Update 5/25/2017
Well, I started a thread back in Dec 2011 that’s seen a lot of activity (some 922,000 views over the course of a few years apparently...). That thread had a good deal of tips/strategies/discussions about League of Legends from new and old players alike. You can find the previous thread (now archived) here: https://forums.joeuser.com/413863. I think its time to start fresh with a new thread.
What’s this thread all about?For those that followed the previous thread, the type of content you see here will be fairly consistent to what you are used to. Please consider this a place to discuss LoL related content as you like. I'll do the same and treat the thread as a blog as well where I talk about what’s going on with me in LoL. Feel free to jump in and join the discussion if you like.
Quick background on meI played a lot of Demigod as pacov/cheesuscrust. Back in August 2011, I started getting heavily involved in League of Legends, and folks from the community were kind enough to help me figure things out. I play LoL most nights, stream, make videos and it’s my main gaming interest.
Some links
hey all, i know most of y'all are in the east/midwest, but not sure if any of you are going to IEM San Jose next weekend.
Me and my partner are going to be there for both days. We got seated in section 120... Hope to see anyone there?
You'll have to let us know how your experience was there. Curious to hear about it. Of those of us who post here, aren't there only like 1-2 on the west coast? Not really sure.
re: jungle paths
There was an article on Cloth5 that has a bunch of route timers:
http://cloth5.com/exploring-new-jungle-paths/
Some people criticized them about poor runes/mastery choices, but it's still a lot of numbers that you can reference to use as a springboard. If you have a problem with one of the numbers, it is simple enough to just re-run the simulation yourself (with your own setup) and compare.
Also, if you've been experimenting with Utility-tree with junglers... turns out that Runic Blessing doesn't work on Smite-buffs
Finally got around to trying panth jung... wow... really, really easy due to the block mechanic. Just tried once to go from blue to dragon... yah. Pretty easy to solo by 3:30 at level 2.
WIL Panth
standard jungle runes/masters for him - flat AD/ARM/MR. 21/9.
cheese strats - can level 2 dragon and clear by 3:25-3:50 either side. You have to be on managing your blocks very well with the flat AD setup. If you run a max AS + flat or scaling MR/ARM, its pretty easy level 2 drag... like 90-100% chance you can pull it off. I've tried both lv 2 with q/e and q/w. Both seem to work fine honestly. If you try to level 32 drag, it doesn't matter what runes you have. Super easy with panth.
re: the cheese strat. The requirement is blue buff. You absolutely need blue buff. Either side of the map, you start blue and smite, then bee line to drag. Smite will be up again while you are doing drag ofc. The trick is to manage your shield stacks so everytime drag hits, you block. You fail to do this 2-3 times and you are dead.
Cheese aside, I've drilled the normal jungle several times. I will add that, AS runes make for faster clears on panth, but are somewhat useless for early ganks. The AS is better for faster shield procs and dmg mitigation.
Anyway, he can sustain fairly well without basing on blue side. route is dbl golums + smite, red (no smite), bee line blue, smite. Mana gets kind of low though.
Also, I figured out why you WOULD NOT want to back and buy your upgraded jungle item after clearing dbl/red. You lose the bonus for stuns from dbl. If you just stay, that buff is up while you work over blue.
That said, if you do back, its still super easy to take your blue and gank then. Honestly, you can just back if you like imo. The time diff is literally 10-15 seconds.
There is a more risky strat that leaves you looking VERY good for hp/mana though.
dbl golum + smite, red, wraiths/smite. Base, buy upgraded jung item +pots, ward, pink ward (you have just enough for jung item + pink if you had no leash). Beeline to blue. Kill and clear, save smite. smite gromp, kill. clear wolves. you have 100% hp/mana at this point - 4:15-4:25. It's more risky as your blue is exposed, but I think the risk of a later blue inv when you have not shown yourself is pretty low at this point. You know... today...
Current fav junglers for this season - noct/panth with the edge going to panth.
My noct setup is full AS and scaling arm/mr. Clear 2 camps, back for upgraded item, and move along. You could sustain, but not as well as panth.
Nocts ult, while lower range, is stronger than panth imo due to the vision block and the guaranteed hit if you have vision. Really easy to get on a priority target.
The panth threat of dragon, though, is kind of through the roof. You can do the cheese nonsense at level 2, but you can safely take dragon any time its exposed unwarded solo. Best if you have blue for an early solo, but you can solo it fine w/o in my experience.
