Reign of Gaming

Hello Gustaf! Disclaimer (necessary after your last post): I never suggested that an AD Leona build was actually BETTER than other builds or other characters, I simply expressed a conjecture that it would be enjoyable in noncompetitive environments, and supported its usability by stating positive aspects as parts of the whole.

Thank you Beggora, part of my point. If you need a healer bot, this gives you ammumu - level CC which other AD bruisers (even J4) cannot. Of course, being as that the entire purpose of this style was originally to hold oneself up early, the area CC is rather unnecessary, besides the fact it keeps her more relevant than most. I must say, I have never encountered anyone playing this style before, but now I want to.

@graise Well, Q gives AA, Q, AA, 1 sec of stun left, so... now.

@CJ  This really is just for fun, and you are right, the jungle does function pretty well and the passive is a huge boost. Thanks for that 3rd AA tip, I am abusing it as anyone with a reset.

@Shadow  I know that getting kills is not her job, believe me. I just want to be able to modify my play style so that going in alone is not so... stupid with a slow to react team. I know I will never kill any priority targets, but in normals CC tank is a necessary role that needs to be held aloft by damage, and 4 unanswered AA's just due to Q (factored 1 for stun, worst case) every 7 seconds or less is potentially pretty devastating.

For laughs in blind,this actually doesn't suck, which is all I was really going for. If you roam you will get kills, and if you get ahead enough to build some damage, you become Wonder Woman on the battlefied, a tanky CC damager. Obviously this will never be relevant in a tournament, but it is a hugely entertaining screw ball that does its job well. Maokai was a great comparison, just with more damage and arguably less utility. Just being able to survive the jungle and build SOMETHING creates a stronger Nautilus that does not suck so, so badly early on. 

P.S. That 4 AA blast from Q is brutal, and gives something of a pseudo-burst with 1-2 damage items(IE = > 1000; IE + PD = >1500)

@Badplayer6:  I would likely go mid, as this is the traditional home of such a playstyle. Although jungle might be viable, it would be difficult and slow, and top is risky because there are better duelists with early monstrous steroids. Again, building attack damage she could feasibly solo just by means of stun and survival, or by juking with E and retaliating immediately. The entire purpose of this concept was to make her able to solo, due to the innumerable times anyone who plays her will grab someone and then think "What now?"

I actually typed "Unconventional Taric" the first time... I thought that was just me though.

Such is the plight of the assassin. But put mid, one could roam to get fed or at least punish other lanes. Plus, CC is relevant no matter what, and Leona's ulti is a gamebreaker in any case.

Wow, crap. You're right, oops. That was my bad there, but the QSS point stands. I am 99.999% sure I have personally interrupted his ult with it before, hence my assumption about cleanse.

*Anecdote, not necessary* I was playing Leona in a normal game (my first mistake) and I managed to catch the retreating enemy ADC, so I stunned him. Unfortunately, because I was playing Leona as a tank/support, he managed to kill me thanks to my utter lack of damage, and heal doing it. I couldn't help but to wish I had been Diana, who would have annihilated him in an instant.

This in mind, I want to try Leona as an AD assassin. Her kit supports it, her W gives free survivability, her E is a good range initiate, and her stuns would, theoretically, tee up free kills. The problem is, her AP ratios are borderline nonexistant, and her passive would amount to nothing. On the other hand, that amount of tactical prowess and innate bulk mean that even with no damage on abilities, she could build AD and function just fine.

- Her base attack speed and its growth tie Graves', and her AD is higher. 58 AD on level 1 is actually quite insane, beating Panth by 5 (and outscaling him) at the cost of .054 level 1 AS and .05% per level.

- She has a huge intiate that travels as far back as it hits and ends in a brief root.

- Eclipse magnifies survival power stupefyingly, giving, with nothing but W and bases, 163 armor (62% immunity) and 150 MR (60% immunity), factoring in base HP (1996 rounded to 2000), this yields roughly 3.2K BASE ehp on an assassin. Adding a survival item such as FM or Warmog makes her very hard to kill (Warmog almost 5k EHP, still no runes/masteries included)

- Her lack of a steroid is offset by the presence of two stuns, one being AoE at long range, and the other an AA reset. 

