League of Legends Strategy

Twisted Treeline vs. Summoners Rift

2011-05-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

Many players who try TT are surprised by the reversal of roles and tiers. A closer look reveals a much larger strategic environment than the small map appears to offer.

Twisted Treeline is a love it or hate it sort of map. Players who think they have Summoner's Rift down are lost in the TT metagame that is dominated by the same few champions.

Is this poor planning or a completely different gameplay style?

First of all, the following champions are used very often in TT:

Tryndamere
Mundo
Singed
Jax
Xin Zhao
Renekton
Jarvan IV
Vayne

The important thing to remember is that early game is very important in Twisted Treeline. Whether you go for a first blood gank or not, you cannot be a late-game carry in a match that lasts 20 minutes.

So why is Singed, a character well known for his late-game power, so popular? To find out, we have to examine his skillset a little closer.

1. His poison is extremely effective in the narrow lanes of TT. It also lets him control his lane very well, and with the compact nature of the map, losing a tower can be devastating.
2. In Twisted Treeline, slow is king. A small map with a winding jungle means characters with good escape mechanisms will escape. Slows, stuns and other hard CC is necessary to kill slippery targets. A powerful slow in the middle of the lane will mean it will be harder to get to the edge to Flash into the jungle.
3. Flinging an enemy is easier to pull off than in 5v5. Initiating a fight with Singed in SR requires much more prowess and timing than in TT. Two champions will have a hard time bursting down Singed before his teammates make short work of whoever he flung.
4. His ultimate makes him a well-rounded player.

Number four is very important, because the golden rule of TT is:

Be good at what your champion does, but be great at everything. You have a THREE man team which means you composition must be excellent. You have no room for Sona simply because you need a swiss army knife on your team.

Can you win with Sona? Yes. Would Taric be a better pick? Yes.

You need someone who can push, fight, tank and assassinate, AND have a good escape mechanism. Having a dedicated tank will work, don't get me wrong, but if your tank can't deal any damage then your teammates will have a harder time.

So what can you do?

First of all, Malphite is an amazing pick on TT. I play him often on TT, and would recommend him to anyone to try. Why?

1. Very tanky. He can tank for your team easily.
2. Excellent chaser, can steal movement speed.
3. Excels with armor, meaning you can counter 75% of TT games.
4. Combined with thornmail, he can shut down Tryndamere. This is a biggy because Trynd can fly through walls, clean up a squishy champ and leave before your team can react, especially on a small map. Malphite was made to shut down tanky, burst AD DPS which is the exact metagame of TT. He has an AOE move that cuts attack speed in half, that is buffed by Armor. Amazing champion on TT.
5. He can move through walls with his ultimate, push a lane, kill towers quickly and deals powerful damage with no AD items at all. Although you should be focused on protecting your teammates, he also poses a threat himself.

That is how you win in TT, that is the difference between SR and TT. You need hard counters to nearly everyone and you need to excel in small team fights. LeBlanc is another good choice, as is Xin Zhao (good tossup, tanky, can jump into fights, powerful 1v1 or in a team fight) and Jarvan (his standard is almost like a free flash through any walls).

Ezreal is a fickle choice. While he can be a powerful top lane and avoid death with his arcane shift, his contribution to the team is technically an 'anti-carry' and there are very few situations where he can take a ranged carry out in TT.

Vayne is a powerful choice because she has many stun situations, but Poppy is a weaker choice (not a bad one though!) because she cannot fulfill all the roles she needs to in early game fights.

Sion is another example of a powerful counterpick. He is AP, which forces the enemy into MR, can take a great amount of early-game damage due to his passive and has a powerful stun and shield. One stun takes out a third of the enemy team for a considerable length of time.

Zilean absolutely shines in 3v3 due to his ability to turn a fight into a 4v3 by giving someone another life, as well as harass well early-game with his bombs. Morde is also often used because of his ultimate, but these champions can be countered in obvious ways.

Mundo is often used because of the reason we all love Mundo, he can go where he pleases with his skillset. He can attack through walls, deal % magic damage, tank very well, stay in a lane forever, block CC, push towers, deal heavy early game damage...he is an excellent teammate.

