League of Legends

[[Insert Fail]]

I have a feeling that Maw of Malmortius might change the meta a bit.

At the very least, I think there's a high chance it will make ranged AD mids popular again. You're encouraged to get early MR, and you get a nifty 400 damage shield - you might need to tweak your runes and masteries a bit, but with that you should have a good chance of surviving a standard caster's nuke combo. Aaaand what can they do when their spells are on CD? Not much. So you, with your lowered health (triggering Malmortius's passive) are free to shoot down that AP caster as they can do little more than run away.

I am just theorizing, but I am excited to try this.

[Verom]

I'd imagine it'd catch a few people off guard at first
and honestly that's all it takes.

[Ganelon]

I have a feeling that Maw of Malmortius might change the meta a bit.

At the very least, I think there's a high chance it will make ranged AD mids popular again. You're encouraged to get early MR, and you get a nifty 400 damage shield - you might need to tweak your runes and masteries a bit, but with that you should have a good chance of surviving a standard caster's nuke combo. Aaaand what can they do when their spells are on CD? Not much. So you, with your lowered health (triggering Malmortius's passive) are free to shoot down that AP caster as they can do little more than run away.

I am just theorizing, but I am excited to try this.

You and I have already discussed this, but I might as well include my thoughts on the matter here for those who are interested.

It's an undeniable fact that casters, by definition, become more powerful with levels than ranged AD champions. To be clear, a caster is simply a damage-focused champion that relies on abilities to deal damage rather than auto attacks, regardless of whether these deal physical, magical, or true damage. Levels 6, 9, 11, and 13 are such massive jumps in power for a caster that no item-reliant champion can possibly keep up on principle alone. This doesn't mean that a caster would always win against a ranged AD champion in a 1v1 laning situation, but what it does mean is that during early teamfights, that ranged AD is going to be dragging behind due to a lack of AoE disables, powerful nukes, and long range harassment that are characteristic of most popular AP mids, even if they've farmed well and bought a BF Sword that early. The skillshot range harassment alone makes farming a lot harder than it is in a 2v2 with supports keeping the peace on both sides. You could kick a lot of booty as Caitlyn or Sivir in mid, but you'd be forced to focus on your opponent rather than your gold income, and your ganks would be pretty weak.

Furthermore, it's important to consider just how placing a ranged AD mid will affect the balance of your team. You need at least one source of both major damage types to prevent effortless armor/MR stacking, but you can't send a caster bottom. Casters simply don't do well when they're forced to share experience unless they're in a kill lane, and then the focus is on crippling the enemy opposition more than it is on maximizing personal income. If you're pushing your caster out of mid, you pretty much have three AP replacements in top lane that can consistently hold their own - Rumble, Vlad, and Kennen. Bottom is more lenient, but I don't expect the meta to ever become focused on kill lanes simply because you can't possibly coordinate that sort of thing effectively in solo queue. Too many combinations just don't work, even if the individual champions are fine. Cass/Alistair would fall flat immediately simply because excessive knockbacks would cause Cass to miss her important skillshots, and Alistair wouldn't be able to contribute to harassment.

I think this item is more of a really nice buff to Talon, Pantheon, and Urgot mids, but I doubt it's likely to shift the meta back towards ranged AD. No matter how effective a counter-item may be, it only works if your opponent is set up to be countered by it. We might see a wider range of physical champions being used to counter specific casters, but I doubt we'll see one on each side of the lane. It's a good item, but it won't render casters so redundant that people become afraid to pick them. If that were the case, well... let's just say Graves mid with a Warden's Mail will be the new FOTM. You heard it here first.

[Doormaster]

Bought Udyr on a whim yesterday

Fuck now I only want to play him

[KevTehNev]

I still need to learn how to jungle, and learn to routes and shit. I know if you start with Blue you normally need a leash. I was thinking of just getting Warwick with IP and learning it with him.

[Nancymaker]

Warwick can be jungled without runes and probably without items so he's a good place to start. You should check out Stonewall's guides (specifically the Team Battles) if you want some decent tutorials.

[Ablu2]

Just had a match where I was Xerath mid against another Xerath. He got 3 minion kills ahead of me because my timing was off or something, and those three minion kills won him the whole match. They made him level first, so he got his stun combo first, making me have to tower hug to not feed him, making me be unable to get any minion kills, making him destroy me the first chance he got, which subsequently made him fed.

Also, I don't think my stun combo worked once out of the 10+ times I landed it, and my E constantly refused to trigger even though I was within range. I looked afterwards, and he was level 30 with 1000 wins.

Welp, time to go play minecraft.

[Ganelon]

Just had a match where I was Xerath mid against another Xerath. He got 3 minion kills ahead of me because my timing was off or something, and those three minion kills won him the whole match. They made him level first, so he got his stun combo first, making me have to tower hug to not feed him, making me be unable to get any minion kills, making him destroy me the first chance he got, which subsequently made him fed.

If you want a level advantage, you need to put as much damage on the enemy minions as possible so that they die sooner. It pushes your lane up and it doesn't deny your opponent any last-hits or experience, but it does delay those things. I'm not a big fan of the strategy, but I can still appreciate its effectiveness.

[Ablu2]

If you want a level advantage, you need to put as much damage on the enemy minions as possible so that they die sooner. It pushes your lane up and it doesn't deny your opponent any last-hits or experience, but it does delay those things. I'm not a big fan of the strategy, but I can still appreciate its effectiveness.

It's hard to compete with an opponent approximately twice as good as you in the first place, and it didn't help that his teammates ganked him and mine didn't gank even though they knew I was doing badly.

[Myk]

ive mained irelia since her release. her nerf is well deserved.

[KevTehNev]

Can this be a skin Riot.

[KevTehNev]

Fuck Shen is the best tank. My friend plays a mean AD Kennen too.

[[Insert Fail]]

Can this be a skin Riot.

[img]DJ%20Sona[/img]

DJ Sona has been a long sought-after skin, but like Delivery Girl Sivir nothing's come of it yet.

[Cottarsby]

Dat Master Yi

[Tatzel]

Pfft, now that you mention it.
I often had bad games, but I never had as bad scores at this, not even with Wukong or that one faithful game I had as Shyvana.