The Silencekeeper

K/D/A indexes and KDA ratio

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 14:59:00 +0000

When talking about how good or bad we did play in a certain game, we often refer to K/D/A indexes and KDA ratio as one way of judgement. Why are these indexes and what do they actually mean?

1. K/D/A indexes v.s. KDA ratio

First off, for clarity, we have four different indexes of discussion: K, D, A, and KDA. The KDA index or KDA ratio is calculated by:

KDA = (K + A)/D

These indexes convey different meanings which are not simply "the numbers of kills, deaths, assists, and the ratio". Especially when being combined into the index of KDA ratio, they really have insightful meanings, which are very important for us, since they may serve as one of the ways to judge how bad or good we are on playing League from different perspectives.

The first thing we can easily notice is that, if we make no death (mathematically, D = 0) this index of KDA ratio will be infinite. Which meanings does this case convey? Since we cannot eliminate the case, would the KDA ratio and all the indexes convey completely wrong senses?

2. The meanings: single points on a process

The K index (kill) is counted for the only player who did the killing blow of last-hitting.

The A index (assist) is counted for the player(s) who did like any amount of damage on the slain opponent within a pretty short duration right before the skill.

The D index (death) is counted after a player gets slain, of course.

Note that, this choice of counting is of Riot Games' decision, it still has paradoxes[2] like I have just said. For example, the players who dealt the largest amount of damage on all the opponents may not be those who get the most kills, while the players who dealt the least damage on all the opponents may have highest KDA ratio like supporters for example.

Relatively, we will be considered to be a better player with more kills and assists and less deaths (greater K and A indexes with a smaller D index).

+) For just a single game, these three indexes of K and D and A may be enough to judge how good or bad a player did on the particular game. In this case of a single game, we may not need any additional index for more complicated.

+) The complexity is when we consider how good or bad we are on a set of a very large number of games, like hundreds or thousands of games with the same scales for the indexes of K and D and A. How can we say how good or bad a player is from like hundreds or thousands of games, with hundreds or thousands of K and D and A? One of the best ways, which Riot Games did choose, is to consider how effective the player do in one life; this is where the index of KDA ratio enters the League.

KDA ratio represents how effective a player plays one single life (in the meaning of before a single death). With one single life (or before each of his own death), how many times the player participates in taking down an opponent. On this perspective, the K and A indexes (kills and assists) should be treated as the same, since as said before: the work of taking down an opponent should be considered to be the achieve of all the players participating in the fight.

If your KDA ratio is 3:1, for example, that means for one single life (before a single death) you can make three times of participating in taking down an opponent.

Single points on a process: Basically, we can consider all the games we have played as a process of playing League, and each single game as a point on the process (which together consists of the process as a whole). When we say "how good or bad we are on playing League" (or some other games as well), we often make the reference to the process rather than a certain single match of the game.

The KDA ratio can be described as the characteristic of a process, while the K/D/A indexes should be described as the characteristics of a certain single match. These two kinds of indexes (KDA ratio and K/D/A indexes) are in fact very different in nature, due to the reason.

3. Some important conclusions

In case of a single game, the three indexes of K/D/A are enough to judge how good or bad we did play the game. To mention KDA ratio of a single game is not always a good idea, since this index may be very different for different games, and may get the infinite value in case a player makes no death (which is difficult and unnecessary to explain).

On the other hand, in case of a process (a set of hundreds or thousands of games), we must use KDA ratio to judge how good or bad we were in the process (at playing the set of games). To mention the separate indexes of K/D/A in this case is not a good idea, since it should makes nonsense to compare the sets of three numbers of hundreds or thousands of different players, as well as to talk about the meanings they convey in comparison.

Also for that reason, the number of deaths would never be zero for a set of hundreds or thousands of games. Or more strictly, we can say that the KDA ratio should only apply to the case of many games, many enough for the D index to get a non-zero value.

Different roles may have pretty different K and A indexes (the same for the D index). Support and assassin for example: support role would spend more time on warding and observing map, so may less participate in fighting relatively in comparison with AD assassin (whose main duty is to find a victim to take down).

Although players always favor few specific roles and always play very many games as their favorite roles, KDA ratio still serves as the relative indication of a player's skill level. This is especially true when it is used to compare those players favoring the same roles, and play the same numbers of games on their favorite roles.

Because the difficulty increases for higher Divisions and Tiers, KDA ratios of a player would be different and decrease for higher Divisions and Tiers. It would be hard to say which value of KDA ratio would be considered to be excellent, so the scale below is just for reference:

KDA = 3:1 is fair

KDA = 4:1 is good

KDA = 5:1 is excellent

Finally, due to the differences between the champions, the KDA ratios of a player would be different on different champions as well. A player may be excellent on playing Lux, meanwhile may be very bad on playing Jax, for example.

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post

Last update: March 10, 2016

The Silencekeeper

References

[1] Note that, this discussion may have a gap in comparison with what Riot Games really do and did choose to do. Like they may choose whether or not an assist is counted for those players who didn't deal any damage on the slain opponent, but did help protect the one who made the killing blow. The nature of the issues doesn't change, nonetheless.
[2] Also note that, paradoxes are not always bad, and not always wrong

The newsletter

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 13:40:00 +0000

This post, as the newsletter, provides an overview of all the contents discussed on this site. The content on this post will automatically get updated soon each time a new post is published, since it is transformed directly from the feed of this site: The Silencekeeper's newsletter.
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The Silencekeeper

Initial Elo and ‘fresh account’, provisional matches and ‘soft reset’

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 05 Feb 2016 15:34:00 +0000

DISCLAIMER: Due to the hidden policy of Riot Games on these issues (MMR related issues[1]), it is impossible for a third party to claim any fact regarding the issues. This post, on the same spirit, is not to claim: “this is what Riot has been doing or used to do”. The purpose of this post is to provide a probe on how the system works, by providing the strict reasoning – which in my opinion is the optimizational method for the system to work properly.

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In the post regarding the issues of MMR/ Elo and LP, we discussed the principle of the methods used to rate League players (to establish the table of standings). To understand the principles is one problem, to interpret the table of standings obtained is an other problem. The later (how to interpret the table of standings) provides very important interests of us, the summoners, like:

+) The initial Elo and fresh account (who never play a certain queue, ranked queue for example): How is this initial value assigned?

+) Soft reset: How is Elo reset for a new season?

+) Provisional matches, and the like.

As the final record of players' skill levels on playing League (all players as a whole community), the table of standings would provide us critical insights of ourselves in relation to other players as a whole, if we can interpret it the right way. This work (interpreting the table of standings), however, may invoke many complicated concepts, and in this post I will try to provide some view on these issues – in the clearest and easiest way as I can do, and use fewest statistical concepts possible.

These concepts (soft reset, provisional matches, fresh account, initial Elo,...), on one hand, are the "League concepts"; on the other hand, they are also the concepts of statistics; on yet an other hand[2], they also are the concepts of daily life (how to rate people on their work of doing something). In other words, there are three different angles of view to look at these concepts; each way of view gives us different information about the issues. To be able to look at the concepts from the different points of view would give us a complete and full understanding of them.

1. Elo spectrum (the distribution of Elo indexes): the bell curve

First off and very importantly: the Elo spectrum has the bell shape.

In a perfect case, the bell curve describes a distribution in which almost of the values (like 70%) are somewhat at the center of the bell: the average value or the median value (M). The remaining portion (like 25%) distributes equally on the both sides, decreases when the tails advance towards the vanishing point(s) of zero. This kind of distributions plays a vital role in the natural as well as social world, including Elo spectrum of League players.

This claim can be seen as the origin of all my discussion on this post, and can be seen as the origin of all the issues relating to the concepts of initial Elo, fresh account, provisional matches,...

To claim this is easy, to prove it is very difficult (without using complicated concepts of statistics, which is unnecessary for us, the summoners). So, I will illustrate this via two exemplary models which have the same nature with the Elo spectrum; it would be easy to accept that due to the similarity of these models, the Elo spectrum must fall into the same category of distributions: the bell curve.

The acceptance of the truth is very important. However, no one can accept what is so-called the truth if it is not proved strictly without even one single flaw. So at the end of this section, I will provide some reasoning which can be used to prove it, for people who want to go until the final limits of the truth. All of these, although is necessary for people to accept the truth, is not necessary for us (the summoners); so if you don't want to check the reasoning, simply accept it and ignore the spoiler part and go to the next sections.

Exemplary model 1: distribution of grades of students

This is one kind of distributions which falls into the category of bell curve. More exact the teaching and training as well as the rating processes are, more bell-like curve will be obtained for the spectrum of grades when the number of students increases. This proven theory is used very popularly, in education and pedagogy for rating learners for example.

In the ideal scene, if the grades are rated on the 5 scales (A, B, C, D, and E) for example, a large number of students would fall into the range from D to B, while a very small groups would get A and E.

Exemplary model 2: distribution of IQ indexes (Intelligent Quotient[2])

Although many people may argue or doubt or disagree with many aspects of this index for rating intelligence, almost agree that the spectrum of IQ distribution must have the bell curve shape to exactly describe the phenomenon.

In many standardized IQ tests, the average value or median value (M) is normalized to be 100 IQ.

Elo spectrum of League players

Reasonably, we don't have to say much more to see the Elo index, just like the two examples of grades and IQ, must fall into this category of distributions: if it exactly describes the phenomenon and really reflects the skill levels of players on playing League.

Some bell curve distributions. (1) When we organize the values into smaller ranges, the curve will be come the bars, like in the two upper images. (2) Many distributions, due to different reasons, don't have the exact shape of a bell, but somewhat similar, like the two bottom images.

Both of these cases (regarding the bar-style organization and the ugly bell shapes) may be applied for League: Divisions and Tiers may be organized into the bars, and the bell shape may be changed accordingly, when the bars are changed by changing some parameters in the algorithms for example.

The scientific theory

Scientifically, we can use theories of probability and statistics to prove the truth: Elo index obeys the distribution of bell curve. I will point out the major characteristics of the Elo index which will scientifically prove the fact. To do that, we will consider the Elo values of League players as discrete random variables, and the set of all the players' Elo(s) as the set of discrete random variables.

+) These variables are independent. Although each game consists of ten different players, each player must in fact determine the result themself, especially when the number of games they play is large enough. For more clarity, after hundreds or thousands games, for example, a player's skill level is what defines the player's Elo, independent from all the other players they played with in the games. Elo value represents a player's skill level; consequentially, it is independent as well.

+) Each of the value of the variables is in fact a sum (or average) of the independent variables. Since the Elo of a player is obtained through many games, it is subtracted and added many times to have the final value. The final Elo of a player, so, is in fact a sum of many Elo values.

+) The variables are identically distributed, since they have the same probability distribution (or the same probability mass function): their values are always found within the range from the minimum Elo to the maximum Elo with the same corresponding probability for every Elo within the range.

+) The variance is finite: the average value of the squared deviations of the Elo values and the arithmetic mean of the Elo values. All of these numbers can be calculated, so the final value or the variance is able to calculate: it is finite.

These four characteristics, according to the central limit theorem[3], ensure that the distribution approaches the normal distribution when the number of variables grows, or the Elo spectrum has the bell shape when the number of players is large enough (the number of few thousands would be considered to be "large enough" in this case, let alone the number of millions).

2. Initial Elo and fresh account, provisional matches

Initial Elo

No matter which methods and algorithms are used to calculate the Elo indexes, the calculations must have a number to begin: we cannot begin from nowhere. When we start playing a certain queue (ranked queue for example), we must be assigned an initial Elo number. How is this initial Elo assigned?

One of the best initial values is the median value or the average value obtained from the bell curve of the Elo spectrum[4]. Why? Since this is the average Elo of all players, it would be fair for all players to have the same value as the initial one for the process of being rated.

However, since this initial Elo is the same for every player to begin; on one hand it would be fair; on the other hand it may least exactly reflect players' skill differences: different players must have different skill levels, more or less. Those whose real skill levels are higher than the median will gradually climb towards the top, while those whose real skill is lower will finally drop down.

The initial Elo, consequentially, is not the most suitable value for every player to begin: it doesn't reflect the differences in skill levels of different players, as well as the direction a player would go for the coming games.

Provisional matches

One of the best ways to have a more exact Elo value for each player is to adjust the initial Elo via a certain set of "initial games"; the number of these initial games must be enough to see more information about the player: the difference in skill level in comparison with the initial Elo and other players, the trend the player would go for the coming games: advance or fall down. These games are called "provisional matches" in League and include ten games in total.

Initial Elo value and provisional matches together will provide the beginning Elo of a player to be rated in playing League. This "beginning Elo" is the adjusted value of the initial Elo by the ten provisional matches: it is different for different players, so more exact reflects the differences in skill levels of different players, and somewhat reflects the trend each player will go for the coming games: up to the top or downwards.

For the best of the purpose (to see the most difference possible of each player's skill level as well as the trend for the coming games), each provisional match should weight much more than a regular match. In the meaning that a winning or losing game should give a huge amount of Elo exchanged (added to or subtracted from the player's Elo). No one but Riot Games knows how much weight these provisional games are, but it must be like five times greater than a regular game (and the ten provisional games might be equivalent to like fifty regular games, for example).

Fresh accounts and soft reset

The players who (or more exactly, the accounts which) have never played a certain queue (ranked queue for example) are called "fresh accounts". The process of assigning the initial Elo and obtain the beginning Elo is applied for all fresh accounts who have just started to play a certain queue (ranked queue for example).

For the accounts which are played many games (more than the ten provisional games), obviously, their Elo much more exactly reflects their skill levels. So, it should be best to use their Elo of the previous season (instead of the initial Elo as fresh accounts) to obtain their beginning Elo for the upcoming season.

The process of obtaining the beginning Elo for the upcoming season based on the Elo of the previous season are called "soft-reset" in League. If the process uses the initial Elo of fresh accounts for all players (including players who did play many games in the previous season), the process is called "hard-reset" in League: in hard-reset, all players' initial Elo will be reset to be equal and to be that of fresh accounts.

Just like all other competitive games (tennis, football, etc.), League's Elo indexes and table of standings must be reset for a new season. This process (soft reset) is to compress the Elo spectrum towards the center point of the spectrum (the average value or the median value of the bell curve). So that all the players will start the new season in a reasonable basis.

3. Some special conclusions

The average Elo value or the median Elo value may change slightly for different seasons, and the trend of changing would be increasing since all the players may get better over time. This means, if the median Elo for the first season is 1200 (for example, which may be equivalent to silver V of the first season), the median Elo for the sixth season may increase to 1300 (silver IV of the sixth season, for example).

The soft reset should more exactly reflect players' skill levels in comparison with hard reset, since it is based on the Elo the players got the whole previous season. The hard reset, which puts all players at the same initial Elo, would bring topmost players into the games with lowest players; this is obviously not a good idea. That should be why Riot Games always prefers a soft reset for a new season.

Due to the compressing nature of the process, basically after the soft reset, very low-rated players at the bottom of the spectrum would receive a higher Elo, while very high-rated players at the top of the table of standings would receive a lower Elo (in comparison with their Elo of the previous season). And the players somewhat at the center of the spectrum would see least or even no change in their positions.

Finally, by changing parameters of MMR rating algorithms, Riot Games can vastly change the shape of the curve of the distribution. No matter how enthusiastically and curiously people want to know about the true shape, they have their own reasons for the hidden policy:

+) If the shape (of the computational MMR values) is really the bell curve (as that of the theoretical Elo indexes), that means their methods and especially their MMR system's theories and algorithms are very exact in scientific meanings.

+) If the shape is not like the bell curve, that means their methods and theories and algorithms have critical flaws.

In both ends, on business perspective, they are definitely right to hide the MMR index: no matter whether it is to hide their business secrets and achievements or their flaws. They design the system, so they possess the rights on how to use the system.

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post
Last update: February 08, 2016

The Silencekeeper

References

[1] For the purpose of this post, the term "Elo" will be used in almost of the discussion (instead of the term "MMR"), in the meaning that it is the theoretical value of Elo: which, in theory, truly represents players' skill levels. MatchMaking Rating system is designed to be expected to be able to calculate this theoretical Elo, and "MMR" is the computational value the system actually obtains.
[2] Of course, we only have two hands, ikr! xD

[3] For more details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient (section Current Tests)
[4] For more details:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_limit_theorem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_and_identically_distributed_random_variables

[5] This value is estimated to be around 1200 in League (which is equivalent to the Divisions of Silver V or IV or III); however, this cannot be verified due to the publisher's policy.

