League of Legends (Old)

[Knight of Cydonia]

[Ankamius]

My internet is being dumb. Might not be able to play at all tonight.

[Lady Lambdadelta]

Anyone particularly brave up for helping me win my series? 1/1 so far, next game decides it.

What division are you in?

[TehBrawlGuy]

Anyone particularly brave up for helping me win my series? 1/1 so far, next game decides it.

What division are you in?

Silver IV. I started in III, but 4 games in a row of afks/trolls op. Climb back was at least easy.

[Lady Lambdadelta]

If you don't mind playing with a Bronze 1, I'll play.

[TehBrawlGuy]

I don't mind at all, normally. Considering I'm at my last game of a series. I'd like do a normal or something first.

Too late to do it today, though.

[IH]

Man like 4 scummers in silver 2 olaf's sorcerers.

I think I've got the hang of season 3 stuff so far, on a pretty big ranked winning streak. I'm feeling it after that super disheartening losing streak. Just needed to take a day or two break.

[Brandi]

Well, I can't login to my account for some reason, sometimes it says "authentication successful" and gives me the "logging in" screen for eternity and never goes through, and sometimes it says "password is invalid"
There's also the fact that I can log into my other accounts.
Not sure if my account has been compromised or not but I sent in a ticket with Riot hopefully they can help me soon.

[Brandi]

Oh that's weird, apparently it was just an issue with Riot servers as I can not login to my account with no issue.
I changed my password anyway just in case, though <_<

[Ankamius]

Alright, I need to learn more mid/top/jungle champions. Ahri mid, Renekton/Jax top, and Vi/Nocturne jungle is not going to cut it.

Since I have assassin mostly covered, what other 'roles' for these lanes should I be looking into most and which champions would be best to cover my weaknesses there? I know jack shit about specific counters in mid and top lane, so anyone who has a lot of knowledge in those that can help with this would be great.

[Lady Lambdadelta]

Just played a couple of games with Evelyn.

She's still super strong, at least at this elo. People don't know how to deal with her when she can just instantly 100-0 the ADC with DFG Ult Ignite.

[Brandi]

just got carried by ap warwick wat

[TehBrawlGuy]

Alright, I need to learn more mid/top/jungle champions. Ahri mid, Renekton/Jax top, and Vi/Nocturne jungle is not going to cut it.

Since I have assassin mostly covered, what other 'roles' for these lanes should I be looking into most and which champions would be best to cover my weaknesses there? I know jack shit about specific counters in mid and top lane, so anyone who has a lot of knowledge in those that can help with this would be great.

You need an AP top and AP junglers. You're missing good sustained damage picks mid, someone super-strong midgame top, and good AoE comp champs for all positions. As far as mid, anyone with the ability to dodge Ahri's skillshots, shut her mobility down, or hit with targeted abilities
(so she can't R dodge them) are generally strong picks against her. Ryze does the last two, for example.

Just played a couple of games with Evelyn.

She's still super strong, at least at this elo. People don't know how to deal with her when she can just instantly 100-0 the ADC with DFG Ult Ignite.

They also don't know to be scared of her roaming on backs. Literally both of my last Eve games, I backed, then went bot and got a free double because idgaf about green wards.

[MrZepher]

AP tops are garbage, as are AP junglers. They're at an automatic disadvantage due to the need to scale and the general lack of escapes.
I'm not saying it won't work, you can make it work of course, but the only real reason you do AP tops is for the magic damage and forcing the enemy laner to itemize magic resist.

Irelia and Elise are really good tops (Elise is also an AP top, her mana costs are really high now and her teamfight is garbage).

Diana and Lux are solid mid picks. Lux never gets banned but she gets picked often, even in high elo which is weird.
Eve is also really good if you know how to roam correctly. Most people don't play her now because she's not OP anymore.

Junglers... pick up Maokai and Jarvin. Both do relatively the same thing for your team in terms of ganking but offer different damage types.

