Reign of Gaming

I guess he's in tier 2 because AP Yi requires team coordination for him to do his stuff. He needs to be able to pick up a kill before he's focused and dropped by the enemy team. Ideally, an enemy will get low and he'll Alpha Strike in to get that first wave of AS on everyone, killing one. Then with Highlander it's refreshed and so on. Many Solo Queuers have trouble putting their faith with strangers so AP Yi sometimes can't get those opportunities.

Awesome, I was just thinking about when this would be updated. I'm surprised by how much some champions have been shifted from tier to tier. Hope you'll explain everything in a good AMA.

As a teenage guy in puberty, I personally find Vi fine as a female. 

I just feel Riot kind of overdid her obsession with punching. This is just my honest opinion, but I was expecting quotes of a normal tomboy instead of this violence-ridden punk-gone-good (don't get me wrong; I love her lore and background). I have no idea why, but it makes me cringe when I hear "Punch first, ask questions while punching." It just sounds so unsatisfying in comparison with her appearance and age; it'd be something you'd expect from a teenage guy. Maybe that's where the OP was headed, but took a wrong turn. A lot of her quotes feel like they're just a conglomeration of completely different characters. One third seems like a normal tomboyish girl, one third pertains to a bad cop, and the last third a punch-obsessive barbaric comedian. 

This will probably be an echo of half the trolls, half the experienced players, and all the Malzahar-hating players in League of Legends, but here goes:

Quick Silver Sash: Any champion who can be countered by just one item needs a rework, in my honest opinion. This will gather me a lot of hate, but I firmly believe that such an AP combo, regardless of how much damage it does after it finishes, is rather useless if it gets cut off so easily.

Sure, he's a lane monster and a scary roamer, but that's it. Besides, even if you lose the lane, you'll end up winning the teamfights. Malzahar's lack of instant burst damage and mobility easily allow him to be picked off. An ultimate that roots yourself in place isn't exactly what AP Carries need. Especially when you have a better ultimate on a certain crystal scorpion somewhere in the woods...

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@AdumbroDeus (Sorry, unfamiliar with the formatting. Thanks for the heads up about the weird message board arrangements) 

Very true. Ryze lacks the ganking mobility and global presence (like you said) that champions like Katarina, Ahri, and Karthus exercise and are often key assets to winning games. However, that Assassin/Ganking role can also be fulfilled by a number of Junglers, since that's their main role anyways. Sure, Map Awareness and Wards won't always stop these ganks, but can often decrease the threat of not presented with a good opportunity. I still believe Ryze's greatest asset is his ability to deal damage with lots of survivability. His instant click-snare can hand him his escape from many ganks. Later in the game, the roles of many Bruisers and Assassins are to quickly dispose of the enemy carries. However, Ryze's tankiness make this especially difficult considering his kit and design (constant damage, spellvamp, AoE) making his role in teamfights more secured.

You can believe what you wish, but map awareness doesn't prevent the enemy team from orchestrating 4 man dives on bot where you'll die if you're there, or you're lose a ton of a farm/xp, probably your tower as well. 

Map awareness doesn't prevent the enemy from counterjungling you, and if your jungler runs into the enemy jungler, they just die because since your mid is pushed in and therefore their mid can respond a lot faster.

Map awareness doesn't prevent 3 man ganks on top which which simply can't stay ahead/even and ward every possible gank route.

Map awareness doesn't prevent the enemy team from forcing a wide variety of objectives because ryze will be extremely pushed in and unable to respond in a timely fashion, it's too important that midlane has the freedom to respond to these sorts of things, so choosing ryze means you're essentially down a player laning phase to midgame.

Midgame is way too important to be down anyone because that's when most games are decided, especially not the character that is normally strongest midgame, the ap carry.

This formatting is really killing me. Sorry for the really late reply; for some reason I stopped getting email notices about replies.

