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

[crownjules]

I must play this game too much because I can't understand how someone can't afford 6300 IP. After a period of time you have all the runes you need, so really you only HAVE to spend IP on characters...

Currently sitting at 48K IP.

Some of us work 40+ hours a week and have social lives. I'd say I get between 15-20 games in a week which roughly means 1500-2000 IP a week.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Some of us work 40+ hours a week and have social lives. I'd say I get between 15-20 games in a week which roughly means 1500-2000 IP a week.

LOL. I hear ya. Same here. I suppose this is about the only game I currently play so that would make a difference..but I"m only playing slightly more than that probably. There's not enough to spend IP on for someone to never have it....at least I don't see what they'd be spending it on.

 

[Snock514]

Anyone know when they start to replay the days matches from Gamescom on the Intel masters stream? I think it's 9PM EST. The videos on their site always stop mid way through for me .

 

[Firsttime]

Runes are addictive. I buy too many of them. I figured a while ago I'd topped 50k IP on runes, I'm pretty sure I'd be above 60k now. I just feel like increasing my rune selection is the best way to spend my IP haha.

I also probably bring in 2kish IP a week.

 

[HumblePie]

Nasus, while better than before, will still have the same problem of being kited too easily by anyone that knows what they're doing. Like you said once you can deny him farm for his Q he will be very medicore in terms of damage output. Sure he might be able to tank it up but he has no real tank skills. Though that new jungling nasus might mitigate some of his early game issues since I've seen some jungling nasus farm it up in the jungle unharassed but even then I feel it's iffy if your team isnt holding the lane well.

Yah, he's not a carry from the jungle to turn things around. That and his gank potential is a bit meh from the jungle.

 

[HumblePie]

I barely make enough IP to cover the 6.3K cost upon the release of a new champ. Sometimes, not even that as I had to skip Yorick when I didn't play for a couple of weeks very much at that time. I bought the majority of my champs through the two packages, one form the box and another from the bundle deal. The two deals had very little overlap at least so I got a good bang for the buck of 40 something heroes that way.

 

[Kabob]

Yeah, just played against a pretty good Nasus, he was absolutely tearing us up early but then their Lux decided to go with a tank build and their team stopped working together and they fell apart.

I think I finally decided on my only decent AP champ, that's Malzahar. I'm not owning champs right and left but I seem to hold my own and my gosh can he farm, pretty much every game I've used him in that's gone over 40 mins has had over 200 creep kills. Still got a lot to learn about using his skills but he's a ton of fun.

 

[douglasb]

Just bought Jax (thanks to the reduced price) and went 15/6/9 with 278 creep kills and 6 turrets. When Jax gets fed, he is a BEAST.

 

[crownjules]

Yeah, just played against a pretty good Nasus, he was absolutely tearing us up early but then their Lux decided to go with a tank build and their team stopped working together and they fell apart.

I think I finally decided on my only decent AP champ, that's Malzahar. I'm not owning champs right and left but I seem to hold my own and my gosh can he farm, pretty much every game I've used him in that's gone over 40 mins has had over 200 creep kills. Still got a lot to learn about using his skills but he's a ton of fun.

Smartcasting is a must on Malzahar. That way you can rapidly get off a W+E+R combo and pretty much melt anyone outside of an MR-stacked tank from full to zero.

 

[hans030390]

Just bought Jax (thanks to the reduced price) and went 15/6/9 with 278 creep kills and 6 turrets. When Jax gets fed, he is a BEAST.

I hate playing against Jax. He just seems extremely cheap. He can get EXTREMELY beefy (might as well be a tank), but he still does a TON of damage. This can happen even if not fed. In my experiences, the only way you can counter him is to either run away as soon as you see him, or kill him with at least 3 people (otherwise, he'll probably get away).

I RARELY see someone NOT kick ass with him. I haven't played him, so I could be wrong...I'm just going off all the numerous awful times I've played against him.

 

[Kabob]

Looks like they're nerfing Jax a lil' bit next patch. They're doing lots of nerfs it looks like, mostly against supports. All except Kayle who's getting buffed...again.

 

[zebano]

Tank is the way to go. Not a single point in offensive masteries and all tank gear and his Q still hits like a truck, and R does massive aoe damage, there is zero reason IMO to build him as dps.

As far as getting kited, nasus is one of the best tower wreckers in the game. I'll happily let quicker enemy champions "kite" away from me while I bulldoze every one of their towers and barracks. In addition, if the enemy team is playing too defensive, nasus is also one of the best baron killers in the game. You just have so many alternative strategy options with nasus. With him it is not about getting kills outright, it's about winning the game.

Tank gear is good, but a sheen is absolutely dominant and the movespeed + slow from a complete triforce is everything he needs to kick ass. Triforce + aegis + moderate farm is a win. I also think it's a lot harder to kite him with the change to his wither. In short I really like the remade nasus against most top lane matchups though I find Garen will wreak him as will Caitlyn if you're not dodging all the skillshots.