[TehBrawlGuy]

AP tops are garbage, as are AP junglers. They're at an automatic disadvantage due to the need to scale and the general lack of escapes.
I'm not saying it won't work, you can make it work of course, but the only real reason you do AP tops is for the magic damage and forcing the enemy laner to itemize magic resist.

Irelia and Elise are really good tops (Elise is also an AP top, her mana costs are really high now and her teamfight is garbage).

Diana and Lux are solid mid picks. Lux never gets banned but she gets picked often, even in high elo which is weird.
Eve is also really good if you know how to roam correctly. Most people don't play her now because she's not OP anymore.

Junglers... pick up Maokai and Jarvin. Both do relatively the same thing for your team in terms of ganking but offer different damage types.

>singed
>rumble
>cho
>teemo
>malphite
>vlad

you're right, all clearly garbage tops


It's just one of those things that you have to be prepared to play occasionally. When you have Panth mid and Xin jungle, you can't just go Jax and have it be k. You could when S3 started and cleaver was broken, but not really anymore.

Lux is really solid, but she's closer to Ahri than I'd advocate if he wants to only play a few mids. Poke with skillshot, hit skillshot CC, dump damage and instaboom. Lux has more range and is a lot safer, but something like Ryze/Morg or Swain/Kennen rounds him out better imo.

[Ankamius]

I'm generally pretty shit at mid-game champions, since I'm a passive player at heart and like ensuring I will be able to be relevant as time goes on even if I'm not fed.

Well, I know that Kennen is Ahri's biggest counter since his primary damage early game is the same as her E-Q combo but better, plus she can't really fight him level 6 very well with her ult.

Has the meta really shifted enough to make Irelia not terrible? I still never see her picked virtually anywhere. I'm not really sure I agree with AP tops being bad because they need to scale; a lot of AD tops are the same way (Jax and Nasus being the obvious two I can think of off hand) and it allows the mid player to go an AD caster. I'd rather stay away from Lux since I find her E to be bullshit and don't want to feel like I'm abusing it. Not sure about Diana since her role is really similar to Ahri's (assassinate ADC instantly). Plus I don't actually own her and I only have 1k IP, so it would take a while to get her. Same issue with Maokai, although I was considering getting him for a long time now.

PEdit: Swain? Oh fuck yes, I loved playing him back in the day. Ryze wouldn't be bad either, since he was the first AP I tried when I came back to the game with depressingly bad results.

[SensFan]

Anyone particularly brave up for helping me win my series? 1/1 so far, next game decides it.

What division are you in?

Silver IV. I started in III, but 4 games in a row of afks/trolls op. Climb back was at least easy.

Lost my own Promo Series from SilverIV last night. Good luck with yours!

[Papa Zito]

You need an AP top and AP junglers.

Has there been a meta shift when I wasn't looking? Last I checked AD bruisers were king in this game, and the Big Jungle 3 were Vi/Jarvin/Xin.

[dramonic]

You need an AP top and AP junglers.

Has there been a meta shift when I wasn't looking? Last I checked AD bruisers were king in this game, and the Big Jungle 3 were Vi/Jarvin/Xin.

you don't want an AD top and jungler if you're mid plays an AD assassin.

[SensFan]

You need an AP top and AP junglers.

Has there been a meta shift when I wasn't looking? Last I checked AD bruisers were king in this game, and the Big Jungle 3 were Vi/Jarvin/Xin.

you don't want an AD top and jungler if you're mid plays an AD assassin.

That's actually more playable than you'd think, as long as you build your team around Armor Shred.

[Bub Bidderskins]

I'm personally a fan of Nasus jungle. You just build tanky and he turns into a massive unkillable beast in teamfights that deals a decent amount of free damage to everybody. You can also farm up your Q really easy in the jungle, and his ganks aren't half-bad with his whither. Kind of a weak duelist early, though.

