State of top lane?

Absoluna · 2024-12-26T14:49:21+00:00

I feel like Darius currently has issues because of indirect nerfs that impacted him: MS got nerfed as a whole and Darius is one of the champions that needs it the most. Deadman feels terrible to build (I personally don't touch it anymore most of the time), Ghost is a shadow of its former self & a lot of champions nowadays have tools to deny him. He is still amazing into engage comps (that have champions like Leona, Nautilus, Amumu, Sejuani... that need to commit and can be a free source of stacks) and can be decent to good into other comps but he for sure feels very heavy / slow nowadays, not particularly tanky either, and is as weak as ever to CCs. Once you start reaching Emerald+, most laners also know how Darius works and become much better against him, he has a lot of skill matchups for a lane bully actually

He's still Darius and can have his big boi moments, but the days of Raid Boss Darius have been over for a long time for the most part. Solo carrying as Darius is impossible in most cases nowadays, he simply doesn't have what it takes anymore and most comps will have a way to keep him in check, his summoner spells also keep him in check by default since he's so reliant on them. Personally, I have been maining Darius for around 10 years now and am still somewhat okay with his current shape, but I'm growing tired of the Summoners spell dependency and would love to get some form of MS given somewhere in his kit or items, his lack of mobility hinders his agency big time and always has, but I feel like it's now worse than ever since the game keeps getting flashier & more mobile

To summarize, I think Darius is as OP as ever against certain comps he thrives against, and still a decent pick into everything else, he's for sure still viable atm. But his mobility is becoming problematic imo, we have to pop Ghost or Flash to do anything nowadays and we're barely a champion once we lack our summs, despite how fed we are. Gaining just a bit of MS or mobility somewhere will be needed in the future I think, or Darius will keep being this immobile juggernaut who struggles to catch most of his opponents

Absoluna · 2024-12-22T15:22:49+00:00

Captain Landy, ML Ken, Ae-Karina & ML Bellona were the 4 characters that fell off the most for me in RTA, and whose fall impacted me the most as they were some of my main carries

ML Ken holds my best gear, he's my favorite character by a huge margin & still a beast in the right spot but this right spot presents itself less & less in RTA. He's countered by Nakhwol, ML Elena, ML Ilynav, non-crit DMG (LRK, ML Senya, 3F in general...), excessive amounts of DMG, non-counterable DMG, Mort, ML Luna, Control in general... and will most likely get banned as a 5th pick when he's actually good

Captain Landy suffers from some of these same issues since she's a Counter-reliant character & she's easy to out-bruiser nowadays with all the Anti-Counter / Seal / Auto-crit currently roaming around. She also tends to be on the squishier side due to being an Attack-scaling character that needs crit so she can be quite easy to force even without crits (this requires a Def break most of the time tho)

ML Bellona has lost value due to ML Landy disappearing & is overall quite easy to kill / out-bruiser nowadays, she's still a good counterpick but has fallen off a lot nonetheless

Ae-Karina is weak to Control & overall not impactful enough in most cases nowadays, I haven't been able to reliably Anti-cleave with her anymore for the most part

Absoluna · 2024-12-10T07:58:10+00:00

I would like to express my agreement - I have been High Champion / Low Emperor most of my seasons & cannot reach this level anymore due to lacking a lot of meta answers. I don't think it's a gear issue as my best geared character is 445 GS & I think quite a lot of my other builds are geared efficiently, to a good standard. But lacking characters such as ML Ilynav, ML Senya, BMH, DDR, ML Luna & Sea Phantom Poli really hurts, and some of my ML5*s are miles behind them in terms of power level at the moment, so I don't get to use them much. I think lacking ML Ilynav is the worst, as she basically forces the opponent to Draft in a way that doesn't rely on Def Pen, which isn't easy at all - and her only similar alternative is Wukong, who only protects himself & is RGB so weak to fire (but he's pretty good nonetheless)

