League of Legends - F2P MOBA (like DOTA) part 2

[NikolaeVarius]

Sometimes it really feels like matchmaking is broken.

I was on a great win streak, won 90% of the games I played for about 20 games, and then I lost probably 15 games in a row. Finally won a game to break up the lose streak.

Or, that's exactly how the game works. The Elo system is like a sin wave. You have losing streaks, and you have winning streams as you go up and down past the "average" player at your Elo, something like 50-100 elo difference. And if you happen to win at a game when you are above the "average" line, the average line is moved slightly up. So if you're getting absolutly destroyed, you're probably playing against someone at about 100 elo above you.

I was personally on a massively bad losing streak and I wanted to kill someone from all the shitty trolls that infested some of those games, but now I'm starting to win a few games again. I'm happy.

 

[krnmastersgt]

I have to wonder why the enemy didn't surrender in your 29/3 game o_o Only time I can pull crazy high amounts of kills like that is when I'm playing with way lower ELO friends, which usually degenerates into a battle of 2 stupidly fed/farmed champs since we're effectively smurfing at a much lower ELO.

Anyways I think I will be taking a break from LoL, maybe just getting first wins in co-op. Though weirdly I feel like benching LoL just to play some more DOTA 2

 

[Chiropteran]

Or, that's exactly how the game works. The Elo system is like a sin wave. You have losing streaks, and you have winning streams as you go up and down past the "average" player at your Elo, something like 50-100 elo difference.

Well yeah, I understand the concept. But it is supposed to be a gradual thing, and even when the system is adjusting because it thinks my Elo is higher than it actually is, it doesn't make sense to be put into 20 unwinnable games in a row. After losing, say, 5 of those games, my Elo should be sufficiently diminished that it stops matching me up against such players.

I also understand that statistically, streaks will occur occasionally... but sometimes it really feels like it's always either a win streak or a lose streak. The balanced evenings with equal wins and losses seem* incredibly rare.

*It would be interesting to look at the data for say, 1000 games, and see if the "streak clumps" really are occurring more often than they should. I don't have the patience nor the data to do that though, since AFAIK you can only see the results of your last 10 games.

 

[zebano]

So I finally played against a support Lulu last night. She wasn't very good (bad shield timing, polymorph didn't impress) but man that ult is amazing. She saved the MF from death at least 5 times.

 

[crownjules]

Lulu's got a high skill cap and is hard to play well since her support skills are dual purpose. She's very good in the right hands though. Once she's got max CDR you can basically keep a person CC'd.

Which reminds me of a game last night I played with a 4 man premade. One of them calls solo top in champ select and takes Jax. Then as I'm running out to lane, he also comes bot and tells me (Ashe) to go top. I tell him he called top so go take it but of course he refuses and the Lulu ends up going. Luckily, our opponents were retarded and picked no ranged AD so we faced an Alistar + Fizz combo that we destroyed. I ended the game 14/6/18 and he still found reason to bitch at me. Our solo Lulu also never used anything on anyone but herself. Maybe her ult once on Mundo. Gotta love the soloQ.

 

[HumblePie]

Lulu's got a high skill cap and is hard to play well since her support skills are dual purpose. She's very good in the right hands though. Once she's got max CDR you can basically keep a person CC'd.

Which reminds me of a game last night I played with a 4 man premade. One of them calls solo top in champ select and takes Jax. Then as I'm running out to lane, he also comes bot and tells me (Ashe) to go top. I tell him he called top so go take it but of course he refuses and the Lulu ends up going. Luckily, our opponents were retarded and picked no ranged AD so we faced an Alistar + Fizz combo that we destroyed. I ended the game 14/6/18 and he still found reason to bitch at me. Our solo Lulu also never used anything on anyone but herself. Maybe her ult once on Mundo. Gotta love the soloQ.

haha, I know the feeling. I got someone that picked a jungler at champ selection. I had done a blind pick instead of draft for once. Everyone else locked in and he just sat there letting time run out. At the last moment he changes from jungle udyr to jax. And removed his smite at the very last second. I was like... WTF?

