League of Legends XXXII: Cupcakes and Kittens and Squirrels. Oh my!

[Boowells]

Oh and look up the map of all the areas that you can jump to/through, some of them are MUCH larger jumps then you should be able to do cause of how the terrain works.

The rule is that if you can jump halfway through the terrain, you'll end up on the other side. With the nerf on Flash, Kassadin can riftwalk past terrain that even Flash can't pass through.

I, too, am fond of RoA on Kassadin. Even if he's an assassin, AA just leaves him far too squishy.

[Qwertystop]

I've been getting back into playing Kassadin recently. Other than his Q, what makes him particularly anti-mage? I played him twice recently, once against Ryze, and once against Morgana. They beat me horribly both times. Ryze would Overload when I walked up to Q, and Morg would use Bindings, Spell Shield, or both.

[fred dref]

His passive makes him strong against magic damage and he combines a ton of burst with really high mobility. The nerf to the projectile speed of his Q hurt his laning, which has always been his weakest part, but once you hit 6 you can typically do really well against most mages.

Morgana, by the way, is often touted as a strong counter to Kassadin. You can't kill her, and she can just push to your tower and go gank while you either fall behind on XP/gold to follow/stop her, or stay and farm and watch an ally die.

[Eldariel]

I've been getting back into playing Kassadin recently. Other than his Q, what makes him particularly anti-mage? I played him twice recently, once against Ryze, and once against Morgana. They beat me horribly both times. Ryze would Overload when I walked up to Q, and Morg would use Bindings, Spell Shield, or both.

He has 56 natural MR on 18 on top of his passive. Run MR Blues on him and maybe even MR Quints and win every trade ever against mages (always Q 'em back when they try to do something). And against Morg, just farm; she can't touch you unless you leave your creeps so you farm 'til 6 and kill everyone on Morg's team. Morg is a freewin lane for Kass. Ryze is the hardest Kass counterpick so I wouldn't be worried about that.

Skill order is either QWQEQRQEQEEER or QWQEQRQEQEREE. Either way you get the full set on level 13. Don't forget your passive giving you AA speed and W giving you damage; you can hurt in melee.

[PersonMan]

Skill order is either QWQEQRQEQEEER or QWQEQRQEQEREE. Either way you get the full set on level 13. Don't forget your passive giving you AA speed and W giving you damage; you can hurt in melee.

Trivial Note: E active is spellvamp-able. Meaning that, with enough of it and good damage you can pretend to have lifesteal.

[PEACH]

W active, you mean?

[PersonMan]

W active, you mean?

Yes, yes I do.

Although it kind of applies to W. I mean, with W you kind of do an attack-like sweep...

[Boowells]

Don't forget your passive giving you AA speed and W giving you damage; you can hurt in melee.

This. Oh GOD THIS. I was playing Brand one time on TT. I nuked Kass in the middle of the jungle with my full combo, including bonus W damage.

He survived, RIFTWALKED RIGHT NEXT TO ME, and beat the living daylights out of me with his W melee attacks after he used his burst.

I was flipping out. Not to mention my team was winning by like 3-4 kills and I was a Deathcap/WotA up from him with a RoA/(It was one of the Deathcap components but I can't remember).

[Neoseanster]

I've seen a few tanky DPS Kassadin's recently. They'd rush Tear of the Goddess, build Warmog's, then finish Manamune, buy Atma's, etc. It actually seemed surprisingly effective, but this was just in normal games, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm not sure how if it was a decent strategy or if the people they were playing against were bad.

And, wee, I bought myself a set of lifesteal quints. Didn't get to really test them yet, I've only had one game since then, as Caitlyn, but they seemed to work well enough for that. Starting a Doran's Blade with the mastery meant 12% lifesteal from level 1, and laning with a Soraka on top of that meant "all harass ever is utterly meaningless." >.> I'm looking forward to trying them with junglers later.

[Maeglin_Dubh]

I've seen a few tanky DPS Kassadin's recently. They'd rush Tear of the Goddess, build Warmog's, then finish Manamune, buy Atma's, etc. It actually seemed surprisingly effective, but this was just in normal games, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm not sure how if it was a decent strategy or if the people they were playing against were bad.

