The "What champion should I buy thread"

[NotValidAnymore]

Any recommendations for FUN viable champions with a high skillcap? i enjoy learning to play those that are a bit harder to learn and master, since it's more of a challenge then, and you feel good when you do good :P (aka no silly garen, yi, trynd etc)

role doesn't matter btw, can be jungler, top ad/ap, tank, support etc.

Lee Sin for jungling
Orianna for AP mid
Kog'maw for AD carry
Nautilus/Leona for tank
Janna for support
Jarvan IV/Renekton/Yorick for solo top

Those are just some suggestions, though.

[Duilliath]

No offense, but what exactly is hard to learn about Yorick? Get abilities, spam them. That's basically 90% of his gameplay.

I'd say someone like Kennen is far more intricate with having to watch his Marks, his Energy and being able to utilise his Ulti for the maximum amount of stuns.

[Avrantia]

So I'm completely new to LoL, been only playing a few games on and off but I'd like to try to learn the game better. In order to do that I would like to buy 1 champion (once I have enough points) and really learn that one champion well - skills, itemization, strengths, weaknesses, gameplay etc. However, I think there are so many different champions, categories etc that it's hard to get an idea of which champion to pick.

Now I don't understand all the different terms (carry, jungling, support etc. - sorry but I'm not at that stage of my research at this point) but what I'm essentially looking for is a relatively easy champion without a too steep learning curve. I would prefer a ranged, physical damage champion. From my browsing it seems like Tristana fits those criteria, but is it the case? Would you recommend some other champion to be a good way of learning the game better?

[Deleted]

I think Tristana's really quite hard to play well, but she is free at least if you like Riot on Facebook. Strong early game, weakish mid when her burst falls off, incredibly strong late game. Has a built in escape with Rocket Jump, which is also part of her burst combo, so you need to know when to be aggressive and when to save it to escape. Her ult can also stop you from getting kills if used wrong.

Ashe is probably the easiest mechanically, but she lacks escapes and so you need better awareness/positioning. She's the 'go-to' AD carry for newer players imo, but her scouting/ult do require some finesse. Also only 450 IP. If you're looking at expensive picks, Graves has great damage throughout, a dash to gain/close distance and some nice AoE/utility. Can really dominate his lane. Caitlyn has the longest range of all the AD carries, a jump-back flash thingy to gain some distance and can harass reasonably well. Her ult is also really good for securing kills.

I'd personally say either Ashe or Graves. Both are top picks at the moment, Graves having the more complete kit and better laning phase, while Ashe will teach you a lot about map awareness and positioning.

[Duilliath]

I'd advise Tristana or Sivir.

Tristana is free, can play aggressive early on and her E makes last hitting a bit easier until you are better at it. She has a free escape and a free knock back, which help her stay alive.

Sivir is cheap (as cheap as Ashe), but her Q (boomerang blade) will help you prepare for characters with similar behaviour such as Ahri and her W (ricochet) will let you get used to resetting your auto attack with an ability once you get the hang of it. Her spell shield functions somewhat similar to that of Nocturne and will teach you fast reactions to enemy abilities which can tie in with characters like Fizz or Vladimir who can dodge enemy spells.

[Toxigen]

Any recommendations for FUN viable champions with a high skillcap? i enjoy learning to play those that are a bit harder to learn and master, since it's more of a challenge then, and you feel good when you do good :P (aka no silly garen, yi, trynd etc)

role doesn't matter btw, can be jungler, top ad/ap, tank, support etc.

Support: Janna, Lulu, Sona (I still LOVE her), Alistar

AD Carry: Vayne, Kog

Mid: LeBlanc, Gragas, Kennen, Ahri

Jungle: Lee Sin, Udyr, Maokai

Top: Rumble, Teemo, Irelia

[NotValidAnymore]

No offense, but what exactly is hard to learn about Yorick? Get abilities, spam them. That's basically 90% of his gameplay.

Sorry, I haven't tried him much. My bad.

Though Rumble is a great suggestion. He's midly tough, but really rewarding to play.

