Season 3 Changes

[Kail]

If you had fun with Morgana, you might want to give Lux a shot, too.  She's very similar to Morgana, in my experience, but way safer and more useful in the endgame.  Though I've never tried her on TT.

[Goumindong]

She falls off hard lategame and isn't able to pressure a large number of popular mids. In order to make best use of her you have to rush Zhonya's. Zhonya's is expensive in first item and doesn't provide the offense that many other popular options bring.

In the lategame its almost impossible to get a good ult off and so almost impossible to make effective use of the character compared to other team fight ult mids.

It looks like English... but I can't understand a single word.  

Assume you're talking to someone that has played 3 days and knows none of the 'lingo'.

OK, so Morgana has two primary damage abilities. An AoE DoT and a skillshot nuke (which is also a root). In addition her ultimate is an PBAoE Nuke and delayed nuke/Stun

Against single enemies this provides a large amount effective damage since, if she lands her skillshot nuke, she can lay a pool down under them and do a lot of DPS. From levels 6-13 or so she has very good damage in this regard.

Her typical leveling path starts with the skillshot nuke, but maxes the AoE DoT first. This is because the AoE DoT is great for farming and pushing waves while if she lands the nuke, she can generally get a good portion of the AoE DoT off by sticking it under the rooted enemy.

In the mid game, her ability to farm easily and push lanes lets her shove the lane to the turret and roam to support other lanes, and this makes her extremely potent in a game with extended laning as well as in poke comps since her w is a great zoning tool and her q can set up engages.

Her "hard" engage options on single targets amount to either landing the skillshot nuke or getting close enough to start the ult.

The problem comes in lategame team fights. The further the game goes on, in order to be effective in a team fight Morgana needs to do two things. 1) Get in the middle of everyone in order to ult and 2) survive until the second tick of her ult goes off.

Unlike many AoE ulters the CC on her ult is not immediate, so she cannot as easily flash/ult like Amumu (who can also bandage toss) or Galio or Sona or Zyra or Orinanna can, and if she does flash/ult a team she needs to be able to survive them simply saying turning and killing her (a problem that fiddlesticks also has).

The later the game goes on, the more damage the enemy team will have as well as more escapes which means that it becomes harder and harder to land the ult.

Zhonya's Hourglass is generally her first item, it provides an activated ability which makes you untargetable and invulnerable for 2 seconds. Morgana absolutely needs this in order to survive ulting. But this also makes it so you can't move and this makes it easier to get out of Morgana's ult before the second portion goes off. In addition the necessity to get this early puts you at a DPS disadvantage compared to champions who got Liandry's or were able to itemize into more offensive abilities. The other problem with zhonya's is that it requires a needlessly large rod as a component, which requires 1600 gold. Other mids can go back and pick up their items more piecemeal which give them incremental advantages.

The primary weakness of Morgana at the moment is that many other popular mids are just as good at shoving the lane, and so Morgana's ability to passively farm with her w and then help out other lanes is negated when the enemy doesn't have to be there. In addition its become clear that grouping earlier is advantageous, and so long laning phases aren't happening as often.

Speaking of Nunu, any tips for building him AP/bruiser? The AP items are something of an enigma to me since the S3 revamp.

AP Nunu needs CDR and AP. CDR since he only has one primary dps ability and AP since it scales really hard with AP. Tankyness is nice, but not entirely nesecessary beyond what you will naturally pick up from AP items.

The New Liandry's is really strong on him since his e double proc's it. Depending on whether you're able to hit things a lot he does or doesn't need mana regen, but you will probably want a cup anyway since 15% CDR is 15% more damage when you only have one ability. You don't need to worry about sustain because your q heal scales off AP, which will keep you up so long as there are things to eat.

Bruiser Nunu just builds like support nunu but adds a DPS item or two. I don't really play nunu bruiser all that much so am unsure of exactly what to go. Though i am guessing that CDR and a Sheen item would be ideal, especially with the new Frozen Fist (or whatever its called) adding armor, CDR, AP, and an AoE proc (which nunu needs to effectively clear creeps).

I would probably build Frozen Fist, Reverie, Bulwark, and then a Ravenous Hydra and go 0/30/0.
  

[Bzalthek]

There are a lot of streamers for League of Legends too.  Many do commentary (Scarra and Wingsofdeathx commentate a LOT) and some just play and are entertaining in their antics (Aphromoo can be a hilarious bastard).  Sometimes I wanna play LoL when I get home but I don't have anywhere near the mental fortitude to do fuck all, so I'll watch a stream while I prepare to pass out.

It also helps you pick up on lingo.  Kinda embarrassing when someone asked me to leash blue and I had fuck all idea what he was blathering about,.

Edit: Oh yeah, link to twitch streams http://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/League%20of%20Legends

[Rasix]

Twitch generally has the better streamers. They have TSM, Dignitas, Fear (high elo solo queue, shit team), and Nhat Nguyen (support player) among others. Own3d.tv has some benefits with the entire CLG and Curse rosters streaming there, as well as Ocelote and some other pros/personalities.   Twitch sometimes glitches out on me.  For instance right now I can't load their directories but can access their streams from other sites.