Issues of MMR/ Elo and LP (League Point)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 30 Jan 2016 08:28:00 +0000

You love League! No doubt.

That is why you have decided immediately to read this post once your eyes catch the title: a kind of the most fundamental, basic, exciting, secret, ambiguous, and... complicated – but also a kind of by far the most familiar, regular, boring, popular, unclear, and... simplest issues on playing League. On one hand, we have to deal with them every day of playing League; on the other hand, we almost have no certain understanding of them: nothing about them is ever published or confirmed by the Publisher – Riot Game(s)[1].

How should we deal with the paradoxes? How can we know what we want to know, master what we want to master, improve what we want to improve,... if we have no certain understanding of them? Anyways, “every problem always has more than one solution”[2], at least in my opinion. And in this post, I want to try to cast some light on these issues – my way, my own solution. So, let's start our journey!

Introduction

Like other competitive games (chess, tennis, basketball,...), one of the most important interest for us is to have an exact table of standings, to be able to see how good or bad we – or other players or teams we love or “hate” – are in comparison with others. While the problem of establishing such standings for single competitor versus single competitor (two-player) games (like chess) is not so easy to do (and the situation for establishing such standings for teams in team games is somewhat similar to that of two-player games, when we consider a team just as a single player of the game), the problem of establishing such standings for individuals of team games like basketball and football would be by far the most complicated issue of the field.

For the nature of the issue, say, you can kinda easily agree that at a certain time, Roger Federer or Novak Djokovic is the number one in tennis, and quite the same for Barcelona or Manchester United in football; however, to say "Messi or Ronaldo is the number one in football" is a completely different issue. Unfortunately, the situation is applied for us (the summoners): we can say a certain team is the number one in a certain region at a certain period of time, but to say "some body is the number one (in a certain region at a certain period of time)" is a different problem.

So, the question is how we are rated on playing League? How we gain and lose LP (League Point) and how we are put in Divisions and Tiers? How the standings for individual summoners can be established? Prior to the second season, League of Legends used an Elo system for rating players[3], and we will start with the famous rating system: Elo rating system, to answer the questions.

1. Elo rating system

Elo is a rating system named after the author Arpad Elo[4], a chess master and a Hungarian-born American professor of physics. Elo was originally created for rating chess players, but then gradually adopted to use for many games. The term “Elo” is now very popular in many games to indicate the rating of players in comparison. The most fundamental principles of Elo rating system are[5]:

(1) Each player who is rated is represented by a number (the Elo); the Elo number then will change based on the outcomes of games with other rated players.

(2) For each game, the winner takes points from the loser.

(3) The difference between the ratings of the two players determines how many points will be exchanged:

+) For a particular game, the higher-rated player is expected to win. So, if the higher-rated player does win, he only takes less points from the lower-rated player. If the lower-rated player makes an upset win, however, the player takes many points from the higher-rated player – much more than those he would be taken by the higher-rated player if he lost.

+) Particular in chess, the lower-rated player also takes few points from the higher-rated player for a draw (a tie).

At this point, I think those are enough for us to have an idea of what is a rating system and what is the Elo rating system in particular. More details and deeper analyses on this matter may be not necessary and may have to invoke much more complicated issues which may be uncertain for me myself.

2. MMR (MatchMaking rating system)

Obviously, using an Elo rating system designed for two-player games like chess for a team game like League of Legends is not that much effective, for many reasons (which we may discuss at an other time). That would be why Riot Games must design their own rating system for League of Legends, and the rating system is named “Matchmaking rating” system (MMR).

So, first of all, MMR stands for MatchMaking System – the rating system Riot designs and use for League. Consequently, in League we must use the term MMR for more exactly, but due to the popularity of the term “Elo”, the two words are always used in the same meaning in League: to talk about the particular numbers representing the skill levels of players in playing League, measured by the MMR system.

Now, we should probe the main characteristics of this MMR system for our main purpose: to have an idea of how our skill on playing League is measured. According to Riot Games[6]:

+) The goal of the MMR system is to create games which is as fair as possible, so that the chance of winning for the both teams would be equal (50%).

+) The process is described in three steps: (1) determine strength of players, (2) determine eligible opponents, and finally (3) build a match. With adjustments for whether the players are solo or pre-made and some protection for new players.

+) Players have a separate MMR for each queue, developing independently from each other.

+) Initially, the system only matches players of similar MMR. The MMR difference then will be slowly increased to some degree.

3. League Point (LP), Division, and Tier: the table of standings

With all the basic knowledge of the rating systems, it now should be easy for us to have a clear idea on the issues we interest most: Division and Tier, LP.

+) Based on MMR, a player will gain or lose a certain amount of points for a winning or losing game; these points are called League Points (LP). When a player reaches a little bit more than 100 LP, they will reach the higher level and their LP will be reset. These levels which are equivalent to a little bit more than 100 LP are called Divisions.

+) When a player overcomes the fifth division, they will be put in the next higher stage (and their division and LP will be reset). These stages which are equivalent to 5 divisions (about 500 LP) are called Tiers. There are 7 Tiers at the moment: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platium, Diamon, Master, and Challenger.

We can say that, Riot Games uses these concepts (LP and Division and Tier) to organize the table of standings of League players rated by the MMR system. This is “the table of standings” of League players on the bottom line.

Some important conclusions

The Elo, or more exactly, MMR index of League players (which is rated by the MMR system) is hidden by Riot's policy; until now, it is not officially publicized. Consequentially, all other sources which provide what is so-called Elo or MMR of League players are not official, and definitely cannot use the rating system Riot Games designs – the MatchMaking Rating system (MMR system) due to copyright issues. They can, however, use an other and somewhat similar to the MMR system developed outside of Riot Games. In other words, the "Elo" index other sources provide cannot be called "MMR".

+) The MMR for each queue develops independently, but this doesn't mean that the initial MMR for each queue is treated in the same way, especially for fresh accounts which have never played a certain queue yet. This is unclear.

+) Gradually, the MMR difference would be increased; this means more many games we play, more different players we may meet: may be very higher-skill players as well as very lower-skill players in comparison with ourselves.

The LP gained and lost should be calculated in somewhat the same way with Elo and MMR. This would be the reason why we may gain or lose very different amount of LP for different games. In addition, if we win many consecutive games, the system should match us with very higher skill players; consequentially, the LP gained for each winning game would be very large, while the LP lost for each losing game would be very small: since the opponents are supposed to be rated much higher than us, on the Elo perspective. The opposite dimension would be, in case we lose many consecutive games.

+) It would be a big problem for smurf accounts: it should be very hard to determine a new account is a smurf or not on the internet world of anonymity. The same issue if very high skill players play accounts of low skill players for certain purposes.

Finally, although LP and Divisions and Tiers reflect the standings of us on playing League, the most fundamental index – which would exactly describe how good or bad we are on playing League – is not LP or Division or Tier. That is MMR index, which is hidden by Riot Games' policy. Consequentially, it should be best for us to deal with the MMR index rather than focus on LP or Divisions or Tiers: on the perspective of rating systems, these concepts (LP and Division and Tier) don't convey any meaning. But this is a different problem, I guess!

This post was completed

There would be just minor adjustments if any on this post

The Silencekeeper

References

[1] “Riot Games” (plural form) but they have published only one game so far, right?! xD
[2] For more morals from League: Morals from League
[3][5] According to wikipedia.org: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elo_rating_system
[4] For more details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arpad_Elo
[6] From the official guide at: https://support.riotgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/201752954

Issues of AR/ MR reduction/ penetration

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 24 Jan 2016 15:24:00 +0000

DISCLAIMER: due to the ambiguous nature of the issues which have never been officially confirmed by the publisher – Riot Games, all the references herein are just to back the reasoning and assumption, they can not be considered to be unquestionable proofs to trust. Furthermore, also due to the ambiguity, the degree of certainty of the discussion should be judged by the readers themselves.

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When we play defensive-leaning champions like tanks, one of the most important issues for us to consider is AR and MR: how we should build and how much AR and MR we should have for the best effectiveness. Meanwhile when we play very offensive champions like ADC, mid mage, assassin,... we may have to concern how to most effectively damage the opponents, especially the tanks with very high indexes of AR and/or MR.

Very interestingly and in fact, these issues are very closely related, and together very close to health point (HP). Basically, the defensive players want to increase the indexes of their own champions to lose lowest HP possible, while offensive players want to ignore the indexes of the opponents to take highest HP possible in fighting.

At this point, the concepts converge on the central issue: how the defensive indexes of AR and MR reinforce or diminish the index of health point (HP). Understanding this will help us improve the playing of both kinds of defensive- and offensive-leaning champions. Due to the equivalence between the couple of armor and physical damage with the couple of magic resistance and magic damage, we will only mention the former (the later of magic resistance and magic damage will be considered completely the same).

There are two types of index to increase physical damage: armor penetration and armor reduction; for each type, there are two different forms: flat and percent. Finally, all we have are four forms: flat AR reduction, percent AR reduction, flat AR penetration, and percent AR penetration. The sources for these forms include: champions' abilities, items, runes, and masteries; example:

+) Flat AR reduction: Rammus' E-PuncturingTaunt reduces the target's AR by 10/ 15/ 20/ 25/ 30 for 1.25/ 1.5/ 1.75/ 2/ 2.25 seconds
+) Percent AR reduction: The Black Cleaver reduces targets' AR up to 30% for 6 seconds

+) Flat AR penetration: Youmuu's Ghoshblade gives +20 AR penetration
+) Percent AR penetration: Last Whisper gives +30% bonus AR penetration

1. Issues with questionable degree of certainty[1]

+) The order in which the forms are applied in case the attackers have more than one form is[2]

(1) Flat AR reduction

(2) Percentage AR reduction

(3) Flat AR penetration

(4) Percentage AR penetration

+) Example: one tank with 200 AR taken damage from an ADC with 10 AR reduction, 30% AR reduction, 20 AR penetration, and 45% AR penetration (according to the rule):

(1) Firstly, 200 AR will be reduced to 190 AR, by 10 AR reduction

(2) Next, 190 AR will be reduced to 133 AR, by 30% AR reduction

This value of 133 AR will become the AR index of the target as shown on the table of stats instead of the original of 200 AR (always in a short duration of a few seconds). Consequentially, the damage from other team mates on the tank will be treated with the new value of 133 AR instead of 200 AR (within the duration).

(3) Then, 133 AR will be considered as 113 AR for the damage from the ADC, by 20 AR penetration

(4) Finally, 113 AR will be considered as 62.15 AR for the damage from the ADC, by 45% AR penetration

For the particular ADC, the damage dealt on the particular tank will treat with the final value of 62.15 AR, not 133 AR as damage from other team mates nor 200 AR as original.

+) The damage dealt in fighting by attackers always differs from the damage taken by the targets (always gets reduced by defensive indexes of the targets). One of the relations for the damage reduction by AR index is supposed to be:[3]

For the example above, the damage the tank takes from the (damage dealt by the) ADC, according to the relation, is:

This taken damage will be directly subtracted from the total health (HP) of the tank until the tank gets slain. In this case, we can say: "the AR index makes the tank take only 62% damage from the ADC" or "the AR index helps the tank ignore 38% damage from the ADC".

2. Issues with high degree of certainty

No matter how exact the equations are, we can still get something good from the nature of the relations: more AR we have, the HP will be harder to lose; in other words: the AR increases the effectiveness of the HP.

In the example above, if a certain AR index makes the tank reduce 50% the damage from the ADC (we don't need it to be exactly 200 or so for the uncertainty of the equation), this means the ADC will need double damage to take away the same HP from the tank. In other words, the AR index doubles the HP of the tank in fighting against the particular ADC. Here, we have just come to two important conclusions:

(1) AR-HP equivalence: AR and HP are just two equivalent forms of the same index and can be transformed into each other by using some mathematical relations.

(2) Relativity nature: the effectiveness of a certain AR index is different for different attackers due to the different AR reduction and AR penetration indexes the attackers possess. In other words, we are talking about the relativity of AR index in different reference to different attackers.

It's so funny but true to consider these properties just like (1) a kind of the famous relation of mass-energy equivalence and (2) a kind of the relativity concepts by Albert Einstein:

+) For the nature of armor penetration: physical damage simply ignores the armor on effect, while the armor index of the target is not reduced in reality and still remains as original (as shown on the table of stats). Damage from other team mates will NOT benefit from the armor penetration indexes.

+) Armor reduction, on the contrary, reduces the armor index of the target in reality (as shown on the table of stats, and always in a short duration of a few seconds); damage from other team mates will also benefit from the reduction (increase, within the duration).

In other words: armor reduction on affected targets is applied for damage from all sources (including damage from other team mates), but is limited in time by a short duration: the armor indexes of the affected targets will return as originals off the limited duration; while armor penetration of a champion is perpetual, but is limited to apply only for the damage from the holder champion.

+) In case the target's armor has been ignored to zero already, flat armor reduction is an exception among the four forms: it can reduce the target's armor further below zero to deal more damage. The three remaining forms (flat and percent armor penetration as well as percent armor reduction) CANNOT ignore target's armor further below the value of zero.

Pragmatically, these characteristics are reasonable: any percentage of zero is zero, so percent penetration and reduction cannot ignore target's armor further below zero; for flat armor penetration, you need something to "penetrate", so nothing to penetrate if the armor gets zero already. In the same way, "penetration" should be considered as "personal characteristics of the attackers", so it should not reduce the armor index of the targets in reality, and damage from other team mates should not benefit from it; while "reduction" should be made to be "general power of the attackers", so it should reduce the armor of the targets in reality and increase damage from other team mates on the affected targets as well.

Conclusion

Due to the equivalent nature of AR and HP, for defensive champions (tanky), we have at least two-plus-one ways to increase the defense capability: increase AR or increase HP, or increase both at the same time. Which and how to increase for the best should depend on the particular games, players, champions, items and plans, etc. For example, Nautilus benefits much more from HP[4] in comparison with AR, so we should build HP-focus for the best of playing Nautilus; Rammus, on the other hand, benefits much more from AR[5] in comparison with HP, and we should build AR-focus for the best of playing Rammus.

In the same way, for offensive champions (ADC, mage, assassin,...), we also have at least two-plus-one ways to increase the damage capability: increase AD index or increase AR reduction and AR penetration, or increase both at the same time (we can also increase critical damage, critical chance, and AS as well of course). Which and how to increase for the most effectiveness, just like the defensive indexes, should depend on the particular games, players, champions, items and plans, etc.

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post
Last update: January 26, 2016

The Silencekeeper

References
----------------------------------------------------------------
First off, I would remind the DISCLAIMER again: due to the ambiguous nature of the issues which have never been officially confirmed by the publisher – Riot Games, all the references herein are just to back the reasoning and assumption, they can not be considered to be unquestionable proofs to trust.
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[1] [2] [3] According to leagueoflegends.wikia.com, reddit.com, forums.na.leagueoflegends.com:

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Armor
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Armor_penetration
http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=2538500&page=3
http://forums.na.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=2929417&page=4#post32707861
https://www.reddit.com/r/summonerschool/comments/424rio/how_do_black_cleaver_and_the_new_last_whisper/
https://www.reddit.com/r/summonerschool/comments/424rio/how_do_black_cleaver_and_the_new_last_whisper/cz7m8oo

http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_resistance
http://leagueoflegends.wikia.com/wiki/Magic_penetration

[4] For more details, look at the following post: Nautling: how to Nautilus? Be the Titan of the Dephs!
[5] For more details, look at the following post: P3 The 'null phase' of a game: bans and picks. How? (Section 3. Some typical examples of my own favorite counter-picks, subsection Strategic counter-picks)

Foreword: leagueology – let's do the math!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 24 Jan 2016 15:23:00 +0000

This post is the foreword for the topic "Sciences behind League". In this topic, I want to cast some light on the ambiguous concepts, which have never been officially published or confirmed by Riot Games, like

+) Armor and magic penetration/ reduction

+) MMR (Match Making Rating) in relation to Elo rating system.

+) Provisional matches on the assumption of a relation with Gaussian distribution. "Fresh accounts".
+) etc.

Those concepts have never been clarified and we can just simply guess, estimate, probe,... However, no matter which particular methods have been used, they must be based on logic reasoning and scientific foundation, and must be obtained using basic knowledge of mathematics and statistics and the like. That is where we can begin our exploration.