What's the perfect team?

Here lies the beauty of TT, there is no perfect team. Whatever you select, due to the small team sizes, there is always a near-perfect counter. The champions that are oft-played are played because players don't know how to counter them. A Trynd will very rarely be used in competitive 3v3 because he can be shut down very easily.

The tiers are complete garbage when it comes to playing Twisted Treeline. It completely depends on your enemy and while competitive play will give you a powerful back-and-forth dynamic to counterpick your enemy, playing a Normal game of TT might leave you with a bitter feeling that you'll never counter your enemy completely. You might play Malphite and end up facing an AP heavy team, but you'll have to adapt. Adaptation and being a jack of all trades is paramount in Twisted Treeline because you can't lean on your teammates as you can in SR, can't falter because it will be instantly noticeable in a fight.

To me, at least, this is a much more fun gameplay style. Players who were turned off of TT by boring or hard games should take this advice and try again, keeping this different metagame in mind. Find two friends, create a strategic composition and try a Normal game, you'll see, it's like playing a whole different game.

Philosopher's Stone Craze

2011-05-27T11:15:00.000-07:00

Philosopher's Stones are becoming much more popular in play after the addition of the new Tenacity upgrade which provides 25 Tenacity and reasonable HP/MP regeneration.

I decided to take a closer look at the possible impact of this item, especially after Heart of Gold lost some of it's usefulness with the Armor component removed.

The question is: Is the philosopher's stone a useful item branch?

Arguing if the PS is useful is redundant, it's used by many people early game but is it worth the slot later on?

First, let's see how it's built:
435 gold for a Regrowth Pendant
180 gold for a Faerie Charm

This gives you 15HP/5s and 3MP/5s respectively.

The upgrade to Philosopher's Stone is 185 gold. For 185 gold and those two items, you get:
+7.5 HP/5s
+7 MP/5s
+5 Gold/10s

You are given a Meki Pendant, a Rejuvenation Bead and 5g/10s for 185 gold. It's an amazing deal, but now that you bought it early game, what can you do with it?

Well..

10 Minutes: You have gained 300 gold from your Philosopher's Stone. Your potential regeneration is 2700 HP and 1200 MP.

20 Minutes: You have gained 600 gold from your Philosopher's Stone. Your potential regeneration is 5400 HP and 2400 MP. Your PS has nearly paid for itself and selling it will set you back 200g.

30 Minutes: You have gained 900 gold from your Philosopher's Stone. Your potential regeneration is 8100 HP and 3600 MP. Your PS has now paid for itself and selling it will net you a 100g profit.

40 Minutes: You have gained 1200 gold from your Philosopher's Stone. Your potential regeneration is 10800 HP and 4800 MP. Your PS has now more than paid for itself and selling it will net you a 400g profit.

Those are big numbers from a 800g item, but is it worth hanging on to?

Consider an entire team with a Philosopher's Stone. Although it's not the smartest choice for every character (usually it's best to get it on tanks/support/anyone who shouldn't farm a lot and would benefit the most from the regen tenacity upgrade) you do get some shocking numbers.

In half an hour your team is 4500g ahead of the enemy team, has regenerated 40500 HP worth of lane staying power and has about 18000 MP worth of mana on the enemy team.

These are, of course, hard to quantify. You can't count all the times you're at full MP or HP and you aren't regenerating, but the gold keeps coming in.

What's the verdict?

The Philosopher's Stone is definitely worth the money and is one of the best early-game items. Hanging on to it up to and past 30 minutes is only recommended if you don't need the slot, and support characters should upgrade to the Tenacity item when the extra income is not needed, as they will benefit more from this after the laning phase. It's also a good item if you are being pushed to your tower or zoned and need to stay competitive gold-wise.

Philosopher's Stone
Pros:

Great lane survivability
Cheap
Pays for itself in time
Well-rounded item (suitable on most champions)

Cons:

Only two upgrade routes
Will most likely be sold after early-mid game (doesn't upgrade to late-game items)
To get the full effect you need it very early, buying it after 10 minutes means you need to hang onto it to 40 minutes to pay it off.
No benefit in team fights

Runes and a Discussion about HP runes

2011-05-16T14:27:00.000-07:00

Before you reach level 20, you should have saved up some IP for runes. How much?

