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

[relyanCe]

I found this really amusing Hide and Seek game. Basically, one team of 5 hides from another team of 2 in the inner circle of Dominion. Each hider has 5 lives. The hiders can only use CC abilities, while seekers can use anything to kill the hiders. The game ends when the hiders survive 40 minutes, or they run out of lives.

Anyone interested in trying it out?

as long as teemo is banned

[zircon]

OK, I played a match today against a pretty good Vel'koz. Once he gets his ult, he's a little scary against low mobility champs like Syndra. If I stun him first, I can generally kill him, but the reverse is also true (assuming he lands his skillshots).

Also... I'm Gold! Hooray!!!

[BardicKnowledge]

OK, I played a match today against a pretty good Vel'koz. Once he gets his ult, he's a little scary against low mobility champs like Syndra. If I stun him first, I can generally kill him, but the reverse is also true (assuming he lands his skillshots).

Also... I'm Gold! Hooray!!!

Congrats on Gold!

I'd suggest that Vel'Koz vs. Syndra really isn't about the laning phase (where Syndra likely has a slight edge), but what they contribute to a teamfight. On a team with Leona and Hecarim, you'd want Vel'Koz to make use of all those disables setting up the multi-target ultimate. On a team with Kha'Zix and Lulu, you'd probably want the single target burst Syndra provides instead.

I'd be more interested in comparing Vel'Kox to Karthus, Fiddlesticks, and Katarina -- massive AOE champions who like to do relatively similar things.

[DragonAvenger]

Congrats on gold!

[kitty]

Excellent work sir. Now don't lose it!

[SkyRiderX]

I've been playing Strife too much...I went to go play a couple arams and almost went AD Hiemer thinking "it's ok! all the AD stats buff my "AP" apells too!".....needless to say I'm quite ashamed...

[Ryan Jobson]

I've been experimenting with Velkoz in normal games simply for the fact that he's really fun to play. It makes me WANT to get good with him, but if I'm being serious (I also am hoping to hit gold soon; currently in S2), then I have to revert to Nocturne jungle.

[prophetik music]

my biggest issue with vel'koz is that they reset all the normal ELOs, and i haven't play enough normals to normalize. in four games with him mid, i've had a team with a proper support in bottom lane once. the others featured such fantastic combos like ziggs support. i won the one with a real support (my first game, 9-9-12) and have lost the other three averaging something like 5-10-13. part of that came with laning against akali, kassadin, and [someone who i beat, don't remember], where they went even against me but left, got kills on my derp bot lanes, and then came back and steamrolled me.

in my three losses, too, i had a lee sin with 400 damage but zero tank who tried to throw three times before doing it (he was the 'tank'), a shaco jungle tank who only dived when i pinged to back off (that was the game with ziggs support), and a game where i fought a clearly skilled kassadin to a standstill in mid and outfarmed him but couldn't get a gank to save my life. he got a triple kill in bot lane and came back to eat me alive in late game.

in short, i think vel'koz is just as viable as champs like lux are in the current meta - long-range casters with hard CC and heavy damage are fantastic to have with a real teamcomp, but they need proper support and beef to keep people off of them, and even then some teams just can overwhelm an individual caster. his lack of mobility really hurts him, too, but the relatively long range of his abilities is super nice, and having what amounts to three different hard forms of cc - his mega-slow Q, the rift, and the cho'gath knockup - mean you vomit damage in big fights, and if you've got that tanky initiation (malphite, mummy, and sejuani come to mind), you can land and chain CC and his passive enough that you can burst anyone down regardless of resists or tankiness.

edit: is anyone else as sick of the "it's normals" comment as i am? yes, it isn't ranked, but you're still wasting a minimum of 20 minutes because you're a moron and decided to do double ADC bot when you can't last-hit. all three of my losses featured someone saying "it's normals" and then locking in something totally ridiculous. teambuilder literally can't get here fast enough. i will never play another normal game again. i'm all for crazy builds - i mean, look at all my movespeed builds on aram and elsewhere! - but i have more fun winning than getting stomped because my hard counter got fed munching on a 4-17 bot lane.

Edited March 3, 2014 by prophetik music

[prophetik music]

I'd suggest that Vel'Koz vs. Syndra really isn't about the laning phase (where Syndra likely has a slight edge), but what they contribute to a teamfight. On a team with Leona and Hecarim, you'd want Vel'Koz to make use of all those disables setting up the multi-target ultimate. On a team with Kha'Zix and Lulu, you'd probably want the single target burst Syndra provides instead.

I'd be more interested in comparing Vel'Kox to Karthus, Fiddlesticks, and Katarina -- massive AOE champions who like to do relatively similar things.

sorry for the double post.

this is a good point - while they're both low-mobility champs, they definitely have different focuses.

i don't think that vel compares to karth or fiddles, though - his abilities have relatively narrow hitboxes and don't do the same kind of damage in an entire lane like karthus or fiddles or kat can. i can't think of another mage that has his ability to chain so much hard cc on someone. the ability to heavy slow -> root -> knockup -> root, combined with the huge damage that comes from that and his ult, isn't one i can think of elsewhere, besides maybe old xerath, but old xerath didn't have vel's low mana costs or crazy low cooldowns.

maybe ziggs is a closer comparison? more functional hard cc but less mobility?