Been mystery gifting myself... last 2 - bc alpha skarner and gatekeeper galio... i mean... wut...
jungle changes worth taking a look at. ww nerfed a bit as well
http://www.surrenderat20.net/2014/12/121-pbe-update.html
Man I'm salty... fing hate that I got a volibear skin and voli's kind of shit imo... well, at least against the team comp i was up against. I really need to leave teambuilder if I get a dumb team comp. We had champs that can pretty much engage. They had heavy disengage + ww. We CRUSH them in the jungle early. I buy the upgraded jungle item at 1 min 34 sec. We keep it even for a bit, but it just goes downhill. Ah well.
Prior to the game, I was thinking what does voli do better than sej? My conclusion is kind of nothing. She can dash immediately instead of run at (and its somewhat idiot proof - minions don't interrupt), he has a passive where if he gets dangerously low, he regens some hp... anyway, he does great in the jungle.
Voli does way more damage.
Sejuani is a massive CC tank of doom, with slows, stuns and knockups galore, but fairly low damage unless she builds AP and isn't as reliably tanky. Volibear is just a nightmare that will kill most champs if they let him catch them alone. Frenzy and Thunderclaws together are guaranteed high damage output without a single AD/AS item, horrendous once he's got BOTRK. He's basically got 30% extra health outside of being focused in a team fight, and if he is the fight should be won even if he dies with little regeneration coming into play.
Sejuani is definitely better for her high AOE CC in a team fight, but that stupid bear drops an obscene amount of damage even as a straight tank. Even killing off his team wont really help because his 12 seconds of awesomeness can eat thousands of hit points off the team if he's not CC'd and evaded.
Sejuani and Voli are completely different.
Voli is very similar to Udyr. Sejuani is very similar to Amumu. So Voli does a lot of things better, and a lot of things worse because they fill completely different roles (bully fighter vs AoE AP tank).
Voli is a fine champion, its just that Udyr is probably a bit better and they are pretty similar.
that's just me whinging about having a sucky gap closer against a disengage comp. Anyway, I quickly got any desire to play vbear out of my system and the world is a better place for it.
Looks like they are changing the order of the dragon buffs on pbe. Going to log in after work and take a look at some things i think.
mm poro oriana
Current panth nerfs:
Pantheon
[Context: Additional nerf to a change from a previous update. Pantheon's attack speed on live is currently .679.]
Played some rek sai or w/e on pbe. Very interesting champ. Kind of tricky to get the hang of his tunnel mechanics. His entirely positional ult is also interesting. I'm thinking he might be a strong split pusher at the very least. hmmm
man... I really need to do a vlog. Pretty sure I've got some stuff to talk about you folks would be pretty interested in. I'll try to do one soon and recommend you check it out when I do. If we play together regularly I think you'll be interested/entertained. I'm kind of in a unique place currently.
anyway, played some with pete tonight. I'm on a mini mission. Learning to communicate with PDT. I won't even tell you my secret goal until it's been achieved.
If I don't get around to the vlog soon, I'll just spill my guts. Night all
Pacov's Vlog:
Those are my expectations, do not disappoint pls.
1. obv.
2.already here
3.no
4.Lord Borg
worth a watch re: the new pbe item
Silly Cow. Pacov's Vlog will be about how he plans on duoing with Peter to get to Diamond this upcoming season. Him, Karl, and Brad have been getting carried pretty hard by Pete's Malz recently...
I'll be playing on a good connection tonight and tomorrow Cow, so get me the times you're going to be on Maui and your phone number and shit. Oh, and is Pete gonna make it over here too? I need to know how many releases I need to print for the Lava Cave Underground River Of Doom hike...
dude.. if pete dies in hawaii in a cave I'll never get to diamond... don't do it.
also it occurs to me that the magical vlog is probably a good deal less interesting than I originally imagined.
I think I'll just ramble some now...
I'm contemplating changing my focus to a specific role with a smaller pool of champions. I think my main problem is that I want to be very good with any champ I play. To flesh that out a little, let's say I'm into jungle now. Well, what I do is pick a champ that I'm interested in. play test literally any reasonable jungle route, toy with runes and masteries over and over, how soon they can safely take drake..you name it... and then work on mechanics with w/e champ I'm into. In short, I'm actually putting in quite a bit of time before I even get into playing a champ in a live game.
