League of Legends: I finally updated the player list in the OP!

[prophetik music]

just went 1/1/18 mid as galio. GALIO MID EASY MODE

also draft pick games seem to have less trolls and shitty players that was a clever way for riot to weed them out. what troll wants to wait 3 minutes in queue and in lobby?

most of them. i haven't had a complete game without a leaver or a blatant feeder yet, and i've done ten or fifteen draft mode games in the last few days. it's almost worse than just normal, because amumu is always banned.

who determines who picks last? because i always do. by then, every tank i own is taken or banned (did a game where amumu, cho, rammus, and singed was banned, and the other team took galio and alistar), my teammates are idiots about swapping, and i get stuck tanking warwick or something ridiculous.

[kitty]

Lowest elo picks last in ranked. It's random to some extent in normal.

[Dissidia]

Galio mid <3 indeed haha. It's fun cause you almost always face ap casters and can be all like "YOUR DMG GODDAMNIT!" And galio q dmg early, I take that.

[prophetik music]

Lowest elo picks last in ranked. It's random to some extent in normal.

i rarely was picking last in ranked. but i always - always - pick last in normal draft. don't get it.

[BardicKnowledge]

Honestly, amumu is a smart ban -- he should definitely be in people's top three bans every game.

Then, because tanky DPS seems to be the best overall character archetype, we see people like cho, rammus, garen, lee sin, and xin zhao (in order roughly) banned.

Time to learn a hard AD/AP hero, prophet?

[Dexie]

Just played Cho'gath for the first time. Sorc Shoes/RoA/Abyssal/Hourglass/Deathcap/Atma's. Went 16/5/20 and could 2v1 any two members of the opposing team.

...we still lost because our Riven died twenty times, yelling LAAAAAAG every single death. I think this is the most discouraged I've ever been with the game. SO bloody depressing when crap like that happens.

[prophetik music]

Honestly, amumu is a smart ban -- he should definitely be in people's top three bans every game.

Then, because tanky DPS seems to be the best overall character archetype, we see people like cho, rammus, garen, lee sin, and xin zhao (in order roughly) banned.

Time to learn a hard AD/AP hero, prophet?

cho isn't banned as much because he has no close-the-gap, although that AoE knockup is just as deadly and almost as effective as alistar's. i see characters with hard close-the-gap being banned a lot more, and characters with crazy late-games like tryndamere.

my 'hard' ad carry is udyr, and my ap carry is fiddles. i'm debating buying and learning olaf or yorick at some point. and i can jungle characters like nunu as well, who is an excellent example of the AP side of tanky dps.

[Tensei]

Tanky DPS are the champions Bardic listed as well as Irelia, Jarvan and Wukong I guess. Olaf/Warwick/Udyr/Nocturne fall in that category as well if you don't count junglers as a seperate category.

By AD carry people usually mean ranged champions like Vayne, Caitlyn, Ashe, Corki, etc.

Also, Dexie, play HoN if you want your 16/5/20 score to matter. Any carry hero with that kind of farm should be able to handle 3-4 enemy heroes at once.

[Dexie]

Also, Dexie, play HoN if you want your 16/5/20 score to matter. Any carry hero with that kind of farm should be able to handle 3-4 enemy heroes at once.

Tried HoN. Didn't like it.

I should be used to this kind of thing by now, but...geez, it's still depressing as hell.

[Vilecat]

Galio mid <3 indeed haha. It's fun cause you almost always face ap casters and can be all like "YOUR DMG GODDAMNIT!" And galio q dmg early, I take that.

That's why I love playing Maokai. at least 3 pts asap in E and you'll do enough damage to even kill the caster creeps even if you land your seedling on them (since it does dmg on landing then when exploding). Until now it's been the only hero I own that I've been able to hold a lane 2v1 with.

Except against Riven. Riven is stupid OP x(

Been playing Ashe a lot in bot games recently since I bought her, trying to figure out what items suit her and how to play her decently (what to max first, etc).

