Ask a Diamond [Week 4: Mid lane]

[quote=Vynertje][center][h1]Greetings people of Mobafire![/h1][/center] It's Wednesday again! It's time for another installment of the weekly and official Ask a Diamond series. This thread encourages people to ask all their questions to the high ranked players of this site. he goal is to help out as much players as we can with their most pressing questions, hopefully allowing them to climb the ladder and perhaps once hit Diamond as well! This week will be all about the middle lane! [url=http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/forum/general/ask-a-diamond-week-3-top-lane-28151?page=1](Week 3: top lane)[/url] So, if you have any League related questions, you can ask them here. However, please keep in mind the rules: [list] [*] Serious, League related questions only. [*] Make sure your questions are specific. We can't help you when you simply ask "How can I get out of elo-hell". Something like "How can I more easily capitalize on my enemy's mistakes" is a lot more specific and helps us help you. [*] People below Diamond are allowed to answer questions, but always take such answers with a grain of salt. You can recognize diamond players by their flairs, next to their username. [*] Questions should be related to the week's lane (this week: mid!). I will ask moderators to remove all questions that aren't. [/list] Fire away![/quote]

[quote=luizdeh]Questions! Give answers! How do I lane against [[lulu]] as, well, anyone? I don't play any AD champs mid, mainly just [[orianna]], [[kayle]] and [[nidalee]] because Rito took my fat friend and gave him back deciding he didn't have a use for deatchcaps. Right now I just avoid her poke as much as possible but that makes me lose CS. If I all-in she can just turn herself into a fast purple ball and get to her turret in 0.3 seconds. Safe to say I have a hard time against her. 'jungler plz' is a common phrase. As [[orianna]] she isn't as hard because I can poke back and shield some harass. [[nidalee]] can't do shit, just farm under turret and try to get her out of lane hitting Qs. As [[kayle]] I found a middle ground trying to bait some of her poke, heal+slow/burst+poke a little, but that is mana intensive and hurts my farm. Post-6 its a fair battle. Between these picks, who should I learn as a mid main in this meta: [[fizz]], [[kassadin]], [[katarina]], [[soraka]] or [[karthus]]? I do play these dudes, just not well yet and I'm not buying anything anytime soon. I buy tons of wards, but how much is too much? I rarely come back without a green and usually buy 2-3 pinks per game. Basically, I don't trust that teammates will ward at all.[/quote]

[quote=NateDog13][quote=luizdeh] Questions! Give answers! How do I lane against [[lulu]] as, well, anyone? I don't play any AD champs mid, mainly just [[orianna]], [[kayle]] and [[nidalee]] because Rito took my fat friend and gave him back deciding he didn't have a use for deatchcaps. Right now I just avoid her poke as much as possible but that makes me lose CS. If I all-in she can just turn herself into a fast purple ball and get to her turret in 0.3 seconds. Safe to say I have a hard time against her. 'jungler plz' is a common phrase. As [[orianna]] she isn't as hard because I can poke back and shield some harass. [[nidalee]] can't do shit, just farm under turret and try to get her out of lane hitting Qs. As [[kayle]] I found a middle ground trying to bait some of her poke, heal+slow/burst+poke a little, but that is mana intensive and hurts my farm. Post-6 its a fair battle. Between these picks, who should I learn as a mid main in this meta: [[fizz]], [[kassadin]], [[katarina]], [[soraka]] or [[karthus]]? I do play these dudes, just not well yet and I'm not buying anything anytime soon. I buy tons of wards, but how much is too much? I rarely come back without a green and usually buy 2-3 pinks per game. Basically, I don't trust that teammates will ward at all. [/quote] It's time for a true display of skill! (rofl, I needed to use this at least once in my life) Anyway, laning against lulu is a lot like laning against a brick wall, but moreso one with spikes on it. It's super durable, and if you get to close, it stabs ya. So the best way to go about dealing with her is the following: 1. Merc treads, the reason I say merc treads is because god her CC is just super irritating to deal with, by making sure that you're slowed less and polymorphed for a shorter time, you can actually trade back with her or get away faster (generally the latter because of her shield). 2. Understanding kill potential, this is a huge one. Pre-6 Lulu can be 1v1'd and taken out by certain champions, HOWEVER, post-6 you have literally no kill potential on her unless she makes mistakes, or you are way ahead of her. Always try to take her out 2v1, she's known as the "safe pick" in the pro scene because of the insane amount of defensive power and poke she brings to the table, she isn't a really good mid carry pick though (heavy reliant on the team doing well so her abilities are used effectively). Be satisfied with going 0/0/0 in lane and maybe being a bit behind cs, because you'll generally be the more useful APC if your team is doing well. 3. MR is your friend. If you're going against a team with 2 or more heavy AP users (Lulu being one of them), by all means go for a merc + athenes and maybe even add in abyssal scepter if you need to. If anything, the thing that I want you to take from these 3 reasons on how to deal with her, is that Lulu is a SUPPORT mid laner, just like Soraka. Both of them are insanely hard to kill, but they don't really bring a very large amount of kill potential to the board, by going the AP route on them, people just boost their already good support skills to insane heights, and if their team isn't doing well, it fails spectacularly because they generally won't be able to carry like someone who is playing Leblanc or Orianna/Kayle like you play. By just making sure that you're doing more than the Lulu is in terms of the overall game (ie. ganking lanes, taking turrets, getting dragon and barons, etc.) and basically staying alive in lane and csing enough to keep up, you basically beat her. In terms of suggestions for a mid main, I'd actually just say pick up Soraka, Katarina, and Fizz while maining either Fizz or Katarina (I'd say the latter because you get a better feel of teamfighting and how important your timing of coming into them is, as well as the fact she's still one of the best, if not the best resource-less champ out there). In terms of warding, you might wanna take a step back and evaluate what your buying wards to dying ratio is. If you're warding constantly and your general amount of deaths by the jungler or just ganks period is still the same, try focusing on being more aware, hell make your minimap bigger in your settings. If that isn't the case, and your wards are helping not only you, but also teammates out, keep up with what you're doing :D! I'm personally the guy who only buys pinks, they tend to last really long when you put them in hard to find spots, usually the defensive spots on your side or neutral middle spots, so I'd say keep up with that for sure.[/quote]

