Game: League of Legends (It's free!)

[Archangel]

Of course you would, you have no sense for minimalist design... I bet you loved Vi's skins, that one's all over the place. What's your IGN btw?

I'm still wondering how a manaless cc machine with great sustain, a gapcloser and anivia's passive isn't OP as all hell. From Stonewall's preview he clears the jungle ridiculously easily, can hit level 3 in at around 3 minutes with double buff. I'll probably add him to my jungle list as well, he looks like my type of champion.

Karma... i have no idea, i'll have to get my hands on her but the kit does seem to have much more potential.

I got a woody when they announced the new ARAM map, i already played hours of aram every chance i could and not i can even earn some decent IP while i do it too.

[Alhuin]

Actually I hate Vi and her skin. The reason I dislike ZAC's model isn't because it's a minimalist design, it's because he was originally introduced as a small, for lack of a better word "cute" ball of slime... his final model is a buff-bruiser human-like slime. It just doesn't interest me.

My in game name is Alhuin, obviously. However, I play on the NA server.

[Archangel]

So here's what i'm thinking for Zac, you start machete pots, then go for some boots and the spirit stone, then rush locket followed by spirit of the ancient golem, upgraded boots ( mobility maybe? ) and haunting guise to build into liandry's. After that you go situational, although i'd always try and keep building HP along the way because of the passive and the skills costing a flat amount.

Log in to irc Al, we can go over this together.

Edit: I see you main Heca, are you aware there's a pretty significant nerf for him live on the PBE right now?

[Alhuin]

Yeah, Hec's been the focus of nerfs for a couple of patches now, though they tried to peg the last nerf as "balancing". It upsets me, but hopefully it won't be enough to make him unplayable. I haven't played ranked in a while now... nor even standard Summoner's Rift. Most of the people I played with have stopped because of school, so I just fuck around in Dom and ARAM.

I haven't been on IRC in ages... I don't even have it on this computer. Let me go find my old mIRC install and I'll try to get on.

EDIT: Also, this is just personal preference, but I never build Spirit Stone on my junglers. I always just get Madred's, then go straight into whatever I normally build for any given champion. This is because I feel like Spirit Stone is worthless until you build it into the final item, which is very costly for a subpar effect for most champions. Madred's helps clear the jungle faster. I won't argue with someone that prefers to get it, it's just not my choice. Then again, I haven't used an AP jungler since Fid/Diana (which I'm bad at), so it might be the better choice.

[Archangel]

Well even with diana you'd go with mordred, any champion that relies on auto attacks even a little probably gets more out of it than with spirit stone because of the clear speed but Zac doesn't seem to be one of those.

[UChessmaster]

Got to gold four about three weeks ago then lost my mojo completely, i`m lucky if i can go 1-7 (as in, 1 win 7 loses)

[Edort4]

Is it vital to have low ping (ms) in this game? does it make much difference? I have been flamed in NA because of my high ping and accused of ruining my teams game several time because I made them lag.

[Alhuin]

Ping is the amount of time it takes for the server to send data to the client, and vice versa; in this case, if you are not from NA, but using the NA server, you will have high ping. This does not, however, cause other people to lag, so those people are idiots.

I have a friend that plays from England that has consistently high ping (200+) and they do just fine in games; sometimes even carrying the team. Low ping is better, of course, but it's not unplayable in the yellow/orange area. Now, if your ping is red, then you'll probably have trouble.

@Uchess: When League Points were introduced, I was dropped into Silver 1, but since I haven't played ranked since then, my rating decayed to Silver 2. I spent a good three weeks grinding, trying to make it to gold before the switch, but I have the worst luck when it comes to gaming. I almost broke 1500 rating (the highest I got was 1497), which would have put me into gold I think, but then I lost seven games in a row and just couldn't build back up. I ended at like 1430, which isn't bad I guess, but I really wanted to make it to gold so I would never decay to silver, haha.

[UChessmaster]

I don`t mind losing, the problem is i`m straight up playing bad, like... how do i right click?

[Alhuin]

I don't mind losing either, but in my case, the losses were just so unbearably idiotic. I duoed with Lucifus for most of them, and we would literally be carrying the team, and they would decide "we don't want to be carried, so we're going to intentionally do worse"... or at least that's how it felt. I mean, sure, there were several games where we were just outplayed... but damn, the shit we went through ruined ranked for me for now. I was on a 5's team for a bit, and that was fun, but it's hard to get everyone on at the same time for that.

[Alhuin]

Double post for interesting video.



I wish I knew the runes/masteries, and could make out their item builds. This looks fun. I'd have to pick Nautilus though; I dislike playing the squish.

[Archangel]

I bet i could guess most of it. Teemo is just being AP teemo, the usual deal.

Nautilus is probably running armor reds and yellows, mr per level glyphs and either armor or ms quints. Masteries i'd say it's 0/9/21 from the naming of the page. His build seems to be some version of the old gp/5 one from season 2, he'd probably just branch out into support items when it got into mid and late game.

I'd say they're just taking advantage of the "mess" that is soloq, going with a full ap duo when most bot lanes would rune for more armor than mr and not being accustomed to dealing with the mass of cc known as nautilus.

I wish Nadouku would weight in on this stuff, he's the triple diamond guy.

