I definitely do not think it's a bad thing. Rather, it's good that there are more options to win the game then to just teamfights all day. If anything, it has certainly decreased the popularity of AOE champions. People like Amumu, Malphite just aren't that great when nobody ever groups up. Right now, I think split pushing can still be handled. But if melee ADC gets stronger/more popular, or heavy engages gets weakened, then I think we'll see that the meta will change completely to split pushing.

Edit: Btw, have everyone updated their summoner's name on the "Post your Summoner Name" thread or join the LoL usergroup? I feel like there's a lot of dlper I don't have added.

 

Hmm, that's actually an interesting idea. Would be neat to see a sort of heavy disengage split pushing strategy emerge, making it their goal to counter heavy team fight strategies by never allowing team fights and threaten objectives constantly with high mobility.

But I also like approaching problems sideways, so maybe I'm the only one who'd like this kind of gameplay.

I haven't done either. Full disclosure, I'm actually only a level 25 summoner. I just watch /a lot/ of gameplay commentaries and shoutcasts and such. Way more time spent doing that than actually playing.

I'll probably do it when I finally hit 30. Even then, I'm actually a really antisocial gamer, generally just doing solo que or duo que with a friend.

 

Truthfully, a meta based on splitpushing seems really boring to me. And even if that does happen, you aren't getting rid of teamfights. With split pushing comes fights. Either the enemy team will take the fight to the split pusher, or they will engage on those who aren't pushing and they will be at a number advantage. Then a whole team will push harder than one person can. It's really hard to stop teamfights from happening. Unless you have really hard disengages like Janna, Gragas, and Alistar's headbutt, it's going to be hard to stop teamfights. Even if you do have those champions, you are only hindering the teamfight capabilities of the other team. So all in all, split pushing will never become the meta. It will only ever be part of the game. Even split pushing champions now like Yi and Shen have a way to get to the teamfights when they start, which is why they are so good at split pushing.

 

I enjoy the split-push strat, just not when it's forcing a game to go 40+ minutes consistently due to teams fear to fight/get caught out. It adds some great tension when you're split pushing and your team could get aced in a few seconds - but you should easily punish the enemy team for this.

Or, they come to shut you down? Team punishes them. They send someone to duel you? Hope your team outplays them/has the stronger 4 vs 4 (unless you're Shen, in which case gg).

The one thing I find annoying about split-push is peoples inability to deal with it. I always seem to be supporting when someone's split pushing on the enemy team, and people still chase 2 - 3 guys through the jungle, while the other 2 push two separate lanes. Honestly though, full credit to them for having the balls and brains to do it in solo-q.

That said, it would be nice to see the meta evolve, though S3 is coming to a slow end so, who knows what we'll see with changes to support and jungler gold in S4, as well as jungle layout changes and several other things being rolled in. I just hope they don't completely trash carry junglers again even if I'm much more of a utility/support jungler.

 

I personally hate the split-pushing meta. It's annoying and boring and frustrating for me.

 

Yi's dueling kit and ability to stick on targets makes him great against people who get caught out (Looking at you, Deak) which sets his team up for a 5v4 fight or easy push/baron.

Even with splitpushers on the enemy, the team with the superior 5v5 can force team fights around objectives like baron or dragon, or set up picks to prevent splitpushes. Amumu has indeed fallen off but Malphite has seen at least some play this split. EG ran Malphite mid along with Zac, Jarvan and Lulu against Gambit for some epic wombo combo knockup plays. With a Sunfire, he can also split push if he runs teleport.

 

I love split-push meta. It means that I can reliably field assassins to pick off targets when they're walking through the jungle to stop my split pusher. Or I just clean house on their team because they don't have their damage/tank helping peel.

 

Best thing is using Q to lower the time on a CC you know you'll get hit with for sure.

Blitz E? Shaco box fear? Cait trap? Proper timing and you can Q during the CC, thereby negating it while consuming the CD on the CC.

Did that yesterday in a fight and fucked over enemy blitz for it.

 

One of the things that I've always found interesting is that, at the very least, if a champion's action was already in progress (you see this most often with ranged auto attacks or something like GP's parley) it isn't negated if that champion dies. I'm not sure if the logic came about with Viktor's ultimate staying around after he died (I started playing about a month before Viktor came out) or if it's just something that I'm noticing more often since I'm playing champions like Jax and Yi that are duelists.

This goes doubly so for effects that have already procced on you and are still proccing, like red buff getting kills.

One of the things that I've noticed about Yolo Queue (even in Bronze) is that the more unorthox your picks and/or bans, the more it seems to fuck with the enemy team. Ban Akali, Hecarim, and Vayne. Yes, they're all fairly decent bans, but when you aren't doing the tried and true Blitz Malphite Shen, at least in Bronze, the other team apparently loses their shit and just gets rolled on.

