League of Legends (Old)

[Oman]

If you find you can't keep killing your lane opponent, abuse the fact you're ahead and push down the tower and roam to make use of your lead to get your team more of one.

If you're top, push it down and go push mid, then rotate to bot. If you're mid, push it down or just straight up roam to bot. If your roam is successful, dragon becomes free (successful includes forcing them to back on low health, meaning they can't contest). If you're bot, push it down, roam to get mid tower, and assert control over dragon. If you're jungling, counterjungle ward deep in their jungle assert presence and control over objectives (including going to gank and then push top lane for example or getting dragon after forcing them to be in bot lane).

Also keep in mind that you can get a kill but if you're losing a fuckton of cs having to go back all the time in exchange for getting them that you're not actually getting much of a lead. Sometimes it's worth it to just force them to b, get all that delicious farm, and conserve your flash for an easier opportunity (instead of flashing into tower while your lane is pushed to your side, getting the kill, then having to back or risk Foolish Death).

Thanks mate.

[BROseidon]

Wouldn't the AS/MS steroid (coupled with the easier facechecking more often) on her W be worth more then the slight shorter cooldowns on the E/Q?

Never take AS steroids first. Multiplicative scalars are bad without things to multiply them off of.

[BROseidon]

Actually, Jinx Q first is fine, but you do it more for the range than the AS on her mini gun.

[animorpherv1]

Actually, Jinx Q first is fine, but you do it more for the range than the AS on her mini gun.

Pretty much this for Jinx - I like maxxing Q first because it allows me to poke consistently from range at a lower cost per shot than zap. And if an all-out fight does break out, assuming we're even, I'll win with minigun.

[EspeciallyTheLies]

What kind of items would I want to have available in an item set for top lane people? What about champs who do both physical damage and magic damage? What about fighters whose skills are all magic damage? What about tanks?

I really only ever play with ADC or mages, and lately I've really enjoyed support, but when it comes to melee type people, I have no idea what I'm doing and I die all the time and look like an idiot. I don't know what to build when, or why I'm building what I'm building.

For Summoner's Rift, what kind of strategy should I be using as a fighter? As a tank? What's my "job"?

Also, what would you consider "essential" items for support champs? Which support/mage type champ would you consider the most versatile (i.e. excellent support but can solo just fine if necessary)?

Oh yeah, and what other champs are there like Garen who don't have any mana bar to worry about?

Thanks for helping this nub. <3

[EspeciallyTheLies]

Oh and what do you do if some asshole wanders into your lane and doesn't leave when he doesn't belong there?

[animorpherv1]

Going to go about this as best I can. Anyone who wants to explain further/has a different opinion can still say stuff, but since I'm here and whatnot.

What kind of items would I want to have available in an item set for top lane people? What about champs who do both physical damage and magic damage? What about fighters whose skills are all magic damage? What about tanks?

An example item set for someone like Shyvanna/Renekton (tanky bruisers who like to dive):

Blade of the Ruined King, Ninja Tabi/Merc. Treads, Sunfire Cape, Spirit Visage/Banshee's Veil, Randuin's Omen, Ravenous Hydra(?).

Example item set for Fiora/Xin/Wukong (less so tanky bruisers, more so melee carries):

Ravenous Hydra, Ninja Tabi/Merc. Treads, Black Cleaver, Last Whisper, Randuin's Omen, Guardian Angel.

Several mages can also be played top (and build like they would in mid lane).

I really only ever play with ADC or mages, and lately I've really enjoyed support, but when it comes to melee type people, I have no idea what I'm doing and I die all the time and look like an idiot. I don't know what to build when, or why I'm building what I'm building.

For Summoner's Rift, what kind of strategy should I be using as a fighter? As a tank? What's my "job"?

Also, what would you consider "essential" items for support champs? Which support/mage type champ would you consider the most versatile (i.e. excellent support but can solo just fine if necessary)?

