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
there is another threst build that I like if you are not comfortable with relic shield. I sometimes actually start ruby crystal and go straight into sight stone. This will net you less gold over all but used to be extremely popular even at the pro level.
15 sec later... ... I mean what...
you're damn right - but it is another variable that your adc needs to factor in which is a distraction. And another thing with assuming that every knucklehead going thresh is capable. Nothing wrong with learning to deal with it, but its not something I find all that exciting or useful. Back when relic shield started to become more popular, I spent a bit of time bitching about streamers, etc, using it. Last hitting is most difficult when you have low damage output. Now take that mechanic and have a support try to do that all game. You know... supports that often accel at last hitting as they don't normally do that at all (sans the relic dmg bonus)... all with having very low ad damage. It does seem like a pretty easy argument to make, right?
Anyway, its certainly something I could get coached on over the course of a few games. It's not that difficult to even ping certain creeps initially to clarify your intent a little.
When I play thresh is solo queue (which has been fairly frequently) my ADC or I actually ping the creeps that I or him wants me to kill, it works fairly well.
Experiments:
I have played some different mid laners in a few match ups than I ususally do to try to open up my roster a bit.
I picked ryze into an azir. It was a rough lane with him managing to solo kill me twice in lane (super aggressive player asked my jungle to punish, he eventually came and killed him like 3 times in a row with me never getting the kill). Anyways late game I rolled him but every lane lost by then (including mine do to me not getting fed from ganks). Not sure if I would play this match up again but it reminded me how strong ryze gets mid to late game.
I have given Kassadin a spin now twice in ranked. The first game I stomped hard. The second game I was laned vs a vlad. From a jungle invade we picked up two kills at level 1 I got to start with 5 pots so my CS ended up about 10 behind vlad at 10 minutes where it should of been 20-30. I never managed to secure kills and get items rolling. Kassadin is very item dependent as his levels don't add much to his abilities in terms of damage. All lanes lost again with bot being REALLY bad 0-8 sona 2-10 kalista? I feel like I could of done more this game with bot roams but I was focused on keeping the tower up vs vlad.
Xerath has been a continued experiment. I laned vs a corki last night and was out pushed and out farmed. My jungler could of punished easily but he d/c'd for the first few minutes so no leash and slow start. I missed a lot of kills by less than 100 hp because of missed ults and skill shots. My Xerath play is really inconsistant. I am either on target or miss everything. Its not like when I play brand where I almost always land everything but I guess I have played a lot more brand games. I thought I would of picked up Xerath better by now.
I have played Karma a few times now mid but not in solo queue. I feel she has no bad match ups but lacks the 100 to zero potential of most mid laners mid to late game. Her early game is very strong with pushing and csing. She is a bully in lane vs anyone. If we run a damage heavy jungler/top I think Karma is a decent pick for supporting them with decent damage on top of it (although lulu/morg mid would do the same thing and possibly better).
RE: pacov roles on my team
Currently I think top lane is sort of tied up between hedgie/bryff/dan (unless dan is ADC). With our current friends and positions they play I wouldn't be putting you top lane. ADC however is a spot I think can be rotated between Dan/hunny/pacov depending on the players we have that night.
Here are the people I want playing positions from first to last:
Top: Hedgie, Dan, Bryff, Pacov, Me
Jungle: Karl, Me, dan (sorry karl you are stuck here)
Mid: Me, Hedgie/Dan (I don't think we will be playing without me much but both of you are quite good mid)
ADC: Dan, Hunny, Pacov, Hedgie, Thunder, me
Support: Pacov/Thunder, Hedgie, Me
If we do have thunder/hedgie on at the same time I think they work well together bot lane and would rather stick them bot together and rotate pacov to top assuming karl is jungling.