Also, jungle Jax is retarded. I don't care what people say about him needing gold to be viable, he really doesn't. Take one or two kills, give every single other one to your lanes if possible, and yeah, you might be behind in gold or whatever, but if you're diligent with clearing jungle and actually killing minions when you cover a lane, the gold disadvantage isn't that big, especially when he has access to items like Zephyr and Hextech Gunblade that are actually good on him.

 

This. As frustrating as it can be on say Naut to get my ult reset, I admire the skill (or luck) people have to dodge/reset things like that. Recent plays that come to mind include Zed's ult to dodge Ashe arrow/Karthus ult, incredible stuff that leaves me in awe even if it's just luck from time to time.

Regarding jungle Jax, honestly a terrifying jungler to play against. Only played against it twice, and both times as support Sona. Not sure what it is, but he just appeared to be everywhere on top of being still a relatively strong duelist despite a lack of farm at 6. That said, this was pre S3.

Just one of those junglers I'm never too sure about on either team. I assume people know how to play it and are very capable, not just picking something obscure that they want to try.

 

It's his mobility. Jax can jump to anything friendly and unfriendly if he can see it, with few exceptions (Not sure if he can jump to J4's flag or similar things yet, will have to test it). And what's worse, is that while Lee Sin and Amumu have the exact same or very similar mobility, Jax actually has a stun that he can activate when he wants, and this stun effectively neuters whoever he's ganking for up to 2 seconds. That's a long fucking time to completely ignore DPS in a game where the entire power dynamic can change in ten seconds.

His stun is a relatively small AoE, true, but that doesn't matter when he can jump right over everyone that's supposed to be peeling and eat your carry alive. Hell, if he didn't hit R before jumping, he can hit R after eating your carry and waltz through your entire team, still putting out consistent damage, and still being a fucking nuisance because of that dodge.

The only thing that goes through it are tower shots and AoE, but if you're getting hit by the tower as Jax, you're doing something wrong.

To be completely honest, I think Jax is a sleeper Yi. There aren't many people who can play him well before he gets fed, but once he does, he becomes completely faceroll. Press E, Jump on the enemy, hit W midair if you like, if you don't, hit it after landing, press E again. They're stunned, giving you a second to put out as much burst as you like. If they flash or have another escape, guess what? Your Q has a 2 second cooldown, you can jump right back on them and they're dead.

 

Would I be right in thinking you'd max your Q as jungle Jax to minimise the CD and keep the ability to stay on top of your target? Start say E and then go R>Q>W>E or E>W, can't remember if E's CD is lowered or not by levelling it up. I know W's an AA reset though I'm fairly certain it always has a 3 - 4 second CD.

I'd also assume you rush a Bork, which would suggest a longsword & 2 pot start, but machete + 5 seems far safer due to a lack of sustain.

 

R > W > Q > E actually. Because it's jungle Jax, you have a crazy high clear speed and thus immediately go over to the enemy red to outduel the other guy or steal it. Stealing is preferable, because duels that early are iffy at best. Sure, you could outduel the other guy, but that's on the off-chance that his teammates didn't notice you kicking the dogshit out of their jungler, and that is assuming that you aren't up against Shyvana or Mundo, both of whom clear faster than you, and will kick the dogshit out of you. As I said, E does not dodge AoE.

Start with E, obviously. E's cooldown does go down as you increase it, but because you're jungling the reduced cooldown is almost worthless, as the dodge time and stun time don't increase at all. W does have a 3-4 second CD, but that's before you factor in CDR, of which you should have between 20 and 30 percent, depending on your build. If you get lucky and have Morde/Kat/Vlad as your mid, you'll have 40 all day everyday, at which point it becomes absolutely fucking retarded with a less than 2 second cooldown no matter what the base is.

As far as BotRK, it's a huge gold sink that would require you snowballing out of control, like 1500 gold before your first back. You have to remember that Jax is a hybrid, and his ultimate, which is what gives him that insane dueling potential, scales off both AP and AD, which passively increase your mres and armor, respectively.

Start machete + 5. Rush your Gunblade or Zephyr, depending on whether you think you'll be receiving more CC or more upfront damage. Get zerker's as dosh (money) allows, then finish the other one. Turn your machete into Wraith Sprit. Build a Frozen Mallet for retarded amounts of sticking potential.

From here, you basically build depending on the enemy team. If they have more than one AP, get a spirit visage to make your lifesteal and spellvamp retarded, plus a maw of malmortious to make your duels even more OP. If they have a ton of upfront damage, get yourself a manduin's and a spirit visage.

Your last item depends on whether or not your support picked up locket by this point (which they should have, since this would be around the 40 minute mark). But if they haven't, pick up locket. If they have, pick up BotRK now that gold is fucking everywhere. Obviously you'd be selling Wraith Spirit, but it's whatever.

Please note that this build is tweaked off of one that Stvicious runs with jungle Jax, and my version of it is very much still a work in progress. I only started jungling Jax a few days ago, and really only play him when my team doesn't need a jungle tank or AP jungle.

