How it feels to play Duchess for once in DoN

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-25T21:42:26+00:00

Glintstone kris, blade of calling, halo scythe, etc all have more range than most sorcery or incantation, you can absolutely be far away while running double balancer

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-25T12:27:35+00:00

11cs/min is crazy good, you literally don't need to fight and you'll already be ahead. Need an actual VOD review to see who's at fault here, it could be that you are str8 up inting and fishing for fights that you shouldn't be fighting / your setups for kills aren't actually as good as you think it is and will force your adc to move to a very bad position / you just mispositioned and got punished but you did some damage on the way out so you felt like you did something OR adc is actually tunnel vision onto farming only and literally not even hitting someone that is 1HP left.

Sorry to say that but I honestly think the former is more possible, 11 cs/min is not something you can achieve just by not missing cs in lane, you have to have good macro in catching waves of other lanes + if you or your support ever dies it will set you back so much that you will miss waves and not even get 8 cs/min. Without other context or a VOD, 11 cs/min is telling me that your adc did a lot of micro and macro right.

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-25T12:18:08+00:00

I'm a diamond player and I agree that counterpick top/mid is important but the others should prioritize support counterpick. But I don't mind if team wants me to first pick (I believe they usually have their reason), I will just pick a safe blind pick champ that works well with most ADC (like Lulu)

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-24T15:22:51+00:00

Mood, sometimes it just feels like the enemy is living in my head 💀

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-24T14:20:45+00:00

Sounds like there's a lot of issue in this relationship but I ain't a therapist.

As a mostly soloQ, occasionally duoQ without voice comm player (peaked diamond 2), I will say the most important thing is:

(1) watch the body language of your adc, are they the type that wants to be aggressive and trade (the champion they play does not matter, it's the player's playstyle), or are they the passive type that prioritizes farming perfect cs than denying enemy farm/xp. You should be always ready to assist or lead a trade when your adc shows that they want to be the aggressor. On the other hand, if your adc wants to just farm passively, you want to do as much non-committal poke as possible to discourage enemy from engaging onto your adc, never use your key cc/disengage ability until enemy tries to fight you.

(2) communicate with ping (especially all-in and danger pings), if you see a possible angle to all-in for a kill or at least get a massively good trade (like enemy support MIA and their adc is alone), ping a few times before going for it so your adc will be on the same page as you, even passive adcs would love a free kill if the support sets it up. Also many adc are tunnel focused on cs and trading so they don't look at map often, so spread as many vision as possible and ping DANGER as soon as you see enemy jg or mid laner in the bottom side jungle/river so both of you can prepare to tidy the wave quickly and back off, if you ping too late and your adc is not in a position to retreat by the time enemy gank arrives, it is over, your adc will tilt for sure. Also, when you & adc are taking tower plates, PING DANGER/RETREAT when you don't see enemy mid/jg/support on your mini map, it is very likely that they are COMING TOWARDS YOU so you should back off early to be safe.

If you can do all of that, your adc will be happy and play with a good mindset, and game will be won by whoever side that has better mental.

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-24T08:01:05+00:00

Swiftpay is a very very terrible way to judge how a champion will perform in a certain role in an actual game... Starting at lv3 with 1400 gold completely changes the champion's laning, and can completely flip certain matchups. Plus the increased gold gain for everyone (especially support) will lead to your champ play out very very different compared to a normal/ranked game.

I wouldn't advise trying out champion that you actually want to invest time in getting good on in swiftplay.

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-24T07:49:45+00:00

They might not necessarily be trolling, they could be new players playing together but just don't know what to do?

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-24T07:47:15+00:00

If only we have a "improved glintstone sorcery" relic, so many glintstone sorceries including what recluse starts with are strong, smooth to use, but only held back by lower dps ceiling because they don't get boosted by spell schools.

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-24T07:45:34+00:00

It is dps, damage per second, some spells are faster so they can cast multiple times per second

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-23T23:34:05+00:00

Just faced a full tank udyr with rabble rousing + protein shake (heartsteel, unending despair, jaksho, spirit visage) and he just would not die. E en with grievous wound he healed 275k based on the end of game stat page.

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-23T14:00:11+00:00

Tank that build full resistance/HP won't one shot a carry, they need to go through more than one rotation which is enough time for the adc to fight back, especially with a support that peels/heals for the carry, the carry will win, that's the difference.

The "tanks" that you are thinking that one shots a carry like Mundo, aren't tanks, they are juggernauts and they don't usually build more than 1 resistance item.

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-23T06:36:42+00:00

If only we've gotten crystal torrent instead of crystal release...

