**OLD THREAD** League of Legends - F2P MOBA (like DOTA)

[Fenixgoon]

Ashe does have one damage increase, her passive. Also, her frost arrow works better with higher attack speed. So with her one must increase ASPD, AD, and get an IE at the very least. Most good builds for her have at least an IE and Whisperer.

But you don't want too much ASPD either with Ashe as the frost arrow will burn out her mana to fast. Just enough to keep the kiting going. Everything else should be there for massive pokes by her. But yah, her movement is already slow at the base 300 at least.

Personally I LOVE seeing any Ashe go against me at mid as Xin. They don't have a chance in hell of living in the early phase. Now a late game ashe that is fed can kite me pretty badly 1v1 though if they get the jump on me and they also have some extra move speed items. Still ashe is extremely squishy but her range, stun, and slows with every attack make up for that in the hands of a skilled player.


But Ashe being cheap like Yi, means everyone has them and most of them being noobs. Which means every new player to the game gets these two chars first, plays the hell out of them while learning bad habits and then proceeds to continue playing them the same way at level 30 as they did at level 5. Which means the majority of the time if you see an Ashe or Yi, they will suck. Same can be said for Tristana, Tryndamere, Nunu, and TF for example. Cheap, easy to obtain heroes that are over played by poor players.

Still, Ashe DID get a nerf, same as Anivia and all other ranged chars. The fact that now items and buffs react differently for ranged versus melee chars is a huge nerf.

why thank you

 

[Elcs]

Had myself a couple more bot games with Kayle, who looked interesting so I purchased her.

In my limited experience she seems to be an ok damage dealer with some useful heal/support abilities. Adding some attack speed and ability power buffs to her with a combination of Reckoning and Righteous Fury can do some nice looking damage. She does feel quite squishy though.

I might go for another couple of bot matches before trying to compete at a PvP level.... even though I'd probably be 'okay' to jump in now (little nervous)

 

[LurkerPrime]

Well my first game with the new patch went really well. My team went like 32-10, and the other team surrendered at the 25 minute mark. I unfortunately only got 6 kills, but I'll take an easy win anyday.

My second game however went pretty horrible. Everyone on the other team had exhaust. I swear if anything needs a nerf its that. It's the bane of any melee character. Every team fight I would just get exhausted and burned down. I did however have one good moment where I soloed thier aniva out in a lane(egg and all), and then after I killed her, yi and rammus showed up and I also soloed both of them at the same time, surviving with around 30hp. I was very amazed none of them used exhaust, which is the only reason I lived. Overall I still ended up 8-8-4, but we still lost the match pretty bad.

Another thing that amazed me was that out of the two games I played, I didn't see a single Trundle. In the past I couldn't play a single game on new character release days without seeing the new character on both teams.

 

[LurkerPrime]

Had myself a couple more bot games with Kayle, who looked interesting so I purchased her.

In my limited experience she seems to be an ok damage dealer with some useful heal/support abilities. Adding some attack speed and ability power buffs to her with a combination of Reckoning and Righteous Fury can do some nice looking damage. She does feel quite squishy though.

I might go for another couple of bot matches before trying to compete at a PvP level.... even though I'd probably be 'okay' to jump in now (little nervous)

Stop being so nervous and just jump into the PvP. Some things you'll never learn just playing bots in practise games. The bots are retarded and never group up for team fights, and team fights are what ultimately win or lose games. Especially with playing kayle you'll need to play real games to practise using her ult on your squishy team mates at the right time to make a difference.

 

[Elcs]

So I gave it a go... played my first 'real' game

Looking at my stats compared to everyone elses... I have a general feeling that I did pretty crap.

However, my in-game feelings were that of 'I did some awesome damage, scared players away from areas and sacrificed myself accidently on certain occasions when my noobism got the better of me'.

I was mainly using the Reckoning/Righteous Fury combo to deal damage to Champions and Righteous Fury to clear our large gobs of minions/earn gold when possible.

