.

I spent most of Season 3 jungling and top, and I was jugnling I was doing it mostly with Vi, J4, and Amumu. So I always enjoyed J4. I've also seen some people own with J4 mid so I figured now would be as good a time as any to see where J4 top is right now. But yea once you get used to "I give no fucks" champs that can murder top without any help (most of my top time has gone to super-strong duelers like Garen, Jayce, Teemo, Quinn, Fiora and Riven), it's hard to go back to those who really are gank-dependent for really finishing someone off. I'm quite satisfied with his ability to farm top and his ability to harass.

But yea, at some point (depending on the enemy top usually level 6), you can't trade safely anymore. And then you feel like you're constantly on the defensive or otherwise at the mercy of the enemy laner (and the interest level of your jungler to come and gank). I'm not used to feeling weak. Hence the experimentation with early offensive items like Sheen.
 
I tried to install LoL out of solidarity with satch but it said it was going to take like 700 hours to download part 2 so I stopped :| IDK what happened, it was going fast until then.
 

kiunchbb

www.dictionary.com
Got 800 stacks on nasus last night...couldn't carry. Worst feeling. :(

It had been like this ever since the wither nerf, he just have such a hard time catching the adc. Eventually the adc will get powerful enough that no defense will matter, and nasus got melted like everyone else.
 

Ferrio

Banned
It had been like this ever since the wither nerf, he just have such a hard time catching the adc. Eventually the adc will get powerful enough that no defense will matter, and nasus got melted like everyone else.

Wasn't the catching up that was the problem :(. Not even the 8/1 jungle twitch before lanes even broke, or even our jungle twitch with a hurricane. It was that our team besides me and the support zyra never wanted to push... even after a successful teamfight.

Tried to split push instead, they'd send 2+ people after me... my team would just stay in jungle or base and not take advantage of it.

I just think their jungle twitch gave them PTSD from his ganks.
 

zkylon

zkylewd
I tried to install LoL out of solidarity with satch but it said it was going to take like 700 hours to download part 2 so I stopped :| IDK what happened, it was going fast until then.
numbers are sometimes really random, don't pay too much attention to it

it's meant to prepare it for the greatness of the rest of the client :3
 
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