I think this could honestly function, filling a similar role to Pantheon, but with a beautiful stun initiation ult. If it won't work please let me know, I am going to be running this in normals for a while, probably in mid lane. Of course, that will not mean much, considering that no one will have half a clue what on earth I am trying or what to do about it. If anyone can help me reason out the viability of this, welcome. Just don't give me "Leona is a tank, blah blah blah" in a closed-minded voice without considering the above points. 3.75 seconds of stuns and a 700 range initiate may not fully attest for nonscaling abilities, but I see potential.

Malz will not be T1 until QSS and Cleanse are removed from the game. Mercurial Scimitar just served to bury him farther. Meanwhile, Cass is merely situational as she needs a protect comp, but is viable and honestly terrifying if she can get one. Brand has no real issue, he is just too weak for someone with only a combo stun (maybe if his AoE's on W and E were just slightly bigger? Hard to hit multiple...). And Galio was never an AP caster, no matter how much I wish he was. His ratios are pretty weak, and his Q is incredibly dodgable (dodgeable?).  I think Gal has always been a high damage support, and should stay one thanks to slow, haste, and that sickening ult (which really just needs to be unaffected by tenacity to make him more powerful).

Kat is another animal entirely. Like Ryze, she is easy to use, but hard to excel with. An amateur Kat should never channel a full ult in an entire game, considering that any halfway decent team will have at least one CC or interrupt to hit a stationary target with. If you cannot do that you deserve to get stomped.

Zilean: What if his Q just had a stacking mechanism (a la Akali ult) or a 2-shot rule (a la Rumble E) and his other cooldowns were shortened slightly? This would maintain his burst while simultaneously preserving the integrity of his rewind without it being there at all. Losing double haste is a pretty dynamic shortcoming, but another skill would certainly make up for it, especially if it had a similar slow/haste potential. It could even be divided in two: one targeted, damage dealing slow and one move more reminiscent of Nunu's blood boil (binary haste) minus the AS but with some more MS. This would preserve a support lane escape potential by hasting an ally and yourself, and also give the ability to slow an enemy. It removes that choice he is so famous for, but how much of a choice is it anyways? QQ is always the first call. His mobility would be exceptional, and hopefully numbers could be balanced to make this manageable.

Vlad's ult is situationally awesome- throw in, say, ammumu for cluster destruction and an easy ace. However, it costs him a bit of facetanking power compared to Swain, who can ult, Zhonya's, and debilitate 3 enemies while healing to full. Vlad is very strong and E gives huge damage in a small area, but to be in their team like that Vlad runs the risk of being stunned and bursted, something much harder to do to Swain. Even though Vlad has massive health, Swain's EHP is normally higher for sake of AUG's MR and his perma-sustain in any non-instagib, aka anything non Veigar. One thing I am surprised not to have seen is that Swain also had Seraph's - massive (well, maybe not if half mana) shield while healing rapidly? Yes please.

Swain does need to get in close, but so would Vlad were he capable, as Vlad E spamming would melt a team. The difference is that for the aforementioned reasons, Swain is actually CAPABLE of wading through a team. His snare or his face serve as beautiful diversions for an assassin (or just the rest of your team) to kill the enemy ADC, the only real threat to Swain with his item actives ready. As prior stated, Vlad RQEW and leaves a fight after an AoE burst. Swain sits in the fight as a massive damage bruiser and continues to tear the enemies a new one, wounding some while annihilating one by one those unlucky enough to try to pass him.

I think the real problem here is that Vlad is so slippery comparatively; using W gets him out of quite a lot he should not get out of. Swain cannot escape with anything but W, and that is iffy. On the other hand, his single-target burst AND DPS are both higher than Vlad's. For this reason, Swain has phenomenal soloq success when played, but a coordinated team can stop him whereas Vladimir might get out alive. In the same sense, a coordinated team with a Vladimir on it will use his ulti to the fullest potential. I strongly believe Swain to be the stronger character, but that it is the nature of a teamfight that restricts him above all else. Perhaps we will see him more in a skirmisher meta.

Shyvana's damage is pretty split hybrid, but that is attained through building AD. Her W deals magic damage in an AoE based on her AD, so building damage is not as much of a waste. Mpen IS though, as both this and her magic-damage-ulti do a ton of magic damage to minions, making her numbers misleading. I agree AD scalings would help her, but one must not forget the amount of bonus damage dealt through E proc makes up for it quickly. Considering this, I would rather see physical damage dealt than see magic damage that scales with attack.