 

[zebano]

So I'm bummed, my main gaming PC just died last night and right now I don't know if it's the MB or the processor but it doesn't even post (I know the PS is good). What does trundle cost? I watched his spotlight and he looked like a lot of fun (and very good in the tanky dps metagame).

 

[HumblePie]

So I'm bummed, my main gaming PC just died last night and right now I don't know if it's the MB or the processor but it doesn't even post (I know the PS is good). What does trundle cost? I watched his spotlight and he looked like a lot of fun (and very good in the tanky dps metagame).

That sucks about your system. As for trundle, he is a completely new cost category. He was 4800 IP if I remember correctly.

 

[ivan2]

elcs, i used a decent cookie cutter build for my kayle, rager blade + nashor's tooth. buy any other things u like, go for archangel staff or lichbane, or some defensive items like guardian angel or randuins for more cdr. your role is to hang back and slow people, speed buff your melee dps in the front line and bubble them up when they about to die. And don't stop wacking them with your extended range attacks (E if i remembered correctly), when the rager blade is charged up that thing hurts a lot more than it seems.

 

[crownjules]

I didn't play with/against any impressive Trundle's last night. A common complaint I hear is that his ult needs to be fixed because as it stands right now, you only get the full 50% leech for the last second of the ult (25% to start, then another 25% over the next 6 seconds). So in other words, the ult really isn't quite as powerful as it should be. They should change it so that the buildup time is 4 seconds and then you get the full 50% for the last 2 seconds, at least.

Humble - for Xin, have you ever considered getting Locket on him? I know you run into mana issues with him and wonder if that might address them for you. Plus it helps your team, makes you a little more beefy, and has some CDR to boot. Xin spams his abilities enough in combat for you to trigger the passive often. Just came to mind because it's a "pro" suggestion for Irelia and since they're similar, I wondered if it would work on Xin to good effect as well.

 

[Elcs]

elcs, i used a decent cookie cutter build for my kayle, rager blade + nashor's tooth. buy any other things u like, go for archangel staff or lichbane, or some defensive items like guardian angel or randuins for more cdr. your role is to hang back and slow people, speed buff your melee dps in the front line and bubble them up when they about to die. And don't stop wacking them with your extended range attacks (E if i remembered correctly), when the rager blade is charged up that thing hurts a lot more than it seems.

Thanks for the tips. Kinda the opposite to what I was doing

I was stacking mana early game then moving on for attack speed + ability power for the damage/ability boost.

I would mainly wipe out minions with the AoE ranged attack and also nuke lower health enemy champs with the single target damage skill we got plus the AoE ranged attack to lay on the hurt.

Right now, I seem to have a 600ms latency in my connection which crippled me in the last game so I'll wait until that's done until I try again with Kayle.

Are there any cheap and cheerful melee characters that have more of a champion hunter role? I've noticed with Kayle that I am not great with using her heal/speed buff and her ult. (plus I'm hopeless at using the other two spells we're given for free. I need to work on that and set my mouse up a little more)

 

[HumblePie]

I didn't play with/against any impressive Trundle's last night. A common complaint I hear is that his ult needs to be fixed because as it stands right now, you only get the full 50% leech for the last second of the ult (25% to start, then another 25% over the next 6 seconds). So in other words, the ult really isn't quite as powerful as it should be. They should change it so that the buildup time is 4 seconds and then you get the full 50% for the last 2 seconds, at least.

Humble - for Xin, have you ever considered getting Locket on him? I know you run into mana issues with him and wonder if that might address them for you. Plus it helps your team, makes you a little more beefy, and has some CDR to boot. Xin spams his abilities enough in combat for you to trigger the passive often. Just came to mind because it's a "pro" suggestion for Irelia and since they're similar, I wondered if it would work on Xin to good effect as well.

I sometimes go with nashtors tooth. But usually grabbing a blue buff is all I need. However, in the future I might just go for an inevator since they are cheap for a bit of mana after I complete boots, madreds, and have vamp scepter.

 

[Taejin]

Elcs,

You should try a hero other than Kayle..
Kayle isn't a very strong hero. While she has a great attack buff, she suffers in comparison to other carry heroes because her offensive spells lack the early/mid game punch other ranged DPS have.

