League of Legends (Old)

[gandalf5166]

Ryze is a top tier mage caster right now, right? Or am I wrong.

I KNOW THAT HES AWESOME

As for tiers I have no idea >.>

[TheButtonmen]

I don't follow high-level LoL too much in depth but I thought Malz and Anivia were among the top tier casters, I didn't think Leblanc was ranked that highly though.

[scotmany12]

Ryze was pretty high up until his recent rework. Still very viable, but outclassed by the likes of Malz, Anivia, Swain, and Karthus.

[Elmo]

I play Ryze occasionally. He was "stupid OP" to quote Elementz immediately after remake. You could build almost entirely tanky and still do very respectable damage. Nerfed a little, still strong - I would argue a significant issue is a relatively low skill cap. I would put him below Anivia (caveat: I believe Anivia has been borderline if not outright OP for a long time) and roughly on par with Malz, tho filling a different role.

Preview edit: Scot makes a good point, a well-played Swain probably does Ryze's job better.

[Chronopie]

To play Ryze:

Rod of Ages: Health/Mana/AP
Frozen Heart: Armour/Mana/CDR
Banshee's Veil: MR/Mana/Health/Bubble
Manamune or AA staff: AD or AP /Mana

You end up tanky as a Blitzcrank, with a much higher output in damage.

[kiwieagle]

Top tier casters in my opinion:

Annie
Malz
Swain
Karthus
VLadimir
Anivia
Zilean

[Chronopie]

Zilean isn't top tier.

Vladimir is easy to shut down if done right early game, otherwise late game he becomes a beast.

--

Le Blanc should be on that list. She can burst down people in 1.2 seconds, gain a lead, and steamroll the entire game.

[kiwieagle]

Zileans passive and ult makes him easily top tier. His power to spam bombs as well.
Vladmir has a strong presence in lane and can stay in lane a long time and his mid game is great..
LeBlanc early game is great but she slacks off even when fed by late game.

[IH]

Zilean is actually more of a support. He ends up not being as good as other supports.
Vlad, on the other hand, is out right annoying. He isn't as good as he used to be back in the AOE days, but still respectable. He just doesn't have the damage output to be an "ap carry" compared to annie, annivia, malzahar, etc. Not bad though.

Leblanc is just a squishy killer, but you put someone with some meat after her and she bites the dust. HARD.

[RayFrost]

Zilean seems like a rather amazing support with his ult, speed buff/debuff, and ability to spam his bombs for early game harass. Late-game, he'll have quite a bit of healing on his ult to save people with (about 2:1 ratio on his ult, IIRC?), and the bombs start to hurt a lot in team fights. I suppose Janna's knock up and ult would be more useful in general but I think zilean's still a good support with some damage output with his q.

[Nightson]

Brand is pretty awesome too although I almost never see him on the enemy team.

[RayFrost]

I think the reason Brand isn't used that often is the fact he's reliant on his stun for great combo power. People don't really like having to rely on one skill to be super awesome with stuff. I mean, he's pretty good, but the fact he has to get his skill shot q off to make him as effective as other champs makes him rather iffy. I suppose in a team fight his ult would be supremely powerful in combination with pllar then conflag to make everybody ignited, but he is rather lacking in true CC while the higher tier magess (anivia / malz) have CC along with good AP ratios.

But I don't really know much, so I could be wrong.

[Knight of Cydonia]

I have no idea who Axle Hellfire is, but triple queuing with him and Gurgi and then adding bv310 was good fun.

Wait, when did this game happen? I don't remember playing with you three before.

Hi, I'm KoC and somehow I get "RayFrost" and "bv310" mixed up in my head.
I also play a mean Cho'gath, and a not-so-great jungle 'mumu. Though for that, I kinda blame Rayfrost for not understanding how Annie's stun worked. (And then when he did work it out, it randomly didn't trigger =/)

[hitogoroshi]

Prepping for a tournament. I haven't missed competitive LoL at all, but man I forgot how fun it is to plan a team comp and work with it.

Check it:

Amumu/Malphite Jungle
Annie Solo Top
Caitlyn/Ashe mid
Jarvan and Malzahar bottom

That team. So great. With the jungletank ult (Unsstoppable Force and Sad Mummy are both awesome), Jarvan ult, malzahar ult, annie stun, and possible ashe arrow - wow.

[gandalf5166]

Wait, how can you have 7? >.>

[hitogoroshi]

Slashes are variable members. Note the "and" for a two-person lane.

Technically, we all have "seconds" we're ready to play if they're banned or picked. But those two are people who are willing to switch depending on enemy comp, whereas Annie/Malz/Jarvan are really only switching if they're banned or picked.

[quadz08]

Just fyi, Blitzcrank / Swain is a beastly lane.

Blitzcrank's Q (da claw) + Swain's W (2-second freeze) + tower and/or high-damage attacks = dead somebody.

[Oman]

I had the same last night, I was teemo v Blitzcrank+Morgana, and yeah, I got pretty owned. Even away from towers they could CC me to death.

[hitogoroshi]

Blitzcrank is in the same category as Anivia - pair with any hard CC = death.

[bv310]

Blitz + Nasus is one that I have run with some significant success with a friend. I need to get better at my Blitz.

My to-learn list:

Morgana (I'm playing her quite a bit and enjoying her in a duo lane)
Blitzcrank
Annie
Vayne/Ashe/Caitlyn (I Need an AD Carry)
Maokai ( I need to learn timing for him the most)

[Oman]

I recommend Vayne, she's quite simple to learn, hard to master.

[popsofctown]

hito's wrong. Annie buff was ridiculous. Not ridiculous in that it made her a much much better character, but ridiculous in that a top tier character was buffed and appreciable amount.

Annie hadn't been top tier for a while. There's been power creep in AP town. (Leblanc says hi)

Now Annie is awesome again~

If you're talking about pubstomping, sure. But in premades Annie's AoE CC made her a top tier initiator. Comparing Annie to Leblanc doesn't even make much sense, really. Old Annie had far more similarity to Malphite: Decent pressure early game just from base values, powerful AoE cc initiation, and then just get tanky because if you walk straight into the fray and hit 3 people with huge base values, AP ratios don't matter.

he rework made her more of a caster, which saddens me, she used to be more unique.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Yeah, I'm seeing a trend from Riot towards making old heroes less interesting (Annie, Gangplank losing his deny, upcoming Nasus rework - although we don't know what form that'll take yet) and making new heroes increasing outlandish, then patching them back towards balance later. Which I suppose is how they make their money, by getting first-day buys from people who just want to pubstomp with someone no-one has worked out how to counter, but still...

[RayFrost]

I think more people would pay for different map types over new champs.

[Papa Zito]

I think more people would pay for different map types over new champs.