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The way of the Trinity force+ Atmogs

The way of the Trinity force+ Atmogs

Updated on December 23, 2011
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League of Legends Build Guide Author leaguesdf Build Guide By leaguesdf 99 8 427,760 Views 60 Comments
99 8 427,760 Views 60 Comments League of Legends Build Guide Author leaguesdf Build Guide By leaguesdf Updated on December 23, 2011
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Choose Champion Build:

  • LoL Champion: Irelia
  • LoL Champion: Lee Sin
  • LoL Champion: Wukong
  • LoL Champion: Udyr
  • LoL Champion: Trundle
  • LoL Champion: Gangplank
  • LoL Champion: Nasus
  • LoL Champion: Jarvan IV
  • LoL Champion: Olaf
  • LoL Champion: Yorick

Update

This guide needs a big update. But with real life going and my Corki guide that I need to update too, it takes me a lot of time. I'll work on updating this guide and hopefully will finish in a few weeks
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Fizz patch V1.0.0.129

The new patch changes everything, and the meta is all over the place. This build is still very strong and the Atmog's meta did not pass, but concerning the builds presented, it will take me quite some time to update them according to the new mastries and new/nerfed/buffed summoners spells. For now I have put up experimental mastery set-ups that work well, mostly focusing on the defensive tree.
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Before we begin...

The purpose of this guide, is to show a certain way to build offtanks: + +
This isn't something I invented of course, I just want to show champions that synergies well with this build.
I would also like to add, that for some of the champions in this guide, I used builds from Mobafire and solomid.net for the skill-order and masteries. I give them credit for that.
Now, let's begin...
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Introduction

Hello, and welcome to my guide!
A few weeks ago I started seeing many Irelias, running with Trinity and Warmogs+Atma's.
A quick visit to solomid.net confirmed what I thought: Chaox changed his Irelia build again...
I tried the build myself and really liked it. It gives great survivability and utility, while also providing very high AD for such a tanky build.

Tf+Atmogs( Trinity Force+Warmog's+ Atma's, from now on I will call it like this) Gives great damage output and utility for a tanky build, and counters nukers very well( for example it makes Akali pretty useless against you). Its natural enemy is Madred's Bloodrazor, and an on-hit effect Kog'Maw with it especially
It is very expensive and requires to solo top and afk farm for most of early-mid game.Some of the champions here I play as junglers, just because they are great at it, though jungling will hurt your build progress a bit, unless you can get many successful ganks. They are also great at top lane if your team has a jungler already.
I show in this guide champions that synergies well with Tf+Atmog's. The build works great on csome champs like Irelia, Trundle and Jarvan IV, while on others it may be a bit less effective, and more situational , like [nasus]] and Udyr.
There are other champions who synergies pretty well with TF+Atmog's who aren't mentioned here, like Evelynn, Shaco, Nocturne, Xin Zhao and more...

Warning!!! This build is situational!! You should never build your champ the same every game, especially an offtank! Trinity Force is core on almost all of this champions, but Warmog's Armor+ Atma's Impaler is situational. If your team have a lot of high HP champions, Atmog's isn't a good idea, because the enemy team will buy Madred's Bloodrazor. On the other hand, if the enemy team has Armor penetration/Spell penetration items on every champ, Atmog's is a good way to build. What I'm trying to say, is that you should consider many factors when you build your champ during a game. Don't just blindly follow a build someone posted on mobafire...
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Why is this build good?

What makes TF+Atmog's a great build?

trinity Force size is amazing on offtanks, upgrading them in many diffrent areas. After trinity force, offtanks work on improving their survivability, until they need some damage at late game so they won't get ignored. And so they buy an offensive item, while sacrificing defence.
But when buying Atmog's, you dont need to sacrifice defense at all!
Your main armor item is Atma's Impaler, and it is also your late game offensive item, because of the amazing AD it will grant thanks to Warmog's armo].
With the addition of Guardian Angel or Sunfire Aegis, you will have plenty of armor.

So what do we get? Enough damage from Trinity Force and Atma's Impaler, high resistances (The build include only one MR item, but the runes and Mercury's Treads boost it up), and on top of all, **** tons of HP.
The downside to this build is that its SUPER EXPENSIVE, requires tons of farming.
* Another reason why the build is good, is because it focuses on getting a lot of HP at start, and resistances later. I'll explain later why it is good, and what the logic behind it is…
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Acronyms

This are not all the acronyms I used, just some important ones that are needed for understanding what the hell im talking about

AD-- Attack damage
AP-- Ability power
Atmog's-- Warmog's armor and Atma's impaler
Arp-- Armor penetration
AS- Attack speed
CD-- Cool down
FoN-- Force of Nature
HP-- Health points
MS- Movement speed
MR- Magic resist
TF-- Trinity Force
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Pros / Cons

Pros / Cons

spaaace
Pros


+ gives Damage, HP, Utility and burst.
+ 4000 HP and high resistances
+ High damage, and yet very tanky.
+ Atmog's is very cost efficient.
+ High HP pool counters burst damage.
+ Good against enemy with armor/magic penetration items.
spaaace
Cons


- Counters big HP pools.
- Expensive. Require a lot of farming
- Low Armor Penetration.
- Low Magic resist until late game.
-
-
spaaace
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Masteries

This chapter is out dated, I will update soon




There are 3 main masteries set-ups that i showed in the builds: 0-9-21, 0-21-9, and 21-0-9.
You can play with them, try new things and more unique set-ups. But in most cases, these setups have proven to work best for these champions.


0-9-21: This set-up is my favorite. The Utility tree is the best tree out of the three. I use this set-up on most of the champions in this guide. It provides the strongest late game. In late game, when you will already have pretty high damage and extreme survivability, the utility tree will be the most effective and helpful.
The main reason, is =presence of the master. This let's you spam your summoner spells, without a doubt the best mastery in the game. Other great bonuses this setup provides are 3% increased base movement speed, mana regen, 30% increased buff duration, and 6% Cool Down reduction.
9 in the defensive tree, to get 6 armor and MR, and either Strength of Spirit for better sustain in the lane, or Nimbleness , if u picked Greater Seal of Evasion



0-21-9 This is a more early-mid game set-up. This set-up will greatly increased your survivability early, but the more the game goes on, the weaker it becomes. Late game, it will become negligible. 21 in the defensive tree is great for jugnlers, providing much better sustain in the jugnle, but other than that I don't recommend it if you don't jungle(Even if you jungle, I would prefer most of times to get less than 21 in Defence and go deeper in the Utility tree).



