League of Legends - Season 1

[Pentarctagon]

Sad moment for me, I just moved to college and my laptop just crashed from what might be overheating while playing LoL (no A/C so room temp is mid 80s, checked the temp underneath and it was 105 degrees )

[Jozrael]

Yea, I had that start to happen with my old laptop. If you ventilate it and or put moving air (handy fan?) under/around it, it should be just peachy.

[Jozrael]

I like the frost archer--haven't played in a few months, so dunno the name. A group of my friends are quite into it--I think they go by the names Brooklyn Rage, Egyptian Rage, and some others... My tag is Viers when I play.

Do you play on EU :<?

[Joram]

I haven't had a "problem" yet with my laptop overheating, but it's certainly gotten hotter than I'd like. On a related note, I spend all my "campus" money on gatorade and juice, since the water in my dorm is lousy.

So one day, when I was sitting there in the midst of piles of bottle caps feeling the heat emanating from my laptop, I suddenly thought "Hey, why not put the laptop on top of bottle tops?" Now I have a bottle cap under each corner, and it's helped get some ventilation underneath and helps keep the temp down.

[Pentarctagon]

Yea, I had that start to happen with my old laptop. If you ventilate it and or put moving air (handy fan?) under/around it, it should be just peachy.

I've actually started putting my wallet and cellphone under the front end and pointing a fan there and its helped enormously, I went from being able to play 2 LoL games before having to shut down to 5

Also, any advice for playing as Heimerdinger? I've been trying him out a bit a mostly pure AP build, but after looking at the upcoming changes it seems that won't be particularly viable anymore...

[Jozrael]

Heimer has been pretty easy street so far...now I'm not sure how he'll run. I'd hold off and wait and see how his meta stabilizes.

[cretin]

heimer is such an odd hero, having super creep control and all. Ive been having fun with Nasus recently, he's... quite scary when he's played right. great for tower diving. Although very manahungry throughout the game.

[Jozrael]

Chalice is pretty much the first item I get on Nasus.

[Pentarctagon]

New question
How do you effectively counter zilean as a squishy character? I was just in a match (as tristana) where he could deal 300+ damage with a single time bomb and only 86 AP even though I had 103 MR (negatron cloak + merc treads). So he could then sit back and kill minions while I couldn't even get in range otherwise he would charge forward and lay a time bomb on me. The only way that I could kill him was with the help of an ally (which was a problem since Zilean was in the center lane), which usually resulted in one/both of us dying anyway since he could revive himself.

[Jozrael]

Your problem is that Zilean mid IS the counter to sustained DPS champs (generally ones that rely on their autoattack even early in the game).

The reason mid is awesome for some champions is because of the ease of farming (they're alone, not competing for lasthits), and the difficulty of ganking someone (it is MUCH harder to gank a good solo mid than a side lane that has pushed past the river). This means that champions can often leverage unique mechanics that would be ineffective in a dual lane, where there are two opposing champions with more ground to cover to safety. Often this means squishy ranged champs can dominate more solid dual lane choices.

Zilean is generally the counter to these because his range is only equalled by a small few, and surpassed by none. None can put out the dps of a single bomb of his in the short amount of time they have near him, and if they get too near they will eat a double bomb.

Generally, the way to deal with Zilean is be able to choose a time when he is far enough away from safety that you can quickly close the gap and deal lots of damage out that will surpass the amount of sustained dps he can put out with his bombs (which is very low after the first salvo). Alternatively, have a heal. Nidalee, for example, can often outlane a Zilean if played well. If you are outchampioned by Zilean, request a lane swap with someone who can take the damage better (even popping a Taric mid is better than being XP denied and dominated). Some good choices are Pantheon, anyone with a heal, or ashe (while the first few levels will be rough, you will be able to punish him decently with Volley if you utilize minion aggro properly).

[Pentarctagon]

I've been playing heimer the last few days, and I think i've found a pretty good build for him.
1. 3/3 on the strength of spirit mastery
2. Tear of the Goddess
3. Chalice of Harmony
4. Archangel's Staff (built from TofG)
5. Zhonyas
6. Hextech Gunblade (kinda iffy on this one, perhaps something to further reduce cooldown times would be better)

I end up with ~3000 mana, at least 400AP, and I have never run out of mana (also the regen from the mastery lets me ignore most harassment early game since I regenerate it fairly quickly).

[JW]

omg....I'm going to have to read this whole thread and comment eventually.

Right now I'm 1500+ rated with over 1k wins in normal with all champions (including the newly released Urgot) unlocked. I *WILL* reply to most everything in this thread when I get the time. (Not reading the forums in a year means I've missed a bunch of stuff.)

edit1---

Does anyone else here compete in the League?

Yes. This actually gives me my fix for competitive gaming ATM.

I wondered to buy League of Legends, but then i decided: I have DotA, so what do i need more?

