The "What champion should I buy thread"

[sam86]

ITS A SPY!

Karthus/Olaf/Kata/Panth
Will get one of them, just dont know which one, you tell me

I'm against Katarina, most her dmg is depending on her ulti too much that against a good team she won't hold herself (or will depend too much on her team tank)
Olaf for jungling, Karthus for making them run to base everytime they drop lower than 50%, Panth no idea

[Nicolicious]

Lee Sin definatly, You have Nocturne already and Udyr, both are very very strong. With Lee Sin you'll pretty have a trio of the strongest junglers in the game with Lee Sin personally in my opinion being the strongest champion currently in the game. Having this trio makes you very unbannable and you will always have a strong jungler available during ranked games. Lee Sin is banned commonly becuase he is so strong, Nocturne sometimes and Udyr pretty much never. Having this trio makes sure you can always bring the pain.

Skarner like you said is surely underestimated in his ability to be tanky and bring decent utility and dps mid game but compared to Lee Sin, Lee Sin is much much stronger early game, mid game and late game than Skarner is. Skarners ganks are also sub par compared to Lee Sin because Skarner does not have a gap closer like Lee Sin. Udyr is also stronger than Skarner as whilst Udyr doesn't have gap closer alongside Skarner, Udyr has a chain stun, his Bear Stance is such a powerful cc with red buff, Skarner has nothing like this except his 100s+ CD ultimate.

Lee Sin can counter jungle and counter-counter jungle(lols) extremely well because his HP during the entire jungle phase is kept quite high due to his sustainability of his shield and how fast he is at taking down mobs with his passive, this makes him fast and safe at his own jungle aswell as counter jungling. I have no comment on how well Skarner counter jungles because I have never tried counter jungling with him, I do remember getting counter jungled by a Udyr however and I did not have the hp in order to stop him stealing my large golems when we met up.

I'm not trying to make Skarner sound terrible I mean there will be good Skarner players who can potentially dominate a Udyr or Lee Sin in terms of successful ganks but that entirely depends on your skill level, I'm trying to pinpoint they're strength and weakness in general at one skill level (hopefully you understand what the hell I mean here, I didn't word it well at all)

Another plus for Lee Sin is he can solotop extremely well, being one of the strongest he surely counters many of the other SoloTops such as; Lee Sin counters Nasus, Jarvan particulary well, Irelia and Akali along with some others. I have no comment on Skarners ability to SoloTop as I have never tried it but I haven't seen it too often meaning it could be not that strong. Udyr is also one of the strongest Solotop laners in the game due to his survivability, in escaping ganks and sustainability in turtle stance and burst damage with tiger stance.

Another Jungler(s) who I would recommend alongside Lee Sin is Amumu and Gangplank, if you have Nocturne, Amumu, Lee Sin and Gangplank you will dominate ranked games as a jungler as they're pretty much the toppest tier of SoloQ junglers but all 4 of them are never banned in one game. Amumu has a gap closer with bandage toss he also has decent dps and one of, if not the most powerful ultimates in the game so far, Gangplanks slow makes him an amazing ganker and whilst he doesn't exactly have a gap closer he does have a ranged slow since his parley will apply his passive slow and red buff, gangplank also has a decent ultimate which can help teamfights as well as his ganking and raise morale is a decent utility buff for the team and I forgot to mention his Remove Scurvy removes all cc effects on him making his ganks very very strong aswell as his survivability in teamfights.

I'll address Yi aswell: Jungling Yi at ranked games and higher tier of play (personally I was 1900 in S1) is seen as the only viable way of playing Yi since he is a melee and solotop Yi isn't really viable against the others unless you play AP because the likes of Irelia, Garen, Lee Sin will destroy solotop AD Yi. Yi is a strong jungler, he has a decent gap closer with Alpha Strike and red buff makes his ganks viable and his ultimate with red buff makes his ganks a lot easier. He can be counter jungled quite easily however by counter junglers in the early phases of 1-5, at 6 he can probably just run away however.

Theres my wall of text with heavy editing on some of the junglers.

TLDR: Learn to read informative posts.