For supports, you core items are the following:

1) GP10 (Gold icome) item (Coin, Spellthief's, Relic Shield)
2) Tier 2 boots (I'd choose Boots of Mobility, Ninja Tabi, or Merc. Treads mostly. Some supports can get away with Sorcerer's Shoes)
3) Sightstone

You then have 3 items that you can build whatever you want. AP-Carry type supports should consider a Haunting Guise, where tankier supports might want to go Randuin's Omen, Sunfire Cape, Banshee's Veil. Consider a chalice of Harmony on all supports, into an Athene's for more AP and CDR, or a Mikael's Crucible for the active.

In regards to fighters, you generally want to follow up on someone else who initiated and wreck havoc on the enemy squishies. Tank are meant to be the front liners, and soak up a ton of damage and often initiate fights as well. In addition, many tanks *can* support (ex. Shen, Mundo), but an mage that has good base damage and solid crowd control/utility *can* support, and then also go mid (ex. Orianna, Karma, Morgana, Annie).

Oh yeah, and what other champs are there like Garen who don't have any mana bar to worry about?

Thanks for helping this nub. <3

Aatrox, Dr. Mundo, Mordekaiser, Vladmir, and Zac use health as a resource.

Akali, Shen, Kennen, Zed, and Lee Sin use energy as a resource (Kind of like mana, but regens much faster as a trade for longer cooldowns/lack of ability to spam spells).

Garen, Katarina, Renekton, Rengar, Riven, Rumble, Shyvanna, Tryndamere, and Yasuo all have no costs to their abilities, but tend to have glaring weaknesses to make up for it.

[Iecerint]

Top lane tanky characters fall into 3 main categories -- tanks, bruisers, and melee ADCs.

For melee ADCs (characters like Tryndamere, Riven, and Jax), Bloodthirster is probably a great first buy after its recent changes for mobile characters who scale with AD (like Riven), Blade of the Ruined King for champions who scale with AS or champions who have mobility issues, or Ravenous Hydra for champions who can't clear lanes reliably and want to be able to do it more quickly. All these items have life-steal, which is a good early pick-up (i.e., because it lets you stay in lane longer by healing up). These champions typically have an ability in their kit somewhere that lets them deal damage without receiving damage -- e.g., Jax has an ability that lets him dodge basic attacks, Master Yi has an ability that makes him untargetable, Riven has a shield. During lane, you'll typically wait until your opponent has their damage abilities on cooldown (because they used them to farm maybe), and then attack them safely using your own abilities. Do this enough times until you can go all-in and kill your opponent or make them leave lane. In team-fights, you'll want to follow-up on an initiation by the tank on your team, which is emphatically not the melee ADC. The tanky initiator could be top or jungle or support depending upon the team. This makes the enemy team tunnel-vision on the tank, which gives the melee ADC a chance to run in and kill everyone while the enemy is using all their damage inefficiently.

Refer to ani for tank/bruiser information.

For support, the two items that are essential are some kind of gold generation item (meaning spellthief's, relic shield, or ancient coin) and its upgrades, and then a Sightstone so that you can keep up with warding. You should also buy a Vision Ward whenever you have an extra 100 gold when you back if you don't have one out. At low elo games you can put your Vision Ward in a bush and it will probably hang out all game. Great use of 100g for your entire team if you can get people to invest. A nuance here is that if you're fighting a team that uses stealth (e.g., the enemy has Akali, Vayne, Shaco, or Twitch, and they seem like they know what they're doing), you might want to keep a Vision Ward on-hand so that you can use it in case they try to be tricksy during a fight. Another item that I think is really generically strong regardless of the support is the Locket. Sometimes a tank jungler will buy this, but in lots of low elo games everyone on the entire team just builds damage regardless of whether it makes any sense, so keep an eye out for if your jungler buys this and pick it up if he doesn't unless the enemy has no magic damage at all.

The other support items really depend on the champion. Some supports scale fairly well with AP, so picking up some AP items can help them. Others really need mana, so a mana item in the last slots will help. And tanky supports can be built like tanks, with maybe just an iceborne gauntlet or something as a tanky damage item. Champions like Janna, Alistar, and Thresh can make good use of the new Ardent Censer item, particularly if your team has at least 2-3 champions who will use their autoattacks with any regularity. It helps to know what as many champions do as possible.