So we had two go top and no jungle. I was playing ziggs against karthus. While I was initially doing well against karth. That didn't matter. Everytime I could have killed karth I couldn't finish it because I had no idea where his jungler was. Karth didn't have to fear any jungler from my side either so when I got low he could come after me with impunity. Not only that, I couldn't get blue buff while he could easily early. While I started out good, I couldn't capitalize upon it as ziggs is FAR less mana efficient than karthus. Especially lacking a blue buff. Then top lost 2v1 a few times and bottom got pummeled as there jungler ganked that alot. Game was pretty much over early on thanks to a lack of a jungler and that top couldn't capitalize upon their 2v1 number advantage. Instead top died repeatedly and lost tower first. I'm serious. What do you do when that happens? I tried surrendering at 20 and then when my team wouldn't I finally trolled back. I just ran middle and died on purpose. still made a couple of kills though doing that surprisingly enough. But I was trying to get the game over with. We were down 42 kills to our 6. I had 4 of our kills and 2 assists. That's how bad that game went and my team still wouldn't surrender.


That's the shit I've been dealing with lately.

 

[HumblePie]

Also, played a game over my lunch hour. Was last pick during a draft game and was forced to play support. No problem. Our range AD went as corki so I decided to go Soraka to match up well since corki has mana issues early and doesn't have the same burst as say graves who needs a stun to unload upon someone. Corki is a poker and needs mana sustain.

Our team starts topside, and I head bot with corki. Corki goes to tower first and not blue golem. Soon as he gets there he types out, going afk. Doesn't come back for 10 minutes.

Since he was in front of the tower and the other team had both caitlyn and blitzcrank, there was nothing I could do to save his toon. Not a damn thing. He died right at the beginning since his toon as afk. Now I'm stuck with support setup soraka going 1v2 against and cait and blitz. Suffice it to say, I lost that tower early even if I managed to keep myself from dying. But with bot gone early, losing dragon early, and the other team now has champ free to do roaming ganks, it went downhill fast.

Corki comes back at 10 minutes and first thing he does as level 1 is rush out there and dies again. Grrr. I'm ready to just sit on the summoner pad the rest of the game. It was a waste of my time completely for my lunch hour. I persevered though. Doing what I could to keep the others going. Corki manages to get some farm and come back some. We do a couple of team fights and surprisingly aren't doing so bad. About the 27 minute mark in we get a good team fight where we kill 3 of them and lose no one. Everyone but the corki is like, lets baron! Corki goes bottom lane away from us. We are like, wtf?????? He is like why are you guys doing baron? we are low life. I said, I'm here to heal and lee sin has enough to tank. Get your ass over here. He doesn't. The come and finish us at baron and kill us. Was over then. Game lost all because of that corki. He was typing stupid shit in chat too the entire time after that. Absolute retarded troll. Hope his ass gets banned.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I have been playing Vayne for the last few games ... and I can seriously carry the most retarded groups, it's awesome.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

I have been playing Vayne for the last few games ... and I can seriously carry the most retarded groups, it's awesome.

Vayne is such a ridiculous character. I've seen the worst players I've ever seen with absolutly no decision making skills whatsoever carry as vayne late game, because late game with a bare minimum of items, she does an absolutely insane amount of damage just by autoattacking and doing nothing else.

 

[crownjules]

The counter to Vayne is to CC her into oblivion and pound her down. She's a hyper-carry that has very few counters available because Silver Bolts is percentage of total HP as true damage (plus a base amount of true damage). So you counter-pick her with Nasus, Nunu, or Malphite (all have -ASPD abilities). But as anyone else, you either buy Frozen Heart (hah) or hope to god your team is coordinated enough to bring her down ASAP or she steam rolls.

I think the %HP as true damage is retarded and poor design.

 

[Abel007]

Vayne is a great late game carry. If the enemy has no slow/stun then its gg.

I've been playing Jax a lot lately. Love the champion. Very strong, especially against auto attackers. Can build straight damage and with his ultimate still be relatively tanky. I am still working out builds for him but Hextech Gunblade and Guinsoo's Rageblade seem to work very well. From there I am having problems. I don't know if I should build warmog's/atmas or keep building damage like a Trinity Force. I also want to try a straight AD Jax with a Bloodthirster/IE/PD, but haven't had time.

 

[krnmastersgt]

If you already have a Rageblade and Gunblade I'd say it's a bit late to be considering a T-Force. It's an incredibly strong mid-game item but if you're already finished both of those it's already at a point where it's tapering off.

Atmogs is a great way to finish off Jax, build the early damage to assert your dominance in lane or to just kill people in general and then go to atmogs so that when they build damage, they still won't be able to kill you.

 

[Abel007]

Thanks, will try that out tonight! The good thing with atmog's is the AD from atma's turns into armor during the Jax ult. Sounds like it would be a very good build. Expensive though!

