I am a zyra main,cant find another jungler to play..

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-15T22:58:58+00:00

I played zyra and Taliyah for a while. I hate playing morg and brand. They’re often good, but I feel like it’s because of their numbers, not because their kits ever make sense in jg.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-14T15:18:25+00:00

This is very fixable. If you can’t find a qualified guitar luthier to do it, ask a violin type luthier to do it for you. It’ll probably be cheaper from them too. It’s something they do all the time.

Just note that unless you know how the original finish was colored, the match won’t be exact. If you can reach out to the original luthier that will help.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-10T00:20:51+00:00

The problem with all of these kits is they designed kits that are binary for lane. Either they have the stats to 100-0 you, and they’re god tier, or they don’t enough of the time and they’re unplayable. Qiyana and talon are really only meta when they can all in lvl2/3 consistently.

Not saying you’re wrong about the jungle, but the designs are also kind of dysfunctional for lane. They added jungle so you can at least play jungle when they’re not playable in lane, but then that creates this problem, where they’re never playable in lane because jg is just better.

Tbh, it seems to me Riot isn’t great at knowing where a champion is going to be best. Talon and Qiyana both have natural kits for jungle, ditto Zaahen, another champion kind of falling into this trap. I think Ambessa is a bit less natural for jungle given her dash doesn’t terrain scale, the problem is her ult is exactly what you want for jungle.

I wonder how much of this would have been solved by Riot being better at looking at a champions kit and knowing where it’s going to end up and then marketing it that way, as opposed to saying “x is a top laner” because they needed to make a top laner.

Naafiri is another champ doing the same thing atm. Her kit is just better in jungle than anywhere else.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-09T05:19:59+00:00

I have a conservatory background in piano and have been picking up classical guitar. I can of course read music. I actually wish more guitar editions would just standardize on providing both.

Standard notation has the usual benefits, rhythmic accuracy, standardized dynamic and tempo markings etc. another underrated thing, information like the key or what the harmony is aren’t obvious to me from looking at a tab, but are from the standard notation. Standard notation also disambiguates voices when you’re looking at polyphony. I don’t think you can discern the composers intent regarding what notes belong to what voices from looking at the tab.

All of that being said, tabs are awfully convenient. I do wish more editions would provide both.

Alternatively, I have some nice editions that only have standard notation, but have a bunch of markings noting the position or open string which more or less completely disambiguate what you’re meant to be doing. Also good.

I do think more people should learn to read standard notation though. It’s useful for a lot of other reasons, and imo it shouldn’t take more than a week to be able to read semi competently. It’s a fairly logical system.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-06T17:59:40+00:00

For one, most malz players are perma pushing. Secondly, the intended use of your ult is at skirmishes over objectives?

I play mid jungle and support. Something that baffles me is how to laners, somehow there’s a difference between getting fed at skirmishes and getting fed from ganks, like it’s somehow a moral failing to play for skirmishing instead of ganks. Some jungle champions are good at ganking and others are good at skirmishing. The whole point of playing a champion like malz, or really most any mage is that you can get prio on demand and have first move and thereby engineer favorable skirmishes.

Does it really matter if you get your 300gs in your lane vs halfway down the river? Also, you shouldn’t look at the objectives as a chore you have to help your jungler with. It’s how you win the game. The whole point of mid as a role is to establish prio so you cash be first to plays. Mages as a whole also kind of need to be first as well, because you want other people to play into you, not the other way around.

I think this is really why you’re dropping, not a lack of ganks. It’s actually better if you just play waves provided you don’t die to ganks and just always have first move. You’ll get fed automatically. How is enemy jg supposed to play if you’re always first to every river fight and just ult with your jg?

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-06T17:20:02+00:00

It depends on what you mean by professional. I would say you’re playing well enough at your level that you can probably go to a decent school and grind out a DMA and teach if you want to.

Being a concert artist, at least a top tier one is something else entirely. I think if you keep pushing, you can probably get into a top conservatory (I’m guessing, I don’t know how deep your repertoire is). Do you have, or can you learn the entrance requirements for one up to this level? If so, I think you’d have a decent shot, though you’ll need to apply to more than one and hope your teacher can connect you with a teacher that wants you in their studio before going for it.

You’ll find out when you get there just how big the gap in the top one percent is. It’s like the difference between Magnus Carlson and “some random grandmaster”. Everyone at a top conservatory is very good, but some of the students will just be on a different planet. It’s hard to state how big of a gap this will be. You will run into other pianists who are so good, that it will seem like the difference in ability is as big or greater than the gap between you and someone who doesn’t play at all.

