League of Legends LII: Sin of the Blind Monk

[ChaosOS]

Moonflair's 'ranged only' only applies to the tenacity. Oh, and moonflair cost up by 300g. But this is dominion only, so if you are playing dominion you should get a hextech sweeper on Leona.

[JKTrickster]

Traditional CDR/Tank, I'd guess; complete the Sunfire's sooner, get a Spirit Visage, maybe build an Iceborn Gauntlet instead of Triforce. You know, take your lane income and do what you would with a supporting Leona if you actually had money. You'd give up any pretense of doing damage, but you'd still be, you know, Leona.

I was certainly thinking that but just wondering - she doesn't really benefit from the passive on spirit visage. Would Aegis -> Locket be any better?

I"m assuming that she likes to build health early, then stack more health and resists on top of her tanky frame right?

40% CDR - 20 from Spirit Visage, 10 from IBG, and....Locket maybe?

Or should I aim for some kind of Randuins/Other Tanky Health item first?

[Krazzman]

since i bought her... after trying her out of course.

Game ended like 1/2/11. Have to learn warding a bit more and still problems with the camera.
What do you mean with Q-Resets? Playing yesterday I didn't really saw it happen but I start with WEQR, is this right or wrong?
I went with my ADC runes (AD reds, AD quints, Armor and MRES) and started with Rejuv Bead wards and went for an early philo. At the end I had Dorans Shield, CDred Boots, The Group movement thing out of Philo and the Sightstone.

Any recommendations for ARAM and SR?

[Nadevoc]

Explanation of Leona's double Q reset:

Leona's Q, like most "next auto-attack" modifiers, resets her auto-attack. That means that if you auto someone, then immediately Q, she auto-attacks immediately rather than waiting for, basically, her auto-attacks 'cooldown' (as determined by attack speed).

Unique to Leona is that if you then right-click the opponent immediately after she Qs them, it actually resets the animation AGAIN. This allows her to get three auto-attacks (including the one with her Q's stun and bonus damage) off nearly instantaneously. It's very handy during early levels when even a supports non-buffed auto-attack is a large amount of damage. For example, she has 55 unbuffed AD at level one. Level one Q is 40 bonus damage. So at level one she has a burst of 195 (three autos + Q bonus) that stuns the enemy - very impressive.

Later in the game the usefulness of this falls off since her AD won't be that impressive, but it always gives her some extra damage, and it's very nice for killling wards; it lets her easily destroy a ward placed near here before it can fade into invisibility.

[Winthur]

I start with WEQR, is this right or wrong?

You start with either Q or E so that you have some pressure at level 1, and E is, IMHO, better for level 1 invades while Q can give you more laning pressure (people get screwed when facechecking brushes and you can use the trick Nadevoc explained above to kill wards). At level 2 you get Q or E depending on which one you didn't level at 1. Now you have your most basic damage combo and can probably start exerting some aggression. Then at level 3 you get W, have all your basic spells available, making you tanky, giving you lots of CC and allowing to proc your passive a lot.

And then you max R>W>E=Q (I prefer E, some people prefer Q; E gives more AoE damage and lets you close gaps more often, Q lets you stun people more often in fights)

tl;dr: Typical skill order is Q->E->W->W->W->R, R>W>E=Q

[PersonMan]

Playing more Ranked, I realized what all those old logic questions in school were good for.

You know the type. There are five types of ice cream, one of each, five people each have different preferences, who do you give what to make everyone happy, etc.

Being the one to take everyone's listed lane preference and turn it into a 5-person list of roles is great. It helps us get past the 'derp around doing nothing' phase into the planning one.

Although I still have a problem with mute first picks who can apparently say absolutely nothing while banning and just call a lane and lock in, messing up the rest of the team's plan.

[Olinser]

Playing more Ranked, I realized what all those old logic questions in school were good for.

You know the type. There are five types of ice cream, one of each, five people each have different preferences, who do you give what to make everyone happy, etc.

Being the one to take everyone's listed lane preference and turn it into a 5-person list of roles is great. It helps us get past the 'derp around doing nothing' phase into the planning one.

Although I still have a problem with mute first picks who can apparently say absolutely nothing while banning and just call a lane and lock in, messing up the rest of the team's plan.

That pisses me off so much. Sure, OK, you get to pick first. But if you're going to instalock in a role, SAY something when somebody else calls it.

[MCerberus]

That pisses me off so much. Sure, OK, you get to pick first. But if you're going to instalock in a role, SAY something when somebody else calls it.