I tend to watch Wingsofdeathx late at night when I'm done with gaming. He's pretty entertaining and rather informative. I wish scarra streamed more, but apparently his internet is shitty.  Oddone from TSM is pretty good if you want to learn jungling, but the rest of TSM isn't quite as useful (you'd thing Xspecial's stream would be better, but it isn't). 

Streaming helped me learn the game as well.  I was far less of a noob than I should have been at the start.  Still, the first few times in, I'll admit to not knowing where the blue buff was.

[Malakili]

I use www.teevox.com.  It aggregates streams from twitch and own3d.  Find the occasional random interesting thing to watch too (like speed runs of random games).

[statisticalfool]

If you had fun with Morgana, you might want to give Lux a shot, too.  She's very similar to Morgana, in my experience, but way safer and more useful in the endgame.  Though I've never tried her on TT.

Lux? I don't know, I still have trouble with her combos, which are really the key to being efficient her. Q-E-AA-E-AA-R-AA is non-trivial execution.

[Bzalthek]

Just pretend you are a super scary crazy lady who ejaculates deadly light beams.  Cackle a lot. 

[Malakili]

Just pretend you are a super scary crazy lady who ejaculates deadly light beams.  Cackle a lot. 

It is really impossible not to cackle when shes a chargin' her lazer.

Also, her combo isn't particularly hard to execute, at least no harder than any other character that relies on comboing.

[HaemishM]

Kills with Lux's ult are just FUN. There are certain champs that are like that because they don't have to be anywhere near you when they kill you, just hit an ability at the right time. Karthus, Gangplank and Lux are the ones off the top of my head.

If you want a fun and absolutely overpowered face-melting mid, DIANA. This bitch is CRAZY DPS. She is very squishy, but if you hit the right combo on somebody, you can just fucking melt them into a puddle of goo in seconds time. I especially love it when a Xin thinks he's going to pound me only to find out after his knockup ability goes off, he has fuckall he can do to me and his health just disappears.

[Goumindong]

Also, her combo isn't particularly hard to execute, at least no harder than any other character that relies on comboing.

Most champions who have combo's are much easier to pull off. This is both because her combo is not straight forward and because her auto attack animation is not as snappy as other champions.

E.G. Most combos look like corki, AA,q,AA,r,AA. Where the difficulty is in timing your abilities and auto attacks so that you don't interrupt anything.

Lux's combo works requires that you proc your e right before you land the last auto attack and that you hit a skillshot. e,q,aa,e,aa or e,q,aa,e,r,aa if you've got your ult up. Its significantly harder than most other combo based champions.

[Rasix]

Kills with Lux's ult are just FUN.

Lux ults. 

[HaemishM]

 

Speaking of fun Ult kills, I played with a Darius in ranked yesterday at lunch that was really fucking good. I went mid Mord against a Diana and mostly drove her out of the lane. The Darius just got fed to fuck though and was a really skilled player. At one point I saw him drop 3 straight dunk ult kills around the mid lane inner turrets. Just SPLAT, breathe, SPLAT, breathe, SPLAT! TRIPLE KILL. It was a thing of beauty.

[Rasix]

Same guy did a Darius vid.  

I need to pick him up. Seems like a champ I could play and another champ I can't lane against worth shit (go join Teemo in that club).  

Speaking of ult snipes, I had 2 last night with GP, and my team didn't even get upset. Helps that the Ezreal was cleaning house anyways. We were up early and totally threw it because the Panth that I shit on in lane got to farm up to the point where he had 2 cleavers.  Plus our jungle and mid fed a ton of kills.  God, cleaverland is brutal.

[HaemishM]

Darius is tough to play. I bought him because of how thoroughly I got owned in lane by him a few times, then proceeded to suck in lane with him until I finally switched to someone else.

[Goumindong]

Darius is tough to play. I bought him because of how thoroughly I got owned in lane by him a few times, then proceeded to suck in lane with him until I finally switched to someone else.

Darius is tough to play really well but easy to play. The thing that makes him so hard to play is that you have to use your ult in non-intuitive ways.

Generally when you roam, you want to use your ult early and not get kills with it, if you yourself gets kills then yea, you get fed, but no one on your team gets gold and this lets you be singled out in a team fight and then your team is under farmed.

In team fights you def want to dunk though.

[Margalis]

I played a ranked game yesterday as support where our Darius went 20-2. Our team was basically useless except for him so in every fight I would do everything to keep him alive. Every fight started with 2 or 3 people on our team dying immediately then he and I and maybe one straggler would 2 v 5 and win.

[Der Helm]

Darius is tough to play. I bought him because of how thoroughly I got owned in lane by him a few times, then proceeded to suck in lane with him until I finally switched to someone else.

Playing Darius let me to the discovery of the Hexdrinker. It is an awesome item on Darius if you are up against AP. And the upgrade is even more awesome.