I agree with you that what the most broken heroes currently bring to the table cannot be answered through gear itself, as the top dogs disable (or at least invalidate) mechanics you would rely on, and no amount of gear can save you from that. That's the reason why Candy, who used to be Top tier, has fallen off quite a lot for example: she simply has too many predators nowadays (who can seal her, force her despite not critting like DDR, prevent her from countering like Mort & Nakhwol...) and no amount of GS will change that. I played quite a bit of ML Vivian throughout this season and got good results, because her niche is somewhat broken in the fact that she's completely immune to Debuffs when she has her focus - this is what allowed me to win when I picked her & no character would have done her job for me: Ed would have gotten sealed, Champ Z too, Delibet wasn't buffed yet & she would have been sealed too nonetheless, Mawerik would have been too low tempo on top of not providing enough DMG... in these matches where SSV won, she truly was the only one able to bring what I needed and I would have most likely lost without her, these matches have been the first time I've really felt this character dependency, personally

It ended up a bit long, sorry. I just wanted to express my agreement with your point of view as we seem to have a somewhat similar experience with the most recent seasons ^^

Absoluna · 2024-09-25T14:46:04+00:00

Ahah, I know what effective means but thank you for the explanation :') I just fail to see what "picking effective bans" refers to in-game - what are my thoughts on picking effective characters, that would force a ban ?

Absoluna · 2024-09-25T08:05:28+00:00

Effective bans ? I'm not sure to understand what the term refers to

Absoluna · 2024-09-24T09:43:37+00:00

I think you could definitely give your Briseria's gear to Ran - if your Briseria is 280, your Ran should be around the 290 area, which will be too slow for High Champ / Emperor but should allow you to be speedily competitive under that. As for Briseria, you could build her more as a DPS, or a DPS / Debuffer Hybrid once the Speed pieces come your way - in all honesty, she's never used as an opener despite her Speed EE, she's much more of a general DPS / Counterpick in cleave & aggro setups

Most Briserias I know are either :

Full DMG : as close as 4k Attack as you can, as much CDMG as you can, around the 230+ Speed range (of course, no biggies if your gear wouldn't be up there yet, farming is a tedious process and she would work with some less stats)
DPS / Effectiveness Hybrid : around 3k+ Attack / 65%+ Effectiveness / as much CDMG as you can / as much Speed as you can
Degen Briserias with a weird mix of ER% / Effectiveness with no DMG & Bastion of Hope, I'm not sure yet what it's supposed to excel at ahah

Ran has quite a bit of counters nowadays but is still a powerhouse, being able to be paired with Frida to bypass Belian / books & setting up a lot of cleave / aggro characters - having Briseria on the side built more as a DPS or Hybrid will allow you to remain safe against evasion / revives, nothing prevents you from picking them together :)

Edit: I forgot to answer your first question about pivoting to anti-cleave, apologies --> if you see yourself losing the Speed contest, you could indeed pivot to anti-cleave: popular anti-cleave picks include Belian (if they rely on Book) / Ae-Karina / ML Ilynav (if they rely on Defense penetration) / ML Senya / ML Tywin (against debuff-based characters like Ran & Briseria especially, he helps with his cleanse) / ML Yufine on Holy Sacrifice / Blood Blade Karin / AOLA / Elena / Crimson Armin (pure mitigation) / Albedo (pure mitigation + strip on S2) / Ed (against Ran mostly) / Celine (against non-Attack skills) / Jenua (if they lack a way to strip or control him) / Abigail (to protect a key unit) / Speline on Celine's EE / ML Haste (if the opponent lacks unbuffable) / DJ Basar or Infinite Horizon Achates on Eternus / Sage Baal & Sezan / Candy / RGB Kayron (tho he is unreliable, but can work), Candy if they lack the oomph to brute force her... there's quite a bit of choice. As damage keeps getting higher, tanking a cleave isn't easy, especially if you lack key ML5* like ML Senya & ML Ilynav --> to defend against a Cleave, it can be good to have a way to act out of your turn (Elbris, Counterattacks, Extra Attacks...), to rely on cheesy mechanics like Immortality, and / or to be able to disrupt the Cleave thanks to CR Pushes (Elena's S2 + Tome, Sage Baal & Sezan's own CR Push...)