And dear lord, do not first pick a solo lane... unless it's a 'perma-ban' that slipped through.

Looking at you Shen.

[endoperez]

And dear lord, do not first pick a solo lane... unless it's a 'perma-ban' that slipped through.

Looking at you Shen.

Counterpicks aren't that important at lower rankings, if countering your pick requires a champion who's rarely seen and tricky to play.

Picking a champion who has several obvious counters as a first-pick can be risky.

[ex cathedra]

And dear lord, do not first pick a solo lane... unless it's a 'perma-ban' that slipped through.

uh, first picking a solo lane is absolutely fine.

[Eldariel]

Counterpicks aren't that important at lower rankings, if countering your pick requires a champion who's rarely seen and tricky to play.

Picking a champion who has several obvious counters as a first-pick can be risky.

Depends on how comfy you're vs. counterlanes. I can play Karthus vs. LeBlanc or Kassadin just fine so I'm absolutely comfortable firstpicking Karthus (or Anivia for that matter).

[Silverraptor]

So, I see shen banned a lot in ranked. Has he gotten buffed or people learned how to build him? How would one build him?

Also, on anivia, rylais slow stacks with her slows right? Wondering if I sub out warmgs on her for rod/rylais.

[Eldariel]

So, I see shen banned a lot in ranked. Has he gotten buffed or people learned how to build him? How would one build him?

He's been a high pick (though unwarranted in solo queue, he has under 50% win rate 'cause utilizing him takes teamplay) ever since his rework. Only when he was nerfed to ground, he was little-played.

Basically, you want:
Sunfire Cape (pushing)
Spirit Visage/Randuin's/Thornmail/Guardian Angel/Banshee's Veil/Warmog's Armor/Locket of the Iron Solari/Abyssal Scepter (health + tankiness)
Trinity Force/Wit's End/Blade of the Ruined King (damage; he scales best with ASpd)

[ex cathedra]

Shen has been a pretty common pick for a very long time now. He starts doran's shield and rushes sunfire cape against AD champions or spirit visage against AP champions. Pick up whichever you didn't buy first along with Randuin's, Triforce, Ninja Tabi, and/or Merc treads depending on what you need at the time.

edit:
still building warmogs on anivia is kind of questionable. that item isn't really worth building on anyone. rod of ages is more than enough health but even that item isn't built every single game. get seraph's/zhonya's/athene's if you want to be tankier.

[Silverraptor]

He's been a high pick (though unwarranted in solo queue, he has under 50% win rate 'cause utilizing him takes teamplay) ever since his rework. Only when he was nerfed to ground, he was little-played.

Basically, you want:
Sunfire Cape (pushing)
Spirit Visage/Randuin's/Thornmail/Guardian Angel/Banshee's Veil/Warmog's Armor/Locket of the Iron Solari/Abyssal Scepter (health + tankiness)
Trinity Force/Wit's End/Blade of the Ruined King (damage; he scales best with ASpd)

Cool. Can you also give me some anivia tips?

^ Thank you too, aether.

[Olinser]

Shen has been a pretty common pick for a very long time now. He starts doran's shield and rushes sunfire cape against AD champions or spirit visage against AP champions. Pick up whichever you didn't buy first along with Randuin's, Triforce, Ninja Tabi, and/or Merc treads depending on what you need at the time.

edit:
still building warmogs on anivia is kind of questionable. that item isn't really worth building on anyone. rod of ages is more than enough health but even that item isn't built every single game. get seraph's/zhonya's/athene's if you want to be tankier.

I've seen a few Warmog Vlads. With a Spirit Visage, he can spam his E without any minions, and the warmog will regenerate much faster than the health cost. That lets him keep 4 stacks the entire time.

[Legoshrimp]

I've seen a few Warmog Vlads. With a Spirit Visage, he can spam his E without any minions, and the warmog will regenerate much faster than the health cost. That lets him keep 4 stacks the entire time.

Too bad he doesn't do any damage.

[MCerberus]

Katarina builds: Warmog's, Crystal Scepter, or Abyssal after Sorcs/Guise? This is assuming you don't need the Hourglass because of super-dive. Mogarina is a thing, lets you out trade pretty much anyone, and allows you to use your bases and resets in early fights without getting squished. Crystal Scepter is 1000 kinds of annoying, something I found when doing some ARAMs and gives AP. Abyssal completes the full flat-MPen build.

Or are all these just situational?

[Krazzman]

no not skilling initiating combat with Leona. WEQR in my case then the skill that is refreshed next.

