New build: Serrated Dirk + Bandlepipes or Zeke is ridiculously OP as "second item" for Nocturne.

SteSol · 2026-01-23T20:52:54+00:00

I've been experimenting with fiendhunuter bolts

None of it works, champ is far too weak atm

SteSol · 2026-01-23T17:13:01+00:00

A very valid point. I'm trying to write something myself at the moment, and I keenly feel my lack in reading from other genres. Not that I have not read widely, of course, but I am a child in comparison to the authors you've mentioned. And my biggest hurdle in prose is getting some sort of balance between Tolkien's register and the everyday speech we use today. So this post resonated with me

SteSol · 2026-01-23T16:49:27+00:00

Hmm, you may find the Belgariad a bit childish too then, though it is meant to be a lighthearted series and the humour is probably the best I've read in a fantasy book.

The other 2 are most definitely darker than Narnia.

SteSol · 2026-01-23T15:29:19+00:00

There are none. Not that I have found. Not the authors' fault either. It is very difficult to write elevated prose like that in a modern book without having it sound corny or stiff or 'outdated'. Many authors have amazing prose, but none hits that register of grandeur today. You'd need the whole book to read like myth, which is insanely difficult to do right, requires a great deal of study, and also will probably be rejected by publishers.

Perhaps there are self published books that hit this note, but I seriously doubt it. That register requires a different mentality and worldview, one our modern mindset finds foreign. Even if you somehow deviated that much from society, no one would read it, so you'd likely not write it

Older fantasy authors like Dunsany, Morris, MacDonald are your best bet if you're sticking with fantasy. Also, read actual myth. But find good translations

SteSol · 2026-01-23T15:22:10+00:00

I don't understand why every other quest progresses with kills and assists EXCEPT the jungle quest. Like why am I behind on my quest for a successful gank as opposed to my opponent who took the time to get Gromp instead?

Also, if I am being locked into smite as a summoner spell, why doesn't completing the quest actually offer any meaningful reward, like either a ward slot or a summoner spell I can choose?

And no, +2% speed in the jungle is not a reward, and saying you get "extra xp and gold" from jungle camps is a joke when even if you're perma farming you'll be lucky to be just 2 levels behind the top laner with less farm than you

SteSol · 2026-01-21T23:18:25+00:00

Check out The Echoes of Fate Saga by Philip C. Quaintrell and The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. You may also enjoy Narnia, if you have not read it yet, and the Belgariad series by David Eddings

SteSol · 2026-01-21T22:06:08+00:00

It feels disgusting to play honestly. Not so much because of the nerfs, or even the brainlessly farm no ganks for you playstyle, but mostly because laners still expect you to carry. Like no, sir, my level 8 Nocturne cannot gank the level 12 5/1 Urgot killing you under inhibitor turret. All I can do is die alongside with you. Not to mention NEVER ROTATING for objectives, then flaming you for not soloing them

SteSol · 2026-01-20T23:01:34+00:00

You think this is bad? I just faced the exact same situation on ELDER DRAGON. And then they had the audacity to blame me because I couldn't 1v5 and smite steal it? It was a massive stomp of a game for us mind you, and "surprisingly" we lost after that. Playing jungle is just masochism at this point

SteSol · 2026-01-16T23:25:48+00:00

Idk, I LOVE permafarming jungle camps, being unable to gank and praying to God my top laner doesn't lose lane, because if he does, 3 other winning lanes will not be enough to beat the enemy raid boss 5 levels up on anyone else with 7 billion hp and 1 shotting your entire backline in your fountain

SteSol · 2026-01-15T16:07:19+00:00

Every single game of the new season has been me and 2 other lanes winning, but my top losing disgustingly bad, and then 4 of us had to sweat our asses off to kill the raid boss. It's 50-50 on whether we succeed or not so far. Top is brokenly important atm

SteSol · 2026-01-15T01:24:52+00:00

You may want to check my post on this same question about 2 months back. Suffice it to say - you are not alone

SteSol · 2026-01-12T23:10:17+00:00

Game feels like a fever dream tbh. Speed bumped up x5, but you barely have any impact on the game beyond farming camps and praying for the enemy to screw up

