League of Legends

I like him top, but I hate his jungle. It's popular and strong, but meh... You'll gradually learn as you play more, but once you hit level 9 and get at least your Sheen and +150 damage on your Q from farming, then you can start engaging. It kind of depends on the enemy though. That's when I could fight the Teemo I was against yesterday, but for a Riven or a Renekton it might take longer.

I think this is going to be my setup for Nasus: Philosopher's Stone first, then Alacrity Mercury Treads, Iceborn Gauntlet, Spirit Visage, Warmog's Armor, and the Ohmwrecker last, which uses the Philisopher's Stone. Then I think my runes will be cool down, attack damage, and either armor or magic res, then defense masteries. I don't have a ton of rune space or mastery points yet, but enough to make a difference I think.

Wow. Nasus is awesome. I wasn't sure about him my first match. It felt like he wasn't nearly as durable as Malphite and did about comparable damage. My second match I was a little more comfortable with his abilities, and had figured out that his Q increases with every kill, as opposed to just champs, which is what I originally thought, and I cleaned house. I laned with a Tristana, and we pushed our lane to their inhibitor before I hit level 10. It was fastest I've done it since I started. He's definitely more fragile than Malphite, but his abilities are nuts. As of now those two are definitely my champions. If you buff his cool downs and health/armor a bit nobody can get away from you. His W, combined with the high damage of his other abilities, and the increased stats his R gives you makes him a crazy damage dealer.

Oh, by the way, try starting with a Crystalline Flask+3 Health Pots. With your passive, you'll have godlike sustain. I've done 30 minute games where I've never gone back because my damage keeps scaling without items and I outleveled my opponent so thoroughly. First time I ever had 10k gold in my inventory at once.

I tend to have at least 3 or 4 health pots on me at any given time, or at least until I fill that fifth slot with an end game item, but I don't always get a chance to do that. I'll look up Crystalline Flasks. Do you know if Philosopher's Stones stack? I accidentally bought 2 of them my last match, and I couldn't really tell the difference.

I feel dumb. I've just been using the health potions. I didn't see the flasks. They're clearly more potent.

Item stacking is a bit weird. Anything without "Unique" can stack, (Triforce, Iceborn, and Lich Bane don't stack) but unique auras are a bit more complex. If two people on a team have a unique aura with the same name, they will have the benefits of both auras, but their teammates will only get one.

^now that you mentioned I don't know if Prophets stones and the gold stacks, normally I get only one for jungling and rush core items

So just to clarify if an item has no unique aura than you can stack them together just by buying more?

^ I just checked. It says right in the description: "unique passives with the same name don't stack." and it's the unique passive that gives you the bonus gold

^in theory, yes

E.G. phantom dancer, statik shiv, rod of ages

But if I'm near someone who also has one then I get the benefits of both? Is that only with auras/passives that state that they affect other champions?

PlasticandRage wrote:But if I'm near someone who also has one then I get the benefits of both? Is that only with auras/passives that state that they affect other champions?

no, you can only get the effect of one aura, the only way to get two effects its by Buying another item with that aura. So max its 2

Edit: wait I actually confused everything, Quarik little help!

I was about to say that. Two conflicting explanations. My understanding, based on what's been said is: no unique passive/aura = stackable by item, and unique passive/aura = stackable by player. I'm just confused about whether or not it must be a unique that states that it has an effect on allies, or if it's all of them.

Unique passives cannot be stacked regardless of anything that I know of. Unique auras can be stacked on the players that own the items. Player x has a Bulwark, player y also has one. Players z, r, and n have the aura of one bulwark, but players x and y get both the aura from their own item and the aura from the other player's item.

Right right. That's what I was asking. Passives that create auras, auras being the effects of certain passives that affect other players, are the ones that can stack, because you can have one yourself and be near another player with the same one to get the effects of both. Right?

You were right. This is confusing.

Sounds like you have it right.

I really like Nasus. Aside from being a little squishier than the tanks I've been using, I don't really see any weaknesses. He doesn't have anything that allows him to jump distances, like Malphite or Tristana, but his W does pretty much the same thing if you're quick about it. Once I have a full rune page it won't matter as much that he's not a tank either.

Thanks for the recommendation Quarik. I probably wouldn't have tried him otherwise. At least not for awhile. I didn't think he looked very appealing.

I completely forgot to give you my tips for League. Learn the roster, and learn to farm. Those are the two most important things you can do. If you know every matchup in the game, the approximate cooldowns, ranges, and mechanics of most spells, and can farm well, you're golden. It'll take a while to learn (for instance, I only just learned that when playing Cait, you can cancel your ult by flashing, and it will go on a 5s cd), but it'll pay off in the end. It'll help to just experiment with as many champions as you can. I still know people that think Grievous Wounds (50% healing debuff) will affect Lulu ulti, Nasus ulti, and Renekton ulti. They're maximum health increases, not heals, so the healing debuff doesn't affect them, which lets you pull some amusing baits when people expect you to heal for nothing.

I definitely have to get better with trying out the free champions to at least gain a better understanding of things like that. Just starting out it's just felt more appealing to choose champs I thought seemed to better fit the traits I usually choose in video games. I guess I'm kind of a nonconformist by nature too, so I wasn't going to choose the champions available, I had to go my own way instead. I'm actually pretty excited for the swap this week though. Maybe get to try more melee champs that aren't assassins or Rengar. I thought Nocturne seemed cool, but I read he's really difficult to play well so I haven't tried him. Maybe I'm just taking losing too seriously and I should try them all. I've pretty much only played durable characters so far, so I just haven't felt confident enough to use champs that aren't.

I did have fun with Tristana though.

DkS Banshee :shock:

How big is the gap between the beginner and intermediate bots? I'm definitely starting to feel a little more confident in beginner. Am I just going to get slaughtered in intermediate? Is there a steep change?

Believe it or not I actually haven't tried PvP yet. I feel like I need to conquer intermediate first

To be honest, I find the intermediate bots a lot harder than begginers, they usually Gank often, put pressure on towers and by all means try to finish the game as quicly as possible.

Even at lvl 30, whenever I buy a new champ and go test them out, the bots sometimes slaughter us badly


So take your time, but don't be afraid. the best way to learn is by losing and analizyng your mistakes


Btw now that you mentioned, I feel that you really should try PVP when you're still low level, because you're basicly free to pick any champ and play with it, after lvl 12 people start to plan teams and setups

Oh so I really should get on that then or I'll probably be trying to learn PvP with people who are way ahead of me in that regard. Good to know.

Carphil's definitely right there. When I was first picking up champions, intermediate bots SLAUGHTERED me. My team couldn't take a single tower or even kill a champion. I highly recommend trying some duo queue with a friend, and if you can hop on voice with them, that's even better. I would've stopped playing a long time ago if I hadn't had a few people to play with. The only reason I haven't invited you to a match yet is because you'll get matched with people that are much MUCH more experienced than you, and I really didn't enjoy that when I started playing, so I figured you wouldn't either.

Yeah I figured matching worked by level and you're way higher than me. It's fine. The information you guys have provided me here has been more valuable than the experience I've gotten playing with friends I've made there.

I met a few guys last night that were pretty funny though. I guess the 4 of them had all been skype chatting and I happen to jump in as their fifth. We all ran the top lane to the base, then mid, then bot, then took the base. Every fight we got into was like 1 or 2 vs 5. It was pretty great.

If you have an item with an aura that says something like "grants allied champions such and such bonuses," you get those bonuses yourself also right? It's not just something you carry for support only, but for personal buffs as well?

Yeah, you get the stats on the item and the aura. You can see it on your status/buff/debuff bar thingy.