Oh man, thanks for the wall of text. Good stuff in there and some really well made out points. I already bought Skarner before I saw this though. Damnit. Should have gone with Lee Sin. Might buy some extra RP just to get him now, haha. Thanks alot! Totally sold me on Lee Sin .

Edit: Played a game with Skarner (First). And well it was okay. Got 8/3/12 or something like that. He is really easy to farm/push lanes with and you can get away pretty fast with his W and just do some Q/E when you are getting chased to slow people down etc. I really like him, allthough he is still abit meh. His ulti should have a shorter cooldown to be honest. But I soloed a feeded trynda, so it wasnt so bad. Got him to do ulti and when he did I just ultied him and I came out with like 100hp. So it was close, but soloing a trynda at endgame is a nice job I think :P (had thornmail too though) ;p. I had Wriggles/Merc Treads/Trinity Force/Withs End/Thornmail and would have got an hextech and sold my wriggles but game ended. As last item I would have gone like Randuins/Aegis. Or one of those before going with Hextech but the game was pretty much GG so got some more damage instead.

Dont have all the Jungle Runes either for Skarner (Attack speed) so that is probably a game changer aswell. Only have Magic res/Armor jungle runes :/. But oh well. It will come with time and I can get more OP!

[Arterus]

I plan on playing solo top (not jungling) and have narrowed it down to Olaf or Udyr. This is not about viability, just how fun each one is to play.

I don't find Olaf very fun to play in a lane at all. If you're spamming his axe you will go oom very fast. And his axe happens to be his only form of harass. His sustain requires him to be in melee ranged or wasting mana on Q, either will push your lane farther up than you want it to be. He lacks a gap closer so expect to be kited hard, which really is not fun. But, he does have one of the strongest true damage nukes in the game which means that if you do happen to get close to someone you will ruin their day very fast.

Udyr can definitely be a fun solo top. He has strong sustain from his stances, so you're not going to get pushed out of lane as easily as you would Olaf. Udyr can also chase someone down and throw a stun on them, he is ridiculously fun to chase down squishies with. Udyr is also very weak against champions that can kite him effectively but he will probably give you a much more enjoyable experience.

[Rampant Rabbit]

I'm against Katarina, most her dmg is depending on her ulti too much that against a good team she won't hold herself (or will depend too much on her team tank)

And that's what the difference is between a good or bad Kata.

[Radaney]

Oh man, thanks for the wall of text. Good stuff in there and some really well made out points. I already bought Skarner before I saw this though. Damnit. Should have gone with Lee Sin. Might buy some extra RP just to get him now, haha. Thanks alot! Totally sold me on Lee Sin .

Edit: Played a game with Skarner (First). And well it was okay. Got 8/3/12 or something like that. He is really easy to farm/push lanes with and you can get away pretty fast with his W and just do some Q/E when you are getting chased to slow people down etc. I really like him, allthough he is still abit meh. His ulti should have a shorter cooldown to be honest. But I soloed a feeded trynda, so it wasnt so bad. Got him to do ulti and when he did I just ultied him and I came out with like 100hp. So it was close, but soloing a trynda at endgame is a nice job I think :P (had thornmail too though) ;p. I had Wriggles/Merc Treads/Trinity Force/Withs End/Thornmail and would have got an hextech and sold my wriggles but game ended. As last item I would have gone like Randuins/Aegis. Or one of those before going with Hextech but the game was pretty much GG so got some more damage instead.

Dont have all the Jungle Runes either for Skarner (Attack speed) so that is probably a game changer aswell. Only have Magic res/Armor jungle runes :/. But oh well. It will come with time and I can get more OP!

Yes, I think I made him sound really weak in my explanation which he definatly is not, he is a solid tanky dps and is heavily underestimated (even by me a little bit I think) Shouldn't sell your wriggles by the way as its worth keeping for the baron and dragon control which is important in the game. They are changing Skarners ultimate to make it seem more ULTIMAAATE in the future.

And that's what the difference is between a good or bad Kata.

And this, a good Kat waits for all the cc to be used before she jumps in but then again a decent player against Katarina saves cc for when Katarina jumps in.