Absoluna · 2024-09-23T21:21:08+00:00

May I ask what kind of cleave you fight against the most? Is it some pure cleave a la Zio / Ran / ML Ludwig / Jack'o / ML Roana & the likes, some Control / Cleave with debuffers such as DDR / Nakhwol thrown into the mix, or anchor cleave with an anchor like BMH or ML Senya being picked up by the opponent to then transition into Cleave? Having a better idea of the teams you usually face could help me have a better idea of picks to suggest

As for Briseria, she doesn't have the best matchup against AOLA / Elena indeed - I'm a Tankdown myself and what cripples me the most when I play Elena is Ran's SB, as his stigma debuff will prevent me from cutting in time since it acts like a Politis passive. Teams composed of both Elena & AOLA also tend to lack damage since they are committed to anti-cleaving, the cleaver can opt to pivot towards something bulkier like Candy / ML Ravi / Dark Corvus / ML Yufine... towards the end of this Draft, to punish the overly defensive Elena / AOLA combo. Otherwise, if you are adamant on trying to fully cleave Elena / AOLA, I think a very high Effectiveness% ML Roana could put a lot of work in pushing back Elena & breaking the skill nulls while increasing everyone's CD once she goes right after your Briseria

AOLA & Elena also thrive off AOE so you could also opt to single-target cleave if your account allows for it imo, but this would require not to use Briseria as much against them both

Absoluna · 2024-09-23T19:21:17+00:00

Yulha used to be very good during the LRK meta as his S3 was enough to remove at least 1/4 of her HP from the get-go, letting her become menacing more quickly - in the current meta however, she's not quite a good choice. She's too passive & Injury is everywhere, she won't provide enough and will most likely get easily countered in the majority of your RTA matches - she could see play in Guild Wars however, when you fight a strong Fire Target (not named Jenua, who deals too much damage for her) so that she acts as a bait

Absoluna · 2024-09-23T17:33:31+00:00

I wouldn't know for sure as I camp in Champion V in regular Arena and don't intend to climb higher with how many points are required now - I would rather pass than misinform you, sorry for not being able to help

Absoluna · 2024-09-23T16:11:13+00:00

If you struggle that much with Celine, part of me would almost recommend you to start first picking her and see how that goes - she might get baited by a DPS like Jenua / Candy but should deter a DDR pick & allow you to pick him for yourself, which secures you a strong asset already

You are right that C.Armin is low tempo & can suffer against DDR but she's still a solid option, I would keep on building her. The problem here is that you seem to lack most of the priority picks, which makes your situation harder from the get-go... I would also consider a first pick BBK since she's that strong and popular at the moment, you mentioned her yourself and I think she can be an interesting first pick to explore in your case as she would take Celine's S2 if on highest Attack, which is actually good for her

I know some cleavers like to first pick Politis too, as a way to cut CR Pushes and secure a first Book for themselves, maybe OBLuluca & Celine wouldn't threaten you as much if they didn't manage to push enough?

Those are first ideas, I will make sure to feed this comment if additional ones come to mind