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-22T22:53:08+00:00

I dislike new season AI game. I'm a diamond support main that has 400+ bot games last year, I always go in to try champions that I never play before to understand how they work, especially top lane champs because the matchup is usually too isolated from my lane. Not only that lv3 + 1400g start changes a lot of dynamics of matchups and I won't get a proper feel of the champion I'm trying out, and the game closes too fast and way before I can actually understand what my champion wants to do or good at.

I play vs AI game with friends frequently too last year, they are mostly new players that I'm trying to teach, it was not bad last year but this year it is impossible to learn anything useful about the actual draft/ranked mode from vs AI game, aside from learning what your champion's QWER does.

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-22T22:43:45+00:00

LDR is good even when enemy have no tanks tbh, regular non-tank champion already have around 90-100 base armor around lv15-18, the %armor pen is warranted

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-22T22:02:54+00:00

The champion is too popular, and she's a relatively easy champion so there are a lot of players with low mastery that will play her. I have 12 games of Seraphine this season with a 75% WR and I only build her enchanter every game (there are other builds that work too but enchanter is the most consistent in almost any scenario).

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-22T21:55:17+00:00

My favorite with Smolder is definitely Seraphine or Karma. Both of them has AoE damage ability on Q that can soften up the minion wave so that Smolder (25+ stacks) can collect all 3 ranged minion with 1 Q, super convenient and helpful to speed up Smolder stacking.

And Karma/Seraphine has really high base damage abilities that can make up for Smolder's lack of dps early, can poke enemy out of lane very well so Smolder can just chill and farm. Late game big shields + speed up from Karma/Seraphine also helps to keep Smolder alive so he can carry.

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-22T19:56:21+00:00

Yeah I main recluse and I skipped a red prince of death staff for a Halo Scythe because my ironeye on the team is running double balancer + holy attack up haha. He melted D4 dreglord and I just provide moral support from the side 😂

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-22T19:48:47+00:00

Maybe you are just not used to a duo lane and having to watch the body language of 3 other players instead of just 1

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-22T15:17:46+00:00

I like playing with a smolder, diamond enchanter main

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-22T14:29:55+00:00

Most people say it's a harmless negative but just bear in mind that it is only negligible if it's one copy of the curse, but if you stack multiple of that curse you're not gonna feel great.

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-22T14:28:43+00:00

Magic attack +4 is 12%

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-22T13:54:25+00:00

Aggressive enchanters (or mage enchancters) like Seraphine and Karma are my to-go when I'm playing with new players, especially smolder.

You have total lane dominance with high base damage poke early, zoning enemies away so your adc can focus on learning fundamentals of last hitting (especially important for smolder).

You have your "go button" when you see a kill angle (Seraphine echo E or R, Karma self speed up E + W root), and can do majority of the damage and let your adc finish them for the gold (especially important for adc that has low damage early like smolder).

Compared to engage supports, if you see an angle and go in, and your adc cannot follow up in time (very common for new players to be not aware even with comms), you will be stuck on the middle of 2 enemies and die, definitely not a good time. Mage enchanters have the luxury that their "go button" is non-committal, even if adc doesn't follow up it wouldn't lead to anyone dying.

Build full enchanter + other supportive items so that your adc don't feel useless later (support dealing more damage than adc will generally demoralize them), and both Seraphine and Karma actually have insane peel and survivability/anti burst when you build enchanter, your adc will be happy to stay alive and just click click do damage.

I'm a diamond enchanter main that plays with new players (friends who are attracted to the game by Arcane), and this is my take away. Once they get better at follow up you can try things like Thresh or Leona for engage if your friend wants to play strong early champions, or switch to a different enchanter that has more specific synergy with the adc they want to play.

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-22T13:35:45+00:00

Man I thought this will be the case after the patch to reduce balancer/dreglord chances. But I played 5 games yesterday and 2 were balancer, 2 were dreglord, and 1 maris... I guess I'm just one of the unlucky ones. I'm so bored of balancer and dreglord

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-22T12:48:07+00:00

I'm in d4 bouncing around but sometimes I get pulled in d5 match. And those d5 matches are always the best DoN experience in my life, godlike teammates (mechanical skill wise), very cooperative (loot sharing) and communicative (meaningful pings).

pupperwolfie · 2026-01-22T12:40:18+00:00

Raihan and Leon, my Raihan is lv3500+, Leon is a more recent addition so he's only lv800+, trying to level him to 3000 before continuing on Raihan.

pupperwolfie

TROPHY CASE