The most versatile support champion right now is probably Lulu. She can be played top, mid, or support without much problem. You might also want to try Kayle, who can go top, mid, or jungle without much problem, and can support very well at low elo. She actually got picked as support by a professional EU team this year, so I suppose she can support everywhere if you know what's up.

Regarding people entering your lane, after 5-6 minutes in, it's not uncommon for players to start roaming around the map if they're winning or losing their lane hard -- the former to help out allies and the latter to avoid continuing to feed and try to catch-up with kills elsewhere. If he comes into your lane and just starts csing, that's probably a little rude, but he might be trying to catch the enemies in your lane off-guard.

Note that if it's much later than that, all the players should be grouping up to take towers and the dragon and such, with the residual minions in the other lanes being something people try to remember to go grab before a tower eats all the XP and gold, so it's not inappropriate for anyone to go and take care of that even if it wasn't originally "their lane." The lane separation in vAI games doesn't really translate as cleanly into PvP except for very early on.

[EspeciallyTheLies]

Oo so much good info - thanks Ani and Iec!

For the wandering team mate, I mean in the beginning, straight up roaming into lanes to steal minions/kills and leaving their lane either unattended or their partner alone to die. Do I just... go somewhere else or deal with the reduced income/XP?

Other questions:

What is "CDR"?

Where do items like Abyssal Scepter and Rod of Ages fall as far as use? I see them listed in guides all the time but I don't understand why these are included instead of other items that seem more useful.

Wards! I don't get it. Where am I putting them? Why am I putting them there? When do I put them there? Also, they disappear so I don't know how useful I'm being by putting them anywhere. I know that both of you have probably shown me on the map but I still don't understand.

Edit: Also, Deathcap/Zhonya's/that other thing that also gives +120 AP - which, when and why?

<3

[EspeciallyTheLies]

Oh and what do I build for someone like Shen? All his skills do magic damage.

[animorpherv1]

Oo so much good info - thanks Ani and Iec!

No problem!

For the wandering team mate, I mean in the beginning, straight up roaming into lanes to steal minions/kills and leaving their lane either unattended or their partner alone to die. Do I just... go somewhere else or deal with the reduced income/XP?

If you're laning (say, mid) and you want to roam, what you do is hard shove the lane into their tower and then go to the lane you want to roam to. This means that the lane will reset on it's own, and you will be able to roam with less lost gold and XP. You can also ask your jungler to come hold the lane if you want - most junglers will gladly hold a lane for the increased XP and gold.

Other questions:

What is "CDR"?

Where do items like Abyssal Scepter and Rod of Ages fall as far as use? I see them listed in guides all the time but I don't understand why these are included instead of other items that seem more useful.

Wards! I don't get it. Where am I putting them? Why am I putting them there? When do I put them there? Also, they disappear so I don't know how useful I'm being by putting them anywhere. I know that both of you have probably shown me on the map but I still don't understand.

Edit: Also, Deathcap/Zhonya's/that other thing that also gives +120 AP - which, when and why?

<3

CDR = Cooldown Reduction. Caps at 40%.

Rod of Ages is a pretty strong general mana/AP item. Great for early purchase for any AP champ that wants to build somewhat tanky, as you get bonus health, mana, and AP from the item as time goes on. A good example is Malzahar, as he's really immobile and his ult forces him to stand still. Getting a Rod of Ages allows him to take more damage.

Abyssal Scepter is a decent item. Good for melee AP champs such as Diana and Katarina, as all of their damage is within the range of the Abyssal Passive and the extra tankiness is invaluable. It also works well on teams with many AP champs, as it amplifies all magic damage within the aura radius.

Stealth Wards cost 75 gold and are up for 3 minutes. They also give vision of an area. Long story short, information is power. Wards give information (where enemies that normally wouldn't be visible are/are not). Vision Wards are also amazing, as they reveal stealthed units, but are visible to the enemy team.