I hope this doesn't offend any one. Skill level wise I think Dan has the most potential to carry games and should be put in a role where he can do so if he is playing with us (top, mid or adc). Out of anyone I would give up mid to Dan if I had to to make the team the best it can be in my opinion.
oh and bryff going mid is also an option on kassadin or ahri
Also if we have Pacov/Hunny on at the same time they will be playing bot lane together.
If we are better off in a comp with a lissandra top and gnar is banned, then I'd hope we can be more flexible than top or feed though.
Hmm, i do think that there was a little bit of miscommunication on what my intention was for that post.
"Top or Feed" is an okay attitude to have if we are playing a Ranked 5s team with any amount of consistency. The fact of the matter is that if i'm not playing top, i am going to be weaker than other people's options. As we climb, it's important to make sure we maximize our changes of winning. It's far more advantageous for someone else to step in my place and let me be "benched" for the night. Of course, if we need to do an emergency "champion selection" swap, i'm still able to play mid/adc/support, we are just going to be weaker because of it.
While i may be "top or feed", i still want to demonstrate that i am willing to learn new champs to fill gaps and cooperate with the team. Honestly, if we - as a group - decide to play Lissandra top, i would be willing and able to learn her and start playing her top in ranked teams ~a week.
tilt-cov
Note that if people are tilting, for whatever reason, we'd better off just playing Normals instead. And i think that we have to understand that sometimes bad streaks are going to happen. If we happen to go 0-4 one night... well that's just sort of a thing that happens. That said, if we do something like go 9-16, i can see a stronger argument that something needs to change.
Re: streaky ranked team games.
I find that my solo queue is pretty streaky. There are times I win 8/10 games and then all of the sudden I lose 5 in a row. loses happen and for whatever reason I tend to see them in truck loads when they do.
gfy
I'm getting a bit annoyed with this. It's probably best to wait until thunder's steady internet appears and you have an alternate support, but... based on cow's list, hedgie's offer to learn a champ he doesn't play in order to stay top, and thunder's gracious refusal to play support for me as adc, I have pretty much zero % chance of playing any other role. Which kind of sucks considering I... you know... want to play roles other than support.
I don't think this team is a good fit for me. It's probably best to consider me as an alternate for the team and I'll be less available going forward. Bummer, but ok. Hopefully thunder will be available or you can find someone else.
gfyI'm getting a bit annoyed with this. It's probably best to wait until thunder's steady internet appears and you have an alternate support, but... based on cow's list, hedgie's offer to learn a champ he doesn't play in order to stay top, and thunder's gracious refusal to play support for me as adc, I have pretty much zero % chance of playing any other role. Which kind of sucks considering I... you know... want to play roles other than support. I don't think this team is a good fit for me. It's probably best to consider me as an alternate for the team and I'll be less available going forward. Bummer, but ok. Hopefully thunder will be available or you can find someone else.
I don't think that this is really fair.
I mean, you were listed as being able to play 3 different positions by Cow. It seems that Thunder is willing to play support with you on ADC with the provision that you don't complain a lot when he goes with a completely and totally standard Thresh build. It think that this is a pretty reasonable that Thunder gets to choose his own starting items within reason.
I mean, you complain more about his going with a standard Thresh build than we did about you building a really bad item like zzzz'rot portal on Morgana in a close ranked game that we were losing for a good chunk of the time. I don't think that's really fair. I mean, you expect people to not complain about you and your build when you support, but expect to have exact control over your support when you play ADC.
But the real thing here is that I don't think that you are burning out on support because we play a VERY small number of ranked 5 games a month. Seriously, its a completely minimal fraction of your total games. I think you are burning out on support because you are playing it more frequently in Solo Queue with Hunny.
And thats fine. You should totally do what you want to do. But I don't think its fair to have a go at people because they are choosing to put people at positions which clearly optimize our chances of winning a ranked 5 game. I mean, that is the point of playing ranked - to optimize our chances of winning, so you can't blame them for that. You + hunny are clearly a better bot lane than hunny + hedgie, so we would be foolish to do something different.
hedgie's offer to learn a champ he doesn't play in order to stay top,
<removed semantic nitpick>.