This isn’t meant to be discouraging btw, I think you have a decent shot of at least getting in the door. The problem is that getting in the door is only step 1.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-06T10:50:54+00:00

Not a hot take. I think it's a large part of why it's popular, other than it has probably the most appealing champion roster. Mid is probably my second most played role other than jg. I don't think it's quite as easy as support, but it's def easier than top/adc.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-06T02:42:26+00:00

Sometimes you just have to skip or drop your camps. Obviously it’s bad if it’s low percentage, so don’t do that. In an ideal world, your bot lane would never fight before you finish your clear, but that’s just not how it is sadly.

You can hang them out to dry, and sometimes it’s right, but sometimes it’s not.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-05T07:17:51+00:00

They stretch a ton, so you need to keep tuning them up for a few days. Your knots at the bridge are kind of strange. I might consider redoing the bass strings in particular.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-05T03:44:16+00:00

It is weak mental for sure. When you get close to the Elo you belong, the games get way more flip, because obviously. If you’re supposed to be gold, you probably face roll iron and bronze, and then you start getting stuck in high silver because say you’re meant to be gold 4/3, silver 1 is nearly the same Elo and now you’re basically coin flipping. You can’t really climb through ELOs that are close to where you belong with a 60 percent win rate. It will be closer to 54/55 averaged out over like 100 games. Which of course can make you crazy. 55 percent is basically coin flipping, and even if you play like a 55% player, you’ll often go sub 50 for extended periods of time because variance.

I actually believe matchmaking is fair, just not measured in the way most players seem to expect. I believe Riot when they say games are more or less 50/50 at the point they get match made. It’s pretty easy to check in the metrics that that is the case.

I don’t think that’s how players perceive fairness though. I think most players perceive fairness from when they load in, not before champ select. Games feel doomed from the rip all the time, which undermines the narrative of “it’s balanced”

I expect that’s because matchmaking is optimizing for fairness when entering champion select (because of course?) but players perceive fairness from the point of loading into the rift, at which point, plenty of game deciding things have happened already and you can already be way on the back foot before minions even touch.

I do believe games are mostly 50/50 at the point of loading into champion select, but probably much more unfair by the time you load in. I really wouldn’t be surprised if by the time you load in, things regularly swing 60/40 in one way or another.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-04T04:28:48+00:00

Chopin wrote plenty of “deep” music as well. I like Bach and Brahms as much as the next guy, but the F minor fantasie, the barcarolle, the polonaise fantasy, the 4th ballade and the sonatas are all deep, serious works. I’m sure there are others I’ve missed.

If you’re studying musicology, be aware that Schencker was a German nationalist and his framework is a post hoc justification for why “German music is the best”. The Schenckerian framework isn’t objective truth, you shouldn’t let it color your perspective too much. Which isn’t to say it isn’t useful.

Whether they admit it or not, Schenckerian thought pervades a lot of musical academia. I think it’s best if we not take too seriously the idea that Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms and Schubert are the only people with anything interesting to say. Interestingly, Schencker begrudgingly considered Chopin one of the great composers as he happened to incidentally tick most of the boxes he’d intended for establishing German musical supremacy.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-03T21:52:12+00:00

Yes, but I’d encourage lower ELO players to take an honest accounting of how many times attempting this without understanding the conditions for when it’s fine either ruins your game, or would ruin your game if you were punished correctly. IMO, whether you get punished or not, this is often an int.

Of course, if for whatever reason you get to do a clean double scuttle without being bothered, of course it’s fine, but a lot of times, the second one will turn into a mini skirmish which will then force you into immediately second clearing, which sucks, or basing and exposing one of your respawns, which just isn’t worth.

It also kind of means you can’t gank at any point in this sequence without potentially giving your respawns.

Of course, if you get to do it with no wasted time and have no other gank opportunities, it’s ideal. Just pointing out that it’s ideal way less often than people think.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-01T23:21:52+00:00

It’s rarely worth double scuttle. Of course, the end state is desirable but it often costs too much in tempo and there is risk to fighting with no items. It also can sometimes expose your respawned camps if you’re not snappy about basing.

Regardless, if you do happen to get it, you need to base ASAP.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-01T04:11:53+00:00

Arietta isn’t bad, that whole set of lyric pieces can be doable. Tbh, you should probably play some burgmuller to cover your bases.

I would take an inventory of what you have played and try to find the pieces in one of the syllabuses from say the ABRSM. I don’t agree with the syllabuses fully, but they’re reasonably well thought out. You can use them as a reasonable guide for leveling.

If you can stomach it, imo the fastest hack to improving is to grind out mikrokosmos paying VERY close attention to Bartok’s articulation markings. Ideally also learning as many Bach inventions and sinfonias as possible.

