Tanks are kind of busted at the moment.
Cho'Gath was banned and in some respects I think Maokai is even more busted than Cho'gath. I caught Kayn at my Red Buff and out smited him for it then chunked him good. He tried to retreat to the dragon pit but I blocked him. Not exactly sure how he managed to get himself knocked over the dragon pit and I didn't go with him, but I Flashed after him and finished him off. We had a big long ring around the rosie in Top lane. Kayn hung out and tried to cheese Rumble but I spotted it and returned and we killed Kayn. That got me off to a great start to the game and we just kept it rolling.
Freaking irritating game where my Mid laner and Top laner spent more time typing than playing.
Had an easy chance to kill
Corki who was really low health while trying to kill Orianna but I had just used my Leap on the Raptors and I didn't think he would be there for long so I tried to Flash over the wall and failed. Sad voidbug. :( Orianna was a freakin' whining piece of ****. I helped her kill Corki and that apparently wasn't enough. I mean there is no hard CC and he has Valkyrie exactly what do you want me to do especially since every time I come by you are and 1/4 health. Bot lane was no existent. Galio killed Renekton in the early game, but wasn't able to do anything with his lead. Having no winning lanes kind of limited my options. Can't invade Lee because I will get collapsed on faster than my laners could respond and there is a chance I would lose on the invade side since Lee was doing well for himself.I zoned off
Corki and Caitlyn in one team fight and IIRC actually killed them before going down myself, but Renekton and Lee Sin were in our backline killing my carries. So...We just about aced them at the fight for out last inhibitor, but their Guardian Angels kicked in and they were able to finish us off.
I always get nervous when I see a
Kayle or a Gangplank as they can both take over a game if they get going early or the game goes on long enough, but my team handled her reasonably well and we were quite a bit ahead. Twisted Fate had some good ult roams to help out the other lanes. I helped Riven kill Malphite to try and get her rolling. It was a bit back and forth, with Riven coming out on top more often than not, also with some help from Twisted Fate. Riven and I hung around too long with Malphite and Kayle trying to tag team us. It was all good until Malphite's ult came off cool down and then they cleaned us up.Despite some setbacks we kept the pressure on and earned a victory.
Going to be a little sad when they nerf
Cho'Gath. Fortunately, I haven't had him picked against me a lot.We stacked up an invaded their jungle and killed
Wukong at his Blue buff. Went Top and helped Pantheon kill Ezreal. Pantheon stomped on him after that. Katarina rotated Bot a couple of times to help them out, so the lanes did well and snowballed each other. Other than that, I mostly just nommed objectives and farmed up so I would have enough armor to deal with their team later in the game.Gold 2. Next up Gold 1. :-)
Sigh, team died to early ganks that should have been spotted out on wards that were placed for you know, spotting ganks. Their carries got fed and ours not so much. Had trouble dealing with the
Kha'Zix so that is a match-up I'll try to avoid in the future.
...
Nidalee Mid. Because that is a good idea. I've seen it work, but only when they get a lead and roam a lot. Their team was either well warded or very skittish, perhaps a bit of both as I didn't find anything to gank early game except Yasuo and we were never able to covert on any of those ganks. They were ahead of us in rotations and beat the pants off us in team fights. Lux managed to snag us one dragon with her ultimate. That was about the only positive thing we had going for us.
Taric screwed up my leash by holding aggro on the Blue buff so I couldn't get it to run into my last sapling, which delayed me getting to Red buff, which resulted in Gragas getting it just barely and off course getting away by using the blasting plant. I hate that the one behind Red spawns so late that you can't have your laner on that side of the map kill it. Constant source of irritation in my jungling life.That just about tilted me out of the game after the other fun I've had today in ranked.
Ahri was pinging constantly to come help, but never quite had Annie in a position for me to actually get to her. I know that is not a favorable matchup for Ahri, so I wanted to help, but it meant I wasted a lot of time. Fortunately Riven noticed that I was like 3 levels behind Gragas so she told me to go farm, so I just ignored Ahri until I was of sufficient level to actually do something about Annie.Riven beat up of
Jarvan IV for the most part and Bot lane picked up a relatively early double kill when they got ganked by Gragas. They turned another gank around mostly in their favor as well later on. So Bot lane was good to go and Top lane was **** well and I managed to get my level on par with the other characters in the game and pick up some core items and then it was go time an go we did. The End.The games are feeling harder in G2 so far. Teams seem to be a little bit more on the ball on than in G3. Except when they are not. XD
So more focus and more attention to the important things. What can I do to get us the next objective without making plays that involve more risk than reward? More effort to make sure my team is all in the same area before engaging. More of all the little details.
