-What's the state of the game?
Could I get some clarification on this? What exactly are you interested in knowing? Where does the game stand as far as the 'meta' is concerned? What champions are being picked at various different levels of play? What strategies are generally being used to win games in various different levels of play? There are a number of things this could indicate. Which are you interested in? I'll answer the three I just asked, to the best of my ability, however.
As far as the metagame is concerned, it's actually still pretty much where it has been for quite a while now. You've got a lot of mid-late game pressure or utility champions in the top lane (or bot lane with lane swaps) -- (that is, champions that can provide a lot of map pressure, fight presence, or other utility, towards the mid to late game). In high level play, you'll see a lot of TP top laners, for additional map pressure at the later stages of the game, but in soloqueue, you'll generally see players running ignite, in an attempt to snowball out of laning phase. In the mid lane, you'll generally see high mobility high damage champions, that can respond quickly to map pressure. You'll also see a lot of safe wave clear champions, to attempt to hold off tower pushes -- especially with the adc support mid swaps you sometimes see in comp play -- less so in soloqueue. Bot lane's the same old, though it doesn't tend to favor raw utility supports very much at the moment. Typically, you'll see supports with a mix of damage and aggression. Karma, Nami, and Morgana are probably the most common soloqueue picks to this end. Carries are typically long-range, high damage, or high mobility at the moment. Junglers are typically a mix of early damage and CC, quick clear times, mobility, and late game durability and escapes. Lee Sin and Elise are prime examples of this.
-What defines the meta?
The meta, or metagame, is defined by the view of the playerbase of what is typically strongest or most commonly picked, at any point in time. This metagame is highly influenced by what less experienced players see more experienced or more accredited players doing. More specifically, the current meta is largely influenced by what is picked and played in LCS, and on a select few popular streamers' streams. When players see something that seems fun or successful to them, they re adapt it for themselves. When a mass of players do this, the averages shift, and the metagame shifts.
--
Some commentary I have for what you're playing at the moment.
Mid --
Yasuo: Don't core triforce on him. It's too expensive for the returns you get. Shiv gives you just as much burst damage, more early lane pressure, and is almost half the cost. Don't core one type of boots on any champion. Boots are situational. Period. Sometimes might be better to get Hydra over Botrk. Largely when you're trying to blow squishies up, over dueling bruisers. Crit reds aren't the best on him. If you get any crits in runes, don't get over 10% or you'll have wasted stats with shiv IE. Armor pen reds with AD quints are really strong on him. A mix with some crit might be okay, or you could opt for some crit glyphs, if you're not fighting a magic damage threat.
Liss: Lissandra, in my opinion, is sleeper overpowered -- but she's best vs melee in lane. I recommend learning her in top lane as well. First off, you almost never want CDR boots on mages. 90% of the time, sorcs are much better. Flat spell pen early is way too valuable, and you get even better returns with mixed flat and % pen. Beyond that, Lissandra is pretty flexible, but in mid lane, and against squishies, she's best built as a burst mage. (you can build her DPS, with liandries, but that'll end up being a very tanky looking build -- yours is kind of half way in between). I highly recommend building 1 or 2 doran's rings into sorcs DFG on Lissandra.
You'll pretty much be able to 1-shot anyone if your gold's on par, once you've done that. Beyond that, Athene's is pretty much unnecessary on her. Her passive is plenty of mana sustain, when paired with a couple doran's, in most cases. Eventually, you may want some more CDR or something, but a nomicon would be a better pickup if you really need the mana sustain. The item gives way more damage and pressure for the cost. Abyssal Liandries build is good if you're going super tanky, but you'll need void staff if you're building for burst. Get a Deathcap. Get Hourglass.
Akali: Akali's another champion that's great in top lane as well as mid. She actually wins most early melee trades in top lane. Boots are situational. Gunblade first is core in most matchups. Hourglass is core. Void staff is core. Everything else is situational. Never* build rylai's liandry. It's terribad damage. (maybe build it vs 5 mobile tank comp???). Magic pen marks (or hybrid) and pen/AD quints.
Jungle --
Talon: Don't play him as a jungler, please. Early clear is slow and dangerous, early ganks aren't great, can't fight 1v1's early vs most other strong junglers.
Diana: Sorcs are great for early pressure, or build tanky for mid/late game. Two swings instead of one?
Udyr: Udyr is flexible. Phoenix, build tanky + attack speed. Triforce pretty good in general on him. Sunfire pretty bad in jungle, in general. Redundant on Phoenix, better options on tiger. Don't build Rageblade. It's a zero utility damage item. If you need damage items on Udyr, Lizard is okay, Triforce is great, botrk is okay on tiger, zephyr is okay late game, and phoenix with Flare is okay against some matchups. Play tiger as a duelist pressure jungler, play phoenix as a farm into mobility lane pressure champion (eg you split push later and be obnoxious by never letting people gain map control through lane presence).
