Views: 542 Mid Lane Madness - Hors d'Œuvre
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So, this is the start of a little blog series I am making. It's not written to inform, and I'm not holding out on entertaining (although perhaps it will be somewhat interesting). I'm just blogging my thoughts, and maybe, just maybe, I'll learn something.
So what is it? There are over fourteen champions which appeal to me in mid-lane, but it is not remotely practical to keep flitting between them. As soon as I start to get a feel for
Syndra, for example, I immediately lose it because I play another five champions before I get back to her. And that's not counting jungling and supporting thrown in the middle.
I'm going through the list of champions one at a time, playing enough games to get a grasp for their mechanics and then analyzing how I feel about maining them. That is what I will be blogging about, that, plus a little bonus highlighted by playing each champion. Think of this as my equivalent of a ranked progression thread, only it is in preparation for ranked and I will not talk about individual games unless they really stand out.
I've already got five champions down, but I'm just going to talk about Lux and Orianna today, both of whom I have skipped due to having mained them at some point post-30. Without further ado...
Lux is a strong contender for choice of main. She's been ranked in Throatslasher's tier 1 for quite a while and I find her to be a good all-rounder, capable of fitting into many teams. Long-range and a snare can let me play reservedly if need be, but her deadly burst combo is effective both to kill and to use as a threat for zoning. The ability to farm from afar can make her doable in matchups I'm not confident about and high utility allows me to be of use if things go pear-shaped in lane.
Sometimes all it takes to win the game is to set up plays and peel for your ADC. Why risk your neck doing damage if you don't have it, but your team do? This has allowed me to catchup, although that said, most of the times I do poorly on Lux are also the times the team needs more damage, not peel. But that doesn't happen that often, the sample is small enough to be coincidental. The safety of utility remains a big draw.
My only two reservations about Lux are how easily she crumbles to sticky assassins (I hate you Diana) and that, though she is good fun, she is not the most fun of my choices. I've played her a lot because I know I have a strong chance of doing well even against foes I would rather not face, but I rarely go into queue thinking "Yeah! I want to play Lux."
It's pretty obvious in lane that when I get my opponents low they go on the defensive and hope for a succesful jungle gank. All it takes is one Light Binding to hit and they are doomed. Sometimes I get a numpty who recklessly charges me and I get fed, more occasionally, I get someone who outplays me ( Diana... Fizz >:O). But most of the time I get the chance to zone heavily. And I don't take it. My caution leads to me staying put behind the minion line and looking for opportunities to land a Light Binding.
What I should do unless pushed is overcome my fear and block them from the minion line. They get 100% zoned, and if they get frustrated enough they make easily exploitable mistakes. Especially if I spam her ultimate ability, CTRL-4. That, and I can keep harassing to force them out of lane and then go push or gank another lane. I prefer a full Q-E-R-AA-E-AA-Ignite combo to kill champions before they get cautious, not a lot of opponents expect me to kill them at the highest health level I can pull that off, but that doesn't always happen. Zoning aggressively is something I should take advantage of across all my champs, but Lux really stands out as one who I often pass up the opportunity to do so on.
Like Lux, I enjoy the high utility of Orianna as something that makes her safe. Her kit is wonderful for making big plays and for peeling, but I also feel more of a threat when underfed as Orianna than as Lux. Another advantage is that I feel safer with her against assassins than with the Lady of Luminosity. The AD/MR on the shield, coupled with the slow/haste and potential ultimate seem to give me more success versus sticky foes such as Diana. Of course, it's still pretty bad when they jump onto me.
However, the biggest draw by far is just how much fun I have playing Orianna. I first played her during my first free week, the tried her again when she went on sale. I sucked. But I improved and she is honestly so rewarding to play and her kit feels so fluid. The difficulty of playing Orianna is a drawback but I was doing consistently well when I mained her, so like Lux, this doll is a major option. Of my intended roster of four, I expect both champions discussed today to make it.
I tend to be a huge bully when I play Orianna. I really abuse 'The Ball' and Clockwork Windup to zone my enemies. Unfortunately, this tends to be at the significant expense of my own CSing. It's fine to lose a couple of CS if I set my opponent behind a lot or get kills on them to make up the deficit. It is not fine when their CSing beats mine, and certainly not when I'm 150 at 20 minutes in. It's not terrible, but I was getting 200 consistently after coming back to LoL from DotA, particularly because I was no longer confident about my ability to be aggressive. I need to play smarter with my bullying, get them when they open up, take advantage of the threat of the ball and never miss a CS because I'm too busy bludgeoning my enemy to notice the low minion. It's a weakness of mine across several other champions, but the problem is really highlighted on Orianna. Farm first, harass them when they make themselves vulnerable and kill when unexpected.
Anyhow, that's it for now, I'll get down to Ahri, Syndra and Anivia later on, this post is long enough already. A big thank you to those who had the patience to read the whole thing, hopefully it has been a good time-filler, if nothing else. I've learnt a fair bit just from processing my thoughts. As always I welcome any comments below. Unless you just want to call me a ****bag. Why would you be so mean?