Kayle is one of the scariest heroes super-late-game, simply because her invincibility coupled with her ranged damage boost makes her incredibly good at taking down targets, but unfortunately you rarely ever get that far. In all likelihood, the game will end before you can farm up 10k worth of items .

Also, you should probably not play too many practice games. It will only give you XP without giving you actual in-game experience. And who cares if you do bad? Getting mad at people for playing like utter shit should only be done if you're in ranked games .

 

[crownjules]

Don't hide in a bush as a team when you're facing Vlad, Gangplank, and Xin (who happens to be named HumblePie) and their ultimates in combination. Also a Trundle with his Pillar/Corruption helped a bunch. We melted 4 of their team (2 tanks) in about 5 seconds under our onslaught and caught the Kass trying to run. I had just bought my Mejai's on Vlad and jumped up 7 stacks in that one battle.

 

[Elcs]

Elcs,

You should try a hero other than Kayle..
Kayle isn't a very strong hero. While she has a great attack buff, she suffers in comparison to other carry heroes because her offensive spells lack the early/mid game punch other ranged DPS have.

Kayle is one of the scariest heroes super-late-game, simply because her invincibility coupled with her ranged damage boost makes her incredibly good at taking down targets, but unfortunately you rarely ever get that far. In all likelihood, the game will end before you can farm up 10k worth of items .

Also, you should probably not play too many practice games. It will only give you XP without giving you actual in-game experience. And who cares if you do bad? Getting mad at people for playing like utter shit should only be done if you're in ranked games .

Yeah, any time we have had a longer game I have started to really pack a punch to many heroes and provide improved support but until then it's a bit of a struggle.

I've stopped with the practice games. I've had 4 real games (or was that 3?) and I've only lost 1 so far. Kayle is quite an awkward hero to use for a 'first' hero I guess and a struggle to do anything 1v1.

Was yelled at someone for not backing him up when I had stopped pushing forward to get the support from the 2 additional players behind us. He plowed straight past me and into their 4 heroes whilst I was waiting for him and the two backup. He was the noob in that instance.

What hero do you recommend I save for to unlock?

 

[alkemyst]

Don't hide in a bush as a team when you're facing Vlad, Gangplank, and Xin (who happens to be named HumblePie) and their ultimates in combination. Also a Trundle with his Pillar/Corruption helped a bunch. We melted 4 of their team (2 tanks) in about 5 seconds under our onslaught and caught the Kass trying to run. I had just bought my Mejai's on Vlad and jumped up 7 stacks in that one battle.

i have been seeing a lot more gangplanks lately.

A lot have been buying trundle and kass.

 

[LurkerPrime]

What hero do you recommend I save for to unlock?

I would still recommend you try out a bunch of heroes before you start going off and buying any. Out of the free bunch this week, the ones worth trying are: Ashe, Cho, Ryze, Sona and Veigar, and maybe Irelia (haven't played her or against that many good ones, so dunno). I would also say Shaco, but he excels at jungling + ganking, but to be effective he really needs masteries + runes (things you don't have alot of at your lvl) to be effective. So might want to just wait till later to try him.

Once you've found a few heroes you like to play you can always buy one of the hero bundles for $25(two to choose from with like 20 heroes in each one), that way you'll be able to save your IP to fill out at least 1 tier 3 rune page at lvl 20.

The heroes that I own are Taric, WarWick, Olaf, Sona, Ashe, Poppy and lux (worst purchase ever). I'll probably be buying a hero pack soon, since I've been trying to fill out some other rune page combos and there are some other heroes I would like to own.

depending on the types of characters you play, here are some suggestions of the better ones to look for in each catagory. This is my opinion, buts its based on about 400 games played and which characters I've seen consistantly do well and I don't grimace when I see someone pick.

