Any chance I can get some tips on my Stable of...

[quote=BlindGarret2930]Hello Mobafire, My name is BlindGarret and I'm new to this community as a whole. I've been playing LoL since season two, more or less for fun, with no real effort to become competitive, as my professional life made this very difficult. Since the end of season two though I have landed myself a cushy job as an IT Technician at a small company and have a lot more time off during the week in which to game. I've always been a bit of a Theorycrafter when it comes to gaming, and even devoted a little time in season two, writing a blog about the difference between BT and TF on Talon mid. That being said I just wanted to share my plans for this season and my stable of champions in hopes of getting some feedback from the more experienced players as to any pitfalls I may wish to avoid on my way to being competitive. Starting off, I would like to say I have no illusions of my play style. I am the best of all of my RL friends by a huge margin but that only makes me a very small fish in what happens to be a very large pond. I am not a pro, I make mistakes VERY often. The only thing I have going for me is I enjoy watching matches I have just completed on LoLReplay and figuring out what I did wrong. "Oops, I really should have paid more attention to that ward there, I should have seen that countergank coming." or "Hey that worked really well, but if I had swapped targets there I could have gotten both of them." tend to be my responses to situations, as I have no control over how other people play, only myself. That being said I intend to play normals until I feel ready to jump into Ranked, and I do not in any way claim I'm a high ELO player. So here are my general thoughts on my positions: AP Mid: This position was my bread and butter for season 2. I felt most comfortable here and had a much larger range of champs practiced. Currently my champs here are [[Ahri]], [[cassiopeia]], [[katarina]], [[leblanc]], [[lux]], [[ryze]], [[gragas]], [[zyra]], [[morgana]] and very recently [[Akali]]. not to mention a standard counter pick of [[Talon]]. As of late I've been really putting effort into what I think is my worst trait, failing to focus the carries in a team fight. I spent most of my time as mid just throwing combos at whoever I saw available, and getting yelled at for being that noobish. So I've been watching replays and really trying to get my focus corrected, meeting with positive results, but this has pushed me away from my main champ [[ahri]]. I just don’t feel like she’s quite as good at blowing up an ADC or as meaningful to a team fight afterwards as say [[katarina]] or [[cassiopeia]]. Would love to hear some feedback on that, as I might just be approaching it the wrong way. On another note I find myself no longer using [[leblanc]] as I'm finding it harder and harder to justify her inability to stay relevant in large team fights on the hopes that my opponents make mistakes and let me catch them out of position. Plan for Season 3 mid stable: [[Cassiopeia]], [[Katarina]], [[Akali]], [[Lux]], [[Morgana]] Jungle: This has become my new home as I’ve recently fallen in love with both [[chogath]]'s amazing CC and sustain, and [[shaco]]'s counter jungling and ganking. I am aware of course that [[shaco]] is a rather risky pick as he has a problem staying relevant late game, but I find I enjoy using his abilities to trick opponents and set traps to be too fun to completely throw away the champ. Plan for Season 3 Jungle stable: [[Chogath]], [[Shaco]], [[Skarner]] Support: Not a role I play a lot, but I'm told I do it right when I do. I prefer the safe picks such as [[Taric]] to make up for my lack of experience over the opposing support. Plan for Season 3 Support stable: [[Taric]], [[Zyra]], [[Sona]], [[Nunu]] Top: I have only some experience top, but I find it to be a fun lane. My usual choice for top is [[Riven]] as I am most comfortable on her, but I can play other tops as well. Plan for season 3 Top stable: [[Riven]], [[Jayce]], [[Nunu]] (odd choice I know, but SUPER SAFE and I fills an AP role if noone else picked one), [[Jax]], and [[Kennen]]? (I hear it's possible and would really love to get some use out of kennen again) ADC: ... yeahhhhhh this is where I really fall short as a player, I am a TERRIBLE ADC. I don't know what it is about the style that makes me so DERP but I just never seem to be positioned right (conservatively I mean, not close enough to capitalize on a gank or engage). I usually end up picking an ADC with a dash or blink simply to give me some sort of way to get close enough to be useful to the team fight. At the same time I am VERY rarely caught out of position and killed, so I suppose that's not a total loss. I tend to do best on [[ezreal]] as he plays so much like an APC that it feels natural. Plan for season 3 ADC Stable: [[Ezreal]], [[Vayne]], [[Corki]], [[Ashe]] (while it's true she lacks a steroid, I sometimes find myself in the odd position of being ADC with noone else picking a champ with engage potential, plus a hawkshot into a bush we were about to face check has saved my teams many times) I'm sorry that my first post was sort of a book, just wanted to see if my Champ choices were inherently flawed in some way that someone can point out. Thanks for your time! BlindGarret[/quote]