And, wee, I bought myself a set of lifesteal quints. Didn't get to really test them yet, I've only had one game since then, as Caitlyn, but they seemed to work well enough for that. Starting a Doran's Blade with the mastery meant 12% lifesteal from level 1, and laning with a Soraka on top of that meant "all harass ever is utterly meaningless." >.> I'm looking forward to trying them with junglers later.

Thank you very much. Now I am compelled to try Bruiser Kass again. Basically tanky-on-hit, like Teemo, with a Manamune for his ult.

[PersonMan]

I've seen a few tanky DPS Kassadin's recently. They'd rush Tear of the Goddess, build Warmog's, then finish Manamune, buy Atma's, etc. It actually seemed surprisingly effective, but this was just in normal games, so take it with a grain of salt. I'm not sure how if it was a decent strategy or if the people they were playing against were bad.

To be honest, I'd be more inclined to give a disclaimer if something worked in ranked. Honestly, in my experience, people who play ranked are either bad or doing worse than they normally do. Oh, and it's always the same meta. In solo queue blink pick you always have the question of 'what is the enemy team comp? Do they have a jungler?'.

I guess I prefer the art of adaptation to that of counterpicking and pre-game strategy.

[toasty]

To be honest, I'd be more inclined to give a disclaimer if something worked in ranked. Honestly, in my experience, people who play ranked are either bad or doing worse than they normally do. Oh, and it's always the same meta. In solo queue blink pick you always have the question of 'what is the enemy team comp? Do they have a jungler?'.

I guess I prefer the art of adaptation to that of counterpicking and pre-game strategy.

Not sure what planet you are from. I don't play Blind pick ever (because its a terrible mode and only exists because LoL is, at its heart, a casual game) but people in ranked aren't worse than normal queue. At least, when I play normal queue. Which is hardly ever.

Also: What is the same meta? You mean the fact that people don't play bad champions and instead play good champions? That people always ban Morgana, who is one of the easiest mages to play and do well with? That people ban Shaco, who is one of the most annoying heroes in the game? That people think Shen is OP (Shen actually isn't OP in solo queue at all. nobody ever tells me when they are getting ganked)? I'm confused as to what kind of meta there is in normal queue that doesn't exist in ranked. The only aspect of the LoL meta that is set in stone these days is AD Carry Support bottom. And the fact that you don't really have Mages that are capable of jungling (ignoring Dogmantra and silly attempts to jungle Morgana)

[Octopus Jack]

So now I've tried AP Kog given all the advice here and I can quite happily say whatever fun I was having as normal Kog was at least doubled. It's quite hard not to giggle when you melt someone who doesn't know where you are.
Also on the subject of the meta and things like that I scribbled down a few thoughts in my League blog below but it's nothing more than a little personal rant if anyone cares to take a read.

[Eldariel]

Not sure what planet you are from. I don't play Blind pick ever (because its a terrible mode and only exists because LoL is, at its heart, a casual game) but people in ranked aren't worse than normal queue. At least, when I play normal queue. Which is hardly ever.

He probably just has a lower elo in ranked than normal. That's normal enough; many people simply don't play enough ranked to get to their real elo and thus play with people they consider terrible. Though enemy team not having a jungler is hardly an advantage for normals; I don't know what that's about...

Also: What is the same meta? You mean the fact that people don't play bad champions and instead play good champions? That people always ban Morgana, who is one of the easiest mages to play and do well with? That people ban Shaco, who is one of the most annoying heroes in the game? That people think Shen is OP (Shen actually isn't OP in solo queue at all. nobody ever tells me when they are getting ganked)?

A decent Shen doesn't need to be told when to ult; you have your own map awareness for that. I, for one, rarely have trouble hitting my ults with Shen in random pick (though my Shen-record currently is abysmal since generally it seems your team is bound to lose all lanes whenever you're not intervening if you get Shen).