21-9-0 or 21-0-9 Pick these setups, if you wish to deal a lot of damage, have a strong early-mid game, and you feel that the Utility tree isn't needed that much on the champion. Another reason to get it, is if intend to focus more on dealing damage, and less on tanking.



*About and : You will notice that I always take Good Hands over Perseverence . If you still don't know this, than it's important that you do: Perseverence is useless. It's one of the most useless masteries. 4% increased mana and health regeneration is nothing. Most of the times it will provide about 1 HP per 5 secs and 0.5 mana per 5 secs. Even if you have 100 Health per 5, it will still only provide 4 extra Health per 5 secs. But it's very rare to have 100 HP/5, so don't count on that.
On the other hand, Good Hands can be game breaking at crucial points in the game. For example, when the enemy team is pushing into your base, 6 seconds can mean saving the nexus, or acing the enemy team. When the enemy team is doing baron while you are dead, and your team are all waiting for you to start a team fight before they can finish baron, these 6 seconds may also prove to be game breaking. There are more examples...
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Runes

Basic AD offtank runes

Greater Mark of desolation Greater Mark of desolation
Best in this slot. Arp is Especially good for champions who deal most/a lot of their damage through physical abilities

Greater Seal of resilience
Great runes for lane survivability. Reduce the damage from harassments and minions agro.
_____
Greater Glyph of Shielding
One of the best glyphs. Great late game defense against magical attacks.

Greater Quintessence of desolation Greater Quintessence of desolation
Great option to increase your damage output. Again, armor penetration is good for champions who deal damage using physical abilities.
/
/

/
Other viable runes I picked on some champs:

More survivability early on.
Greater Quintessence of Vigor Better lane sustain.
Synergies with certain champions, like Udyr, due to his passive Bridge Between.
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Summoner Spells

/

Flash

space OK guys. Lets admit it. Flash is OP. Flashing over walls, landing surprising stuns and CCs, escaping, chasing, instantly escaping from focus in team fights, and more. It is true that Flash is exceptionally good for squishy champions that are extremely reliant on their positioning in order to survive in team fights. However, the Utility that this spell brings is just too good, so I use it on most offtanks as well. space
/
/

Other viable spells


Ghost is useful for offtanks, due to the fact that their tankiness allows them to fully utilize it's duration during a team fight. On some champions it is more useful than Flash

Great spell. Offtanks don't have very high damage out-put, and Smite gives them some very needed extra damage.

Strong spell for dueling, and will allow you to shut down AD carries in team fights.

A great utility spell, makes solo laning a lot easier and less stressful, allows you to split push very well, and have the ability to afk farm while also being able to join a far-away-team fight if one had started.

If you jungle always take this.
Never jungle without smite!!I don't care that Udyr can easily jungle without it, Still take it. Always.
Securing buffs, Dragons and Baron, faster jungling, more ganks and sooner... Smite is a must.

Everything else is either useless ( Rally) or not your job to take ( Clairvoyance).
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About Health and Resistances

TF+Atmog's build, Focuses on getting a lot of HP early, and resistance later.
This is good for several reasons... Let me explain.( this chapter is going to be a bit long, but stay with me here...)

First we need to understand how MR and armor affect your champion.
The idea is this: 1 point of armor, will give you 1% additional health against physical damage (applies for magic resist and magic damage in the same way). What ever you heard about Diminishing returns, forget it. Magic resistance and armor does not have diminishing returns from an effective health perspective. For every 1 armor/MR point you get, it will increase the amount of damage(from that type, magical or physical) that is needed to be taken in order to kill you.

bottom line: every point of armor/magic resist, gives you 1% extra health aginst that type of damage.(Not considering ememy Armor/Magic penetration however)
Many people wrote that this is not correct, because of diminishing returns. But it is correct.
The change in the damage reduction does become lower as you get more Armor/MR, however the effective health grows at the same rate.
This table lists damage reduction and effective health bonuses granted by various magic resistance levels. The effective health entries are based on a champion that has 1000 health. Data Taken from League of Legends Wiki, Magic Resistance page.( applies the same for Armor.)
Magic Resistance
0
10
50
100
500
510
// Damage Reduction
0%
9.091%
33.333%
50%
83.333%
83.607%
// Effective Health Bonus
+0%
+10%
+50%
+100%
+500%
+510%
// Effective Health
1000
1100
1500
2000
6000
6100


Basically, if Your champion has 1000 health and 100 armor- you have 2000 effective health. Physical attacks need to do 100% more damage than they had to if your champion had 0 armor- in order to kill you.

What this means, is that basically armor and magic resists are worth more, when you have more Health.( Another way to view it, if you didn't understand this explanation, is that resistances affects health points, making them more powerful. When you have a lot of Health points, the resistances are affecting a lot of health points. Thus, resistances are more effective, the more Health points your champion has).

As you can see, getting a lot of armor/magic resist early, when you still have small HP pool, isn't very efficient- This resistances won't be very effective, in view of the fact that you don't have a lot of HP. Again, this is because 1 resist point= 1% extra effective health, so when you have 1000 HP, it will be worth 10 effective health. But when you have 4000 HP, it will be worth 40 effective health. I want to emphasize, Armor and Magic Resist does not have diminishing returns from an effective health perspective! Although the more Resistances you get the lower the diffrence in the damage reducion gets, it will still bring you the same amount of effective health for each point
This is why the why focusing on getting HP early and getting resistances only later is a good idea.
Getting resistances early isn't really efficient due to the small HP pool, but getting them later in the game is much better, because with a big HP pool, they become much more effective.

Another reason why focusing on HP at start is better, is because health gives you survivability against both Magic and Physical damage, unlike resistances. In early-mid game you probably won't be so sure which source of damage will be more of a threat.
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The build

Core build

____
Trinity Force
This is by far my favorite item in the game. I love champions who synergies with it.
TF is an amazing item on AD offtanks. It provides a perfect balance of offense, defense, and utility. Rushing it, basically upgrades your champion, making him stronger in many different fields. Another reason for it being so strong on offtanks, is the sheen component. It provides a huge boost to your damage output, which doesn't depend on your champ's AD, but rather on the BASE AD of the champion. this is important, because offtanks don't end up with a lot of AD, and yet they have, in most cases, high base AD. Higher than ranged AD carries for example.

