Reign of Gaming

What can we do with all the new Turret-Based Stuff?

Occasionally there are strats built around turret sieging. Promote was taken away from us, but now we have Banner of Command. But Banner of Command is not the only tool that is new to Season 3 that accomplishes Promote’s purpose, so I'm going to review them all, then I’m going to reveal a a hypothetical team composition on this strat.

Summoner Spells

Barrier: this great new addition lets you dive turrets. It is also more useful when you’re doing the heal-bait thing that it was used for in Season 2, pre-nerf, so it lets you deal with pesky bursters, who are the biggest counter to siege champs and their sustain antics.

Heal: heal’s mastery bonus is more health and it now heals everyone else for the same amount, allowing for more turret-aggro trading and better sieging, along with letting the support use it, who is in the best position for it in the first place

Masteries

Mastermind: all summoner spells have a 10% CDR rate and utility can be used by all 5 roles, easily. Revive even gets the 10% off, which is 54 seconds.

Artificer: all the actives we’re about to discuss, including that of Banner of Command and Ohmwrecker, go down by 15%.

So, 180 goes to 153, 120 goes to 102, and 60 goes to 51. That’s more waves you can use this stuff on.

Safeguard: not for everyone, but if you’re going to be taking a lot of turret aggro, this is going to add up, just for one point. Normally not a mastery I’d take, but if you know what kind of game you’re going to play already and that game is crazy-tower pushing and diving, well…yeah.

Items

Sightstone/Ruby Sightstone: needs to be noted that it is a double-edged sword. If you have more of these on your team you can maneuver more safely, but the other team will now be better able to know what turret you plan on striking.

Ohmwrecker: I’ve dissed this item a lot and I’m not going to talk more on that, but I will point out that the turret damage gets reset when this item is activate. Turrets progressively deal more and more damage the more hits you take from them, and this item resets that. There is also (wisely) a cooldown on how often you can use it on a single turret, though you can always just go to another one if you wish.

Boot Upgrades: Alacrity is 15 more at all times, but there are some that are friendlier to pushing. Distortion reduces TP, Ghost, and Flash. With Mastermind, teleport can now be every 3.5 minutes instead of every five minutes. Captain lets you speed your team AND the minions along. Right now the improved minion speed seems crazy and rather untested, and I wonder just how powerful it is capable of being, especially when your team organizes around it.

Homeguard lets you revive and comeback over and over again. With this item, you get past the inhib within a few seconds, and you don’t have to wait to heal. As I’ve mentioned, I wonder just how difficult it would be for a non-Homeguard team to defend and attack against an all Homeguard team. Have one person take Distortion, one person take Captain, and the rest take Homeguard, perhaps?

Shard of True Ice: Soul Shroud’s removal was sudden and not announced as far ahead as Force of Nature’s or Heart of Gold’s. I wonder if it’s because it would be too good to stack with Aegis (which now has hp/5) and Banner of Command and the rest of this stuff? At any rate, this item let’s you give everyone 30 more mana per wave while still have a gp/10 effect, and the cooldown is only 51/60 seconds for getaways if your team makes a mistake. Or, to assist with dives.

Mikael’s Crucible: a real reason for a support to build Chalice now, for if Phil Stone/Shurelya’s isn’t enough. From a mana/spam standpoint, this is much stronger than any other support mana item, with Athene’s being the only rival (and even that doesn’t have 300 mana on top of it). The activate means you can also can save a teammate who got cc’d under the tower, and makes the holder better vs. magic burst.

Eleisa’s Miracle: More revives! More Heals! More…Clairvoyance! If someone gets Revive, you could grab this and at late late game have the bonus and have 6 items that provide offense/defense stats for fights. Even amongst all these items I’d say this isn’t the best to get, though if you know it’s long you could grab Phil Stone early, decide not to get Shurelya’s, but instead get this at level 14 or 15. Just remember the cutoff date for this thing.

Banner of Command: the biggie. This item has woeful stats compared to Zhonya’s or Rod of Ages or anything at else, but for this strat it’s great. Armor, AP, hp/5 are all great siege stats, and then there’s the passive and active. Also note the HP/5 is not unique compared to Aegis/Bulwark, which you will also need for sieging. With this item you can have all your old summoner’s combined with the promote, and even get a two or three of them for constant assault. The other crazy thing about this item is that with Indomitable gone, the minion damage gets to be a lot if someone decides to attack you while you have this thing on. AOE spells will own your minions, though.

Note that the stats work for pets, just as Aegis/Bulwark does. Who has pets that qualify as minions? Elise, Annie, Malzahar, Yorick, Heimerdinger.

Speaking of Heimy…

Heimerdinger has an HP/5 passive that also works on minions and his own towers. Bulwark and Banner work on his turrets. Anyone can teleport to his turrets. He can use Shard on his turrets when his ult is down, and he can use a turret to help kill a turret (heh) while Ohmwrecker is active.

 Team Comp Suggestions

Singed, Malzahar, Nautilus, Corki, Heimerdinger (bott)

In this situation, send Heimerdinger bott as a roaming support. Corki will be behind in CS, but he can still do burst in early and mid-game. During siege mode, he can grab more of the minions while people save spells. Singed buys an Ohmwrecker, Nautilus buys a Bulwark, Malzahar gets a Void Staff, Heimer gets Distortion boots upgrade and Teleport. At least two people get Banner of Command and a Sightstone. Nautilus or Singed get Captain boots. Fling into Malz ults or Heim turrets, with Corki and Naut also waiting. If they don’t let you, kill a turret.

Push with zest.

Elise (top), Rammus (jungle), Heimerdinger (mid), Janna, Caitlyn/Trist

Elise kills towers very quickly if she’s allowed free access with her spiders and W activated. They appear quickly, too, and benefit from Banner. Rammus’ ult damages towers nicely, and fits well into siege comps. Heimer is still Heimer, Janna gives needed movespeed and helps for if Elise gets into a jam (she has no escape), or if the long-ranged Trist or Cait gets into a jam. Cait has the range and traps. Trist has the range and knockback. This comp pushes harder but doesn’t welcome being jumped on as much. Elise still has a stun, Rammus his taunt, and Heimer his turrets, but the different bott combo tries to make up for what the team before has.

Rammus should get Bulwark, Elise, Heimer, or Janna should get Banners, Janna should get homeguard. Elise/Rammus should try to get top or mid down early.

Pushing the Night Away

There are other comps and champions for which this could work also, yeah? Instead of Elise, you can get spam-happy champs like Jayce to poke from inside the team and then push them away if they get in, adding some hit-and-run cheese. But let me be clear: it is indeed cheese and  it requires coordination. It isn’t going to be a staple!

But it might work, and it sure looks like fun.

If anyone ever does do this, share stories and/or files, and as always, thanks for reading!

Best,

Old Man Eyebrows

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