For clarity, I will repeat the DISCLAIMER below at the beginning of every post the disclaimer is applied:

----------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------

For the math, in my view, no matter how exact or wrong or beautiful or ugly it is, the math is simply the math: it would be nothing than annoying numbers and miscellaneous signs if it cannot help us better at the matter we interest – playing League in this case. For me on playing League, math is just one way to digitalize thoughts and feelings through digits and signs; one of other ways I have been using, for example, is language (through words and phrases and idioms and the like).

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post

Last update: January 26, 2016

The Silencekeeper

Morgana: the fallen angel

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 20 Jan 2016 09:21:00 +0000

DISCLAIMER: this post contains content which is joking-for-fun but in... sensitive, shocking, doubtful, and even completely wrong ways. The target audience is supposed to be the summoners on the Rift, who are full of heroism, confidence, and powerful spirit of fighting on the Field(s) of Justice. So, innocents and the people with heart diseases and/or mental illness should be careful and better to prepare themselves before reading and/or trying to understand what this content really conveys.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Morgana is an AP champion, and with more than two CCs, Morgana is a CC-holder as well (the duration of her CCs is quite long, and the ult can be seen as a more-than-one CC ability). While she is often played as a support, Morgana is also a very good mid mage.

Core items

In my view, Zhonya's Hourglass and Liandry's Torment are the two key items for Morgana. As a defensive item against AD champions (including ADCs) with the armor index, an offensive item with the AP index, as well as a utility item with the active-Stasis, Zhonya's Hourglass is very important for Morgana especially when it is used in harmony with her ult for better survivability. For Liandry's Torment, the bonus damage scales with CC duration (double), along with the offensive indexes of AP and magic penetration, this item is very effective for Morgana; this item also provides a significant amount of health for better defense.

These two items provide both powerful offensive and defensive capabilities, as well as important utility for Morgana; and should be built no matter which role she is played as: support or mid, mage or even tanky.

For Morgana support, after the core support items (Nomad's Medallion and Sightstone), it should be best for us to save gold for Zhonya rush before completing the final support item (Eye of the Oasis).

For Morgana mid: in case the opponent is an AD champion, we should rush Zhonya as the first item in lane phase for the best[1]; in case the opponent is an AP champion, we should build Liandry's Torment as the first item in lane phase and Zhonya as the second one later. Remember that the armor index of Zhonya cannot reduce magic damage.

Sometimes, especially when she is played as support, we can also build tanky Morgana, although this is not recommended, obviously. Spirit Visage would be one of the key tanky items since it improves Morgana's Spell Vamp of the passive-SoulSiphon. Zhonya and Liandry's Torment are still very powerful items in this build.

How to Morgana?

Obviously, there are two key factors to succeed in playing Morgana: (1) how to successfully land Q-DarkBinding and (2) how to effectively deploy R-SoulShackles. While landing Q-DarkBinding needs very much of prediction and precision on the movement of the opponents, and kinda like landing Lux' LightBinding[2]; the usage of R-SoulShackles is much more complicated, especially in team fight. At the most effective usage, Morgana may damage and slow and bind all the five opponents in a quite long period.

How to effectively use the R-SoulShackles in team fight should be the most important key to succeed on playing Morgana, especially at support. This is also one of the main reasons why Zhonya's Hourglass is so critical and so powerful for the fallen angel: it provides an important short period of stasis for Morgana to (control the opponents while still) survive team fight.

+) In supporting, Morgana uses Q-DarkBinding (and R-SouldShackles from leve 6) to bind and slow the opponents, E-BlackShield to protect team mates from enemies' CCs. For more damage and better sustainability from the passive-SoulSiphon, we can max W-TormentedSoil before maxing E-BlackShield.

+) For mid laner, due to the natural benefit from Zhonya and Liandry's Torment (especially the harmony of her ult with Zhonya active-Stasis), Morgana is very powerful to counter-play AD assassins (Zed, Yasuo,..) at mid.

Morgana W-TormentedSoil is a very powerful ability in clearing minions, so it should be maxed first.

+) At mid lane, duo to her passive-SoulSiphon, the minion-clearing power of W-TormentedSoil also improves Morgana sustainability very much. Consequentially, it should be hard for the opponent to put pressure on Morgana by pushing minion waves – hard for them to roam and gank other lanes. In other words, Morgana is also an excellent mid laner to counter-play other champions of strong minion-clearing power like Malzahar and/or of strong sustainability like Ahri.

+) Sometimes, team may need Morgana to be just a CC-holder, and not to put a strong focus on damage, in this case, we can build tanky Morgana with Zhonya and Liandry's Torment as the two offensive-leaning items. Remember that Spirit Visage is better than Banshee's Veil for Morgana since it improves the Spell Vamp of her passive-SoulSiphon, let alone the CDR.

The rune and mastery pages are not so different from those of a standard support[3] and mid mage[4]:

Suggested rune pages for Morgana support (top) and mid (bottom) are the two left images; with the runes for Morgna mid, if the opponent is an excellent AP opponent and we need some MR, Spirit Visage is a good idea for Morgana rather than Athene's Unholy Grail since the fallen angel may not need so much mana. The right image is suggested mastery page for Morgana sup: the remaining 12 points can be taken for Ferocity's entries for more damage or Resolve's ones for more utility and sustainability; in the mastery page for Morgana mid, the entries in the green circles and Ferocity should be picked for the best.

Morgana is not an angel, that is a fallen angel or an... archangel: how can an angel understand what the evils think if she doesn't stand on their side some ways?! How she can still be an angel if she ever stands on the evils' side?! To be an angel of the highest rank – an archangel – is to be able to control the pivot while still maintaining the favor of righteousness. Just like no matter how enthusiastically sir Winston S. Churchill did favor:

“Mr. President, with the greatest respect, I would prefer the American eagle's neck to be on a swivel, so that it could face the olive branches or the arrows as the occasion might demand”[5],

the big bird still looks at the olive branches (full of doubt with a big question mark in the bald head(s), maybe).

--- I would remind the DISCLAIMER at the beginning, again ---

This post was completed
There would be just minor adjustments if any on this post

The Silencekeeper

References

[1] [2] [4] Look at the following post for more discussion on playing AP mage mid against an AD-assassin: Luxing: how to Lux? Be the lady of Luminosity! (section Core item, For laning against AD champions and The pros and corns, solutions and key factors)
[3] Look at the post dedicated support for more details: P4 Support: master of the river
[5] Accroding to Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_of_the_President_of_the_United_States
For more morals from League, check the following post: Morals from League

Jarvan IV – the Exemplar of Demacia, Prince Jarvan Lightshield the Fourth

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 14:31:00 +0000

The lance of Demacia/ Demacian standard

Jarvan IV is an AD-heavy tank/ fighter champion (his magic damage is insignificant, mostly from E-DemacianStandard), an exemplar of this kind of champions in my view. Jarvan is often played as a jungler, but in my view, he is also excellent and typical to be played at top. With three CCs, Jarvan IV can be seen as a CC-holder champion: W-GoldenAegis, the combo E/Q (DemacianStandard/ DragonStrike), R-Cataclysm.

The combo E/Q can also be used as an escaping ability, while the E-DemacianStandard can use to get temporary vision from distance.

Due to the CCs, Javan IV is a very strong jungler and very effective in ganking: he can use the W-GoldenAegis to slow the opponents (and protect himself at the same time), the combo E/Q and R-Cataclysm to catch them (and damage them as well). In combination with the team mates, it's really difficult for the opponents to escape from Jarvan IV's ganks. On the other hand, when being played as top laner, these CCs can also serve as escaping abilities: he can trap the opponents by R-Cataclysm then get out by the combo E/Q and slow them and shield himself by W-GoldenAegis.

For trading damage, the passive-MartialCadence bonus damage is very important, especially when it is used in combination with the armor reduction of Q-DragonStrike for more damage and W-GoldenAegis for less health lost.

Core items for Javan IV jungle and top

The clearing minion capability of Jarvan IV is kinda limited: the damage from E-DemacianStandard is kinda minor, while Q-DragonStrike is not a heavy AoE spell. Consequently, Jarvan IV may need much more AoE damage from items, most typically Sunfire Cape and Titanic/ Ravenous Hydra.

Sunfire Cape (or Cinderhulk) along with Titanic/ Ravenous Hydra will vastly improve Jarvan's clearing minion waves ability and AoE damage. The remaining items should depend on particular players, playstyles, opponents, and particular games – typically: Banshee's Veil, Thornmail, Dead Man's Plate, and Guardian Angel. Sometimes we can also build Jarvan IV as a true fighter with Trinity Force, Infinity Edge, and Last Whisper (Lord Dominik's Regards or Mortal Reminder).

Sunfine Cape is a very powerful item, not just for Javan IV in my view: it provides important amount of defensive component specifically against AD opponents, as well as a significant amount of AoE and DPS magic damage. There are two points we must notice in buiding this item for Jarvan IV:

+) When we play Jarvan IV jungle with Cinderhulk, this will replace Sunfire Cape.

+) When we play top against a heavy AP opponent, the first defensive component must provide MR, so if we still want Sunfire Cape, we must build it in later phases (not in lane phase for the best).

Check my YouTube channel for more videos

Decoding my playstyle on Jarvan IV

For simplicity and safety to play top, we often take flat rune pages. Here I want to discuss one other favorite, complicated, different, and kinda risky playstyle of mine – specialized for different kinds of the opponent champion: scaling playstyle[1] – which is, in compensation, able to invoke the greatest power possible later game. The rune and mastery pages are shown below.

Quite similar to the case of Nautilus top[2], this particular playstyle on Jarvan IV top laner must adopt some solutions to fix the weaknesses. Basically, this puts critical impact on the very early game, including: the type of the opponent champions, the very first items (potions, Cloth Armor, Null-Magic Mantle,...), the use of Teleport for the first time at around level 3 or 4, etc.

Weaknesses: low indexes at low levels, especially in comparison with the flat counterparts (9 armor, 12 MR, and 15AD). We must get level 6th for the armor index and level 8th for the MR and AD indexes to be equal to those of the flat ones. Consequently, all the capabilities of defense and trading damage and last-hitting/ farming would be disadvantageous in comparison with the opponent.

Solutions: to fix the weaknesses, I always start games with a defensive item (Cloth Armor for AD opponents or Null-Magic Mantle for AP opponents) to reduce the gap in defensive capability. This, however, may reduce the farming and last-hitting effectiveness since I cannot get the Doran's Blade while the AD index is not really high. To fix this, (1) I'm very careful in last-hit at the early levels of 1 - 3, and very critically, (2) as soon as I get enough gold (often approximate 500, at about late level 3 to early level 4) I recall for the next item and use Teleport to come back quickly. At this moment, I actually get some advantages already:

+) I did get enough defensive capability and AD index, not so less than that of the opponent. I would also have some health potions as well.
+) My Teleport got used for the most effective, while would probably be available when I get level 6 and ready for a bot gank that time.
+) The scaling indexes will continue increase by leveling up toward the highest possible at level 18.

Warding and ganking impact: one of the most important factors to succeed in playing League in general and in playing top in particular, in my view, is warding and ganking (how to ward to avoid enemy ganks, as well as to cooperate with team mates' ganks (often jungler and mid) to take down the opponent). In a fair case, to be taken down is very disadvantageous; for this particular playstyle and build, being taken down is even more critical, since with this playstyle I suppose to be the underdog and always at risk at early levels. Consequently, I put a very strong impact on warding and ganking (avoid enemies's ganks and especially, exploit team mates' ganks).

Just like the case of playing support, there are two main paths and two places the opponent jungler and mid laner must go through when they gank top, corresponding to the two different sides of the map. For each side of the map, one of these places are least visited by the opponents, in my view, and so I always have a pink ward there (the eye icons inside white circles).

As shown on the images, the pink ward, along with an other green ward (white circles) would be able to detect the enemies' ganks right from beginning. Note that these positions are different for the different sides of the map. For more details about the similar warding patterns at bot, look at the discussion dedicated the support role: Support: master of the river (section "My own playstyle").

(1) In case of laning against heavy AD opponent, I may start with a Cloth Armor toreduce the defensive gap before level 6 and always recall when I get about 500 gold to buy then use Teleport to come back quickly. The rune page with 27 scaling armor is also my favorite rune page for jungle. (2) In case of laning against heavy AP opponent, I would like to take scaling health instead of scaling armor for better defense, as shown in the green circle. (3) In case the opponent's magic and physical damage is quite balance (like Jax, Hecarim,...), we must choose the appropriate indexes, depending on the oppnents, the champions, etc.

This is my favorite mastery page for Jarvan IV. Very interestingly, I find that all the defensive entries are helpful for Jarvan IV in different ways; for better sustainability in lane phase as a top laner at the very early game with a flat rune page, for example, all the entries in the green circles may be taken.

Finally, one of the most important factors to success in playing Jarvan IV, of course, is how to deeply master the lance and the standard of Demacia: to use the combo E/Q as the CC, as well as the escaping ability, and as one of the main sources of damage to damage and take down the opponents, to get some vision or AS, etc. The damage of the lance is very enormous, and I often see people seem to underestimate it: that is not good for them, definitely!

“ There is only one truth, and you will find it at the point of my lance.”

– The ''last words'' of Jarvan IV at his failed execution[3] –

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post
Last update: February 25, 2016

The Silencekeeper

References

[1] [2] For more discussion of my playstyles on playing top and playing Nautilus top, look at the following post: Nautling: how to Nautilus? Be the Titan of the Depths (section "Play styles")

[3] The lore of Jarvan IV, League of Legends © Riot Games Inc.

http://gameinfo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/game-info/champions/jarvaniv/
For moral of League, check the following post: Morals from League

Luxing: how to Lux? Be the Lady of Luminosity!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 09:12:00 +0000

In my views, Lux is one of standard mages in League. The typical characteristics of her abilities (most noticeable is long-range casting of the abilities) result in the typical playstyles, Luxing, somewhat similar to those of ADCs: positioning and safety to be able to deal damage in a steady rate, focusing on full damage and effectiveness of damage dealt to be able to take down the opponents in a very short moment (within a single combo).

In my view, she is a true mage, a true APC, the exemplar of this role and champion type in a "standard meta"[1]. Typically, Lux' damage is not to deal in a continuous and consecutive way like that of ADCs via basic attacks, but in a jerky way via spells cast, so that the average damage on a fair period of time would be equal to that of a true ADC.

Check my YouTube channel for more videos

The bends of a lady

+) Two CC abilities: Q-LightBinding and E-LucentSingularity (when it has not detonated)

+) 4 damaging abilities, including the passive-Illumination

+) One multiple-target shielding ability

In lane phase, Lux can use all the 4 damaging abilities to farm: E-LucentSingularity as the main ability of farming, basic attacks in combination with the passive-Illumination for last-hitting, and Q-LightBinding if necessary. The passive-Illumination vastly improves Lux' last-hit power since Lux' basic attacks will active it on affected targets, dealing significant bonus damage. The ult R-FinalSpark can also be used to clear minion waves sometimes.

In team fights, Lux often uses the combo of Q/E/R as the main way to take down and get kills, and the shields as the main way to protect team mates to help team get advantage. The ult R-FinalSpark can also be used as a sniping ability, a kind of crowd control (CC, to prevent opponents from escaping)[2]. Remember that R-FinalSpark will active the passive-Illumination on affected targets then add a new passive-Illumination right after damaging the targets.

The pros and cons, solutions and key factors

The most noticeable advantage of Lux is long range casting abilities, very long, so that she can stand from fairly long distance to damage and take down opponents. In compensation, Lux' disadvantage is the weakness of escape and defense capability.

While Lux has no escape ability, the bind and slow from Q-LightBinding and E-LucentSingularity are very good to prevent enemy champions from catching Lux. The shield(s) W-PrismaticBarrier also provides an important source of sustainability. When these abilities are used in the right way, they can fix Lux' weaknesses on escape ability and sustainability.

