VexRoth - All That Is Ranked

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/ae7311a4dada35c0f0e8c289d2488ad2.jpg width=900] [br] Well, my early game went a little better this time. I got the first blood on [[Jarvan IV]] at the cost of my life as [[Morgana]] came over and finished me off since [[Leblanc]] didn't move to intercept her. It was [[Garen]] in Top lane who I didn't think was actually going to connect to the game that was the heavy weight carry in the early to Mid game. Despite being down in farm he killed [[Renekton]] repeatedly. [[Leblanc]] had a rough go of it vs [[Morgana]], but she stuck with it and managed to even out her KDA by the end of the game. I need to respect vision more when playing [[Xin Zhao]]. Yes he can 1v1 a lot of champs but it is pretty much all in so if anyone else shows up to the party you can have problems. I honestly don't like building [[Trinity Force]] on him second, or at least not completing it as I just feel way to squishy. It is a really great item on him, but if you die three times after getting it due to lack of beefcakes stats it feel bad. Kind of the same thing on [[Udyr]] feels great to have it, but affording it is painful.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/1254c5a55651369c39f3e7700c16d8d8.jpg width=900] [br] I dislike how many times I die on [[Xin Zhao]]. But he is pretty good at enabling his team. First blood on [[Galio]]. [[Talon]] was able to keep Galio busy in Mid when Talon wasn't roaming. I picked up some farm while he was roaming to keep our Mid tower healthy. [[Wukong]] and [[Talon]] are kinda busted. Not sure I agree with the nerfs they are getting, but they do need some tweaking. Anyway, got Rift Herald and used it to burn through the Nexus fast enough to get the Shelly Dance. I'll take it.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/355a55570a9001a315dc73a0c3496fb7.jpg width=900] [br] Been watching some Tarzaned coaching vids. Seems like it is helping in terms of pathing and keeping pressure on. I've also had decent teammates the last two games. Asking your opposite side laners to ward the opposite side scuttle at 1:25 helps a lot with decision making. It also seems to invest the laners in the events surrounding the wards they place so sometimes they will go take that scuttle on their own or collapse on the enemy jungler that is going to the scuttle on that side of the map. Not a lot to say here since my lanes got ahead. I think I could have pulled the trigger on an an invade of [[Kindred]] but I waited too long and she got her [[Smite]] of to put her at a health level that I would be concenred that her lanes might be able to get to me before I finished her off. Overall I felt I played the early game well and with my laners success it would have been hard for them to come back unless they made it to really late.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/28ff2e1b6ab089959f724e7847af8877.jpg width=900] [br] Good teams tonight. Thought we might have problems when [[Soraka]] DCd for a bit and [[Rengar]] started picking up some kills, but really every lane was doing well. Even [[Singed]] who died a couple of times in laning phase. Awkward comp to buy against. Really wanted [[Ninja Tabi]] but the [[Dark Binding]] from [[Morgana]] is really nasty if you don't have some tenacity. Add onto that [[Heimerdinger]]'s stun and [[Rengar]]'s empowered [[Bola Strike]] and I thought that was enough CC to warrant [[Mercury's Treads]]. So as second item I built a [[Sterak's Gage]] to reduce the odds of me getting blown up by [[Zed]] or [[Rengar]], which is what I find happens when my team is verses Mid lane AD assasins and I am just a squishy jungler with only a jungle item and no defenses. [[Soraka]] had few questionable plays, but [[Ezreal]] was popping off and with [[Zoe]] kind of single handidly keeping [[Zed]] and [[Rengar]] in check the game was actually a steam roll. Oh, not necessarily ranked related, but I hit honor level 5 tonight and got myself [[Grey Warwick]] in the honor capsule. That is a skin I have coveted for quite some time, so nice to have a way to get it.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth]Thoughts as of 7-17-2018. What a difference a month makes. XD I'm back to maining jungle. I've found I'm pretty hit or miss in Top or Mid lane. I'm still not great at early wave manipulation to enable my level 2 power spike so I'm frequently playing on my back foot during laning phase, which is not good given how important scuttle crab control has become. LS has a really interesting set of videos on this. It was kind of mind blowing for me as I have never seen it explained at all and I've consumed A LOT of league content. The videos are honestly kind of shit as nothing is explained very well, but the kernel of the idea is like I know I'm seeing something super important so figure this out even if the