It wasn't "haha i'm going to learn how to play Lissandra specifically to play top and screw with pacov!"
It was: "if i am going to be specializing in top lane - and neglecting other lanes - it might be better for me to learn a new champ than to put me in another role and have someone else play that champ".
That is pretty logically consistent: learning one new champion in a familiar lane is much easier than learning a new champion in another lane. Even then, i even SAID in my post that i was willing to be BENCHED for the night.
Again, like i said, there isn't a problem for us to rotate to Normals after a game or two of Ranked. If you're sick of support after a game, it isn't a problem for us to go play a Normals and have you play a non-support role while someone else supports. Playing in a less-competitive environment in a non-support position may be a way to reduce some tension/tilt that we may have as a team after going 0-1 or 0-2 for the night.
Alternatively, if someone else logged on (eg, Thunder), i can stop playing after 1/2 games, pacov can go top, and Thunder could support Dan.
If Pacov only wants to play 1 or 2 games as support before getting sick of it we can always look at the option of normals for the rest of the night (I would probably just opt out and play ranked solo). Although Pacov playing support is really a situational thing given who is online that particular night (Dan is usually afk when in game, bryff has started to play more often again, brad has been around a little more than usual) I think he is one of the best out of us at it when he is in a happy pacov mood.
I could also talk to my old roommate about playing annie support for us (he also has a solid jinx) he is a silver player but he is much better when directed and plays higher than his solo queue. He has a weird work schedule though and mostly plays late at night (past midnight my time).
Anyways the biggest problem we had last season was a consistant bot lane and I think pairing hunny with pacov (since you two are always on most nights) would improve this part of our team greatly.
But if you are being forced into a role you do not enjoy playing as I totally understand. There wouldn't be much of a point to playing a game if you hated ever minute of it.
We could also try some lane swaps or jungle buddy system ending the clear in a dive on the guy that is solo 1v4. Then swapping the ADC/support back to the 2v2 side. I have watched a lot of LCS games and have seen this orchestrated a few times. We could try it for some fun.
Yes, I agree. Ranked should be roughly optimal play and I don't think that people should be blamed for wanting that. If people aren't enjoying that for whatever reason at that moment, thats totally fine. We can just go to something else and we can mix things up in a different queue.
Quoting is hard!
Can anyone tell me what GFY means?
Another option for pacov would be playing Leona instead of some of the more passive (but stronger) supports, such as Janna. (Not that Leona is bad - Janna is just stronger).
i think that pacov has supported Hunny while playing Graves + Leona a few times already. If Karl is playing more aggressive junglers (such as Panth), Leona is nice because she can provide strong gank support, while transitioning into a midgame tank and initiation tool. That would also fit a "neglect toplane" style of play that we appear to already be gravitating towards.
Quoting pacov,
I'd love to be a part of Cow's team and play Ranked 5's with my friends assuming my internet stabilizes, but of all of you I am the lowest ranked player. So even more than Hedgie, if I play I'd like it to be under optimal circumstances for me to be more of an asset than a deficit to the team.That would mean playing Thresh as often as possible with the standard build, which would make me your Support on occasion. My best current champion is also one of the strongest overall Supports in the game, so it would also essentially be a 4th ban for the team.I suggested that for us to play better together in bot lane that you could practice learning Thresh (with the standard build) in your spare time. You graciously refused is my understanding.[/quote]
Thresh has huge damage when his E passive is fully charged. I can often out last hit ADC's who are trying to keep me from proccing. Not sure whether you knew this which is another reason I thought it would be helpful if you learned to play Thresh.
Pinging works well.
Go fuck yourself. I do daily... to much info?
That would at least spice things up. I'd be very pleasantly surprised if you did this.
I play thresh... I'm guessing you are being kind of shitty here. Pretty sure I explained my take on this earlier and agreed that practicing would sort that out... but I'd still have a negative attitude seeing it in games where I don't know the support.
