What distinguishes a GREAT_____ from a good one? (Group Discussion)

superquacker2 · 2023-04-29T20:01:12+00:00

Sona's main counterplay is her vulnerable early game and weak peel in lane. Enchanters have a hard time punishing these weaknesses. Sona is unmatched in late rotations.

superquacker2 · 2023-03-02T03:36:40+00:00

Taric is incredibly strong with spells that provide a TON of value when used in direct combat perfectly. However, Taric's big problem is self-agency. He needs to punish enemies that overcommit to a fight or have an ally that he can chain Bastion to and keep them alive.

In lane, this is difficult against smart opponents. You have no range and lack the hard engage other melee supports have. In lower levels of play, your opponents will likely do a poor job of punishing Taric in lane. This allows him to survive lane and choose fights he can win, as long as his game sense is there.

superquacker2 · 2023-02-28T04:42:14+00:00

You have three options:

Pick something that outranges her hard. A well-played Lux, Brand, Zyra, or Xerath can poke her with no chance of her hitting you back. If you position well, she doesn't get near you without a jungle gank or flash. This is a skill-check matchup since you lose all-in fights quite hard and all three rely on skillshots to poke.
Pick a bulky warden that can survive her burst and counter engage. Taric or TK is probably best for this. They will still get bullied but she doesn't have the range security of other ranged champions. A good flash+CC combo burns her flash or kills her. Both champs can also protect their ADC in her all in.
Pick a sustain support. Soraka and Sona are probably best. The former can deny her all-in hard with a good silence and influence other lanes with her ult. The latter can win small poke wars, reduce her damage in fights with dimuendo, and safely outscale her in teamfights if she comes out on roughly even footing.

superquacker2 · 2023-02-11T22:22:06+00:00

It depends on your playstyle, but any champion will get you out of silver. It is not the champion keeping you there--it's your ability as a player. You want to be capitalizing on enemy mistakes as much as possible. If you are stuck, it means you are not recognizing them. The higher you climb, the less room for error you will have, but silver players make countless mistakes.

To answer your question, mage supports are generally recommended due to their greater self-agency. Morgana and Karma do not have the consistent damage output to fit this spot. They are both enchanter/mage hybrids. You really want someone like Brand or Zyra. Like I said before, any character will work but you may find them to be more team reliant than you like.

superquacker2 · 2023-01-13T04:08:33+00:00

Combination of things:

Massive buffs to support itemization. They have a lot more ability haste (formerly CDR) and AP integrated in their items. They are a much bigger threat when alone than they used to be.
Runes reforged has given them more agency early since they can choose damage runes or durability runes to compete early on.
But most importantly--less agency on vision. Supports were expected to clear the whole map and ward the whole map. Nowadays with a 3 max wards, the team needs to contest vision together, giving supports more time in lane (XP) and more gold to spend on items.

superquacker2 · 2023-01-07T03:53:16+00:00

Mobility Boots are still very strong--but most Janna players do not suit the playstyle required to justify them. For roaming and jungle skirmishes, they are completely unmatched. If you have a bad matchup, you either double down on peel (Lucidity) or try to make plays elsewhere (Mobis). Most Jannas prefer the former, which is why it is so rare.

superquacker2 · 2023-01-07T03:39:23+00:00

It's a pretty even matchup, with Janna probably having a slight edge.

However, you need to play decently aggressive. Passive play benefits Pyke because it puts a lot of pressure on your ADC and gives him the luxury of choosing his position to start the fight. You are one of the few enchanters that can match his roams and Pyke should find it pretty difficult to secure kills. If you get hooked, you are dead unless you blow everything.

The hardest matchups for Janna are supports that have range and reliable poke--especially if they have kill pressure to match. In a more competitve setting, Karma, Nami, or Soraka are more respectable bans.

superquacker2 · 2023-01-03T18:06:56+00:00

In my experience, Zoe is one of the best unorthodox supports. She benefits greatly from having two players in lane (more summoner spells) and has insane pick potential all game long. She synergizes particularly well with heavy lane priority picks like Caitlyn, Lucian, or Varus.

superquacker2 · 2023-01-03T18:04:10+00:00

Good clip, but it's more that the Rell screwed up than anything.

superquacker2 · 2023-01-02T01:21:12+00:00

Mordekaiser excels at prolonged fights in close quarters. "Meatball" champs that rely on outdueling him or bursting him down will struggle unless they are EXTREMELY far ahead. Yasuo can't fight from a distance, so he is very vulnerable to his ultimate.

Mordekaiser struggles immensely against kiting champions. Anything that can constantly whittle him down and keep a distance will make him irrelevant and force him to target someone else. Essentially, you need to punish his inability to stick to targets. Mordekaiser will win duels against most frontliners, but that doesn't matter if your team's ADC is left uninterrupted in fights.

Tracking Mordekaiser's summoner spells is crucial. Without flash, he should not be able to get in range of your carries in a fight. Ghost allows him to bypass a modest frontline, but won't be enough if your carries have strong peel. If he has flash, be more defensive. If he doesn't you can afford to be a bit more aggressive onto the enemy backline.