explanation isn't great. Speaking of [[Rift Scuttler]] control. That has been one of the things that has allowed me to focus on the my jungle pathing verses what ever bizarre things my teammates are doing. So less tilt. I've been watching the recent jungle coaching videos from Tarzaned and they have helped me out a lot in terms of what I should be focusing on, applying controlled aggression to keep the pressure on, and even some help on mechanical aspects of certain champions. Simplified the way of Tarzaned might be described as (from the eyes of a Silver 1 player mind you) -Use level 2 power spike junglers to establish scuttle crab control -Find the enemy jungler and kick their ass with your early dueling power -Gank opportunistically while maintaining scuttle crab control to keep your level advantage -Make sure to back to spend your gold so you go into every fight a maximum power -Use your potions as soon as you start to take damage -Don't force things, but be confident when you do go in if you've played previous stages of the game well as the advantages you've accrued will more often that not carry the fight if you play it correctly mechanically -Often your teammates will play like monkeys. Tell them what they need to be doing/what you need from them to succeed. [u]Jungle[/u] [[Xin Zhao]] - decent blind pick. Can duel just about anyone in the early to Mid game and even late if you are fed. I have around a 67% winrate on him with around 19 games played so I should be riding the Xin pony express into Gold. The nice thing about Xin Zhao is he really doesn't need his laners to have CC since he brings a healthy amount plus good damage. I do need to work on dying less on him. Tarzaned seems to advocate picking up a [[Ruby Crystal]] when in doubt for the extra beef if you don't have anything else more appealing such as completing an item. [[Pantheon]] - Ban [[Fiddlesticks]]. After that kick everyone's ass and finish the game as fast as you can. Dunking Bot lane as soon as you get level 6 is a great way to snowball your team. The thing that Tarzaned pointed out with Pantheon was go [[Hunter's Machete]]. What makes this viable is the amount of mana you get back from Scuttle Crabs. That and just constantly watch the map to find opportunities to man drop in on a low health target. If you have your passive up you can easily tank a couple of turret shots while finishing off someone under/near their tower. [[Graves]] - I still have some mechanical issues to work out on [[Graves]], but he is a great pick into mostly AD melee teams as he has a range advantage and the armor stacks that he gets from [[True Grit]] can make him nigh unkillable if you manage your stacks properly. [[Trundle]] - Level 3 power spike which is not as good as level 2, but if their team is not great at kiting and just generally lacks mobility Trundle is a solid pick. I played vs a [[Xerath]] the other day and that was just free kills all game with a [[Pillar of Ice]] behind him requiring him to immediately [[Flash]] or die, so find a lane like that and setup a tent. [u]Top[/u] As my secondary role, this is one I simply play to the needs of my team. [[Malphite]] - We need a tank and I'm not in a shite match-up (see things like [[Dr. Mundo]]) I'll pick Malphite. [[Quinn]] - Team feels the need to have no ADC. Plus I really want to use her to work on the minion wave manipulation that LS demonstrated. [u]Autofill/Support champion pool[/u] I'm on the fence on dodging if I get the support role. I have found that I like playing [[Rakan]] so I'll put him in as a potential option if I get the role, though I'll try to get some reps on him in normals when I play with my local friends. [u]Current and Season Goals[/u] I'm looking forward to try to finish the run into Gold. Third time is the charm? And hopefully higher as I still intend to make Platinum this season. [br] ------------ [br] [table border=1 width=900] [tr] [th]Role[/th] [th]Champion[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Jungle[/td] [td][icon=Xin Zhao size=75] [icon=Pantheon size=75] [icon=Graves size=75] [icon=Trundle size=75][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Top[/td] [td][icon=Malphite size=75] [icon=Quinn size=75][/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Autofill Support[/td] [td][icon=Rakan size=75][/td] [/tr] [/table][/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/fd8d4d3a096667eb90327042fcb1592f.jpg width=900] [br] [[Tryndamere]] got an early kill on [[Kled]]. I came over and helped him get another kill on [[Kled]]. [[Kled]] [[Teleport]]ed back to lane and so I help Tryn kill him again, which sealed that lane up and let me focus on the rest of the map. I did try to take a dragoon while low enough to get burst by Blue [[Kayn]]. Didn't have enough support from my team so I should have just let it go. That is something I need to work on - not