Anyway, I just tire of the aggressive horse shit - the tilt-cov, brad wong in the mood for a "pacov game," "learn thresh," etc. That sort of stuff makes me rather not play with some of you folks. So yeah, I'd like to play other roles. You say nope - I say, ok. Someone else can take my place and you folks might end up playing less ranked due to availability of folks - not a big deal.
I disagree with the assessment that I'd be a "deficit" to the team playing a different role. The downside is you are out a "warm body" that could have played support and possibly 2 if hunny and I go off to play ranked. Worse things have happened. But hey - some cool, high handed remarks anyway.
I don't think I'm having a go at anyone. I clearly stated that I don't think I would be able to do anything other than support based on how things were described - and expressed that I'm not a fan of that. Toss in the passive aggressive shit and I really don't have any problem saying X me out and get someone else. Again, not a big deal. Hopefully things will work out and you fellas will be able to play a bunch with thunder. And I'll probably less agitated once today ends anyway.
on a not related to this drama note - wow my sivir needs some work. I did a team builder tonight and just made bad play after bad play. I think sivir is easily my worst adc for soo many reasons... I'm not backing up appropriately if I fail my q (eg not respecting the other adc's dmg output) and not positioning well for my ult. The 2nd bit is the bigger problem. I'm just not sure the best way to pop it and I think a bit of it has to do with me positioning very differently than I do on other adcs early/mid. Still best with graves. Anyone have any practical tips for siv's ult?
I decided to play a game with kat as mid. Also kind of bad, but she's a dumb ass champion. Even though I was smeh, my team won because of a few plays here and there where I picked up multiple kills just because the champ design is stupid. I'm okay with abusing them for myself (ranked wins are swell), but champs that can completely flip a game even if they played poorly... smeh - don't like the design unless they pay for it super hard all game.
Oh - and I was just thinking about a game the other night in ranked -hedgie should really get sorted out on his mic I think. He did a really good call in chat at one point saying his passive was almost ready (gnar) and he'd tp and then we did a bonehead play before he could hop in there. Note - that wasn't a mistake on hedgie's part - bad play on ours (me at least) - but I think I'd have noticed him earlier if he was able to speak instead of type and that might have had an impact on the dumbo play.
Just before i go to sleep and wake up in 3 hours (go work!) - I think I can distill this even further. I don't feel appreciated for playing a role that most prefer not to play. I play that role quite well and am easily an asset, but I want to spend time on other roles. I won't tolerate shit talk from people getting to play w/e the fuck they want while I'm playing a role I'd rather not. The minimum req for me to play with the team as support is no disrespectful shit talk. The optimal request is dealing with the nightmare of me playing a different role from time to time (read - in a scenario that happens weekly or biweekly - not if 3 are missing and we suddenly have 3 more available - eg prob ain't gonna happen pacov). I think your head is up your ass if we can't come up with some scenario where I'm not support IN RANKED that occurs once in a while (side note - no shit I can play w/e in a normal). If that is even remotely burdensome, then all you have to do is find someone else. Prefer to be treated better ofc, but hey - there are friends and then there are friends. That's my take and the outcome is up to you folks.
I've seen you play Thresh a couple of times, but with Coin. That doesn't really do anything to help with understanding how Thresh with a Relic Shield works. Please substitute "Learning to play Relic Shield Thresh" with "Learning to play Thresh" in my previous posts. Thresh is a complicated champion with a wall of text to describe his E. I assumed you knew how it worked but wasn't completely sure since you talked in an earlier post about how little damage Supports do when auto attacking to justify your disdain of Thresh going Relic Shield.
I don't think you read what I said correctly. I was explaining why I wanted to play Thresh, my best champion, as opposed to a Support you might find more palatable so that I wouldn't be as much of a deficit to the team if I played.
