League of Legends

[CSamurai]

That does not sound very normal to me. The biggest reason for a solo lane person to come down to another lane is try and attempt a gank. If they're just coming down there to hang out, then they are not doing it right. The other big reason is if you really want to push a lane, but usually that's not until later in the game when you want to be rolling around as a team anyway.

Yeah, I've seen lanes move to 3-4 when the towers are down, and you want to steamroll, but in this game, I was level 3-4 and our Shen just left the mid, to come play on the bottom. Usually when they leave mid to come gank, it's, you know, when they're fairly sure of the lane being safe. He left with pressure on a tower, and a black magician standing there.

You could try Renekton (Nasus' brother). Another couple of possibilities are Malphite or Nunu. Personally, I'd also recommend giving Mordekaiser a try - he's a favorite of mine.

Kind of hard to recommend specific champions. My biggest recommendation is to try as many champions as you can; especially at the lower levels. Have you purchased any of the champions besides Nasus?

I actually think I got all the way to summoner level 30 before I unlocked any champions. I just kept playing the different champions they made free from week to week.

I really have been lazy about trying other champs. I played Akali for my first game, and discovered she has the staying power of a damp cloth in a forest fire. Hits like a mac truck, dies like a pinto. So I poked around the available FTP for something more like what I wanted.. Hitting power, and some health. Luckily, Nasus was the only thing like that open the night I started, with 'Average' health, he's not quite a tank, but as hard as he hits, and with as much damage as dropping a spirit fire and wither on someone in a pitched battle, he more than makes up for his medium to high health in shere 'you're dead'.

So, haven't unlocked anyone but Nasus, I wanted to get him open before trying out other people. I'm thinking I might try out a ranged unit next, Ez or Ashe or the like, given they go squish too, but they're meant to not be up close in the first place, so being squishy is less of a huge issue.

[schultz]

I really have been lazy about trying other champs. I played Akali for my first game, and discovered she has the staying power of a damp cloth in a forest fire. Hits like a mac truck, dies like a pinto. So I poked around the available FTP for something more like what I wanted.. Hitting power, and some health. Luckily, Nasus was the only thing like that open the night I started, with 'Average' health, he's not quite a tank, but as hard as he hits, and with as much damage as dropping a spirit fire and wither on someone in a pitched battle, he more than makes up for his medium to high health in shere 'you're dead'.

So, haven't unlocked anyone but Nasus, I wanted to get him open before trying out other people. I'm thinking I might try out a ranged unit next, Ez or Ashe or the like, given they go squish too, but they're meant to not be up close in the first place, so being squishy is less of a huge issue.

Yeah, I have a friend who rolls face with Akali, but I've never played her. If you're thinking of trying a ranged, I'd definitely recommend Ashe over Ez. Ez has way more skill shots and can be a bit tricky to figure out. Ashe is relatively straightforward and has decent range. She usually has one main way to build her, too, so it doesn't get too complicated. Just don't get caught out on your own!

I also love her Crystal Arrow. So much fun to peg some body half way across the map.

[Hazushi]

I haven't played in a while.
I run Swain the most, oh glorious Swain lol.
Twisted Fate or Vladimir are my second preffered, I heal with Sona alot when a healer is needed and Miss Fortune and Veigar are other two that I use often.

A little Rant here but, My most disliked problem of the game are team members that refuse to look at their team build of characters to decide how things should be best run out. Because of this my worst game ever I was stuck top laning vs Jax and Olaf as TF. That does not work in the start of the game as TF has no power and is too squishy at the start compared to Jax and Olaf. One Undertow from Olaf and one Leap Strike from Jax and TF is almost dead at lvl 1 and after Jax gains Empower it is instant death for TF between the 2 attacks for a few levels. So most of the match I would be yelled at for not guarding lane if I chose to leave or feeding when trying to defend. Funny part was this was to said open to all so then the Enemy team got into it to and the backed me up about Tf being to soft for the situation. Later in the game when I got items and levels I could kill both but it was still a lost game because the Warwick person that left me alone believed that warwick was only a jungler and that was how he was supposed to be used and seemingly everyone else that happened to be on my team, sorry but my freind can face to palm as Warwick with out jungling so I find that hard to believe.