[Malakili]

Games like this drive me totally bonkers.  There were like 3 legitimate team fights the entire hour, and the rest of the time twitch and yi were trying to be heroes rambo style and ended up trading 1 for 1 all over the map.  We could have won this thing 20 minutes earlier if anyone was willing to stay together as a team, but whenever I told people to play safe I'd get nasty comments.

[HaemishM]

I for on welcome our new AP teemo overlords

I played AP Teemo in a blind game last night. First time I'd ever tried AP Teemo.

Holy fuck. I think the only reason I didn't have a better score is the over aggressive Kat I was bot laning with and the Teemo on the other team who built for more Attack Speed early. In the end, both Teemos did 13 kills, but I had less deaths (10 to his 16) and more assists (22 to his 8). The stacking poison damage combined with attack speed items like Ranuaan's Hurricane are just monstrous.

[ezrast]

This login screen music

I don't even, what

I think I might buy this champion.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Sold on the music alone.

[Kail]

New patch drops tomorrow.

Big points for me:

• Jungle is worth more gold, and camp health is more concentrated into larger mobs
• Nerfs for Evelyn, Riven, Talon, Khazix, Lee Sin, Katarina
• Buffs for Rengar, Diana, Nami
• Crystalline Flask is more expensive (350) and slightly more effective
• Iceborne Gauntlet nerfed

They're also changing the ranked system (though I don't think that's going live this patch).  Rather than a huge ladder that everyone's on, you get divided up into leagues (bronze, silver, gold, etc.) of 250 players split into five different divisions, and you fight qualifier matches to move up and down through different divisions and then into higher leagues.

[Goumindong]

They're not actually changing matchmaking it looks like, just getting rid of the ELO number (so instead of saying you were 1500 you would say you were Gold, division 2)

Also, the talon nerf isn't really a nerf. As of right now, cutthroat doesn't actually amplify any damage. They're fixing it, which will amplify his damage from all sources by 3-15%. His abilities are being brought in line so that the fix does not end up as a straight 15% buff to his damage.

[HaemishM]

The jungle changes just seem like more tinkering that may or may not be necessary. Diana getting a buff is just... WTF? She is really really strong already, and you just increased the range on her awesome ass closer AND gave her another second of shield? YES PLEASE.

[Lakov_Sanite]

The jungle changes just seem like more tinkering that may or may not be necessary. Diana getting a buff is just... WTF? She is really really strong already, and you just increased the range on her awesome ass closer AND gave her another second of shield? YES PLEASE.

I don't ever see anyone using diana.

[MediumHigh]

They nerf brain dead button mashing champions to decrease the amount of brain dead button mashers playing them. They don't do it to balance these characters. Expect a new Diana skin to be released soon.

[HaemishM]

The jungle changes just seem like more tinkering that may or may not be necessary. Diana getting a buff is just... WTF? She is really really strong already, and you just increased the range on her awesome ass closer AND gave her another second of shield? YES PLEASE.

I don't ever see anyone using diana.

I don't know why. She's crazy good. A bit squishy at times, but at least at my elo/skill level, she can carry a game.

[Rasix]

She got nerfed.  She's not being played competitively at the moment at all.  Most buffs/nerfs are reactions to higher ELO / tournament play, which is why Diana and Rengar were nerfed in the first place.

At your elo, I think it's more of the player than the champ.  A carry is still a carry, even if they aren't as face wrecking awesome as they once were.

[HaemishM]

That can't be right, she has to be OP because I can melt faces with her just about every game I play. 

I actually think though that she just fits my playstyle perfectly. I'm finding as I have played more games with Jax, Diana, Mao, Lux and Dr. Mundo, I'm a lot better with them than I've been with ADC's lately or with other characters that fit similar roles.

[Bzalthek]

People may not have gotten around to playing her since the initial nerf.  There's a stigma it seems around nerfed toons.  Any nerf makes the champion "horrible" to a lot of flavor of the month people, and they don't come back around until they see that disproved.  So basically, have fun playing a bunch of people who forgot how to play against her!

[Goumindong]

The nerf was pretty hard so it was fairly justifiable.  before the nerf her stats were better than the buff she just got

[Rasix]

Twin Shadows might be my favorite new item.  You can catch someone from so far away with that thing.  Plus, it frees you from a few face checking derps per game.

[Goumindong]

Twin Shadows might be my favorite new item.  You can catch someone from so far away with that thing.  Plus, it frees you from a few face checking derps per game.

As an added bonus, it is one of the few support items (besides Locket) which provides more gold in stats than you pay for it.

[Kail]

I'm always angsting over giving up my gp10 for it, or building an icicle instead.

[Goumindong]

I'm always angsting over giving up my gp10 for it, or building an icicle instead.

Icicle is terrible, buy twin shadows.

Twin Shadows: 2200g stats: 1900 cost: Plus Active

Shard of True Ice: 1339 gold stats (360 of which aren't "now" stats): 1700 cost: +4 gp/10 : + Active

To "make up" the stat difference, assuming you get all of the value from the MP5 (which won't be true) and assuming that the active on the item of the shard of true ice is worth the same as the active on twin shadows your GP/10 needs to run for 27 minutes after upgrading to the shard of true ice.