And since I'm almost lv17 already, I made a smurf account >_>;

[Tensei]

Build Ashe and every other AD carry like this: boots + 3x health pots if youre mid, Dorans Blade in a side. Rush a BF Sword if you're doing well, otherwise get 2-3 Dorans Blades and Zerker Greaves First. From there just build crap like Bloodthirster/Infinity Edge, Phantom Dancer and Banshees Veil.

Almost every single AD carry plays the same so you can have that one build for each of them, there's not nearly as much variation in builds as in HoN.

[Vilecat]

Hm, going x2 or x3 Doran's blade sounds decent if I can't get that B.sword thing yeah. I was doing zerker greaves at least since I thought tanky boots was a bit silly unless in certain situations, and I'd prefer getting the tenacity from another item instead, IF I need it.

I was rushing zeal blades first but I'll try that instead, sounds like a better option.

[Tensei]

Zeal Blades are only good for Dunk builds. That's not to say Dunk builds aren't good in their own right, but yeah. Typically not something you want to be doing on a srs bzns AD carry.

[Bleck]

Riven is stupid OP

no she's really really not

[zircon]

Here's the basic rundown on ranged AD itemization, as someone who loves carrying

First, you need to decide on whether you are doing an on-hit effects build, glass cannon or a balance of damage and survivability.

* Glass cannon: Purely damage focused. You will probably end up wi,th less than 2000 HP by the end of the game. Corki, Vayne, Ashe, Caitlyn and Tristana are all typically built this way.

* On-hit: Good for champs that have innate abilities triggering on attack. Focused on attack speed or sometimes a hybrid of AD/AS/AP, but not pure damage and rarely crit. Teemo, Kayle, Kog'maw, Twisted Fate, Twitch all fit this build well.

* Survivability: As the name suggests, these champs focus on HP and not dying. Teemo and Sivir are usually like this.

* Hard to classify: Ezreal and Urgot will often build Manamune, unlike most other ranged AD champs. Then, Urgot usually goes glass cannon and Ezreal builds hybrid AD/AP based on his skillset.

In terms of the item breakdown...

* Infinity Edge: Usually a core item on ranged AD as it gives you tons of damage. However, on-hit champs don't usually need this.

* Phantom Dancer: You will usually want this if you got IE. Attack speed, MS and critical strike. Also core on glass cannon.

* Bloodthirster: Provides all the lifesteal you will need, plus lots of damage.

* Banshee's Veil: Good for anyone honestly, though if you are very careful as glass cannon you don't need it. Will usually solve mana problems.

* Hextech Gunblade: Great on hybrid champs like Kog'maw, Ezreal, Kayle and TF.

* Nashor's Tooth: Another excellent hybrid/on-hit item, but only if you use AP also.

* Wit's End: If the enemy team has lots of MR you might want this if you are doing badly and can't afford anything else. Otherwise, it's an ideal on-hit item.

* Madred's Bloodrazor: Good for dealing with tanks as on-hit; gives you attack speed and a fantastic proc.

* Manamune: Only good on incredibly mana-hungry champs, as the stats are fairly mediocre otherwise. Core on Urgot, good on Ezreal, decent on Corki.

* Black Cleaver: Typically good for Corki to tear through even more armor. Attack speed, damage, good proc.

* Last Whisper: If you already have tons of AD, this is an ideal item to finish up a glass cannon build.

* Sword of the Divine: Great for Twisted Fate or any other strong push champ.

* Guinsoo's Rageblade: An ideal hybrid AD/AP item.

So, an example Ashe build:

* Infinity Edge, Phantom Dancer, Bloodthirster, Last Whisper, Banshee's Veil, Boots of Swiftness.

OR, if you're dying a lot:

* Infinity Edge, Merc Treads, Banshee's Veil, Randuin's Omen, Bloodthirster, Phantom Dancer. (Strong armor, MR, HP)

[Bleck]

how to play ezreal qqqqqqqqqqqq

[Dexie]

how to play ezreal qqqqqqqqqqqq

TIME FOR A DISPLAY OF TRUE SKILL.

qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq

[Bleck]

more like a q display of skill

[Dexie]

YEEEEEEEEEEAH!

