League of Legends LII: Sin of the Blind Monk

[Darth Mario]

>Win game
>"You have qualified for a series! Good luck!"
>lose series 1/2 in slimmest of margins.
>Expect to have to climb back up from 70 LP or so
>Win one more game
>"You have qualified for a series! Good luck!"
>Lose series 1/2 in three close games again
>Win another game
>"You have qualified for a series! Good luck!"

Come on, law of averages. WORK with me here.

It is.

You're winning half your games.

[Silverraptor]

>Win game
>"You have qualified for a series! Good luck!"
>lose series 1/2 in slimmest of margins.
>Expect to have to climb back up from 70 LP or so
>Win one more game
>"You have qualified for a series! Good luck!"
>Lose series 1/2 in three close games again
>Win another game
>"You have qualified for a series! Good luck!"

Come on, law of averages. WORK with me here.

Yeah, it was like this for me. Then I get a rager/leaver in every one of my games and now I'm fighting not to get demoted to silver III.

[Duos]

It is.

You're winning half your games.

I know. I'm asking the law of averages to lump my wins together a bit more.

[Godskook]

>Win game
>"You have qualified for a series! Good luck!"
>lose series 1/2 in slimmest of margins.
>Expect to have to climb back up from 70 LP or so
>Win one more game
>"You have qualified for a series! Good luck!"
>Lose series 1/2 in three close games again
>Win another game
>"You have qualified for a series! Good luck!"

Come on, law of averages. WORK with me here.

I had an afk, obvious troll or toxic rager(up four kills, but he died, GG) in 2 out of 3 promo matches every time I was up for promotion from Gold 3 to Gold 2 for like.....3-4 series. I ended up hard-carrying a game in the last series despite the toxic player.

[Cogwheel]

So for his ult Bruce Swain pops into costume and batarangs start shooting out of him?

His Teleport is also preceded by a bat signal.

[zmasterofjersey]

His Teleport is also preceded by a bat signal.

Seeing as how the radar and the ward/minion are already highlighted from teleport, why not have his w be a bat signal before rooting?

[Cogwheel]

Seeing as how the radar and the ward/minion are already highlighted from teleport, why not have his w be a bat signal before rooting?

This, too, is acceptable.

Honestly, Swain's emphasis on strategy/prior planning is rather fitting for this, come to think of it.

[heronbpv]

Oh god, Bruce Swain, RIOT PLZ!!

And you guys gain an internet for making me laugh a second time at this time in the morning (first was today's strip)

[Cogwheel]

Another possibility in that vein.

Brand.

James Brand.

He works for Massively Incendiary 6.

[Artanis]

Another possibility in that vein.

Brand.

James Brand.

He works for Massively Incendiary 6.

Only if they also make a Silver Bowman, who is a member of an intelligence service called A.M.O.N.

[Wolf_Haley]

Clawed my way to Silver 5, got trolled all the way back to Bronze IV. Just gonna say **** it for getitng out of Bronze in 5s for the rest of this season, get my friends together and run a 3s team and see how we do.

Any experience 3s players around? Wahst the meta like now? I've heard Renek, Lissandra, and Karma are three strong picks for the map and three of my favorites. How's Swain on 3s?

[Qwertystop]

Clawed my way to Silver 5, got trolled all the way back to Bronze IV. Just gonna say **** it for getitng out of Bronze in 5s for the rest of this season, get my friends together and run a 3s team and see how we do.

Any experience 3s players around? Wahst the meta like now? I've heard Renek, Lissandra, and Karma are three strong picks for the map and three of my favorites. How's Swain on 3s?

No, you didn't. Unless you stopped playing for a few months, anyway. Losing can't drop you out of Silver (or Gold, or Plat, or Diamond).

[Winthur]

Any experience 3s players around? Wahst the meta like now? I've heard Renek, Lissandra, and Karma are three strong picks for the map and three of my favorites. How's Swain on 3s?