The highest possible amount that a full page of runes can set you back is 28290 IP.
The lowest possible amount that a full page of runes can set you back is 7080 IP.

The difference in IP is staggering, but how about the difference in statistics?

Here are the most expensive runes:
('Red' = Mark, 'Blue' = Glyph, 'Yellow' = Seal)

Red:

Greater Mark of Fevor: +2.33% Critical Damage (x9 = +20.97% Critical Damage)
Greater Mark of Vitality: +0.54 HP/level (x9 = +4.86 HP at Level 1, +87.48 at Level 18)

Blue:

Greater Glyph of Acumen: +2.2 Energy (x9 = +19.8 Energy)
Greater Glyph of Vitality: +0.54 HP/level (x9 = +4.86 HP at Level 1, +87.48 HP at Level 18)
Greater Glyph of Focus: -0.65% Cooldowns (x9 = -5.85% cooldown time)
Greater Glyph of Furor: +0.56% Critical Damage (x9 = +5.04% Critical Damage)
Greater Glyph of Vigor: +0.27 HP Regen/5 sec (x9 = +2.43 HP Regen/5 sec)
Greater Glyph of Sapience: +0.161 Energy/level (x9 = +1.449 Energy at Level 1, +26.1 Energy at Level 18)

Yellow:

Greater Seal of Fortitude: +5.35 HP (x9 = +48.15 HP)
Greater Seal of Evasion: +0.75% Dodge (x9 = +6.75% Dodge)
Greater Seal of Lucidity: +0.064 Energy regen/5 sec per level (x9 = +0.576 Energy regen/5 sec at Level 1, +10.35 Energy regen/5 sec at Level 18)
Greater Seal of Meditation: +0.63 Energy regen/5 sec (x9 = +5.67 Energy regen/5 sec)
Greater Seal of Furor: +0.78% Critical Damage (x9 = +7.02% Critical Damage)
Greater Seal of Vigor: +0.43 HP regen/5 sec (x9 = +3.87 HP regen/5 sec)

Bolded entries are especially interesting. You can see with both Blue/Red Vitality runes, you get a bonus of 174.96 HP at Level 18, which is rather good. Combined with Flat HP Quintessences (+26 HP ea.), you get a final bonus of 252.96 HP at Level 18. (87.72 at Level 1).

Add in the Veteran's Scars defensive mastery (+48 HP if maxed, +12 per level), and you get

+300.96 HP at Level 18

+135.72 HP at Level 1

It's no coincidence that HP/level runes are among the most expensive. HP/Level runes are helpful for every single champion, but it's tanks that benefit from the extra beefiness at every level. Is Riot discouraging tanks from the metagame by putting a heavy pricetag on the runes?

Well, at Level 1 Anivia has 420 HP. Using VS and the above runes, she gets approx. 555 HP, 33% more HP, an entire third more health!

At Level 18, 300 HP is about a fifth of Soraka's HP, but only an eighth of Alistar's Base HP. So is this meant of be for casters instead of tanks?

We have to then take a look at the CDR runes, a very popular choice among many mages (despite a rather low reduction of 5.85%, IMO).

Assuming mages would choose CDR over HP, and magic penetration over HP, there's nothing left but HP Quints. Even the masteries for mages are usually Utility or Offensive.

So we're left with Support. It seems that Support characters, the ones that would benefit the most from this (such as Soraka) also have the most leeway with their runes (magic penetration isn't a must-have on most Support mages).

It could also be that Riot is trying to avoid beefy games. By making HP runes less appealing, early game fights with squishy characters are over much faster.

Evasion runes are often used on Jax, but with Ninja Tabi you have about 18% dodge chance on ANY character (granted it's usually melee DPS which take those boots). Add in masteries for a 20% dodge chance.

So evasion runes are also a great choice, and with SoTD being used very little in lower ELO games, it's an expensive but possibly good rune choice - if you want to take your chances.