[Papa Zito]

The only thing I found good about Nasus in the jungle was soloing dragon at level 6. If you're trying to farm Q in the jungle then your clear times are super slow, if you're not then you may as well play a better jungler.

[lil g]

King Darius, or "How to stop getting blown out in toplane".
a PSA by lil g

To anyone struggling in toplane, I can't recommend Darius enough.
Top is not a strong lane for me since it's about forcing positive trades up to the all-in, and has a large burden of knowledge in regard to always knowing how much damage you can do/take against the large pool of heroes who go top. If you don't have the knowledge base against an aggressive laner who does, you are going to get run out of town. You can tell when someone knows their hero math because they will trade, trade, trade, and then the ignite comes down and you are dead no matter what you do, because they did their homework and they have the target numbers in their head already, just like as a jungler you keep mental track of how your smite scales. He knows if he can drop you to 'x' hp he can take you out, so he's playing aggressively and trading towards that goal. It's like a running a race where only your opponent can see the finish line, you aren't really sure how hard you should be pushing until all of a sudden he kicks it into high gear and you get dusted.

I've been watching a lot of people get absolutely destroyed in top this season. The only remedy is practice and closing the knowledge gap between you and your opponents. Get on top of the meta, do the number crunching, memorize your target numbers, be able to accurately predict trade damage. Until you get there, every time you try to get fancy with a smarter opponent, you will be found wanting. While you are learning all of this on your path to become a true toplane master, there is hope! His name is Darius, the pimp hand of Noxus.

Enter the Dunkmaster. Darius is an absolute monster who can build almost pure tank and still be a huge source of damage. His execute ult is still one of the most fearsome chained moves in the game, even after the cd nerf (which only really affects laning). Darius is the only champ in this crazy snowball game of toplane aggression who can end laning at 0-4 and still get right back into it when teamfighting starts.

9/21 , ArPen/Armor/MR, choice of Quints, I use MS (or Hp/5 if counterpicked with range).
R>Q>W>E

Strengths:
Darius is almost impossible to trade favorably with. Q aa W aa E aa Q and ride them down while they bleed out. As long as your pull (E) is up, you are in control. This holds true against even ranged harassers like Jayce, Teemo, and Vlad. When you miss your pull or it is on cd, you will be punished mercilessly by anyone with range. You need to maintain the constant threat of punishment for any mistake in positioning. When your pull is down, they are in control and you need to realize that and give ground if you have to. Keeping this in mind you should never be forced into an unfavorable trade.

High damage while building tank: lets you itemize defensively on a per-game basis, the only dmg item you should need is a BC. General build path is Brut, Warmogs, BC, then build resistances to suit. Sunfire, Randuins, FH, Maw, whatever you need. I like to finish the build with a GA since your bleeds will always be running during a fight, so as soon as you pop up you'll get the bonus MS from your passive and be ready to make a play.

Cleanup hitter! Nobody does it better than Darius. Teammates will call KS, opponents will call you cheap or whatever. You win.

Weaknesses:
Kiting. Holy crap, kiting. When your only mode of attack is walking deliberately at the other team, you are gonna take some hits before you get there. That's why you always build as a tank, so you can deliver your payload. Your team needs a way to engage a 5v5 teamfight that isn't "Darius go pull someone".

Hero harass pushes the lane. This isn't really a weakness as long as you know what you're doing, but if you Spin the wave or are forced into trading in the middle of the creeps, you are going to completely screw up your wave control. Darius has no escapes and is very susceptible to overextending and getting ganked. Buy wards, don't relentlessly push. You won't turn a gank into a doublekill before 6, don't be a hero.

Tips and Tricks to dunk better, harder, and with more conviction!

Remember, this is a guide to Darius for people who feel overwhelmed or overpressured in toplane by all those fancy moves and way too much to remember. If you're a toplane pro and you aren't hampered by the burden of knowledge, then go live your life and play your Zed or whatever and keep chasing that magic equation where x = kill.

