League of Legends

[Squirrel]

What is it that you enjoy so much about playing Galio? I can't see much fun stuff about his abilities (bar his ult!) that looks really enjoyable... maybe I should give him a go haha. How does a standard Galio game pan out?

 

[Lusus]

I have a feeling that Kalista is going to be terrible. She has no way to cancel her aa animation, and hers seems pretty sloppy and long. The fact that she soul-binds to someone, and then they are forced to stay around her (From what I've seen), seems like a really bad thing for teamfights, as the support will usually initiate, but in this case they can't unless they bring Kalista with them. Her kiting abilities are pretty good, but she can't cancel her aa animation if she needs to, which adcs need to a lot. Her ult seems relatively lackluster, as the thrown soul-bound will just get focused and die instantly in a fight with that, and then leaving Kalista right open with no one to peel for her. Her damage seems really nice, but only if she chases. From what I've seen, she has 525 aa range. That's just in the mid, and only beats out Lucian and Vayne (I think?), so she can be kited by other adcs, instead of her kiting them (Cait, Varus, Thresh, Lux, Nami, Ezreal, Sivir, MF, Draven, Jinx (****ing rockets 700 range, Trist). So to recap, no escape, low range for an adc, no aa cancel, soul-bound (Which won't help by any means).

Rend is only good if she can get the stacks on someone, which she won't be able to. Sentinels are ok, but only until people learn how to play around them.

She is actually pretty broken and will def get a lot of nerfs before she will be balanced. The soul bind isn't forced to stay around her at all, you can bind it to jungle and then just lane normally and have almost a guaranteed kill everytime jungler ganks. She is also pretty much untouchable by melees that have small to no gapclosers. Her ultimate is a Zhonya+Malphite ult for the person she is bound too, get a tanky support like Alistar and Voli and you will win every teamfight. Also what do you mean no escape? She has infinite dashes and a slow, that's actually better than most other ADCs in the game. No AA cancel and her being hard to play are the only downsides, and the former is actually useful late game.

 

[Nolafus]

What is it that you enjoy so much about playing Galio? I can't see much fun stuff about his abilities (bar his ult!) that looks really enjoyable... maybe I should give him a go haha. How does a standard Galio game pan out?

He just fits my playstyle. With Galio, you poke your enemy down until you can do one final burst to kill. He counters just about every AP champion, which makes him monstrous in the middle lane. I'm just really good with him, and there's nothing more I enjoy than absolutely wrecking everything, haha. Plus it's really rewarding when you zoom into the enemy team and catch them all in your ult. If that happens, the team fight is almost always yours. His damage falls off late game, but the utility you still provide is amazing.

Your main opportunity to get ahead is around early mid game. Once you reach level eight, you can clear the caster minions with a Q plus E combo, which makes shoving your lane incredibly easy. The reason why this is optimal though, is that this is when your Q will be doing the max amount of damage. You want to level up that Resolute Smite first, because it's your main damage dealer. In that small time frame, you will probably take 1/5 out of your opponent's health with one blow. Couple that with your E, and that's 1/4 of their health gone as soon as you see them. Repeat this a few times and shove them out of lane, and they'll start to get very annoyed.

Eventually they'll make the foolish decision to stay in lane in a desperate attempt to not fall behind any more than they are. Once they make a mistake, zoom in, ult up, throw on that shield (as the boosted magic resistance will make you deal a little extra damage thanks to his passive, and since there's no casting animation, it won't cause you to break the channel. You can also throw ignite down with breaking the channel too), and you have yourself a kill. I just think it's really funny once the jungler comes in for a gank, and they're at half health. One Q plus E combo, and they're retreating.

Late game, it's all about utility and how many people you can ult. If you're really fed, then you can go for a complete offensive build and still do decent damage, but I find the utility route to be better, as it gives your ADC a chance to just sit back and pelt people in your ult. If someone goes for your ADC, shield them, slow the enemy with your Q, and you should be good to go. It feels so good to catch your enemy's carries in your ult, and have your team decimate them and push for the win.

I just dominate with him, so he's fun to play. I love the mix of offense and utility. Plus no one ever knows what to do against him. I had a Mordekaiser tell me that he's never seen a Galio before. I don't think he'll forget about Galio anytime soon after the punishment I sent him through, haha.

And there's your explanation that probably should have been a lot shorter.

 

[Lusus]

I love the new summoner rift, i just did a test recording few minutes ago and it runs on a solid 20-30 FPS (compared to 10 FPS on old map) while recording. So i might make some videos occasionally when i take breaks from Strife.

 

[Squirrel]

He just fits my playstyle. With Galio, you poke your enemy down until you can do one final burst to kill. He counters just about every AP champion, which makes him monstrous in the middle lane. I'm just really good with him, and there's nothing more I enjoy than absolutely wrecking everything, haha. Plus it's really rewarding when you zoom into the enemy team and catch them all in your ult. If that happens, the team fight is almost always yours. His damage falls off late game, but the utility you still provide is amazing.

