Views: 1985 Changes to ranked | Counter picking | Banning
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Yay, it's another entry from me ^o^
Hope you enjoy reading my entries, as I want to keep uploading them daily. I'm myself am busy getting my elo higher - it was falling down yesterday with troll teams I got, but I ate some easy wins and it's k.
BTW, what are your thoughts on not letting ppl play free champs on ranked? Yesterday I got my first match with Varus on ranked. We were 4v5 due to an awful ragequitting jungler, but we still won with me doing as good as 12/7/24 and having a Triple Kill ending at their Nexus. But yeah, not all people can learn new champs while playing them first time, so maybe it would increase the game level somehow. I will still continue to have my first times on ranked... After I buy the champ, that's the only difference. I don't have time to play other game modes (you get less IP for the same time put into game), so yeah. BTW, never tell other ppl you're playing your first time unless you have already proven yourself awesome. They're gonna flame you otherwise.
Ok, but let's go straight to the topic of today's blog - counter picking. It's a thing that rarely see on my elo, but I hope that ppl care more about it on higher ones. Well, I seem to understand it - it's always better to play a champion you're sure with rather than someone that is thought to counter your lane opponent, but you don't know how to play them. On higher elo you would know how to play most of your champs, so that problem is gone. However, I am sometimes put into situations when I don't know which champ should I select and decide to go for countering their pick. However, it's hard to figure out what beats what without actually playing those matchups, so here I decided to post sort of a guide to counterpicking most popular lane options. I won't really go into discussing why this is a counter pick or how you should pull it out - if you're into those champs, you should automatically find the reasons by yourself. Some of those are taken from net, some are just my own opinions (based on practise, though) and I my consider alobariting more on those. I don't really think all of recommended counter picks really work (there is this opinion that Karthus is counter to Vladimir - so far I countered each Karthus with Vladimir with no fail). I will also give you what I think is the neutral pick for each lane - the one that doesn't go with a straight counter for it, so you can safely choose it if you don't know your opponent's pick yet. If you happen to find any mistakes (which may happen, intentionally or not) or something worth adding, say it in comments pls.
Top lane
Neutral picks: Yorick, Shen, anything below that has a banned straight counter
Yorick is very sustainable on lane phase, he will push your lane and flee easily from ganks. With spamming annoying minions on his own, healing and slowing, he's the kind of champ that doesn't either win or lose his lane, but still can turn really good if fed. Shen is on the other hand the supporting top option - he's not only hard to beat with his tankyness, but can help other lanes as well.
Akali: Lee Sin
Cho'Gath: Garen, Irelia
Gankplank: Pantheon
Garen: Kennen, Rumble
Irelia: Gankplank, Renekton
Jax: Olaf
Lee Sin: Udyr
Mordekaiser: Kennen, Vladimir
Nasus: Olaf, Pantheon, Renekton
Nidalee: Teemo
Olaf: Kennen, Warwick
Pantheon: Rumble
Renekton: Gankplank, Nasus, Rumble
Riven: Renekton
Rumble: most ranged AD (Caitlyn, Teemo)
Sion: Rumble, Teemo
Tryndamere: Jax
Mid lane
Neutral picks: Morgana, Vladimir
Both of those champs are hard to counter cause of the fact they are very sustainable and are hard to be ganked. Vlad can escape almost everything with his pool, while Morgana's shield, stun and spell vamp causes her to be pretty much untouchable in the lane phase. And although I'll give you some ideas for countering them, but mid lane is generally less counter-based then top, since some champs are skillshot-based and countering them is more about being able to dodge their attacks rather than picking right champs. For Vlad - Lux is good, cause she outranges him, and Heimer can push him without letting himself be touched. For Morgana - she is crushed if focus right by AD carry and a good playing mana-less AP like Kennen or Vlad can outfarm her if played correctly. For Kassadin - who is said to be one of biggest OPs - most reliable stunners can crush him and Xerath can outrange him if played correctly. For all skillshot based champs - Fizz would do well, cause of how easy he dodges.
Ahri: Kassadin, LeBlanc, Xerath
Anivia: Fiddlesticks, Kassadin, Malzahar
Annie: Kassadin, LeBlanc
Brand: Fizz
Cassiopeia: Kassadin, LeBlanc, Xerath
Fiddlesticks: Kassadin, Malzahar
Fizz: Heimerdinger
Heimerdinger: LeBlanc, Malzahar, Morgana
Karthus: Kennen, Kassadin, Morgana
Kassadin: Sion, Morgana
Kennen: LeBlanc, Vladimir, Xerath
LeBlanc: Kassadin, Morgana, Sion
Lux: LeBlanc, Morgana
Malzahar: Kassadin
Morgana: AD carries, Kennen, Vladimir
Orianna: Brand, Kassadin
Sion: Malzahar, Morgana
Swain: Fizz, LeBlanc, Morgana
Veigar: Fizz
Vladimir: Heimerdinger, Lux
Xerath: Ahri, Ziggs
Ziggs: Brand, Kennen, LeBlanc
Wait... No bottom lane and jungle? Well, counter jungling it's sort of different than laning against someone, so let's leave it behind, but bottom lane... Yeah, it consists of 2 players, which makes such a variety of combinations that it's impossible to point them out and tell their counters. Sorry, but I won't try this. My choices for neutral picks would be Tristana and Caitlyn, since Caitlyn is the best early game and Tristana is the best lane game, in cases of range specifically.