Aside from that its escapers, and "little chilrden" that start whinning when they dont get to play some specific character and then when they get their way they completely blow while playing them, those are my annoyances. To avoid most problems though I just play with friends.

[CSamurai]

Yeah, I have a friend who rolls face with Akali, but I've never played her. If you're thinking of trying a ranged, I'd definitely recommend Ashe over Ez. Ez has way more skill shots and can be a bit tricky to figure out. Ashe is relatively straightforward and has decent range. She usually has one main way to build her, too, so it doesn't get too complicated. Just don't get caught out on your own!

I also love her Crystal Arrow. So much fun to peg some body half way across the map.

I unlocked Ashe and Master Yi because they're cheap. Haven't even played Yi yet though, because after I bought him, I looked up guides, and every Yi guide out there has like, 20 builds. That's not useful to a nub like me. I need a guide that says 'here, this is a good way to play him, here's a strat, don't die.' Instead, I've got guides that say 'Do this if you see dudes with magic power, this if they've got defense.. this if you're a god, this if you want to jungle, that if you want to be a farmer, the other if you want to push..'

Just give me a role and explain the build for it..

One of the things I love about Nasus is that most builds focus on DPS and a bit of lifesteal (Stark's Fervor, which is a wunnerful item), and his role is simple, farm until you get level 6, then use use wither and spirit fire to destroy people not paying attention to where they're standing in a team fight.

I went 4/3/16 today, which is a pretty low kill rate for me, but the I had the msot minion kills, and the most assists and the least deaths on my team, and we steamrolled them in under thirty minutes, so I guess I was doing something right.

My first game as Ashe went pretty well. I found a lifesteal/dps build that I focused on, and me and a Blitz player took top. Game started with me placing a bet on having people in the grass, managed to draw out a jump attack from Jax, and Blitz yanked him over to the tower. He got away, but lost a good 75% of his life before minions even spawned. Blitz and I continued this trend of terror against the top, with me drawing people in, and Blitz keeping them from going anywhere. I eventually had to shift to Mid to deal with a Cait/Ashe combo push, but shortly after that, we broke through and started steamrolling.

It's funny, I haven't had a level 18 game for a little while. In my last game (Nasus) I was the highest level by 2-3 levels on my team, and I just hit 16 before we destroyed all 3 inhibitors.

How often do you reach max level? Is it common to steamroll a game before level 15?

[Numsgil]

How often do you reach max level? Is it common to steamroll a game before level 15?

I usually hit 18. It's unusual to win before that, at least in my games. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's less usual as the skill of the players goes up, because people are more careful about not being out of position and dying, so no one gets fed.

[Hazushi]

How often do you reach max level? Is it common to steamroll a game before level 15?

I think the earliest win Ive been in was lvl 12-13 on all team members and thats been in about 3 games total. All the rest of the games seem to be 50/50 between 15 and 18.

[Mike]

I've been "trying" to play League of Legends recently, but picked a fairly poor time to start. Right when I started the EU servers hit rock-bottom and were down every single night and had at least 4 hours of queue when they weren't down hehe. So, I've just been doing a couple of matches a day for the First Win of the Day bonus earlier in the day before the servers crash while waiting for them to implement their more permanent solution to the situation. Then I can consider playing it more.

[Numsgil]

They usually hand out riot points (normally only obtainable with real money) in compensation for severe server outages. So if you look at it in another way, this was a great time to join

[ketchup]

The EU server split is interesting. I assume, in the long run, it will be beneficial.The more regions there are, the more competition in the long run for it's esports portion of the game(if anyone is interested in such things). It probably should have happened a long time ago considering how crazy it got recently.

And I think it might be around the proper time to play right now. Season 1 is being extended, and so you can start preparing for season 2. I assume they'll be trying to release features as DotA2 beta seems to be on the way fairly soon. Will be nice to see how LoL does with how excited people are for some of the features of DotA2.