[quote=Mooninites]Well first of all, welcome to Mobafire In regards to [[Ahri]], I'd actually say you're quite wrong. [[Ahri]] is a significantly better carry assassin than [[Cassiopeia]]. You are right to say that she doesn't kill carries as quickly as [[Katarina]], but she's safer than Kat also. [[Cassiopeia]] is a sustained dps mage and she has probably the highest damage output of any champion in the game. Because of this I wouldn't say she is a carry assassin, at least not in the context that [[Ahri]] and [[Katarina]] are. You have to be really good at [[Leblanc]] to pull her off, a lot of people play her quite passively and people generally don't take advantage of her early game enough so she falls off. I'd say all the champions you listed for AP mid staples are good For your top lanes, I don't really like any of them. [[Riven]] is still good although she recently got nerfed. [[nunu]] should never be a staple top lane, but even then he isn't that difficult to play. [[Jayce]] has fallen out of favor top lane and is pretty much only played mid now, at least at the competitive level. I don't know that much about him, but I don't think he's that great. [[Kennnen]] doesn't fit the meta right now, health stacking is king and warmog's kind of destroys kennen. [[Jax]] is very good and I'd definitely learn him if you want to get more serious about top lane. As far as supports those are all pretty much staple supports. [[Nunu]] is getting nerfed but right now he is the best support. [[Lulu]] is also very good and arguably as good as nunu, basically no other support even comes close to [[Lulu]] or [[Nunu]]. [[Zyra]] is a good support to pick up ADC isn't for everyone, you have to position well, focus well, and last hit well. [[Ezreal]] is a pretty good place to start, [[Vayne]] is good to, I personally don't like her as much as I used to, but there's no denying she's strong. [[Corki]] is pretty bad right now. Tri-force isn't that great and overall he just feels like he got shafted the most in S3. I'd probably put him near the level of [[Tristana]] for competitive play, which means he's pretty much not viable. [[Ashe]] is okay, but I wouldn't necessarily focus on her. I'd probably learn [[Caitlyn]] before ashe, and both play fairly similarly anyway best of luck, I can answer any more questions if you have them[/quote]

[quote=CounterSnipe]To start you have to be able to main a role in order to go into ranked play. If you know you want to achieve at least silver you really have to know one role specifically. With that said, you really won't be able to play every single role effectively due to the fact you won't be able to memorize each lane's specific match up (which is why there are specialists in ranked teams). If you're just going to throw around in normals then what you have now is perfect, learning 3 of each. On a note: if you're going to play in ranked I highly recommend learning support and jungle as they have the most influence on the game. I played in 900 elo in S2 by playing "every role" as so many people recommended, but then I started to main jungle and support and went to 1400. I reached 1490 in S3 as well, while a lot of my friends are still under 1000. I don't take ranked games too seriously as elo really is only worth what you want it to be (to me it's not worth that much) But if you want to be in the top 25% of players (silver or higher) you have to specialize.[/quote]

