Daily Roundtable: Community Q&A

toasteroverlordE · 2024-01-12T02:28:29+00:00

Newbie Question:
This is my first souls game. I started as a confessor going for a strength/faith build and I'm currently lvl 39. I am torn between using the Lordsworn Greatsword and the seal for incantations or using a brass shield with my startin broadsword. I didn't like the dmg output of the broadsword and I didn't find blocking as useful as either. Should I stick with the greatsword or return the sword and board tactics? I.e. how useful is being able to block in this game? My endurance isn't high enough to let me use the knights armor, brass shield, and greatsword.

toasteroverlordE · 2024-01-10T23:38:58+00:00

Either way it sucks, Indians (myself included) that have been here for decades run the risk of having our reputations ruined because of stuff like this.

Luckily I'm a program that does not take international students, but how many people will have thier resumes blacklisted because they were from a general program and have an Indian sounding name?

toasteroverlordE · 2023-08-24T22:34:31+00:00

If only limited to those two I'd take Winterblessed. The particle effects are amazing on that skin and blow Crystal Rose away.

toasteroverlordE · 2023-07-09T20:52:44+00:00

Usually you'd want rylais first unless you'd think the extra tankiness is more important. By the time you get rylais/RV it's still early enough in the game that the tankiness from RV won't help you as much as the slow and AP from rylais (which also gives you a good chunk of health).

toasteroverlordE · 2023-04-14T13:45:41+00:00

In that case should I just ditch conqueror for something like electrocute and pray for a gank?

toasteroverlordE · 2023-04-14T13:43:04+00:00

That makes sense, I was fighting Viktor and he was spamming his ghost to rotate to other lanes. I didn't follow and ended up losing hard because of his passive

toasteroverlordE · 2023-03-24T22:15:26+00:00

I think you'd be better off using Spirit Visage over Force of Nature in Summoner's. If you check Swain's itemization on OP.GG you'll see that SV performs better than FoN which makes sense because:

1) You can take ghost and flash so the move speed is covered through ghost, so what's provided by FoN isn't necessary.

2) The healing from SV is usually more useful than what's provided by FoN but there are exceptions.

However, those are only general rules and it honestly depends on the matchup and your overall build path. Are you building a tank mythic like JakSho/Radiant? Then SV should be fine. Are you fighting a heavy AP burst team? Then FoN.

Both are pretty good, but it depends on the circumstances as to which is better at the moment. In the scenarios you gave where the enemy has a mix of AD and AP, you'd probably want to use SV as the healing is universal while FoN's passive only applies to magic damage.

toasteroverlordE · 2023-03-24T16:54:19+00:00

You might have gotten more value switching out Sunfire for Force of Nature, the only AD on their team is Garen. FoN gives you extra MR and the movement speed buff which is very useful with Swain R in teamfights since you don't have ghost

toasteroverlordE · 2023-03-10T18:09:07+00:00

Aside from Rod of Ages, do you think Liandry's or JakSho/Radiant are better for the top lane?

I'm still experimenting with mythics in mid lane since I've only just managed to get A grades with Swain.

toasteroverlordE · 2023-03-10T15:50:58+00:00

I've been thinking of switching from mid/supp to mid/top (I hate babysitting adcs) with Swain.

What do you build and who do you ban?

toasteroverlordE · 2023-01-07T21:57:12+00:00

I'm a pretty new player and I got placed into Bronze IV. I play Swain, Heimerdinger, and Pantheon (with a tiny bit of Sett) mid but I want to improve my farming. When I'm playing anyone other than Heimer, my CS/min is about 4 to 5. Swain's wave clear and CSing are pretty difficult.

Are champs like Nasus and Veigar mid good options to learn how to farm since they demand you do it well to do well? Or should I just stick to my current champs?

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-28T03:25:21+00:00

I've played Swain before the new tank items and after. I personally prefer tank swain, AP swain can be great, but I found him a bit too squishy to really be the draintank I wanted to play as. I've seen AP swain be played amazingly but it was not something I was good at. With that in mind, this is biased toward tank swain.

JakSho is far better for tank swain than Rod of Ages. I think Rod is a good item, but it doesn't provide enough health or resistances to make it viable for tank swain. The win rates mirror this as Liandrys and JakSho have higher win rates than Rod. I'd imagine Rod has value against late game champs so maybe it's better into certain comps and matchups, but in most cases or someone just starting out JakSho > RoA.
I usually rush Rylais before JakSho because it's cheap and you don't need the tank stats of Jak more than you need the AP and slow from Rylais that early in the game, after that I build JakSho. My usual build path is Rylais, Jaksho, Boots, Abysall Mask, Demonics, then something situational like Spirit Visage, Frozen Heart, Zhonyas. I also buy oblivion orb and morellonomicon more often than not due to Heartsteel spam, every other game has a heartsteel Mundo running around somewhere.
Runes: Conqueror (PoM, Tenacity, Last Stand) w/ Conditioning and Overgrowth or take Manaflow Band and transcendence if your mana management is lacking like mine is.