To avoid just writing a wall of text, I'll address each of your points as bullet statements, if that's fine with you:
-Yes, we are all free to believe what we wish. After this conversation, you may continue to believe Ryze is a weak pick for AP Mid while I believe he is strong, and we will continue on our separate trains of thought.
-Three and four man dives are only orchestrated when a good set of conditions are met. Just to name a few, the AP Mid must be in a position to roam (lane is pushed), has to be deep enough into the game where someone can tank the tower for more than a few seconds, well coordinated, etc etc. You're also forgetting that if the dive fails or takes too long to set up, those participating in it will also lose a decent size of farm and experience. I'm sure you've seen your fair shares of failed dives and plays in your time as a LoL player.
-Every decent jungler knows how to ward their important buffs, and every decent laner knows how to ward their rivers. In fact, you overlook that having 3-4 players in one area leaves much of the rest of the map up to being counterjungled; we're talking about experienced players who know how to capitalize regardless of loss or rebound. You suddenly see three enemies diving at top? Well, we can't get there in time so let's take dragon.
-In addition, proper wards allow players to see enemies incoming. The moment someone reaches Dragon or Tribush, the teammates should already be on their way to help out or clean up. Wary play and caution have a nice effect on stalling for reinforcement to arrive for a counter-gank, unless the enemy team is comprised of tanky Bruisers. 
-What makes you think Ryze will be extremely pushed in and lack the ability to roam? I think it'd be best if we were to define "mobility" again before we continue this debate.

@AdumbroDeus (Sorry, unfamiliar with the formatting. Thanks for the heads up about the weird message board arrangements) 

Very true. Ryze lacks the ganking mobility and global presence (like you said) that champions like Katarina, Ahri, and Karthus exercise and are often key assets to winning games. However, that Assassin/Ganking role can also be fulfilled by a number of Junglers, since that's their main role anyways. Sure, Map Awareness and Wards won't always stop these ganks, but can often decrease the threat of not presented with a good opportunity. I still believe Ryze's greatest asset is his ability to deal damage with lots of survivability. His instant click-snare can hand him his escape from many ganks. Later in the game, the roles of many Bruisers and Assassins are to quickly dispose of the enemy carries. However, Ryze's tankiness make this especially difficult considering his kit and design (constant damage, spellvamp, AoE) making his role in teamfights more secured.

Most champions are specialized at what they do; there is no one-size-fits-all champion. My advice would be to master 2 champions for each of the 5 roles. Well, not really master, but at least play as well as the average Joe. Also, having a role that you excel at is extremely important, in the case where you end up as Captain or second pick. Anyone from tier 3 and up is a good pick, imo, because most of them are based on player skill. 

Not necessarily. Ryze's greatest strength is being able to output the needed damage of an AP Carry while remaining tanky. Unlike champions such as Leblanc who can potentially eliminate a squishy enemy very quickly, she has to just sit around while her cooldowns come off. Ryze has the ability to continually output damage and also has a huge AoE buff (Desperate Power). Mobile champions such as Ahri (while only being very mobile for a short time) are generally counters to much of the skill-shot champions. Ryze can snare anyone who gets near him (also serves as a counter/protection to Bruisers and Assassins). Sure, he lack the hard CC needed to prevent someone like Kat from getting off a large chunk of her damage from her ultimate, but his match ups against many other Mages are quite positive. 

Not really my place to say, but probably quite a lot. I'd assume it's for every 'competent player' meaning they know counters, strengths, and playstyles for each champion. For example, Tryndamere is relatively unstoppable for "bad players" because they don't know how to shut him down. However, the competent players know how to buy Thornmail, get DoTs on him, CC, ambush, etc so many things that really make or break a game. Player's abilities aren't rated in this, but Elementz mentioned in his videos there are champions that certain players really excel at and just stomp the common player. 

Just to answer the first parts of your question. Skarner has a very high clear timing. Elementz mentioned in his video that the Ganking Junglers are now getting pushed out of the meta by Invasive Junglers. Creeps will always be there, but gankable lanes are either hit or miss for the exp. Skarner not only has the ability to remove an enemy carry out of action for 2 seconds, but can also set him/her into the middle of his team to be eaten alive. Amumu may have a great ultimate as well, but his invasion is subpar to the top junglers right now.