League of Legends General Discussion Thread

[v8mark]

Barging in out of the blue is no problem... we get games going most nights, and all are welcome. Sulla does his YouTube games on Tuesday evenings US time, but there's high demand these days, now that he's so famous

(BTW, I think I sent you a friend request? I'm Terror Incognita on the NA server )

[Deceptus]

I failed to reply to this...

I wouldn`t want to barge in just out of the blue

So is there a good time for noobs to show up (is there even such a time?)

Well, any time is a good time. The general procedure with our newer players is to stick them in a premade of 5 and they usually play the support role (I started off giving out ressurections as a bot lane Zilean, and I know Krill and Alindu started off as health/mana S.O.R.A.K.A-class dispensers*) and you just observe games and tactics from a safe position where you just amplify strengths of experienced players. Seems to work most of the time. But there really is NO problem whatsoever with you taking any position, it's just what we've been doing usually. We can help you get your toes in the water.

My in game name is Seyruun and I just added "kayapo" but I don't know if that's your name or if you even play in North America.

*In fact Krill never learned how to play support, he still plays dispenser

[kayapo]

My in game name is Seyruun and I just added "kayapo" but I don't know if that's your name or if you even play in North America.

It`s "Platot", yes NA servers. I added you, i think. =)

Playing Soraka is fine, it`s what i`ve been doing anyway. Just need to learn when to place those damn wards.


edit: How much IP should I save to buy runes at lv 20?

[Krill]

Seyruun's just annoyed that when I'm playing Soraka I almost always get more gold than the jungler because of the rune and mastery set up I use THat and the 66-75% assist:team kill ratio I consistently hit

[VoiceOfUnreason]

Just need to learn when to place those damn wards.

"Now."

"Just before the ward you placed earlier expires."

At level 10, you probably aren't seeing many junglers; in which case the primary threat is going to be an enemy champ with kill potential roaming. That's most likely to be your midlane opponent when he hits level 6.

That's usually at... damn, I've played enough that I should know this by now. About 8 waves, therefore 4 minutes after the minions reach mid which is at 2 minutes... 6 minutes in? 6:30? somewhere in there. Sooner if mid gave up first blood, of course.

I'll also want at least one ward to protect mid if Top or Bottom are a threat. Warding both sides is best, if you can afford it, but at a minimum I want to give mid at least one safe retreat line. 10 minutes maybe? Sooner if mid is proving to be especially vulnerable.

You want dragon warded every three minutes, starting from just before the enemy team is a threat to take it. I usually start warding there at 7min or so, just on general principles.

Likewise, you want to have baron warded when there's a threat there. Top players are a threat to take Baron from about 18 minutes or so if they have the advantage (usually a pick). Average players don't have nearly that amount of farm, so the ward can wait - I get nervous if it isn't down by 25min, and aim to start dropping them at 20 min.

For both of these neutral objectives, I want to drop approach wards 30 seconds to 1 minute before my team is ready to make a play for the objective. Ideally, this means I'm laying wards based on when the camp is scheduled to respawn.

Similar timing on their jungle buffs, or ours, depending on which side has the advantage, usually starting from about 20 minutes.

If the enemy has captured our mid tower and a side lane, I want the jungle between them completely lit up so that we can see the enemy cross. Likewise, if we have that advantage, I want their jungle revealed so that they can't safely cross to defend.

In short, I want to be warding the map about that same 30 seconds before the play transitions to that area.

Without getting picked.

[VoiceOfUnreason]

edit: How much IP should I save to buy runes at lv 20?