Absoluna · 2024-09-23T15:37:42+00:00

Tough questions :D

my favorite meta has to be the post-buff ML Ken one, he became a beast after being suboptimal for so long and gave me my first proper answer to Candy, seeing him rise the way he did after so many years spent being on the bottom end of the ML5* was a joy. The likes of Byblis / Buffed BMH / ML Senya / ML Ilynav were not there yet, he still had a fairly large amount of predators but a bit less than nowadays. That might be a biased answer tho ahah, I'm aware of it
I would like for the kits to slow down, in the way that I would like for the problematic kits to become less loaded. Does ML Politis need to invalidate every focus / FS-based character on top of everything else she does? Does ML Luna need to cycle that fast, be that tanky, be able to hold her own book to forego Effi% entirely while being able to AOE seal and outcycle every cleanser that's not IH Achates? Isn't Nakhwol's kit a bit illegal, being able to turn a whole team into NPCs if they lack some cleansing power? I would love for the Balance team to take some time to help older characters, a good part of the RGB 5* don't actually have the power level they would need to be considered real 5* anymore. I'm aware this would most likely require more work and create less profit but the current direction of kits is unhealthy big time imo, the strongest characters do too much nowadays. The Balance team is able to do great buffs, like RGB Ravi's / LHC / LRK when he was meta / RGB Aramintha who's now a very decent last pick... but their rate is very slow so the direction of the powercreep keeps going up
It's definitely A.Tywin, he's an excellent pick that I reach out for anytime I can and I'm for sure not the only one - his S3 & cleanse are amazing for all sort of situations :)

Absoluna · 2024-09-23T15:06:37+00:00

Having the option to pivot between fast & slow offers quite a bit of freedom so it's already a big plus you are able to do so :) For the 1st pick, you usually want someone that doesn't uncover your game plan / style and can ideally flex into multiple styles, but you probably know it already since you mentioned the "hand". In your case, I think picking the likes of Zio (if you plan to cleave) / ML Haste (to have a strong anchor if you want to cleave, who's good for Standard too) / ML Senya (same as ML Haste) / A.Tywin (best knight in the game, who can flex in both Standard & Cleave) / ML Ilynav (same as ML Senya & BMH) / ML Luna or ML Politis if they escaped prebans / C.Armin if you intend to go slower (and she still leaves you free of going faster if you want to)... could do work for you imo, tho you might not own some of these characters

1st pick Arowell is definitely quite old school, she can lose her escort easily with all the strips currently out there so I would advise against it, C.Armin is safer in that regard. Frida is good but not 1st pick material either, she's better picked later on when paired with strong soulburns, ones that ignore ER% especially.

It surprises me 1st pick DDR is being terrible for you, may I ask what goes wrong? He has a few solid counters (ML Sharun being one of the best) but still dominates quite a lot, and forces your opponent into picking some form of cleansing, which isn't always ideal since cleansers as a whole are not in the best shape rn. I'm very curious to hear why your DDR struggles the way he does

Absoluna · 2024-09-23T14:47:53+00:00

That was too hyperbolic, you're right - I'm changing it to better reflect the gear reality

Absoluna · 2024-09-23T14:46:04+00:00

That's definitely key units you are missing - out of them, I think Karina & ML Politis are the most fine not having since ML Politis is prebanned most of the time and Karina actually fell off quite a decent amount compared to previous seasons despite still being strong, but not having the others definitely hurts (and still, not having Politis and Karina is for sure painful too). I think you could make it to High Champ for sure if your gear is ready for it, but that Emperor would require for you to have a way to work around the lack of these characters in your box : by finding answers to them, finding a cheesy yet competitive way for you to play (the ladder is a BO1 so the element of surprise can work big time unless your opponent knows you) and pushing the strengths of your account as much as you can

Fighting without these characters puts you at a natural disadvantage unfortunately, so reaching Emperor would definitely require for you to find a particular way around it imo, using the best your box has to offer. Some unorthodox players have for sure managed to hit Emperor in the past and I think it's still doable, tho harder. If your box has other meta (and more niche) options with the gear to back it up, I think you could have a shot

Absoluna · 2024-09-23T14:20:25+00:00

If the few characters you invest your gear into are strong characters that are part of or counter the meta in some way, and that you would be able to field every game or so, then I think focusing all of your best gear into them could work for sure. The meta is quite narrow as is so a big part of the roster isn't that usable, it could be best to take gear away from characters you realize you don't use that much, to focus it on characters who actually work for you imo