The shield(s) of W-PrismaticBarrier is kinda special in comparison with other shielding abilities: it moves back and forth and shields all the allies it catches, up to twice shields per champion per cast. This may be one of the most distinctive beauties of the Lady of Luminosity, and how to use it may play a critical role on Luxing, especially in team fight: how to have your team shielded as much as possible. In the most effective use, you can shield all the five champions (including yourself) twice per cast, which would be able to cancel two AoE ults like those of Amumu and Miss Fortune combined. Three key factors to succeed on playing Lux, in my view, are:

(1) Success in landing Q-LightBinding
(2) Effectiveness in shielding W-PrismaticBarrier
(3) Usage of Q-LightBinding and the slow of E-LucentSingularity as escaping abilities

While effectiveness in shielding W-PrismaticBarrier would need very much of precision and prediction on the movement of team mates, landing Q-LightBinding would need very much of precision and prediction on the movement of the opponents, and this would ensure the success of the combo Q/E/R since the binding would give the affected opponent(s) no chance to dodge.

Core items: AP-mage and AD-assassin opponents

While heavy AP items like Rabadon'sDeathcap, VoidStaff, Zhonya'sHourglass,... are very important, Lux uses very much of mana. And in my view, how to control the mana pool is one of the key factors on Luxing, on the success of playing Lux.

+) To lane against AP champions: usually, Athene's Unholy Grail is one of the best items for Lux. This item serves as both the utility and defensive item, and provides all of what Lux needs to lane against an AP opponent: mana regeneration, CDR, AP, and MR.

In my views Rabadon and Athene are the core items for Lux to lane against AP champions, and should be completed first.

The order in which the items are completed should be varied and very different for different playstyles and different games, depending on how the particular games would be going on, with priority on the core items (green circle) and less priority for the red circle.

Sorcerer'sShoes and VoidStaff are necessary since they provide important amount of Magic Penetration to fight against tanky opponents; we can also build IonianBootsOfLucidity instead of Sorcerer'sShoes for more utilities. Luden'sEcho and LichBane provide a huge amount of bonus damage; specifically, the LichBane may be used in combination with Lux' passive-Illumination for much more damage via basic attacks each time Lux' spells damage a target.

+) For laning against AD champions (like Zed, Yasuo,...): Athene is not a good idea, we should pursue Zhonya'sHourglass for the best; for more mana while pursuing Zhonya, a second Doran'sRing or additional potion may be necessary in lane phase.

To lane against AD assassins, Zhonya should be one of the core and the first items for AP champions like Lux.

The Morellonomicon provides much more damage but may require us to use mana in a very effective way, since it may not provide enough mana for Lux, especially when we use mana to clear minion waves; in case we need more mana, Athene instead of Morellonomicon is always the best choice.

The items on red circle (Liandry'sTorment and Rylai'sCrystalScepter) may be replaced by Luden'sEcho and LichBane, but Liandry'sTorment and Rylai'sCrystalScepterand provide more health for defensive capability, especially effective when the AD opponent is so excellent. As I have observed, the bonus damage from these two items seems no less than that of Luden'Echo and LichBane. In case we need VoidStaff for more effective damage against tanks, we can leave one of these items in compensation: Morellonomicon, for example, will cost us mana regeneration.

Anyways, laning against mobile AD assassins like Zed or Yasuo is always disadvantageous for Lux, in my opinion. This kind of champions is often very aggressive, and the games would be always harsh, intense, and full of pressure for Lux' players. In case we are forced to face them, aggressive is not a good idea, we should play safe to keep the opponent from getting fed as well as from roaming to gank other lanes and pursue late phases plans.

My playstyle of Luxing

In general, my own playstyle on playing Lux puts important impact on mana control, safety, space keeping, positioning, dealing damage in a steady rate (in terms of a fair period of time), precision and prediction in timing and casting spells. I always max E-LucentSingularity first, then Q-LightBinding for the second (mainly for more damage), and W-PrismaticBarrier lastly.

In lane phase, I focus on getting as highest and most quickly damage as possible to get ahead of the opponent, by ensuring the mana control and safety. If I get ahead of the opponent, I always focus on heavy AP items like Rabadon and Luden'sEcho and roaming to help other lanes toward the victory. Whenever I feel the opponent is quite strong and hard for me to get ahead, I will build utility and defensive items like Athene'sUnholyGrail or Zhonya and the focus is shifted to later phases plans. Particularly:

+) In case of laning against an AD-assassin, I always rush Zhonya as the first item, and an additional potion or a second Doran'sRing may be bought to have enough mana and more sustainability in lane phase.

+) In case of an AP-mage opponent, I often rush Rabadon as the first item as quickly as possible. The same theme for Luden'sEcho and LichBane. AtheneGrail is built whenever I feel lack of mana or need some utility and defensive capability; this key item is often built within lane phase. Sometimes (often when the opponent is so strong) I build AtheneGrail right after NeedlesslyLargeRod, before completing the first item, Rabadon. This all depends on how the game would going on and how good the opponent is.

My general favorite styles on playing League are often some mixed kind of scaling, asleep-making, play-not-to-lose[3], and anti-psychology[4] playstyles. And my particular playstyle on Luxing is not an exception, as I observe myself.

This is my favorite Rune Page for Lux to lane against both AP and AD-assassin champions. In case the opponent is so excellent, I may build Athene (against AP opponents) or Zhonya (against AD-assassins) as one of the very first items for better defense.

My favorite Mastery Page for Lux. DoubleEdgedSword entry (green circle) is always not a choice of mine for Lux, especially when laning against assassins, mainly due to her lack of escaping abilities, also because the Feast entry provides more sustainability for Lux in lane phase.

Lux supports?

While Lux is often not one of prior choices for support role, mainly because there are many better support champions: tanky supporters (Nautilus, Leona,...), Morgana, Janna, etc.; there are chances for Lux to enter this role as a bold choice, when team has tanky Galio or Swain or Morgana mid for example.

+) In case of Lux support, it should be best (the most mana-effective) to use Q-LightBinding (in combination with the passive-Illumination) as the main way to bind and harass the other ADC and supporter. So, it should be best to max Q-LightBinding first, then W-PrismaticBarrier second as the main way of protection by shielding, and E-LucentSingularity for the last as a way to slow the opponents.

+) If we max E-LucentSingularity first, we may not have enough mana to use. If we max W-PrismaticBarrier lastly, we may not have enough shielding power to protect our team mates (including ADC) as a support. It's definitely not a good idea to play support the way we play Lux mid.

Finally, just like a mid mage Lux, the key factors to succeed on playing Lux support are (1) success on landing Q-LightBinding and (2) effectiveness on shielding W-PrismaticBarrier, in my view. This shield(s) moves back and forth, and so very difficult for us to shield the way we want, especially when there is only one single target ally who always moves in a jerky way (ADC in this case, to dodge enemy skillshots for example).

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post
Last update: February 21, 2016

The Silencekeeper

References

[1] One of the "standard meta(s)", in my view, would be: ADC, APC, supporter, 2 tanks/fighters.
[2] In my view, long range sniping abilities like Lux' R-FinalSpark or Caitlyn's R-AceInTheHole can also be seen as a kind of crowd control ("semi-CC" for more exactly): to prevent opponents from escaping by sniping to take them down (not by binding or slowing them or the like).
[3] This is discussed in the post: Nautling: how to Nautilus? Be the Titan of the Depths (section "Play styles").
[4] This is discussed in the post: Aatrox jungle with Stalker's Blade - [sated] Devourer (section "Anti-psychology playstyle").

Prologue

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 09:14:00 +0000

My fellow summoners on the Field(s) of Justice!

I bet almost of you would agree with me that PC games is one kind of entertainment just like sports, musics, chess, etc. Personally, I consider playing League to have no difference from listening musics, playing chess, swimming,... on the aspect of entertainment.

+) Some ones find them to be so exciting activities that they can't refuse to get involved

+) Some look at them as "a great waste of time", not just for the players but also for the viewers.

+) Some others may look at them as challengers for the limit of human capabilities they wanna break

+) Yet some others may look at them as a potential way to steal some money from other's pockets

+) Well, some may not know what to do when their girls fall in love with another guy, unfortunately for us -- the true summoners -- the guys never drink wine either, so...

For myself, I always think of League to be a team game and somewhat similar to other team games like football, basketball,... The good point for me here is that, League gives us exactly 10 "balls" for the ten players each game, so that we don't have to fight for the only one. The complexity is, you have to learn to master as many balls (champions) available on League as possible, not just the single ball as in football and basketball.

To be an excellent team game player, a football or basketball player for example, you need not just mechanics skill (about how to control the ball) but also knowledge skill (on how to work with other team mates to beat the opponent(s)). To be an excellent League player, you need to know not only how to control (play) the champion(s) but also how to cooperate with other players of your team to defeat the other team.

+) Weaknesses in mechanics skill would result in failure and loss of many things on playing team games: enjoyment, victory, enthusiasm, etc. How can we enjoy the game if we are weak on controlling the "balls"? With bad mechanics, how can we cooperate with our team mates and manage to beat the opponents?

+) There would be nothing to say for the games in which one team's mechanics is much better than the other: the better team would simply mechanically dominate and beat the other; that would just be a matter of time. Furthermore, if we have enough enthusiasm to practice and experience, at a certain time when we did really master "the balls" excellently with very good mechanics, mechanics skill would reach its ceiling already: some degree of the physical limits of human abilities, the equilibrium state. A little bit better in mechanics would no longer be a big advantage for us on the games.

And always, the two opponent teams must be the same level of mechanics skill. So, how to beat the opponents with the same proficiency of mechanics skill as that of us? Is mechanics all of what needed to be an excellent player of team games? How do and can we break the limit of mechanics skill?

Knowledge skill is the answer, in my opinion. This point, for clarity and easier to understand, I consider team games (including League, football, etc.) in the correlation with real wars between two sides (two sides with the same degree of mechanical strength, or physical equipment and technical skills on using them, of course). Now, which does one side need to beat the other side? They need knowledge about everything which may affect the outcome, including but not limited to: geographical properties of the batterfields, deep analyses of weaknesses and advantages of the opponent and of themself as well, how the equipment would be effectively deployed on the geographical conditions and the same for the other side's equipment, etc. all of what doesn't directly relate to mechanics skill. This is "knowledge skill".

In League, knowledge skill would be (including but not limited to): can you give up one or even two turrets to pursue strategic plans late game? Do you know how to get ahead again once you are left behind in lane phase whose opponent is somewhat better than you? What degree would the objectives (Dragon, Baron, etc.) affect a game, what are their weights? How does meta(s) determine the outcome of a game? Why would the meta be like that but not a different format? Can we change it? Why we need an ADC? Why we need to have tanks? Why ADC must go bot together with support? Can I solo bot? If not, why? What about team fights? etc.

While mechanical skills need very much practice to master the "balls" (the champions in League), knowledge skills require us to read and learn and study the foundation below the surface. That's one of the main reasons why I make this site: to provide a source, evergreen and as much reliable as possible, of strict reasoning on the matter of knowledge skill on playing League; that's also to help myself.

As a curious learner, I am very enthusiastic about learning everything of the subjects I care, as well as always want to share what I have learned with the people interested in the subjects like me. All the content will be updated as soon as needed whenever I can.

My discussions are mainly based on my own knowledge and reasoning, and so I hope to have as many responses and comments as possible for me to learn. I also hope that the content will help my fellow summoners save quite a bit time and effort on looking for the knowledge they interest in, which hours upon hours sitting in front of a PC to play would not be that helpful, just like I used to be. In my views, the two kinds of skills (mechanics and knowledge) are like the two legs of a person: we cannot walk (in a steady way) with just one single leg, let alone "accelerate". On the other hand, the advance and improvement of one kind will also make the other one advance and improve spontaneously, and vice versa.

Finally, I believe that just like all the other team games, if we do play and learn and study it seriously, it will benefit us many ways: not just a little bit fitter body, or some understanding of socializing or some joy while playing, or a lesson of how to control our extremist feelings of anger and hatred, or some kinda philosophical morals for real life,...

So, my fellow summoners, let's figure out how and what we can get the most out of playing League!

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post

Last update: January 11, 2016

The Silencekeeper

Foreword: roles and lanes and meta

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 09:12:00 +0000

This post is the foreword of the topic "Role & lane: meta", which dedicates to the concepts of roles and lanes and meta(s). These concepts cover a large amount of the most important knowledge needed to know for every decent player of League, in my view. That is the basic information explaining how the game would be and a little bit of how the game could be designed; it helps us figure out how to play a champion the right ways, and many other basic issues on playing League.

In this topic of "Roles and lanes: meta", I try to cast some light on by conveying my understanding of the knowledge I did master on the stuff. Starting with the most complicated concepts: roles, lanes, and meta(s); and then discussing the two important related issues: (1) summoner spells and (2) the very fist game phase of bans and picks. Finally, I discuss a little bit more on the two roles I think to be really different and special and somewhat more complex in comparison with the remaining ones: jungle and support. This topic includes five posts, relating to each other and together covering the basic issues of roles and lanes and meta of League from my point of view:

Post 1: "5/1 Roles and lanes: how and why? Meta breakdown!" lays down the foundation of how the roles enter the lanes and how they are combined into the formation of meta(s), with a little bit discussion on how the map were designed for strict reasoning and more clarity. This post would explain how the game would be like by providing an overall look of strict reasoning.

Post 2: "5/2 Summoner's spells: which, how, and why?" discusses an other important factor of playing League, which also contributes to the formation of meta(s): summoner's spells, with some further suggestions.

Post 3: "5/3 The 'null phase' of a game: bans and picks. How?" discusses on of the most important phase of a game. In my view, how to pick the champions for a game is one of the most important factors deciding the final outcome of the game. The decision making must be based on the understanding of roles and lanes and meta (and summoner's spells, of course), so this post follows the two previous ones and servers as the discussion of the very first game phase.

Post 4 and 5: "5/4 Support: master of the river" and "5/5 Jungle: what is and how to" discuss the two particular roles: support and jungle, which in my view are quite different and special in comparison with the remaining ones and so need to be discussed a little bit more.

In my views, these 5 posts together would provide the necessary and complete understanding of the most fundamental issues on playing League, as decent players.

The Silencekeeper

Foreword: the spirit

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 09:12:00 +0000

This post is the foreword of the topic "The corespirit". The topic mentions the necessary issues of this site visitors should know or would want to know. It reflects the spirit of this site.

Abbreviations post lists the abbreviations I often use in my posts. These are usually easily to understand for almost of decent League players, but may be somewhat different from those other players often use.

Morals from League includes some interesting, and often famous, quotes I did find interesting and relating to League in some ways.

Prologue is what I generally and firstly wanna talk, the theme of my discussions, so it can be seen as the letter of mine.

The legalities: this post points out potential legal issues on this site. As a fellow individual, I have my rights to protect myself beforehand. And I use this post as the very first defense to keep myself staying away from potential legal issues.

The newsletter gives an overview of the content of this site.

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post

Last update: February 9, 2016

The Silencekeeper

The foreword: champions' builds and playstyles

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 29 Dec 2015 09:11:00 +0000

This post is the foreword of the topic "Champion build & playstyle". This topic, as its name, dedicates to champions' builds and playstyles.

At the present, I don't see I should have a foreword for this topic,

however I may want to discuss about this in the future,

so this very short post was made, also to synchronize with the other topics

The Silencekeeper

P4 Support: master of the river

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 21 Dec 2015 04:06:00 +0000

1. A different view on the role of support

First off, let's talk a little bit more about the roles[1] in lane phase. We have 3 conventional lanes: top, bot, and mid. And as discussed on the post dedicating jungle[2], from my views, jungle and support are kinda special roles in comparison with the remaining ones, and I wanna discuss a little bit more on these special roles. Unconventionally, jungle and river can also be seen as lanes, the 2 unconventional lanes besides the 3 conventional ones.

+) Jungle can be seen as the "dynamic lane" or "jungle lane", where the laners (junglers) dynamically go through to catch the monsters. On the contrary, the 3 conventional lanes can be seen as "static lanes" where the laners kinda statically wait for the minions to come; the degree of dynamics of junglers is much more than that of the conventional laners[3].

+) The river, on the same way, can also be seen as a special lane: "the river lane" or "the null lane", the habitat of special monsters: Rift Scuttlers, Rift Herald, Dragon, and Baron Nashor. The river lane is the boundary line dividing the other lanes (the map) into two parts controlled by the two teams: red part and blue part, so, it has one more special property the other lanes (including "jungle lane") do not have: it does not have red part and blue part which are separately controlled by the different teams. Looking at it this way we have the 5 lanes for the 5 roles:

Top laner

Mid laner

Jungle laner (jungler)

Bot laner is ADC

River laner is supporter

Supporter is kinda special: it doesn't have an explicit source of power, an explicit source of gold and experience to level up. Many players consider supporter is the least important role of a team; many others think of it to be "the real player at bot" or "the true bot laner" for its importance. What is the truth? Or how should we think of it?