Your main opportunity to get ahead is around early mid game. Once you reach level eight, you can clear the caster minions with a Q plus E combo, which makes shoving your lane incredibly easy. The reason why this is optimal though, is that this is when your Q will be doing the max amount of damage. You want to level up that Resolute Smite first, because it's your main damage dealer. In that small time frame, you will probably take 1/5 out of your opponent's health with one blow. Couple that with your E, and that's 1/4 of their health gone as soon as you see them. Repeat this a few times and shove them out of lane, and they'll start to get very annoyed.

Eventually they'll make the foolish decision to stay in lane in a desperate attempt to not fall behind any more than they are. Once they make a mistake, zoom in, ult up, throw on that shield (as the boosted magic resistance will make you deal a little extra damage thanks to his passive, and since there's no casting animation, it won't cause you to break the channel. You can also throw ignite down with breaking the channel too), and you have yourself a kill. I just think it's really funny once the jungler comes in for a gank, and they're at half health. One Q plus E combo, and they're retreating.

Late game, it's all about utility and how many people you can ult. If you're really fed, then you can go for a complete offensive build and still do decent damage, but I find the utility route to be better, as it gives your ADC a chance to just sit back and pelt people in your ult. If someone goes for your ADC, shield them, slow the enemy with your Q, and you should be good to go. It feels so good to catch your enemy's carries in your ult, and have your team decimate them and push for the win.

I just dominate with him, so he's fun to play. I love the mix of offense and utility. Plus no one ever knows what to do against him. I had a Mordekaiser tell me that he's never seen a Galio before. I don't think he'll forget about Galio anytime soon after the punishment I sent him through, haha.

And there's your explanation that probably should have been a lot shorter.

I ended up buying him yesterday and testing him out a few times and I can see where you're coming from - he is a heck of a lot of fun with his huge damage potential and really interesting utility, and I find the heal passive on his shield really unique. I've ended up shielding our tank a few times at the start of a team fight to heal up before going in fully with my ult and it's working wonders haha. The only thing I'm not sold on yet is how to lane with him - the whole idea of a melee-based long range mage is... confusing! I'm able to zone the enemy well with his Qs (and sometimes Es), and he's quite easy to escape ganks with, but what I'm rubbish at right now is CSing. If you try to use his Q for farming you run out of mana really quickly (though he seems to scale incredibly well with chalice) and if you use your melee attacks you get poked to heck, so I'm having a lot of trouble in that department - how should I be laning with Galio as regards his AAs being melee? Would be great to hear it from the Galio master himself!

 

[Nolafus]

I ended up buying him yesterday and testing him out a few times and I can see where you're coming from - he is a heck of a lot of fun with his huge damage potential and really interesting utility, and I find the heal passive on his shield really unique. I've ended up shielding our tank a few times at the start of a team fight to heal up before going in fully with my ult and it's working wonders haha. The only thing I'm not sold on yet is how to lane with him - the whole idea of a melee-based long range mage is... confusing! I'm able to zone the enemy well with his Qs (and sometimes Es), and he's quite easy to escape ganks with, but what I'm rubbish at right now is CSing. If you try to use his Q for farming you run out of mana really quickly (though he seems to scale incredibly well with chalice) and if you use your melee attacks you get poked to heck, so I'm having a lot of trouble in that department - how should I be laning with Galio as regards his AAs being melee? Would be great to hear it from the Galio master himself!

Yeah, that seems to be Galio's only downfall. Your first item has to be the chalice, but if you're like me, then you're spamming your abilities almost non stop, and even that's not enough. If you're still struggling, then grab a tear as your second item, and you'll be golden. As far as the cs problem goes, if you keep getting poked down when you fly in for the last hit, throw on your shield when you go in, and use your abilities to either force your opponent back, or to grab the cs. Because he is melee, I end up using my abilities to cs, even if I'm winning lane. I've seen other people play him, and do just fine with last hitting, so just try out a few matches and see what you like.

 

[Squirrel]

Mm tha'ts basically what I've ended up doing with him too - really doesn't help with how little mana he has early but I guess you only need to stick around for 5 minutes before you can afford a Chalice. I tried him in a PvP match yesterday (blind pick) and ended up getting paired against a full AD team; you should have seen my face :(

In other news, what do people think of Hecarim right now? He's rated really low in the tiers list but I've tried him and recently and seen a few other people use him, and he's looking really strong. Anyone seen him around recently?

 

[Lusus]

Hecarim in my opinion is really really fun to play. Sadly i tested him on PBE with the jungle changes, he can't even clear the jungle in the new jungle.