________
_
_

Warmog's ArmorAtma's Impaler
Atmog's. You may have heard that Warmog's Armor is a bad item, thats it's for noobs, whatever. The thing is that buying it and Atma's Implaer together, makes Atma's Implaer extremely cost efficient. The main reason why getting Atmog's is great, is because the main armor item in the build, Atma's, also becomes a very powerful Offensive item, Granting high AD and critial Strike Chance. The final result is tons of Resistances, nice damage output- like other builds- but you will also have 4000 HP on top of it!
Just for example of how powerful this combo is: Udyr 4429 HP at lvl 18: Atma's Impaler provides 89 AD!
_____

Mercury's Treads
I consider Mercury's Treads as core as well. You will get these almost every game. As an offtank, you are going to be right in the middle of the fight. You will receive a lot of focus, and a lot of CC. 35 Tenacity is essential in order for you to be able to deal a lot of damage in teamfights. The only reason not to get this, is if the enemy team has very little to no CC... But if that's the case, it's a free win anyway.
The only one I dont get these on is Gangplank and that is because he is enormously dependent on Cool Down Reduction, so Ionian Boots of Lucidity are needed, and he has a built in Cleanse- Remove Scurvy so he can deal with CC.




Finishing the build


Here are the items that I featured in the builds. They are the best picks in most situations:
My favorite picks are and


Guardian Angel
A great mix of Magic resist and armor, but the game changing passive is what makes this item so amazing.
_____

Banshee's Veil
The ability to block a spell is priceless-for sqhishy champions, that one CC on them can mean their death. For offtanks, it's kinda meh. Not that great in my opinion. Still a great choice vs heavy CC/Burst teams.
_____
Force of Nature
I prefer FoN over Banshee's. In my opinion, blocking 1 spell isn't that great for offtanks. I prefer the movement speed, bonus MR and health regen the FoN provides.
_____

Sunfire Cape
Decent item. I only took it for champions who have synergies with AOE damage.

Deciding which Magic Resist item to get between and , mostly depends on the amount of CC the enemy team has, and how much vulnerable to CC the champion is. Other factors are, if the champion earns more from movement speed or from bonus health and mana.

Other viable items



You should always change your build, according to the game. Here I will show different items that you should consider buying, in certain situations.

Starting items




* Cloth Armor- The safest way, and also allows to get Wriggle's Lantern fast. Wriggle's is a must for junglers, and also a great pick when laning.

Other boots



Ninja tabi are very viable now that most teams have 3 AD champions.

Troubles in the lane?




Anti-CC




Heavy AD enemies




Heavy armor enemies




Cheap damage and Magic resist




Against HP stackers




When you feel you can't stick to enemies



* Warmog's Armor is almost always better than Frozen Mallet when fully charged. However, of your team is doing well and you know the game won't last long, getting Mallet instead of Warmog's will let you ensure an easier and faster victory.

Supportive




Feeling unstoppable?



Consumables


Elixirs help A lot, sometimes people forget about them. They are relatively cheap and vastly buff your champ for their duration. Don't spam them all game, because you will fall behind with your main build, which is particularly expensive, But you should get them at critical points:
  • When you know there is going to be a big fight over Baron or Dragon soon.
  • When your team is grouping for a big push.
  • When the enemy team are pushing into your base.
  • When you are having problems in your lane
  • When you are winning your lane, and you want to completely dominate it.
  • When you finished your build and got nothing to buy anymore.
Remember to prioritize > >

For destroying wards and revealing invisible champions. Most of the times the support will buy this. If he doesn't have enough money and your team needs it, take it yourself.

Sight Ward You must ward your lane to prevent ganks. You should put your ward in the middle between the brush near your turret and the brush near the enemy turret. This way you can see both entrances to the lane. I'm not going to go in depth about this, there are guides that are made for this and explain about proper wards placement.
Mostly Used for revealing enemy wards at Baron and Dragon. Again, buy them if your support didn't.
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Notes regarding the builds presented

Irelia

//




spa The build Showed here for Irelia is by Chaox. However I choose different spells than him. His build was the thing that inspired me to write this whole guide.
You can find his guide at www.solomid.net.
Irelia is such an amazing champion, excelling at mobility and burst damage. It is important to point out that Irelia's main role is an assassin. Tanking is only her secondary role.
Irelia is extreamly strong at mid and late game, however she is rather weak in the lane. But with the correct items to counter the enemy laner, she can dominate the lane, or at least being able to farm well.
Summoner spells: and . Flash is very useful for Irelia, allowing her to have a really strong distance closer combining with Bladesurge,and overall just an amazing utility spell. However Ghost can be picked instead, and is even more viable now with the flash nerf. Ghost will allow Irelia to be even more mobile, and in addition makes her practically impossible to catch in combination of her passive her passive+Ghost. Teleport allows her to have more control over the map, and being able to join small fights, where her stun and high damage can completely turn the fight around. In addition it allows her to have an easier and safer laning. The first Teleport is always used to quickly get back to the lane after shop, and this way get an advantage in level and health and mana.
*Chaox uses Ghost and Ignite in his guide. However Wickd and Mad****Brown who are famous for playing Irelia, also choose to take Teleport and Flash.
Skill sequence: > > > . Maxing Hiten Style first for lane sustain and high Dps that ignores the probably high armor of the Offtank you will face top. Next maxing Bladesurge for the reduced CD.
Masteries: 0-21-9 This set-up is perfect for Iirelia. I used to go 21 in the utility tree, mainly for bonus movement speed and bonus mana regen. Now it isn't needed anymore, when you can get Swiftness Meditation ( although only 1 point in meditation , it still helps in the lane) by only investing 9 points into utility. The rest of the tree isn't really useful, while the new defensive tree is much better. This set-up will make Irelia's mid-late game much stronger. and the most important masteries to get are Initiator and Swiftness .
Build: The laning phase is Irelia's most problematic phase, and many champions can deny her in the lane. In order to win the lane, you should be very flexible when building her. Yes, Trinity is the best item for her, but many times other items should be bought early to give her the upper hand in the lane. For example, I usually rush Wit's End or a different magic resist item, when I'm facing strong AP laners like Akali or Rumble.
Once Irelia has Trinity Force, she is deadly. For that reason, I usually grab guardian angle right after, to increase my mid game domination.
/
/