Now, if you ever wondered what to do about banning process, it's pretty simple - you mostly ban the champions that either you (or your team in general) have hard time countering, or that counter you (or team). Since Kassadin and Morgana can counter a variety of champions, they are often banned. Since Shen is strong champion with no real counter to it, he's often banned recently as well. No exceptions are with Shaco - he's supposed to be to strongest counter jungle machine. I don't know much about counter jungling, but I can tell that one can divide Shacos into three categories: bad, good and best. Bad Shacos get their first buffs from their own jungle, good Shacos get their first buffs from opposite team's jungle, while best Shacos get their first buffs from opposite team's jungler.
Okay, this is all for today's blog. Hope you enjoyed it and make sure to point out any lacks or mistakes in the comments below.
Ofc you can praise me there as well <3
~emachel
Hope you enjoy reading my entries, as I want to keep uploading them daily. I'm myself am busy getting my elo higher - it was falling down yesterday with troll teams I got, but I ate some easy wins and it's k.
BTW, what are your thoughts on not letting ppl play free champs on ranked? Yesterday I got my first match with Varus on ranked. We were 4v5 due to an awful ragequitting jungler, but we still won with me doing as good as 12/7/24 and having a Triple Kill ending at their Nexus. But yeah, not all people can learn new champs while playing them first time, so maybe it would increase the game level somehow. I will still continue to have my first times on ranked... After I buy the champ, that's the only difference. I don't have time to play other game modes (you get less IP for the same time put into game), so yeah. BTW, never tell other ppl you're playing your first time unless you have already proven yourself awesome. They're gonna flame you otherwise.
Ok, but let's go straight to the topic of today's blog - counter picking. It's a thing that rarely see on my elo, but I hope that ppl care more about it on higher ones. Well, I seem to understand it - it's always better to play a champion you're sure with rather than someone that is thought to counter your lane opponent, but you don't know how to play them. On higher elo you would know how to play most of your champs, so that problem is gone. However, I am sometimes put into situations when I don't know which champ should I select and decide to go for countering their pick. However, it's hard to figure out what beats what without actually playing those matchups, so here I decided to post sort of a guide to counterpicking most popular lane options. I won't really go into discussing why this is a counter pick or how you should pull it out - if you're into those champs, you should automatically find the reasons by yourself. Some of those are taken from net, some are just my own opinions (based on practise, though) and I my consider alobariting more on those. I don't really think all of recommended counter picks really work (there is this opinion that Karthus is counter to Vladimir - so far I countered each Karthus with Vladimir with no fail). I will also give you what I think is the neutral pick for each lane - the one that doesn't go with a straight counter for it, so you can safely choose it if you don't know your opponent's pick yet. If you happen to find any mistakes (which may happen, intentionally or not) or something worth adding, say it in comments pls.
Top lane
Neutral picks: Yorick, Shen, anything below that has a banned straight counter
Yorick is very sustainable on lane phase, he will push your lane and flee easily from ganks. With spamming annoying minions on his own, healing and slowing, he's the kind of champ that doesn't either win or lose his lane, but still can turn really good if fed. Shen is on the other hand the supporting top option - he's not only hard to beat with his tankyness, but can help other lanes as well.
Akali: Lee Sin
Cho'Gath: Garen, Irelia
Gankplank: Pantheon
Garen: Kennen, Rumble
Irelia: Gankplank, Renekton
Jax: Olaf
Lee Sin: Udyr
Mordekaiser: Kennen, Vladimir
Nasus: Olaf, Pantheon, Renekton
Nidalee: Teemo
Olaf: Kennen, Warwick
Pantheon: Rumble
Renekton: Gankplank, Nasus, Rumble
Riven: Renekton
Rumble: most ranged AD (Caitlyn, Teemo)
Sion: Rumble, Teemo
Tryndamere: Jax
Mid lane
Neutral picks: Morgana, Vladimir
Both of those champs are hard to counter cause of the fact they are very sustainable and are hard to be ganked. Vlad can escape almost everything with his pool, while Morgana's shield, stun and spell vamp causes her to be pretty much untouchable in the lane phase. And although I'll give you some ideas for countering them, but mid lane is generally less counter-based then top, since some champs are skillshot-based and countering them is more about being able to dodge their attacks rather than picking right champs. For Vlad - Lux is good, cause she outranges him, and Heimer can push him without letting himself be touched. For Morgana - she is crushed if focus right by AD carry and a good playing mana-less AP like Kennen or Vlad can outfarm her if played correctly. For Kassadin - who is said to be one of biggest OPs - most reliable stunners can crush him and Xerath can outrange him if played correctly. For all skillshot based champs - Fizz would do well, cause of how easy he dodges.
