Good character for a total newb

[HaemishM]

Those things would make me happy in my pants. Finding out that masteries are set locally really fucked me up. I was thinking they were tied to my account so my work and home computers could share the same masteries. Not so much.

[Prospero]

And champ-specific keyboard mappings?

Fuck yes. This please. Now that I've moved to using smart cast I hate having to rebind my keys each match.

[Rasix]

Yep, it's all about them crits. Hit some minions and harass with your range, save the 7th charged shot for a fight/gank ect;

In case you didn't know, she has the longest starting autoattack range in the game.

Thanks for the tips, everyone.  Worked out quite well first time I played her live.


My Annie is getting a little ridiculous at this level.  I think it's just time to learn some different type of champs.  My last hitting was terrible due to a really bad Ashe sitting in my lane for half of it.


That Jax was on my ass the entire last half of the game.  I had a funny moment where he jumped me when I was low health and ghost/heal on CD;  I just fired off a stun, kited him around for a bit, and then got our cho'gal to pop him up so I could combo him down.  FELT GOOD.

[Rokal]

Tried brand again tonight after switching to smart casting a few weeks back. What a difference. It was so much easier to combo abilities in a short amount of time without having to click between each.

If you haven't tried it out yet, give it a shot.

[Slayerik]

I love some of the beginner item builds.

Looks like you are tearing it up Ras. Glad to see you are into the game, if you play late evenings EST (like after 11) and want to join us sometime hit me up. Might be fun to see the difference in skill ranges. Make sure you have flash first :)

[K9]

Double Heart of Gold on Sivir Oo

[Rasix]

I love some of the beginner item builds.

Looks like you are tearing it up Ras. Glad to see you are into the game, if you play late evenings EST (like after 11) and want to join us sometime hit me up. Might be fun to see the difference in skill ranges. Make sure you have flash first :)

I usually play around 9:30 MST to around midnight.   So I'm on fairly late.  It'll be a while before I have flash, since I'm still only level 6.   But yah, I'm having a lot of fun.  I don't think I've been called a fag yet either.  I have gotten a few people to rage quit, which was fun.

Thinking of trying to learn a either a jungler or a melee champ.  Not too psyched about the other free champs this week, so is there someone cheap I should pick up?

Looking at Fiddle, Garen, Jax.  Gangplank looks fun but he's a bit pricy with IP.    Amumu might be a bit too tanky, and I don't quite get tanks yet.  I tried one round as Rammus and was just fucking awful.

Also, would playing a support mostly be a waste at this level?  I mean, it doesn't do much good if you're being paired with people that tower dive before the creeps even spawn.  Soraka or Morg look OK to me.

[Chimpy]

Xin Zhao is free this week, and he is fun as hell since all you have to do is mash buttons and yell HEEEYA-SHA-ZO-KA-HEEYA!

[Rasix]

Just looked at his abilities.  Yah, he looks like he's easy as hell to play.  Face roll.  Usually grabbed pretty quick in the games I'm playing.

[Prospero]

AP Soraka is awesome at any level right now.

[Slayerik]

You might look into jungle fiddle. IIRC, he can jungle without runes and is an amazing ganker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V44mC42BIBI&feature=fvst

Might have to start with a Doran's ring for an extra 100 HP. Not really sure. I'll go test now in a bot game...

I'd probably wait until level 8 at the minimum so you can run 0/0/8 for the increased XP.

[statisticalfool]

Soraka or Morg are good picks for playing around with support, because you can solo mid and carry it up if you need to (starfall pushing is hilarious), but you can also support in a lane if you like.

Also, before you buy too many champs with IP, if you feel like spending money, you should consider the digital collector's guide. It's got a really nice set of champs, even if the IP prices have come down recently.

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Collector's_Edition

Lot of very viable champs there.

[statisticalfool]

You might look into jungle fiddle. IIRC, he can jungle without runes and is an amazing ganker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V44mC42BIBI&feature=fvst

Might have to start with a Doran's ring for an extra 100 HP. Not really sure. I'll go test now in a bot game...

I'd probably wait until level 8 at the minimum so you can run 0/0/8 for the increased XP.

I just hit level 20, all runed up, and was just barely surviving blue buff. I doubt a low-level fiddle can take it without a leash. Let me go check.

[Slayerik]

Just checked...you need a leash. Heal didn't even work :)

[Prospero]

Yeah, they nerfed Fiddle's jungle pretty hard. It's probably doable with the right rune page, but you would need a full set of tier 3 runes.

[Vaiti]

I've tried alot of rune pages with Fiddle, and never got his jungle to work. I've tried stright up M Pen, CDR, a combo of the two, AP runes. And I can never kill Blue. Kind of annoying. Not sure how you are supposed to build him to jungle, but well, I haven't really looked hard either. Rammus and Jax are my goto jungles.

[Slayerik]

I imagine with a leash and a few hits jungle fiddle wouldn't be that hard...once you get blue just drain the world!