2. Supporter – "the null laner", "the owner of the river"

Since bot is often seen to be the source of power for ADC, supporter is often seen to be the unexpected companion at bot for stealing experience and sometimes gold from ADC. What is the truth and how we should understand of the role of support?

First of all, we often forget the important fact that to be a support means the support of a whole team (not the support just of ADCs). Just like the other roles who have particular and different tasks in lane phase and later phases, supports also have particular and different tasks in lane phase and later phases. In lane phase, the main task of supports is to accompany ADCs to help them collect power. In later phases, the tasks of supports are different and more complicated (which we may discuss at other time).

"So, [typically in solo queue] if you do good jobs but ADCs still complain about the weakness or badness of 'their supports', just try to cooperate and help them as much as you can in lane phase and plan for the later phases; remember that you are the support of the whole team, not just of ADC."

The main duty of support in lane phase is to help the ADC get advantages in comparison with the enemy ADC by helping increase the ADC's sustainability and trying to decrease that of the enemy ADC. Generally:

+) Prevent all kind of threats to your ADCs, these threats include: the harassment from the other ADC and support, the ganks from enemy jungle and mid and even top with Teleport. To do this, supports need the capabilities of healing, shielding, binding, warding, etc.
+) At the same time, maintain and deploy all of the same threats on the other ADC and support to help take them down if possible, to prevent them from getting ahead. For this, supports need as many CC abilities as possible, some degree of harassment potential, etc.

3. Resources: gold and experience

Support's duties in lane phase are to help the ADC, and so they would have gold and experience from doing that, right from the support items and/or Rune and Masteries pages: that's their part. Also, the items needed for supports to do the jobs are not so expensive in comparison with those of ADC as well as other roles. Consequentially, support should not take cs and kills, that is the part of ADC, not support (they have their own already).

The items needed for ADC to get power are very expensive in comparison with those of supports, so try to help the ADC get kills and just get the kills for yourself only if the ADC definitely cannot. The same for experience.

Two typical kinds of supports: AP support or tanky support? For this, refer to the post for my ideas of what should be the best support for a particular game: Roles and lanes: how and why? Meta breakdown!

4. Warding patterns – my own playstyle

The particular playstyle on supporting would be very different for different players, here I wanna mention some important keys of my own playstyle:

+) Keep track of the enemy jungler: this is often one of my favorite ways I use to help my team mates. As discussed in [4], support may have more room in mind (more "relax time") to observe the map, and I always use this advantage to try to keep track of the enemy jungle and alert my team mates whenever I see he can cause trouble, not just to ADC but also for mid and top. To know where the enemy jungle is, or at least in which side of the jungle, is very effective to prevent him from ganking, in my views.

+) Always ready for your top to Teleport if they want and do so by putting a ward on the further bush at the bottom side of the lane. As a top laner, I did find many situations when I wanted to gank bot by Teleport but couldn't find a ward to do that; this is why when playing support, I'm always ready to fix the issue for the top laner.

Also, if the enemy top laner takes Teleport, be aware of his potential ganks on your lane that way(s).

+) The river is "your lane": one of the most dangerous threats to your ADC comes from the enemy jungler and mid and the only way they can deploy their ganks is from the river. In my views, how to control the river is the key point to prevent the ganks from those two threats; consequentially, I put a very important impact on warding.

Warding patterns

(1) As depicted in the left image below: if my team is on the blue (lower) side, I always have a ward right in front of the Dragon Pit, this is not only to help ward the main way the jungle go through to gank bot but also to help mid a little bit if the enemy jungler ganks mid that way, as well as a vision on the Dragon of course.

I often see many supports put the ward at the side bush near the bot lane, in my view this is not the best place to ward: it's too near to lane and we may not have enough time to come back safe even when we detect the enemy jungle's ganks; this can not also help mid if the enemy jungle ganks that way, and can not also have vision of the Dragon Pit if the enemy jungle does Dragon.

(2) As in the center image: if my team is on the red (higher) side, I always have a ward at the bush next to the Dragon Pit (on the outer of enemy jungle).

These two places for each side of the map (the white circles on the two first images) are the places the enemy jungler (as well as mid laner) must go through when ganking bot. When these two places are warded, except for some special cases (like Evelynn), the enemy jungle (and mid laner) cannot gank without getting detected, right from beginning.

On the same matter, I always start game with a pink ward and have this pink ward at
(1) the outer bush of my jungle's red camp if my team is on blue (lower) side (left image)
(2) the bush beyond the blue camp and next to the mid wall if my team is on red (higher) side.

These places (white circles with eye icons), in my views, are least visited by the other jungler early game, so the pink wards would exist long enough. The pink wards, along with the other (green) wards at the Dragon Pit would be enough for us to detect the other jungler when never they come to the river and prepare to gank: make sure the safe for ADC (bot) and mid as well, since these are the only two ways for the other jungle to gank from. Sometimes, in my excellent games, these pink wards may last until the end without getting destroyed, and become one of the most gold-effective items on the map, like in this one:

(Check my YouTube channel for more videos)

Of course nothing is absolutely true, for all cases and situations. There are some exceptions the rules may not find a way into effectiveness. Some champions (Lee Sin for example) can move through terrain and may be waiting to gank at the side bush which we have said not a good place to ward; Evelynn can move through all the [blue] wards without getting detected; Nocturne, Pantheon, and Twisted Fate may gank from... nowhere with the ults; etc. In these exceptional cases, we must find out particular ways to play against. The Evelynn case, for example, I always put wards in her own jungle (at the two positions as shown on the right image) to keep track of her (she can't hide when leashing).

Also, there is one more important exception: many excellent junglers may deploy ganks right from lanes, not from the river (often bot and top, rarely or almost never for mid in this case). That's often when we are forced to play under our own turret, so leave room for the enemy jungler to come right from the lanes and hide at the side bushes. If we don't have the bushes warded and are forced to play under turret, we must be always aware of these potential ganks. This is an example:

Finally, the ideas for support on how to play against the enemy ADC and enemy support should be quite similar for all cases. And so, in my views, how to control the river is the central spirit of an excellent support. And so I would wanna call the river to be "the null lane" and support to be "the null laner" or "the river laner": the master of the river.

This is my unique Rune page for support. I always use this page for all support champions until now, dating back like from the beginning of falling in love with support role. Since support doesn't have many sources of power, especially gold, we should take all kinds of gold-sources possible: including items, Rune and Materies pages. That's also good for ADC and team since that means we would care less of stealing their cs or kills for the gold, at the same time, adding quite a few additional sources of power (gold) to the total amount of the whole team. This page would also have weaknesses, I think, so be wise and judge and adjust it yourself; it still fits my playstyle anyways.

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post
Last update: January 21, 2016

The Silencekeeper

References

[1] For my complete discussion on roles and lanes and meta, check the corresponding post: Roles and lanes: how and why? Meta breakdown!
[2][3] Look at this post for more details: Jungle: what is and how to
[4] In the post: The 'null phase' of a game: bans and picks. How?!, the first section "1. Reasoning (for the lane phase)"

Morals from League

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 05:32:00 +0000

XD The collection from

Winston S. Churchill

(http://quotivee.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Winston-Churchill4.jpg)

"In war: Resolution

In defeat: Defiance

In victory: Magnanimity

In peace: Goodwill"

For us --- In game: Resolution/ In defeat: Defiance/ In victory: Magnanimity/ On internet: Goodwill ---

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

Direct consequence --- Failure is the journey of travelling from success through success without getting enthusiasm ---

"If you can't beat them, join them."
Of course --- If we CAN beat them, never let them join[t] us ---

"If you're going through hell, keep going."

NOT a consequence --- If you've just CRAWLED out of [the Elo] hell, [don't] stop climbing [ranked] ---

"You have enemies? Good! That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life."

The true lesson --- You never have an enemy? Not bad! What have you stood up for in your life [on the Field of Justice: Summoner's Rift]? ---

"To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often."
I haz a question --- what if the change(s) is often wrong and/or bad, sir?! ---

More:
"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen."
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts."
"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."
"History will be kind to me for I intend to write it."
"The price of greatness is responsibility."
"A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."

XD The collection from

Various figures

“You are most powerful when you are most silent. People never expect silence. They expect words, motion, defense, offense, back and forth. They expect to leap into the fray. They are ready, fists up, words hanging leaping from their mouths. Silence? No.”

(Alison McGhee, All Rivers Flow to the Sea)

So legit --- The most powerful figure on the Field of Justice? The Silencekeeper, no doubt ---

“Part of a problem is the way you look at the problem.”

(Stephen Covey, the Seven Habits of Effective People)??

The truth --- The [Elo] hell never exists ---

"... a little stream, just born, moves invisibly beneath the snow, or can be glimpsed through a blue-shadowed hole between the melting snow-bridges. Grown wider and deeper, it swirls round boulders, foams through rapids and leaps over waterfalls, until at last it flows upon the plains as a broad and noble river.
...
It is like life dissolved in time: always passing away, yet endlessly renewed, forever changing, yet eternal the same. Growing more complex the further it travels, the river has become old and sluggish by the time it nears the sea. Scarcely flowing, the current meanders through wide lakes and sandy channels towards... [the ocean].
...
Then, on a day of south wind, or a still night of midsummer, you will become aware of a tenuous thunder, a faint boobing roar just within the bounds of hearing. It is the voice of the sea.

The river may be calm and glassy, reflecting the bright shape of the Cross in its dark waters; but always that thunder of the surf underlines the quiet, pervading the stillness with its deathless sound.

Now all has become one, the trickle under the snow, the waterfall, the mountain torrent and the gliding stream; and the river, already within sounds of its final dissolution, seems to say: 'There is no death: in my end is my beginning.'"

(Nancy Carto, All the Rivers Run)

What the X --- I haven't found how these words would relate to League yet, so X-ing dumb ---

XD The collection of

My own

Writing is like mirrors: if you [we, the readers] are an angel, the mirrors cannot reflect an evil when you stand before one, no matter what quality the one is. I would like to call this "the polarizability of speech".

Doesn't matter --- "There are kind and gentle gods. Mine isn't one of those"[1] (Illaoi) ---

This either --- "There is only one truth, and you will find it at the point of my lance"[2] (Jarvan IV) ---

Composing post: this post is on writing; there may be changes or new stuff soon
Last update: January 16, 2016

The Silencekeeper

References

[1] [2] The lores of Illaoi and Jarvan IV, League of Legends © Riot Games Inc.
http://gameinfo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/game-info/champions/jarvaniv/
http://gameinfo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/game-info/champions/illaoi/

Nautling: how to Nautilus? Be the Titan of the Depths!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 15:06:00 +0000

This post is mainly to talk about my own ideas on playing Nautilus top laner; for jungle and support Nautilus, some changes may be needed.

Character Traits of a Titan

+) 4 CC abilities: the first basic attack, the Q-DredgeLine, the E-Riptide, and R-DepthCharge.
+) The shield W-Titan'sWrath scales with his maximum health.

+) Basic attacks while the shield exists deal more damage over time, scaling with the AP index.

Consequentially, Nautilus will get the most benefit from HP and AP indexes. And so, my build focuses a little bit more on health and AP. Also note that:

+) Nautilus' Q-DredgeLine can server as either a CC or an escape ability, and if his anchor catches a terrain, Q-DredgeLine's cooldown will be reduced by half.
+) The passive-StaggeringBlow and W-Titan'sWrath additionally add a significant amount of damage to his basic attacks, vastly increase his last-hit capability.
+) His AoE E-Riptide is a great capability to clear minion waves.

These properties are very critical for a top laner, in my view.

The Sources of the Indexes: Runes, Masteries, and Items

The core items are RoA and SunfireCape, the other remaining items should depend on particular games, playstyles, team-comps, etc.

RoA is not really effective early game due to its time-dependent properties, but a core item for the Titan since it provides all of what Nautilus needs to be the true Titan of the Depths: Mana, Health (adding to the shield of his W-Titan'sWrath), AP (adding to the damage of all his abilities). How to successfully get RoA is the key point on being the Titan of the Depths, and should be considered to be the main duty in lane phase, in my view. Note that the SunfireCape's damage also scales with his levels.

For the particular playstyle of mine discussed herein, scaling Runes (HP, AP, MR) and Masteries (Health, damage) are used as shown in the images herein. Offensive items recommendation: Zhonya (for AP and armor indexes), Liandry'sTorment (damage scales with CC duration), TitanicHydra (damage scales with maximum health).

Play styles: Scaling playstyle, "asleep-making strategy", and "play-not-to-lose style"

On Nautling, my main purpose is to help the Titan gradually accumulate the power by setting a standard to be at a certain level: the pivot point at which his power would be enough to be able to unpreventably dominate, with the maximum power to be at the final level of 18 (of course). The playing in lane phase should not be aggressive and not to focus on taking down the enemy, but to help Nautilus collect the power toward the standard level -- the pivot point. Consequentially, this may be misunderstood to be a passive playstyle and may make viewers (including the opponent) feel bored and asleep: until the pivot point of the standard level.

The standard level would not be fixed for every player. Particularly for me, this is the level 7th or 8th for the following reasons:

+) MR, HP, and AP scaling runes reach the values of their flat counterparts (12MR, 160HP, 8AP).
+) The necessary component items should be got already: ChainVest, or Seeker'sArmguard, and element items for RoA.
+) This would often be at the 9th or 10th minute of a game: somewhat at the late part of lane phase, so would be suitable for me to prepare for the late phases but still enough time to continue collect power in lane.

At this standard level with the items and indexes, as long as Nautilus' cs is not too fewer than that of the opponent (as well as not get slain quite a few, of course), the opponent would not be able to prevent Nautilus from getting his maximum power anymore. In other words, Nautilus would not be able to lose himself from the level on -- the standard level, the pivot level, or the pivot point.

And the only remaining possibility left but lose in League is victory, of course XD. I would wanna call this to be the "play-not-to-lose style". In fact, my real style on Nautling is a kinda hybrid of all the three playstyles: scaling, asleep-making, and play-not-to-lose.

(Check my YouTube channel for more videos)

Lane Phase's Tactics

+) Get the shield W-Titan'sWrath first to suffer damage and endure the engagement while cs-ing. Then maximum E-Riptide as soon as possible to ensure the clearing capability as well as the main source of damage. Maximizing Q-DredgeLine lastly since this is almost used to catch the enemies and escape.

+) Whenever you decide to engage or foresee the enemy would start a fight, make sure to shield yourself timely, this would be the key point to take advantage in fighting not only in lane phase.

+) The key point of this playstyle of mine is to rush RoA as quickly as possible. However, for the most effective RoA rush, we must have some defensive capability beforehand.

+) To be against AD champions, we can get ChainVest as the basic defensive item before getting RoA, or Seeker'sArmguard which is more offensive since it provides a significant AP index of 35 (which increases Nautilus' damage significantly). Armguard's armor is also sufficient for defensive component against AD champions. The ChainVest or Armguard should probably be enough for Nautilus to safely rush RoA in lane phase, which is one of the real core items for Nautilus later.

Exclusive Suggestions

AP damage choice with Zhonya: If everything goes on the right way, we should only complete Zhonya as the offensive item after finishing RoA. In case we are left behind, skip Zhonya and build other tanky items, then build Zhonya when we get ahead again or even sell Armguard to build all tank items.

Hybrid-AD damage choice with TitanicHydra: Since TitanicHydra's damage scales with maximum health index, this will always be one of the best offensive items for the Titan of the Depths. At level 18 with full build, TitanicHydra on Nautilus would deal the (physical) damage of like 500 within just a single hit -- in a large cone:

(This image is taken from the game above, at 25:40 in-game timer)

Runes and Masteries Pages

For Nautilus, we should get armor and MR instead of Tenacity. In my opinion, the Titan should be a super heavy tank who would stand firmly like a mountain in the front line without hesitation to absorb and cancel enemies' damage, rather than having mobility like Jarvan IV or LeeSin

This post was completed

There would be just minor adjustments if any on this post

The Silencekeeper

P2 Summoner spells: which, how, and why?[1]

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 11 Nov 2015 15:10:00 +0000

Let alone choosing Rune and Masteries pages, which we often have clear ideas beforehand, there is still one more important task we must and only can do in the null phase of bans and picks: choose two summoner spells. So, which are the best and why those should be the best?!