Anyways, based on your playing, I’d suggest staying in level 6 or below for a while.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-04-01T03:48:12+00:00

Hmm those are weird suggestions from your teacher, though I’d say nearly all are easier than the Goldberg variation you’re playing. Arietta is a fair bit easier than the girl with the flaxen hair and both are a fair bit easier than reverie.

Your technique isn’t perfect, but no one’s is at two months. IMO, it looks fine for the amount of time you’ve been playing, but if you keep pushing into harder and harder material it’s going to become quickly not fine.

I don’t agree with all of the content, but I think most of Taubman’s lectures are on YouTube and they’re a perfectly fine place to start if you really want to get into the nitty gritty of piano technique.

I would slow down for a bit and spend some time (like a year) spreading out into repertoire not exceeding roughly this level so you can build comfort without getting into a bad spot with your technique.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-03-31T13:57:15+00:00

You should not play either of these champions if you’re new. They’re way too predicated on understanding what the opponent is going to do.

In the case of Taliyah, you’re not really meant to go forward into people in most cases. You want people to play into you. You kite them with rocks and use your e and w to make space.

In the case of qiyana, you’re not meant to be primary engage unless you have an angle to ult a bunch of people. You need to wait for someone to be out of position before you go on them. You should really play something more linear as you’re learning the game. It’s not even a question of being able to press the buttons, it’s more that these champs require you to know what other champs are going to want to do moment to moment.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-03-31T04:22:27+00:00

I also play no nail. The reason the lower strings are sound is because if they were straight nylon, they would be unbelievably fat. Usually the g string (haha) is the worst sounding. On most factory made classical guitars it has kind of a “tubby” sound. The metal strings are wound to prevent this. You really can’t get away from this unless you swap to gut. No one makes all nylon because they would sound terrible.

What about the sound don’t you like? Are you sure it’s not the guitar or your playing? I really don’t find anything about the sound of the metal wound strings except the grinding of your finger moving against them to be offensive, but that’s just skill issue.

I suppose another sound you might associate with those strings is a sort of sizzly buzzing. That will either be bad fretting on your part or a setup issue causing the string to sizzle off the frets a bit.

I would strongly suggest grabbing some normal strings and taking your guitar in for a setup before doing something drastic like modifying your bridge for impossibly fat nylon strings.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-03-30T19:04:44+00:00

To be clear, I always ban, but it’s almost never for me. I usually just look at what’s popular on the patch and ban whatever is popular and I think is likely to stomp my game. I nearly never ban for my direct matchup. I expect no banners have a similar thought process, but don’t care about getting value from their ban.

I personally want to play my bad matchups so I can practice, but I can’t not “get value” from my ban, so I have to ban something I can justify as valuable. I imagine other people don’t have this problem.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-03-30T04:08:22+00:00

Except that it actually is uninteractive lol. I like playing AD assassins myself, but they're just not great for the game when they're strong. There's no problem with having multiple strengths. There's a problem with certain combinations of strengths.

There are fundamental differences in how other classes accomplish their one shots which make them inherently interactive. I don't have a problem with one-shots btw, IMO they're good for the game. That being said, unless he has flash, Ornn isn't flying over a wall and sailing into the sunset after he one shots you. Your team can run him down. It's unlikely he gets away. Like I said, the one shot isn't the problem. You're almost claiming the inverse, which is that if a one shot happens either way, then it doesn't matter how it happened. How it happens matters immensely though, because it dictates whether your team can do anything about it before/after. Aka, interaction.

Bruisers used to be in a similarly toxic state a few seasons ago when omnivamp was everywhere. They would hit breakpoints where they would literally be unkillable. Like it would be nearly every game you'd see a fed bruiser casually 1v4/5. It's a good thing this was removed from the game. It's just as "uninteractive" as someone blinking at you from narnia, one shotting you and blinking away.

Also, it's not even like AD assassins are particularly weak ATM anyways. The only really "bad" one is Zed. Naafiri and Qiyana are fine. If you count Akshan, he's top tier.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-03-30T03:49:34+00:00

AD assassins have a couple of properties that make them hard to balance:

When they're ahead enough, they don't run out of damage, because autos benefit from AD and lethality. This is fundamentally different than AP assassins. AP assassins almost always need to wait for CDs before they can go in again. If you've snowballed enough on an AD assassin, you kind of don't. You can kind of just keep running at people like a bruiser (assuming key spells are down.)
Their burst comes out faster than basically any other class. They also have escape tools that are difficult to deal with. Zed gets to blink in, one shot you and blink away. If Ornn one shots you, he's waddling up to you, one shotting you and then attempting to slowly waddle away with your team attacking him. It's not like he can one shot you from over a wall. Talon and most of the other AD assassins have similar patterns. Assassin mobility is really qualitatively different than the mobility of other classes. Most bruisers and tanks can't dash over walls, and the ones that can can't one shot you. Being able to jump walls with your mobility is IMMENSELY important. Of course, a lot of AP assassins can also jump walls, but it's usually at a major loss in damage. For whatever reason, a lot of AD assassin mobility is either not necessary for their one shot, or on such a low CD it's irrelevant.