[Deleted]

Lanelaf!!:

[sam86]

Tristanna "cc" for example is just push back, she can save it until Kata shows up, and mostly won't need it on anyone else
Katarina ulti is just suspected to any form of cc, including slow her to help other team mates run, she will end blowing it on 1 person and they can come kill her after she had to use her ulti

[Creatinebrah]

Looking to buy Swain or Kennen. Which one and why? =D

[Poppasan]

Looking to buy Swain or Kennen. Which one and why? =D

I would go with Kennen, he is just a superb harasser and his burst is unbeliveable in team fights. I don't recommend Swain just because he has pretty short range but he can wreck faces too with his ultimate.

[Creatinebrah]

I would go with Kennen, he is just a superb harasser and his burst is unbeliveable in team fights. I don't recommend Swain just because he has pretty short range but he can wreck faces too with his ultimate.

I was reading that Swain is more reliant on the blue buff than Kennen. I'm 1300ELO and my junglers rarely give me blue as ap carry. I'm assuming Swain would suffer more from a lack of blue (regardless of his passive)?

Also, I'm reading a guide on solomid for Kennen and it says take the energy regen for yellow? How crucial is this?

[Deleted]

So... I'd like to get a good AP carry (And by AP carry, I mean a mage with a ranged autoattack ideally. no Katarina.). The only mage I own is Orianna, which is pretty awesome, but I would like to make my selection of mages just a bit wider. I have tried out Annie and Xerath when they were free, and liked the playstyle of both. I particularly like when there is a combo mechanic in the spells, like Xerath has with Mage Chains -> Arcanopulse or Annie with her passive. I guess I am most interested in Anivia and Brand, but also Xerath. Lux is pretty cool too, I love heroes with multiple skillshots (and ironically I can't stand Ezrael).

If anyone could tell me how he feels about Anivia and Brand, I'd be glad.

[sam86]

Brand is great, he is real danger to any team fight and his ulti if timed right make most enemy heroes run, he is also great farmer and can easily push mid - the only lane that you can push "safely" without that worry from jungler as long flash is off cd, currently one of top tier mages
Anivia I'm not that fan of her, due to her q has slow movement making it easy to avoid, you use your ulti on slow to amplify your E, she is mostly best at farming waves of creeps any time, her wall is saver most of times, but her slow q make me like Brand more
Can I suggest Veigar, while he isn't either of 2, his E is a skillshot (weird one), he is one of best gankers in game, he can remove someone from an attack incredibly fast, and his E+W combo take massive health, also if you farm him, late game he is just insane and his R alone can remove enemy AP (or Q+R), however Veigar has the worst survive I've seen, my best record with veigar one time I made enemy team Karthus sell all his items and buy 6x lvl1 shoes because I was just ulti him and run

[Deleted]

So... I'd like to get a good AP carry (And by AP carry, I mean a mage with a ranged autoattack ideally. no Katarina.). The only mage I own is Orianna, which is pretty awesome, but I would like to make my selection of mages just a bit wider. I have tried out Annie and Xerath when they were free, and liked the playstyle of both. I particularly like when there is a combo mechanic in the spells, like Xerath has with Mage Chains -> Arcanopulse or Annie with her passive. I guess I am most interested in Anivia and Brand, but also Xerath. Lux is pretty cool too, I love heroes with multiple skillshots (and ironically I can't stand Ezrael).

If anyone could tell me how he feels about Anivia and Brand, I'd be glad.

Anivia takes more practice, and is more of a "High risk, high reward champion" due to her completely terrible pre 6 sustain and damage. Learning how and when to wall as Anivia is crucial, and fucking it up will most likely result in tears for you and your team. However, a good Anivia to play against is a real terror.

Brand is more safe, due to his range in the lane, and can passively farm very easily. He has a lot of burst, and relatively short cooldowns. What makes or breaks Brand is how many bounces you get on your ulti, and how many of these bounces actually hit the enemy champions.

[Deleted]

So... I'd like to get a good AP carry (And by AP carry, I mean a mage with a ranged autoattack ideally. no Katarina.). The only mage I own is Orianna, which is pretty awesome, but I would like to make my selection of mages just a bit wider. I have tried out Annie and Xerath when they were free, and liked the playstyle of both. I particularly like when there is a combo mechanic in the spells, like Xerath has with Mage Chains -> Arcanopulse or Annie with her passive. I guess I am most interested in Anivia and Brand, but also Xerath. Lux is pretty cool too, I love heroes with multiple skillshots (and ironically I can't stand Ezrael).

