Champions

[Kaden]

For some reason people don't understand that Panth is a caster. 100%. He just happens to be a caster with an AutoAttack that actually does damage. There should be nothing surprising about "caster goes mid."

[John Doe]

For some reason people don't understand that Panth is a caster. 100%. He just happens to be a caster with an AutoAttack that actually does damage. There should be nothing surprising about "caster goes mid."

But casters are AP, therefore you don't mid unless you are AP Pantheon.

I do miss playing AP Pantheon.

[Mr. Zhu]

For some reason people don't understand that Panth is a caster. 100%. He just happens to be a caster with an AutoAttack that actually does damage. There should be nothing surprising about "caster goes mid."

Yeah, he's one of the rare types of AD Casters. I think Riot should make more items that complement with AD Casters. So far as I can tell there's only really Talon, Pantheon and maybe Riven. Ehhh, people mostly end up stacking BT on them which makes me sad. On a side note, Pantheon's attack animation is actually extremely op..

[Rafael]

Tryndamere jungle, kinda cool. Little luck-based, but pretty cool and it gets rid of the laning phase that I suck so bad at with him.

[Mal Nova]

Soooo... Tell me what I need to know about Katarina..... strats... runes and all that goodness<_<

[Jonathan Meer]

solomid.net
mobafire.com

[Mal Nova]

<_< >_>

But I'd rather get Chubbsians take on it first>_>

[Rafael]

Meh, I don't like her for two reasons: Her Q takes up to level 4 or 5 before it's a consistent, easy poke, and her ult, aka the reason you use her, is shut down extremely easily by any cc other than a slow. So, every time I play her, cc galore on the other team, but I always fight against her with either low cc or retards who don't use it on her.

[Piper Juunanagou]

That's why you should never ult into a team fight with Kat. You need to wait for the first wave of enemy CC to go through before you pounce.

As for her Q. You just level it first and pick up a Tome. If you have some AP runes, trust me, you'll be pissing off that enemy champion.

[Ashe]

She's a blast to play. The thing is, and this is something we are all really bad about, she's a very situational pick. We're bad about picking 5 champs that were predecided, even if we already intend to fill a role. We've got the right IDEA, we just don't quite get there.

An example was the game we played the other day. Before we even started the queue, Trygelan said "I intend to go bottom as ranged AD this game." I followed with "I'll play Rammus bot with you then." Then I proceeded to change about four or five times on who I was hoping to pick as the tank to go bot with.

No one else really said a word, but Trygelan and I were last to pick. First pick was jungle Cho'gath. My thoughts basically went "Um... well... two tanks is less than ideal, but Cho's not bad, that gives us a good counterjungler and being tankier isn't really too bad of a thing if our damage is fine." They pick Fiddle and Sona (making their bans of Janna and Alistar very obvious in what they were going to do - aoe comp). We're like, ok, we know what they are going to do, we talk about it. But then we lock in Tristana and Gangplank. I remind that Tryg had said he wanted to ranged AD and the point was made that Trist has a knockback for Fiddle. (Again, I think the thought process was great "get Fiddle under control" but I don't think Tristana when we already had a ranged AD planned was as helpful in practice, especially knowing she was going mid against their AP, who we knew would be aoe centric with cc.) They lock Annie for mid and Galio for their top (I figured Galio would be their call for the aoe comp, but hoped he'd make it down to me. I should have just called for someone to grab him and pass to me, I think.)

It gets to Tryg and I, he picks MF as intended, I kinda stumble around and finally decide (short on time) that Maokai was possibly the right call, because we had zero AP and needed something with it, and also because if they combo'd, his ult could (as in potentially but in practice wasn't enough) be helpful. I'm not really sure even now who I should have picked there, but if it was a serious game, I think Tryg probably would have not played MF since we didn't need 3 AD 2 Tanks.

Ultimately, I'm not really that bothered, but its something I wanted us to keep in mind for when we do play games. I made comments in chat about it, with full intentions of "ogodwearesofuckedthishurtsWHYYYYY" as my hoped for tone (I have Laryngitis and can't talk at all) but I absolutely doubt that actually went through and somewhere in there it was hijacked with "FUCK SHIT ASSHOLE COCK CUNT PUNCH THESE BITCHES WTF KILL YOU ALL", which I apologize for. (I know everyone was quiet in a "um... how to respond? respond at all?" way that was kinda funny) I was whispering with Tryg and taking a kinda sarcastic "OH THE HUMANITY" tone that went public at a hilarious moment.

I was like "Oh, lol. Oh well, let's cut these bitches" and the other team was like "oh hells naw, dawg, that shit won't fly" and promptly fucked my face.

On that note, fuck Fiddlesticks and his great awareness and their warding skill. Fuck him in his pointy stick riddled ass.