 

[xSkyDrAx]

I would say if you started in lane you would probably have a wriggles first. Wriggles + rageblade and you're looking at about 180 ad. If you're doing well you can probably do a gunblade pretty fast. If not I would suggest going Fratmas. Frozen mallet to keep you on them while you pound them down and atmas for the extra dmg and armor. Fratmas is also nice to finish off your build with if you had time to go for gunblade.

 

[thejunglegod]

Ive been playing Kog for quite a while now and ive never actually had problems, until i stopped playing bots. #Trollface# i know. But the problem im facing is my Kog consumes insane amounts i mana. My build is typically Shoes, Madred's bloodrazer, malady and the typical recommended items. And infinity edge last for that extra +80 damage to combine with all my Attack speed. Also, i have trouble fending off champs like Wukong, Brand & Veigar. I get squished instantly. TBH ive not had the brightest teams. So is there anything you guys can suggest?? I tried doing an AD build, as mentioned here : http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/kogmaw-right-click-and-win-58148 but it was just badly embarrasing. Any tips from pro Kogs here???

 

[Maleficus]

K I just sent out tons of BFF requests, I need ppl to play with.

 

[krnmastersgt]

Bloodrazor isn't really all that useful for a Kog'Maw imo unless you're facing an incredibly beefy team. And even if your team is very good, they can't prevent you from being taken out instantly by a nuker like Veigar or Brand, not sure how Wukong is killing you so easily though. Also didn't know anyone still used Mobafire anymore

In any case, yes Kog can chew threw his mana insanely fast which is why you're supposed to conserve it as best you can and only use your range steroid when you need to harass your opponents down a little OR you need the range to last hit. But that's the primary reason why I always ask for a Soraka support when I play Kog, that way I can abuse all my skills in lane and still have mana for anything else. As for a recommended AD build, while I love playing him I mix up my build too much to give a concrete answer so you might want to check out Solomid.net or LeagueCraft (Solomid is usually preferred).

 

[thejunglegod]

hey thanks. i'm new to LOL, so i didnt know that mobafire was old. i'll see what i can gather using Solomid and Leaguecraft. Thanks again.

 

[Abel007]

Jax vs Lee Sin top lane. Its an impossible matchup for Jax. Can't poke Lee down because he will just Tempest/Cripple then destroy me. I can't fight him straight up because Cripple shuts Jax down and Lee has a shield/life steal. Unfortunately, by the time I got items to deal with him he was already roaming trying to crush other lanes, but we ended up winning the game. No thanks to me of course. I ended up 0/5 with Lee Sin tower diving me at will to kill me.

 

[HumblePie]

Jax vs Lee Sin top lane. Its an impossible matchup for Jax. Can't poke Lee down because he will just Tempest/Cripple then destroy me. I can't fight him straight up because Cripple shuts Jax down and Lee has a shield/life steal. Unfortunately, by the time I got items to deal with him he was already roaming trying to crush other lanes, but we ended up winning the game. No thanks to me of course. I ended up 0/5 with Lee Sin tower diving me at will to kill me.

Jax doesn't do well top at all right now. Wouldn't even bother. Jungle Jax or don't play him is my advise.

 

[crownjules]

Ive been playing Kog for quite a while now and ive never actually had problems, until i stopped playing bots. #Trollface# i know. But the problem im facing is my Kog consumes insane amounts i mana. My build is typically Shoes, Madred's bloodrazer, malady and the typical recommended items. And infinity edge last for that extra +80 damage to combine with all my Attack speed. Also, i have trouble fending off champs like Wukong, Brand & Veigar. I get squished instantly. TBH ive not had the brightest teams. So is there anything you guys can suggest?? I tried doing an AD build, as mentioned here : http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/kogmaw-right-click-and-win-58148 but it was just badly embarrasing. Any tips from pro Kogs here???

I played Kog a good amount. Always build him AD as the numbers for AP don't bear out to be quite as good. Think of it like this:

Kog's primary damage method is W boosted attacks. It takes 100AP to increase that damage by 1% of their HP. At end game, your average champ is going to have around 2500 hp. So 100AP translates into 25 damage. And that's just at end game - it's worse at earlier parts of the game. You're going to have far more impact with a +80 damage and +crit IE. AP was the better choice when R didn't scale with AD and Q didn't give you any armor penetration (not that you really get close enough to use Q often).