[perceval]

I've been "trying" to play League of Legends recently, but picked a fairly poor time to start. Right when I started the EU servers hit rock-bottom and were down every single night and had at least 4 hours of queue when they weren't down hehe. So, I've just been doing a couple of matches a day for the First Win of the Day bonus earlier in the day before the servers crash while waiting for them to implement their more permanent solution to the situation. Then I can consider playing it more.

same here, you made me want to try but there was 1h30 waiting queue i played go instead

[CSamurai]

I've been "trying" to play League of Legends recently, but picked a fairly poor time to start. Right when I started the EU servers hit rock-bottom and were down every single night and had at least 4 hours of queue when they weren't down hehe. So, I've just been doing a couple of matches a day for the First Win of the Day bonus earlier in the day before the servers crash while waiting for them to implement their more permanent solution to the situation. Then I can consider playing it more.

same here, you made me want to try but there was 1h30 waiting queue i played go instead

That's.. odd.

The longest I've ever had to wait was about 3 minutes, during which time I got slated for 4 games, 3 of which had someone log off during champion selection. This was, of course, immediately after patch/nerf day.

Of course, I'm generally playing on the American server, so I don't know about the conditions of you crazy EU folks.

It's been a few days since I've played, since I'm getting pretty tired of pugs. Especially when it seems that the opposing team are all well practiced friends.

My last game, I discovered the joys of being juggled by ranged characters who had worked out their timings to the point that by the time I came down, I was stunned and nasus had lost half his health. My teamates responded to this display of prowess by.. walking away from the fight.

Awesome.

Determined not to leave, I finished that game with 1 kill, 15 deaths, and 3 assists. I spent the last 5 minutes of it, after my third surrender vote was defeated, sitting at the platform.

When both teams are of roughly the same skill level, the game is awesome. I had a blitz/me pairing that worked great, I would slow someone, blitz would grab them, I'd hit them with siphon strike, and suddenly they'd be deep in our area, with me behind them, and 3/4 of their life gone..


But on the other hand, having my kog maw supporter just wander off when I'm getting ganked by two juggling ranged units I don't even /know/, Yeah, that can leave me a little bitter.

Tried Cait, found out I'm not so good with her, tried Ashe, found out she's awesome and easy to play, tried Yi, discovered I'm really good at accidentally feeding with him after his alpha strike drops me mid team fight and I get focused to death instantly..

Bought nunu, but haven't tried him on yet.

It's a fun game, but I can't wait till I'm not working constantly so that I can play with, you know, people who aren't going to just walk off in the middle of a fight.

[Exologist]

I play this game ALL the time. Ok, maybe not all the time, but at least a few games every day. No doubt it has impeded my progress at Go, but it is quite fun to take people out in those massive teamfights, which is why I usually go mage or assassin. But I do like to go tank too.

[ketchup]

The new game mode Dominion looks pretty fun to play. They say the longest time a game of Dominion ran for is around 25 minutes. Which seems like a fun thing to do when SR feels a bit frustrating.

Anyone else keeping up with Gamescom? Some amazing games of DotA2. Nirvana.Int having an impressive showing! The stream for DotA2 is on their official site. Also I believe they are uploading over to http://www.youtube.com/DotA2 as well.

Riot also showed a few games of Dominion. Riot vs Riot games of course. Played around 6 games. Most likely the recorded games are here if interested: http://gamescom2011.leagueoflegends.com/

[hirohiigo]

Haven't even played Yi yet though, because after I bought him, I looked up guides, and every Yi guide out there has like, 20 builds. That's not useful to a nub like me.

Here's a general idea of how I build Yi. Once you play a few games, you'll get a good understanding of how to change it depending on who you're up against, but just following the core item and skill trees there will help you a lot.

The main thing you want to do is build Attack Speed first, since you do double damage every 7th hit. You want half your build to be Attack Speed and the other half Attack Damage. You'll want to do a lot of auto-attacking, since Yi is great at it.

You want your skills to focus on Wuju Style and Alpha Strike primarily, saving Meditate for last. (Although it's okay to go with Meditate early if you're up against a heavy harassing lane.)

[ketchup]

Are there people interested in getting a game of LoL with L19 folk on NA servers? At least, it might be an interesting idea to get a L19 channel on in LoL PVPnet client. I'll be sure to idle there when I'm online(autojoin!). What should the name be? L19 I assume? Let me know.

I am most comfortable with Jungler(Amumu and Maokai).