Reasoning

First of all, due to the priority of Flash, we always have one summoner spell to be Flash. The reason how and why the summoner spell Flash is so important and popular should not be of discussion, since all of us almost had enough experience to see that already. Discussing about this would be just as bored as discussing how and why we have to eat food and drink... Coca-Cola (CoKe) daily. Not to mention some exceptions like Hecarim, which we may talk about at other times. We will skim the roles and lanes to find out which summoner spell is the best to pick for each:

+) Jungle: due to the role's nature, jungler always takes the second spell to be Smite. Discussing about how and why on this would have no difference from discussing the priority of Flash. This is simply so important, so popular, and so classic as well.

+) ADC is supposed to be the major physical damage dealer. The power of ADC is in exchange for the weakness of defensive capability and being the priority for the enemy team to focus. On the contrary, one of the most important duties of a team in fighting is to protect their own ADC. Looking at it this way, ADCs are the centers of team fights. Consequentially, the second spell for ADC should be a survival-helping one for the best: Heal, Barrier, or Cleanse.

+) AP mage is supposed to be the major magic damage dealer. It is kinda like ADC on these considerations: ADC is the physical damage dealer or the AD Carrier, and AP mage is the magic damage dealer or the AP Carrier. The best for this role should be the same for ADC: Heal, Barrier, or Cleanse.

+) Assassin (AD or AP) is supposed to have the power to take down the opponent(s) within just a single combo then immediately disappear with excellent escaping capability (while the enemies even still don't understand what has just happened, ideally). This must be the most aggressive playstyles focusing on building full damage. Ignite should be the best among all the spells for this role.

Also note that, though these two roles often go mid, in my descriptions an AP assassin is very different from a mage. Most typically in the playstyles: taking down then disappear for (AP) Assassins and dealing (magic) damage in a kinda steady rate for a mage.

+) Support is supposed to be the CC-holder with main duties to support team. The second spell so would be a support one for the best: Exhaust.

+) Tank is supposed to suffer damage, the shield of a team, and the one who can reach the enemy carriers on their back line (enemy ADC and mage). Team should not fight without their tanks, the presence of tanks should be the necessary and complete factor for a team to engage fighting. A sudden presence of a tank, especially in disadvantageous situations, so would be a powerful tactic to pivot the fights (and the games). Consequentially, Teleport should be most suitable for this role.

+) For the role of fighter, one more time, fighters can be considered to vary from a semi-assassin to a semi-tank. The two spells which are the best for this role would be Ignite or Teleport, depending on the particular games and champions and playstyles and the like.

Finally, just like the roles and lanes and meta and the map, summoner spells can not be out side of the cover of pragmatism. Players, over all of the very long time, will always choose what they find to be the highest chance for them to win the game. And the summoner spells, on this angle of view, are simply the "chosen ones" just like the meta and the maps[2].

Some suggestions

Base on the reasoning, I came to some different meta(s) from the contemporary one. But notice for these suggestions that Teleport's power has its own cost: Teleport is useless in fighting. Consequentially, more Teleport means your team will have fewer other powerful-in-fighting spells (Ignite, Exhaust, etc.) and means the chance of winning team fights (and so winning the games) will be decreased. In my assessments, it should be best for team (highest chance to win) to have two Teleport on two tanks.

Another meta

We need 1.5 or 2 tanks for the best chance of winning[3], and if jungler goes tank, the tank will not be able to take Teleport. Meanwhile jungle is the hardest role to be counter played[4], so assassins (or mages, but most typical for assassins) can completely go jungle and leave mid for the second tank with Teleport (instead of Ignite).

This way assassins won't be able to take Ignite, however they will have some advantage on the jungle items and Smite in exchange. And with this meta, team will have two Teleport on the two tanks to exploit the power of sudden presence of Teleport on tanks to pivot the fights and the games.

Yet another meta(s)

Furthermore, due to the symmetric property of the map, bot can completely be a solo lane as top: two tanky laners at top and bot, leave mid and jungle for ADC and assassin (or AP mage but most typically assassins).

In this meta(s), support would become very flexible; support now can roam by following jungle or support mid, or even go top or bot. And if we want to exploit the power of Teleport further, support would go semi-tank with the second summoner spell to be Teleport. This way, we have 3 tanks (maybe 3 semi-tanks for the best) with 3 Teleports to pivot the fights and the games.

This post was completed

There would be just minor adjustments if any on this post

The Silencekeeper

References

[1] Note that, these are just technical considerations. The optimizational choices should depend on the particular games, teams' compositions, tactics, strategies, etc. In my view, however, these very simple ideas can serve as the basic reference for the much more complicated cases as well.

[2] [3] This was discussed on the post: Roles and Lanes: How and Why? Meta Breakdown!

[4] This was discussed on the post: The 'null phase' of a game: bans and picks. How?!

P3 The 'null phase' of a game: bans and picks. How?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 06 Nov 2015 11:10:00 +0000

We often consider the first phase of a game is "lane phase", which is around 15 first minutes. In fact, the very initial phase of a game is bans and picks: the "null phase". This phase is very important since it drafts the game: how your team and the other team will look like, how the game would be and would go on, etc. This phase is also very important for the success (or failure) of the first phase of a game: lane phase, where the concepts of countering play a critical role.

In my view, the hardest roles to counter, and so the best pick orders are: (1) jungle and support, (2) adc, (3) top and mid.

1. Reasoning (for the lane phase)[1]

Since top and mid are the true solo lanes, in almost of lane phase time, those are always the duelists in duels. The one v.s. one nature makes them become the easiest roles to be countered. Consequentially, in my view, they should be the last picks and should not be picked first.

Jungle is also a solo role, however, due to its dynamic nature (jungler almost always moves), it's not so easy for the enemy jungle to locate where the other jungler is. That is the main reason why I think jungle is the hardest role to counter in the order. Consequentially, jungles should be one of the first picks.

Supporters are in almost of the scenes, especially in lane phase, not those who will be focused as the other roles (ADC in particular). The main reason is that the power collector at bot is ADC, not supporter, so taking down ADC is the best since that will prevent the main physical damage dealer from getting power. A stronger ADC is much more of a thread in comparison with a stronger supporter. In addition, due to the nature of not being the main power collector at bot, suppoters' activities are not so intense as ADC (not so "busy") and they always have much more room in mind (more "relax time") to observe the map and avoid getting focused. Those are the main reasons why I think supporters should be the second in the order hard to be countered. And so, similar to jungler, support should be one of the first picks.

The remaining role of ADC, so, is left to be picked somewhere between the first and last ones for the best.

Base on the reasoning, my personal rules of picking (in solo queue) are:

+) If one or more of my team mates call their favorite roles and lanes, I will try as much as possible to not take their preferences. If one or more of my team mates call their abomination roles and lanes, I will consider and try as much as I can to take their dislikes.

These are the very first ones of my ways to get the best team I can: obviously, people always do their best with their preferences and always play worst with their abominations.

+) If I am the first or second pick, I often pick jungle or sup (and ADC will be the second choice), since those are the hardest roles to counter-pick. Also, however, very often when I am the first picks, I can pick top or mid; in these cases, the champions must always be the ones I did master most and so never worry to be counter picked.

Even, I can counter-play the player who did counter-pick me, for the favorite champions of mine. For example: I am the first pick and I did lock Nasus; the other guy insta lock Teemo?! Yes, please, time for me to show and brag my "AP Nasus" (with RoA and Zhonya. You don't believe? Wait for my videos featuring AP-Nasus on my YouTube channel, and maybe a post exclusively for that build and playstyle on this blog of mine as well). :P

+) If I am the 4th or last pick, these are my most favorite pick orders since they allow me to have some ideas on team comps of the both teams, I will pick the champions who would
(1) fulfill the missing pieces of my team-comp, and/or
(2) counter the other team-comp as much as possible according to the meta, and/or
(3) make my team-comp more complete/perfect and so multiply my team's power like Alistar/Nautilus when mid goes Yasuo to help him ult more easily (Malphite would be great), or Ezreal (often mid mage) when jungle goes Amumu since I always find Ezreal ult much more easily and strongly when following right after Amumu successfully landing his ult, etc.

2. Reasoning for late game

For the reasoning and analyses for late game phases as well as for more information regarding the concepts of meta and the missing pieces I have just mentioned above, looking at my corresponding post: Roles and Lanes: How and Why? Meta Breakdown! (The subsection "1. Meta is relatively fixed", main section "IV. Conclusion" in particular.)

3. Some typical examples of my own favorite counter-picks

+) Morgana sup: to better protect my carriers (ADC, AP mage), from the Nautilus ult for example, with her Q-Dark Binding and specially her E-Black Shield.

+) Morgana mid: to counter play AD mid in lane phase, typically Zed. The secret is on the build of Zhonya rush, which provides an important amount of armor (50) and whose active-Stasis will cancel Zed's ult.

I also very often use Morgana (mid or sup) to better control some typical champions like Master Yi (his ult makes him unable to be slowed, but can't prevent him from being bound, and the period of 3 seconds from Morgana's Q-Dark Binding would be fatal for him).

Strategic counter-picks

+) Rammus jungle (or even sup) when I see the other team is almost all AD like: Zed/Yasuo/Talon mid, Irelia/Gnar/Pantheon top, Vi/Lee Sin/Javan IV jungle. The secrets here mostly lie on his passive-Spiked Shell, which brings him a bonus AD equal to 25% his total armor, and his W-Defensive Ball Curl which increases both his armor and MR as well as deals additional returning damage equal to 10% of his total armor. In these cases, I will simply build full armor: Thornmail, Sunfire, Raduin, Ninja Tabi,... and benefit much more from the items and deal amazing amount of damage while still be a full tank.

+) The same would be for going Galio if the enemy team was almost all AP with an ADC of magic damage abilities like Ezreal or Kog'Maw. I haven't played Galio yet, however! :P

Tactical counter-picks

+) Nautilus (top, jungle, or sup): when I wanna cancel long-range ADCs of Tristana, Jinx, etc. The secrets here are that the ADCs have very good long-range and hard to be caught in team fights. Nautilus ult, however, can immediately eliminate them from a fight in a short (but enough to pivot the fight) period of time and bring great advantages for team.

+) Alistar sup: when I wanna cancel some typical assassins: Zed, Katarina, Khazik, etc. The usage of this kind of champions, typically Zed, needs very much of precision, especially in timing: just a small single flaw on the play may result in the champions getting slain immediately. Consequentially, whenever Zed engages, Alistar's W-Headbutt and Q-Pulverize will almost eliminate him from the fight in an importantly short period of time: adding "a very few" flaws to the usage.

4. Summoner Spells

In the null phase of a game, we also have to pick two summoner spells. For the reasoning and discussion of mine on how and why to do this for the best, check my corresponding post: Sommoner Spells: Which, How, and Why?!

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post
Last update: January 04, 2016

The Silencekeeper

References

[1] These analyses and reasoning are mostly on technical aspects and most applicable for solo queue. The optimizational order of picks and for other queues should depend on the particular games, particular teams' compositions, plans, tactics, strategies, etc. However, in my view, these simple ideas can also serve as the basic reference for the much more complicated cases.

P1 Roles and lanes: how and why? Meta breakdown!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 02:52:00 +0000

Just like any other player of League of Legends, I played many games enough to know there has been a very popular form of team-compositions (team-comp) called "the meta". Generally, the most popular form of team-comps at a certain period of time is so-called "the meta of the time", or simply "the meta" for the contemporary one - which is:

Solo lanes and roles

1. Top : Tanky

2. Jungle : Tanky

3. Mid : AP Mage

A duo couple at bot of
4. ADC : Marksman, and
5. Supporter : CC holder AP-CC or Tanky-CC
Damage
6. A balance between AD and AP (physical and magic) damage

This description of meta is in fact observed from the view point of lane phase (about 15 - 20 first minutes of games). For later phases (in team fight), the meta goes: 1.5 or 2 tanks (1 full tank and 1 semi-tank, or 2 full tanks), 1 mage, 1 marksman, 1 supporter, and a balance between magic and physical damage.

The final point of the balance between AD and AP damage has not often been taken into account as a part of meta. However, this is very important since the balance doubles the complexity for the other team on finding the way to fight against it. More complexity they have to deal with, more chance they would fail, and more chance we would win. We must also remember that there is one more third kind of damage in League: true damage.

There is still an other factor contributing to the concept of meta: summoner spells. For the discussion about this, looking at the corresponding post: Summoner Spells: Which, How, and Why?!

Of course, meta can be changed, but let's talk about the flexibility of meta later; for now we must answer the question(s) what, why, and how does the meta dominate team-comps in League (at the present)? We have often answered the question(s) this way:

I. Conventional analyses

+) ADC is kinda weak early game at low levels, so it needs an other support to better collect power to become strong, that is why we should have the duo couple of ADC and supporter. This duo couple should go bot for better control of the Dragon, an important objective on the Rift.

+) Top should go tank since top lane is the most isolated lane, and the laner should be tanky enough to survive and farm.

+) Mid lane is kinda the safest lane since the distance to the outer turret is shortest. The mid is so left for AP mage for the best of a kinda weak solo laner at low levels.

+) Jungle is an equally important resource of power (gold and experience to level up) and can't be ignored, a jungler also need to have the ability of clearing jungle monsters to get power and helping team get ahead by ganking the other lanes as much as possible, so jungle should be kinda tanky for the best. The survival ability and sustainability of junglers should be the same as top laners.

But this is just an aspect of the problem; looking at it this way, the meta(s) seems to be definitely fixed and unable to be changed. And also it can't fully answer many questions like "why we need just 1 marksman and 1 mage while 2 tanks in team fight?! Why not 2 marksmen or 2 mages and 3 tanks?! Why not the marksman goes mid and left bot for the duo couple of mage and supporter instead?! etc." Let's look at the question(s) in a different way from the angle of common sense, by firstly talking about the map: Summoner's Rift, how and why it was born and designed?!

II. Common sense and pragmatic reasoning

Dating back to the availability of the accompanying map editors (StarEdit in StarCraft, Warcraft III World Editor in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and the like), so many different custom maps (modified maps or "mods") have been created by different modders (as well as much more would in the future). Among these, some were favored by huge numbers of players, and few were heavily dominate.

We must take into account the custom maps Aeon of Strife (AoS) by Aeon64 for StarCraft[1], Defense of the Ancients (DotA) by Eul (as a transformation of AoS for Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos)[2], and DotA: AllStars by Meian, Guinsoo, Neichus, and IceFrog (not just for Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne)[3]. These different maps (for different games) were created by different modders but with, and so inherited, so many characteristics of the same form: the map-form (the fundamental ideas, properties, characteristics, objectives, etc. on which the maps were built), and can be considered to belong to a unique family of the map-form only. In fact we, the players, favored the map-form (the family of the maps) rather than the individual maps themselves.

Pragmatically, the dominance in the number of people playing the maps is the strong indicator that the map-form is the best prototype to create great derivatives, the successors which would also be favored by huge numbers of players and people just like the predecessors. That would be the main reason why League (and Heroes of Newerth, and DotA, and the like) adopted the map-form for their own maps (like Summoner's Rift). In other words, they pragmatically adopted the map-form of the custom maps favored by almost players and transformed it into those of their own. This is simply a fact of pragmatism.

The same happened to the concept of meta in League: the form of teams, the composition of teams which is mostly favored by the community of players. Pragmatically, it is the best form for a team to have the highest chance of victory (50% in a fair and balance scene), at a certain period of time. This is also simply other matter of pragmatism, just like the map.

There is one more very important thing we must keep in mind: the time needed for the "chosen one" (the "chosen map-form" and the "chosen meta") to become the best is very long. Philosophically, this is kinda like the natural selection processes, through which human beings were "chosen" to dominate the world: millions of years. And the fact that the "chosen one" has been existing in such long periods of time without getting overcome and replaced is the most heavy evidence that no other else of the kind is better than it: it is the best, until then, just like the human beings.

III. Real life correlations

Finally, for a complete answer and to see how the meta works on team fights, let's consider the issues from the angle view of real war aspects: for a real war between two sides, what each needs on the battlefield?!

(1) An "artillery force", of course. In perfect scenes, from a long distance, the artillery force just stands on one side and deals huge amount of damage to delete the enemies on the other side. The problem is, what if the enemy's artillery force is also that of strength?!

(2) We need an other force to protect ("peel") for our artillery force, to suffer and absorb the damage from the enemy to endure the fights and get advantages for our artillery force to do their jobs, to destroy the enemy's artillery force without getting slain, etc... That must be an "armored force".

