League of Legends (Old)

[Glork]

Maybe come S3 I'll actually play some ranked games. WHO KNOWS.

[MrZepher]

I've played the matchup. It doesn't work how you guys are theorizing it, and I play a lot of top Kennen, so it's not that I don't know what I'm talking about.
She can just gib you around level 4/5 (when she has all her abilities) before you have your ult and the lane just snowballs from there.
You can try playing like a puss and farming under turret but you still get poked down and you lose a lot of CS because Kennen doesn't respond so well to pushing.
She won't dive you since Kennen has a guaranteed stun on her (unless you miss your Q somehow)

Remember that Elise has a ranged form that can shove waves and doesn't rely on skillshots to poke effectively. So she can just stand in her minion wave and tank most of your poke since, like I said before, she can win on trades pretty easily.
Plus her spider escape thing lasts for most of the duration of Kennen's ult so unless you get a stun on her first before she's already in spider form then you're not going to get your full DPS on her.

I fully admit that it might be that I'm just terrible at this game, but it not as simple as "Play Kennen = beat Elise."

[DeathRowKitty]

She won't dive you since Kennen has a guaranteed stun on her (unless you miss your Q somehow)

Yeah, it's really tough to miss Elise with a skillshot that gets blocked by spiderlings.

On that same note, I can't imagine Kennen would want to max q vs Elise, so comparing q damage is kind of silly.

[lil g]

Yeah the more I think about it I have to say you guys have convinced me.. Elise is a demon top right now, the nerf to manacost of Q will hurt her, but your best bet is taking someone who can pound on her and just doing that forever. Nidalee Jayce or a better mage.

[MrZepher]

I think Nidalee can break even pretty easily, I just suck dicks at Nidalee.

I want to try Ryze top vs Elise.....

[Ankamius]

Ugh top was always difficult for me, but now it's even worse. I don't know jack shit about how to build tops.

[PJ.]

Black Cleaver Warmogs Giants belts until you win.

[scotmany12]

Black Cleaver Warmogs Giants belts until you win.

This.

Hope you get the first kill in top. Build a Giants Belt into Warmogs, win lane (though giants belt/warmogs is getting nerfed). If you die first, sucks to be you

[MrZepher]

Health is such a stupid stat in S3.... @.@

[TheButtonmen]

Health is such a stupid stat

Multiplicative stats got so nerfed in S3 and the meta changed.... @.@

FTFY.

Health is actually more expensive then in S2 but the things that used to mulch through it (AS/Crit/AD trifecta mainly) got knee capped so that bruisers are don't fall off as early as they used to and the meta shifted from long laning phases to push down towers, roam hard and snowball a win out early. This combination means that brick tanked bruisers are suddenly rolling over teams before they get the damage they needed to shred them.

Stacking health lets you trade late game strength for more midgame potential because it's omni-tanked as in the midgame when brusiers are rolling over things the ADC doesn't have the dps to kill the brusier before they get mauled and the AP carry (the traditional midgame strength) lacks the sustained damage needed to kill off something with 3000 hp. However if you're getting ahead and stacking health and you don't capitilize off it once the ADC is sitting on IE/PD you're right proper fucked so there is a trade off balancing it. My main complaint right now with health items is actually the sudden huge surge in HP/5 on warmogs now that it doesn't need to be stacked because if one top laner has it and the other doesn't they can just aggressively trade, trade, trade and then heal back to full without leaving lane.

[Ankamius]

So what are the most commonish early-mid game builds for these bruiser types top lane?

[lil g]

Longsword+2 pots into Brutalizer + Boots.
Giants belt
Warmogs
Black Cleaver

It's really just that

[Phillammon]

Suddenly, a wild giant's belt nerf appeared.

[Ankamius]

I was told by one of my ex-teammates that Flash+Pot+Ward or 9Pots+2Wards were good starting setups. Opinions?

EDIT: Amending by stating that multiple people have stated this, but the guy mentioned above is the primary one.

[chamber]

I was told by one of my ex-teammates that Flash+Pot+Ward or 9Pots+2Wards were good starting setups. Opinions?

EDIT: Amending by stating that multiple people have stated this, but the guy mentioned above is the primary one.

I don't know how good the newer flask is. I've seen mids and tops,mostly mids, go 11 pot + 1 ward to fine effect. I think its match-up dependent, better in ones were trading aggressively is what the other person wants to do, because it really limits their ability to do it effectively.

[Staeg]

After the flask nerf I don't think it's any good for "usual" top starts - 9pots2wards seems to be the way to go

Disclaimer: I say this with no practical experience whatsoever

[quadz08]

Depending on the champ, I've been going long sword + 2pots or boots + 3 pots; I still need to try the Tons O'Pots + ward start.

[MrZepher]

Flask is a good item when you know you're not going to be potion reliant after your first or second back (so champs with week early game but start scaling quickly like Wukong or Chogath)
In matchups where you would generally lose THEN you want to play potion master and go 9pot+2ward. Your goal is to just Farm farm farm and shrug off the harass with potions.
If you get counterpicked in champ select then you should probably start this way.
Boots 3pot was okay on Riven and in some cases garen... I would imagine that's not the case anymore with the nerfs to Riven's base regen.

I always feel like toplane builds are the least static builds in the game. Since Champions like Nidalee, Irelia, Olaf and Jax are really common and you can build really fluidly you generally just build what you need to get an early lead. An early Giants belt is usually really good if you can turn it into something.
If you're a tank vs an AD top like Nasus or Wukong, rushing a Randuins is hilarious (in a good way).

/twocents

[Brandi]

ok so I drew Ezreal as a man today for no apparent reason

[chamber]

ok so I drew Ezreal as a man today for no apparent reason

With no offense intended, your art style really doesn't suit trying to make people look like manly men.

[Brandi]

lol its fine! I wasn't really trying to make him "manly", mostly just "gay" (a-la-taric)/girly-man/bishie and muscular

[MrZepher]

[Brandi]

did u broked

also
http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/sho ... ?t=3068515

I added a beard cause someone suggested it

[MrZepher]

that probably came off as more asshole-ish than intended. sorry.

[Brandi]

its fine, I was just a little confused ^^; <3