Spoiler

Show

Prior to this achievement yesterday (both of my friends being Unranked though they could play at Silver/Gold level with ease IMHO) I played with my higher ranked friends and got Platinum in 3v3.

3v3 has a lot of strategies available, and the jungler isn't at all mandatory.

The staple of our 5-win-streak was prioritizing Cassiopeia as a pick and following it up with Leona, the third player playing a wild card bruiser (turned out to be Xin or Darius) to compliment the frontline.

I played Leona in 4 out of those 5 games. She's absolutely wonderful on Twisted Treeline for any teamcomps revolving around a single major damage dealer (Cassiopeia in this case) - she can engage, zone, and has three forms of very good CC, one of them AoE. The damage she lacks in the mid-late game she makes up for by protecting Cassiopeia. We usually fought solo laners in a 2v1, completely denying them from any farm and often scoring first blood. Leona can also roam out of the lane to either gank top lane or harass the jungler - her base damage is not to be underestimated, though she doesn't win prolonged 1v1s - she's good to catch out a half-health jungler fighting a wolf camp, not dueling.

Leona isn't the only viable support on this map. Some champions can become quasi-supports for carry-types - Jarvan IV and Xin Zhao don't necessarily need a lot of items to be relevant, and can provide first blood and zoning power with ease. When in the final game Leona was taken from us (she's not a highly contested pick at low elo, but she's plenty strong), I picked Thresh in her stead; he has a lot of peeling and picking power plus a good ranged auto to zone, he just doesn't have that much frontloaded damage. Ended up crushing the opposition as well.

Controlling the altars is quite important, it snowballs the game rather heftily. The fact that there are no wards means that you have to take care and not facecheck. Grez's Spectral Lantern is a decent item to get first because you can safely check brushes with it and it gives good stats to every AD, though we didn't buy it mostly because we didn't run a jungler.

Running Smite on a jungler on Twisted Treeline is debatable. If both your team and the enemy team run junglers, having Smite lets you counterjungle them and probably smite Vilemaw. If you have a jungler and the enemy team doesn't, Smite feels less necessary. Also people don't really seem to know how to jungle on this map. I wouldn't ever advocate smiteless jungling on SR but here it doesn't sound so bad. I remember not having to contest Vilemaw at all in games. Smite is certainly a safeguard for when you fall behind or when you play junglers with so-so waveclear.

Don't stay in lanes for long, this isn't a farm game - try winning level 1 and 2, get both altars, deny jungle creeps, and whenever you feel stronger, get a good initiate in. Group up rather quickly and stay on your toes - the lane distances are pretty short and you can easily get jumped. If you win a fight, keep the pressure on.

If you, like us, want to run a teamcomp revolving around a single damage-dealer with peelers and bruisers as support, you don't necessarily have to run Cassiopeia/Leona. Some carry candidates on TT are:
-Kayle (the ult screws up quite a few champions and she deals massive damage with a Liandry/Nashor build. She's really, really strong.)
-AD Thresh (it sounds weird, but he has a lot of self-peel potential while having some frontloaded damage. You don't build Attack Speed much on him, he doesn't scale well; you just bring down the pain with the passive on your E.)
-Corki (Triforce buffs, nuff said. He has AoE magic damage and an escape. Ezreal works in a similar vein.)
-Vayne (There are lots of walls to knock people into on Twisted Treeline, and she performs admirably against bruisers, plus there's always the "critical mass" that Vaynes approach steadily as the game goes, her biggest power spikes being level 6 and the Blade of the Ruined King)
-Ryze (his nerfs aren't that big of a deal because the laning phase in Twisted Treeline doesn't take long and a lot of the picks that Ryze is outranged by aren't that good on Twisted Treeline. He's a tanky machine gun and picks people off very well with that snare.)
-Zyra (can also work as a support like on Summoner's Rift. She has tons of damage and a really, really good ult, especially in the tight quarters of Summoner's Rift.)
-Karma (run her as an AP support, she's really damn underrated and really good on TT, not necessarily as frontloaded damage as others tho)