(3) To ensure the forces work well, we need an other force to help them (communication and cooperation, food, medicine, fuel, etc.): "logistic force".

(4) In many cases, we can win the wars by pivoting the critical changes, by dealing a great blow to the enemy with just a minor lose, by destroying their vital facilities right on their back line and backyard. We need a "special force" to do this.

(5) For great leaders, in many wars, they may win without losing a single bullet (without any physical damage). By deploying a special kind of affairs which defeat the enemies in some "magical" ways by dealing some kind of "magic damage": "diplomatic affairs".

These forces enter the League under the forms of: (1) marksman, (2) tank, (3) supporter, (4) assassin, and (5) mage. Say, correspondingly from real wars, it may be the best for standard armies to have from 1.5 to 2 times of armored potential in relation to the artillery potential. Also, if one side simultaneously deploys both military campaigns and diplomatic affairs (both the kinds of physical damage and magic damage), the complexity for the enemy to deal with (and so the chance of the other side's victory) would be double, in comparison with just either of them (say, only military campaigns with physical damage).

For the role of fighter, a fighter can also be seen as a semi-tank or a semi-assassin depending on the particular cases of different champions and different games. The styles of this kind of champions - especially "true fighters", however, may play a vital role in the future meta(s) and future games (League's meta and League's games as well as other publishers' games and meta). I did extrapolate.

That should be one main of the reasons why the meta is the best form of team-comps to win a fight. Philosophically because there is no simulation better than those which simulate matter of the real life: "Grau, theurer Freund, ist alle Theorie, Und grün des Lebens goldner Baum."[4] The greatest games would be those that virtually simulate and reflect the Goethe's "Lebens goldner Baum".

IV. Conclusion

Each of the ways of considerations provides us a description of the concepts, distinct from the others, from different points of view, and together should give us the full and complete breakdown as well as fundamental concepts and basic understanding of the game. Which are most essential for us to enjoy the game the right way and to advance further, from my point of view.

Fundamental characteristics of meta[5]

1. Meta is relatively fixed
It can be changed slightly from games to games for different derivatives: top or jungle may go assassin or fighter or even mage (Kayle, Lulu, etc.), mid may go AD instead of AP, supporter may go tanky or not tanky.

The question is "why and how?" Answering this question(s) is very important for us to have clear ideas on how to chose the best champion for the team-comp of a particular game (at the "null phase" of a game: bans and picks). The very first idea is kinda simple: fulfill the missing pieces of your team-comps according to the meta[6]:

+) Your team has just had 1 tank: go tank or semi-tank
+) Your team seems to lack CC: go CC-holder
+) Your team seems to lack magic damage: go AP-champions

For example, many players picked Lulu or Kayle and went full AP at top. The secret is the team should have a true tank in jungle and tanky-CC holder supporter, and then Lulu's ult adds a hell amount of tank for the team and can be considered a semi-tank that way. The same for Kayle. The complexity is that, very often, you can't fulfill all the missing pieces completely:

+) You are not the last pick(s) and your team mates don't understand what to pick for the best (last pick is the best one to fulfill the missing pieces of your team-comp, that is why many players love to be last pick).

+) You want to pick Jayce to counter Nasus at top in lane phase, but your team needs (in later phases for team fights) more tank and AP like Maokai, Nautilus, Malphite, etc. since your mid was an AD already (Zed, Yasuo,...).

This point, how to pick the best champion for the team-comp of a particular game depends on your own knowledge and skills, how you "process" the game:

+) How deeply do you understand the meta (to change that of your own team, to counter their ones, etc.)

+) How many champions you mastered in your champion pool to be able to pick the one who can balance the lane phase tactics (countering, farming, roaming, etc.) and the later phases' strategies (team fights, split push, peeling, etc.)

+) What is your pick order and how good your team mates look like to cooperate?!

This is the kind of questions we can't have a fixed answer(s) for every player, the answers all depend on your knowledge and skills on playing League, and will eventually decide how far you will and can advance on playing League. All of what you need to and are able to do is simply "do your best".

2. Meta is not unique in time
Metas always evolve and gradually change in time, but that process takes a very long time and accumulates numerous tiny changes and mutations, just like the natural selection processes.

In League, players always find more and more new ways to fight against the others: better ways to counter the opponents in lane phase or later game phases in team fights, new builds, new playstyles, etc. mutations are created through the process and gradually make the current meta get overcome and replaced.

Exaples on the mutations which may be (or may not be) taking part in the meta change: kinda tanky AP mid Vladimir, Ryze, Swain,...; AP mage top Lulu, Kayle,...; AD mid Zed, Yasuo, Talon,...; changes in items (the borns of Devourer, Sterak's Gate, Dead Man's Plate,... the changes on Raduin, Frozen Heart,... at patch 5.18-5.20); new champions: Ekko for tank or AP, Kindred for jungle or ADC,...; Fizz' nerf and buff and changes; etc.

3. Players are those who create and change the meta(s): as a community, not as separate individuals
+) Meta reflects the ways of playing games: it belongs to the [community of] players rather than the publishers. The borns and changes are just like how a school of fishes determines the next steps of their movement in the ocean.

+) Publishers (Riot Games for League) have great advantages in investigation of meta via their huge amount of information of the games, and can deal a great blow to the meta through changes in game codes, which will finally be modified and fixed by the community.

This post was completed

There would be just minor adjustments if any on this post

The Silencekeeper

References

[1][2][3] Wikipedia.org
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplayer_online_battle_arena
[4] "The grey, dear friend, is all the theories. And green: the golden tree of life." (Goethe)
For more morals of my own from League, check the following post: Morals of the League
[5] For my further suggestions on meta(s), check the following post: Summoner Spell: Which, How, and Why?!
[6] For the complete ideas of mine on how to pick the best champions in the null phase of bans and picks, looking at the corresponding post: The 'null phase' of a game: bans and pics. How?!

Aatrox jungle with Stalker's Blade - [Sated] Devourer

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 04:55:00 +0000

This post discusses my particular ideas on playing Aatrox jungle, for my complete ideas on playing jungle in general, additionally skim this post: Jungle: what is and how to.

Why [Sated] Devourer?

My secrets relate to two characteristics of Aatrox: his healing ability (from W-BloodThirst/ BloodPrice, very importantly, double when below half health) and his AS (from his passive-BloodWell and his R-Massacre). Stalker's Balde - [Sated] Devourer adds some recipes to his strength: AS, triggering the heal by phantom hits, and bonus magic damage on hits.

I have often seen people play Aatrox as a full damage fighter (and often build full AD). Here I wanna remind that his secondary role is tank and he deals a large amount of magic damage since his E-BladesOfTorment and R-Massacre give magic damage. And in my view it should be best for jungle Aatrox to be a semi-tank with hybrid-AD-AP damage. The core items of this playstyle, from left to right listed in the order they are bought, are in the green circle:

The Spirit Visage improves Aatrox's healing capability by increasing 20% all healing received; In case the other team doesn't have much magic damage or their AD is so strong, of course we must build Armor before Spirit Visage. We can also build BoRK for more damage, as an additional offensive item or instead of Guinsoo's Rage Blade.

In case our team is quite ahead, we can build RageBlade as the second item after Stalker's Blade - Devourer and go fighter Aatrox, even a full damage fighter Aatrox. If our team is behind, however, it should be best for us to build defensive items and go tank right after Stalker's Blade - Devourer and just build RageBlade later or even go heavy tank with Stalker's Blade - Devourer to be the only offensive item. We can also build Ninja Tabi instead of Mercury's Treads for better defense against AD (physical damage).

Just like all the other jungle champions with [Sated] Devourer build (Udyr, Master Yi, Shyvana, etc.) there is a very important thing we must notice: the Rift Scuttlers give 2 stacks, while Dragon and Rift Herald and Baron give 5 stacks. So, once we get Devourer we must keep our eyes on Dragon and Rift Herald and take them down when never we can: not just to get sated as soon as possible but also to prevent the other jungler from getting sated, if so. If you see the other jungle is ganking top, for example, go solo Dragon for 5 stacks for free (even 7 stacks by taking the Rift Scuttler) :P

My top secrets

1. Always try to keep the passive-BloodWell (up and) full: this gives him 55% AS
2. In fightings, don't use his R-Massacre until around half health: this gives him 40/50/60% AS (for 12 seconds)

Consequentially, if you use the ult at the right time with a full BloodWell:
1. The healing from his W-BloodThirster will get double every 3rd hit, and quadra with Sated Devourer every 4th hit. SpiritVisage increases the amount by 20%, which means 480% in total (almost 500%: penta) every 4th hit.
2. Meanwhile his AS will increase to around 150% (with Devourer's AS increase contribution, and like 200% with both Devourer and RageBlade).

The combination of these factors (5 times in amount and 2 times in speed, which results in like 10 times greater than usual every 4th hit) makes this healing become by far the most amazing healing you can think of: in both healing amount and healing speed. And since he is a semi-tank, it will be almost impossible to kill him. Let alone the passive-BloodWell's heath restoration after stasis (around 1200 at level 18) and the R-Massacre's magic damage dealt (200/300/400 + 100%AP). Let's witness that in this one:

(For more videos, check my YouTube channel)

Anti-psychology playstyle

When looking at an Aatrox with (lower than) half heath remaining, psychologically, people often "feel" that they can take him down in just a few next attacks; with the secrets above, however, that would be the most critical disaster of their "psychological feelings" :P. Also, we must remember that the R-Massacre increases his range by 175 (for 12 seconds), and fills the BloodWell by 20% for each champion hit (if it's not full yet, of course): try to ult so that the BloodWell will get full to get the highest AS he can wield as well as maximum heath restoration after stasis.

This playstyle can be described as "only play at lower than half health". I wanna call this "the playstyle of psychology-countering" or "anti-psychological playstyle", since people often "play at full health", no one would wanna play at lower than half health. Personally, I even sometimes saved the ult R-Massacre to use only after stasis.

The entries on the green circles can be alternatives, in my view.

Personally at the present, I prefer the first Runes Page with 47 Armore at level 18 than the second one with 14% AS for more tanky properties

For Aatrox top, we can also build BoRK instead of Stalker's Blade - [Sated] Devourer. In my view for the anti-psychological playstyle, this item is very powerful in his hand, especially if we go heavy damage Aatrox; but personally I often play him as a semi-tank jungler with Devourer and RageBlade to be the 2 offensive items.

The two final important points of mine on playing Aatrox are (1) the fact of maximizing E-BladesOfTorment first: this will increase both his damage (benefit from both AD and AP indexes) and his CC duration since the slow affect increases from 1.75s to the maximum of 2.75 (this CC duration is very important, especially for ganking when we play jungle Aatrox); (2) Don't toggle his W-BloodPrice on unintentionally, this will cancel the healing property, but also, don't forget to use it when you chase enemies at full health for more effective kills.

More health he misses, more blood on the batterfields, and more strength he wields. Aatrox - The true Devil: immortal and never die. So, let his foes understand that they shouldn't wake him up, or that they should prepare themselves for their worst fate: he is unpreventably waking up and soon smell this world with a robotic-friendly voice read "H e l l o... World, hello... e v e r y b o d y...". Never trust him, never believe in his friendliness: not because he is bad, nor because he is wrong, he never lies - of course - just that the only thing he will give to and want from this world and people is BLOOD!

''Some fight for honor, some fight for glory. It matters only that you fight.'' [1]
-- Aatrox --

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post
Last update: January 04, 2016

The Silencekeeper

References

[1] The lore of Aatrox, League of Legends © Riot Games Inc.
http://gameinfo.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/game-info/champions/aatrox/
For morals of League, check the following post: Morals from League

Ezreal ADC starting Doran's Ring with Manamune build

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 14:12:00 +0000

This post, as the related one to the discussion of hybrid-AP mage mid laner Ezreal, discusses my personal build and playstyle for ADC Ezreal starting Doran's Ring (and two Health Potions). For my complete ideas on playing Ezreal, additionally skim the post for the hybrid-AP mage mid Ezreal: Ezreal mage mid laner hybrid-AP build with Manamune

The Mastery page is completely the same as that for hybrid-AP mage mid Ezreal, the Rune page has some points different, as depicted herein. The core items of this build, from left to right listed in the order they are bought, are:

I build the Sterak's Gate for the last item in some games, for more defensive components we can also build GuardianAngel or Banshee'sVeil depending on the particular games. As we can see, all the items add an important amount of bonus damage to his basic attacks, and also, his Q-MysticShot. We can also build InfinityEdge instead of TheBladeOfTheRuinedKing for critical damage as well as build IonianBootsOfLucidity instead of Sorcerer'sShoes for CooldownReduction.

Why Doran'sRing for ADC? The deep details of the answer for this question can be found in the post for hybrid-AP mage mid Ezreal: Briefly, I wanna invoke his harassing potential early games, to prevent the ADC opponent from farming and to take kills if possible.

+) This playstyle in the very early game stage would be similar to the hybrid-AP mage mid Ezreal with magic-dominant damage by maximizing W-EssenceFlux first, then E-ArcaneShift, and Q-MysticShot to be the last.

+) In my view, the playstyle of maximizing Q-MysticShot first has some limits in comparison with the way of maximizing E-EssenceFlux first: the damage of Q-MysticShot is much less than the damage of E-EssenceFlux: 35/55/75/95/115 (+110%AD) (+40%AP) vs 70/115/160/205/250 (+80%AP), let alone the bonus of 20/25/30/35/40%AS for all ally champions it passes through, including Ezreal himself. In addition, by maximizing W-EssenceFlux first, I can still use Q-MysticShot for cs-ing at its lowest mana cost (28 mana); since Q-MysticShot has +40%AP ratio, it benefits from the AP index of Doran'sRing too.

With the thoughts in mind, I take 15AP from the Runes page for the best. Consequently, I can't invoke so many AD early game; The 22 levels-scaling AD is best for me in this case: it will help me get the most out of the Runes page late game, since the Marks approve AD (for 9 marks you will have 22 AD at level 18; if you take AP, however, it will just be 17).

My main ideas on this build and playstyle are to play Ezreal ADC in the early stage of games as the hybrid-AP mage mid Ezreal to exploit his incredible harassing potential early games, and to incorporate this magic damage into the ADC's physical-dominant damage late game. That is the best way to use Ezreal with all of his potentials, in my views.

Singularities of this build and playstyle are quite similar to those of the hybrid-AP mage mid Ezreal:

+) This build (alongside the Rune and Mastery pages) invokes all the damage possible for Ezreal and incorporates both physical and magical damage components which are quite balancing in the Rune and Mastery pages, the AD-dominance almost comes from the items bought during the course of games. The final physical-dominant damage is really incredible since it contains a significant amount of magic damage.

+) There is one transition between magic-dominant and physical-dominant damage in this route of build: from starting AP to Manamune rush and the next core items of an ADC.

In fact, we completely can pivot the build into the hybrid-AP of a mage mid Ezreal by the second transition (which I mentioned in the hybrid-AP mage mid Ezreal post) after Manamune if needed (in case team is full of physical damage champions, for example, and needs Ezreal to build AP for magic damage). This is why it would be hard for opponents to make good decisions on how to deal with, especially when we tactically and strategically pivot the transitions.

Of course, this build and playstyle have some disadvantages as mentioned in the related post on hybrid-AP mage mid Ezreal: farming capability and sustainability would be limited at the very early games, the intense of carefulness, etc.

The scaling armor Seals part is the defensive component specialized to be against the enemy ADC, the flat magic resist Glyphs part is specialized to be against the enemy supporter (supporters often deal magic damage).

For Ezreal, DoubleEdgedSword is always my choice, because his escaping ability is very strong with E-ArcaneShift and so hard to be caught by opponents. I almost never pick the Feast entry (green circle) for Ezreal.

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post
Last update: January 04, 2016

The Silencekeeper

Ezreal mage mid laner hybrid-AP build with Manamune

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 14:12:00 +0000

This post deals with my personal playstyle for mage mid laner Ezreal, building hybrid-AP with Manamune. For my complete ideas on playing Ezreal, additionally skim the related post discussing ADC Ezreal: Ezreal adc starting Doran's Ring with Manamune build.

The Runes and Masteries pages are depicted herein. The starting item is Doran'sRing (with two health potions); The second item needed to rush is [Tear and] Manamune. The core items of this build are in the green circle (the items are listed in the order they are bought from left to right):

We can also take IonianBootsOfLucidity instead of Sorcerer'sShoes for more utilities instead of Magic Penetration.