Lee Sin

//




spa I have decided to change the build to jungle Lee Sin, when I realised just how powerful he is in the jungle. He is fast, sustains himself, does not require the blue buff for himself, strong at counter jungling and defending his jungle from invasions, and an extremely strong ganker.
Lee is my favorite Offtank, and one of my favorite champions in the game. He is so much fun to play, has a very high skill cap, and also pretty OP, even after his nerf. Lee excels both at jungling and laning, but almost everyone including me prefer to jungle with him.
The key to mastering Lee is learning to manage his energy with a smart use of his passive, learning to land Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike properly, and mastering the many different uses of Dragon's Rage.
* Quick tip: When ganking with jungle Lee Sin, it is usually better to NOT initiate the gank with Q. If you miss your Q than thats it, the gank is over. The best way to gank is to run straight to the enemy, use E attack and use E again. Now when you are in melee range you can't miss your Q. keep attacking and once he flashes, use Q again to follow up with him. U can easily tower dive and get out of tower range with W.
Summoner spells: and . Flash is used to position yourself to land Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike and Dragon's Rage, and Exhaust for dueling and shutting down AD carries. Ignite is just as viable.
Skill sequence: > > > . Maxing Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike since it is your main damage skill, and you want it to have lower CD and higher damage. Next Safeguard / Iron Will for survivability and sustainability.
*When jungling, start with Tempest / Cripple at level 1 to quickly kill the wraiths, then continue like in the laning sequence.
Masteries: 21-9-0 for lane and 21-0-9 for jungle, are the only set ups I would consider. This set up will allow you to be a beast in the lane and in the jungle, and have higher damage throughout the game. Lee is an assassin after all, and he needs damage.
Build: When I build items for Lee,I take advantage of his extremely high AD-scaling abilities. I grab two Doran's Blade early, in order to dominate the lane. Alternatively, get Wriggle's Lantern if you are having troubles. If you jungle, start with Vampiric Scepter and build it into Wriggle's Lantern.
Next I get either The Brutalizer or Hexdrinker for a cheap boost to my damage output.
I buy Warmog's Armor and Atma's Impaler before Trinity Force, because flat AD which Atmogs provides, will boost Lee's damage more than the Trinity Force will.
For my last item I usually go for Bloodthirster for a huge damage boost. However, if the enemies are buying a lot of Armor, Last Whisper is mandatory. If you are the main tank of your team, get another tanking item instead.
/
/

Wukong

//




spa Wukong used to be a very lackluster champion. Now after his recent buff, he is significantly better, and a very strong solo laner. His AOE knock up ult and his powerful juking abilities makes him very fun to play.
Summoner spells: and . Flash will let you catch escaping enemies with E and R.
Skill sequence: > > > I prefer to max before , for the reduced CD.
Masteries: 0-9-21 Utility tree for better late game. However 21-9-0 is also possible for a stronger early game.
Build: is important, since CCs can screw his Ult. synergies well with his AOE Ult.
/
/

Udyr

//




spa I have decided to change my Udyr build to lane Udyr. Simply because I feel that Phoenix jungle is better than Tiger jungle, and Phoenix stance does not synergies that great with this build. Solo top Udyr can easily sustain himself with Iron Mantle, and harass using Wilding Claw procs.
An important thing to know about Udyr, is that his Wingborne Storm gives AD which empowers Tiger, and Wilding Claw gives AS which empowers Phoenix. When you just need to deal damage, constantly switching between the two stances will give you the highest DPS.
Summoner spells: and . Flash is mandatory, since Udyr has Blazing Stampede as a mini Ghost, but he lacks an instant chase/escape mechanism.
For the second spell you can choose between Ignite, Exhaust and Teleport. I prefer ignite, which synergies well with the DOT damage on his Wilding Claw procs, and the combo of this two can easily net you some lane kills.
Skill sequence: = > > . Udyr's skill sequence is very flexible and open for changes. Ultimately, you want to have Wilding Claw and Blazing Stampede maxed, while Iron Mantle and Wingborne Storm have 3-5 points in them. Preferring to put more points into Turtle means a stronger and safer laning phase, and a stronger shield for late game, while preferring Phoenix will result in harder laning but more late game Dps. Depends on the player and the situation.
For the first point I take Q against laners who can't harass me well at level 1 like Renekton, and W against laners that can harass me right from the start. Put more early points into Q if you wish to be aggressive, and into W if you are struggling. Usually I pump up W first.
Masteries: 0-9-21, aiming for Quickness and Presence of the Master .
runes:: The reason for the flat AD marks, is because Wilding Claw scales off AD, but it deals magic damage. Magic penetration should not be considered because those will lead to a much weaker ealry-mid game.
Build: The safest way to go is Cloth Armor+5 Health Potion. Rush Wriggle's Lantern because it gives you everything you need in the lane. Unless you are the only tank in your team, get Trinity Force as soon as possible. Its the best item you can find for him. The MS is HUGE for him, the slow allows him to stick to targets and the Sheen constantly procs when you switch stances.
Wit's End is a very strong great item on Udyr. You can get it at some point of the game, or rush it right away when laning vs problematic AP laners.
/
/