Deathcap - Every AP midlaner ever as a 3rd or 4th item. The damage increase is really, really good between the 120 AP and the unique passive.

Zhonya's Hourglass - Generally a 6th item build, as the active is really nice and 120 AP is a lot. However, some champions (Fiddlesticks, Morgana, Twisted Fate) love this item due to it's synergy with their kit, allowing them to dive effectively, so they can rush it really effectively.

Deathfire Grasp - Used generally for the active, allowing you to burst down a squishy with relative ease. As such, this item works best on champions like Leblanc, Syndra, or Ahri, who can 100-0 champs with a full skill rotation very fast.

---

Re: Shen. I like to build him with health & tankiness, as his passive scales off of bonus health and his Q scales off of maximum health. My standard build is Sunfire Cape, Ninja Tabi/Merc. Treads, Spirit Visage, Randuin's Omen, [Damage Item], Warmogs. Items like Blade of the Ruined King and Abyssal Scepter are also really good on Shen and increase his damage output. Sheen is /really/ good on Shen, but it's a bit of a wasted buy because sheen gives mana and Shen runs off of energy.

[Klazam]

I don't think that etl is talking about roaming and such. i think she means the assholes who decides that your lane is actually theirs, and goes there at start of game.

[Iecerint]

Is the wandering teammate jungling? If so, that is normal. They'll typically come into your lane from the river and try to sneak a kill on your lane opponent to try to kill them, force them out of lane, or at least get them to play more conservatively afterward. After this happens, it is normative for the jungler to sometimes kill a few minions in the lane with you to help push your wave into the enemy tower to deny your opponent the XP and/or gold.

At low elo games, some people just don't know the normative way to play, though. As you win a few games you'll eventually only be matched with people who know what's up. For your first few PvP Summoner's Rift games, you're matched with other people who are also on their first game, so they may just not know what's up.

CDR is "cooldown reduction." This is a stat that you'll want to be as close to 40% as possible on any character who deals damage/provides utility mostly with abilities. You can't go beyond 40% CDR, so keep in mind that any further CDR is wasted.

When you look at guides, always keep an eye out for when the guide was last updated. If it wasn't updated at least in 2014 sometime, take everything with a grain of salt. A lot of the items have been changed around a lot since that time.

Rod of Ages is mostly built on champions who want a little extra health for survivability at the cost of some raw damage (e.g., because they have to get right into the middle of enemies to deal damage despite being a mage), and/or who scale really well with mana for some reason and are getting it along with a Seraph's Embrace (e.g., like Ryze or Singed). It's also built if you decided to get a Catalyst of the Protector in lane for whatever reason, which handily heals you a bit whenever you level up, which can be helpful if you're having trouble during lane and have to back too frequently. (Catalyst builds into RoA).