I won't tolerate shit talk from people getting to play w/e the fuck they want while I'm playing a role I'd rather not.
i mean, i feel like people in general do not give you a lot of crap. The only thing i can think of specifically that happens with any sort of frequency is when you split-push as a support - which isn't "crap" as much as "we need you please group". People very rarely needless/incorrectly whine about things such as:
- losing dragons due to being unwarded (though you are generally pretty good at this!)
- lack of vision in the midgame (we all make this mistake)
- getting hit by by skill shots (same)
I think your head is up your ass if we can't come up with some scenario where I'm not support IN RANKED that occurs once in a while (side note - no shit I can play w/e in a normal).
i feel like this was mentioned a few times already in this thread:
- Thunder logs on. i sit out a game. You rotate up to top, Thunder supports Hunny.
- Thunder supporting you as Thresh
The only thing that i think that does need considering... How we, as a team, are going to address inevitable loss streaks.
At the beginning of this topic, you mentioned that you feel that if people are not playing well in a particular lane (that you WOULD do well in) that they basically need to be substituted and put on some sort of "probationary" status. i agreed that if we are systematically trying something and if it has very poor win rates (<40% over 25+ games), we should probably stop doing that.
Consider then, the possibility that, for whatever reason, we tend to have a very poor win-rate using a particular strategy. We'll say something like 2-8.
What would be your proposed solution?
- Do we automatically bench the perceived under-performer?
- Does the support get automatic "probation immunity" and gets "dibs" substituting into whatever he feels like (if the other person can't play support? tough shit, you do now)?
- Do we just start playing in Normals? (or, perhaps, practice the above solution in Normals)
- Does the perceived under-performer get a brief "probation" where they go learn some new champs, then come back 2-3 weeks later?
- Do we just keep trying the same thing, because sometimes you just get unlucky and lose despite your best efforts
Of course... Cow has the final, executive decision since it IS his team.
hedgie should really get sorted out on his mic I think
Yeah i've been trying. \: i am almost positive it is a driver issue.
i tried reformatting my computer entirely, but that doesn't do much.
My current options are:
1. My shitty $8 mic that has some feedback
2. My nice headset that only works for about 1 out of every 20 words.
There's also the problem where my bird often gets very excited around dinner time (all the pots and pans, timers buzzing, etc) and will be screaming for the next 30 minutes afterwards. Guess when i tend to play
Is your birds name Anivia? I hope it is.
As far as people not doing well for an extended period of time goes I don't think ill be kicking any one out off the team since we have a limited number of friends and I can't exactly call up voyboy or the oddone to fill in since our team isn't well known. I do think we have a few players that are flexible and can do well in 2 or more roles (hedige:top, mid, adc; Dan: top, mid, adc; Pacov: adc, support, top; me just about anywhere). Swapping people around if they are not doing well in a particular place could be an option but I have a pretty good idea on where I think people are best at currently and would try those roles first.
Internet is set up. I'm at work right now so I don't know for sure but...
Nice, Thunder! That hopefully simplifies things a bit then. We've been going through having to put my cat down, to not having to do so, to... bleh for a bit. That translates into me being a bit agitated. Sorry for that. Comments I took as catty, etc, just got me fired up all the more.
I think there's some over analysis involved in the whole cow's team, picking roles, etc (admittedly prompted by me). My request is simply to play other roles from time to time IN RANKED. If that means we lose 1 game on 1 night, well then.. holy shit. Price you are paying for having a support that is consistently available then. I think that sounds completely reasonable, right? So if we happened to have a game somewhere down the road where hedgie played support and I played top, well then... I think its possible to endure that. Not looking for someone's "spot" or w/e. I will, ofc, get really fucking annoyed if the 1 game I get to play a non support role is the game everyone decides to fuck around (worth mentioning, I guess).
My chops can certainly be busted for split push support, being all fuck relic shield thresh, support itemization - just not a fan of some of the catty shit that leans towards insult.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