 

[Aslan]

Well there was that one ARAM game where we did pretty well at shutting down the fed Hecarim. (/coughs at the 4 v 5 one where we almost got stomped) ;v;

He's great for engaging a teamfight by either charging in or getting a multiple man ult off. His cooldowns early game are pretty bad, his build is expensive. He might have trouble clearing as well. But he's a pony, he's insanely fun to play and who gives if he's a bottom tier jungler? He's great in his own regard and people will always find ways to make underwhelming champs absolutely amazing and the new FOTM. I don't play him myself but he's a champ I enjoy playing as and would play more if I weren't sucky at his mechanics/know what to do with him. =P

Also Arcade Hecarim. <3 Can't say no to the Robot Unicorn Attack reference.

 

[Nolafus]

Alright, after three very successful matches in a row, Alistar officially comes onto my support roster. A lot of people don't like him, but I love all of that utility. It's almost impossible to gank my carry because I just keep everyone away. Now, if they turn their focus on me, that's a different story, but at least my carry is safe.

Anyone else hesitant on using abilities to help your ADC if the enemy is really low and you don't want to steal the kill? Even if my carry is low, I tend to wait out the duel and help as much as I can without damaging the enemy. A couple times I tried to save my ADC, ended up taking the kill, and got yelled at by my entire team. Not fun.

And I haven't tried jungling in the new jungle yet. I've heard it's a lot harder, and I'm not that strong of a jungler.

 

[Olli]

Alright, after three very successful matches in a row, Alistar officially comes onto my support roster. A lot of people don't like him, but I love all of that utility. It's almost impossible to gank my carry because I just keep everyone away. Now, if they turn their focus on me, that's a different story, but at least my carry is safe.

Anyone else hesitant on using abilities to help your ADC if the enemy is really low and you don't want to steal the kill? Even if my carry is low, I tend to wait out the duel and help as much as I can without damaging the enemy. A couple times I tried to save my ADC, ended up taking the kill, and got yelled at by my entire team. Not fun.

And I haven't tried jungling in the new jungle yet. I've heard it's a lot harder, and I'm not that strong of a jungler.

Story of my life when it comes to supporting. I usually play heavy damage supports, so the potential to accidentally steal the kill is usually high. I also often play Nami, where simply healing my allies can cause me to accidentally take the kill. But you really shoudn't worry about it. It's much better to secure the kill and make sure your allies get through it than making sure your adc gets it. And the higher elo you get, the less people are gonna care about it. As long as you don't actively try to take the kills, your team has nothing to be mad about :p

 

[Selly Jr]

I might start streaming sometime.

 

[Aslan]

Whether you steal it or not, you both benefit from the gold and your lane opponent loses EXP. If it's obvious they can secure the kill than I'd probably back off but keep following them to be on the safe side. I find myself stealing kills a lot though (IT'S ACCIDENTAL OKAY) so I play a semicarry support like Annie to counter the situation of a support getting fed. Then I five man ult the enemy team and we proceed to steamroll them. So don't worry too much about 'ks' or 'omg you took it noob support' since most people get lax about it as you continue playing. =P

Also I love my friends. <3

Spoiler:

Was taking this to show my cousin but ehhh, it has LoL stuff. :D

Just ignore the other presents/cards but my good friend who plays on OCE decided to give me a LoL card and a poster of Zed. Also got some random assortment of stuff from other friends. Like cake. TWO CAKES. Cake's good. (so is fma manga but shhh going off-topic) <3

Streaming's awesome! My computer can barely handle Skype being open during a LoL game though so I can't say I'd do the same any time soon.

 

[Selly Jr]

The new jungle is kinda brutal, especially since it hasn't really changed much at all over the past 2 years. Since I started playing, all they'd really done before this point was chance the spawn timers on the smaller camps, and put in the wight camp.

A champion I've found to be really strong and to get level 6 very quickly on is Hecarim. And in this jungle, I want to note that it is NOT necessary to start at the blue or red buff anymore, due to the additional effects of what smiting a camp does now.

The Toad buff at lev 1 with an aoe damage champion is insane, toad into wolves into the raptors gets you level 3. Go b pick up the purple jungle item (the one that gives you and Aoe on smite) and clear as you would during season 4 and you should hit level 5 before the 5 minute mark. This was also without a leash.

 

[Nolafus]

The jungle is really weird. It's both harder and easier at the same time, haha. I'll have to give it a go sometime, but alas, that is not now.

And how are you guys faring against Kalista? I was afraid that she was going to be immensely overpowered, but I think she's quite balanced. Not an outstanding ADC, so she might receive a couple buffs just to bring her to the foreground. That, or people just don't really know how to play her yet.