Don't push the lane. Ever. Do not push the lane. IF it pushes past middle, reset it. If you don't know how to do that, run it into the tower as fast as you can and hope for the best. Staying on your side of the river will keep you SAFE. Not dying is the most important thing in lane. Darius has no escapes from a gank except a doublekill.

You want to deter people from killing you, so you want to discourage trades. You do this by making sure that in the first couple of trades, you come out on top. This also means you don't engage before level 3. Anyone who starts red pot is going to try and kill you at lv 2 with an ignite all-in, so check their inventory and back the hell up. Likely candidates for this are Renekton, Wukong, and anyone else who can gapclose onto you while igniting you after they start red pot and beat you to lv 2. Don't let this happen and you will be ahead in gold if that red soda doesn't give them that kill.

When you do trade, make sure you are stacking your bleed through autoattacks. Q, aa, W, aa, E, aa, Q. 5 stacks is the max and it is significant damage in lane. If you just Q and walk away you are only applying one stack. If you have to run from a fight, make sure you are stacking your bleed while you run. You can use your E to pull someone (back) into tower range. Remember Darius is a skill equalizer, he deals heavy damage for free with no skill involved. If they are going to beat you by skill in an unfavorable matchup, make sure they have to work for it.

Your E can pull people over skinny walls: Baron pit, base walls included. You can pull Blue golem over his curved wall.

You don't need to worry about getting styled on by any flashy jumpy guys like Zed, Khazix, Lee, or anyone like that if you learn your E's range. It is not big. Darius is like Blitzcrank: not a threat when his pull is down. Missing a pull means 24 sec of them pounding on you while you can't do anything about it. That's probably too long to live through if you are against an aggressive smart laner.

You can lose your lane without dying 5 times! This is a common misunderstanding even in high level play. Someone will get behind 2 kills and as many levels, and keep fighting because "I can't just give up!!". Yes you can, dumbass! Get what you can safely, stop dying, patch together some cs, grab the golems, do whatever you can but pull yourself together and stop feeding. If you are significantly behind or overmatched, just turn to pure defense, make sure you stay in xp range, and wait for things to improve. Ok you lost your lane. Give your team a chance, don't sink them by giving up 7 kills to your opponent. (This is probably what's going to happen if you get counterpicked by Jayce. Bide your time, don't die, and wait for teamfights.)

In closing, Darius is a true glacier of toplane. Play him passively and SMART, and you will slowly gain momentum. There are other "roadblock" type champions for top (Yorick, Cho) but honestly they are not as effective in discouraging aggression and don't have the game takeover ability of Darius. Playing by the book (this book!) will not only stop you from getting bumrushed out of toplane, but as you get more comfortable dealing with the aggressive style of top, you can use what you learn to branch out into different styles and heroes. Other heroes who fit this playstyle well and scale into the lategame as effective tanks and anti-carries are Volibear, Irelia, Singed, and Cho. I hope this helps some people, it is definitely strange to write a guide for a lane that I feel I am weak in, but it's all part of the learning process and something to think about for players of every level.

[scotmany12]

AP tops are garbage

, as are AP junglers. They're at an automatic disadvantage due to the need to scale and the general lack of escapes.

Please stop giving advice on things you clearly don't know about. Akali, Vlad, Elise, Rumble, Singed are all viable AP tops. Teemo can also be built AP top, and before he was nerfed AP tryndamere was ridiculous. Guess what, every single one of those has an escape (Singed to a lesser extent but he has the cc).

[scotmany12]

Has the meta really shifted enough to make Irelia not terrible? I still never see her picked virtually anywhere.

She was never terrible, she just didn't fit well into the League of Cleavers/Warmogs. But she is decent now. She doesn't really have to build Trinity anymore with the other options (Zephyr, Wit's End still good, BotRK is really good on her). Get like two of those items while building tanky (Randuins/Bulwarks) and you should be fine. This also works with Jax, though I don't recommend Wit's End on him.