It depends. You can be doing well top and the other guy will suddenly just start outplaying you. The worst way to lose a lane is to take an early lead and then get cocky. I win lanes later on because of this, since Darius (for me at least) has a meh early game. Once he hits six he's a monster, but before that...

Also, I'm sure this has been said thousands of times, but Apprehend's reach is just pitiful. Occasionally I'll grab someone running away from me, or pull them out of their turret's range and eat them alive, but more often than not I whiff and pull air or minions. At the very least, the cone should be enlarged to Decimate's range (obviously in only the direction of that cone).

On another note; Are move speed quints worth the IP? I'm tempted to buy some, because I see them recommended on some guides and I know I'd catch some people with Darius if I moved just a bit faster, but at the same time, I don't want to sink 6150 IP into them and then realize that I prefer my flat AD quints. Granted, I've sunk 6300 IP into champions that looked cool in the preview but I ended up not liking, but yeah.

And finally; Are rune pages really worth the 6300 IP/2600 RP (for the pack of seven)? I have two right now, an AP and an AD page, and I've been thinking about getting more so I can play support with proper runes, or tank with the proper runes, etc.

 

The seven page rune pack is probably the best thing your RP can buy. It's amazing how many different things you find you need runes pages for, once you have them.

 

Anyone wants to play?
Add Lukaskr, level 20ish, play mostly Vayne.

 

Premade 5v5s without voice communication are destined to fail.

That is all.

 

I play premade 5s all the time without voice communication and win more than I lose without question. Mostly with a few if not all people I don't know well/play with often.

There were a lot of things wrong that game. Bot was a terrible match up as Soraka is probably the last support you want vs a kill lane like garen/nunu. Mid didn't have the advantage necessary to kill ahri before 4 flashes save her. I had the wrong runes and couldn't ever finish a Hecarim who was maxing his sustain (though I had close to 3x his cs at end game). Jungle didn't get the ganks it needed to snowball.

Communication probably would've fixed some of that, but it hardly would've changed it from the stomp that it was into something winnable. DLP 5s will always have a wide variety of skill levels and some players may get matched out of their depth. I find the biggest issue that keeps teams from winning is attitude, and if you get upset when the game goes badly or can't take a loss, then you probably shouldn't play with DLPers you 'know' but don't know.

 

I don't mind losses too much. What I do mind is when a loss happens, a problem is identified, and then nothing is done to fix it.

That was my issue.

 

Pretty sure you meant to quote smn else. If not, let me know

 

Sigh.

I forgot why i was playing HoN instead of LoL. My elo in HoN is 1600+, and my LoL elo is like, 1050. It is so great playing in elo hell, since most of the time it is not even that I am making bad plays, but that my team wears their underpants on their head. HOW DO YOU LOSE A 4V3 WHEN THEIR WHOLE TEAM IS HALF HEALTH AND YOU ALL JUST RESPAWNED!? RAAAAAGE!

 

Actually my first paragraph was addressed to you. Specifically about Jayce (and your closing comment on your thoughts about him), who I feel is an above-average character, but someone who plays Darius (or Jax, or other above-average top) at the same level of skill as you will rape your shit. Jayce is an interesting character who could probably set up great ganks for his jungler and can easily switch between tanky DPS and regular old DPS, but I feel that he's a lot like Fiora in that if you're not prepared for them, they'll rape your shit. When you are, you rape theirs.

Usage of Jayce will probably drop off in the coming weeks. There'll be holdouts (like me with Viktor), but they'll be in the minority. Ultimiately, Jayce, to me at least, is a champion with a gimmick. It's sort of like an even more aggravating version of Nidalee, except at least her transform costs mana.

On a completely unrelated note, does someone have tips for laning against Yorick? Specifically as Darius, but general tips would be great too.

 

Once again, there were a lot of issues that game, but communication wasn't the main one, the core one, or even a major one. Communication wasn't what made you jungle slowly or the lanes lose.

 

Against Yorick? His ghouls don't follow you into brush. Exploit it.

 

I don't play Darius, but facing Yorick as pretty much anyone is absolute torture in my opinion. If you can bait out his ult, do so and disengage. Yorick is a lot less painful to handle when his ult is on cooldown. This is most easily done as a highly mobile top such as Riven or Kennen (and not Darius), who can "pretend" to go all in, then suddenly kill the slow ghoul and be gone when he ults himself.

As mentioned, abuse brush against the ghouls, the damage you save can be the difference between life and death.

As Darius, I would think you are stronger than Yorick in a straight up 1v1. Yorick's Omen of Famine (Lifesteal Ghoul) has a range of 550 to your Apprehend's 540. Abuse it. If he comes up to drop a ghoul on you take a step forward and E>AA>Q>AA>W>AA... Put down as much damage as you can, trying to force drawn out trades, since you won't win a harass war.