Trundle

//




spa Trundle is for some reason, much underplayed and somewhat underrated. He is actually an excellent champion. He is a powerful jungler, excelling at fast and very safe jungling, amazing counter jungle capabilities, and strong ganks. He is also quite good at solo top lane, however I feel that laning with him is basically just wasting his amazing jungling powers.
*Trundle is a very strong counter jungler- So use it!
Summoner spells: and smite. ghosts help in ganks, and I used to take it for him. However I now like Flash on him. It allows him to surprisingly land Pillar of Filth to trap an enemy or dividing him from his team. In addition, the ability to flash over farther increase his control and dominance in the woods.
* In addition, Ghost can't is not a good escape mechanism for Trundle. In a situation where you can't escape with Contaminate and Pillar of Filth, then Ghost won't help as well. Only Flash will save you.
Skill sequence: > > > . Maxing Rabid Bite first obviously, since it is your Bread and Butter skill, and your main damage source. I throw another point into Contaminate at level 8, since it is very useful at that stage of the game, for jungling and roaming. However, I leave it at 2 points and move on to max Pillar of Filth, because it is an extremely powerful once team fights starts. The reduced CD and increased slow are very needed.
Masteries: I choose a hybrid 1-14-15 Setup, which provides both important Utility and jungle Sustain. 0-9-21 is also possible, sacrificing jungle power for a better late game.
Build: Start with Vampiric Scepter and build it into Wriggle's Lantern.
Mercury's Treads are the obvious Boots for him, because combined with Contaminate Trundle gets to ~66% Tenacity.
Trinity Force gives Trundle every possible thing he needs. In addition, Rabid Bite has an awesome synergy with the Sheen Procs, together doing up to 270% of his Attack damage.
/
/

Gangplank

//




spa Gangplank was really underpowered for a very long time. I am very happy with the changes he got a few months ago, and now he is not only fun to play, but also a great and viable champion. I jungle with him, since he jungles extremely fast, and has some really strong ganks, mainly due to his passive Grog Soaked Blade and Raise Morale. GangPlank is great as a carry and as an Offtank, and TF+Atmog's is great on him, for both roles.
Summoner spells: and . Flash allows you to catch people to shot a killing blow with , or just to get the slow from the passive, which applies. I also don't find Ghost that needed since he is already fast enough.
Skill sequence: > > > Remove Scurvy. Max Raise Morale to jungle with ease and high speed. It is also great for ganks. for damage and gold gain. If you dont jungle, going for bot or top lane, go for a Q>W>E sequence.
*Note that gives extra gold when last-hitting with it. Abuse it! While jungling, try to last-hitting with it as much as possible.
Masteries: 21-0-9 Basic Carry masteries set-up. is particularly great for him. However the utility tree is also very useful to him, and a more hybrid 14-0-16 set up taking improved Flash and extra MS is also a great choice.
Build: When building GP, you need to decide at the start and during the game, if your team needs you to be tanky, or to deal damage.
I always rush Wriggle's Lantern on GP, obviously if I jungle, but also if I solo. It's just a great item, giving him everything he needs early, and in addition it is incredibly cost-efficient.
For boots, I usually get lonian Boots of LucidityFor better Utility and more damage. However, I get or Mercury's Treads if I tend to play as an Offtank, or if the enemy team is very AD/AP heavy.
I feel that Gangplank has already amazing Utility and good damage with only a lantern, so I tend to get Atmog's right after it, and get Trinity Force later. If you wish to do more damage early, get Trinity first.
Trinity Force is absolutely amazing for GP. Every single stat it provides is great for him. In addition, Parrrley applies on-hit effects, including Sheen procs.
After Atmog's, I get Infinity Edge and Last Whisper for more damage. However, if you want to be more durable because you die too much or you get a lot of enemy focus, you should grab MR, Force of Nature for MS and HP/5, or Banshee's Veil, which combined with Remove Scurvy- makes you very hard to lock down. Alternatively/additionally buy guardian angle for more Resistances and the awesome passive.
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Nasus

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spa Nasus is a ****ing beast late game. Nasus is a champion that is focused around one ability that makes him what he is- , which gains permanent bonus damage whenever it kills a unit( Minion, Champion, Jungle Creep).Nasus gameplay is all about getting farmed as much as possible. If he farmed it enough, he can carry a game in its late stage by himself. However, Nasus isn't considered as a great pick in rank games. The main reason for this is that he is very vulnerable kiting- He doesn't have a gap closer, and a target who is witherd may move very slow, yet it can still use Flash or another escape mechanism. Basically, against a team with many CCs or with a team that has only few CCs, You can find yourself just stuned, slowed, and kited through a whole team-fight, unable to deal any real damage.In addition, his Ultimate which makes him huge and super easy to target, does not help. More flaws, is his lack of Hard CC, lack of good initiation ability, and the fact that if he is zoned and not able to farm, he will be useless.
All around, Nasus is a champion with potential to be amazing; however he is a pretty situational pick, since he can be countered quite easily.
Summoner spells: and . Some will take Flash, due to the fact that Nasus doesn't have a reliant gap closer/escape mechanism.
Teleport is great for Nasus, because his main job is to farm Siphoning Strike as much as possible, However as an offtank, he must participate in all the mid-game team-fights. Teleport allows him to afk farm, while always being able to teleport into a team fight if one should start.
In addition it makes his laning phase much easier, and allows him to not miss valuable CS while going to base.
Skill sequence: > > > . Many people put 1 or 2 points into Siphoning Strike, and leave it there. The reason why I max it first, is the Reduced CD. The more you can last hit using it, the stronger and scarier you will become. Next, Max Wither, for a stronger slow which is your only CC.
* Nasus does not have a set-in-stone skilling order. Try to put as many points into Q for the reduced CD, so you can farm it up faster. However, if you are zoned out in the lane, maxing Spirit Fire will allow you to farm from far away. More early points into Wither are a good path when you know your jungler is going to gank a lot at your lane.
Masteries: 0-9-21 is the most useful for Nasus. It will buff you late game, which is where you really shine. If you expect a hard lane, 0-16-14 set-up will make you more durable early on. and help you survive the lane.
Build: Start with either Regrowth Pendant or Doran's Shield.
Philosopher's Stone will allow you to achieve your main early-game goal: Stay in the lane as much as possible and farm Q up. If you lane versus an AP champion and feel that you need even more mana, buying Chalice of Harmony is a good idea.
Next I get Trinity Force. Trinity Force is the most important item for Nasus, giving him Utility, health, Mana, and most importantly, the Sheen procs, which combines with Q, makes it a massive Nuke.
After Trinity, I tend to grab an early Guardian Angel. Very much like Irelia, once Nasus has Trinity Force, he will become really strong, and having GA will make you that much scarier.
After that I build Atmogs.
Force of Nature is my Magic resist item. The movement speed is essential, allowing you to be a stronger initiator, and stick to squishy enemies that you should target.
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Olaf

