Reign of Gaming

I think that's probably what they're intending with this, and it's just poorly worded. Still fails to solve any of LeBlanc's problems though.

Wow. If this goes live... lotta champions destroyed. Did LeBlanc need a nerf or something? Because that change is just brutal.

Yeah, I figure if your teammates aren't following up on a Maokai gank, the problem is not Maokai in those situations.

He's like a less punchy Vi. If you're facing up against a team with high AoE damage, and your team is already pretty damage-heavy, why is Vi a better choice in that situation than Maokai?

That's a quirk of solo queue though, not a judgement on the champ himself. Self sufficient junglers will always be more reliable when you can't necessarily rely on teammates. My point is that "deals tons of damage" is not the last word in what makes a jungler good.

^ Maokai actually has decent damage, it's just mostly AoE and on longish cooldowns. It's not that he can't deal damage, but he doesn't deal much damage with AAs and he doesn't have single-target damage on short cooldown. Most duelists have one or the other. He's also not great at escaping.

So yeah, he's not the best duelist. But why would you pick him for that? His clears are fast, his utility is great and his ganking is godlike. That's why you pick Maokai. If you've got (say) a Kat or Akali mid and you need CC, then hell yeah pick Maokai. He's an incredibly disruptive force if your team needs a support tank in the jungle. If your point is "support tanks are bad because no damage" then I have to disagree - CC and utility are still incredibly powerful.

Really don't understand the logic behind the new Gemcraft. Support Taric doesn't build mana, it doesnt synergize with his kit at all... Just, what?

So you'll get people trying out bruiser Taric, realising it's still no good, and then gong back to ignoring Gemcraft. Great.

To me, most of the super-buff guys are able to balance conventional attractiveness with the intimidation factor. There's nothing wrong with classic Olaf's looks, so I'm more likely to believe that pentakill Olaf's art simply fails to communicate that attractiveness. I know some people, despite that, are still attracted to him. Can you explain why straight male appeal, by necessity, has to preclude non-straight-male appeal?

To me, the league male humans go from "clearly physically fit" to "incredibly ripped". Gragas, Zil and maybe Shaco are exceptions, obviously, but it's not a plethora of variety. I don't think females are entirely monochrome either. The body types of say, Irelia and MF are very different. We can put them into mother/sister/slut categories, but I'm sure the guys would fit into dad/brother/boyfriend categories, given enough thought.

I believe that when Riot makes a not fully-human champion, they see "female" as a trait they can add, like "tall" or "Russian". If a monster champion is female, logically they will add a visual indication of it, which is unfortunately almost always breasts etc. Yours and my beliefs share their roots in the same problem, but are technically different.

I meant more that it's not fitting to say "women like/are aroused by/interested in _____", especially with something like Twilight or Beiber. I know they're popular to some, but they're reviled by a significant minority, if not a plurality. A lot of people hate Ke$ha, so I picked her to try and be a parallel. As you said though, it's a generalization.

I've been getting good results with a build of:

Chalice > Sorc Boots > Guise > Rylai's > Liandry's > Spirit Visage and then something like Armguard > Zhonya's or FH for armour.

I'm a bit meh on RoA on Swain. It's a hefty chunk of nice stats, but gold efficiency isn't really enough for me to replace the utility of any of these other items. I need more mana from somewhere though.

I'm also not convinced of the value of AP items on Swain. I find he does plenty of damage with Liandry's and magic pen. Going balls-out AP seems excessive and turns you into a 1 for 1 trader, whereas Liandry's/tank Swain outputs a ton of DPS over the course of a fight and never, ever dies.

Liandry's is bananas OP right now and I plan to take advantage up until it's nerfed.

Rylai's is just plain good. Sure it's a little redundant with Q and W, but it turns your ult into a walking slow machine and ensures that R and E synergise with Liandry's (E turns into a DoT, plus Liandry's, which is doubled, and increased by 20%. That is tasty.)

Spirit Visage means you don't die in fights. You can also rush it mid versus pretty much any AP mid and laugh as you deal them huge damage and never die. 

I don't understand why Trundle of all champs needs a visual rework. Trundle looks fine, and even if he didn't, he'd be waaaay down the list of champs that could do with visual loving. Sivir anyone?

And what an Elo. Yeesh.