Tanks:
Amumu (no taunt, but with his ult, who needs taunt)
Rammus
Galio
Shen

Tankish: (no taunt, but lots of HP usually if built that way and hard to kill)
Mordekaiser
Dr. Mundo
Garen
Sion (can also be AP)

Support:
Sona
Taric

ranged dps:
Miss Fortune
Kog Maw
Twitch
Teemo (the anti tryndamere, don't build him AP for the love of god)
Ashe (rare that you see a good one, but if played right can be awesome)

Melee:
Olaf
Xin
Pantheon
Jax
Warwick
Shaco
Tryndamere

Mages:
Vladimir (usually played AP, so technically mage like with shittons of hp)
Malzahar
Morgana
Kennen (guess he's played AP, annoying as shit though, hard to kill since he always runs with his abilities and does good dps)
Karthus
Kassadin
Aniva
Veigar (his ult is the anti mage, seen plenty of awesome and horrible veigars though)
Ryze

Junglers:
go back about 50 or so posts and read the one on junglers.

I'm sure i'm going to get some shit for leaving off someones favorite character. (I put xin and aniva on there, so I'm safe from the two more active posters at least). By the way a Crowd Control (stuns, roots, taunts) heavy team will almost always have an advantage over a team lacking CC. So be more of a team player and pick a character with a stun.

 

[nanobreath]

What hero do you recommend I save for to unlock?

Really cannot stress what lurker said enough. Play the free heroes till you find the ones YOU like. Save your IP for runes at this point, and maybe your favorite 1 or 2 champs if you don't wanna buy riot points. But there is no way to know your favorite champs until you have really played them all or at least a large majority.

Also as mentioned earlier in the thread, you don't really understand how to beat a champion until you have played as that champion and know how their abilities work. So, for play them all! Your time won't be wasted.

 

[Taejin]

Yeah, any time we have had a longer game I have started to really pack a punch to many heroes and provide improved support but until then it's a bit of a struggle.

I've stopped with the practice games. I've had 4 real games (or was that 3?) and I've only lost 1 so far. Kayle is quite an awkward hero to use for a 'first' hero I guess and a struggle to do anything 1v1.

Was yelled at someone for not backing him up when I had stopped pushing forward to get the support from the 2 additional players behind us. He plowed straight past me and into their 4 heroes whilst I was waiting for him and the two backup. He was the noob in that instance.

What hero do you recommend I save for to unlock?

Some of the previous posters have given some good recommendations, but I need to add in a caveat. Specifically, the nature of the game is substantially changed by your masteries and runesets. Although the difference does seem rather inconsequential at face value, the ways you can tweak your character makes a really big difference to your gameplay. For example, playing a caster hero with mana regen/flat AP/magic pen runes will feel very different than when you play them without any such benefits. Just wanted to warn you that your perspective of certain portions of the game, such as champion efficacy/viability may change over time due to this. I've had experiences where I thought 'oh this champion isnt that great', only to be surprised later at how much better the champion is now that I have runes and full masteries at level 30.

 

[Chiropteran]

Ashe (rare that you see a good one, but if played right can be awesome)

I just want to say something. Not picking on you, and not saying you are wrong, but there is another factor a lot of people ignore which is very important.

In a normal blind-pick game, team composition is a huge factor. Taking Ashe as an example, the exact same player playing Ashe could do very well in one game vs some soft casters or melee without strong initiation skills. Take that same player playing Ashe against a team full of champions like Akali, Singed, WW, Xin, etc and he goes from being an apparently awesome player to a 2-9 feeder.

So, it might not just be that good Ashe players are rare. It may be that the meta game currently doesn't favor Ashe, but occasionally they do get the perfect opposing team that just can't handle an Ashe.

Ashe is just an example. There are several champions that work the same way- how well they do depends a lot more on the opposing team than anything else. And even your own team is an important factor, but not as random and uncontrollable since you can plan around it while selecting your champion.

 

[ivan2]

What hero do you recommend I save for to unlock?

depends on your play style, would you like a tank, a melee DPS, range DPS, a mage or something in between?

personally i would suggest you to consider kogmog when he's free. he can either be a range dps or a AP nuker. face melting with minimal skill.