Also, any other suggestions for unorthodox jungle is very much welcome. I realize that Jax isn't very unorthodox, but still. I already tried jungle Kayle, and had a blast, by the way.

 

I always build Jax wrong whenever I play him be it in ARAM or top, still think I'm in S2. Bork is nice to rush first though, but not as a jungler unless you snowball out of control early, definitely not. Still, not a bad idea. I'd assume 21/9/0 with max AD runes and standard jungle fill-in's? Sounds good overall.

Kayle was a jungler I tried a while back too, never had much success, don't see her often since the ult range nerf for whatever reason. Keep wanting to try a whole list of junglers which I explained in another thread, just have to man up one day and bite the proverbial bullet. I just love Naut's kit too much, god damn that kit is simply stupid once you hit 6 and people ignore you because, well, you're Naut. You don't 'do' damage.

Diamond cracked out jungle Karma a week or two back, was interesting. Saw it on the client suggested games but then they rotated 5 new games in before I could spectate it. Honestly if you have time to kill, just watch some of the suggested games and use LolNexus to see what people are running rune/mastery wise. S'what I do on my downtime with LoL currently, people play some... Interesting things.

I suppose this is where the disclaimer about 90% of those games being Diamond I/II and thus the skill level's superior should go, though you still get the occasional high Gold/low Plat game.

 

Heh jungle Jax. Earlier on in the season I got shit on in bot by a Jungle Jax at lvl 2/3 who ghosted and just plowed down the lane even though I saw him a mile away. He's something more of a carry jungler, the type that got nerfed to shit in S3. Ran ancient golem>aegis today but I much prefer him solo top. It's easy to snowball there because people don't know how to pressure him at his early levels before he has a full kit.

I have yet to build a gunblade on Jax because I basically copied Shy's build out of the LoL Summer Lesson: Phage into Triforce with Bork and then conditional defenses. Might try it out because it resets insanely quick with autos and single target spells, I just prefer the active on Bork because it steals movespeed and does % damage as opposed to a simple slow with base damage. However, I'd like to go up against something like Kennen or Jayce top to learn how to handle ridiculous lvl 1/2 aggression instead of shitting on Yi's and Fioras.

Diamondprox's Karma jungle was utterly retarded. The easy invade fucked him over in the first game because it took forever to clear blue and he simply couldn't contribute to his team. The second one I'd say he held even but still seemed like he got carried.

Also, today I played Zac and went 2/0/12 and only had Ancient Golem by the end of the game. Kept going to assist the team instead of recalling to buy, OP sustain meant no fountain runs necessary, and passive kept me alive forever.

 

Karma wasn't really the problem in either of those games, Gambit as a whole were playing like shit that week.

 

SO the new PBE patch rolled up and... Well, Blitzcrank's getting a Riot skin, Janna's getting a new legendary skin as a weather forcaster and Hecarim, well... I'll let you see for yourselves.

There is no hope.

 

That's one of the things I love about junglers like Zac and Nunu, you just have unlimited presence because of your ridiculous sustain. Go back to get one item every so often and bam. Your back in the jungle ganking as Zac or fucking over the enemy jungle as Nunu.

On another note, I do not get caught out that often in games. Unless I go balls deep for a greedy kill. Which is often. So maybe. But not always!

But with everyone talking about Yi and his amazing cc dodges with his Q, that's always been there. It's a lot smoother and a bit easier to do now, but it's always been there. Enough said.

Now on to Jax. Jax was one of my most played champions in season 2. He is one of my favorite champions in the game for multiple reasons, lore being a big one (the whole mysterious warrior badass thing). I haven't played jax at all really this season which I want to start doing now. He is such a fun champion and he can be built so many ways that it's just fun to theorycraft. I haven't thought too much on what to build on Jax recently but Zerg has it right for top lane. Phage, Trinity, BotRK, and then conditional defenses. Jungle jax is a whole different ball game with a build. And again, it's all conditional. But I want to bring Jax back into my lineup me thinks.

 

Hextech Gunblade is a better pick than BoTRK. Jax scales well off AD and AP. Also off both spellvamp and lifesteal. He's designed around being a HYBRID champion. You basically want to rush it, and when you complete it is a big power spike for Jax. Building him entirely AD-centric is a massive waste of his magic-damage potential and the resistances it gives him during ult. It's an incredibly efficient item for him, and helps him to be more tanky against both mages and ADs than BOTRK does. Rageblade is another good one. For pure AD items, I'd say Ravenous Hydra is a better pick than the others options. Giving him some AOE presence and even more damage output potential with it's active.

Somewhere in there, though, it's important to build tanky as well unless you're going straight assassin-Jax, otherwise his need to gapclose and stay there makes it hard for him. Building health as well as some CDR if possible is great, with additional defensive items based on the enemy team's composition and whose most dangerous at the time. He goes great with Randuins, for instance, against heavy Physical/Auto Attack reliant champions.