[Jonathan Meer]

Cho'gath can be built AP, and that's what I was doing.

[Kaden]

Cho'gath can be built AP, and that's what I was doing.

You realize that wasn't, at all, his point, right? >.>

I think the best way to work on 5s comps is to start with who plays what before even clicking the "start game" button. It gets things started, but on a very rudimentary "what does this even mean" level. In the situation Ashe described, Trist was absolutely the right pick. It should have been Tryg's, though. Whoever grabbed the second AD should have either traded it down and picked something else that hadn't already been spoken for. Look at the diversity that you still have by just calling a lane/archetype:

Solo top/bruiser: Riven (late game ad), Tryn (hyper carry ad), Rumble (AP bruiser), Morde (AP bruiser/pusher), Akali (AP assassin), Talon (AD assassin), Udyr (tank/utility beast-man)

Mid: Ryze (tanky, low-AP magic dmg carry), Veigar (anti-caster AP carry), Cass (AP carry, pusher, AoE), Kat (tonsofdamage AP carry, AoE), Panth (AD caster), Orianna (AP carry, utility, AoE), Karthus (zombie, global ult)

Duo bot AD: Trist (positional control, hyper carry), Ashe (super utility, global stun), Corki (super damage, no CC, AoE), Vayne (FUCKING % TRUE DAMAGE, single-target beast), Sivir (pusher, buffs

Duo bot Support: Janna, (CC, disengagement, goddess slut of assists), Leona (tanky, CC galore), Sona (super sustain, disengagement, buffs), Soraka (burst heal, AoE, silence, sustain), Taric (CC, AoE, buff, roaming, buffs), Ali (CC, sustain, roaming, tanky), Gangplank (he eats fruit)

Jungler: Shaco (fuck this guy. seriously), Trundle (super debuffs, AD bruiser), Nocturne (long-range ult, AD carry), Nunu (counter jungle, AoE, CC, buff)

Those are only a few examples. There's SO much that can be done within any given archetype. Picking one is just a great place to start working on comps that have a lot of synergy.

[Sigfried Hunin]

What do people think about Sion? I've been doing... ALRIGHT with him recently. Getting used to him.

[Kaden]

In SR he's decent as AP and far too inconsistent as AD.

[Trygelan]

Stuff.

Honestly, that game that night once trist was picked (I was one of the last two) I should have just swapped to an AP, but was tired and hadn't slept for about 30 hours, so I wasn't really thinking and I wanted to see the new MF skin in game. Also, I tend to be a little less concerned with team comp in normals, though that should be a higher priority for everyone over all even in blind pick simply to make sure we don't have overlapping roles or short on one damage type. Oh well.

[Mr. Zhu]

Soooo... Tell me what I need to know about Katarina..... strats... runes and all that goodness<_<

I used to main her, and let me just say that she is an awesome champion to play. I know a lot of people say she's not viable etc etc, but fuck them, Kat's gameplay and how good she is in a teamfight is directly related to how good her handler is. The main thing about playing Katarina is knowing that you are the clean up crew AP carry, not the sustain damage AP carry. You shunpo into a team fight that has already ensued, and you make sure their main CC's have already blown everything and that's when you jump in. She has supremely high mobility with her E acting as an attack and an escape, and her cooldowns refresh after every kill or assist, so you can unlimited E jump. Great ganking ability, great assassination ability. My favorite is when people facecheck a bush and soak up a full ult of yours. Galios or Malphites are best teammates for Kat.

For runes I go pretty standard caster, flat AP quints, AP/level blues, mag pen reds, ap/level yellows or armor yellows. The build that I find works brilliantly is, Sorc Boots, Gunblade, Rylais, Deathcap, Void Staff and your choice of Hourglass or Lich Bane.

[Jonathan Meer]

You realize that wasn't, at all, his point, right? >.>

I was defending my pick, against the paragraph-long rendition of his thoughts and reflections on it.

There were about five points in that post to comment on; I picked the one relevant to me

[Mr. Zhu]

What do people think about Sion? I've been doing... ALRIGHT with him recently. Getting used to him.

Apparently he's been FotM because of Elementz tier list, people usually run him mid now. Fun fact, he gets hard countered by Pantheon.

[Ashe]

I was defending my pick, against the paragraph-long rendition of his thoughts and reflections on it.

There were about five points in that post to comment on; I picked the one relevant to me

I didn't mean to make it sound like I was attacking you (if that's how you read it). I apologize for that. Anyway, you were the first person to pick so there's no real need to defend your pick.

[Piper Juunanagou]

What do people think about Sion? I've been doing... ALRIGHT with him recently. Getting used to him.

Sion's a lot of fun with his ability to get stupid bursty with a lot of AP.