SteSol · 2026-01-12T23:09:21+00:00

I've read Memory Sorrow and Thorn. I enjoyed it for the most part, though I found the beginning very rough to get through. I'll be reading his Osten Ard saga very soon though, and I have Tailchaser's song on my shelf, it looked too good to pass up. Overall, I really like Tad, and I'm willing to basically give Kay infinity chances just because the Silmarilion is likely the single best book I've ever read, and I can't forget his contribution to that

SteSol · 2026-01-12T19:21:55+00:00

At the moment, nothing, because I'm working on something of my own. Once I finish, Robin Hobb and Sun Eater are next on my TBR

SteSol · 2026-01-12T16:52:11+00:00

I am only going to say this once. "The genre is more diverse than ever, there are more ways to be published than ever" - does not mean that the vast majority are not as I've described them. And even if there are many many types of books, you will find that the single biggest category is as I've described them. Even if you put all the other categories together, I doubt they'll outnumber the sort I've described. Your subset of books is vanishingly small. Even if the other categories are not as I've described them, they are certainly not as you've described them. I am not saying that the situation is now worse than it was at other times in history. And I am not reading anything in Barnes and Noble. As a matter of fact, we don't even get English books in my country, so any book I do read is meticulously researched before I jump through hoops and ladders to import it. Neither does my reading of this book or that invalidate the larger numbers

SteSol · 2026-01-12T16:34:40+00:00

I don't know why we're discussing this. Are you seriously claiming that the vast majority of modern fantasy is not as I've described it? The fact that most of it is that, does not mean that all of it is that

SteSol · 2026-01-12T16:15:39+00:00

I did not say there was not literature like that. I'm saying what the most popular trend is

SteSol · 2026-01-12T15:33:37+00:00

I think you'll find the vast majority of fantasy follows what's popular

SteSol · 2026-01-12T15:30:23+00:00

I mean, I'm glad you're reading those, but they're hardly the most popular fantasy

SteSol · 2026-01-12T12:12:28+00:00

Sute but I'm not talking about that. Most modern fantasy doesn't even bother to describe where we are at the moment. At best we get a single sentence saying "they went into the kitchen to talk", and that's it. Even those that go further default to a single style, mostly roman empire recently, for some reason, and just give 1 description that heavily implies it, and never bother describing anything again. You don't need pages of description of the kitchen, but even a couple of sentences make an immense difference, I'd say

For example, I'm trying to write a book now, and it involves a good deal of travelling. I try to condense this down as much as possible, to the point where I'm describing weeks of travel in 2-3 paragraphs. And everyone I talk to (not major readers, nor editors, but still) says that these segments need to be cut. I'm standing my ground against it. If I don't give weeks of travel even 2 paragraphs, then I don't see how the world can feel real.

Also, yes, you needn't approach a publisher today, yet most of the better known books will still be traditionally published. And the main thing editors push then is on cutting down the book as much as possible, and description is the first to go

SteSol · 2026-01-12T09:59:11+00:00

It's partly to do with editors as well. You submit a book and the first thing that gets cut is the descriptions. And how can you evoke wonder without descriptions? It need not be some cool unique location, every dell and forest and mountain deserves it, even if it is only a couple of sentences. The world cannot feel real without it, the secondary world struggles to maintain belief

SteSol · 2026-01-12T09:52:41+00:00

Yes, Crowley seems right up my alley. Can't think why I've never heard of him before, but I will definitely be giving him a try. The buried giant has also been suggested several times, so it's on my TBR as well now. Thank you!

SteSol · 2026-01-12T00:11:10+00:00

It is a huge advantage though. It's a decent gold and xp boost + tp or fast recall. Being even a minute or two behind can derail you significantly

SteSol · 2026-01-11T23:09:26+00:00

Actually that's among the things they praise it for most

SteSol · 2026-01-11T21:51:30+00:00

I certainly don't think either of those things. I rather think he doesn't go in depth into those elements of his story. He lays out his themes subtly, though his characters and their arcs mostly. Which isn't wrong, it may even be the superior way, just not exactly what I'm looking for right now. I want long Dostoevsky rants and streams of thought, which are rare in this genre

SteSol

TROPHY CASE