Just some notes about what I'm currently seeing and what might be coming down the pipe with respect to ranked and the champions I'm playing.
Maokai and Cho'Gath bans are starting to become a regular thing. Cho'Gath has nerfs on the PBE that are going to slow down his jungle clear and make him do less damage in the early game. Zac is still quite frequently banned in my games and he has nerfs that are going to gut his early clear which has already been impacted by the previous round of nerfs.
Also people are learning that you can abuse the tank junglers with invasive pests like Kha'Zix and Lee Sin. I've even had a Gragas who has a better early game in terms of mobility pressure me in my jungle as Maokai.
Sejuani is not banned very often. Rammus is also in a decent spot. Dr. Mundo seems like he is a sleeper. I like Sej better than Rammus because at least Sej can go through walls for more creative gank paths and her team fight IMO is better. Rammus is good at isolating one target.
I've played a lot of Kayn but he isn't as faceroll as the tanks. It is almost like Riot made Enchantment: Cinderhulk too strong or something....Cinderhulk is strong but I think overall what this does is allow tanks to stay somewhat relevant in farm so they can get their items and they can often make up for any early game roughness by providing tons of utility in the form of CC and meat shieldiness in the late game.
I've played with some Nocturnes of late that have done disgustingly well going wit the crit build at least in normal games, but I never seem to be able to get him off the ground anymore and he feels useless late in the game to me. E.g. I'll have 1 14-3-6 game on him, then lose three in row, which is not a good recipe for climbing.
Diana is very strong if she can get a lead but she can be abused by the same invasive junglers that pester tank junglers. Her clear is good, but she can't outfight or get away from a Kha'Zix or Lee Sin with a Duskblade of Draktharr and they can use the damn thing to help find and kill wards you place to spot them out.
Maokai and Cho'Gath bans are starting to become a regular thing. Cho'Gath has nerfs on the PBE that are going to slow down his jungle clear and make him do less damage in the early game. Zac is still quite frequently banned in my games and he has nerfs that are going to gut his early clear which has already been impacted by the previous round of nerfs.Also people are learning that you can abuse the tank junglers with invasive pests like
Kha'Zix and Lee Sin. I've even had a Gragas who has a better early game in terms of mobility pressure me in my jungle as Maokai. Sejuani is not banned very often. Rammus is also in a decent spot. Dr. Mundo seems like he is a sleeper. I like Sej better than Rammus because at least Sej can go through walls for more creative gank paths and her team fight IMO is better. Rammus is good at isolating one target.I've played a lot of
Kayn but he isn't as faceroll as the tanks. It is almost like Riot made Enchantment: Cinderhulk too strong or something....Cinderhulk is strong but I think overall what this does is allow tanks to stay somewhat relevant in farm so they can get their items and they can often make up for any early game roughness by providing tons of utility in the form of CC and meat shieldiness in the late game.I've played with some
Nocturnes of late that have done disgustingly well going wit the crit build at least in normal games, but I never seem to be able to get him off the ground anymore and he feels useless late in the game to me. E.g. I'll have 1 14-3-6 game on him, then lose three in row, which is not a good recipe for climbing. Diana is very strong if she can get a lead but she can be abused by the same invasive junglers that pester tank junglers. Her clear is good, but she can't outfight or get away from a Kha'Zix or Lee Sin with a Duskblade of Draktharr and they can use the damn thing to help find and kill wards you place to spot them out.
My team simply outplayed their team in the laning phase and Mid game. Against a more coordinated team we would have had problems.
Vladimir stomped Mid lane to the point that when we had a scrum in Bot lane he was able to come in and clean it up. Riven spent the laning and Mid game trading kills with Yasuo who also got some help from Kayn. Not the cleanest of games but it is in the victory column.
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So close! Been lucky in that someone on my team has been popping off lately, which really helps with getting wins. In this case it was