Consider picking up an early Null-Magic mantle to help deal with his harass since his two ranged ghouls deal magic damage, especially if any of Mercury Treads/Wit's End/Aegis of the Legion/Guardian Angel/Maw of Malmortius are going to be part of your core build. early cloth armor wouldn't go amiss either.

You probably already know most if not all of that, but given what I know about Yorick and Darius, it is all I can think of at the moment.

 

What made me jungle slowly was having to jungle without warning on a character I've never jungled before. Since my runes weren't set up for jungling at all. I only have two runepages. One was set up specifically for akali and the other was set up for Laning Jayce. If you want to jungle him you want AS Marks and Lifesteal Quints, I had AD Marks/ArPen quints.

And I disagree about communication not being a major issue with that match. I spotted several times when folks took actions or made mistakes that could/would have been avoided had there been proper lines of communication and information.

Was it the Core problem? Nope. But good communication could have given us the edge we needed to turn that match around (or at least give us a fighting chance, instead of none at all) during a clutch moment. There were a few of them here and there that could have been exploited with better teamwork and reaction times.


Secondarily, my original post about communication was not aimed entirely at that match or the conversation thereafter. Those events were merely the catalyst that caused me to voice an opinion I've been forming for some time now. Almost every time I go into premade 5s without voice chat. We lose. The occasion of a win is rare and wonderous. Generally caused by the other team being so bat-shit retarded that a group of sub-30s could defeat them. Which kind of takes the joy out of victory.

 

Usually for me, it really just depends on who is in that premade 5 for the win loss. If all 5 players are about similar skill level, from my experience, they will win more often then they will lose. It is different, however, if say there is only 1 or two good players, and the other three are simply not at the same level. In the end, LoL is a team game, and it is extremely difficult for one person to carry a team (provided the other side knows what they are doing).

Thus, when you have 3 or more people playing with people above their skill level, and end up losing, then your own team is just that much behind. And unless the higher elo/better player won hard enough to make up for the deficit, the game will only become increasingly difficult.

I believe that this is the main reason why DLP premades lose so much. Also, with the subject of voice-chatting, while they are nice with the occasional "Soraka, use ult now! Or, "go in, go in!" I find that most of the time it's not too necessary and the simple retreat signal and normal ping is sufficient. Nonetheless, having voice chat usually make premades infinitely more fun.

 

Basically this. The skill level of DLP members is huge. There are players here who are far better than me and some far worse than me. Throw them all together and the uneven skill will usually drag you down. That just gets people angry because they're constantly losing or facing players way outside their comfortzone or feel bored because the enemy is too easy.

LoL is a video game and most people have fun winning at video games. Its why we often see tempers rise in DLP premades.

Communication may make games slightly easier but it wont make up for an obvious skillgap in the team.

 

So, a friend sent this earlier to me today. While I haven't played him much, I've found Heimerdinger somewhat entertaining at least.

Alternately, the primarily relevant image from that link.

 

Looks pretty good actually. Heimer's not bad at the moment, but this looks like it'll make him more interesting.

 

I started this game out well. Then it took a turn for the worse when shaco fed the hell out of my lane, only to upswing into a slaughter of LEGENDARY proportions when I hit some sort of murder-and-mayhem groove. I went from 4/8 to the score you see above like an unstoppable purple tide of slaughter. They couldn't kill me, they couldn't escape, and their turrets were no refuge from my wrath. It was incredible. One of the best games I've had in months.

The one before that had a better score. 12/1 I think. But somehow it was less awesome, less epic. As if the ease of the victory sapped from it any potential to revel in a battle well fought.

Also, the fact that I can pick up Mundo after months and months of not playing him, then win repeatedly with him even though I'm certainly no expert says something about how very strong he is right now.

 

Never seen an actual laning Mundo, but then again I'm only just turning level 19, speaking of which...

I fele about ready to give up on LoL completely. I've had a week of straight losses now, I think, it certainly feels that way with today and yesterday going so badly. Every game I've been against try-hards (such as a Nocturne, Urgot, Lee Sin, Alistar, Morgana team earlier) or/and stuck with morons on my team such as a Teemo who tries to 1-vs-1 a fed as crap Vayne because Teemo just stood there and auto-attacked.

I've had people getting fed as all hell through some miracle before spending the game diving a 1-vs-5 thinking they can win leaving the rest of us to get slaughtered or just generally bad players. It could just be me as I play Support practically every game, either Soraka or AListar with the occasional Zilean game (though support Zilean seems terrible till T3 runes, doesn't do anything).

I just feel generally upset, find myself hating the game even with a reading break after every game to calm down and think how I could've played better, and this is only level 18 - 19. I just feel like it's pointless, 30 was my goal so I could start farming IP to eventually get a 6300 IP champ and start working on mastering them (as I have jungling/being a better/more varied support as a goal of mine) but that just seems like I might as well not bother.

TLDR; Very emo post but I just cannot be bothered lately. Every game goes horribly and this is before I even attempt ranked ladder. Damnit.