League of Legends

[Shjade]

The thing is, Vlad built tanky...can't tank. He doesn't do enough damage to be a threat, he doesn't have any hard CC to use for initiation on the enemy team, and he's just generally not imposing. "Tank Vlad" is another way of saying "Vlad you can ignore and 4v5 their team." >.>

Morgana can be a bit tankier with her shield and that awesome ult initiation, Ryze builds tanky naturally since his power comes off of mana rather than AP, but all Vlad really gets is bonus health while building for AP and, if he doesn't build for AP, he doesn't really hurt enough to matter.

[Blank]

^This.  You can be a tanky character but not fulfill the role of a tank.  Amumu is a tank because he can resist a lot of damage, deal a lot of damage over a long period of time and can take hits.

[Samael]

Question: How's Fizz and that dragon champion?

[Predatory Fantasia]

Oh I don't actually use Morg as a tank, it's just that I build her to be able to take a lot more abuse than most AP carry champs.  The ult is great for initiation, as you said, but I rarely initiate.  Instead, I let the tank initiate, flash into the middle of the fray, pop R, and then use my Zhonya's activate ability.  When Morg uses her ult you have two options - kill her in 3 seconds or run.  the problem is, with Zhonya's, I am untaretable so you have to run.  Now, I can't move with Zhonya's active so it should be eay right?  Wrong.  Not with Nunu's ult slowing you, Leona's ult stunning you, with Amumu's alt stunning you, or Rammus taunting you.

Morgana is so sexy and so fun to play.  =(  Stupid little bitches can die in a fire for banning my anarchic babe in draft games.


Edited to answer above question:  Haven't played Fizz but Shyvana is amazing.  She is a jungler/tanky DPS with a skill kit suited for both AD builds or on-hit builds.

[Blank]

Question: How's Fizz and that dragon champion?

Fizz is powerful.  You got to keep him from farming otherwise he will steam roll you.

Shyvana?  Eh, she's a fast jungle but no cc really.


@Predatory:  They ban her because she's good.  XD  She's a pretty solid champ that if played well can be a pain.

[Shjade]

Haven't gotten to see him in action yet, but on paper, just reading how his abilities work, Fizz sounds like a nasty champion to have to deal with. Built-in %health damage that hurts more the more you're hurt, ability dodge, AE knockaround, gap-closer and immune to unit collision? Eeesh.

I really wanted to pick up Shyvana when I next hit 6300 IP because she seemed fun (and melee female characters yay), but I dunno, Fizz sounds like a more useful purchase for melee choices.

[Predatory Fantasia]

Fizz is powerful.  You got to keep him from farming otherwise he will steam roll you.

Shyvana?  Eh, she's a fast jungle but no cc really.


@Predatory:  They ban her because she's good.  XD  She's a pretty solid champ that if played well can be a pain.

Psh...  I have been playing Leona a lot lately and I have to say...  If Morgana deserves to be banned then Leona deserves to be removed from the game entirely.  I guess that I shouldn't complain.  Leona is a lot of fun and there aren't a lot of champs that I really enjoy.  So far, that list is pretty limited to Morgana, Akali, Caitlyn, Shyvana, Riven, and Leona.  Out of all of the champs that I have tried, that's a very small list.  =( 

I like Vane's playstyle but she's too squishy imo.  Sure, she's no worse off than Cait but Cait has a vastly superior range to keep her safe.  Being that squishy and that close to combat makes me uncomfortable.

[Blank]

Well, the problem with Leona is she doesn't deal a lot of damage.  That's why she works as a pretty good support.  Pop in there, stun, let your AD carry hit them a bit.  A little bit later, stun, let AD carry hit them.

If you check here you can see she's not super played a lot, but utilized.  http://www.lolstatistics.com/champions/all/3/11-25-2011

I recently tried out Nidalee.  She is pretty buff if you go Trinity Force.

[Revelation]

I've been on a jungle kick recently. My old standby is Nocturne, but when Skarner went on sale the other week I bought him. I've given him a try since and... Wow. Skarner is crazy good in the jungle. Clears fast and with high HP, can jump right into ganking after level 4/full clear. Such a crazy beast once he gets rolling. I also jungle with Trundle, but sometimes I do awesome with him, other times i'm just bad...

Anyway, as far as other champions go, I play...

AD
--
Riven
Graves
MF (Sometimes)


Tanky DPS
--
Renekton
Nasus
Irelia
Rumble

Jungle
--
Nocturne (tanky DPS style)
Skarner
Trundle.

Shjade: If you want a good melee char, I suggest Riven. She can be pretty great if you get solo top and farm. Early game you can harass other melee champions back for much more then they can you (Except Renekton.), and you scale so well with farming its crazy. She can roll into a great midgame and a scary late game if she gets farm and a few kills. Farm your mind out with her, and theres little that can out damage you in a teamfight, provided you stay alive. (GA, wriggles, and some MR helps you with that... but don't build her purely as a tanky DPS. you need the big damage items).

[Shjade]

I have Riven, but I don't really enjoy her playstyle. It's what I get for having picked her up before waiting on a free week trial run. :|

[Revelation]

Really? Thats a bit of a bummer! I find her my 2nd funnest champion to play in the game (Fav is renekton). But I can see why people wouldn't like her. Have you tried Rumble? He's not quite melee, but he's very fun and another viable top IMO.