Abyssal Sceptor is "core" on champions who have to get close to use their abilities. An example of a champion like this is Fiddlesticks, whose ultimate ability deals damage centered around his body, so the Abyssal Sceptor aura magnifies all of his ult damage. It's also a generically good pick-up if your team has lots of AP damage. You might also end up with one if you had to get a Negatron Cloak (gives magic resistance) in lane because you were laning against an AP champion who did well and you need some defense, but you still want some kind of damage-oriented item.

~~~

I think Ward logic changes through the course of the game:

1. During lane, place a ward in the river, often in the brush. This way, if a "wandering member" from the enemy team who's jungling comes to try to kill you, you can see him and run back to your tower, which denies him the kill while also costing him wasted time. At low elo some players have a hard time looking at the minimap for ward positions, but this is still a good habit. You can put your Vision Ward in a bush somewhere in your jungle -- good places include random brushes somewhat near the river and on your "red" and "blue" buffs -- if the enemy jungler tries to steal them, you can send your team over to kill him if you have vision of him.

2. Later in laning phase (I usually start this after I have a Sightstone), you'll want to place a ward somewhere that gives you vision of Dragon. The river in front of dragon works well because you'll be able to see a river gank from a long way away. This will let you run in and kill the enemy when they try to kill the dragon to get its gold and such.

3. Later in the game, if you're winning, place wards in the opponent jungle, especially near their red/blue buffs, and if you're losing, place wards in your jungle in the same locations. This will let you punish opponents who get greedy while also being greedy yourselves.

4. Very late in game (maybe starting when people hit level 12 or so), always try to have a ward or two near Baron Nashor. You want to be able to react if the enemy tries to kill the Baron. This is a great way to "come back" if your team is losing, since the Baron will deal a lot of damage to the enemy team. You might also be able to rush in and sneak in the last hit on the Baron and deny it that way.

It's impossible to ward all the places that need warding! This is why you should really have everyone on your team buy wards, even if you're losing. Catching people who are wandering alone in the jungle is the best way to come back, and wards enable that. Just try to always have 3 out if possible and you should be OK.

One thing to remember is that if you have a 4-minute team fight somewhere, your wards will all be gone by the time the fight is over. This will leave your team with no vision and high risk of being caught afterwards. Try to remember to throw a ward somewhere as you're running away if you have one, ideally in a way that the enemy doesn't see. It's better than nothing.

~~~

Zhonya's is "core" on some champions who have to rush into the heat of battle without dying for a few seconds (e.g., Fiddlesticks, Morgana). It's also handy in that it builds out of Seeker's Armguard, so an AP champion who needs to get some armor against an AD champion in lane might already have one of those.

Deathcap is traditionally built as your second AP item unless you get way ahead. The reason for this is that the passive is more valuable as the game goes on, so you're having to put in a lot of investment for less return early on. However, it's OK to buy it early if you have a million kills or whatever.

The other item you're thinking of is the DFG (deathfire grasp). This item is usually built on champions who want to use the active to make their burst burstier, to maximize the chance that they can kill their target outright. It also gives some extra CDR, so it can help you hit the 40% CDR cap if you still need some.

All 3 of these items build out of an item called the Needlessly Large Rod. One strategy is to pick up a NLR earlier in the game and then decide what to build it into later. It works the same way as the BF Sword for AD champions.

Another damage item that's a bit cheaper but also great is the Void Staff. This is a great item if you're playing a champion whose AP ratios aren't very high, since building flat AP is less useful if your AP ratios aren't high. AP ratios mean how much damage each AP point adds. This is also a more powerful item if the enemy builds lots of magic resistance. In low elo games, the enemy builds fewer defensive items, so this item will probably be on the slightly weaker side. Remember that you can press Tab at any time to see the enemy's items.

The remaining AP items, Rylai's and Liandry's, are kind of paired in my mind. Rylai's slows down your spell targets. Liandry's deals a DoT to your targets with bonus damage to slowed or otherwise impaired targets. This means that the items go really well together. However, you would typically only build these on particular champions -- ones who can apply Rylai's slow abilities easily like Vladamir or Soraka, or ones who specialize in lots of instances of small damage like Zyra. Liandry's is also a good solo pick on damage over time champions in general. Avoid these items on burst-oriented AP champions, since the Liandry's damage will be negligible and there's no reason to slow dead people.

[animorpherv1]

I don't think that etl is talking about roaming and such. i think she means the assholes who decides that your lane is actually theirs, and goes there at start of game.

.. Oh. I don't see this like *ever*, I'd just recommend reporting them after and finding a way to deal with it ingame. I've seen people fuck up and think they were in the wrong lane, so I first mention that said lane is whoever's it really is. If they refuse to leave still (which is VERY rare), then I report them afterwards.

[EspeciallyTheLies]

I don't think that etl is talking about roaming and such. i think she means the assholes who decides that your lane is actually theirs, and goes there at start of game.

Yes. But more specifically, what happened last night happens to me all the time.

I called mid. Two called top, two called bottom. Everything was peachy. We even ALL talked about the champs we were going to use to fit this team.