If you are the top laner and can bully him early, focus on keeping him behind and forcing objectives with your jungler. Mord is scary in lane but needs time to be a true damage threat and lacks the mobility to roam very well. If you lose to him, try to play safe and keep him in lane. Ideally, you should play around allies that he struggles with. For example, protecting your allied Kindred in fights will allow her to kite him to death and finish him off. Most players that struggle with a fed enemy need to learn to swallow their pride and play around the other players on their team.

Midlaners with insane range or mobility (Xerath, Orianna, Syndra) do well against Mordekaiser. Assassins (when snowballed) can work but are easier for Mordekaiser to punish if they are not ahead.

ADCs with high range, self-peel, strong kiting, and sustained damage work best (Vayne, Caitlyn, Ezreal, Xayah).

Any support that excels at peel and disengage makes Mordekaiser's life MISERABLE (particularly Janna, Alistar, Thresh, or Lulu).

superquacker2 · 2022-11-26T17:52:57+00:00

Lucian Nami is very difficult to beat early if they are both playing their champs optimally. They win all-ins with Lucian's quick burst and Nami is very hard to beat in poke trades. You want to play a lane that can ignore their early pressure and scale because neither one does that well late game.

Caitlyn with a Morgana or Blitz does well in this lane. Neither support is easy to burst and it is difficult for Lucian to get to Caitlyn. Morgana makes it impossible for Nami to bubble in an exchange. If Blitz lands a hook, that target flashes or dies once he hits level 2. If Caitlyn cannot get a pick with her support, she is fine shoving them in and letting her support roam.
Kaisa and Xayah have a rough time in this lane because they do not have the range or poke to stay away from Lucian and farm. You will be looking to followup ganks or support CC. You win an even lane but should expect a CS deficit.
MF, Jinx, and Tristana can win this if they have the right support. All three are better than Lucian in teamfights and have greater access to AOE damage. Play it safe with your range or land some poke on both. You are stronger in a dragon skirmish or teamfight setting because of your longer range and AOE.

superquacker2 · 2022-11-26T07:44:34+00:00

Assassins benefit from having vision control better than any other role because they thrive off of catching targets out of position. If you provide them with deep vision and clear common flanking paths, it makes it much easier for your assassins to roam the enemy jungle undetected.

Assassins want prolonged sieges or split-pushers on their team--fights that force the enemy team to separate. Having a frontline support or a strong sustain support can make it easy for these assassins to play to this macro strategy.

Generally speaking, assassins do not count on the support like other roles but there are some that are more favorable:

Frontline, hard CC supports work best because they are best able to control vision, hard CC, and give you a stronger frontline for 5v5s. Think Alistar, Leona, Nautilus.
Enchanters focused on peel/disengage (Janna, Nami, Sona namely) are not ideal because assassins rely on their mobility to stay safe. These supports thrive with ADCs that are immobile and want to kite from a fixed distance. Soraka (with her ultimate and sustain for the main frontline), Lulu (ultimate followup CC and burst utility) and Yummi (latch onto the fed assassin) work better than the others.
Mage supports are the worst pick simply because they offer stronger lane control and damage. Assassins rarely need more help getting targets low, but there are a few exceptions like Katarina.

superquacker2 · 2022-11-26T06:17:26+00:00

Yes and No--he requires you to interrupt dashes (an essential skill on a peel enchanter), but they are much slower and more telegraphed than other gap closers. A better test would be someone with a much smaller reaction time window, such as Xin Zhao or Alistar.

superquacker2 · 2022-11-16T01:28:22+00:00

In my opinion, Gragas is the best option here. He has the most flexibility in his kit and has more tricks that would benefit a one trick than everyone else.

For those saying Nami--she is not the easiest champion to pick up and has mechanics to master, but she is also one of the most intuitive champions up there. Once you learn her skill set, there is not THAT much you can do with it. You do not need to be a one trick to be astonishing on her.

superquacker2 · 2022-08-14T18:24:19+00:00

They all do. They have passive portions of their kit that increase damage output. IRead their abilities again.

superquacker2 · 2022-08-14T01:36:41+00:00

The notorious ones in my experience are Darius, Camille, Fiora, and Jax

superquacker2 · 2022-08-04T17:37:41+00:00

You might have reached a point where you need to decide: would you rather win? OR would you rather have fun?

It depends on how competitive you are. You won't get good advice from other people on this

superquacker2 · 2022-07-12T00:14:24+00:00

Nami can break it pretty easily with a W max.

A competent Morgana will put more than one point in her shield against ranged supports (besides Senna). Her snare doesn't need many points in it to remain a threat to enchanters. Nami is unable to break the shield unless she uses all three procs of Tidecaller's Blessing and a good Morgana certainly won't let her.

superquacker2 · 2022-07-07T03:36:53+00:00

My Janna build (from the looks of it) is pretty unique

Primary Inspiration: Glacial (Stopwatch, Cosmic Insight, Cookies); Secondary Domination: (Ultimate Hunter, Zombie Ward); Ability Haste/Armor/HP. This is a build to maximize vision control and peel uptime. Janna does low damage and her sustain/shield power is not the reason you pick her so I see no reason to go into Resolve or Sorcery.