Likewise, some of the good support-types to substitute Leona, are:
-Thresh (we picked him in our final game as mentioned and he performed admirably as a peeler and zoner. Lantern and hook are really great.)
-Jarvan IV (E-Q is great CC. He doesn't need a lot of items to be effective and thus can fill as a support. He also scales better with farm if you want to bulk yourself up.)
-Xin Zhao (ditto with Jarvan. Either one of those bruisers can work as great supports and can get easy first blood.)
-Nunu (particularly good when combined with AD carries or people like Aatrox or Tryndamere. Can be used as a jungler, counterjungler and a standard support at the same time.)
-Lulu (protects people really well from dives and deals good early damage, can zone pretty well, can transition into AP).
-Zyra (Stranglethorns, the snare, and lots of natural damage say hello).

The playstyle we played has alternatives such as people running three bruisers give TT its not-necessarily-true reputation as a bruiser paradise. Some bruisers like Jax, Jarvan, Lee Sin, Aatrox, Tryndamere really shine on this map. Some of them can also jungle. Be aware though that certain hard carries like Cassiopeia can crap on bruiser comps and that you might simply get kited. It's also hard to push towers with a triple melee composition. You can try for some more supportish bruisers like Jarvan in order to peel for a damage dealer like Cait, and stick them in whatever lane.

Also, push a lot - it allows to more easily exert control over altars. Wave clear is a pretty useful thing overall.

[Wolf_Haley]

No, you didn't. Unless you stopped playing for a few months, anyway. Losing can't drop you out of Silver (or Gold, or Plat, or Diamond).

Meant Bronze 1, just so fixated on getting to Silver 5 I mixed it up lol.

@Winthur thanks a ton, gonna discuss this in depth with ym friends. Proabbly gonna go hard this weekend.

[Winthur]

@Winthur thanks a ton, gonna discuss this in depth with ym friends. Proabbly gonna go hard this weekend.

Oh, also google YaSloom Twisted Treeline, he has an in-depth section on Cloth5 on TT, with tier lists and has a YouTube channel.

[Olinser]

I had an afk, obvious troll or toxic rager(up four kills, but he died, GG) in 2 out of 3 promo matches every time I was up for promotion from Gold 3 to Gold 2 for like.....3-4 series. I ended up hard-carrying a game in the last series despite the toxic player.

Its happened to me twice so far in my Gold promo series. Won first game, then immediately lost the next 3.

Last night was terrible. Thankfully it wasn't in a promo series - but they were still losses.

Seriously. How do you play Ahri against Kassadin mid, and then PRE-6 Ahri gives up 3 kills to Kass?

[Dusk Eclipse]

As much as I like assassin type champions, it is now quite clear to me that I suck at them, in 40-ish kills game I ended 3/15/4. So I'm considering to try other type of champions. Is there any fighter/tank that I should look into? I'm also considering buying Garen (450 IP is chump change even for me).

[Artanis]

So after trying Miss Fortune a couple times...yeah, I'm sticking with ranged champions.

[Olinser]

As much as I like assassin type champions, it is now quite clear to me that I suck at them, in 40-ish kills game I ended 3/15/4. So I'm considering to try other type of champions. Is there any fighter/tank that I should look into? I'm also considering buying Garen (450 IP is chump change even for me).

Assassin types can be tricky. Their great strength is that a fed assassin can full combo pretty much ANY character except a full tank (and maybe even them, depending on how fed they are), to dead in just a couple seconds.

Their weakness is that if they get shut down early, and they DON'T have the damage to combo somebody, they are so squishy that they explode.

For fighter/tanks, Garen is a pretty decent buy. Some of the other popular ones that show up are Nasus, Zac, Darius, Riven, Irelia.

[InstinctsKill]

I don't know your exact play style, but Garen is a great buy, IMO. He's a very simple champion to play, and landing a kill with his ult is extremely satisfying. More often than not, I find myself going "HUAHHH!" right along with him as I use it.