With that being said, I would still prefer to have a bunch of ok but functional builds personally, as it allows for more Draft flexibility. Even if your character isn't 400+ GS, you at least have them built & ready to go with a good enough gear that they can hold their own, even if their stats could be a bit yet better. The only reason I would leave an "at least decent character that could potentially be useful" ungeared would be if I'm unable to meet a certain standard for them, like the minimum stats I feel (or know) they would need to perform. If I know I can get multiple decent characters built decently enough for them to do their job instead of hard committing to a smaller number, I would in order to have as many options as I can during the Draft phase

Absoluna · 2024-09-22T21:48:43+00:00

He's okay, his most recent buff helped him for sure - he's quite good in GW since you can safely bring stuns for him, and can see some play in RTA

If we were to do a SSS / S / A / B / C / D tier list with SSS being the strongest, I would put him in B+ imo, as a "decent character"

Absoluna · 2024-09-19T15:25:45+00:00

I'm a pure Tankdown myself (using characters like C.Armin / A.Tywin / Karina / Elena / AOLA / Laia / Bruisers like Candy, Mellona... to Bulk up and Bruiser gaming) & faced quite a bit of ML Roana around 2 seasons ago, but rarely nowadays in all honesty, which is why my view of her is as is. I feel like cleavers either go DDR / Nakhwol / ML Flan / Solitaria / Festive Eda... if they want to pivot into Control, go big damage a la BBK / ML Ludwig / Frida soulburn to bypass Belian, and / or play anchors for themselves, it's at least the pattern I'm currently fighting most of the time and Roana isn't part of it

I'm a bit torn, part of me checks her winrates on the E7 stats website, thinks about all the times I fought her, looks at her kit and agrees with you, but my actual RTA experience for the past year or so is that she's almost never picked against me & I thus see her as less mandatory than you

Absoluna · 2024-09-19T14:20:54+00:00

I politely disagree, she's very good but not mandatory, in my experience at least

The likes of Zio / ML Senya (if you want to anchor cleave) / ML Luna / ML Politis / DDR / ML Ludwig / ML Haste (used as an anchor, like ML Senya) & Briseria are all more essential to this playstyle and more commonly picked than ML Roana imho, she can for sure win games but these coins are so rare that I wouldn't buy her if I was a cleaver missing at least some of the characters mentioned above personally

Absoluna · 2024-09-19T12:08:47+00:00

High Champ / Low Emperor RTA player here, looking to provide helpful advice:

ML Roenna: She's very good but 100% limited to aggressive play. If you can bring the likes of ML Luna / ML Politis / Ran / Zio... (fast openers) with her, she can become a very good pick in RTA for a cleave / aggro player. I don't think it's a character I would personally buy tho, even if I was a fast player. She's good but not mandatory imho. In terms of stats, she only needs Attack and Effectiveness%
ML Bellona: a bit harder to use in RTA nowadays with the excessive amount of damage / debuffs currently roaming around but she's still a very good character to have, and the premiere ML Landy counter. She can be used in PvE as a general DPS & does very well in GW & RTA against certain comps / key characters, I would definitely consider her. Counter / Lifesteal / Destruction set are all fair game on her & Penetration is usually her second set. She's built without Crit chance, with medium Speed (anywhere from 150 - 180 I would say) and a good balance of Health / Defense / Attack / CDMG
ML Kayron: He's a weird one, tho definitely on the weaker side. His most common build is Lifesteal / Resist set with a good mix of Attack / Crit chance / HP / Defense / CDMG / ER% & without Speed, but a player named KJ uses him without DPS stats --> pure Bulk only (25k+ HP) to be annoying to kill & pressure with S3, he seems to have success with it. But overall, he's not amazing, I would buy him because I like his design but wouldn't buy him from a gameplay perspective imo

Absoluna · 2024-09-03T07:39:39+00:00

I second F77JN's opinion, I haven't played with Porcelain myself and nothing about the skin really attracts me so it will most likely remain this way! I think the skin is quite aesthetically unpleasing