Hope this helps to some degree.
Cheers
Could I get some clarification on this? What exactly are you interested in knowing? Where does the game stand as far as the 'meta' is concerned? What champions are being picked at various different levels of play? What strategies are generally being used to win games in various different levels of play? There are a number of things this could indicate. Which are you interested in? I'll answer the three I just asked, to the best of my ability, however.
As far as the metagame is concerned, it's actually still pretty much where it has been for quite a while now. You've got a lot of mid-late game pressure or utility champions in the top lane (or bot lane with lane swaps) -- (that is, champions that can provide a lot of map pressure, fight presence, or other utility, towards the mid to late game). In high level play, you'll see a lot of TP top laners, for additional map pressure at the later stages of the game, but in soloqueue, you'll generally see players running ignite, in an attempt to snowball out of laning phase. In the mid lane, you'll generally see high mobility high damage champions, that can respond quickly to map pressure. You'll also see a lot of safe wave clear champions, to attempt to hold off tower pushes -- especially with the adc support mid swaps you sometimes see in comp play -- less so in soloqueue. Bot lane's the same old, though it doesn't tend to favor raw utility supports very much at the moment. Typically, you'll see supports with a mix of damage and aggression. Karma, Nami, and Morgana are probably the most common soloqueue picks to this end. Carries are typically long-range, high damage, or high mobility at the moment. Junglers are typically a mix of early damage and CC, quick clear times, mobility, and late game durability and escapes. Lee Sin and Elise are prime examples of this.
-What defines the meta?
The meta, or metagame, is defined by the view of the playerbase of what is typically strongest or most commonly picked, at any point in time. This metagame is highly influenced by what less experienced players see more experienced or more accredited players doing. More specifically, the current meta is largely influenced by what is picked and played in LCS, and on a select few popular streamers' streams. When players see something that seems fun or successful to them, they re adapt it for themselves. When a mass of players do this, the averages shift, and the metagame shifts.
--
Some commentary I have for what you're playing at the moment.
Mid --
Yasuo: Don't core triforce on him. It's too expensive for the returns you get. Shiv gives you just as much burst damage, more early lane pressure, and is almost half the cost. Don't core one type of boots on any champion. Boots are situational. Period. Sometimes might be better to get Hydra over Botrk. Largely when you're trying to blow squishies up, over dueling bruisers. Crit reds aren't the best on him. If you get any crits in runes, don't get over 10% or you'll have wasted stats with shiv IE. Armor pen reds with AD quints are really strong on him. A mix with some crit might be okay, or you could opt for some crit glyphs, if you're not fighting a magic damage threat.
Liss: Lissandra, in my opinion, is sleeper overpowered -- but she's best vs melee in lane. I recommend learning her in top lane as well. First off, you almost never want CDR boots on mages. 90% of the time, sorcs are much better. Flat spell pen early is way too valuable, and you get even better returns with mixed flat and % pen. Beyond that, Lissandra is pretty flexible, but in mid lane, and against squishies, she's best built as a burst mage. (you can build her DPS, with liandries, but that'll end up being a very tanky looking build -- yours is kind of half way in between). I highly recommend building 1 or 2 doran's rings into sorcs DFG on Lissandra.
You'll pretty much be able to 1-shot anyone if your gold's on par, once you've done that. Beyond that, Athene's is pretty much unnecessary on her. Her passive is plenty of mana sustain, when paired with a couple doran's, in most cases. Eventually, you may want some more CDR or something, but a nomicon would be a better pickup if you really need the mana sustain. The item gives way more damage and pressure for the cost. Abyssal Liandries build is good if you're going super tanky, but you'll need void staff if you're building for burst. Get a Deathcap. Get Hourglass.
Akali: Akali's another champion that's great in top lane as well as mid. She actually wins most early melee trades in top lane. Boots are situational. Gunblade first is core in most matchups. Hourglass is core. Void staff is core. Everything else is situational. Never* build rylai's liandry. It's terribad damage. (maybe build it vs 5 mobile tank comp???). Magic pen marks (or hybrid) and pen/AD quints.
Jungle --
Talon: Don't play him as a jungler, please. Early clear is slow and dangerous, early ganks aren't great, can't fight 1v1's early vs most other strong junglers.
Diana: Sorcs are great for early pressure, or build tanky for mid/late game. Two swings instead of one?