Vi is also another fun/satisfying choice if you have the IP. If jungling is more your style, Sejuani is amazing (12% of their max HP upon landing your Q...ouch!).

[Renegade Paladin]

I don't know your exact play style, but Garen is a great buy, IMO. He's a very simple champion to play, and landing a kill with his ult is extremely satisfying. More often than not, I find myself going "HUAHHH!" right along with him as I use it.

Giant Sword of Ownership.

[TechnOkami]

Another possibility in that vein.

Brand.

James Brand.

He works for Massively Incendiary 6.

Inb4 Jayce Bond.

[Artanis]

I am very, VERY unhappy with my ISP right now.

I get into my first game against actual humans, and my team is winning handily (18-0 in kills!) despite us having 4 AD Carries. Then my internet cuts itself off.

When I finally get reconnected and back into game...it cuts itself off. Again.

And since this has been a recurring trend with my (insert 53 minutes of continuous, increasingly-profane adjectives) ISP, it'll be a while before I can risk playing again so that I don't get the "jackass leaver" ban

[Olinser]

Inb4 Jayce Bond.

The only problems they'll run into is that with straight up parodies/homages like that they will run into copyright trouble, especially since they are a fairly popular and well-established game. Not saying they couldn't get permission to use them - but they probably think the trouble would be worth it.

[Godskook]

As much as I like assassin type champions, it is now quite clear to me that I suck at them, in 40-ish kills game I ended 3/15/4. So I'm considering to try other type of champions. Is there any fighter/tank that I should look into? I'm also considering buying Garen (450 IP is chump change even for me).

Some good jungler fighter/tank types(could legitimately build an offense item if they're decently ahead, but are also viable full-defense plus a little CDR):
-Jarvan
-Vi
-Xin Zhao
-Hecarim
-Udyr
-Volibear
-Nasus

[Wolf_Haley]

Not enough mention of my boys Trundle and Renek for fighters

[Renegade Paladin]

In the absence of an actual schedule change, I'll be on at 8:00 Eastern for Inversion practice.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Assassin types can be tricky. Their great strength is that a fed assassin can full combo pretty much ANY character except a full tank (and maybe even them, depending on how fed they are), to dead in just a couple seconds.

Their weakness is that if they get shut down early, and they DON'T have the damage to combo somebody, they are so squishy that they explode.

For fighter/tanks, Garen is a pretty decent buy. Some of the other popular ones that show up are Nasus, Zac, Darius, Riven, Irelia.

My recent LoL history with Zed right there, if I miss any part of the combo and Flash isn't online (or sometimes even when it is online) I'm dead right there. Though I find a weird satisfaction of being focus fired by the whole team, I like to believe they found me the biggest threat on the team fight.

I'm decent with Nasus, but I want to try other champions, I recall Riven being really fun when she was on the free champion rotation, the others I haven't been able to play them, but Irealia and Zac look really fun (I also love that Zac is arguably one of the truly good champions in the game).

Some good jungler fighter/tank types(could legitimately build an offense item if they're decently ahead, but are also viable full-defense plus a little CDR):
-Jarvan
-Vi
-Xin Zhao
-Hecarim
-Udyr
-Volibear
-Nasus

Out of those Jarvan and Xin Zhao are the ones that I am interested the most, though Udyr is cheap....

[Maryring]

Xin Zhao and Irelia are some of my favourite Bruisers to play. Though Irelia's really rough in the early game and falls far behind in the jungle. So use her with care.

Also. Malphite feels like a big lump of rock. I can't do anything while playing as him, but I'm not gonna die either. Maybe I just played him wrong, but he felt a lot like I only played him for his ult. His other three abilities didn't feel effectful until a lot of levels had been put into them.

[Antonok]

Out of those Jarvan and Xin Zhao are the ones that I am interested the most, though Udyr is cheap....

I will point out as a pretty regular jungle Xin user, he can quite easily fall off late game/ fall behind. But hes still very good in team fights if you can flash+e into one of the backline squishys then ult to spread the front line out a bit.