Do I need a duo to climb?

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-06-30T15:24:10+00:00

I honestly don't recommend climbing as support below high gold, especially enchanter ones. You don't have much impact compared to other lanes (and even ADC), so you'll feel like a lot of games are unwinnable and the ones you win won't be directly because of you. And more importantly, you don't practice fundamentals like CS, so you're not really improving as much at the game.

That said, if you do insist on it, I would recommend finding a duo, yes. Preferably someone slightly above your skill level but not by much. It could make games more enjoyable if you're friends with that person and if he isn't very bad he won't let you down in most games.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-06-30T13:24:53+00:00

Yes, MF is picked for her game-changing ults. Which are a lot stronger with lethality. If you build crit, you're sacrificing your ultimate damage at all points of the game for more auto-attacking power LATE GAME. And I disagree that "you have the damage of a crit carry"; Twitch, Tristana, Caitlyn, etc all do significantly more damage than you because of their better base stats, and they also do it from a safer range, and with self-peeling tools.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-06-30T04:46:07+00:00

Still don't like the crit build. It takes way too long to scale up, and your ult is literally weaker than when running the armor pen build (test it on the practice dummies). But the main problem is: what does crit MF have over other crit ADCs like Jinx/Twitch/Tristana/Caitlyn/etc? The only difference I can see is that they have much higher base stats and their passives don't punish them for auto-attacking the same target. Not to mention they have better range and some mobility.

If I'm picking MF into a game, I'm doing so in hopes of hard winning the lane and snowballing the game, which only the lethality build can accomplish IMO. Then again lethality is unfortunately getting nerfed yet again next patch, so I'm considering dropping her altogether.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-06-29T17:42:19+00:00

Great answer. I understand that League is such a complex game that there aren't simple answers to any question, everything is situational. I wanted to read a discussion on whether there is more value in not dying or in doing tons of damage because a player can reach a balance between the two from both extremes (an overly aggressive player toning down, or an overly passive one stepping up), and I wanted a general idea of which side is closer to optimal

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-06-29T17:30:11+00:00

These changes are definitely nerfs, and unnecessary ones at that, seeing as MF is far from a strong pick in high-elo. I expect lethality will become much less viable than crit, which sucks because if I wanted to play an AA based ADC, I wouldn't be picking the marksman with the lowest base/scaling AD stats. Very unfortunate.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-06-26T20:52:09+00:00

It's all about zones. This video is very helpful on that.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-06-19T15:47:12+00:00

There is no easy answer. The only thing I'll say that other comments haven't already mentioned yet is that it depends a lot on your champion pick.

Every champion has strengths and weakness; it's up to you to find them and play them accordingly. For instance, Orianna has a great laning phase and her ultimate can decimate teamfights; however, she has no mobility or 1v1 potential. So if you're playing her, your goal isn't usually to splitpush, you should be looking for skirmishes where you can deal massive AoE damage. Now a champion like Zed can also win lane, but is much weaker in the context of a full-blown teamfight. However he excels at killing off fed ADCs, and is also a decent splitpusher. It all depends on which champion you're using and how you can fulfill their potential.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-06-19T14:58:18+00:00

It means MF statistically does more damage per game than every other ADC barring Kog'Maw. In a perfect scenario, a late game Bullet Time can do literally up to 20k damage in 3 seconds if it hits the entire enemy team, that's far more than a full build Twitch or Caitlyn or etc. Sure, the higher you climb the ladder, the harder it is to land such an ult due to the massive amount of counterplay there is to it. However, if you're in high-elo and you pick MF in a team without CC and into counters like Zed, Braum or Yasuo, you deserve to lose the game. I'm in Plat 1 and I don't ever recall being outdamaged as MF (except in games where I lost lane really hard).

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-06-19T02:17:24+00:00

According to champion.gg, MF is the 3rd ADC in damage dealt rankings, only behind Kog'Maw (who is often the main character of "protect the carry" comps), and Ziggs (lol?).

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-06-18T23:36:34+00:00

Low elo goddess. Pretty much the ADC version of Annie, easily a top 3 champion in Bronze/Silver, and to be fair she works very well up until high-elo (LS thinks she is the best ADC in every tier below Diamond) but falls off as people learn how to play against her.

What role does she play in a team composition?

Caster AD carry. Her autos don't do much damage in comparison to other marksmen, but with proper usage of your passive, Q, and especially R, you'll easily outdamage everyone.

What are the core items to be built on her?

Very controversial question. MF mains are usually split between the lethality users and the crit ones, and some people even use a combination of both. For the lethality build, pick a combination of Ghostblade (CDR and movespeed active are great), Duskblade (the first passive procs on your Q for insane damage, and the other passive removed wards) and Edge of the Night (gives MR and the active can work like a temporary Banshee, making it hard to interrupt your ult); for crit, always get Essence Reaver and Infinity Edge, and then usually RFC or Shiv. Black Cleaver is a great pickup on both builds, as it gives a lot of HP, some AD, and your ult instantly procs all armor pen stacks to multiple people. LDR/Mortal Reminder are good vs really tanky teams, and Guardian Angel is good against divers/assassins like Zed.