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spa This build and the whole lane Olaf idea is heavily inspired by Dyrus's awesome Olaf guide, which you can find on solomid.net
Olaf is an interesting champion with a lot of potential, however he is rarely ever seen. I have very little experience with him, but from the few games I had playing him, I noticed that his lack of mobility and a hard CC is the main reason why most people consider him to be a weak pick. However, reading Dyrus's Olaf guide and seeing him playing Olaf, completely opened my eyes to how awesome Olaf can be with the right build and play style. I'm happy to present to you- Lane Olaf.
The concept of lane Olaf revolves around Reckless Swing spamming in the lane, while healing the damage which using the skill deals to you, with Greater Quintessence of Vigor, Tough It Out and Wriggle's Lantern. Reckless Swing is an extremely strong true damage nuke, that can easily allow you to dominate the lane and completely zone your opponent.
Summoner spells: and . The biggest cons Olaf has are his low mobility and lack of a real distance closer. This set-up is aimed for giving Olaf maximum mobility, mitigating these cons as much as possible. You may choose to switch Flash for either Ignite or Exhaust. However, remember that Flash is almost a necessity for top lane, in order to escape early ganks. Ghost just won't cut it many times.
Skill sequence: > > > . As I explained earlier, Reckless Swing damage is very high and it will be extremely difficult for any laner to hold against you when you are spamming this on his head at max rank, and that is why we max it first. Next max icon=Undertow for stronger slows. If you are having troubles in the lane, putting Tough It Out will make things easier.
If jungling, max Undertow, to clear jungle camps faster, and for stronger ganks.
Masteries: 0-9-21. The utility tree is the most useful overall. The offensive tree won't really help you in the lane since your early damage comes almost exclusively from Reckless Swing.
Build: Start by rushing Wriggle's Lantern both for jungling and solo laning.
The life steal will allow you to spam Reckless Swing while still maintaining high HP.
Warmog's Armor is your main core item. With it you'll become a strogner mid-game tank. In addition, When Olaf runs into a fight with Ragnarok on, he becomes a very attractive target due to the fact that CCs can't effect him and the only way to stop him, is to focus him down. For that reason, you have to get fat asap. In addition, note that Tough It Out has great synergy with a big health pool.
After finishing Atma's Impaler, build Force of Nature and Trinity Force. I will almost always prefer FoN over Banshee's for Olaf for the MS and the health regen. Also Olaf doesn't really have much problems with CCs, with his CC breaking and 6 seconds CC-God Mode Ult.
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Yorick

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spa I will be honest, I don't like Yorick. I played him just a few times, and I just didn't like him, and I'm also not happy if someone on my team picked him. The reason why I don't like him, is because, just like Mordekaiser, his lack of a real CC or a strong ability makes him pretty useless and easy to ignore. Yes, he is very strong in the lane and really rapes everyone, strangely enough again just like Morde (when I come to think about it these two have great similarity between them...), and yes he has an interesting Ult. However outside of the laning phase, he just not very useful to the team, and his Ult is actually not that great. Another problem with this champion, is that it is really hard to balance him. If you give his abilities more damage, then he becomes a power house steamroll machine that can harass and put out tons of damage with ease and without any skill involved whatsoever( If you remember how he was after Riot buffed him a week after his release. Just spamming ghouls on your enemy to victory. On the other hand, if you give him normal and not OP damage, then the lack of a real CC makes him a pretty bad champion overall.
Ok I got a bit carried away, enough with the Yorick hate. Yorick is a very situational champion,and should be picked only if your team need a strong solo champion that will have control over the lane, and will force the enemy jungler to gank and hang around top lane a lot. For example he is a great pick to make sure that the enemy Nasus won't be able to free farm the lane and become unstoppable. If you picked Yorick and didn't dominated the lane, then you failed hard.
Summoner spells: and . Not much to say here. You could run Teleport instead of Ignite, and Ghost instead of Flash. Your choice.
Skill sequence: > > = . Omen of Famine is the skill that lets you dominate the lane so easily. Maxing this first gives more damage to it, which results in more healing. It also reduces it's CD,and lets you spam it for more harass and more healing. Next, you can either put points into Omen of Pestilence for stronger slows or into Omen of War for higher damage out-put.
Masteries: 0-9-21. The utility tree provides many great bonuses that will greatly help Yorick, especially Presence of the Master and Intelligence .
Build:: Yorick is extremely Mana hungry thorugh out the game. I'm not a big fan of Manamune since spending a lot of gold for mana so early in the game is usually not a good idea, however Yorick is completely dependent on his pretty high Mana cost abilities to do damage, and so it is worth getting it on him.
Trinity Force is not very needed in mid game, so I prefer to get Atmog's first.
However later in the game Trinity Force is a great utility and damage item for him. Also note that Omen of War synergies for the Sheen procs.
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Champions synergy with the build

The idea, is that basically any melee AD champ can use the TF+Atmog's build. Melee, because melee champions need survivability. On some champions, this build will work great in most games, and on some champions, it is only a situational build.
In most cases, the synergy of the champion with the build depends on how well Trinity Force is on that champion, but for some Atmog's is the problem.
I will show all the champions that have a certain synergy with the build, and will place them in tiers. Top tier champions obviously have the best synergy and the lower the tier, the lower the synergy. The order of the champions in their tier is random.
Let's begin.



Top tier





Notes:
  • - Some may not agree with Trinity Force on him. I think it's great. He has 7 ways to proc it. Only down side is the useless mana.


Tier 2





Notes:
  • Most champions in this tier, Can not spam abilities, and so they do not fully utilize the Trinity Force procs.



Tier 3




Notes
  • Most of this champions, are better built with different items.
  • Trinity Force and Atma's Impaler are both amazing items for Jax. But due to his passive Relentless Assault, getting HP items isn't efficient. It's better to get more AP and AD, which will result in more HP.