[Nadevoc]

With Leona, I usually E before I W. It gives the enemy less time to react (since Leona suddenly popping her shield announces "I WANNA HIT YOUR FACE NOW") and means that if they dodge my E, W's still of CD and I didn't use the mana. It delays the shield pop a bit, but I still prefer it.

If you can, opening with Q triple-attack is actually ideal since then your E is still up to hinder them getting away. That's usually only an option if they facecheck you, though.

And whether you open with R or follow up with it can be situational. Doing it at the end of the combo guarantees you hit the stun on your main target, but her ult is her longest range ability so sometimes you want to throw it out to catch people long enough to let you get in range for your more standard E engage.

[ex cathedra]

building spirit visage on vlad already sacrifices a ton of AP and pretty much forces you to build deathcap/void staff to keep up in damage, if you build warmog's you'll be almost ignorable unless you're like 5 levels ahead.

warmogs katarina sucks. it was okay when warmogs was hella undercosted and kat's base damages weren't nerfed, but even then sunfire was way better. liandry's/rylai's is fine, hourglass is essential, last two items should probably be abyssal and void staff.

[Maryring]

I've seen a few Warmog Vlads. With a Spirit Visage, he can spam his E without any minions, and the warmog will regenerate much faster than the health cost. That lets him keep 4 stacks the entire time.

That feels like a huge waste of an item slot. Part of playing Vlad well is to use his E efficiently and judge when to let the E drop, and when to keep it going. Vlad's also easily able to regain any health lost from a no enemy E with a Q from my experience.

[Eldariel]

Cool. Can you also give me some anivia tips?

Rylai stacks with her slow, yes. I only ever get it vs. fast, hard-to-stop low range champions like Singed and Udyr tho, and usually only if I'm dealing with multiples.

I usually get Tear + Catalyst simply for the combination value though if for a reason or another I'm under heavy pressure I might skip one or the other (Catalyst obviously makes for a safer lane, Tear is better in the long run) and maybe make do with Chalice even tho it's the significantly weaker option.


Warmog's is honestly still fine on her; if you need a lot of resistances against both damage types and don't have to deal with percentile damage. Mostly I just go fairly heavy on damage nowadays tho, but again, building Anivia is 110% team composition dependent. She scales so well with so many different stats that as long as you've got the mana covered, all else is fine (as long as you don't build Guardian Angel on her, that's literally the worst possible defensive option).

And Tank Kat/Vlad/etc. still have a niche. They exist as sustained damage dealers vs. burst team. If they don't die in the start, they won't die and they will win the game. Doesn't work that well on competitive level most of the time but in solo queue it's a reasonable option. Honestly, you want to focus on AP if you want burst but survivability is a fine option if you win by dragging fights out. Though obviously, don't forget that Zhonya's is currently the best AP item in the game and you should probably be building it vs. everything but the most AP-heavy teams before you even consider Warmog's.

[Forrestfire]

So, this happened.

Spoiler

Show

Extenuating circumstances because he's sick right now, but still

[Siosilvar]

no not skilling initiating combat with Leona. WEQR in my case then the skill that is refreshed next.

If you're not using Leona to initiate fights, be it teamfights, duo lane fights, or less traditional solo lane fights, you're not using her to her full potential and you will fall behind. There's no real way around it; she's designed to always be looking for opportunities to engage.

Q is the strongest pick at level 1. It gives you unanswerable damage, and in a duo lane, you either kill the first ward or they facecheck your bush to take the Q from you, usually netting about half their health in damage. Then E lets you use that unanswerable damage even if they're avoiding a fight. After you've got the incredibly important utility from those two, only then can you max the W, which is the skill that you really want for tankiness and burst.

This skill order lets you be incredibly strong at levels 1, 2, and 3, instead of just 3. Leona does not do well late game if she doesn't do well early game, you need as many advantages as you can get. Only rarely should you deviate from the QEW->R>W>Q=E skill order.

[TechnOkami]

So, this happened.

Spoiler

Show

Extenuating circumstances because he's sick right now, but still

Ohes noes, the wall of cushiony glory was sat upon again!

[Forrestfire]

I think that's actually two in a row, neither of which count because one was a bad matchup against someone he's only alright at, and this one involved him being on painkillers during the game.

[TechnOkami]

... did he just have surgery or something?

[Forrestfire]

I think he said he has a gum infection.

[TechnOkami]

I think he said he has a gum infection.

Hm. Unfortunate.