[quote=Joxuu][[Lissandra]] mid ? People say it's one of the worst mids and second lowest winratio. Why ?[/quote]

[quote=Hogopogo]How is [[Brand]] right now in mid?[/quote]

[quote=OTGBionicArm]How do you feel about cheesey non meta mids like [[Jarvan IV]]?[/quote]

[quote=NateDog13][quote=Joxuu] [[Lissandra]] mid ? People say it's one of the worst mids and second lowest winratio. Why ? [/quote] People don't understand the point of Lissandra, she isn't an APC that you use to carry, she's an APC that you use to shut down a single problematic person on the enemy team. And if she does get ahead she can do some pretty insane stuff, but her style is very.... one burst/shutdown focus and do nothing much afterwards. And I'd also argue that she hasn't really been given a big chance to shine, not many people play Lissandra, and I can't tell you how long it's been since I've seen one.[/quote]

[quote=NateDog13][quote=Hogopogo] How is [[Brand]] right now in mid? [/quote] Brand is outshined by a lot of people, currently the better pick over him would be someone like Ziggs. Brand is one of those cases where while he has an insane amount of damage, he has no escape, he has no means to deal with current meta mids like Leblanc (other than insane reaction skills with his stun combo and stacking MR/playing super safe), and junglers like Nocturne. He's in a really sad position currently.[/quote]

[quote=NateDog13][quote=OTGBionicArm] How do you feel about cheesey non meta mids like [[Jarvan IV]]? [/quote] Jarvan mid so dirty. I've gotten bent by this a few times. I'll say this overall, when you start playing non meta picks, you better have a really firm grasp on that champion, because the general reaction you'll get from your teams is pretty toxic at the beginning, you can lose a few games from this, as odd as it sounds. And generally when you play non meta mids, you can do pretty well since people don't usually know their damage outputs, so you can get away with some crazy stuff like Jarvan mid.[/quote]

[quote=luizdeh][quote=NateDog13]snip [/quote] Thanks for the reply! Ok so [[lulu]] is all about trying to ignore her and doing stuff elsewhere or killing 2v1? Can do. I think I've got good roaming since I mained [[gragas]] forever and absolutely loved pretending to be a jungler. The champ question was more on the lines who else should I add to my roster actually. I've always played [[gragas]] -> [[kayle]] -> [[orianna]] and fatman is weird right now. I added [[nidalee]] a while back because sometimes I like to annoy people and wanted to add something else for variety, counterpicks and different play-styles. Per suggestion, I'm gonna add [[fizz]] because URF COMES OUT OF THE GROUND I don't like Katarina's... anything. This makes for a pretty solid roster imo, that should fit any situation. Seems enough. Another question: I harassed the living shit out of my opponent early, got a CS lead and them out of lane. I'm a level 5 [[orianna]] that knows where the enemy jungler is. I have the opportunity to roam now, so I: 1. go wherever the enemy jungler isn't. 2. go bot if my jungler is going there regardless of enemy jungler. 3. go gank a lane my jungler isn't ganking. 4. shove lane and recall because I don't have ultimate. 5. fake a roam bot, ward dragon and recall. I've done #5 many times because it gets the jungler's attention and makes the enemy duo step back a bit. But it really goes unnoticed some times and it's a little frustrating. I ask because out of the champions I play, she's the one I get less things from roaming pre-6.[/quote]