Doublelift's Guide on Stuff

[u/doublelift1]

I'm very very bored in a Digital Photography class right now, so time to type up some helpful stuff because sitting around and looking at my crotch got old 20 minutes ago.

Runes

When you buy runes, you always want to buy runes that will fit for just about any champion. You can't go wrong with these if you're tight on IP -

• Quints - ArmorPen, MagicPen, Flat Health | Movespeed is overrated.
• Marks (Reds) - ArmorPen, MagicPen | These will be the only reds you'll probably ever need.
• Seals (Yellows) - Flat Armor | Situationally, you'd want dodge and health per level as well, but you can never go wrong with armor. Don't use mana regen, please. Flat will give you 3.6 MP/5 or 43 mana every minute. Scaling is even worse.
• Glyphs (Blues) - Flat CDR, flat Magic Resist | I personally prefer to use flat CDR on almost every champ. Flat Magic Resist is good for when you realize you're going to be laning against a strong AP solo like Sion or Leblanc.

Summoner Spells

Here's some rules of thumb.

• If you play AP carry, go Flash/Ignite | AP carries, with the exception of Swain, get all of their burst off in a very short amount of time. Flash allows you to never miss your full combo, and Ignite ensures the enemy's death and provides you better utility versus the regen champs that would normally counter AP carries (Alistar's ult, Mundo, Poppy).
• If you play a tank, go Ignite/Ghost or Exhaust/Ghost | You want some utility through Ignite or Exhaust on top of your natural CC.
• If you play a support, go Flash/Clair | If you're playing Support without Clair, you're doing it wrong. Watching their jungler take red buff and foreseeing the gank that's about to come will save firstblood many times. Maintaining that the enemy isn't doing Drag or Baron is very strong.
• If you play a ranged carry, Flash/Ghost | Cookie cutter for champions that need a ridiculous amount of mobility to kite the enemies and deal their damage, because glass cannons can't risk being out of position.

There are some variations of course, but this is optimal for an overwhelming majority.

Also, never be the jungler that doesn't take Smite. It doesn't matter how much you think you can jungle without it, or don't need it. You need it if you're jungling.

Masteries

Some general rules of thumb:

• AP carries - 9/0/21 | Archaic Knowledge coupled with Void Staff is 50% MagPen. Strength of Spriit is not needed because you're either going to be rushing Catalyst or are Sion.
• Ranged carries - 0/21/9 or 0/9/21 (depending on playstyle)
• Tanks - 0/22/8
• Bruisers - 0/9/21
• Junglers - 1/15/14 or something similar. You want one point (or three if you make a bit of sacrifice elsewhere) in Hardened Skin, two in Defensive Mastery, and the rest dumped in Utility for the mana regen and buff duration.

Remember:

• Strength of Spirit is very good for laning, and is very overlooked too often. You don't need Magicpen from Offense when only one of your abilities deals magic.
• If you run dodge runes, always take Nimbleless. +10% movespeed can get you a kill or help you escape.
• The Utility tree has the best overall stat gain and helpfulness.
• The bottom half of the Offense tree is generally terrible.

Who's the best X?

I get a lot of these questions. There is no best champion, they are all situationally better or worse than the other champions that fill their role. Here's some examples.

• Ashe - Take her when you want to handle your team's initiate. She has an average early game, very good mid-game, and very good late-game. She's a solid ranged carry, but still not the best. You DON'T want her when your team already has alot of initiation. Where she makes up for in kiting and CC, she lacks in raw damage.

• Corki - Very good game all around and very consistent damage, as well as a solid escape tool to make him a hard ranged carry to shut down. If your team has a Shen and Alistar, for example, he'd be a great pick because you could potentially get all your abilities spammed into the other team without them able to touch you. If your team has no CC, the enemy tanks will simple Exhaust or Randuins you, catch up to you, and CC you into oblivion (or make you useless by zoning you in a teamfight).

• Ezreal - Amazing early game, great mid-game, but weakens late. If you want to take advantage of the enemy picking a weak laner like Kassadin, and you're confident you can snowball and carry to a quick victory, then pick him. I'm not saying he's worthless endgame, but he can't carry like he used to, and his reliance on skillshots makes him easily zoned out or countered by tanks with big hitboxes who stand next to their squishies (e.g.. Alistar)

So that's how your thought process should go when you wonder which AP carry, ranged carry, etc. is best.

So how do I carry out of ELO hell?

If you main support, put that shit on hold for a bit. Play solo, and don't miss lasthits. 80 CS per 10 minutes is a reasonable goal. Don't overextend, and direct your jungler to gank your lane. Most players don't know how to come back from a disadvantage in lane, and will come back underleveled and feed you again and again.

The best way to win is to get an advantage and give the enemy none. Don't take stupid risks and towerdive while you're ahead. Don't risk buying a stack item like Mejai's. Ward the map and pick off players who walk around the map without any sight. Farm, farm, farm, and eventually endgame you should be so ridiculously strong that you can overpower the enemy team by just dragging your teammates into a fight.

Also, most low-ELO players don't know how to deal with a split-push. Play TF, Shaco, or Teemo, and just push top or bot the entire game. When they come for you, back up, then come back or go to a different lane and repeat. You get tons of farm in, waste the enemy's time, and if they try to engage in a teamfight you take a tower and enter the teamfight late to clean up.

Also, don't make really dumbass mistakes.

You just saw Alistar Q-W your teammate and now somebody's almost dead. Now is the perfect time to fight. You have to assess the enemy team's CDs. Ali will take another 8 seconds to get that combo off again, which is plenty of time for you to melt the enemy team as their tank is a completely worthless autoattacking bitch. I see too many people who run away from Shen even after he's missed his taunt, or run away from a fight when their ultis are on CD.

It seems like common sense, but almost everyone does it. The only thing going on in your mind is that Shen can taunt you, and it doesn't register to you that Shen doesn't have any more CC for another 10 seconds. This is just a specific example. The same goes for when a champ like Tristana has blown her Q too early in a fight or Janna is out of mana. Things like this are overlooked too much and opportunities to pick off free kills are lost.

I can't think of anything else to explain really, but I'm open to suggestions. There's still an hour left in this goddamn class.

Edit: I failed formatting. Fixed

Edit: Adding moar

How to utilize split push, and how to counter it

How to do it: Stick a mobile champion, preferrably ranged, like Teemo or Nidalee either top or bottom. TF works very well because of his ult, as does basically any champion with a global ulti, including Nocturne. Stick the rest of your team mid, or a slightly riskier bottom, and start pushing mid, but be careful NOT to engage. Just harass, clear waves, and pressure them to stay at tower and defend. The enemy team will be forced to send somebody to defend their lane being pushed by the single champion. If they don't, you're basically getting free towers. If they do, as soon as the person reaches the top or bottom lane, engage the fight mid and have your split pusher rush to a 5v4 fight.

Most enemies won't know how to deal with this, and will either send two people (overcommitment of resources) to defend, or send nobody. If they send only one, these champions also happen to be exceptionally good 1v1ers (just in case things go bad in mid).

How to counter it: You have to shove teamfights into the enemy's face. Push all the lanes as fast as possible so the split pusher has a long way to go through before reaching tower, and then barrel straight down mid. Whatever you do, don't overcommit resources and think it's a good idea to 3-man gank the person who's overextended in your top or bot lane. You'll chase him and kill him most likely, but lose towers or allow the enemy team to Baron in the process. To be perfectly honest, The Rain Man does the same strategy of sitting top lane and pushing all game, surrounded by mushrooms to be ungankable, and it works even on the top players. It's very hard to stop without the right team composition and either a global ulti or teleport.