League of Legends

[Rafael]

eh, more luck than anything with that, guessing when the root is coming. I tend to use it after E(I know, MR debuffs are garbage but still), some people open with it, never know.

[Kaden]

There really is no point in playing solo queue...

[Jonathan Meer]

^ This.

[Kaden]

Why do people try to ban Hotshot out of a game? Ban his Nid and then worry about other shit. Like Saintvicious' Udyr. Or Elementz's Sona. Or Jiji's Zil.

It's so funny to watch people ban against CLG because they're so scared of Hotshot. He's a great player, no question, but it's not like the rest of his team are scrubs.

[Anzekay]

Ok ladies and gentlemen, I have a question.

Generally speaking, if a tower is down, is laning phase over?

EDIT: Oh and I want a reason, don't just give me a 'nope'.

[Kaden]

Depends on who's tower goes down and team comp and relative gold farm, etc., etc..

If the enemy takes your tower and wanders off to roam/gank/whatever, then you probably ended up with less gold/XP than they did by the time it dropped. If that's the case, don't end the phase. Sit back and farm away with no one to harass you. It will also create a split-push situation, though you have to be care, since you don't have a tower.

If you take an enemy tower, then you can either help put pressure on other lanes or stay in the lane and continue to farm up.

Also depends on team composition. If I'm Nasus and my tower drops at the eight minute mark, does that mean I'm done farming? Hell no. I have a good seventeen minutes left on my farm clock. If you're someone like Akali, though, go where ever you'll be able to get the most early gold. Gank, roam, counter-jungle, do whatev.

First tower going down, though, should never be considered synonymous with the end of the laning phase. They can, and do, line up, but definitely not always.

[Trygelan]

Generally, I say no it isn't. I say this because you still need to farm all the way through the game. Also, even after you take their tower, then you still want to be near your lane to push back creeps that start getting close to your tower to keep them from being able to take it. Yes with their tower down, you are able to roam around a bit more, but you still need to be near your lane to farm waves or your tower will suddenly be gone. On the other side of that, if your tower went down, try to push back on theirs as long as you can do so safely (wards, wards, wards.)

The best way to handle losing or taking an early tower is to continue to put pressure on that lane. If you took the tower, then you keep the lane pushed up to the second, which keeps them from being able to roam as much, and also denies them last hits and exp if that wave gets to the tower. If you lost your tower, keeping the wave pushed does the same thing, it keeps pressure on that lane so that they have less freedom to move around.

A mistake I see a lot of people make is ignoring their lane after a tower is down (either one), and instead trying to force grouping up as five. Sure this can work, but a lot of the time it's going to cause a team that's behind in gold to get into a team fight that they don't want too if they lost the tower (unless it's under a tower), or a team that is slightly ahead get into a fight under a tower. The better thing to do is to only group up to defend towers, otherwise ward the hell out of the jungle and river (your jungle if you lost the tower, theirs if they did) and continue to farm minions.

This is all general advice.; Keep in mind that this is also situational, so don't follow it religiously, but for the most part, early towers should not mean the end of laning, they just mean more wards. The laning phase usually shouldn't end until about 20 minutes into the game. If another team tries to force it to end by balling up as five and roaming/pushing because they took a tower, then ward the hell out of your jungle, keep your lanes pushed, and be quick to group up to defend where ever they are heading to push (since you can see where they are going because of wards.) If you took a tower, keep farming and putting pressure on that lane, while having the others do the same. Keeping them split up defending towers, and losing last hits and exp to them let's you get farther ahead.

That's pretty much my thought process on the whole thing. Laning phase should not end until your team is ready for it to end, when you have your core items built and are preferably ahead. This is all reliant on wards though, so if wards aren't being bought, then the laning phase is going to have to end a lot sooner. But with proper ward coverage, you can lane as long as you want.

[Jonathan Meer]

<3 jungling

Fleshing out my jungling reservoir for ranked, as I'm tired of having mummy banned and some teammate being like 'guess I can ww, I mean, ww is supposed to be easy jungle right?'

Working on Udyr now, who is just plain fun, and so fucking strong compared to mummy

AND Gangplank, who is also just plain fun

Not quite as much ganking power with them as with mummy, but still hella good. Ganks are what I need to work on now, plus counter-jungling. I'm not counter-jungling at all atm.

[Vad]

Udyr's attack animation and sounds make me hot.

[Jonathan Meer]

Yeah. They're pretty boss.

[Rafael]

next patch skins? http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/show...?t=1368532

[Ashe]

Dyrus-Blitz with Regi-Alistar double jungling. Fucking hilarious.

http://www.own3d.tv/video/237719/EpikGam..._14_20_22_

[Jonathan Meer]

boo plank nerf

EDIT: 'WTF SKARNER IMPALE DURATION INCREASE WILL RUIN HIM WTF SRSLY GUYS'

...1.5 -> 1.75

[Rafael]

Yeah, kinda meh'd when I saw that. I was fearing something I would notice. quarter second,don't think it'll make a difference really.

[Mal Nova]

Hextech Gunblade

Attack Damage reduced to 40 from 60
Ability Power reduced to 70 from 75
Life Steal reduced to 15% from 20%
Spell Vamp reduced to 20% from 25% and is now UNIQUE

I do not agree with the lifesteal being reduced.

[Trygelan]

So that GP nerf. He's needed it. Raise morale was way too damn strong. He's still going to be really strong, I doubt it'll hurt him too much, might need a stronger leash in the jungle when doing blue and I might have to change my blue runes to attack speed full time for him, even doing the wolves->wraiths->small golems path. Still going to be strong though.

As for the gunblade, even with those nerfs it's still damn good value for the gold it costs. And honestly, the spell vamp might still be a bit high, especially on Akali.

[Jonathan Meer]

And honestly, the spell vamp might still be a bit high, especially on Akali.

I'd call that more of a Revolver problem than a Gunblade problem.

[Trygelan]

I'd call that more of a Revolver problem than a Gunblade problem.

I agree. But then again, it only really becomes a problem with a champ that already has built in spell vamp and can get to ridiculous sustain in lane (Akali.) It's damn near impossible to push her out of lane after she gets the revolver. I like the champ, I honestly don't want them to nerf her damage (or maybe just slightly lower the Q damage or scaling), but her sustain is just way too much when she has a revolver.

[Kaden]

They literally said they would be increasing the duration of Skarner's ult by "a fraction of a second." I don't know what you guys were expecting. Skarner just needs buffs period. A quarter second doesn't sound like a lot, but who knows how it will end up working out in-game.

Definitely happy about the GP nerf finally coming through.

No real opinion on the Gunblade until I see it in-game. I think it will hurt Jax quite a bit. Doubt it will have too much impact on Akali. I think those were really the only champions who cared about it.

I do know I will be playing a damn lot of Graves, though. A little disappointed that he doesn't have a sombrero, but whatcha gonna do.

[Jonathan Meer]

I don't think I ever built a Gunblade on Akali when I played her. Just never got to that point. Rabadon's and Rylai's are plenty expensive already, and Void Staff or survivability tends to be a prettier investment by that point than Gunblade.

Or Lich Bane, trololo