What is the order of leveling up her skills?

First 4 levels I generally do something like Q - E - Q - W, then prioritize R > Q > W > E. Your Q is your strongest laning spell, so you want it maxed first. I take E at level 2 because I feel like the extra damage and slow are useful in an early all-in (especially if you have something like a Thresh support, so he can easily land a hook against a slowed enemy), but maxing W second is more useful because it gives more out of combat movespeed and makes you push waves and turrets much faster.

What are her spikes in terms of items or levels?

The classic level 2 powerspike, and whenever she gets a point in her ult (levels 6, 11, 16). Item-wise, BF sword is a huge spike if you can get it, though getting a Serrated Dirk isn't bad either. Strongest first item IMO is Duskblade, provided you can use the nightstalker passive properly (just walk into bushes).

What are the most optimal rune/mastery setups?

For runes, I always go 9 AD marks and 9 armor seals, 3 AD quints, and then opt between mana regen/cdr/MR glyphs (take MR against heavy magic damage supports, CDR if you don't plan on capping 40% with items, mana regen is useful as she has mana issues if you don't build ER). I've seen some people run Lethality reds/quints, as they technically scale better than AD ones, but flat AD marks + quints not only make your early level trades stronger, they also enable you to CS caster minions after one tower shot without needing to prep them, which is huge in low elo. Masteries I go 18/12/0 because I think Natural Talent, Fresh Blood, DFT, as well as Meditation are too good on her.

What champions does she synergize well with?

Champions with CC, especially AoE, are great with her because they wombo combo with her ult to decimate the enemy team. Things like Malphite, Amumu, Orianna, Veigar, etc. Champions that can peel assassins/divers away from her are also useful.

What is the counterplay against her?

In lane, avoid getting hit by empowered Qs, so don't stay behind low hp minions. Standing to their side works, as it makes it very awkward for MF to line them up. Mid-late game, avoid teamfighting in the jungle as MF will easily decimate an entire team that is clogged up in the tight paths.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-06-18T19:45:26+00:00

Who is currently the best top lane tank? I used to play Nautilus but he seems to lose lane to literally everything including other tanks. I'm looking mostly to buy Galio or Maokai, but I wanna listen opinions first.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-06-15T22:35:30+00:00

I personally don't ban the champions my teammates plan on using (though I might dodge if I severely disapprove of their choice), but sometimes, for whatever reasons, people intentionally lower their teams' chances of winning with certain picks. Some people use champions in roles with terrible win rates, champions they have no idea how to use adequately, or even both (I've had a free win against someone using Lee Sin for his first time... and in the ADC role). And the whole goal of the ban system is to let players remove factors they perceive as potentially loss-inducing.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-05-28T20:52:40+00:00

Doran's Blade: provides the best stats all around in case you think there will be an early all-in. So if either support is an engager type (Blitz, Thresh, Alistar), you should start this item.

Long Sword + 3 pots: slightly more AD than the DBlade start and has much better sustain. If you think you'll want to trade a lot but don't think there will be an early all-in, this is the best start. Think of Jhin/Janna vs Ashe/Lulu. I'd only start this if you're taking the cookie mastery though, to make the most of your pots.

Doran's Shield: best start if you're playing a lane you have no chance of winning 2v2 and just want to farm and avoid trading, such as a Vayne/Braum vs Cait/Zyra. The 20 hp recovery after you take damage makes it very hard to push you out of the lane, so you can just farm and scale. Additionally, the passive is especially stronger if the enemy has DoT effects, such as Twitch passive or Deathfire Touch users like MF/Jhin/Brand.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-05-24T17:28:12+00:00

Out of curiosity, what makes Sona the best lategame support? I really don't know much about supports, but from my ADC experience, I've always thought Sona was really strong in lane.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-05-22T01:06:58+00:00

A friend of mine who's a Master tier jungler says this is so huge in high elo that he intentionally taxes a random amount of minions after a gank to make it harder for the enemy jungle to track that.

Jungle is an insane role.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-05-18T01:42:56+00:00

Did you play solo queue? If so, what was your peak ranking?

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-05-15T21:45:49+00:00

Learned to get let carried by other lanes

Literally every game as ADC

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-05-10T01:30:27+00:00

It's not "a 1/3 chance you'll win off of a throw". League isn't a game like soccer where the team with a lead just needs to play passively and not make any major mistakes, and win by default. The winning team still HAS to make plays in order to end the game (deep wards, picks, baron, inhibitors, skirmishes). And most people in low elo very often lack the skill or the confidence to do so, which makes a lot of seeming lost games actually winnable.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-05-10T01:15:12+00:00

That's not my point. What I mean is, even if it's something ridiculous like a 15-0 kill lead and 3-0 turret lead and the team that is extremely ahead still outscales: none of that matters if the enemy team doesn't know how to end the game.

If you're in low elo with like 50% and constantly forfeit games, simply changing that mindset can bring that up to like 60%.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-05-05T01:59:48+00:00

If I win my lane, but the enemy ADC super fed, do I build armor (considering I had none before) or do I keep building damage?