I'm confused as to what kind of meta there is in normal queue that doesn't exist in ranked. The only aspect of the LoL meta that is set in stone these days is AD Carry Support bottom. And the fact that you don't really have Mages that are capable of jungling (ignoring Dogmantra and silly attempts to jungle Morgana)

AD Carry/Support bottom is subject to double bruiser- and Mage/Support or Solo+Roam switch-ups too. Also, Fiddle and Karthus are both perfectly fine junglers and Amumu is kind of a jungle mage also.

[Math_Mage]

Toasty and PersonMan are rather the extremes of the debate.

For myself, I hate blind pick. It's so rushed that you're lucky to get everyone in roles they're comfortable playing, let alone think about what your team is supposed to be accomplishing. And that's before the annoyance of picking, oh, Ashe for bot lane practice and finding out you picked into Graves/Sona or something. Or you find out that you're facing team "I'm not tryhard enough to draft/Ranked, but I AM tryhard enough to pick all the champs that would be banned!" and Shen/Kass/Shaco/Kog/Nunu (or something) say hi...and it happens three games in a row.

I find draft actually affords MORE opportunities to try interesting things, because you have time to talk out a comp that accommodates them.

[Lix Lorn]

So guys
I think I need an intervention

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[SlyGuyMcFly]

My normal games almost invariably follow the meta, both Blind and Draft. Sometimes I'll see an oddball support, or people trying out double jungle. But I can't even recall the last time I played a game without junglers on both teams.

Edit: Lix - I'd help, but I don't know how to do interventions against awesome.

[fred dref]

To be honest, I'd be more inclined to give a disclaimer if something worked in ranked. Honestly, in my experience, people who play ranked are either bad or doing worse than they normally do. Oh, and it's always the same meta. In solo queue blink pick you always have the question of 'what is the enemy team comp? Do they have a jungler?'.

I guess I prefer the art of adaptation to that of counterpicking and pre-game strategy.

I think your experiences that people are generally bad comes from the fact that you have more losses than wins and are under 1200 Elo in ranked. Typically in those situations, people genuinely are bad.

Choosing picks and making a strong team is a huge factor in terms of success as a team, and in several notable cases a huge advantage in teamcomp/counterpicks overcame a disadvantage in general play. Specifically, I am thinking of Dignitas vs. Monomaniac and Dignitas vs. CLG, game 2 in IPL 4. Dignitas was hugely behind Monomaniac in objectives, gold and experience, but their triple-support team was just way too strong when they finally got their act together in teamfights. CLG, basically any time they run a poke comp, is liable to fall behind in kills and gold early but make it up many times over by the time they push down the enemy nexus. The game vs. Dignitas was that much worse for Dig because they were near-even in laning, so Dignitas couldn't even try to steamroll them off the board before the poke machine got going.

[Lix Lorn]

Edit: Lix - I'd help, but I don't know how to do interventions against awesome.

...
Can I sig that?

[Venusaur]

So I am curious on what everyone here thinks about Jungle Olaf. I know he is better top, but he has a fast clear, ganks well with his Q, and has good sustain.

[Math_Mage]

So I am curious on what everyone here thinks about Jungle Olaf. I know he is better top, but he has a fast clear, ganks well with his Q, and has good sustain.

It just feels like you could play Mundo and have a faster clear at higher health, better Q ganks, and better tanking in mid-late game. I'm not sure if there are any situations where Olaf works better in jungle, to be honest.

[fred dref]

I feel that Mundo jungle Olaf top is going to be stronger than the inverse in all situations, and even if you don't want Olaf top, Mundo jungle and no Olaf will probably be stronger than Olaf jungle and no Mundo.

[Madmal]

Could i get some pointers about Poppy (runes, items, etc)? I bought her and her Noxus skin with the last mass sale. I tried her vs bots with 9/21/0; Mpen reds, Flat Armor yellows, Flat Mres Blues and Movesped quints.

