I used to get triforce on her back in early S3 when sunfire and warmogs were super strong. I could just get Gblade and triforce then a bunch of tank items then never die. Now I just go pure glass cannon, with zhonyas and maybe a last item GA as my only defensive buys.

 

Yeah, I can see Tforce being a good option now that Lich Bane is weaker. Also, why the Visage over an Abyssal, I'd think that the AP and Magic Resist Reduction would outdo the health and Vamp/LS increase. Then again, sometimes I feel like I'm one of the few who still buys it. It's okay Abyssal, I'll still buy you as long as you remain in the game.

EDIT: Oh right, I forgot about Visage's 10 CDR and combine that with Blue being weaker too.

 

CDR, and the 400 HP helps against all types of damage.

About to try an Abyssal swap game, let's see how it goes.

...well, maybe. 3 ADs, Akali and Thresh on their team. Maybe not the best time.

Our Twitch AD bot died six times 0/6/0 and quit... The game went fairly predictably over all, although we started doing much better for a while after he quit. Ah well. Never did get my Abyssal built.

 

Reminds me of:



I mean, not quite the same since you had intentional feeders(presumably) on your team, and were against bots. On the other hand, I had...

Well, anyway. The 30:86 game is what I personally(and a couple of other certain friends who know the story) use as a reminder sometimes that [almost] any game can be won with a random turnaround.

 

That image makes me miss Force of Nature.

 

Since I hit Plat, I've become very mehish towards the game. Probably a nice needed rest from ranked at the least. I've noticed CSing has become extraordinarily hard for me for some reason with this new map and graphics.

Probably why, since I eschew engagements for just farming non-stop when possible and missing that many CS in succession is fucking aggravating.

 

I miss League ;_;

 

So... the new champion, Kalista, is interesting. Played five matches as her. Fairly click micro intensive if one wants to maximize her passive in an engagement.

Her Q is strong! 250 + 1.0 AD, might not seem like much compared to some, but with the CD it has, along with flight speed, range and the potential to pierce and continue for full damage(and apply previous stacks of Rend) upon killing a target... it ends up being quite powerful when used well. It's fun to wipe 2-3 waves of caster minions in one use from the side angle shot.

E is tricksy, but can be a nice damage spike and/or bit of CC to help her chase an enemy. If applied on a nearby low hp minion that you kill with it, it will also reset the cool down while damaging and slowing the enemy champion. Hmm... I wonder... Runaan's? Eh, it could work, although I've been building her fairly similar to Quinn(aside from the first game).

W is powerful(20% HP damage), but reliant upon your soulbound target striking the same target with a basic attack to trigger it. The scout ghost is a neat trick, though.

Lastly, the ult. Damn, the coordination required to make this work well. Ended up using it to save an ally, and they went back in instead of escape, several times. Just the same, I've used to when the knockup would have guaranteed the kill on a solo enemy with my follow-up, and the ally fled instead. That being said, when you clutch save an ally(and they flee as they should), or when they get an awesome knock-up, it's quite excellent.

 

It seems like the kind of ult you'd want to use with a duo partner.

 

I was with a duo partner, hah!

Unfortunately, even then, in the heat of battle, it doesn't always work that way.

It's quite useful when a trap is setup, though, at least.

 

The new jungle is interesting, but man it's not easy.

The monsters don't hit that much harder, but I seem to always be at lower health when I try to gank, which has caused a few deaths. I probably need to adjust my patterns a bit, but that will leave me with lower cs overall.

Ranger's (smite gives 15% missing hp and mana back) helps with this, but then I miss out on Stalker's (smite enemy champions for true damage and slow) which seems amazing for ganks. Of course, getting a chunk of hp and mana back from smiting a minion while ganking can make for a nice surprise as well.

I've avoided looking up any guides, so I can have the experience of testing new things myself, but I probably will before heading back to ranked. I have heard sustain junglers are pretty op now, and I got wrecked by an enemy Warwick. His ult seems to synergize really well with Skirmisher's.

Even though I'm losing a lot, I really like the change overall.

 

Yeah, I have the same problem with the jungle, I'm thinking of getting an early Vamp Scepter/Revovler might be a thing... well for those who don't have built in sustain like Hecarim and his W. Those types might rush a Visage instead or such.

 

So I was playing my usual Stackali (heh) today.



And all was well, but I was getting restless. I wanted to stack more, you know? So I thought, since Leviathan has left us, what else can I stack?

Then this happened:



I'm sorry T_T

 

You should be. Where are your Double Tear items?

 

Double Stacker Nasus incoming.

 

Alternatively for blue do wraith/frog with smite. You hit 2 off it and get a thorn mail buff.

 

Mmmm, can't seem to connect to the Chat Server, and thus by extension, the Friends List.

I can play games, though, just solo queue only.

Also, amusingly enough, I decided to do an ARAM. Got WW, and no one would swap, so I used my one available reroll and got Kalista. I was amused.

 

Restarting the client has fixed the chat issue for most people. Happened to me too.


Kalista is cool as hell. I'm all for champs that mix up core mechanics of the game, and her passive definitely does that. I generally hate playing ADC, but I'd probably make an exception to play her with a duo.

There's a lot of people crying for a nerf to her E because it makes Baron hilariously secure for your team. She can also solo Dragon without taking damage by dodging his attacks. Obviously this takes perfect timing, but the fact that you're also built in with a Super Smite makes this more reasonable than it should be.



In other news, Azir is perfect. Literally perfect.*
*Aside from all the bugs

I decided to try him in Hexakill when it was live, and I completely fell in love with his kit. After you get a couple items on him you become an absolute monster that has the enemy team staying well out of your range or dying. Combined with a relatively safe laning phase, this makes him consistently domineering in my games.

As I've gotten more familiar with his kit, match ups that seemed hard (Lookin' at you, Zed) have been getting forced out of lane pretty easily, and they're usually screwed without Jungle intervention. As an added bonus, he absolutely dumpsters Akali.

The only champ who still gives me trouble is Yasuo due to his mobility, and that is still a skill match up.

As for items, I like to go full aggro for the first few buys, which allows me to get cheeky kills with Ignite. Obviously max CDR is absolutely key, but I almost never buy Athene's on him, generally preferring Morello's and a second Doran's, which nets you 35 more AP from your first buy. Now that Athene's is more expensive while Morello's is cheaper, this is even more tempting. After that it's usually Sorc boots (I use CDR Blues, so no Lucidity), then either Void Staff + Blasting Wand or Death Cap. I prefer Void because if you're not super behind, you can usually kill anyone not stacking MR pretty easily, so Void helps you against the more annoying targets. Late buys are situational, but I like getting a Rylai's for the Health + Slow.

I still see a lot of people buying Nashor's on him, but it's actually pretty garbage. His soldiers don't apply On Hit effects, and the low AP makes his poke less scary. To make matters worse, you still need a mana item, and the only reasonable ones come with 20% CDR, so it makes Nashor's redundant with Lucidity Boots or CDR Blues. The added attack speed generally can't make up for all that.

Whoa, that turned into a wall of text fast. My bad. It's been a long time since a champion has clicked with me this well, so I've been gushing about him.