Reign of Gaming

B3hr's tip to learn how one becomes humble: learn to play to support. You are now:

1. Pretty much the only person that wards on your team because, let's face it, no one wards like ever other than a dedicated support.

2. Forced to learn gold efficiency, especially since you buy wards (aka sightstone is your friend).

3. Learning that assists are, in fact, good. Not sure why people think otherwise, assists meant someone on the team got a kill, you're getting free gold for making it happen.

The above will make anyone a good player and is quite a humbling experience. Also, buy a damn ward already.

Ok, so, regarding Aatrox...

It's officially confirmed that he was in fact the person mentioned in Tryn's lore. Well, we all knew it, but now it is confirmed for realz.

Also, Riot has been hinting that Jax might know Aatrox too. Which would be awesome, because I could imagine the crazy fights that these two would've had in the past, though my money is still on the grandmaster.

Quote from Folfire »

For YoloQ: Grab the lanterns!

As Thresh, people better be grabbing that lantern I throw, rofl waffles.

On another note, Wriggles is getting buffed considerably in the future, or at least Madreds is getting hit pretty hard by the nerf stick so you're gonna probably want to build Wriggles again coming up soon (should the patch notes regarding Wriggles stay the same, ofc).

Riven is an extremely powerful counter to Diana. First off, Diana sucks at dueling, even though her shield and passive would try to suggest otherwise. Secondly, Riven does batshit amounts of damage from the get-go, Diana needs levels. Last of all, Riven turns level 6 and her ult melts people's faces off. Diana is more burst damage early to mid game, and it doesn't help that Riven's combos involve a shield and two different forms of hard cc (even if they seem minor, overall the abilities do buy Riven some time in a duel), meaning she can lock down Diana and make life painful.

Against Zed, troll his ult with Kayle's ult. AP Kayle might be making another grand stand considering the possible changes to Nashor's Tooth coming up here soon.

A couple of things I've discovered regarding Udyr:

TriForce is broken awesome on him. I mean, it always has been a great item for Udyr considering he uses every single stat and easily procs the passive. Works on both Tiger and Phoenix Udyr.

F-Fist is a trap. Ok, yes, you do an awesome aoe slow and you get some nice stats compared to building that sheen into TriForce. Guess what? You still have to catch the person who's kiting you to make that happen, and guess what TriForce gives you? Extra MS, 'nuff said. TriForce is also more useful late game.

Also, looking forward to the changes towards Nashor's Tooth and Wits End, looks like Phoenix Udyr might finally get the edge it needs to be able to compete with Tiger Udyr overall should the changes stay relatively the same as now.

What really is gonna interest me is how Shyvana will turn out in the future. Looks like they're still going to make her a burn the lane or jungle down into ground as fast as possible character while retaining her control aspects while jungling, but what changes do they have in store for her? Will the AP ratios stay? Not to mention that, with the potential Wits End buff coming up, if it remained the way that it does now, that's gonna be one hell of an AS/defensive item for her build.

Can't wait for this next patch, just hoping nothing changes too much from it, I like what I see so far.

Janna has been getting a slew of buffs lately, although what worries me is that I constantly see supports picking her and calling her OP due to her win ratio rather than looking at what she provides to a team.

Even though Janna has a kit that would suggest she works for aoe comps (Q and ult), she's ironically an anti-aoe comp pick. Her ult kicks away all enemies from her position, which like Xin, is used to separate the enemy team away from each other, which allows a bruiser or assassain to go and rip the shit out of a badly-positioned enemy carry. She's also a great counter to aoe champs like the most famous example, Kennen, as well as others. The catch is that she's also horrible on an aoe comp, because her ult forces the prey away from each other, making aoe attacks weaker against an enemy team. She simply doesn't have to use her ult, true, but that's like taking a gun to a fight but only half the ammunition can actually be used, simply put, you're gimping yourself and your kit by not being able to use it under circumstances.

TL:DR Janna is a great pick, tricky to use in lower elo, but definitely a strong pick for support nowadays. Just remember team comp, she's good at countering aoe comps but horrible when being paired with an aoe comp. Janna's favorite comps are ones that feature assassains or people who can quickly jump out-of-position victims.

Still, you have more reason to build it than before considering the state that Madreds is in currently on these notes. Also, more AD, Armor, and Lifesteal is always a good thing, gives people more reason to build this item again in lane, not to mention the free ward.

....and did I mention that lifesteal in this current meta is even more valuable compared to S2? In short, you're paying more for more stats, but that's like choosing between an economic price item and a more premium item. Most people had little reason to upgrade past the madreds, now they do. And guess what? It gives more stats and is more useful late game, plus the free ward in the end run helps pay off in gold efficiency. Laners have more reasons to build this item again. Madreds junglers have to buy wriggles now and it doesn't feel so wasteful compared to before. It's just a more expensive item, but then again, you get what you pay for, in this case, better stats.

Quote from Elmanbeastio »

Quote from KesslerCOIL »

It's a decent buy on Quinn, you still need to buy PD though since she doesnt have very high attack speed without items.

Im a little confused as to why quinn needs attack speed. This is a question thats been bugging me for a while, but she doesnt seem to benefit from attack speed at all.

She has AD rations on passive, Q, E, and R. Nothing in her kit asks you to attack faster(like vayne silver bolts or mf stacking AA damage).

I only like PD because the anti unit collission and MS lets you pursue opponents much better, mostly during ultimate.

I build quinn with IE/LW/BT/BT. Her ultimate has a 100% ad ratio on its high end. If you use BORK, you can ignite EQ BORK autos, R, 1-2 autos after ultimate falls off if u still need.

I know attack speed can have built in synergy with final item builds(IE PD for example) and adds more DPS  but I dont know that Quinns kit needs it.

And Ive seen MF's stack BT's too so I dont feel its even a new idea. Its just right for quinn.

Some of the AS items do have some unique synchro with her kit, although it's mainly due to these reasons and not the AS itself sadly. We all know about TriForce, it's basically a key item on her and some would argue it's a item you can rush early on if the opponent doesn't stack health and you're ahead. BotRK is, well, BotRK, that active is just nasty and counters the meta perfectly. An unusual but still considerably viable third option is SS, this helps with pushing power and it does give some gold efficiency due to the avarice blade. One strategy I've seen some high elo players do is rushing SS early on when they're up against an opponent who can push lanes incredibly well. SS gives even more kiting ability for Quinn alongside her duelist kit, and while you are sacrificing damage early on, the ability to counterpush lanes should never be underestimated. Plus, shocking your opponent for decent damgae early on from a distance is always a considerable advantage in my books (not to mention that shock can sometimes crit too).

Hot damn, this patch, if everything were to come true exactly as the current point...

Wriggles gets buffed (finally), jungle changes (TY RIOT!!!), Shyvanna changes, Karma buff (finally got that QoL buff on her W), Wits End buff (gonna miss Malady, but it'll live on in Nashors and Wits End), the list goes on.

And holy shit a doran ring start comes complete with two pots (or a ward if you're feeling like you got swag) or a doran shield with 1 pot. I was always hoping that these items would get a QoL buff so that it felt safer to start with them, but I wasn't expecting this so early.

Man, I cannot wait for this patch, just hoping that at least Shyvanna's changes make it through this time.