Thanks for the post Kabob I'm totally willing to drop another $20 on a champion bundle that nets me any 10 new champs (the only ones I don't own cost 4800 or 6300 IP).

Some of us work 40+ hours a week and have social lives. I'd say I get between 15-20 games in a week which roughly means 1500-2000 IP a week.

This is spot on, I would guesstimate I only play about 15 games at most per week though I would love to be back in college playing this instead of SC /Counterstrike.



Finally, great job to those that ran ranked 5s with me last night. That euro-meta really worked well for us though I prefered playing Alistar to Soraka since I like having a bit more presence in teamfights.

 

[HumblePie]

Played several games as nasus this weekend. He's still has problems, but is much better than before. His biggest problem typically his own teammates.

Nasus needs Q farm to build his siphon strike. Period. Without that late game then he's an ignorable bruiser. Getting Q farm is easy if you get a solo lane. This is great if you coordinate with a premade. Not so great if you are going solo into games or duos. You are going to get many a ranged carry who is going to cry about having a solo lane (to which most of the time they'll lose anyhow). So that means I was stuck on several occasions with a laning partner. This isn't bad if the partner supports you in letting you build your Q up. However it can absolutely blow if your laning partner tries to take everything and constantly pushes the creep wave.


If you don't have +150 damage on his Siphon Strike at the 20 minute mark and +300 by the 35 minute mark then you are falling well behind with him. This is just my observation. Even if you are, then there are still problems with nasus.

1) No gap closer. Chasing is made a little easier with wither, but if the enemy has enough of a lead and an escape ability or summoner spell then you aren't catching them.

2) No CC. In team fights you have no CC and are subject to CC.

3) As an AD melee exhaust renders him useless while it's on him. If the enemy is paying attention and uses it on you and then focuses you down there isn't much to stop that.

4) He's a bruiser off tank that is NOT good at initiating. With no gap closer and being severely reliant on melee damage having nasus start the fight means letting nasus be the focus and take the beat down first. Which means he's not going to do much if any damage. Especially if the other team has CC, exhaust, and kiting abilities.


Still a late game Nasus that has farmed his Q up high enough is a beast. Especially when it comes to taking down towers. One game I had +600 on my siphon strike. I had 340 AD. That's 1050 base damage. With 50% crit rate and an IE I was nailing shit for 2500 a pop. I took over half a towers hitpoints in one hit. I insta popped a couple of squishies in a few time fights.

He's fun and has his quirks. Definitely not OP unless he has massive late game farm. Nothing really different than Veigar in that regard. There are plenty of counters to him as well. Also he can be completely shut down early by smart enemies or stupid team mates.

 

[nanobreath]

Me and my brother played oriana and sona in a lane together yesterday. OMG at the awesomeness that ensued. We ran with double clarity and spammed our abilities. I never ran out of mana, and we both stayed in lane till we had 3k+ gold. Good thing we were rocking though, because our top and mid lane kog and yorick were feeding like crazy. The fed jax and katarina even came down to our lane and we still had absolutely zero problem 2v3 and 2v4, and me with only a doran's ring.

I really like the fact that oriana can dish out the damage, but can also support the team with the shield. Her presence in a lane is amazing, with that ball allowing you to threaten a very large area, and even harass them at the tower.

 

[Malak]

Smartcasting is a must on Malzahar. That way you can rapidly get off a W+E+R combo and pretty much melt anyone outside of an MR-stacked tank from full to zero.

I have never used smartcasting, but I almost always win when I play Malzahar. Some games he doesn't seem impressive because he isn't burst dps. So I'll get a lot of assists and few kills. I lost a game at 16/1 and another at 12/1 because my team was that bad. I can get first blood pretty easily.

Today I got first blood against a Tryn who was laned with a Sona. I was fiddle. Yep. At level 1. NOT IN BUSHES.

You can feed if you want to, you can leave your team behind. Because they don't feed, and if they don't feed then they're no team of mine!

 

[Malak]

Malzahar is a beast. I would say he is the single greatest AP caster champ in the game. The really neat thing that makes him different is he isn't burst DPS. His silence can burst, but it is a skill shot that you can't always rely on and it will only do upwards of 500-600 damage anyway. The reason his damage over time is great, the bad guy doesn't know he is dead. You can kite the hell out of champs with Malzahar while they slowly die. To this end, I have made a build that I think takes advantage of his unique skills which is a bit different than most people build him. And I always beat any other Malzahar that plays.

In order:

1. Kage's Lucky Pick

Gold items are important for champs that can't farm well, and Malz farms better than anyone. So this means you get gold faster than a pimp deciding what color teeth to get in the grill shop.

2. Sorcerer's Shoes

Don't think I need to explain the importance of magic penetration.

3. Hextech Revolver

Yep, this is my first real item. I build up my AP base while getting that much needed spellvamp. Spellvamp helps with kiting, but it also has saved my ass so many times that I can't imagine not using this item. Your ult turns into a drain that can sustain you in team fights, your silence is burst heal, and your dot just bounces around healing you the entire time you are in lane.