over reaching. I could have moved sooner to one fight and probably have kept Jhin from dying. Again my team wanted to fight rather than do the objective (dragon) so unless I can easily secure it by myself I should let it go until we are in a position to get it with low risk. Tryndamere just went and soloed it later in the game. XD. I am missing W, [[Wind Becomes Lightning]] too often. I need to reset my muscle memory in the practice tool so I don't do an E, W, Q which while if the numbers are still the same is the highest damage output you can get. It is not if you miss the W!!! In isolation the best way to ensure you get your W damage off it is best to E, Q + 3AA, W. The only exception is if one of your teammates has CCd the target so you having a sitting duck for your W. I also need to be a little more judicious with the use of my E, [[Audacious Charge]]. If I can walk up and start AAing them first I should do that and then wait until they blow their disengage abilities or [[Flash]].[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/18d14c1c0022bcc54389a6184dbbb10b.jpg width=900] [br] Bot lane jacked my pathing up by jumping on the enemy Bot lane in tribrush. I picked up an assist in that but IIRC they both died. So yay stupidly fed [[Twitch]] right from the get go. [[Kai'sa]] started going at the [[Lux]] and eventually [[Kai'sa]] just ran off and started split pushing in Bot lane, so we ended up trading a base turret and inhibitor for one of their base turrets. Basically the only way we stayed in this game was [[Lux]] stealing [[Baron]] with her ultimate and her keeping them busy as they were burning through out Nexus turrets. Fortunately our inhibitor came back up shorty after that so Twitch couldn't just stealth in with a [[Shen]] ult to support him if needed. They did do that to take our inhibitor down again, but we had Baron recall so we were able to get back and kill at least two of them and then run it down Mid for the win. I should probably have honored the [[Lux]] for her late game play but I guess I had bad associations base do the Kai'sa typing at her in chat. Really would love to try and play through these promos, but I also need to get some sleep and there will be other days. I really should resist listening to my team when they are pinging a not that important objective like Cloud Drake. It is not worth blindly walking into the area by myself to try and contest it. Especially when the enemy team has a [[Morgana]] and a fed [[Twitch]]. :-([/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/54575e4bb16553aff4a7f2076ef55f66.jpg width=900] [br] I did not play this well mechanically. Not sure if it is nerves or tilt, but yuck. Helped [[Kassadin]] kill [[Ahri]] early. Then chunked [[Pantheon]] to try and give [[Quinn]] some breathing room. But good god, [[Pyke]] and [[Quinn]] were feeding their arses off in the early game. Fortunately [[Draven]] got a kill pre-laning phase and picked up an extra [[Long Sword]] to start, so despite Pyke kill trading it was getting Draven gold. [[Quinn]] continued to feed her arse off due to [[Pantheon]] dropping in on her or simply chasing her down and then [[Kayn]] got in on the act, so she ws dead just about more than she was alive. But Kassadin got huge. Perhaps too huge for the Mid game because he took a couple of fights and engages that he really shouldn't have. Going to take a few minute break before the next one.[/quote]

[quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/eb68361797bbf1b8d5fa0b5a4de030f5.jpg width=900] [br] One of those games where your team is rather ahead so they don't really want to do things in order. Had a lot of trouble getting my team to come to neutral objectives. And maybe we should have just been trying to push their base down. My problem with that was we kept getting [[Headbutt]] + [[Pulverize]] by [[Alistar]] while sieging which gave [[Yasuo]] a window in and with the [[Evelynn]] ult on top of that...owwww. So sieging was kind of slow. Like lawn mower down everything on the map and starve them of resources and take Baron so the sieges are easy peasy. But it is a win. Back in Gold. :-)[/quote]

[quote=SixSence][quote=VexRoth][img=https://i.gyazo.com/eb68361797bbf1b8d5fa0b5a4de030f5.jpg width=900] [br] One of those games where your team is rather ahead so they don't really want to do things in order. Had a lot of trouble getting my team to come to neutral objectives. And maybe we should have just been trying to push their base down. My problem with that was we kept getting [[Headbutt]] + [[Pulverize]] by [[Alistar]] while sieging which gave [[Yasuo]] a window in and with the [[Evelynn]] ult on top of that...owwww. So sieging was kind of slow. Like lawn mower down everything on the map and starve them of resources and take Baron so the sieges are easy peasy. But it is a win. Back in Gold. :-)[/quote] Congratz :)[/quote]