 

[nanobreath]

In a normal blind-pick game, team composition is a huge factor. Taking Ashe as an example, the exact same player playing Ashe could do very well in one game vs some soft casters or melee without strong initiation skills. Take that same player playing Ashe against a team full of champions like Akali, Singed, WW, Xin, etc and he goes from being an apparently awesome player to a 2-9 feeder.

That is a really good point, and something a new player wouldn't understand and instantly think the ash was just a crappy champ. I had this exact situation happen to me last night. Picked up ashe in a normal game simply because my team was light on carries, and didn't have any ranged. Turned out the other team had kennen, tryn, warwick, and akali. I got the ever livin daylights pummeled out of me. We actually won the game, but I went something like 3/9/16. By level 6, I would be hugging my damn tower at full HP, and would still die. Tryn + kennen could kill me so quick my tower didn't help at all. Later I was at all the team fights as evidenced by my assists, but would always be focused down first.

 

[Elcs]

You guys are like buses. Wait for what feels like ages and then loads come along at once

Thanks for the advice. Some things I can readily identify with. As soon as my connection settles down then I'll be trying out a few of the suggestions. Already noted them on my pad for quick reference.

 

[crownjules]

Teemo (the anti tryndamere, don't build him AP for the love of god)

AP Teemo is probably more viable than AD. AD is just an auto-attack champ with a blind and an annoying trap. AP Teemo is still an auto-attack champ via Poison, which adds it's first tick of damage immediately on hit. This was the big change that made AP Teemo viable once again. At max rank with some AP, it's bascially an extra 70 damage on top of your attack (and then it ticks 4 more times). Plus your blind becomes a decent nuke and your mushrooms are pretty vicious.

Malady, Nashor's, and Zring for your core items.

 

[LurkerPrime]

I just want to say something. Not picking on you, and not saying you are wrong, but there is another factor a lot of people ignore which is very important.

In a normal blind-pick game, team composition is a huge factor. Taking Ashe as an example, the exact same player playing Ashe could do very well in one game vs some soft casters or melee without strong initiation skills. Take that same player playing Ashe against a team full of champions like Akali, Singed, WW, Xin, etc and he goes from being an apparently awesome player to a 2-9 feeder.

So, it might not just be that good Ashe players are rare. It may be that the meta game currently doesn't favor Ashe, but occasionally they do get the perfect opposing team that just can't handle an Ashe.

Ashe is just an example. There are several champions that work the same way- how well they do depends a lot more on the opposing team than anything else. And even your own team is an important factor, but not as random and uncontrollable since you can plan around it while selecting your champion.

This is true for alot of characters. When I'm playing Olaf and I see an enemy team with everyone having exhaust, I know its practically a lost cause, especially if that team has heavy CC also. I might be lucky to break even on kills-deaths. Nothing makes me happier than no one having exhaust on the other team and no jungler. Its almost as easy as playing the computer in that case.

Another point of advice that I haven't seen mention here for you Elcs is learn to ping the map or use it to mark gank targets when your ally is coming in from the jungle. Other times to use it are when you need help defending a turret, or if you get a quick peek of an enemy looking to go gank one of your lanes (ping 2-3 times up to the lane from where you spotted them)to alert your allies in the lane that may not have been looking at the mini map. My allies pinging the map have saved me many times from getting ganked and have greatly assisted in ganks where everyone knows who to focus first.

 

[HumblePie]

LOL Lurkerprime at your comment I do play a lot of xin, but he's my favorite for a reason as I just think he has a lot of versatility and balance to him. He works well for any team and just takes switching a few items in his build to counter most heroes.

Another hero not mentioned earlier is Gragas. Who is free this week. I always thought he was good, but man that guy is way more OP than I previously thought before. I went mid against him as Xin and we were doing a lot of simultaneous deaths. And neither one of us were being stupid. He just puts out ridiculous damage at low levels with that barrel of his. It dishes out a ton of damage, it's AoE, and it takes very little mana. He has a teleport on demand dash to initiate or escape (and go through walls), a low cooldown self heal, and a really nasty ultimate. He's also technically considered a tank which means his base stats make him hard to kill even without any tank items (like Garen). I recommend people try him out now while he's free.