Udyr: Udyr is flexible. Phoenix, build tanky + attack speed. Triforce pretty good in general on him. Sunfire pretty bad in jungle, in general. Redundant on Phoenix, better options on tiger. Don't build Rageblade. It's a zero utility damage item. If you need damage items on Udyr, Lizard is okay, Triforce is great, botrk is okay on tiger, zephyr is okay late game, and phoenix with Flare is okay against some matchups. Play tiger as a duelist pressure jungler, play phoenix as a farm into mobility lane pressure champion (eg you split push later and be obnoxious by never letting people gain map control through lane presence).
Hope this helps to some degree.
Cheers
koolkruse
<Member>
<Member>
Oh wow, thanks for the response. I'd given up on getting help. XD
By state of the game, I was referring more or less to everything you covered. You said pretty much what I expected, but I wanted to check these things.
Same idea goes for the meta game, for the most part. But again, good to know.
As for champs...
Yasuo: I actually started building shiv over tri for the reasons discussed. Never bothered updating here because I thought nobody cared. XD
Lissandra: I'm starting to shy away from the things you said to shy from. Se was a really recent add to my roster. I'm strongly leaning towards what you suggested.
Akali: I don't usually get liandries, I just get the rylais for hp. Void is usually the last item in that build, although not the last item if that makes sense? I get hourglass against heavy as teams usually.
Talon: saw diamonds doing it. They get to because their team protects his jungle. I swapped him for riven.
Diana: pretty much. The boots listed were example grabs that I usually, but not always I for.
Udyr: lota good info, thank you.
By state of the game, I was referring more or less to everything you covered. You said pretty much what I expected, but I wanted to check these things.
Same idea goes for the meta game, for the most part. But again, good to know.
As for champs...
Yasuo: I actually started building shiv over tri for the reasons discussed. Never bothered updating here because I thought nobody cared. XD
Lissandra: I'm starting to shy away from the things you said to shy from. Se was a really recent add to my roster. I'm strongly leaning towards what you suggested.
Akali: I don't usually get liandries, I just get the rylais for hp. Void is usually the last item in that build, although not the last item if that makes sense? I get hourglass against heavy as teams usually.
Talon: saw diamonds doing it. They get to because their team protects his jungle. I swapped him for riven.
Diana: pretty much. The boots listed were example grabs that I usually, but not always I for.
Udyr: lota good info, thank you.
You might want to consider watching pro's stream in order to catch up with the meta. You'll find out what champions are most played and how they are being built like.
For convenience, you can find all official pro games here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LoLeventVoDs
For convenience, you can find all official pro games here:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LoLeventVoDs
Good to hear!
In regards to Rylai's on Akali, with gunblade, you have an active catching tool already, you don't need more CC than that -- and you have repeated gap closers. If you want straight health, Warmog's or Randuin's are both better options. That being said, tank stats are usually slightly better in the form of resists because of all of akali's built in sustain == effective health while fighting. Should probably look to get Void Staff 4th item in most cases. General Akali build is Gunblade + Sorcs, Large Rod item, and then Void.
A lot of D1 and challenger players are just bored, so they **** around with stuff like Talon jungle. Riven jungle's not great, but it's definitely more consistent than Talon jungle. Main issue is Riven just needs a lot of farm, and isn't great at controlling buffs early.
In regards to Rylai's on Akali, with gunblade, you have an active catching tool already, you don't need more CC than that -- and you have repeated gap closers. If you want straight health, Warmog's or Randuin's are both better options. That being said, tank stats are usually slightly better in the form of resists because of all of akali's built in sustain == effective health while fighting. Should probably look to get Void Staff 4th item in most cases. General Akali build is Gunblade + Sorcs, Large Rod item, and then Void.
A lot of D1 and challenger players are just bored, so they **** around with stuff like Talon jungle. Riven jungle's not great, but it's definitely more consistent than Talon jungle. Main issue is Riven just needs a lot of farm, and isn't great at controlling buffs early.
Holy Toledo, Batman, It's Cho'Gath!
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I have distinctly not super horrible cs (I average about 135 at the 15 min mark, give or take 20 depending on who I'm playing), but I know nothing about the meta of the game, at all.
I'm not even sure what's good/ bad really.
A brief rundown on what I play and a typical full build.
Mid:
Yasuo(tri, ie, merc boots, Bork, ga. I run full crit reds)
Liss(cdr boots, Athenes, liandries, abyssal, zhonya)
Akali (spellpen/metics depending, gun blade, lichbane, death cap, rylais)
Jungle:
Talon ( lizard spirit, swifties, youmuus, blood thirster, last whisper)
Diana( mobis, wraith spirit, nashors, cap, two swings instead of one)
Udyr ( swifties, golem spirit, rageblade, sunfire, banshee
Veil)
What's the state of the game?
What defines the meta?
Guess this is just a start, sorry for the tall order.