Ahri: Kassadin, LeBlanc, Xerath
Anivia: Fiddlesticks, Kassadin, Malzahar
Annie: Kassadin, LeBlanc
Brand: Fizz
Cassiopeia: Kassadin, LeBlanc, Xerath
Fiddlesticks: Kassadin, Malzahar
Fizz: Heimerdinger
Heimerdinger: LeBlanc, Malzahar, Morgana
Karthus: Kennen, Kassadin, Morgana
Kassadin: Sion, Morgana
Kennen: LeBlanc, Vladimir, Xerath
LeBlanc: Kassadin, Morgana, Sion
Lux: LeBlanc, Morgana
Malzahar: Kassadin
Morgana: AD carries, Kennen, Vladimir
Orianna: Brand, Kassadin
Sion: Malzahar, Morgana
Swain: Fizz, LeBlanc, Morgana
Veigar: Fizz
Vladimir: Heimerdinger, Lux
Xerath: Ahri, Ziggs
Ziggs: Brand, Kennen, LeBlanc
Wait... No bottom lane and jungle? Well, counter jungling it's sort of different than laning against someone, so let's leave it behind, but bottom lane... Yeah, it consists of 2 players, which makes such a variety of combinations that it's impossible to point them out and tell their counters. Sorry, but I won't try this. My choices for neutral picks would be Tristana and Caitlyn, since Caitlyn is the best early game and Tristana is the best lane game, in cases of range specifically.
Now, if you ever wondered what to do about banning process, it's pretty simple - you mostly ban the champions that either you (or your team in general) have hard time countering, or that counter you (or team). Since Kassadin and Morgana can counter a variety of champions, they are often banned. Since Shen is strong champion with no real counter to it, he's often banned recently as well. No exceptions are with Shaco - he's supposed to be to strongest counter jungle machine. I don't know much about counter jungling, but I can tell that one can divide Shacos into three categories: bad, good and best. Bad Shacos get their first buffs from their own jungle, good Shacos get their first buffs from opposite team's jungle, while best Shacos get their first buffs from opposite team's jungler.
Okay, this is all for today's blog. Hope you enjoyed it and make sure to point out any lacks or mistakes in the comments below.
Ofc you can praise me there as well <3
~emachel
Fizz can win hard against karth for a few reasons. He can easily dodge lay waste not problem. he has two gap closers so his wall's usefullness is lowered by a lot, and he can playful to get out of requiem. Also, during teamfights, he's slippery enough to get past everyone to destroy the karthus asap
Defile is a pretty big problem for fizz, I suppose, but there's enough to make up for this that I still consider it a counterpick.
Yeah I suppose I can see how gare bear could be a problem now, but remember that you can always rupture and run as soon as he starts spinning, or you can silence, then right when it's about to wear off, rupture and run. If he's smart I think Cho could probably still win, he just needs to be careful and not full out fight garen or he'll die horribly. He does have huge sustain, but garen has huge damage, so tbh I don't rly know, I can see that lane going either way. Though if we're talking like that, then I'd say ren, or riven, would be a much bigger problem than irelia o:
Ren countering Nasus is something I've taken from web, since I don't play any of those champs personally (I don't even have Renekton), so nothing I can say to explain this.
Cho counters - well, I've seen lots of Garens countering Cho and it's mainly because Cho needs to be close to do anything else than rapture to his enemy and when he gets close to Garen, he gets owned. Irelia owns him with a stun - poor Cho just wants to harass his enemy, but he ends up getting more wounded himself afterwards...
Second I have some thoughts here.
You say Yorick doesn't really win or lose lane ever, but in my experience, it's pretty much the opposite. Against many top laners he absolutley crushes them, and he has hard counters liek sion, and trundle who absolutely crush him.
I'm curious as to why you say teemo counters sion, because in fact, I would say the opposite. I've yet to lose a lane to teemo as sion, in fact it's never even been close. He can't really do anything to you, and it's only a matter of time before you can dive him. On top of that you can pretty much freefarm.
I also don't know why you have nasus countering renekton, that's also pretty much the opposite. Ren is so strong early game, he can bully him, and deny him cs for his q.
I don't really get your Cho'Gath counters either O.o
Some things you should add are (And forgive the random order):
Kennen > Cho
Fizz > Karthus
Brand > Karthus
Soraka > Urgot
Urgot > Veigar
Urgot > Morgana
Urgot >Leblanc (If played well)
Urgot > Nasus
Garen > Nasus
GP > Nasus
Nasus > Tryndamere
USUALLY Nasus > Cho
Morgana > Malzahar
Morgana > Annie
Ahri > Morgana
Probably more I'm missing but yeh, if you're wondering ask about any of them, and I'll explain.