Tier 4




Notes
  • These champions have some synergy with the build, but a poor one. Extremely situational.
  • Trinity Force is a bad item for him. Since he isn't autoattcking a lot anyway, the Sheen's procs aren't good for him. Warmog's Armor+ Atma's Impaler are great for him though.
  • Was designed especially so she won't be another Trinity Force champion. That includes her not having mana, none of her abilities scale with AP, and her passive when building a lot of AD is better than The Trinity Force passive. All around, the whole Sheen component is wasted on her.
    In addition, she shouldn't be played and built as an Offtank, but rather as an Tanky Dps, due to her low base damage and high AD scale abilities.
    I will still put her in the list, because the build is still sort of usable for her.
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About Offtanks and Gameplay

Well this is a guide about offtanks... So I decided I'll make a short chapter on game play, and also explain a bit about the role of an offtank.


Offtanks


An offtank, is a champion that builds very tanky, but also has a bit of damage items, allowing him to deal decent damage.

What's the difference between offtanks and tanks?
A tank's job, is to initiate team fights, protect his carries, soak up as much damage as possible and disrupt the enemy team using CC. Perfect example of a tank is Rammus. He will Powerball toward the enemy team, Taunt an important target using Puncturing Taunt. Great way to start a team fight. For the rest of the fight, he can protect his carries by taunting enemies that try to attack them.
An offtank's job, is to deal a lot of damage to squishy targets, while pulling the enemies focus toward him, away form his carries. The idea is, that an unprotected carry will die to most offtanks in few seconds, and thus the enemy team is forced to focus the offtank to ensure that their carry won't die. Sometimes, all the offtank needs to do, is just be there. His presence can zone the carry out. Carries can not come close to the fight and auto attack/cast spells on whoever they want, when the enemy offtank can always jump on them, CC and kill them, with, or even without- the help of his team.
* Don't mistake Offtanks with Tanky Dps. A Tanky dps champion, for example xin zha that use this build , is a Tanky dps, and not an Offtank. His job isn't to soak up damage and CCs, it is to deal damage. The tanky items just allow him to survive while doing so.

What makes a champion a viable offtank?
A good offtank, is a champion that is able to deal a lot damage through the base damage of his abilities. Thus, he does not require building a lot of massive damage items in order to deal high damage, and can focus on survivability as well.
For AD offtanks, Trinity Force will provide all the damage needs for mid game. By late game another offensive item is needed, in order to deal enough damage to not get ignored.
great example for this, is Nasus. With only Trinity Force and a charged Siphoning Strike, he is able to deal so much damage. He can focus on getting a lot of defensive items, while still having high damage output.
Another important quality for offtanks, is to have CC.
An offtank without CC, can be ignored quite easily. He does not have outrageous damage, and so the enemies can walk past him, and kill the carries. Sure the offtanks will hurt them, but it won't be so bad. After they finish with the carries, they can focus the offtank.
And yet, enemies can not ignore a champion with CC. The can walk past him, but they can not ignore the fact that the offtank stunned them, and then they got bursted down by his team.
Jarvan IV, Knocks people up with his Demacian Standard+ Dragon Strike combo, and trap people inside his Cataclysm. His damage and CCs does not allow enemies to ignore his presence in team fights.


Gameplay



Early game


First, go protect your jungler. Do not just go to the lane and sit there.
Basically if the jugnler starts at blue, you want to have 3 guys protecting the blue buff, and one defending the other entrance to your jungle (red side). If nothing special happens, head to the top lane. Depends on your champion and the champion you lane against, play offensively or defensively, but always focus on killing creeps. If you can zone out your enemy, that's great. If you can kill him, even better. Always remember, that if you dominate the lane, expect a gank. Do not push too much, or not at all if possible.

Mid game


Mid game differs a lot from soloq and arranged team play. In an arranged teams game, you will want to stay in top lane as much as possible, and farm like a mad man, getting ready for late game as best as you can. Probably the only reason you will want to leave top is to pressure dragon. If you jungle, then you should try to focus on getting some successful ganks and counter jungle, though it is pretty difficult.

In soloq however, things are different. If you are a good player, and you know you can get to higher elo than you are, you must have a strong impact on the games you play in order to get higher. What this means, is that winning your lane, or jungling fast- is not enough. If you play in high elo soloq games, or watch top elo players streams, you will notice that the mid AP carries are always roaming past level 6 and constantly ganking other lanes, and that the junglers spend more time ganking than actually jungling. This is how you make an impact on the game. If you play a jungler, you have no problem, because jugnler is the second highest impacting soloq role right after AP carry ( Junglers have an extremely strong effect on the early game with is very important. A great jungler can win a game by helping his teammates win their lanes). But if you play solo top, you are in a problem, because it is the least impacting soloq role after supports( Most of the early game fights occurs around the bot due lane and dragon. you are far away from both, so you don't have a strong effect on the early game.). You will have to work hard.
Unless you are completely dominating your enemy in the lane and getting fed off of him, or you are using a push and backdoor strategy ( ex. Teemo, Nidalee, Tryndamere), then staying and farming top is not enough. You won't have enough impact on the game, and if your teammates played bad, they will feed their lanes and you will lose, even though you won your lane. In mid game, you have to start helping your teammates to turn the game to your favor, by ganking mid lane, ganking the enemy jungler, and going to pressure dragon, all that while still defending your top lane turrets from getting destroyed, and getting enough farm. This is very hard to do, but it will increase your chance of winning by a lot. Now I don't mean that you should be roaming and ganking as muxh as the mid laner, but you should play with your team-afk farming top lane 40 min is most of the times not how you carry soloq games. Another option that will help you to have more presence in the game, is getting Teleport. This spell will allow you to get from top to other lanes, and turn bad situations that your teammates got into-into a great opportunity for your team. In addition it is a great tool for securing dragons.
If you jungle in soloq, remember to spent most of mid game by ganking and counter jugnling as much as you can. This is how you will carry games.


Late game


Late game is all about team fights, on which I will explain next.
The most important aspect of late game is to have Map awareness.
If you walk alone and die from an enemy gank, you leave your team for about 40 seconds in a very bad 4v5 situation. The enemies are free to take Baron, Dragon and push.
Be careful, and stay with your team.

Team fights


As i explained beofre, your job in team fights is to deal a lot of damage to squishies, protect your carries if they are attacked and soak up damage and CCs. AS an offtank, you always want to be in the middle of the fight. Sometimes, your job is to basically be a wall between the enemy team and your carries.
In team fights, you want to try and kill the enemy carries, and yet always remember to swich focus to anyone who is damaging your carries. If Nocturne jumps on your helpless Ashe, you immediately turn to focus him.