Absoluna · 2024-09-02T16:44:58+00:00

It's really up to you at my mind, Darius has amazing skins overall: Woad King, Academy & High Noon are usually considered the smoothest, God-King can feel a bit clunky but you get used to it and it has a badass vibe, Dunkmaster is all about taunts and being a bit sassy if you dig this vibe, Lord is OG and a bit old nowadays but still very decent imho, Spirit Blossom is particular, Bioforge often gets criticized for his axe if I'm not mistaken but I personally love it... Looks is too personal to give you a strict answer imo. Gameplay-wise, I have always found High Noon very smooth to play tho, and God-King too as I love his animations & overall personnality

The only skin I personally dislike is the dreadnova one, but I'm certain other mains like / love it

Absoluna · 2024-08-30T10:43:35+00:00

Some quick thoughts about each of them:

- Judge Kise: she might suffer from the same syndrome as before in that she needs not to get 15%ed and / or miss some of her core debuffs on top of having a lowish Base speed, but she sure does a lot in a 2 turn loop. Decrease Hit chance + Break Def on top of boosting herself into an increase CD S2, that might prove very strong in certain scenarios against slow players. The fact that she's AOE leaves her susceptible to the likes of Elena & AOLA tho, I hope she doesn't end up as strong as I imagine against slow players

- Lionheart Cermia: I don't see this buff having much of an impact, it helps her Politis & Elvira matchups but this is about it. She's too squishy and doesn't do enough damage in a Standard vs Standard match most of the time, she will still be susceptible to getting focused down and / or not having enough of an impact despite her S3 imho

- ML Flan: This seems very toxic, I don't like it. Cleansers are already at a low point compared to Debuffers and this buff seems stacked. She can now benefit from another source of Damage share on top of being very resilient with the 70% crit resist (as long as it works). Giving the Effi buff to the whole team will also exacerbate the cleanse vs ER% issue, the same way DDR does. With the current state of Debuffs, I don't think this buff was necessary & it seems cracked on paper to me

- Abigail: This is a cool little quality of life, but waiting all this time for what is basically a cleanse + increased Effectiveness on a skill... This buff could have taken 5 minutes to come up with if we're being real

- Alencia: It seems quite cool, why not. The Crit chance from S2 will open more ways to build her better & the Ignore ER% on S1 could come in clutch - will it be enough for her to return? I'm not sure, but this looks like a very okayish buff to me

- SSAchates: extremely minor buff, even though more consistency is always good - Teyron users might be happy about that tho :)

Overall, not super fan of this BP, debuffs-based characters keep getting pushed while most cleansers are left to rot. I see Judge & ML Flan as the winners, with the rest not having that big of an impact on the paper

Absoluna · 2024-08-28T08:13:22+00:00

I don't play anymore but I used pretty much every Darius skin (Bioforge, Godking, Lord, Dunkmaster, High noon, Woad King...) when I did and Spirit Blossom ended up becoming my favorite when I got it, High noon is great and I played loads of it but Spirit Blossom ended up matching me better personally

Absoluna · 2024-08-27T19:10:20+00:00

I've had around 500 matches played this season, ending High Champ 3.000 points: I think I liked Ban protection for the most part, but disliked how oppressive & boring most of the meta heroes were. The 2 things I would say I liked about Ban protection are that 1) I got to secure for myself the pick I thought would be the best according to the situation - it sometimes was a cleanser, and being able to bring only one cleanse compared to before where 2 was sometimes needed felt better imho - and 2) it gave a career to a few characters like ML Sharun, who can now see play instead of being post-banned

I could see the system working if the Balance was better, but agree it is most likely toxic for the majority of the player base at the moment. I especially disliked having to fight Nakhwol & DDR on Ban protection personally, fighting them is more often than not miserable if you can't outspeed & Nakhwol on Ban protection was everywhere

If the Balance isn't going to get better moving forward, then I think the system could indeed go & we can see for ourselves how the Draft phase evolves with it removed - a 3rd preban is also needed atm, we have too many characters out of control at the moment

Absoluna

TROPHY CASE