Because it's exceptionally fun and has no denying (other than Gangplank), which I find to be an exceptionally ridiculous mechanic (no offense if you enjoy it).

Me, my brother, and a friend played several the 3v3 online games today, and I am a bit curious as to how you defeat an extremely defensive Cho'Gath player.

For the record, I was Tristana, my brother was Karthus, and my friend was Blitzcrank.

As Trist (and maybe Blitz), get Madred's Bloodrazors to take 4% of his hp as magic damage every attack. As Karthus get Deathfire's Grasp which you activate to take 30%+ %damage based on AP (of his current hp) as an activatable ability.

[JW]

Do you have any tips for Kayle-The Judicator, items, tactics, whatever?
I play a fair bit of dota, but have only recently been introduced to LoL.

I'm not a Kayle pro, but the standard way to build her lately is:
1: Doran's Ring
2: lvl 1 boots
3: Guinsoo's Rageblade
4: Nashor's Tooth

Finish your boots and build defensive items as needed. After that you have a ton of flexibility. As for skill order, LoL forums might help you more.

EDIT: Upon looking at your recent games, I recommend diversifying who you play at some point. While it can be a great idea to learn the game on a single Champion (you don't have to relearn all your abilities each game as well as learn the mechanics of how to play), once you feel solidly comfortable with the basics of LoL the quickest way to improve is to play every single available Champion while they're free. You will be encountering them a lot in your games, and the best way to avoid dying (or ensure a kill) is to know the capabilities of both yourself and your opponent inside and out. If you have a sparkly magicky Champion that you've never seen before in your lane, you won't know the first thing about how to properly lane against him. Then when he hits level 6, teleports on your face and bursts you down for most of your health in one combo, you'll be totally unprepared (the Champion is Kassadin, btw). Playing each Champion when you can preps you for being able to play well AGAINST them.

I second what Jozreal has just said.

• Warmog's is definitely not a good choice on Tristana, it's more a tank item and specialized at that. If she wants survivability, something like phage -> frozen mallet would be a better idea, perhaps a banshees veil against a caster heavy team.
• I don't know why you think Bthirsters have armor reduction, but stacking them is almost universally a bad idea. You need to make your attack stats synergize, not just max out one. (Damage, speed, armor reduction, crit chance, and crit dmg.) Tristana needs at MOST one aspd item because of her steroid as you mentioned, but don't forget reduction and critical. IMO starks, IE, and perhaps a bthirster, or last whisper IE bthirster would be better on her.

Stacking BTs isn't bad at all, although on Tristana it definitely does lack diversity that she needs. Ashe, Kat, and Pantheon are all champions you could feasibly stacks BTs on and do alright. (I see he meant BC now.)

Void Staff, unfortunately, doesn't synergize with your build. You'd be far better served focusing on your physical than having a short side-trip into your AP. AP Tristana IS actually a (somewhat) viable build, if very technical. However, hybrid Tristana isn't, really.

Also, void staff is a pretty bad one-shot AP item. You grab it for when you're a caster who would normally be doing tons of damage already with your items, but they've stacked so much MR (magic resistance) that you're finding it difficult to keep up. The Void Staff devalues their MR by a LOT, in return for having a weaker power quotient in and of itself than any other AP item.

Void staff should not be bought unless you deal 50% or more of your damage as magic. As Tristana you should focus on AD (attack damage), where she is the strongest.

[JW]

ok, i will keep that in mind. hasn't really been as much of an issue lately though, i've been trying out taric and i gotta say the healing/survival aspect is really fun. the ranged stun is also really fun to spam at melee characters . I gotta say though I actually find his ult to be rather less useful than his other spells, but that might just be because i don't notice any difference in my allies while in combat myself.

Taric's ult is tremendous for teamfights as it gives your entire team free BF swords.

Yea, I had that start to happen with my old laptop. If you ventilate it and or put moving air (handy fan?) under/around it, it should be just peachy.

I've actually started putting my wallet and cellphone under the front end and pointing a fan there and its helped enormously, I went from being able to play 2 LoL games before having to shut down to 5

Also, any advice for playing as Heimerdinger? I've been trying him out a bit a mostly pure AP build, but after looking at the upcoming changes it seems that won't be particularly viable anymore...

I haven't playedhim since he got gutted, but I imagine you'd build him about the same as before. Items you'll want to focus on depending on enemy comp:

ROA
Rylais
AA staff
Zhonyas - and not necessarily in that order. If you can farm 1600 before you B, get your needlessly large rod for Zhonyas first. Although they ruined one of my favorite champs with this last patch. =(

6. Hextech Gunblade (kinda iffy on this one, perhaps something to further reduce cooldown times would be better)

Instead of the gunblade build Will of the Ancients. Heimer does not need AD.

edit- ps, Jozreal, we should play sometime. =)

[Jozrael]

Absolutely. I also have very exciting news for this thread which I can share in a few weeks.