[Deleted]

Support: Janna, Lulu, Sona (I still LOVE her), Alistar

AD Carry: Vayne, Kog

Mid: LeBlanc, Gragas, Kennen, Ahri

Jungle: Lee Sin, Udyr, Maokai

Top: Rumble, Teemo, Irelia

Lee Sin for jungling
Orianna for AP mid
Kog'maw for AD carry
Nautilus/Leona for tank
Janna for support
Jarvan IV/Renekton/Yorick for solo top

Those are just some suggestions, though.

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll try lee sin out, and rumble first. What are your thoughts on akali? I've come up against some really good players with her, and she's really been dominating those games. Tho, she feels more of a "dash in, kill, gtfo" champion cause of her seemingly squishyness. Thoughts? She seems intresting. Looks like juking might be really fun with her stealth zone.

[Toxigen]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll try lee sin out, and rumble first. What are your thoughts on akali? I've come up against some really good players with her, and she's really been dominating those games. Tho, she feels more of a "dash in, kill, gtfo" champion cause of her seemingly squishyness. Thoughts? She seems intresting. Looks like juking might be really fun with her stealth zone.

Akali is a strange one. I really haven't played much of her...have watched a RL buddy of mine dominate top and mid when she first came out.

I think the biggest problem is at higher level play they're just going to have a pink ward ready for when you use the shroud/invis skill...either that or they'll be smart enough to use any generic AoE damage abilities and will still be able to hit you.

She is a "dash in, burst, gtfo" type champion like you said. Try to find a popular guide on solomid for her. Sorry I can't be of much help.

[Kurdiern]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll try lee sin out, and rumble first. What are your thoughts on akali? I've come up against some really good players with her, and she's really been dominating those games. Tho, she feels more of a "dash in, kill, gtfo" champion cause of her seemingly squishyness. Thoughts? She seems intresting. Looks like juking might be really fun with her stealth zone.

Akali main here, been playing her since level 20, have a couple hundred games with her. She's a VERY specific champion. She's mobile and does a LOT of damage. She is, however, easily countered by bulkyness and stealth detection. She's a last pick champion for sure, she's too easily countered to be anything but a 4th or 5th pick. If you want to play her you need a specific runepage. While she may seem easy, I personally consider her one of the more difficult champions to play. There are just so many small tricks and things to know when playing her.

[Toxigen]

Akali main here, been playing her since level 20, have a couple hundred games with her. She's a VERY specific champion. She's mobile and does a LOT of damage. She is, however, easily countered by bulkyness and stealth detection. She's a last pick champion for sure, she's too easily countered to be anything but a 4th or 5th pick. If you want to play her you need a specific runepage. While she may seem easy, I personally consider her one of the more difficult champions to play. There are just so many small tricks and things to know when playing her.

Indeed, what Kurd said about being counter-picked is very important. There are a lot of champions out there that will decimate you, use caution.

[Deleted]

Pro and Cons of Vayne and Ahri? I'd like to buy Ahri (first) then Vayne, let's see pros and cons!

[Duilliath]

Vayne:
+ Insane late game. One of the real hypercarries. Fairly mobile. Tank shredder, anything shredder.
- Prime target. Shit early game compared to most other ADs. Low range compared to other ADs

Ahri:
+ High mobility, true damage, nice damage all round, charm
- High mobility is on cooldown and tied to your ulti. True damage and Charm are skill shots. While she has nice damage, she has lower burst than a number of other APs and is more poke oriented.

[Deleted]

Akali main here, been playing her since level 20, have a couple hundred games with her. She's a VERY specific champion. She's mobile and does a LOT of damage. She is, however, easily countered by bulkyness and stealth detection. She's a last pick champion for sure, she's too easily countered to be anything but a 4th or 5th pick. If you want to play her you need a specific runepage. While she may seem easy, I personally consider her one of the more difficult champions to play. There are just so many small tricks and things to know when playing her.

Couldn't agree more. When you first start the game, Akali seem's very overpowered, but once you learn how she works she is quite easy to be counter picked. As a Leona player, I usually have Oracles come late game. If Akali comes near the team fight she is stun locked down, while my AD carry kills her in 2 hits. She has her moments, but you need to be very careful about picking her.