I think the math you need is in the [thread=5188]rune thread[/thread]

[Deceptus]

When you play with us, you are probably going to meet junglers since matchmaking is going to put you against slightly higher leveled people than you are used to. Telltale sign of a jungler is Smite summoner spell - at lower levels some junglers don't run it but it's a terrible idea as it makes you slower and it can cause your jungle to be stolen. Junglers are going to be your early game menace that you need to prepare to; it's thanks to the support's warding that the bot lane is an unpopular lane to gank for. The most common support opening is spending your initial gold on Faerie Charm (for a Philosopher Stone later on), three wards and 2 health potions. It's the "run-of-the-mill" opening but wards are extremely useful for other things than stopping junglers: mainly providing vision in the "lane" bush which allows your other partner (usually a ranged AD carry) to directly target enemies inside it. Sometimes supports counter each other by putting early vision (pink) wards in those lane bushes to deny vision to the other pair.

Junglers and supports have a degree of synergy throughout the game - many supports are viable roamers that can leave the lane and use their CC to assist in ganks; they can use their gold for Oracles or Vision Wards to clear vision from important objectives like Dragon.

As an example I was Shyvana today (an extremely strong duelist and jungle invader that feasts on weaker junglers' flesh and conquers jungle camps from the entire map). The enemy jungler was Olaf - a jungler whose weakness is that he drops low in the jungle and is thus susceptible to invades if not played carefully. I asked my Taric to put one of his initial wards in the enemy jungle (at their wraiths) before the creeps even spawned and our Anivia to push the mid lane against AP Tristana.

The effect was, I spotted Olaf - who is a very fast jungler just like Shyvana - when he was at his Wraiths (I already cleared mine at that point). I asked Anivia to shove the lane to mid and we approach Olaf's red. He's half health and a very easy prey for Anivia and Shyvana with Exhaust. Anivia picks up his blue buff. Tristana foolishly jumps into the fight and gets herself killed as well, netting us 2 early kills. End result of the game was me on level 13 with 7/1/3 against level 8 Olaf as 1/8/1, since I recklessly kept killing him while asking my support to help ward his jungle so that I could kill him at my leisure.

In an inverted situation - I played support Sona in a team against Dr. Mundo, who is an extremely fast jungler like Shyvana and serves a similar role early on. At the time, Mundo wasn't nearly as popular as he was only discovered, but he already had a "cheese" strategy that had its origin in a SoloMid.net champion guide.

Mundo would ask his team to clear the blue buff on his side and immediately rush to red buff, where he'd clear red and wait for the other jungler to come, at which point he'd ravage him with his early game damage and Exhaust summoner spell for easy first blood.

Knowing that flavor-of-the-month Mundos are cheesier than 2 Proxy Gate Zealot rushes, I put a sight ward inside of our red buff. Mundo showed up, killed red, and patiently waited as bot lane, mid lane, and jungle approached his Exhaust/Smite persona. Mundo is squishy early on and has no innate escapes early on, so he croaked and gave our mid a double-buff.

So basically support isn't exactly the "noob role" and relies a lot on positioning, game knowledge. It's a bit like playing TF2 Engineer in a duo with a TF2 Sniper (the AD carry). Snipers are about hitting headshots and positioning themselves, ergo mechanics. The Engineer doesn't need to be gosu with getting minion kills and mechanics, but he needs to know what he's up against and how to counter it, and what is the best place for his sentry (or in that case, wards). That's how supports "carry" games in general.

But if that's what you will feel comfortable in, you can just learn that stuff while giving out buffs and gaining knowledge from the tribunes. =)



And Krill, it's mostly that you just consider yourself done when you press W+E in lane every cooldown and toss a single ward. :P Works for Soraka - makes your Alistar rather horrifying to watch.

[Krill]

You forgot R.

[kayapo]

And Krill, it's mostly that you just consider yourself done when you press W+E in lane every cooldown and toss a single ward.

There is more? :neenernee

Thanks for the tips VoU and Deceptus.

[VoiceOfUnreason]

That's most likely to be your midlane opponent when he hits level 6.

That's usually at... damn, I've played enough that I should know this by now. About 8 waves, therefore 4 minutes after the minions reach mid which is at 2 minutes... 6 minutes in? 6:30? somewhere in there. Sooner if mid gave up first blood, of course.

Fencepost error. Should be between 5:30 (when the 8th wave arrives), and 6:00 if mid is able to sustain in lane.