And then, after all that time and prep, my options are to play team builder and get w/e role I'm focused on (side note... every single team builder game I've played recently has an afk on my team), or hop over and try to get in some games with you folks. Where I'm likely going to offer to play support so someone else can have a go a w/e role they want.
Guess I'll talk about that a little bit - playing roles I'd rather not so others can do what they like. Now, I actually enjoy playing all roles from time to time, but typically cycle through very specific interests for a few weeks or a month. I think if you observe me specifically, you'll notice a pattern where I'll either offer to support early based on who we have on the team or after a few games.
About 90% of the time, I'd rather be playing some role other than support. But I generally want folks to have fun. As a hypothetical example, consider me wanting to play jungle every game and I keep inviting karl (mains jungle), but I take jungle all night. In my mind, that's me being a shit. So, having that attitude, I choose to let folks do what they want. But, of course, this means I'm not working on whatever I'm looking to improve at.
I will add that I also don't really like playing champs I suck at or am working on with pals. Consider 5 of us wanting to win a game and I take a role where I'm inexperienced from someone that has much more experience. On top of that, I play a champion I'm interested in working on instead of a champ where I'd be better at in a role. All of that strikes me as dickish.
So, I feel bad when folks don't get to play w/e role they want because I'm taking it from them. I feel bad when I take a role from someone who has a higher skill cap or more experience (or in pete's instance, turns to poo town in other roles). Anyway, that's how I generally feel and is why you see things like me offering to cover support for someone else.
So - magical martyr pacov, right? well... if you like. If we want to be friendly, I'm requesting that you folks try to have more of an open mind when it comes to what roles you play. Barring that, I'm going to start playing other roles MUCH more frequently which will quite possibly result in other people being put into roles they blow at. Also, bad news - I'm probably going to suck while I work on getting better. Perhaps you can be the good guy and step up and offer to cover support so someone else might do what they want.
long winded topic 1 of about 7 on my mind...
onto other things...
skill level thoughts
Previously, here's how I'd do things. Pick a lane. Pick a champ I'm interested in. Learn everything i can about them. Try them out against bots with various rune/item setups (focus mostly on laning, last hitting, and a few rune/mastery setups). Play against people. Depending on the role, I end up putting more time to practice in than others. I don't just pick a champ and go play with folks. I put in some time to learn the mechanics, etc. I like knowing more and having a decent idea and then beginning to play with people. I take this approach mostly not to screw over people. You know - the jackass that goes to ranked in the jungle without having played a single game in a the new jungle? Not me. Anyway, I like to think through these things before getting into a game. But bad news for me - within 2-4 weeks, I will be interested in playing someone else and move along. I'll have a reasonable skill level with whoever, stop playing them for the most part, and have that skillset slowly erode.
Me playing this way is detrimental for 2 reasons - 1st - I don't become a specialist. I become a jack of all trades, but not as good as a specialist. As such, if I'm up against a specialist in a lane and I'm just some guy that's been working on a champ and getting better and better with them, I'm going to have problems. I'll be even against other, non specialist types potentially, but I'm at a disadvantage (not really talk about lower elo folks here, but high gold and above).
The 2nd reason - so I do all of this drilling outside of games with you folks. But then when I'm looking to play against people, I get into games with you folks and I'm more than likely working on a role that one of you specializes in. And as I described in the last post, while I'd rather be playing w/e role I want all the time, I also like for my pals to get to play what they want. The end result is that even if I choose to specialize in a smaller pool of champs, I still end up only getting in a small amount of reps.... and then just end back up supporting where I essentially learn jack and shit.
anyway, back to skill level thoughts...
So, I've been exercising a ton lately. I wrap up like 5 miles of running before I sit down to play league (well, 2 before I start league 3 earlier). I'm not tired, but this seems to having a pretty big impact on my skill level, awareness, and decision making. In other venues (coding, etc), I find the exercise to be extremely helpful for productivity, etc. With league, its like I'm becoming a worse player - particularly with decision making and awareness... and I'm not really sure what to do about that.
Anyway, offer to fill more often to be my hero. I'm going to be support less and less and work much more on solo lanes for awhile. I'm also going to force myself to cut down on some my champion pool diversity and focus in on specific, to be decided (but not constantly banned) champs.
Take it less seriously and a skill drop from exercising wont matter.
yah, but its just kind of silly to be off quite a bit because of exercise. I really don't know why it is. Anyway, perhaps that will normalize after a bit.. only been at it 4 weeks or so.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