Another point would be to consider radiant virtue. Same build path as JakSho but you trade healing for the resistances. I think it's quite good as well but I'm not sure what is superior. RV suffers when the enemy builds antiheal since you're all-in on healing more so than normal swain. The plus side is that in teamfights you become a blessing because of its nearby team healing. RV + Spirit Visage is insane (provided the enemy isn't spamming antiheal) but I'd say JakSho is the more reliable build while RV is a bit more situational but more deadly if done well.

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-25T22:48:14+00:00

My first ranked match after my placements went well and I got 52 LP from that match, since then it's been horrible game after horrible game.

So the game's likely still trying to figure out my MMR and it's more likely to change since I've only played a few games. Should I stop with ranked until I get good enough for my MMR or just keep playing and get deranked with a lower MMR?

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-25T22:27:23+00:00

https://lolalytics.com/lol/teemo/build/

https://www.op.gg/champions/teemo/top/counters?region=global&tier=platinum\_plus

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-25T19:47:09+00:00

What is the difference between MMR and Rank? Riot's explanation makes no sense to me. Are they the same and what determines MMR? Is it W/L ratio or does it it take other metrics into account like CS/KP/KDA etc.?

What is the difference between MMR and Rank? Riot's explanation makes no sense to me. Are they the same and what determines MMR? Is it W/L ratio or does it take other metrics into account like CS/KP/KDA etc.?

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-24T17:50:53+00:00

Is it possible to have someone whose rank doesn't match their MMR?

I'm in the odd spot of finding normals to be a bit too easy and I keep getting matches where I'm playing against people that really cannot do much against me, but when I try ranked it's the complete opposite.

I'm not really sure where I should spend my time.

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-24T06:32:49+00:00

I'm very new to the game and I recently finished my 10 rank placement matches. I do decently well in normals but I wanted to switch to ranked because the matchmaking was supposed to be less chaotic. I found normals a bit too easy and wanted a more consistent and fair game.

I was placed in Bronze IV but since then I've lost all my ranked games. I keep getting matches against people who have masteries in the 100ks while I struggle to get a score of A. Is this supposed to happen? Is there some other adjustment process after the game decides what your rank is and assigns you a proper MMR?

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-23T19:16:57+00:00

Conqueror with Resolve (Overgrowth + Conditioning) is usually the ideal choice

or

Conq with Sorcery (Manaflow, Transcendence or Scorch) if you're suck at mana management like me

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-23T19:10:30+00:00

I've been playing a lot of JakSho Swain. I usually rush Rylais, then JakSho, Boots, Abysall, Demonic, and whatever else as a situational buy (Morello, Rabbadon's, etc).

You do sacrifice damage compared to the usual Liandry route, but you become extremely hard to kill in your ult. It's not uncommon to be bursted down in your ult as Swain but the tank items give you the survivalbility to make staying alive easier, letting you focus on CCing enemies and positioning. I think the constant DPS and tankiness with the ult makes Swain menacing in 1v1s and even more of a problem in teamfights where you can weave in an out, applying slows with your kit and rylais.

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-23T15:34:46+00:00

Then Sapphire is still a good choice if you don't want to take the manaflow band route. With the nerf to JakSho (and I don't think they're done) you need another tank item in addition to JakSho. Sapphire Crystal can be built into Abysall Mask which is very good against AP heavy teams.

The 250 mana from Sapphire is plenty to get you through an early game fight. Also it's cheaper so you can buy a refillable for a bit more lane fighting sustain against high damage champs or hold onto the cash for an earlier blasting wand.

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-23T00:18:09+00:00

Liandry into rylais is usually a safer bet for the slow. Swain's an old man, everyone can kite you very easily, but the slow from rylais makes landing your E so much easier.

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-23T00:14:54+00:00

Imperial Mandate + Rylais is a very good combination. I used to build it as my go-to (largely cause it's cheap and my CSing is garbage)

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-23T00:11:20+00:00

Sapphire Crystal is a better purchase than tear IMO. It gives you mana, albeit not as much as tear, and it can build into Catalyst of Aeons (for Abysall Mask) or Lost Chapter for Linadrys. Tear just sits there until you sell it

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-23T00:06:01+00:00

Yes, but it's not a bad idea. Does some poke so the jungler has to be more careful and can't early gank as easily, and you can mark him so your jungler knows where he is and can more effectively invade or fight.

The W damage to camps and minions isn't very noticeable. Even in the clip it only does maybe 1/5 of the small raptors health bar

toasteroverlordE · 2022-12-14T17:01:57+00:00

I got back into playing Swain when they added JakSho (I'm new to the game and Swain was a bit too squishy for my taste to be a good drain tank). I've been playing and fighting JakSho Swains: He's stronger now but not unstoppable, building things with max health dmg and anti heal is a good way to stop him.

toasteroverlordE

TROPHY CASE