If anyone could tell me how he feels about Anivia and Brand, I'd be glad.

I love playing Anivia, she was the first champion who really got me into the game. The basics of playing Anivia is to hit with your Q or R to chill the enemy then hit them with an E (targeted) for massive burst.

At level six, and often even prior to that, she's got complete lane dominance. Just soar in, drop R and get a quick E in to rip the enemy of like 40% of their health. Repeat and do the same but also follow up with a Q, W or offensive summoner's spell for an easy kill.

She's got very long range on her auto attack. It's a long wind up to fire it, but it reaches really far. I often sucessfully harass enough to force them to health pot once or twice in order to survive spell combo at level 2.

Her egg makes her extremely durable, I can't count the number of times when I've overextended to pick up a kill only to get chased by 1 or 2 enemy champions. I burst one of them down, then get egged, they fail to destroy the egg and I get up, drop R, Q and an E for another kill then blink into the jungle and escape. It often works similarly in teamfights where you're often pinned down first, but the enemy team can't afford to hit your egg so you rebirth and get to use at least another spell combo. Similarly, getting egged while in tower range often means the enemy cannot kill you.

The most satisfying moments, however, are when teamfights break out and you make brilliant initiates with your W, separating one or two enemy champions from the rest of the team, giving your team not only positioning advantage but also often force the enemy team to waste their blinks. If the fight occurs in the jungle you can often trap them with W and push sick AoE damage with R and a Q stun.

You can always feel safe with the AoE stun from your Q and the LoS you gain from W. It's possible to shout half a jungle at once with a max rank W, it's almost like a CV on 20-ish sec CD.

Do keep in mind, however, that she's more a burst champion than a carry. You go in, do your combo, go back to a safer range as autoattacking often isn't worth the risks, wait for your R and Q to come back a few seconds later then go back in and repeat.

I cannot confirm this, but I think her E bursts from any chill, like Ashes arrow or Nunus ulti/snowballs, making her a great matchup with either of those champions.

[Deleted]

Ha, from what you say, both of them sound pretty awesome. I especially like this part:

I cannot confirm this, but I think her E bursts from any chill, like Ashes arrow or Nunus ulti/snowballs, making her a great matchup with either of those champions.

because synergy between champions is a pretty cool thing.

I think I will get Brand first for RP, and Anivia as soon as I get enough IP. I saw her wall used in vids in a lot of various and interesting ways. I think it will not be much of a step up from Orianna's ball mechanics, which are also fairly complicated (and which, I believe, I have learned on a reasonably good level).

As for Veigar, he has an awesome skillset and stuff, buuuuut I am also into champion aesthetics a bit, and I just hate how Veigar looks. :-/ And his voice acting makes me wanna punch things...

[Deleted]

Lanelaf!!:

Omg trololo funny

[Jaja]

I'm think of buying Pantheon or Olaf not sure which. Atm I'm playing the game just over a week, my champion of choice atm is Xin Zhao, easy to play and good burst. I am looking for a champion a little more difficult to master but with alot more survivability. I'm not tied down to Pantheon or Olaf feel free to suggest others.

[Deleted]

I'm think of buying Pantheon or Olaf not sure which. Atm I'm playing the game just over a week, my champion of choice atm is Xin Zhao, easy to play and good burst. I am looking for a champion a little more difficult to master but with alot more survivability. I'm not tied down to Pantheon or Olaf feel free to suggest others.

Riven, great mobility, good survive ability, good damage. All in all a damn good champ if you ask me (I don't play her myself though).

[Deleted]

Random information: Riven has awesome synergy with Maokai's passive. Her triple-slash counts as three spellcasts. A Riven that spams her combo frequently makes Maokai immortal in early laning, and Maokai's root ability is pretty good for assisting Riven with kills.

[Sumatran]

Scion - atmongers or pure AD? Just getting into this champ, trying to break away from twitch a bit.