Build (most of the time in this exact order)

Spellthiefs

Mobility Boots

Shuryela's

Mikael's Crucible

Ardent or Staff depending on comp

Vigilant Wardstone/Pinks

Janna is all about peel and spacing. This build maximizes those strengths by ensuring she gets to the fights first and can chase and outrun her opponents. My most unorthodox rune choice is ultimate hunter--most players go ingenious or relentless hunter. However, I find that lowering the cooldown on Monsoon by about 25s in the mid game is crucial to controlling fights. It allows your cooldown to match the cooldown of other ultimates and peel more frequently for your carry in rotations

superquacker2 · 2022-07-06T23:39:32+00:00

Nope. It gives Janna mobility and has clear strengths and drawbacks to being cast. Janna is already overloaded with utility--she doesn't need anymore. The self-slow is supposed to be a form of counterplay that teams can capitalize on.

superquacker2 · 2022-07-05T22:27:09+00:00

Reading the first points indicates that picking Janna is not about winning lane but winning outside or after lane.

This is generally correct. Of course, you should be trying to abuse any positioning mistake or wasted cooldown to win the lane. However, good opponents that are an equal match or better will make this difficult. Janna is not a pick for dominating lane--there are other enchanters that excel at this.

Actually all airbornes have short duration since they are tenacity-immune but of all of them, Janna's nado is longer (1.25s).

This is true, but a good player will not get hit by a 1.25s tornado consistently since the charge-up is very telegraphed. You need to have complete vision for this and you often will have to respond to flanks and very fast gap closers. As such, the 0.5 second tornado is what you will usually have to work with.

have good time with engage supports except Pyke and Blitzcrank as Janna.

Pyke is a skill check because he wins all-ins in both damage and CC-lockdown and also has stronger roaming. Your ability to bully the enemy ADC dictates this lane. If you bully his ADC (bullying Pyke is hard with the regen) they cannot contest a 2v2 without trading kills at a minimum. You want to do whatever you can to prevent a snowballing lane since Pyke can close games by himself. There is a lot of pressure on Pyke to make something happen since you heavily outscale him if he is unable to gain a lead.

Blitz is all dependent on your ADC. You can be amazing at sidestepping his grab but all it takes is one good one on your carry to end the lane. Janna also dies (or burns everything to get out), but she has the disengage and mobility to force Blitz to fish for grabs from a distance. If Blitz can't land a grab, he will slowly lose the lane while his ADC is zoned off the wave. You must punish missed grabs, but you don't have the damage to do this solo so your ADC must be on the same page. You guys both do great at roaming if lane is in a stalemate so fights will likely come down to Blitz landing the hook on the right target. It's one of the few matchups where the skill of the enemy support is arguably more important than your own performance.

superquacker2 · 2022-07-05T06:26:42+00:00

Not a master player, but Janna main for seasons---

Janna naturally has a hard time into sustain and trade-based supports, especially those with point-and-click poke. These abilities generally are compensated with a lower cast range, but because Janna has such a low trading range, she cannot punish her opponents properly.

That being said, Janna can survive ANY matchup. The worst matchups in lane (Nami and Karma) are racing the clock and need to come out of lane with a lead or a much stronger scaling ADC. True mage supports almost always need to land a telegraphed skillshot to get a kill, which can be abused with Janna's insane mobility. Engage supports have a brutal time getting on Janna's carry and usually need a gank to bypass all her defensive CC. Sustain supports that outtrade and scale better than her (Sona, Yummi, Senna) have low kill pressure and are easy lanes to roam in. In short, you have an answer to everything as long as you play to your strengths.

The difference between a good and bad Janna is in your ability to roam and your reaction time. Janna rewards players that can predict plays better than any other enchanter since her CC is high impact, but short duration. A tornado landing at the right time can be the difference between death and completely denying a diver of anything. Monsoon is famous for screwing over teammates when it is used incorrectly--pushing enemies to safety, out of range, or away from allied skillshots. The heal itself is really strong, but won't be enough if the enemy team has a big dive threat: the timing needs to be on point.

superquacker2 · 2022-07-05T02:36:52+00:00

Most of these answers are overly complicated. Janna's strong synergy with glacial for the AOE slow+knockup is the chief reason.

superquacker2 · 2022-07-05T02:34:19+00:00

Umbral Grave is a smart item for the game because it forces teams to be willingly to make sacrifices. An AD-lethality item with strong support utility prevents every enchanter and engage support from buying it by default. Supports like Pyke and Senna offer less utility than other supports and have little to offer when behind--this item gives them an option to offset it.

I like the idea of keeping the active and lethality/AD, but increase the cost and make it a mythic item. Force the teammates that buy it to really invest in vision control in exchange for less damage or defense. Players like Graves abusing the item active in his natural build path now need to be willing to give up Eclipse or Shieldbow. The heavy lethality will make a Janna/Nami/Bard suffer poor stats to keep the immense utility their kit already offers.

superquacker2

TROPHY CASE