So what is it? There are over fourteen champions which appeal to me in mid-lane, but it is not remotely practical to keep flitting between them. As soon as I start to get a feel for
Syndra, for example, I immediately lose it because I play another five champions before I get back to her. And that's not counting jungling and supporting thrown in the middle.I'm going through the list of champions one at a time, playing enough games to get a grasp for their mechanics and then analyzing how I feel about maining them. That is what I will be blogging about, that, plus a little bonus highlighted by playing each champion. Think of this as my equivalent of a ranked progression thread, only it is in preparation for ranked and I will not talk about individual games unless they really stand out.
I've already got five champions down, but I'm just going to talk about
Lux and Orianna today, both of whom I have skipped due to having mained them at some point post-30. Without further ado... Lux!
Lux is a strong contender for choice of main. She's been ranked in Throatslasher's tier 1 for quite a while and I find her to be a good all-rounder, capable of fitting into many teams. Long-range and a snare can let me play reservedly if need be, but her deadly burst combo is effective both to kill and to use as a threat for zoning. The ability to farm from afar can make her doable in matchups I'm not confident about and high utility allows me to be of use if things go pear-shaped in lane.Sometimes all it takes to win the game is to set up plays and peel for your ADC. Why risk your neck doing damage if you don't have it, but your team do? This has allowed me to catchup, although that said, most of the times I do poorly on Lux are also the times the team needs more damage, not peel. But that doesn't happen that often, the sample is small enough to be coincidental. The safety of utility remains a big draw.
My only two reservations about Lux are how easily she crumbles to sticky assassins (I hate you
Diana) and that, though she is good fun, she is not the most fun of my choices. I've played her a lot because I know I have a strong chance of doing well even against foes I would rather not face, but I rarely go into queue thinking "Yeah! I want to play Lux."Bonus: Zoning
It's pretty obvious in lane that when I get my opponents low they go on the defensive and hope for a succesful jungle gank. All it takes is one
Light Binding to hit and they are doomed. Sometimes I get a numpty who recklessly charges me and I get fed, more occasionally, I get someone who outplays me ( Diana... Fizz >:O). But most of the time I get the chance to zone heavily. And I don't take it. My caution leads to me staying put behind the minion line and looking for opportunities to land a Light Binding.What I should do unless pushed is overcome my fear and block them from the minion line. They get 100% zoned, and if they get frustrated enough they make easily exploitable mistakes. Especially if I spam her ultimate ability, CTRL-4. That, and I can keep harassing to force them out of lane and then go push or gank another lane. I prefer a full Q-E-R-AA-E-AA-Ignite combo to kill champions before they get cautious, not a lot of opponents expect me to kill them at the highest health level I can pull that off, but that doesn't always happen. Zoning aggressively is something I should take advantage of across all my champs, but
Lux really stands out as one who I often pass up the opportunity to do so on. Orianna
Like
Lux, I enjoy the high utility of Orianna as something that makes her safe. Her kit is wonderful for making big plays and for peeling, but I also feel more of a threat when underfed as Orianna than as Lux. Another advantage is that I feel safer with her against assassins than with the Lady of Luminosity. The AD/MR on the shield, coupled with the slow/haste and potential ultimate seem to give me more success versus sticky foes such as Diana. Of course, it's still pretty bad when they jump onto me.However, the biggest draw by far is just how much fun I have playing
Orianna. I first played her during my first free week, the tried her again when she went on sale. I sucked. But I improved and she is honestly so rewarding to play and her kit feels so fluid. The difficulty of playing Orianna is a drawback but I was doing consistently well when I mained her, so like Lux, this doll is a major option. Of my intended roster of four, I expect both champions discussed today to make it.Bonus: Bullying and CSing
I tend to be a huge bully when I play
Orianna. I really abuse 'The Ball' and Clockwork Windup to zone my enemies. Unfortunately, this tends to be at the significant expense of my own CSing. It's fine to lose a couple of CS if I set my opponent behind a lot or get kills on them to make up the deficit. It is not fine when their CSing beats mine, and certainly not when I'm 150 at 20 minutes in. It's not terrible, but I was getting 200 consistently after coming back to LoL from DotA, particularly because I was no longer confident about my ability to be aggressive. I need to play smarter with my bullying, get them when they open up, take advantage of the threat of the ball and never miss a CS because I'm too busy bludgeoning my enemy to notice the low minion. It's a weakness of mine across several other champions, but the problem is really highlighted on Orianna. Farm first, harass them when they make themselves vulnerable and kill when unexpected.Anyhow, that's it for now, I'll get down to
Ahri, Syndra and Anivia later on, this post is long enough already. A big thank you to those who had the patience to read the whole thing, hopefully it has been a good time-filler, if nothing else. I've learnt a fair bit just from processing my thoughts. As always I welcome any comments below. Unless you just want to call me a ****bag. Why would you be so mean?
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