4. Fiendish Codex

The second part to Deathfire Grasp, it gets some mana regen and CDR that will be helpful throughout the game. We don't fully upgrade it just yet though because we want to keep the gold coming for now.

5. Rylai's Crystal Scepter

Health, AP, slow. Every AP caster should get it. Again you live longer, now your spellvamp helps more, and your dot is a constant slow for better kiting.

6. Will of the Ancients

Upgraded Hextech for more AP, more Spellvamp, and gives spellvamp to your teammates. They may not realize what you just gave them, but it will help!

7. Deathfire Grasp

AP, mana regen, CDR. Rounded item good for any caster, but it has a bonus. The active ability hits a champ for 30%(+% based on AP) of their current health. DESTROYS tanks. Drop null void, hit grasp, ult... Your null void does damage based on max health, and should be doing at least 15% by now. They are dead.

8. Abyssal Scepter, Rabadon's Deathcap, Zhonya's Hourglass

This will be entirely dependent on the game. You might even pick something else for whatever you need. AP is always good, but sometimes you need resists against certain matchups.


Ignite/Flash are the only summoner abilities you pick. There is simply no reason to pick anything else. If you are running mid, and you should be, at lvl 6 the other person is dead usually. As long as you are doing good harassing, and you should be, they can't survive your flash/ult combo. Unless they are morde or nidalee which are both your toughest matchups. Your runes should get you CDR and magic pen at the very least.

Don't be mistaken into thinking you should get Void Staff or Archangel Staff. Void Staff is better replaced by Abyssal Scepter and Archangel Staff doesn't really give you anything aside from more mana regen than you need.

 

[zebano]

Duo queued with Pipi for a game today and rolled out of elo hell.

http://i.imgur.com/IH0LH.jpg

 

[Fenixgoon]

Duo queued with Pipi for a game today and rolled out of elo hell.

http://i.imgur.com/IH0LH.jpg

we had a 5man premade (normal) and decided to go all random with snowball items.

i got cho, strife got ashe, and we also had amumu, soraka, and..crap i cant remember the 5th. decent team composition.

sadly we just didnt have enough damage output, whereas the other team had caitlyn, nasus, and a few others to do well. i don't normally play a cho with leviathan, mejai's, and sword of the occult

we almost won, which is crazy, but ultimately the other team had better stuff for late-game and our troll random team lost. it was a fun way to go out for the evening though

 

[blamb425]

Ugh, was sitting at 1350 then dropped to just below 1200...should have stopped while I still had bronze. Hopefully the season doesn't end tomorrow, like some have speculated.

 

[Chiropteran]

I'm sitting happy at 1337 rating.

 

[nanobreath]

we had a 5man premade (normal) and decided to go all random with snowball items.

i got cho, strife got ashe, and we also had amumu, soraka, and..crap i cant remember the 5th. decent team composition.

sadly we just didnt have enough damage output, whereas the other team had caitlyn, nasus, and a few others to do well. i don't normally play a cho with leviathan, mejai's, and sword of the occult

we almost won, which is crazy, but ultimately the other team had better stuff for late-game and our troll random team lost. it was a fun way to go out for the evening though

Yes that was a great end to the evening, even if it was a loss. Especially when we were 0-9 on kills and almost came back to win the game! Cho with that many stacks is beastly.

Yesterday was a great day, was 4-0 (not counting the troll game). And I think all 4 games involved a surrender early, not because somebody on their team was feeding or rage-quit, but because after taking my team always kicked ass!

 

[zebano]

I'm sitting happy at 1337 rating.

That is indeed worth sitting at, just make sure it doesn't decay before the season ends.

 

[Firsttime]

You can only decay if you're above 1400 elo. I'm sitting at 1375, but I can't make myself play ranked with the Internet I currently have. Going to get some better stuff soon. Then plat better watch out haha.

 

[crownjules]

we had a 5man premade (normal) and decided to go all random with snowball items.

i got cho, strife got ashe, and we also had amumu, soraka, and..crap i cant remember the 5th. decent team composition.

sadly we just didnt have enough damage output, whereas the other team had caitlyn, nasus, and a few others to do well. i don't normally play a cho with leviathan, mejai's, and sword of the occult

we almost won, which is crazy, but ultimately the other team had better stuff for late-game and our troll random team lost. it was a fun way to go out for the evening though

Yes that was a great end to the evening, even if it was a loss. Especially when we were 0-9 on kills and almost came back to win the game! Cho with that many stacks is beastly.

Yesterday was a great day, was 4-0 (not counting the troll game). And I think all 4 games involved a surrender early, not because somebody on their team was feeding or rage-quit, but because after taking my team always kicked ass!

Yeah that was fun. By mid game, I was 8/2 with 18 stacks on Sword of the Occult. Unfortunately, being the only damage dealer on the team they correctly sent Nasus and Blitz to neutralize me in team fights and the rest of you didn't really have enough damage to do much else.

 

[zebano]

Has Riot actually announced the official season 1 end date?