"Why Doran's Ring?!"

+) Firstly, the AP index of a Doran'sRing provides much more damage for harassing the opponent than the AD index of a Doran'sBlade (since it adds to the damage of all the 4 abilities Ezreal possesses: Q-MysticShot, W-EssenceFlux, E-ArcaneShift, and R-TrueshotBarrage). And one of my main purposes in lane is to harass the opponent as hard as possible to prevent them from farming and to take kills if possible, of course: to dominate them and win the game later.

Notice that, to have the highest harassing potential, with this build and playstyle I always maximize W-EssenceFlux first, then E-ArcaneShift. Q-MysticShot is the final to be maximized.

+) Secondly, Doran'sRing's passive (restore 4 mana upon killing a unit) as well as its Mana Regen index (3 mana Regen per 5 seconds) prove more mana and so will endure the harassing potential even more and so will support my particular playstyle discussed herein: all of which a Doran'sBlade can't prove.

"Why Manamune (Muramana) for the AP build?!" This is the key point of my secrets on the hybrid build for mage mid laner Ezreal, to be able to invoke all of his potentials. The secrets root in the nature of the champion -- Ezreal, and let's begin the story from this.

As a marksman as well as a mage (his primary and secondary roles), Ezreal possesses both the physical and magical damage potentials. Consequentially, Ezreal can be played as a marksman (ADC at bot lane) or a mage (mid laner with AP build). The point here is that I wanna invoke both the potentials simultaneously, for different purposes. Particularly, the reasons and purposes for the Manamune are: farming capability via basic attacks supported by the bonus AS from his passive-RasingSpellForce and W-EssenceFlux, the AD index' contributions to the damage of his abilities and basic attacks, and very interesting, the ability to make the opponents get confused since they would be hard to realize what would be the real route of the build: AD-focus or AP-focus.

+) Farming capability: When being played as a mage mid laner, Ezreal's farming capability is quite limited; He can only use basic attacks or Q-MysticShot to farm of which the damage is kinda minor since they are not directly supported by AP index. His W-EssenceFlux doesn't affect minions and and E-ArcaneShift has kinda long cooldown and high mana cost. Manamune will fix this disadvantage of AP mage Ezreal -- not just in the lane phase but also in late game (to clear huge minion waves, to attack opponents using basic attacks, etc.).

+) His passive-RaisingSpellForce and W-EssenceFlux's bonus AS support basic attacks by increasing his AS. These properties, and consequentially his basic attacks, will be kinda ignored when we build full AP mage Ezreal. However, when we build Manamune, especially at the early stage of lane phase, his basic attacks (supporting by these properties) are not able to be ignored anymore; This will be even more obviously when we optimize the AD index by the Runes and Masteries pages' contributions.

+) The AD index directly contributes to the damage of his basic attacks, his Q-MysticShot, his R-TrueshotBarrage, and even partially contributes to the damage of his E-ArcaneShift. And very importantly, the Muramana gives extra damage (3% current mana consumed) on single-target spells and basic attacks.

+) The ability to make opponents get confused: when we start a Doran'sRing with the Runes and Masteries pages, they would almost think we would build full AP route; then the Manamune and Sheen (for Lich Bane in this build, not for Trinity Force) would make them ponder on the build. In fact, we completely can pivot the build into AD-focus by building Trinity Force from Sheen and the next items as an ADC, as discussed in my post on ADC Ezreal: Ezreal adc starting Doran's Ring with Manamune build. For now, obviously, this route of build can make them confused and ponder on what is the next items and the final build: AD-based or AP-based. This may lead them to wrong decision making on how to deal with: build Armor or Magic Resist for their defensive components for example.

Manamune resolves all the issues and consequentially and naturally, alongside the Runes and Masteries pages it fits perfectly in the AP build, from my point of view.

The Magic Resist Glyphs and levels-scale health Seals are the defensive components, which are the best to lane against other mage mid champions (like Akali, Lux, Kassadin, etc.). If the opponent is an AD-based champion (like Zed, Yasuo, Jayce, etc.), it should be best for us to make some changes at these two components, or even change the playstyle; lets discuss about this in an other talk :P. The levels-scale AD Marks, for the same reason as the Manamune, add to the hybrid property.

For Ezreal, DoubleEdgedSword is always my favorite choice for more damage since his E-ArcaneShift is a very powerful escaping ability, so it's hard for opponents to catch him. If we want more sustainability, we can pick Feast entry (green circle).

There is an other important point I want to make: you may think I took into account too many minor and "ignorable" factors like 22 levels-scale AD from Runes page, the 10AD and 15AP of the NaturalTalent entry from Masteries page, and the like. The point is that they are really "too many" and so together add up to the final amount of damage which is really amazing.

Particularly and technically and approximately, for the damage related to the AD index, all the minor factors gradually and finally (at level 18) add up to like 200 damage for his basic attacks and his Q-MysticShot (not to mention the contributions to the damage of his E-ArcaneShift and R-TrueshotBarrage): 22 levels-scale from Runes page, 10 from Masteries page, more than 65 + 100 (3% current mana consumed at high mana states) from Muramana. Let alone the % bonus damage from the Mastery Page: 2% from Sorcery entry, 2% from DoubleEdgedSword, up to 5% from BountyHunter, up to 1.5% from Assassin, up tp 5% from Merciless,... all of this increases the damage up to an additional amount of 15.5% in total. These are much more than that of 4 B. F. Sword items which cost 1550x4 Gold and are definitely not "ignorable" XD

Also notice that the amazing damage and AD index increase gradually over the course of games, and so, to gain the amazing damage and AD index as soon as possible, in my plays I always cast spells whenever I can to help Tear gain extra mana since the Manamune's AD index will benefit from maximum mana. When we get Manamune already, this will be more easier since Manamune additionally gains the extra mana from basic attacks as well.

Personally, in the best games of mine, I can get the Muramana transformation a little bit later than the 20th minute of the games (around level 12), like in this one:

Finally, be sure to not waste the bonus damage of 3% current mana consumed from Muramana to farm (clear minion waves) if not necessary: save the mana and so the damage to deal with enemy champions for the best to the victory.

Singularities of this build and playstyle:

+) This build (alongside the Runes and Masteries pages) invokes all the damage possible for Ezreal and incorporates both physical and magical damage components which are quite balancing in the Runes and Masteries pages, the AP-dominance almost comes from the items bought during the course of games. The final magic-dominant damage is by far the most incredible since it is the maximum magic-dominant damage Ezreal can invoke, from my point of view.

+) In fact, there are two transitions between physical-leaning and magic-dominant damage in this route of build: from starting AP to Manamune rush, and then from AD-leaning of Manamune to AP-dominance of the next core items. This is why it would be hard for opponents to make good decisions on how to deal with, especially when we intentionally frustrate them by tactically or strategically pivoting the transitions.

Disadvantages of this build and playstyle: here are some weaknesses I got out of this build

+) The farming capability is quite limited and hard at the very early game when we do not get Manamune yet (no Doran'sBlade, almost no AD from Runes page), we may miss cs during this period.

+) The sustainability will be on the same page with farming capability since we have almost no way to heal regularly, especially if we don't take the Feast entry from the Masteries page.

+) Since the playstyle focuses on the late game damage, the carefulness is much more intense and sometimes makes the play seem to be too passive. It is not easy to play aggressively with this build.

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post
Last update: January 03, 2016

The Silencekeeper

P5 Jungle: what is and how to

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 14:11:00 +0000

Among the 5 roles, jungle (or jungler) is a quite interesting one: there is no explicit opponent as the 3 lanes, the monsters are heterogeneous while minions are quite homogeneous, the monsters give buffs (different buffs for different monsters), the gold for monster kills is calculated differently from that of minions, etc. So the first thing to talk about jungle (or jungler), in my view, is to shed some light on the nature of the role: on Sommoner's Rift, what jungle really is?!

From my point of view, jungle is also a lane: an unconventional, "dynamic lane" where the lanner (jungler) dynamically travels through to catch the monsters. On the contrary and relatively, the 3 conventional lanes can be seen as "static lanes" where the lanners (top, mid, bot lanners) just statically wait for the minions to move to them. The conventional lanners also move, of course, but not that dynamically as junglers, especially at the eary phase of games. The rivers can also be seen as special lanes where there are special monsters (epic monsters of Dragon and Baron, and Rift Scuttlers).

Of course, all the lanes are connected (by paths, walls, terrains, pits, etc.), cuz "We are all connected to each other, in a circle, in a hope that never end... Have you ever heard a wolf cry to the blue corn moon? Or ask the grinning bob cat why he grins?..."[1][3] XD

Tank or Fighter or Assassin, AD or AP for jungler?

First of all, it's the highest chance for a team to win a game when they have from 1.5 (1 true tank and 1 semi-tank) to 2 true tanks (skim this post of mine for the reasons why: Roles and Lanes: How and Why? Meta Breakdown!). Since ADC and mid lanner almost don't go tanks; the possible tanks are top lanner, supporter, and jungler.

It's kinda difficult for supporter to be a true tank, if going tank it should be best for supporter to be a semi-tank. It, so, has some room for top lanner and jungler to go heavy tank or semi-tank or full damage (assassin): if top goes heavy tank and support goes semi-tank, for example, jungler may go full damage assassin.

On the same page, it's the best for team to win if team have a balance between AD and AP (physical and magic damage), so going AD or AP jungler should depend on the team's components. How to pick the best jungler for a particular game, so, must depend on the team's components. Unfortunately (or fortunately?!), this must be decided in the prior phase of games: Bans and Picks (skim this post of mine for more details of this topic: Roles and Lanes: How and Why? Meta Breakdown!)

What camp is the best for jungler to start?

In my thoughts, starting bot camps is the best since we will receive support from two team mates: ADC and supporter. If we are on the upper-right side, we should begin Gromp. If we are on the lower-left side, however in my opinions, starting Red camp (Red Brambleback) is better than starting Golems (Ancient Drug) for some reasons:

+) Red buff provides us slow-CC and damage over time on basic attacks, as well as Health Regen per 5 seconds; these are really great advantages for us at the very early phase of games.

+) No Health Potion consumed: Since Smite on Red gives us healing health, it is almost free for leashing this camp. In fact you may lose kinda much health but due to the healing from Smite, the passive of Hunter's Machete, and Red buff, your health will get full very soon.

+) From my experience, by leaving when the Red's health is around 900, ADC will not lose any minion.

There are some important notes for jungler:

+) Do what you think your team mates need: your top team mate is Nasus and you see helping him farm his Q-Siphoning Strike will ensure your team's final victory? Camp top a little bit more.

If you don't have a clear idea on where to camp, gank where you see the highest chance to succeed. To be able to realize the lanes with highest chances, you must always keep your eyes on all the lanes but should focus on the nearest lanes to your farming camps at the time.

+) Try to keep track of the other jungler for better chance of counter-ganks, for avoiding his ganked, for controlling objectives (Dragon, Baron,...), for warning team mates for danger from him, for stealing the jungle monsters, etc.

One of the first things I always do to keep track of the other jungler is to try to figure out where they begin leashing. This is not so difficult: when you leash your own first jungle camp, skim their top and bot lanners and figure out who are missing right at the time since that is where the other jungler is leashing with the help from them. Like in this one:

Right when my team mates (ADC and supporter) left at 1:50 (in-game timer), I also started to track their top and bot lanners to find out who were missing. It appeared right from the moment that Fiora (top lanner) didn't help leash while the other ADC came to lane kinda later: an obvious sigh of helping leash. So I immediately came to the conclusion that their jungler must begin bot camp (most probably, Gromp) and went steal his Red right after that. I always do the same procedure every game playing jungle to keep track of their jungler right from the very early phase of games :P

Sometimes I failed too, but as Winston S. Churchill did throw at the public: "Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiam"[2]. Failure has its own sense: I knew how to prevent em from stealing my jungle that way as well as how to steal their jungle in a smarter way. Also, whenever I play top and my bot (ADC and supporter) are helping leash, I always wait for them to appear in lane at the same time so the other team won't know where my jungler began. The same whenever I play ADC :P

You can check all the points and more on my YouTube channel.

This post was completed; there would be just minor adjustments if any on this post
Last update: February 25, 2016

The Silencekeeper

References:

[1][2] For more morals of the League, check the following post: Morals of the League
[3] "Colors of the wind", Vanessa Williams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbuzskVs6rc

The legalities

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 03:09:00 +0000

There are potential legal issues on the stuff of this website. The purpose of this post is to point out the legalities of this site, and more importantly, to prevent unnecessary arguments relating to the potential issues in the future. As a fellow individual, I have the rights to protect myself beforehand, and I use this post as the very first defense to keep myself staying away from potential legal issues: back and forth.

1. The scope of this website (the content discussed on this site)

This site is mainly to discuss the ways of playing League of Legends © Riot Games Inc. (League), a commercial copyright-protected product based on the free-to-play model. The product itself unarguably belongs to the creator(s); the ways of using it (playing), however, belong to us (the public).

For clarity, this website is to discuss the ways we - the people - play League, not the product itself. Any side discussion if any should be in relation to the main content mentioned herein.

2. The League of Legends related images used on this website

The use of the images, alongside the captions and notes and explanations, is simply to demonstrate the aspect of depicted-icons related details mentioned in my personal, distinct, and often unconventional playstyles, thoughts, views, and opinions on playing League of Legends © Riot Games Inc. discussed here on this site. In other words, the use of the League-related images is simply to help make my descriptions of my ideas on playing League clearer and easier to understand.

This kind of use is within the scope of and is protected by fair use rule, typically "17 U.S. Code §107 - Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use" and the like. Any kind of DMCA (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notice without good faith consideration of fair use and tranformativeness before ordering is legally illegal and valueless.

3. The videos used on this website

All of the League videos used on this site are from my own YouTube channel. This usage of the videos is perpetually and irrevocably permitted by YouTube's Terms of Service (section 6.C):

"For clarity, you retain all of your ownership rights in your Content. However, by submitting Content to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Content in connection with the Service and YouTube's (and its successors' and affiliates') business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. You also hereby grant each user of the Service a non-exclusive license to access your Content through the Service, and to use, reproduce, distribute, display and perform such Content as permitted through the functionality of the Service and under these Terms of Service. The above licenses granted by you in video Content you submit to the Service terminate within a commercially reasonable time after you remove or delete your videos from the Service. You understand and agree, however, that YouTube may retain, but not display, distribute, or perform, server copies of your videos that have been removed or deleted. The above licenses granted by you in user comments you submit are perpetual and irrevocable."

The videos were created by myself and were reproduced, distributed, displayed, and performed through the functionality of the Service in association with its affiliate, Blogger. This site doesn't contain any copyright infringement video, created by other individuals or not.

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This website is powered by Blogger, a Google's service. Consequentially, it adopts all the matter of copyright, privacy policy, terms of services, and the like from Google on the service. Particularly, for more details for:

+) Content policy: Blogger Content Policy
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Basically, by using Blogger – the service of Google, The Silencekeeper gives Google (and those Google works with, or simply Google for short) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes they make so that the content works better with Google Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute the content. The rights The Silencekeeper grants in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting, and improving Google Services, and to develop new ones.

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Progressing post: The content of this post will be updated as soon as needed
There may be changes or new stuff soon
Last update: February 29, 2016

The Silencekeeper

The abbreviations

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 15:02:00 +0000

The abbreviations used in the posts

AD and ADC............................ Attack Damage and AD Carry
AoE........................................ Area of Effect

AP and APC............................ Ability Power and AP Carry

AR.......................................... Armor

AS.......................................... Attack Speed

BoRK or Bork or BORK............ Blade of the Ruined King

CC.......................................... Crowd Control
CDR........................................ Cooldown Reduction
DPS........................................ Damage Per Second

HP.......................................... Health Point

HP5........................................ Health Point Regeneration per 5 seconds

IE............................................ Infinity Edge

LB........................................... Lich Bane
League.................................... League of Legends © Riot Games Inc.

MR.......................................... Magic Resistance
MS.......................................... Movement Speed
RoA......................................... Rod of Ages
Team-comp.............................. Team's composition

TF........................................... Trinity Force
Ult........................................... Ultimate ability: the 4th ability assigned to they key R

Composing page: more abbreviations will be added whenever one found
There may have changes or new stuff soon on this page

The Silencekeeper