[mrpoker]

Vayne:
+ Insane late game. One of the real hypercarries. Fairly mobile. Tank shredder, anything shredder.
- Prime target. Shit early game compared to most other ADs. Low range compared to other ADs

Ahri:
+ High mobility, true damage, nice damage all round, charm
- High mobility is on cooldown and tied to your ulti. True damage and Charm are skill shots. While she has nice damage, she has lower burst than a number of other APs and is more poke oriented.

But one thing bout Ahri is that her skillshots are AOE, so while she might lack of some heavy burst, she does offer more in a teamfight.

As for Vayne, is there any reason why you want her over kogmaw or graves?

---------- Post added 2012-05-12 at 07:34 AM ----------

Couldn't agree more. When you first start the game, Akali seem's very overpowered, but once you learn how she works she is quite easy to be counter picked. As a Leona player, I usually have Oracles come late game. If Akali comes near the team fight she is stun locked down, while my AD carry kills her in 2 hits. She has her moments, but you need to be very careful about picking her.

As someone who plays WK often, i like to do my Ulti in Akali's circle where she thinks she's safe. It covers almost every inch of it.

[Duilliath]

Vayne: More mobility and safety than Kog'maw. More late game damage and tank shredding than Graves due to true damage.

Kog'maw has more range and higher DPS output late game. Graves has an easier laning phase and far more brutal burst early game.

[mrpoker]

Vayne: More mobility and safety than Kog'maw. More late game damage and tank shredding than Graves due to true damage.

Kog'maw has more range and higher DPS output late game. Graves has an easier laning phase and far more brutal burst early game.

So Vayne is sort of like the in between eh. But Vayne early game is quite bad too imo. Maybe just after Kogmaw as bad early game.

---------- Post added 2012-05-12 at 07:48 AM ----------

Maokai Charred skin is on sale on my server (SEA), do you guys think its a nice skin compared to the Totemic one? Actually my favourite is the festive christmas tree maokai, but i have resigned myself to never getting it seeing as how those seasonal skins rarely comes back on.

[Deleted]

So Vayne is sort of like the in between eh. But Vayne early game is quite bad too imo. Maybe just after Kogmaw as bad early game.

---------- Post added 2012-05-12 at 07:48 AM ----------

Maokai Charred skin is on sale on my server (SEA), do you guys think its a nice skin compared to the Totemic one? Actually my favourite is the festive christmas tree maokai, but i have resigned myself to never getting it seeing as how those seasonal skins rarely comes back on.

Vayne is a funny champ. Her early game is quite poor, but she doesn't need many items to do well late game. However a fed Vayne is just unbelievably strong and will shred pretty much any champ in under 3 seconds.

Also Totemic Maokai is one of the best skins in game!

[Thallidomaniac]

So what's Karma's actual fit as a champion? So far, all I've been hearing is that going 0 CS support like Soraka/Janna/Sona etc. isn't using her full potential, as well as jokes about Karma who? and Karma being the Evelynn of supports.

[Duilliath]

She supports melee better than ranged, that's part of her problem. She needs some gold income to do well is the other part.

Overall, she's an interesting champ and apparently a decent pick in Dominion because it solves part of her problems.

I'm still in favour of trying out something like a Fiora / Karma team at the bottom, I think it should dominate most of the ranged ad / passive support lanes.

She is getting a rework, but knowing Riot that might just take another two years...

---------- Post added 2012-05-12 at 01:25 PM ----------

So... rather than coming here asking what Champion I should buy, I'm looking for a solid reason to *not* buy a specific champ.

Naturally, I'm talking about Urgot. () He seems to dominate most of the popular choices in the bottom, he's not that expensive and now that he has his battlemech skin one might even bare looking at him for an extended period of time.

I have a number of ADs already and sort of feel I'm reasonably well stocked in that area. Tristana (my fave), Sivir, Vayne and Varus should do fine. (Well, and Twitch, but let's forget about that.)

So, do you think he'll be needed to shut down lanes completely?

//edit: I suppose I should add that it looks like I'll mostly be playing the AD role in our team.