Hello everyone!

As a part of my "get better at League" plan, I decided to play each all of the free champions every week, just to see what they do and how they work.

Last week I played just 1 bot game with each, and went for recommended items. But from now on, I will play about 2 bot games with each and at least 2 normals with the ones I like. Before the game I will check quickly the usual builds and read something about them, to have better insight.

The reasons for playing bot games and not customs are 2:

• 1. In bot game you play with humans, so you have to try harder to get those kills, and also they are not going to let you farm and just fool around, as they don't want an hour long match. So I will have to try my best, get better at CSing and overall gameplay, if I want to have some items. Like that I can improve more.
• 2. I like the idea of getting paid (with IP) for playing a game, and learning something new :D

And here are my findings:

ASHE
I own this champ for some time, but I don't play her, as I don't like to be an ADC. At the time I was getting good with her, but I don't think she is viable in competitive scene. She has loads of slows, her ulti is a nice stun/slow skillshot and that Hawkshot which gives you gold and is a great scouting/vision giving spell, are nice. But she needs a team that can deal damage. Even though I saw Ashe's that could do dmg... I think there are better ADC's right now. But this one is cheap, so it is OK to get her to increase your champion pool, I guess. (And that Woad Ashe skin is just sooooo....)


PANTHEON
Now this is one cool top lane champion. Great tank, that can deal serious damage, his passive is insanely annoying (if he is your enemy), and his abilities works together pretty well. If I was a top lane guy, I would buy this champ.

I did not try him in jungle, as I think he is not a good jungler. Sure, he has a "gap closer+stun" ability, but that makes him all-in ganker, which is dangerous. Also using his ult for a gank is stupid, as it takes long time to land in there, so before you come, enemy runs to safety or reposition themselves to get an easy kill on you. I saw people jungling with this champ, they did not do well.

What makes him great in my eyes is this ult, that grants him free quick-roam ability. If you dominate your lane with him and send enemy top home (or kill him), you can be on any lane, or join any random, unexpected team fight very quickly, so the whole map can feel your pressure. If played right, ofc. While I think his ult is not good for ganking, for this it is just great (what is a negative for ganks is a positive for roaming, imo).


KENNEN
Tried him on TOP as AP.... had a very hard time with him. It took me a while to figure out his W+E kombo (or was it E+W?) and all in all I felt very weak and had very high death rate. Maybe if I played few more games, I would do better. His strength is, that he can go AD or AP and do well in both ways. He was my first energy powered champ I played so far, so it was a nice experience and as I saw plenty of OP Kennen players out there, I guess he is worth the money. He can be an ADC, APC, top and mid as well. Very versatile champion.


XIN ZHAO
I own this champion, I bought him for learning how to jungle. and I played him a lot lately. Great champ, nice abilities, but he is not so good anymore. I felt like - if I jungled against noobs and Wood 5 players, I was a beast. If I was facing players more of my level, I had to be lucky. If facing real players, I was out of the game. Also pros says he is not viable nowadays, as he is all-in jungler with no disengaging mechanics. But since he is still considered Tier 2 jungler and is really cheap, he is an OK deal. But you need a good team and to be careful when playing him.

SONA
I hate this ******ed champion because of 3 reasons: she is boring and gay, squishy, and one ****** I know plays her all the time (he used to build her half AD half AP, nowadays each game he gets Sorcerer's Shoes and Morellonomicon...).

I was bored out of my skull when supporting wit her. Just changing auras, doing nothing. Any mistake can be punished with death by the hand of the enemy laners, and charging her power chord is stupid. Unless the enemy is ******ed enough so you can AA them and power your chord on them, you have to hit creeps, therefore if you want to be aggresive (like I like to), you have to hit creeps, therefore indirectly shoving the waves involuntarily towards the enemy tower (so you outstretch yourself and invite your lane for the enemy gank).

Her Auras are a joke, as well as her heal is a joke (comparing to Soraka), only good thing on Sona is the ulti and the insane AP dmg she can deal late game, if you build her full AP. But that is a double edged sword, as she has no AR or MR then.

Maybe I am just prejudiced, but I can't stand her and any time I am facing her. and I have my Thresh, I punish them for playing this champion as much as I can.


NOCTURNE
He was so cool I actually played 2 normals with him. His kit is great and I liked him a lot... until I jungled against Kha'Zix. I was raped by him all the time, couldn't do **** about it. He is currently around Tier 2 jungler, still viable, but I think he needs a good team composition and is very "either" champ. (by "either champ" I mean he is either OP or perma dead... depends on which jungler are you up against). And he is quite expensive, so I am not going to buy him for now.


FIORA
That dmg is insane. I built just recommended items and I was getting crits for 1094 dmg every few hits. With her double-dash Q, she is pure dmg monster. But late game I still had about 80 AR and 50 MR so if I did not kill them instantly, I died in return. Late game, Alistar bot killed me with the help of the tower, as I was greedy and dived him without creeps around.

Lately I saw Fiora jungle... she got 15 kills and was a real threath for us, as her dmg was insane. The only thing that worked against her was to made her our primary target and burst her down asap. It took me a while to convince my team to do it, but then it worked (even those 15 kills and 10 assists did not help her in the end, luckily for us).

But for this, I would like to see some pros telling me why is she not viable in high elo and why lots of good players says, that even mediocre "other" top laner can destroy the best Fiora out there.


LULU
I love her and can't wait until she will be on sale. She is great counter for Thresh, and I was looking for such a support, as sometimes the enemy does pick my main support champion, so I have to be able to punish them for stealing my all time favourite :D

Her kit is great, pixie is hell of a support of my support, machine gun Lulu is very fun and AP Lulu is just deadly scary. But she demands skill, that is for sure. You have to time your spells wise, to be 100% effective and also she is very expensive. But 100% worth it. Nevermind her very annoying laugh... even more annoying than Thresh's :D


JAYCE
Another great champion and if I was playing top, I think he would be one of my main champs. Again - he demands high skill and great knowledge of his 7 abilities, he is expensive... but awesome. I think he is the best top laner, as he can go melee and ranged, so he can do fine against any oponent. I would go for him, definately. I was impressed by his kit and don't understand why he is so scarcely picked.


QUINN AND VALOR
She is not bad, but I had the feeling there are better ADC's to get and play. Her ulti is good chasing/escaping ability, that "hit & run" ability is plain fun, and her parrot is really funny. But she feels very defensively, passive.. I don't know. Something was not right about her. But her jokes are OP and her voice is VERY sexy, so I would like to support her some more, even in ranked games :P And definately she is better than Ashe.

This was last week's 10, see you with the next rotation :)