I use movespeed quints on Kog and make a Zeal my first buy. Use your range and the extra speed to stay out of trouble. Get your IE next and then finish Phantom Dancer. Then go with whatever fits your needs best. Trinity Force will give you a little bit of everything you need. Bloodthirster will give you more damage and some sustain. Guardian Angel will keep you in fights if you're getting targeted first. Bloodrazor is a terrible item these days on all but a very few champions who have abilities to utilize it to great effect (ie. Warwick). It's just too expensive for the effect it gives.

 

[Firsttime]

If I'm Kog I want peel. Alistar is the op support/jungle. So good. Has strong CC like Leona, has as much heal as Sona. Janna is solid as well. Lulu probably works fine too.

Kog builds in bot lane should focus on AD and AS. Things like IE/Phantom Dancer/LW and QSS. Everyone dies.

 

[Firsttime]

Jax vs Lee Sin top lane. Its an impossible matchup for Jax. Can't poke Lee down because he will just Tempest/Cripple then destroy me. I can't fight him straight up because Cripple shuts Jax down and Lee has a shield/life steal. Unfortunately, by the time I got items to deal with him he was already roaming trying to crush other lanes, but we ended up winning the game. No thanks to me of course. I ended up 0/5 with Lee Sin tower diving me at will to kill me.

Lee is OP in top lane cause of W. I've actually been saying this and abusing it for close to a year now. People tunneled on his jungle and let his top lane fly under the radar for so long. It wont last forever. Not many people can lane vs. him top. You want to turn the lane into a farm lane. Jax can't quite do it. But someone like Cho/Udyr can handle him. If you want to balls deep against him and try to win Fiora deals with him ok, and well played Rivens win hard.

 

[HumblePie]

I played Kog a good amount. Always build him AD as the numbers for AP don't bear out to be quite as good. Think of it like this:

Kog's primary damage method is W boosted attacks. It takes 100AP to increase that damage by 1% of their HP. At end game, your average champ is going to have around 2500 hp. So 100AP translates into 25 damage. And that's just at end game - it's worse at earlier parts of the game. You're going to have far more impact with a +80 damage and +crit IE. AP was the better choice when R didn't scale with AD and Q didn't give you any armor penetration (not that you really get close enough to use Q often).

I use movespeed quints on Kog and make a Zeal my first buy. Use your range and the extra speed to stay out of trouble. Get your IE next and then finish Phantom Dancer. Then go with whatever fits your needs best. Trinity Force will give you a little bit of everything you need. Bloodthirster will give you more damage and some sustain. Guardian Angel will keep you in fights if you're getting targeted first. Bloodrazor is a terrible item these days on all but a very few champions who have abilities to utilize it to great effect (ie. Warwick). It's just too expensive for the effect it gives.

Agreed.

As for which champs can use Bloodrazor... Warwick and Xin are really the only two I can think of. Warwick because his ult applies 5 ticks of on hit effects regardless. Making BR against tanks nice. However, you can get by without it on WW.

Xin I like because he is still the best champ that favors ASPD over anything else. If you can't reach 1.8 ASPD without him popping E then you have a problem with Xin in my opinion.


Madreds is really also only needed against teams stacking health.

 

[HumblePie]

Lee is OP in top lane cause of W. I've actually been saying this and abusing it for close to a year now. People tunneled on his jungle and let his top lane fly under the radar for so long. It wont last forever. Not many people can lane vs. him top. You want to turn the lane into a farm lane. Jax can't quite do it. But someone like Cho/Udyr can handle him. If you want to balls deep against him and try to win Fiora deals with him ok, and well played Rivens win hard.

This as well.

Best top laners are:
Trynd, Udyr, Lee, and Renekton.

Close seconds are:
Shen, Riven, Cho, Yorick, Warwick, and Fiora.

Third best and still decent even against those above but won't win the lane are:
Nasus, Olaf, Gangplank, Wukong, Singed, and Jarvan


These are just my opinions. Any of those top can do well. Trying to use anyone else top right now is hit or miss. Some can possibly do alright, such as many AP carries, but others will usually have a very tough time against one of those listed top such as Jax. Jax doesn't have enough early burst, range, tankiness, nor sustain to stay top long enough against the first two tiers of top laners. Notice all the tier 1 top laners except Udyr in my list don't use mana. All of them have plenty of health sustain, escapes, gap closers, CC, and massive burst early levels. Jax doesn't have that. He has escape, CC, and gap closer. That's it. He has no sustain, no massive early game burst, and no tankiness.