The Author

You really want us to check your post history Brandon?

How about an elecamelsheep? Could probably stuff a turducken in there as well... elecamelsheturduckenmouse.

Al;l the way to the ER to get your stomach pumped.

Less pull with the FDA or don't know which insect to grind into a paste to make the "meat" ?

Harvey's or bust.

With people like that: 1 doesn't matter and 2: he wasn't them.

Here is the latest influence map. 0.0 wars are fun, but most alliance are too demanding for casuals. http://dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/Verite/influence.png

For fuck's sake, just go on ahead and sleep together. We all know you want to.

Savage Garden I believe.

Speaking of weakness. When I'm purple, I cannot mid. When I'm blue, no problem, but the flip in camera makes it impossible as a purple. I need to work on that.

Well, I've seen some people be rather nice, really. And when that community shines, it shines. Which makes the bad apples stand out even more. It's just weird because I had good experiences all around, usually the one whiner is the worse player of the team, but in that case it was just odd, people made no strategic calls, no MIAs, no recommendation, and when you make them you get jumped on... Oh well.

Worse part is, I have a lot of PvP experience from various games, and given a chance, I can usually come up with a winning strategy. It isn't always perfect, I'm not a master strategist, but I know enough to change the pattern of attack many times, especially if it doesn't work perfectly. Especially when you go from dominating to being dominated. It means they figured out a weakness in the current strategy.

So, I was playing a game, everything was fine-ish at first. We got a few kills lead, but early in the laning phase, we often end up going mid to bolster up defense as they focus their attack there. I realize they are turning this into a bit of a baiting game, so they lock us all in one big group so that Lux and Kassadin, the two better player of the other team, can pick us off as we focus on their allies. I say that and am promptly ignored. The pattern is obvious though, so I propose that we use their plan as a way for us to push top and bot so that we can push back to inner turrets. Remove a bit of leeway as they hid in the jungle. Get called an idiot. I get tired of being almost farmed with Janna (yeah she's hard to catch) so I simply start pushing the top lane. When others get killed yet again in an obvious trap, I get blamed for trying to change a pattern. Seriously, what is wrong with games like this where people are so set in a routine strategy that they don't see alternatives. With Alistar and TF, I can grab a lane and blow up one or two turrets using a hit and run strategy, hell, TF is great for that because when they do get split up at the center trying to catch up the top and bot lanes, I can fall back and help the mid push. But if all 5 champions are mid, when we can only see three of theirs, it,s an obvious trap. Seriously, sometimes, fuck people on that game.

Hell, I've been told that my character sucked more than once, because I wasn't racking up enough kills (with Janna) or that I wasn't doing enough damage (top damage dealer with Anivia). You can get some pretty darn stupid people on that game. However, some random people are actually quite nice and will understand when you mess up, and will offer to help you if you start falling behind. Others will complain about feeding and will let you all alone against a foe that got 1 lucky kill, used that lead to kill you once or twice more and now is 4 levels ahead of you.

Well, if a champion is viable in the hands of a good player, doesn't that make it the champion difficult but usable?

Obviously, but is it an option worth pursuing?

If I go AP Alistar, wouldn't Lichbane be a good choice over sheen?

Well, the AP's scale is not the best, but the abilities that use it do it well... Dunno if you see what I mean. Healing can affect a huge number of targets, even if the AP scaling is low, the total gains from ap is divided among as many as 15 minions. Well used, the W cripples an adversary, and the Q is great for bashing minions. On an AP Alistar, I can push any lane from start to finish, with minimal minion losses even taking down towers. I may take a break from him and play come Janna to switch things up a bit though.

I tried deathfire, and it worked well, simply because at first I had the philosopher stone and kage's lucky pick to help with the gold, but when I upgraded both, I used the actives well. Deathfire turned into a ranged attack, which Alistar lacks. When Exhaust and Flash are on cool down, then only attack with some kind of range I have is the W, and if the enemy is not really near death, I just push him away. It also serves as a deterrent if someone is full life and thinking about pushing forward. I think the lack of a ranged attack is gonna make me change my shoes as well, probably get the +3 move. Too many times I had a foe down to critical and risked the W only to push them away at less than 50 hp. So I think I'll start with Philosopher Stone, Lucky Pick, boots of swiftness, Sheen, frozen heart, and Rabadon's. Upgrade both the stone and the pick at least 30 minutes after I purchase them. (yeah, the return on these two items is LONG. Basically, I upgrade them for the final push phase.)

Well, I was saving points to purchase either Garen or Malphite. Didn't think Alistar would become my favorite of the bunch, so I should have at least 8000 points to spend the moment I hit level 20. Since there is also a lot of overlap between Jenna and Alistar's runes as far as I'm concerned, it'll be worth it to focus on my "caster" rune page. So, what's the general consensus on Morello's Evil tome? I like how it works in the CDR and Mana regen as well as the AP, and it seems rather cheap compared to some of the stuff. Last few games I went: Philosopher stone, then build boots and morello, and then work on sheen, once these 4 are done, I test out new items. What I also should try is going Philosopher stone, kage's lucky pick, then boots and deathfire grasp, and then progress as usual. Would help if I could remember to use my actives once in a while.

To be sure, on runes, once I hit level 20, I can buy tier 3 runes and basically get the best ones I can, no new runes unlock after level 20, right?

Ok, AP Alistar is good, but with CDR, I feel like I'm running out of mana too fast. What would you suggest as a mana regen item with that sort of approach? I usually get around 50, but today during a game I couldn't keep up at all. At the end I had this selection of items: Elisa's miracle, Morello's evil tome, Ionian boots of lucidity, Sheen, I was testing out Will of the ancient to help with life, and I was working on getting the deathcap at the end. I think I should just sell off the philosopher's stone instead of upgrading it, but I do like Tenacity.

Oh, wait, the chalice is for Alistar, for Malphite I usually go for armor and some mana regen, but I haven't tweaked everything with him. Summoner name is Jeshen. I tried the drag and drop for items, didn't work, maybe they are locked or something, will look in my key bindings next time I get a chance.

Nope, it's a passive, the attacks always splash, as soon as you unlock the W. Hmmm, Sheen is interesting, still think I'd go for the chalice of harmony early on. And the ability I do spam is my E, Q and W are kept for when the situation dictates it, although I do use Q a lot against minions to help with the farming. I should probably build a mastery page specifically for him, like I have on Janna. But then again, on the chalice... maybe the philosopher stone is the better choice, as it helps with money issues and mana issues. I'd go for the Miracle however, as I have the nasty habit of forgetting about my active items. (If I could move them to 1 2 and 3 it would be simpler, but when an item is on 4 and 5 I hit R by accident once in a while and that sucks.)

It boosts its AP and AD through the manamune and archangel staff. Although I could probably do that through other items, the first tier of these two are quite useful early game, IMO, but that might be me going with what I know. I think the game should allow you to make items as favorites for a character so you can easily find them again, maybe I could mark new ones so that in the heat of the battle I don't go for the easily recognizable/buildable. Every time I get a chance to shop, I feel like I'm hindering my team by staying back too long.