[Prospero]

AP Quints, FLat armor seals, MPen marks, flat CDR glyphs. 9/0/21. Smite/Flash. You have to have the armor seals or you'll never survive. Most jungle rune pages use flat armor seals, especially for folks with any sort of life steal. I think Jax is the only character I don't use flat armor seals on to jungle, for obvious reasons.

[Mosesandstick]

I can't think of a jungler where you're not carrying armor or dodge seals.

Also a strong leash can make a huge difference, when I play with friends the aim is usually for the jungler to be at full hp after the level up.

[Slayerik]

Also, for the record, a leash is where someone else hits the monster first, causing it to aggro on them. Then you damage it as it tries to path to that champ. Usually solo mid character does it for you and proceeds to mid lane after. Usually have it down to about half life by the time it turns on you. It's bad ass.

[Prospero]

Yeah me neither. Heck with Amumu and Malphite I run a full flat armor page. Nunu is the only character I think I would jungle with using different seals; either scaling AP or MR.

[Slayerik]

And champ-specific keyboard mappings?

Fuck yes. This please. Now that I've moved to using smart cast I hate having to rebind my keys each match.

That's a nice thing about my nostromo, I have started making profiles on it to map for different characters. I love my nostromo.



About jungling, if you are running full armor I say you are doing it wrong. Are you starting with Cloth Armor and 5 health pots too? If you kill stuff faster it's as good as having armor, or better. It dies quicker, you get xp quicker, and they hit you less.

Armor in your reds/quints? Run Armor Penetration/AD/AS instead (or a mix, depending on champ). Much better bang for the buck.

[Prospero]

I originally made the page for Malph since he uses his ground slam to jungle and gets the armor turned into damage. I've since adopted the page for a couple other tanks. I won't deny something else for marks would be more efficient in many( if not most! ) cases, but it works well enough and I'm tapped out on rune pages. I pretty much never have to buy an armor item now to tank if I don't want to which lets me focus on MR and AP to be more of threat. I should probably sit down and do the math to figure out what would be best there.

[Mosesandstick]

Generally I think ArP Quints and AD marks were most efficient (glyphs are kinda secondary). But a lot of people already have ArP Marks, so AD quints are fine. My favourite junglers are/were AS based, so I have AS quints that I use (XZ, Noc).

[K9]

Is there a good case for scaling runes vs flat runes? I get the impression that the rune boni are rapidly dwarfed by item boni by level 8 or so, and so the best value is to get the biggest bonus you can at level 1, and use that to your advantage. Anything I'm missing?

[Mosesandstick]

Have to do it on a case by case basis. Some level out at around level 7, others at 13.

http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/rune-tips-what-secondary-and-primary-means-and-more-24255

[statisticalfool]

Is there a good case for scaling runes vs flat runes? I get the impression that the rune boni are rapidly dwarfed by item boni by level 8 or so, and so the best value is to get the biggest bonus you can at level 1, and use that to your advantage. Anything I'm missing?

A lot of runes you do want flat, because they matter more early: for example, AP stacking so you can dominate your lane, armor so you can survive the jungle, etc, etc.

If your problem is mid to late game though, you want the scale. So mana regen (clarity?) will often use the scaling ones, and magic resist is totally a late game one.

[Dark_MadMax]

A lot of runes you do want flat, because they matter more early: for example, AP stacking so you can dominate your lane, armor so you can survive the jungle, etc, etc.

If your problem is mid to late game though, you want the scale. So mana regen (clarity?) will often use the scaling ones, and magic resist is totally a late game one.

Precisely. Only runes which come to my mind as "late game" are CDR runes. Because for everything else the difference they make is negligible compared to items you acquire.

[statisticalfool]

Huh, I like the flat ones better: I feel like I'd rather have the cooldown edge early on, when it can mean a lot more pressure, than a slightly better CDR at the end of the game. Also, by end game, you can easily cover for CDR problems with an item.

[Margalis]

I use scaling CDR runes. At max level I get something like 15% CDR. On the characters I use them on (Alistar, Sona, Morgana) I typically don't have the mana to spam early anyway and the lower CD's are more helpful for team fights than laning. Those are the only scaling runes I use though.

[Rasix]

Too much tanky DPS everywhere.  I'm getting torn up pretty bad as Cait in the last few games I've played.   Playing blind pick.. so you don't know until the game starts if you're completely fucked.

edit: Should point out that I'm finally facing people that aren't faceroll terrible.  I need to start building my items a little better I think as well.

[Mosesandstick]

You need a support! Tanky dps doesnt work so well when you've got a Janna helping to stop their every movement.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

So can someone give me a quick rundown on what 'smartcast' does and why I should be using it? Just got back into playing after like 4+ months off. Maybe better key controls will make it easier to tolerate the horrible, horrible people?

[K9]

It casts the spell wherever your cursor is aimed, so it saves on having to click a target. I think that's the rationale.

The more I play Morgana the more I like her; she can be a real bully in any lane, and she is very durable. As I get the hang of her skillshot I find her eminently more enjoyable to play. Even managed to win a 3 v 1 today, so pleased.

[statisticalfool]

She's totally getting nerfed. It's sad.