I've been playing a lot of support Alistar, and he goes great with Kalista. She ults to start a teamfight, I zoom in, knock them up, knock them up again with my Q, walk around to the back, and headbutt the carry right into my team. If that doesn't happen, I normally burn a couple flashes, which is nice too.

I've gone up against a couple Kalistas, and there isn't anything too intimidating. Now trying to walk over and deal some harass is troublesome, given her passive, but it's not that bad.

 

[Selly Jr]

I just think of her as Vayne and Twitch and Ashe and Thresh rolled into one. Playing as her is really fun, but you will need some strong coordination with your oath bound (which toucan change by buying the item from the shop again, it costs nothing). She's got AD Nidalee spear without the whole damage over range thing, a patrolling hawkshot, Twitch E (I still call it Expunge) and the ultimate which is a bit like a Threah lantern.

Now this ult can be rather strong, it can be used to put your support into like a Stasis, the. Your support can choose where they get fired to. I've tried this with Annie, Morgana and Leona with some stupid strong results, especially so for Leona. It can also be used to save the life of your oathbound if they get caught in a tricky situation. It can also be used as like a gap closer for your means of engagement of your oathbound so chooses to click into the enemy team. I'm Definately gonna learn her

 

[Bidoof FTW]

Oh my gosh Warwick is so good in this jungle. o-0

The infisustain we saw last season with warwick makes a return in the new "brutal jungle" as warwick refuses to die to camps. Just wait until you get your skirmishers sabre providing on hit damage which is amazing on warwick. This item basically should read "bro just try to 1v1 me. You wont. No balls." and go ahead and buy yourself a devourer enchantment after getting your 1st tier booties and you have yourself the best jungler in the game right now. But wait there's more! (damage), so just go s4 on their arses and buy a Bork then just build tank! Because TWO items of damage is all you'll ever need to wreck face with our little Wolfy. You instantly become a huge damage input that can shut down an adc or any other annoying little squishies while still tanking a LOT of damage. And if you ever get low after a teamfight you don't even need to bacik, just kill a couple dumb wolves or chickens and you're back at full hp and ready to 1v1 baron, dragon, or their nexus (watch out for rammii tho, he has armor for days.) This champ with this build basically should read Free ELO and if you don't take advantage of this bs in draft and let the OTHER jungler get this beautiful masterpiece of jungle champion then you are GOING to have a BAD TIME.

Spoiler:

Brought to you by Riot Entertainment

 

[Golurks Were Meant to Fly]

Speaking of junglers, which ones are the most viable right now? With the new preseason stuff I'm worried some of the ones I liked won't be as good in the new jungle D: (zac, eve, shaco, vi, trundle). Anyone played any of these guys yet? I haven't really had time to!

 

[Nolafus]

I would imagine that all of the junglers are still viable. Heck, I tried out the jungle in a custom match by myself and was able to clear the camps as Alistar, so I think you should be good to go.

Also, I really want to try Trundle. He seems really good.

 

[Aslan]

You'd put the Hecarim we had earlier in shame. Our team said that Hecarim had a hard time in the jungle but he said he was gonna be fine and not to sweat it. So the game starts and almost everyone's skeptical. I wasn't since I honestly had no idea how the new jungle worked other than smite changes but y'know... trust the Hecarim.

So anyway this is what he said about five minutes in:

Spoiler:

[BLUE TEAM CHAT]
/perfectly normal for the first five minutes
- 3 minutes into the game -
Hecarim: omg guys
Hecarim: guys
Hecarim: this new jungle is impossible to clear
Hecarim: help what do i dooooo
- gets executed two seconds later -

Finally after twenty minutes into the game, he could clear without dying. Either he had a really bad strategy/route or he genuinely had a hard time clearing the new jungle. Clearing with Alistar sounds pretty hard though so props to you for doing that. :D Did you have to recall or were you able to clear without backing?

I think most junglers stay the same with the exception of some becoming stronger/slightly weaker in terms of clearing time. That's about it though. Trundle's pretty good either top lane or in the jungle. I genuinely struggle with Renekton vs Trundle and its probably one of my least favourite matchups other than Nasus. ^^; And as Bidoof said, WW is apparently a god and we should all worship his ho- okay maybe not that much but he sounds pretty strong from what was described.

I haven't tried the new jungle since HA I'M A COWARD I DON'T GOT TIME FOR DA- I mean... I've been practicing my farming/trading skills by playing top and mid but shhh, I'll get there. The Hecarim mentioned previously also saved me the trouble of looking like an idiot trying to figure out the new jungle by giving me mid so a big thanks to him. <3

On a really random note, I love playing with people on Skype. I don't talk since reasons like why I haven't played the new jungle (shhhh it's all lies I tell you) but it's great having someone be my map awareness by telling me to back off or TP in when in reality I actually have none. thanks my living minima- I mean friends. <3