[fred dref]

Optimally, one plays Poppy in draft mode against weak laners. One has two pages, one with flat armor everything-but-reds, the other with a page similar to one you're using. Physical damage tops get the first, mixed/magic damage ones get the latter. Play very carefully, use your W and Q (shouldn't need much of Q, though) to last hit under tower if you're being pushed. Gunblade, Shurelia's and Triforce are your offensive core, grab defenses to taste. GA is strong. Ult either the one you need to do the most damage to or the one least able to stop you dealing damage. Ghost/Ignite is almost non-negotiable as summoners.

[Math_Mage]

I'm a fan of the ESL casters I watched tonight, Faro and Rambo. They know what they're talking about. I'd like to see them calling the shots in a bigger event.

[Delusion]

I have two questions/problems.

First is that I want normal casting and smart casting bound the other way around (ie. normal q qould shift+q and smartcasted q just q) but the game doesn't let me bind shift+something to normal casting. Any ways around this?

Second is that my champion roster lacks a Jungler who can iniate well. I have Alistar, but I feel like I need to have flash with him to properly iniate most of the time. Can anyone recommend me a jungler who can do that? Bonus points if he/she is relatively easy and cheap. Easy because I don't play Junglers that often, so I most likely wont get experience with him/her fast.

Edit: I'd get Rammus, but he is banned so often :(

[fred dref]

Alistar can initiate well with W>Q, but it is very tricky to land without practice.

[Adumbration]

Just hit 2k Elo. ^_^

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Support power for the win.

[PersonMan]

Also: What is the same meta? You mean the fact that people don't play bad champions and instead play good champions? That people always ban Morgana, who is one of the easiest mages to play and do well with? That people ban Shaco, who is one of the most annoying heroes in the game? That people think Shen is OP (Shen actually isn't OP in solo queue at all. nobody ever tells me when they are getting ganked)? I'm confused as to what kind of meta there is in normal queue that doesn't exist in ranked. The only aspect of the LoL meta that is set in stone these days is AD Carry Support bottom. And the fact that you don't really have Mages that are capable of jungling (ignoring Dogmantra and silly attempts to jungle Morgana)

Every single Ranked game I've played has been Bruiser Top, AP Mage mid, AD/Support bot, Jungler. This is what I mean. In two random solo queue games I might see one jungler, or two, or three or four. I might see Ashe mid while I jungle, or Rumble bot. There's more variety.

(And, to be honest, enough many people just complacently follow the meta and have no idea how to play against something new that the 'shock value' can make an otherwise inferior lane get the advantage.)

Oh, and because ranked generally has a higher number of 'a mistake is made? RAGE MODE ACTIVATED!' and 'enemy has 1 more HP? GG noob team' type players, in my experience.

He probably just has a lower elo in ranked than normal. That's normal enough; many people simply don't play enough ranked to get to their real elo and thus play with people they consider terrible. Though enemy team not having a jungler is hardly an advantage for normals; I don't know what that's about...

This is probably the reason, yes. Although, if you have a 2v1 top lane you can often get ahead in kills from ganks if you're the one. I recently played as Malph against an Akali/Trynd top and we were up 3 kills by the time their 'push all the time, tank Malph to get tower damage' strategy even began to bear fruit.

Then again, they sucked, so I'm not really sure if it was just them.

(If ELO hell is bad teams, good enemies, then am I in ELO heaven? My teams are generally fairly competent, but I keep noticing pretty stupid mistakes being made by people I'm against.)

A decent Shen doesn't need to be told when to ult; you have your own map awareness for that. I, for one, rarely have trouble hitting my ults with Shen in random pick (though my Shen-record currently is abysmal since generally it seems your team is bound to lose all lanes whenever you're not intervening if you get Shen).

+1. My experience is primarily as Support Top Shen (solo queue) and occasionally in premade with some friends. Often I miss more ults when I'm Skyping with my team because I get complacent about looking around the map and people sometimes just flat-out forget my ult.

AD Carry/Support bottom is subject to double bruiser- and Mage/Support or Solo+Roam switch-ups too. Also, Fiddle and Karthus are both perfectly fine junglers and Amumu is kind of a jungle mage also.