[Alhuin]

I figured Teemo was AP, since it counters the current meta so well (like you said, most bot champs don't put as much emphasis on MR early on), but I wasn't sure about Naut, since I'd never played him. Armor yellows, MR blues and MS quints are pretty much standard on most of my builds, so I guess what I was really curious about were the reds. I have since bought Naut and jungled with him pretty effectively, using AS marks. If I were going bot lane though I'd probably change it to either Magic Pen or Armor. Masteries seem interchangeable, so I'm not worried about that anymore. And item build seems pretty straightforward when you talk about support.

I don't know, I guess I just thought that, with the strange combo, maybe both of them were building differently. I didn't think it would be that simple. Definitely want to try it out sometime though. Just need some spare change to get the skins.

[Archangel]

I've confirmed most of what i said was true through lolking, although naut's mastery tree is a little all over the place but seeing how they're bronze tier i wouldn't think about it too much.

I actually don't really like naut in the jungle ever since his nerfs and the jungle changes, his clear speed is just too god awful for his awesome ganks to compensate. If you get either invaded or the enemy wards well you're pretty much screwed.

[Alhuin]

It's true that Naut's early jungle is very slow, but everything I've read, and in the games that I've played, I've seen that he can clear pretty fast after level 4. Granted, like I mentioned before, I always buy Madred's, so regardless of the champion, I clear pretty fast. As far as the warding goes, any good player should be warding; which means any jungler is going to have a decent amount of trouble ganking. The trick is to work around those wards. For example, top lane usually wards river close to Baron. If you're blue team, you can go into their jungle at mid and go up around behind Baron, through top tri and gank. I do that a lot. Bot lane is a bit tougher, but if you have good teammates and coordination, you can gank behind their tower. Risky, but doable.

The point is, wards screw ganks regardless of who you are. Some champions just have an easier time getting around it.

While on that topic though, I really think wards need to be nerfed. Maybe... each team has a maximum number of wards they can have down or something.

EDIT: Also, what do you think about the Zac skin? I think it looks pretty badass even if it's just a recolor. I still dislike that his model is so buff, but it doesn't bother me as much with his skin.

[Archangel]

Wat? No, wards don't need to be nerfed it's oracle that needs to be buffed. Give it more than 3 minutes, or lower the price or make it last longer every time you kill a ward.

Purple Zac does indeed look awesome, i really wish i had more disposable income to spend on this game or i'd buy the skin pack at day one.

[Alhuin]

Wards nerfed, oracles buffed; the ends justify the means. The addition of Sightstone while adding a duration to oracles just made wards too good. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for warding, just not as rampantly as it's become. I just feel like it's hindering the game too much instead of helping it.

For riot points, I just buy the 50$ package when I can (like a Christmas or birthday gift to myself) and it usually lasts a long while. When my tax return comes in, that's probably what I will do.

[Archangel]

You seriously have to try Spirit of the Elder Lizard on Hecarim, the damage output is INSANE! That and a frozen fist with a sunfire cape and you're a beefy carry.

[Alhuin]

Both Hec and the Lizard item were nerfed in this patch; the Hec nerf being the third this year I believe. I haven't played SR very much recently since I absolutely hate the pugs I usually get stuck with, but even when I do play it, I doubt I'll try the item again. It's a very good item, I won't deny that, it just doesn't fit my style of play. Every time I bought it previously I found myself wishing I had bought a defensive item instead to live longer. I feel like it's my job (on Hec, Mao, Darius, whoever I jungle that isn't dps) to be the tank. Get in the middle of the fight and live as long as possible so my teammates can get fed and carry. I don't trust myself to carry, which is why I try to feed my adc/mid/top. This can be shown by my lolking stats.

Not to mention an almost-plat friend of mine plays Hec much better than I do, and he even agrees that there are much better items to buy starting out. Now, if I make it to late game, sure I'll probably buy one. But like I mentioned previously, I rarely make it past my three main items before the game ends. >_>

Zac was finally released, so I've been playing him a lot now. All Dom so far (refer to the paragraph above about SR), but he's been a lot of fun. His E makes for great initiation and escapes. I thought it'd be difficult to control in a team fight, but it really can't be interrupted unless you get, well, interrupted. Stun, silence, fear, knockback, etc. His ult is a little weird to work with, and I haven't completely mastered it yet, but it seems to provide great damage and utility nonetheless. My W feels a little weaker than it should be, being that it's % max health based damage, but it's so fun to spam. With the skin, his particles are spikes, which is so much cooler than normal. Q of course is pretty bland, but it's a semi-spammable slow, so it's not bad. For Dom, I opted with magic pen reds, and an "AP Top" mastery setup, so I can be somewhat tanky but also do some damage. Starting with a Kindlegem and building into either SV or Locket (depending on enemy team), then getting BFT and you're pretty much a beast. More defensive items to follow based on enemy team (especially a scepter for both damage and defense).

I've never been as excited to play a champion as I am for Zac. Has anyone else had good experience with him yet?

[Archangel]

I bought him some days ago, have been having fun with him. My one problem is that, much like with Thresh's lantern, people keep forgetting about my goddamn passive. Just dive the fucking turret you pussies, i'll soak up the damage.

Do you still build mardred on Zac? I'm gonna laugh if you do.