Target priority: Enemies who are killing your carries>Carries and Support>Offtank>full tank


Initiating team fights
This depends, if your team has a full tank or not. Common team compositions are Tank-Offtank-AD Carry-AP Carry-Support and Offtank-Offtank-AD Carry-AP Carry-Support.
  • If your team has a full tank, like Rammus or Amumu, let them initiate, and jump in right after them, trying to stick to squishy targets and kill them.
  • If You have another Offtank in your team, and not a full tank, You two need to initiate together. Run in to the enemy team, and throw CCs on key targets. Always make sure that your squishies champions in the back are safe, and turn to help them immediately if they are attacked!!
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Metagame

This guide and the builds presented are heavily affected by the Metagame. The Meta changes all the time, and when it does, I will update the guide accordingly.
This is the current Meta, at least from what I understand from my prospective as a EU high-Elo player. Again, when it changes, ill update if I think that it is needed.

Solo top-Offtank
Jungle-Offtank/tank
Mid-AP
Bot-Support+carry

*This Meta makes perfect sense. Offtanks are great duelers, so they are great for the solo lane. They also most of the times have some sort of way to sustain themselves through an ability or their passive, such as Irelia's Hiten Style and Udyr's Iron Mantle.
Putting a Carry with a Support Baby-sitter insure that the Carry will be able to farm.
And the AP gets the solo mid instead of the AD carry, since AP carries scale very well with levels, while Carries just need farm, so they are OK sharing their XP with the Support, as long as they get all the CS.

* Many times you will see champions who are not offtanks who are sent to solo top to counter the solo top bruisers meta. Usually it would be a mage with a strong poke abilities(ex. Kennen), or ranged dps with strong early-game damage and harass(ex. Graves, Vayne)
This champions can be a problem to some bruisers. However this can easily be countered with a bruiser with high sustain such as Irelia or Udyr who can just take the damage until level 7-9, and then start to dominate the lane.

*Tanks aren't used that much. Offtanks are just better most of times.

* Offtanks metagame: In short, offtanks/bruisers are extremely strong, because they are very tanky and you really don't want to focus, however they still deal tons of damage to squishy champions, so you are just forced to focus them, or your carries are dead.

* Assassins are extremely powerful and popular at the moment. I'm not really sure if it is because they counter the current meta, or because they fit the current meta very well, but the fact is: Akali, Kassadin, Shaco, LeBlanc(!!), Fizz and Vayne are all FOTMs and completely dominating games.

* Flash is still the most favored summoner spell even after his nerf. However you will start seeing many players taking Ghost over it, especially for certain offtanks. In addition there are many junglers that prefer to not take flash and not Ghost, and take an offensive spell instead for strong ganks.

* Trinity Force is the most favored item in the game. You will usually see 2 players on each team running Trinity Force.

* Atmog's is extremely strong at the moment. It is seen so much. Sometimes alongside with a Trinity Force, and sometimes not. Depends on the champion.
The Fizz patch made Atmog's even stronger. I really don't get Riot. If everybody build Atmog's on about any AD offtank, and even on AD carries and champions that were not even meant to be AD like Nidalee, you know it is OP. But instead of nerfing warmog's or just leaving it as it is, they made it even stronger, with the new mastery Juggernaut in the defensive tree, which rewards you for having more HP. Now the "Just get warmog's on any champion and you'll be fine" meta even stronger. I guess Riot really like Atmog's :D

* Solo top laners used to always rush Philosopher's Stone+ Heart of Gold, but not as often nowadays.

*Every AD jungler buys Wriggle's Lantern.

* There is a certain stratagy to get Wriggle's Lantern on the jungler, AD carry and solo top off AD offtank. That way the team can easily secure map objectives such as dragon, and split push very effectively.

* Roaming is not used most of the times.

* Support champions don't farm. They lane with the AD carry, giving him all the CS, and buy Gold per 10 items to fund Wards and Orcals.


Strongest champions:
AD Carry , ,
AP carry , (in soloq), , ,
Offtank , ,
Tank
Support , , ,
Jungler: , ,


This is the general Meta currently. If you thought about more points, or you think some of mine are wrong, tell me in a comment.
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Final words

This is the end of my guide.
The purpose of this guide is to show a great way to build offtanks, and explain about it. I hope that you liked it and found it helpful :)
Plz leave me a comment, and tell me what you liked or didn't like about the guide, and vote accordingly. I welcome any constructive criticism, so feel free to give me advices about the builds. Some of the champions in this guide I don't play often, and so I may have made some bad decisions concerning the skill sequence, masteries etc... Feel free to suggest improvements!
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Change log

26/8/2011- Build published

27/8/2011- Updated Jarvan IV build

7/9/2011- Updated Lee Sin

19/9/2011-
-Added Leona and riven size to tier 4 in the Synergy with the build chapter, and Malphite to tier 3. Moved Dr. Mundo up to tier 3 and Gangplank up to tier 1.

25/9/2011- Added a new chapter "Notes regarding the builds presented". Not finished yet, will finish sometimes this week.

26/9/2011- Added a new chapter "Metagaming". Changed Jarvan IV build, and decided to put him as a jungler. His ganks are too stong to pass out.

1-10-2011- Updated Yorick and Nasus builds.

17-10-2011- Changed Gangplank's build.

1/11/2011-After getting the review from jhoijhoi, I made many changes to the formats and organisation of the guide.

2/11/2011- Remade Olaf build. Also, its lane Olaf now :)

3/11/2011- The "Notes regarding the builds presented" chapter is finished.

13/11/2011- Added Nidalee to tier 2.

16/11/2011- Added Quicksilver Sash as a possible item, removed all possible boots other than Ninja Tabi and mercury treads. Changed Udyr to lane Udyr- Different Spells, Runes, Skill sequence and Masteries.

2/11/2011- I'm still working on the fizz patch update. Moved Udyr to tier 2. Reason is that this build is not as good on him as others, he has the most spamable shield in the game, so it should be abused, and udyr should focus on resistances more than on health. In addition Wit's End is amazing on Udyr, yes tiger Udyr as well, and this build does not leave a room for it, if you will buy it you will end up too squishy
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