See, if ranked were like this for me, I'd probably enjoy it more than I do now. It's always the same team comp, though. People don't switch-up because, in my experience, not following the meta means people start the game off with 'gg' and a general negative attitude.

---

Second is that my champion roster lacks a Jungler who can iniate well. I have Alistar, but I feel like I need to have flash with him to properly iniate most of the time. Can anyone recommend me a jungler who can do that? Bonus points if he/she is relatively easy and cheap. Easy because I don't play Junglers that often, so I most likely wont get experience with him/her fast.

Edit: I'd get Rammus, but he is banned so often :(

Malphite, Malphite, Malphite.

Cheap-ish (3150), easy initiation (press R, put AoE on enemy team), good burst (RWEQ1 means 'you all take [at least 700-800 base, 400 from ult + 200 base E + 1/2 of your newly buffed armor + your Q to one target] damage and your ADs are now terrible for ~2 seconds'), fairly easy jungling (I'm a fairly inexperienced jungler, but I ran 6/0/8 with jungle Malphite on my first try!*) and pretty good ganks.

He's also an armor carry, just like Rammus!

When I jungle with him I start Cloth + 5 pots and E, wolves then blue then beat up small monsters until you want to gank. At some point I get red.

I normally build Ninja Tabi + HoG early, then go for a Frozen Heart (if magic damage is giving you trouble, I'd recommend starting on a Spirit Visage after you get the Glacial Shroud). Malphite loves CDR - or at least I do - so I normally want Randuin's, Tabi, FH, Spirit Visage as core defensive items first. After that I might check to see what the enemy team has, but I normally just ignore them and build more armor if I'm ahead.

*Ok, this was primarily because their team was AD heavy and their mages both sucked and got shut down hard by Ashe/Malph double ult ganks.

[Frankelshtein]

WARNING: Self-indulgent wall of text and lack of meaningful content below.

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A question: What, if anything, can I do about intentional feeders? Both on my team and on the enemy team. I just had a terrible game with a truly mean-spirited individual that has really put a negative spin on my night. If you're winning and someone on your team begins to intentionally feed, it's maddening because suddenly you've lost due to circumstances outside of your control. When things like that happen to me, I feel anger towards the person *feeding as well as resentment towards the enemy team for taking advantage of the situation and winning a game they really shouldn't have. I can understand how awkward the situation can *be for the members of the opposing team. Sure, it's obvious that *they were going to lose if not for the intentional feeder, but it isn't like they're going to surrender once the feeder gets going. They're going to try their best to win. It's what I do in those types of situations. Sure, I may try to avoid directly benefitting from the feeder's deaths, but I'm still actively trying to win a game that I should have lost. Winning feels good, and losing doesn't. I'm not a good enough person to not take the free victory created by a feeder on the other team. And if I win a game like that, it doesn't feel good. Everyone knows we shouldn't have won. The winning team feels that they didn't deserve the victory. No one is happy with the outcome, save the troll who created the whole mess. And I feel so helpless in those situations when I'm stuck with a feeder. I can either surrender quickly and feel like I'm giving in to the demands of the person feeding, or I can try my best to win against impossible odds, stretching the game out into a long, agonizing slog to defeat. What can I do to keep the one person from ruining the game for the nine other people playing?

I suppose that's one of the risks of playing games involving teamwork. There's always going to be the trolls. And I suppose there really isn't anything one can do except report them and hope the next game is better. There really isn't anything that can be done, and you risk feeders and leavers every time you solo queue.

Ugh... I honestly didn't know what I was doing writing this whole post. I answered my own question, and this degenerated into a whiny mess. I'm usually quite level-headed when it comes to griefers. Don't let 'em get to you and move on. But every once in a while there comes that one person who just manages to infuriate me in ways I didn't think were possible from an online game, and the experience ends up souring my entire day. I apologize to anyone who has made it this far in this silly post. I just felt the need to express my frustration regarding this matter.

On a slightly more relevant note: I tried a couple games of AD Kass. He's fun and feels fairly powerful, but has some difficulties mid-game if you're at all under-farmed. Also, you'll get yelled at.