Game starts, we all go where we said.

2 minutes in, toplane guy #1 yells at toplane guy #2: "STOP KS YOU FUCKIN NOOB STAAAAAAAAAHP"

TLG#2 doesn't respond, so TLG#1 decides he's mid now, and trashes my minions. I tell him to please go back top and stop whining.

So he goes bottom and trashes bot's minions. They yell at him to go back top. So he comes back mid and trashes more minions.

This happens all the time and it's fucking annoying and I hate those people.

p-edit stuff to read!

[EspeciallyTheLies]

This is extremely helpful you guys, thanks! Before I was kind of just picking things cuz they seemed like what I wanted to do. But a lot of the items have really useful passives that go well together depending on the type of attacks the champ has - something I never really thought about until I started playing ARAM.

[Iecerint]

Do your civic duty and report anyone in post-game who calls anyone on the team any kind of slur or behaves that way. Unfortunately, some players like to make smurf accounts and get matched with players who are just starting and cause problems. Just win a few games and things will get better. People will still be mean to people who have a bad game, but the kind of behavior you're describing is much rarer. I used to get "omg ks" literally every game, but I haven't seen anyone say it in months now.

A good thing to know is the command "/mute @ChampionName". This will keep that player's comments from showing up in chat. So you can type "/mute @Vayne" to silence Vayne, for example. You can't make their behavior stop, but you can at least make team chat nicer. Share this with your teammates if you can tell from the team chat that they are distracted by him.

[animorpherv1]

Honestly that's a smurf playing with people who aren't level 30 and being an ass about it. Definitely report worthy.

[EspeciallyTheLies]

What kind of report is that?

Is "KS" a real thing? What is it exactly? Is it something I should worry about?

[Iecerint]

In the post-game results section, there's a red exclamation mark button that lets you report players to Riot. If a player receives a lot of reports in lots of games over a short time, the current action Riot takes is giving them a chat ban. This prevents them from using chat in their games for a certain number of games. I would say that "Verbal Abuse" or "Refusing To Cooperate" would be good headings. Note that anyone who says "fag" or "n*****" will ALWAYS be punished if reported, so don't miss an opportunity to punish a player who uses slurs in chat. They will unambiguously be punished if they take that step. Insulting teammates non-constructively is generically reportable.

Short-answer: "KS" is mostly a hangover from people who play first-person shooter games from what I understand. You can mostly ignore it. 90% of the time whoever did the most damage is going to secure the kill because of how damage works. If someone complains about ks a lot, they're probably chronically overestimating their contribution to the kill.

Longer-answer: In general, it is desirable to have as many players on your team participate in kills as possible so that you earn as much gold for Assists as possible. However, the person who gets the kill gets more gold and the people who assist get less gold, and it's also true that some champions scale better with gold than others. ADCs, both ranged and melee, probably scale the best with gold due to AD scalings being high, AD being expensive, and AD damage being multiplicative as you get more and more items, so it is most desirable for them to have the kill if possible.

However, it's way more important to get the kill than to carefully calculate who will get the last hit. The worst case scenario is always the enemy getting away with a sliver of health. Also, it's usually desirable to kill-steal if you would not otherwise have an assist.

[animorpherv1]

Pretty much what Iece said. People who complain about kill stealing (ks'ing) are jerks who want all the glory for themselves.

[chesskid3]

the new bloodthirster is stupid and definitely not good on riven/people like her

[EspeciallyTheLies]

What happened to it?

(And what is "low elo"?)

[chesskid3]

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/g ... -410-notes

[Iecerint]

the new bloodthirster is stupid and definitely not good on riven/people like her

Your only other option is hydra, which doesn't benefit her as much as it does other champions because her abilities are already AoE.

I guess hydra could be better if you were losing lane badly and couldn't even autoattack minions safely to build the shield, as then you're only losing 5 AD for a nice active. And you might just get hexdrinker against an AP lane opponent. Maybe double doran's into that could be OK in such a case.

I don't play top lane very often. ^^