[BardicKnowledge]

Here's something that everyone should read, regardless of skill level: http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1zfutx/top_10_ways_to_stop_throwing/

[zircon]

Great advice in there.

BTW, Jeff and I were thinking about doing a lane swap for ranked 5s. So, I would mid and he would ADC.

[kitty]

The reasoning behind that is that Annie is pretty much going to get nerfed into a shit tier of her own and I don't particularly like any other mid much more than Jinx or Varus or Sivir.

Also Syndra relies less on all-in initiation than Annie and is generally safer with a similar if not higher damage output. The same can be argued for Orianna.

Edited March 4, 2014 by kitty

[SkyRiderX]

Sure guys that's sounds fine. However if we're all swapping lanes than while we're at it I'll swap to support so I can unleash the pain of SUPPORT MORD!!! HUEHUEHUEHUE

[relyanCe]

I'm excited to see some changeups!

[kitty]

Sure guys that's sounds fine. However if we're all swapping lanes than while we're at it I'll swap to support so I can unleash the pain of SUPPORT MORD!!! HUEHUEHUEHUE

6v4 too stronk

[relyanCe]

I hate that I can't carry solo games from top lane

[BardicKnowledge]

I hate that I can't carry solo games from top lane

Running teleport helps to mitigate this a lot, I've found. You can force action in bottom lane when needed if you're ahead, and stay relevant as a split pusher if you're behind.

[prophetik music]

i apologize for not being any good at mid. this is why i am trying to play more mid =)

[ArmadonRK]

Running teleport helps to mitigate this a lot, I've found. You can force action in bottom lane when needed if you're ahead, and stay relevant as a split pusher if you're behind.

Teleport helps you impact the game, and have global presence, but there are also options if you really want to carry from the top lane, but I feel like you need a good matchup, or a lot of early game confidence to snowball.

Riven, Jax and Rengar are three of the hardest top lane carries I can think of. Of the tanks, Shyvana is the only one I really think of as a solo-carry.

So if you're really looking to carry, there are options.

[ArmadonRK]

If you're a Lee Sin fan, do yourself a favor and don't look at Riot's tentative retuning of him. You'll just make yourself mad. Hopefully they'll come to their senses and actually tune him properly instead of nerfing him across the board by sticking random numbers in his kit.

[kitty]

If you're a _______fan, do yourself a favor and don't look at Riot's tentative retuning of him/her. You'll just make yourself mad. Hopefully they'll come to their senses and actually tune him/her properly instead of nerfing him across the board by sticking random numbers in his/her kit.

Fixed that for you.

[ArmadonRK]

I guess I just figured people would typically understand when nerfs and changes were warranted, and what kind of changes that would entail. Such as the LeBlanc nerfs, Zed changes, Kha'zix nerfs, Nidalee changes, Yi rework, Kayle nerfs, Jayce nerfs, upcoming Gragas nerfs, etc.

The proposed Lee Sin changes are unique in that this is the first time I think people have a right to be baffled by the direction of the changes, barring the Karma-level catastrophe that was, well, Karma.

[prophetik music]

lee sin can do everything, really really well. he can support, he can tank, he can ad carry, he can bruiser, he can jungle, he can assassinate. he can do most of these from roughly the same build.

he's broke as shit, dude, and it's time someone fixed him. dunno if how riot's doing it is the right way, but he desperately needs to be tuned. the biggest thing that needs to change is that the feeder sin is always your top lane, and the fed sin is always their jungle. fix that and he's actually more balanced.

[zircon]

I actually thought that Lee Sin was fine overall though. True, he's a jack of all trades, and excels at mobility. But his winrate % is not great (<50%). He's also not so good that he's banned constantly, at either lower levels or even LCS. I don't think the changes make a lot of sense, personally.

[k-wix]

lee sin can do everything, really really well. he can support, he can tank, he can ad carry, he can bruiser, he can jungle, he can assassinate. he can do most of these from roughly the same build.

he's broke as shit, dude, and it's time someone fixed him. dunno if how riot's doing it is the right way, but he desperately needs to be tuned. the biggest thing that needs to change is that the feeder sin is always your top lane, and the fed sin is always their jungle. fix that and he's actually more balanced.

I'm 100% with prophetik on this one. I haven't seen the proposed changes yet, where are you guys getting this? But I sincerely think his mid/early-game needs to get changed. He gains too much power off a few kills.

He's one of those go-to champions in soloq that one skilled player can straight up end a game with because he farmed off a few bad players. Khazix is the other one, I hope they change him as well. I routinely ask for both of them to be banned in my soloq games, and 9 times out of 10, the entire team disagrees with me and bans Mundo.

Edited March 8, 2014 by k-wix