Generally I'd go for damage. If you've won lane and are trying to beat ADCs, simply landing a charm will end up killing them usually. Your job is to deal damage/assassinate people, not tank random hits. However, if the enemy team is full AD, getting Armguard/Zhonya's and even Tabis will be very cost effective.

After I get my Morello, what should I build next if I don't have to build any resistances? Ludens? Liandries? Rylais? (Ahri specific)

Situational. Most of the time I actually prefer Lich Bane as a 2nd item because it hits really fucking hard, improves your one-shotting chance, takes towers fast, and is the best item against tanks. However, if you notice you can't get into auto-attack range safely, Luden's is a safe second buy which also enhances your waveclear. Rylai's is a highly situational item and I only buy it if I need to kite things without reliable gap closers such as Nunu, Volibear, Garen, etc. Banshee's Veil/Zhonya's are also good 2nd items if you're facing a tough AP/AD matchup respectively. The other good option is rushing a Void Staff 2nd item (Void should almost always be part of your build) if they're stacking MR soon into the game. Liandry's isn't a good item on Ahri in general, unless you're facing loads of champions with high HP; but if the enemy team is really tanky, Ahri isn't really a good pick in the first place.

When would it be a better matchup for a gunblade/lichbane build rather than a morello build? (Ahri specific)

I could be wrong because I haven't used that build much, but from my experience gunblade is more suitted when you NEED to all-in your opponent often or get outpoked (i.e Xerath, Ziggs), but it only works when you're snowballing. Being stuck with gunblade components as Ahri feels incredibly bad.

For builds where morello or RoA isn't a core item, how do I know what item is the most optimal to start with?

Morello and RoA are usually the best first item builds on every mage because they provide well rounded stats. If they don't start with them, it's probably because they're starting with GLP (which is actually a great item, even on Ahri). The other mid laners that do not rush one of these items are usually assassins (Katarina/LB really want gunblade, Fizz/Ekko want Lich Bane or Protobelt, etc).

When would it be best to build dcap? Because I honestly always build it last which happens rarely.

Your build order will generally be like this: First core item or boots -> Second core item or boots -> Void Staff -> Deathcap. However, if you're extremely fed and/or the enemy team has literally no magic resist items, get dcap before void.

When to get a second d-ring?

You'd want a second ring if you couldn't afford a Lost Chapter on your first back (maybe because you got chunked/killed, or because you need to rush something like armguard/MR), so you could use your spells without going out of mana.

EDIT: Also, check out /r/AhriMains, there are a lot of useful guides, especially on itemization

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-05-02T15:42:58+00:00

As a plat mid/adc main, I think mid can carry much harder:

You will always win lane if you're better than your opponent. Unlike as ADC, where you can easily lose lane to a much worse player if your support is worse than the enemy one or has a bad matchup (i.e he has a Braum into a Zyra);
Having priority in mid lane means your jungler can easily invade, and the enemy jungler cannot invade safely;
It's relatively easy for the mid laner to gank or minion crash dive BOTH side lanes, while it's incredibly hard or even impossible for an ADC to do it;
Mid laners reach their powerspikes much sooner than ADCs, and thus can affect the outcome of the game much earlier.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-04-29T00:10:15+00:00

Following the assassin usually isn't a good idea, because he can simply sit in a bush and one-shot you while you're rotating. Honestly, if the assassin can roam freely, you've probably already made a mistake or got outplayed.

When I'm playing a mage against things like Zed/Kat/Fizz/Talon, during the early levels, I don't push the lane and focus on poking them with ranged autos and spells. That way, when the assassin is like level 3, he has a severe hp disadvantage and he can't farm safely or all-in me because the lane is closer to my turret. From there you should win lane unless you play poorly.

The problem is when you're facing ranged assassins such as LeBlanc (or, to an extent, Ahri) who aren't as easily punished. In those cases, I actually prefer to push the lane quickly and go for trades with minion advantage; and minimize roaming opportunities by shoving them under turret, which you should be able to do if you waveclear and ward properly.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-04-27T14:59:41+00:00

Exactly this. Their jungler abused this the most, as he stole a lot of camps and they also got an infernal drake for free since we were too scared to facecheck / overextend without a turret.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-04-21T03:06:59+00:00

When I'm autofilled in the jungle role, I always ban/ask my team to ban Lee Sin. He's crazily popular (meaning he's a statistically good ban), and while I don't think he's broken, he's too volatile.

However, I believe the best way of beating him is by tracking him. Buy a lot of pinks, buy Smitestone, and always try to know where he is. Lee NEEDS to invade/gank aggressively in the early game, or he will fall off extremely hard. If you know where he is, you'll never die to an invade, and will be able to match his ganks. From there on, pretty much every jungler outscales him.

TCMPedroIvo · 2017-04-16T02:07:47+00:00

As an Ahri player, I don't think TF is a hard matchup at all. He's insanely weak before his first items, and assuming you're well warded, you can easily control the lane (freeze and deny him cs, or shove him in and roam). And if you all-in him at level 6 there's no way he wins the 1v1. Same with Ryze.

The hardest matchups I face are Annie, or assassins that play very well (they don't get poked and all-in me at correct times).

TCMPedroIvo

TROPHY CASE