[quote=BlindGarret2930][quote=Mooninites] Well first of all, welcome to Mobafire In regards to [[Ahri]], I'd actually say you're quite wrong. [[Ahri]] is a significantly better carry assassin than [[Cassiopeia]]. You are right to say that she doesn't kill carries as quickly as [[Katarina]], but she's safer than Kat also. [[Cassiopeia]] is a sustained dps mage and she has probably the highest damage output of any champion in the game. Because of this I wouldn't say she is a carry assassin, at least not in the context that [[Ahri]] and [[Katarina]] are. [/quote] You're right that was terribly worded, I didnt mean [[Cassiopeia]] could assassinate I meant she seemed better for Team fights. That's too bad to hear my entire Top team is terrible but I'm glad to hear I'm on the right track for the rest of the lanes. What happened to [[Corki]]? I thought he used to be a part of the "holy trinity" of AD Carries... I have [[caitlyn]] I just don't have a ton of practice on her. Thanks for the tips ^_^.[/quote]

[quote=BlindGarret2930][quote=CounterSnipe] To start you have to be able to main a role in order to go into ranked play. If you know you want to achieve at least silver you really have to know one role specifically. With that said, you really won't be able to play every single role effectively due to the fact you won't be able to memorize each lane's specific match up (which is why there are specialists in ranked teams). If you're just going to throw around in normals then what you have now is perfect, learning 3 of each. On a note: if you're going to play in ranked I highly recommend learning support and jungle as they have the most influence on the game. I played in 900 elo in S2 by playing "every role" as so many people recommended, but then I started to main jungle and support and went to 1400. I reached 1490 in S3 as well, while a lot of my friends are still under 1000. I don't take ranked games too seriously as elo really is only worth what you want it to be (to me it's not worth that much) But if you want to be in the top 25% of players (silver or higher) you have to specialize. [/quote] Thanks, Yes I still have a main role in mind (Mid) but i kind of feel like if I can't at least play a FEW champs competitively in the other lanes I'll be a serious detriment to my team in solo queue where I can't always get my preferred spot. Thanks ^_^.[/quote]

[quote=Mooninites][quote=BlindGarret2930] [quote=Mooninites] Well first of all, welcome to Mobafire In regards to [[Ahri]], I'd actually say you're quite wrong. [[Ahri]] is a significantly better carry assassin than [[Cassiopeia]]. You are right to say that she doesn't kill carries as quickly as [[Katarina]], but she's safer than Kat also. [[Cassiopeia]] is a sustained dps mage and she has probably the highest damage output of any champion in the game. Because of this I wouldn't say she is a carry assassin, at least not in the context that [[Ahri]] and [[Katarina]] are. [/quote] You're right that was terribly worded, I didnt mean [[Cassiopeia]] could assassinate I meant she seemed better for Team fights. That's too bad to hear my entire Top team is terrible but I'm glad to hear I'm on the right track for the rest of the lanes. What happened to [[Corki]]? I thought he used to be a part of the "holy trinity" of AD Carries... I have [[caitlyn]] I just don't have a ton of practice on her. Thanks for the tips ^_^. [/quote] Other AD Carries benefited more from the season 3 changes than corki did, significantly more. Trinity Force really isn't as viable an option and Iceborn Gauntlets isn't an alternative for him like it is ezreal. All in all, I'm not entirely sure, but most of what I've heard from Chaox and Doublelift, they have said he's not really viable. The holy trinity is kind of broken up now, [[Graves]] and [[Corki]] were replaced with [[Caitlyn]] and [[Miss Fortune]]. Probably the base movement speed increase had something to do with it, as less mobile champions become more prominent since escapes aren't as necssary[/quote]

[quote=BlindGarret2930][quote=Mooninites] Other AD Carries benefited more from the season 3 changes than corki did, significantly more. Trinity Force really isn't as viable an option and Iceborn Gauntlets isn't an alternative for him like it is ezreal. All in all, I'm not entirely sure, but most of what I've heard from Chaox and Doublelift, they have said he's not really viable. The holy trinity is kind of broken up now, [[Graves]] and [[Corki]] were replaced with [[Caitlyn]] and [[Miss Fortune]]. Probably the base movement speed increase had something to do with it, as less mobile champions become more prominent since escapes aren't as necssary [/quote] Huh, haven't thought of it from that angle, this call for SCIENCE... err well napkin math anyway. Thanks ^_^ had a bunch of great games tonight as Cass and Kat, and a couple of really bad ones as Shaco. Time to review the recordings. Thanks again for all your help![/quote]