EDIT: However, IMO shyvana is okay. She's a sub par, but possible solo top, and a jungler. She does not jungle for ganks, but she jungles to control and deny/counter the enemy jungler. Her counter jungling is crazy good, also she's great against dragon. However, she is very item dependent IMO. Extremely so.

[Shjade]

I don't really like most melee champs in general, that's the main problem. They always feel so limited compared to ranged characters because their positioning is so fixed. Gangplank's the only one I've felt comfortable using, probably because he has so much speed/slow going on that he can pretty much stay in melee range on anyone as long as he wants (and he can stay back as a ranged nuker if need be) along with a hearty amount of support abilities at his disposal.

[Blank]

http://imgur.com/ddeIq

Surrendering is for the weak apparently.

[Samael]

...attempt at AD Alistar?

[Shjade]

...how do you figure? He has three gp5 items, cdr boots and two defensive items. The Aegis of the Legion is the only item he's wearing that adds any AD at all. >.>

And yes, surrender is for ze weak. Also for games in which you're playing with assholes and just don't want to deal with them anymore, regardless of whether you're winning or losing.

[Blank]

And yes, surrender is for ze weak. Also for games in which you're playing with assholes and just don't want to deal with them anymore, regardless of whether you're winning or losing.

Pretty much.  I just want to give up on games where people are jerks.

[Revelation]

I never 'give up' on a game, but when a game is massively one sided, one must wonder if its worth it to stick through the game. And I have indeed used /ff before, and will do it again. Great he won, but thats the exception, not rule to me.

[ofDelusions]

So they add a champion, who's name is 1 letter away from my soon to be changed name, who always wanted to become a human woman.

So buying her just for that.

[Aiden]

The fox tail chick?

I was so pissed off with Voldi-bear...grrr!

[Brandon]

I bought a few champions since the last time I mentioned anything. So far I have Akali, Alistar, Cho'gath (probably my second favorite champion), Lux (my favorite champion of all), Sivir, Teemo, Tristana, Trundle, Veigar, and Wukong

Ive played all the champions except Ahri, Dr. Mundo, Evelynn, Fizz, Gragas, Janna, Karthas, Kennen, Leblanc, Lee Sin, Nidalee, Nocturne, Pantheon, Shaco, Sion, Swain, Talon, Twitch, Udyr, and Xin Zhao

The latest patch has me a bit annoyed. First theres Sivir. I really liked Sivir before the change but now I dont really like her at all. It seems like for a carry shes really underpowered now. For my playstyle the changes have made her about useless. I used to push lanes at breakneck speeds with her but now thats almost impossible and it seems like Tristana is better in every way to her. I guess I just really want the old Richochet but I do like the new passive

The jungle changes are also annoying. On one had I like it because you dont need runes/masteries to jungle which was a major hurdle for me. On the other hand I dislike it because it seems like I cant jungle fast enough with Trundle and still gank/push lanes.

On another note, Ive got a little over 3000 IP saved up again and wondering which champion I should get next. I cant really think of one where I go "That one is so fun to play I have to have them now!" but there are quite a few I like. Am I missing anything in particular?

Edit: ENded up buying Ahri. Shes like a damage focused Lux with all her skill shots. I love her. I also got the chance to try Jana and Twitch this week. Janna Im pretty good with, Twitch no so much

[PaleEnchantress]

Peen totally kicking ass as solo top soraka lately. Sometimes ill mid which is even easier since i destroy casters. Then later on soraka is a beast, easy to get enemies resist in the negatives (your ap carry will love that), a silence that does great damage and lasts a long time, and the team becomes unkillable. She isn'y so great a pure suport anymore, babysitting andnot getting any cs.

I was doing well building her as an ap carry, but then i switched from 21/0/9 to 0/21/9 and it's much better. The magic pen talent at 9 in offence isnt great since it does nothing on enemies with negative resist values, but being able to survive while in the center of the enemies while starcall spamming is essential.

I also have started playng Gangplank, but only as a support.

[Annashi]

I started playing pretty casually a few weeks ago but if anyone else is on EU West then send me a PM :)

[Brandon]

Ive been playing a lot of support Taric lately (oh yes, I bought Taric a little while ago) and Im finding him to be my favorite support champion thus far (aside from Lux but I play here more as a AP Carry). It seems like whenever I get a decent AD carry to heal our lane does really well. Very few carries or supports seem to be able to stand up to Taric and a carry, especially if that carry is Ashe or Graves.

Also Nautilus is free this week and having played him a couple times this morning I tend to wonder if hes for me. I find his slow speed hard to deal with but his abilities synergize pretty well. Then again Im never really sure how to build him, I know I want AP for damage and hit points to essentially be the group tank but Im finding it hard to do both

[Shjade]

For anyone interested in becoming srs bsns gud at this game, some instructional videos on How To Crush Everything:

IEM Hanover finals, game 1
IEM Hanover finals, game 2

Holy Russia.

[Samael]

Yes, but Moscow 5 are running roughshod over pretty much -everyone-, while most of the people you'll end up playing with have to be lucky to know which side of a pencil they need to use for writing.