Personally, I got to finally try out Sona last night. My friend's daughter plays her often and she does alright with the char from what I've seen. Still I wanted to give the char a go. I'm not usually big on playing support chars in this game though. Why? Well the reason is because I have to rely more so on my team mates as support char to know what they are doing to win. Still, I thought I'd give it a go. Basically as long as I'm on a team with people that aren't complete dipshits, a well played Sona will turn even average players in team fights into gods! After several games last night, I need to show my friends daughter a bit how to play her, but not sure she'll pick up on everything though. Still have to try. For those wondering around here as to what I did with Sona, here it is.

First, off my runes. I have a caster dedicated rune page done as the following:

Marks - Magic Penetration
Seals - Magic Regen/5 sec per level (+0.1 regen per level)
Glyphs - flat cooldown reduction
Quints - Health

For my masteries I went with:
Assault (9): 3 in ability power, 1 in crit chance, 4 in cdr, 1 in magic pen
Defense (13): 3 in magic resistance, 3 in armor, 4 in dodge, 1 in nimbleness, 1 in hardness, 1 in scars of veteran
Utility (8): 3 in regen, 1 in ghost, 4 in experience gain

I take Clarity and Ghost for summoner spells.

I built her items in the following order.
First I picked up mana manipulator. It gives a nice 7.2/5 sec mana regen to Sona and all allies around her. It costs 475 to make so there is no more money left over for anything else at the start. Next I buy a catalyst and use that to complete an Innervating Locket. Then I buy tier 1 boots. Then I buy another catalyst and use that to complete a rod of ages. Now I complete my tier 2 boots as either merc treads or sorc boots or swift boots (all three work well for Sona). Then I got for an Arch Angels Staff and then Zhonya's ring if the game has managed to go on that long. I didn't ever get to complete Zhonya's Ring let another anything else after that or I would have gone for another Arch Angel staff.

For skills I went in this order:
Q, W, E, W, W, R, E, W
I prioritized my Healing ability (W) first. I took my Ult every level it was available (6, 11, 16) and only built up my Q last. Cause face it, I'm there for support not damage.

With the Rod of Ages, Arch Angel Staff, and Innervating Locket I had just over 3K hp's at level 18, 3600+ mana, 300+ AP, and was damn impossible to kill. If I pop Ghost and Sona's speed ability I was zooming around at 600+ speed. If the other team tried to focus me, I was healing for about 500 a pop + my massive aura regen and moving really fast so I was hard to catch. Which means my team was able to beat down upon anyone stupid enough to try to come after me. Let alone Sona can still stun for a getaway if needed.


Basically I was playing heal and buff bot for my team while being a not so squishie target. My damage output was okay, if nothing nearing my Xin build, but I made everyone else on my team deal more damage, regen health and mana, run faster, attack faster, and have more armor/MR. I basically have unlimited health and mana with this build. What I lack for in damage output in a team fight, I more than make up for in other ways.

Sona's glaring weakness is how squishie she is at low levels though and her need for mana to do anything. Low levels the mana drain is bad. Also, she doesn't farm well. She's actually pretty bad at farming. Sona must rely on assists for gold from her teammates. Which means in order for Sona to do really well in a game, the rest of the team can't be complete idiots. If they aren't Sona can make a good team into an impossible to beat team. However, if the team is complete idiots, then Sona isn't going to be able to do anything on her own. Which is another reason I typically play Xin, cause if I can get Xin built properly for the late game, Xin CAN win games by himself just about. Sona will never be able to. Still if you have some friends to group with that you know are at least decent players and you like playing support, you can't go wrong with a Sona built like mine.

Some other tips for playing Sona. Don't be afraid to use your abilities as often as you can. Healing + Speed for all teammates nearby is crazy good. Learn when to use that Ult of hers. Never for one second think you can solo ANY enemy hero that is at full life. Do not chase. Do not initiate the fights. Learn to move around during team fights between team mates to make sure everyone is getting healed and receiving buffs if at all possible.