Damnit Xin, why do you have to be so cool with your popped collar and awesome horse and all?

EDIT: Riven buffs are being hotfixed in with today's downtime.

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=1255698

Pretty nice, though I was hoping for a bit more range on her Broken Wings and her shield roll.

Edited September 20, 2011 by Dexie

[The Derrit]

so two things

one, i found a way to play LoL while i'm in san diego so that's sweet

two, i know one of you plays eve and i just figured out that shen ultimate lets me teleport to you while you're stealthed and APPEAR OUT OF NOWHERE to kill some douche blitzcrank

this needs to happen soon so many ganks are gonna go down

[Tensei]

As neat as that sounds, that means you end up having two shitty champions on your team (Eve and Shen), while you could technically achieve the same thing with Nocturne/Pantheon/Twisted Fate.

Also, what does 'one of you plays eve' mean? I mean, I own Eve but I don't exactly play her often and I actually try to play almost every single Champion (except for my Dunk Yi streak but that's more of a gimmick ). I never really got why people restrict themselves to playing only 5-10 characters out of a cast of 50+, though I guess that in LoL there is a lot of overlap in roles.

Edited September 20, 2011 by Tensei

[The Derrit]

As neat as that sounds, that means you end up having two shitty champions on your team (Eve and Shen), while you could technically achieve the same thing with Nocturne/Pantheon/Twisted Fate.

Also, what does 'one of you plays eve' mean? I mean, I own Eve but I don't exactly play her often and I actually try to play almost every single Champion (except for my Dunk Yi streak but that's more of a gimmick ). I never really got why people restrict themselves to playing only 5-10 characters out of a cast of 50+, though I guess that in LoL there is a lot of overlap in roles.

i get that you passive troll here a lot but ok. someone here 'LIKES' playing eve. sorry for not being more specific and i bow to your intelligence which is clearly above all of ours continue. also, please continue to stroke your own epeen for all of us please, everyone loves mental masturbation

for the record i have 12 characters i am confident in, and given i started july of this summer i'm pretty ok with that. and shen isn't really that bad

[Tensei]

Whoa, coming in hot here.

I didn't mean to 'passive troll', whatever that means, I just have trouble relating to the idea of playing only a handful of different Champions, especially if they don't cover every single role in a team. That's how you end up with Xin, Ashe, Garen, Twitch and Akali-teams in pub games, because people are hesitant to come out of their comfort zone when it comes to champion picks, for some reason.

I don't see how that counts as mental masturbation but whatever. For the record I started july of this summer as well, so I don't see how that relates. And Shen really is that bad because he does no damage/CC compared to other tanks like Amumu and Alistar.

[Dexie]

Anyone that plays Shen has to do this at least once:

1) Wait for your jungler to almost have the blue golem or red lizard dead.

2) Use ult on jungler.

3) Last hit it with Q.

4) /laugh

5) Shadow Dash through the wall and run off into the night.

I did that to a friend once and his reaction was priceless.

Also Shen's damage is pretty good now since his buffs last patch. Not as OMG AMAZING as Amumu, but then again, who's damage is?

[Tensei]

That's kinda the point though. When I call a Champion bad, I don't mean that he's completely terrible on paper, but given the other options you have to fill that particular role, he just gets completely outperformed.

Amumu is one of the fastest junglers, has scaling damage that doesnt require you to build AP, and has an ult that wins teamfights. Alistar has wonderful lane control, can isolate enemies from their team with proper initiation and has huge innate tankiness which gives you the freedom to spec for AP or auras. Shen is mediocre in lane, has limited utility in teamfights and is uhhh decent at counterganking?

My point is, if you have like 20 Champions to consider for the role of tank, some of them will inevitably be inferior in almost every way.