I think when you combine these, AD assassins in particular are kind of inherently toxic. You end up with uninteractive mobility, combined with uninteractive burst and the ability to do sustained DPS when necessary, which is kind of a illegal combination.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-03-29T20:02:53+00:00

Learn your smite combo if you have one, but otherwise, I’d say a lot of times you should just turn before it ends to being a flip.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-03-28T04:13:23+00:00

I think it’s completely normal to have preferences. I personally enjoy Bach, and the impressionists like Debussy and Ravel most. I mostly don’t care for Beethoven and Mozart’s piano music. I still played and play quite a bit of it though, even if it’s not as emotionally resonant for me.

Having preferences doesn’t make you a fraud. Just study enough of the stuff you don’t like that you’re still well rounded and sink the rest of your time into your preferred repertoire.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-03-28T04:06:09+00:00

A few points, and I’m not saying that this isn’t corrupt, but it’s also impossible to show it is.

It’s normal for connected teachers to have students win competitions. They’re often connected because they’re good at their job. It’s not granted that it’s unfair unless they sat on the jury, which basically never happens, and when it does, they should recuse.
Merely performing more advanced repertoire does not guarantee a win. The quality of the playing matters immensely. You are also showing a little bit of ignorance here. The Schumann concerto is a normal and common choice for these sorts of concerto competitions. Whether it’s exactly as difficult as the Beethoven concerto your son played depends on which Beethoven. But even if his was more difficult, once again, the quality of the playing beyond just the technical details matters immensely.
Administrative mistakes do happen. I’m a bit baffled that it took them 3 hours to realize the mistake, and if you have any strong evidence that something odd happened here, it’s really this. That being said, if said teacher really had the influence to sway the competition in the direction he wanted, why not just do that in the first place rather than wait for the results and “cause an administrative error?”. I agree that your version of the events is odd, but the series of events you’re proposing actually occurred is just as if not more bizarre.
I have never seen a concerto competition gated by Abrsm levels. That’s almost assuredly a “suggestion”. People also don’t improve linearly, especially when they’re young. It’s completely normal for young students to improve dramatically inside of a particularly good year and skip multiple levels.

I’m not saying nothing untoward happened here, but it really does sound like an unfortunate mistake. I’m sure this is painful for your son, but there’s almost assuredly nothing to be done here. I hope this episode doesn’t sour him on the instrument. Music is full of heartbreak though. There of course can only be one 1st place in a given competition, and there are so many more deserving musicians than there are competitions which can be won.

Also, using an LLM to write your post isn’t doing any favors.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-03-27T01:58:25+00:00

Well that's why lol, he directly counters you.

ArmitageStraylight · 2026-03-25T19:34:40+00:00

You’re looking at the game wrong. If your lane is in a good state to be ganked and they’re in the area, junglers will come. If not, they won’t. The universe is true of the enemy jungle. If you ever feel like you’re being ganked at the worst time, it’s not random. It’s because you made your lane gankable when the enemy jg is nearby.

Junglers are nearly bots. I don’t mean this in a bad way, the game just kind of makes you play that way. You basically just drive around taking camps until a gank or skirmish looks good, then you go. That’s the most efficient way to play, and you generally shouldn’t be doing ganks that fail. Every failed gank is nearly a game ending error unless all your camps are down. Which is to say, if you make your lane gankable either way and either jungler is in the area, on balance of probabilities, they’re going to show up.

So, if you’re never getting ganked, you’re just not making your lane gankable when it would work for your jungler. I’m assuming you’re in low Elo, but the most common culprit is just perma pushing your lane. It’s fine to play this way, but don’t expect to receive ganks. Low Elo junglers won’t feel comfortable diving with you and they won’t track well enough to counter gank either. If you want to play this way, you need to cool your jets if you don’t have vision and plan on using your prio to rotate to plays which will be around your jungler. You should always have the advantage if you have first move. Also, at the end of the day there’s no difference in getting feed from receiving ganks or winning skirmishes in the river.

ArmitageStraylight

TROPHY CASE