League of Legends

[Da6onet]

Pretty amazing watching the best of the best go at it.

http://season-one-championship.na.leagueoflegends.com/

[Erathaol]

Totally.  I was watching a few of the games last night before going to sleep.
Now to spend ALL DAY catching up on the rest!

[Da6onet]

Was in a debate with Akou about how to play Sona. He feels I should build her AP only. I personally feel she provides much more benefit to the team as an aura support because she only has her Q nuke that isn't targeted and her ult is on a long CD even at cap. I do build some AP (amazing what you get with just an AA staff and Rabadon's)

Without baron or blue buff, here is my Sona in Q stance.



I think what's more telling is the buffs I'm providing to the team including the relevant of Sona stances.

Attack Damage: +28
Armor: +32
Magic Resist: +35
Ability Power: +50
Spell Vamp: 25%
Cooldown Reduction: 10%
Mana Regen: +12 per 5
Movement Speed: +20 (+14% bursts)

I think a team would much rather have that than a one hit wonder with Sona's Q (pure AP build ~850 damage on 4-6 second cd).

You may argue that AP = heals. I counter with Sona's heals are on a 4-6 second cd. As such I believe they are designed for laning counter harass and before/after team fights, not during, when people out of position are going to be burst down in 2 seconds anyway. This is also the problem I generally have with Soraka. That isn't to say that heals aren't spammed during fights, just that a team shouldn't think they're invincible when it's such a crap shoot.

A note about Aegis of the Legion:
I normally detest this item. However, combined with Sona's W and even a bit of Q makes this a very cost effective and essential item to any aura centric build.

A better way to think of Aegis is to remember that it's effecting 5 people (including yourself), so really the team stats on the aura should be
Attack Damage +40
Armor +60
Magic Resistance +75

That makes your team much tougher overall.

/endrant

[Erathaol]

I play Sona often, and when I'm doing ranked or playing with a premade (read: playing seriously), I follow the support role in the purest sense.  What that means is duo-laning bottom with usually the AD carry, and babysitting them so they get ALL the farm.  A Sona with single or double-digit CS by the end of the game is doing things RIGHT.
That said, my items on her are often a Philosopher's Stone, Aegis, and Heart of Gold.  Now you might notice that those are very cheap and wondering where the rest of the gold is going, and that's easy.  I buy wards.  TONS of wards, since no matter how much I squawk like a parrot at my team to buy wards they never do.  I also buy an Oracle's Elixir to hunt wards, since as a support I should never die.

Now, if a game is going on FOREVER (longer than 40 minutes), I'll start building other items depending on the situation (team composition, problem characters, etc.).  I do often get WotA for my AP buddy on the team, but honestly games shouldn't be lasting that long.  The goal of Sona is to enable your team to farm up those super-items, since she doesn't need them herself.

[Da6onet]

I agree with you on the ward front, I usually buy them in chunks so I don't forget. The math I follow is that 3 gold/10 runes + the gold/10 mastery = 72 gold every three minutes. Sight wards cost 75 gold, so just off my runes and mastery I buy the equivalent of 1 ward every three minutes; usually just buying 5 before the 15, 30, and 45 minute marks respectively. I space them out as needed (hopefully at least one other person on the team is buying them, but meh).

I also like to roll with Clairvoyance on Sona to provide spot checking when wards are down for jungle, dragon, baron, mia ganks, etc. Often times I find I can predict where the enemy is going to be just based on past experiences. With the 9/0/21 masteries CV is up often and lasts for a while.

The build above reflects a super late game finish. Typically by the end of a game I have only my aura items with this build order.

Amp tome + mana pot -> kage's -> tear and/or tier 1 boots depending on gold in hand and how game is progressing -> 5 wards ~15 minutes -> Aegis -> Soul Shroud (kindlegem or mana manipulator depending on gold in hand when forced to base). -> 5 wards ~ 30minutes -> merc treads or lucidity boots (depending on enemy team comp, usually merc treads) -> sell kage's for will of the ancients -> 5 wards ~45 minutes -> AA staff -> Rabadon's -> Elixirs

Typically games end before I finish my WoTA. Having the huge mana pool from Tear/AA is so easy on sona. I usually max it out by 30 minutes, I can't even do that with my Ryze. If I'm in solo queue normal, sometimes I'll skip the wards entirely (since nobody pays attention anyway) and grab a philo stone to fill that slot. Also, if in a premade and the tank says they'll get Aegis, I'll skip building it until later or replace it with Shurelya's Reverie (coupled with active E on Sona it's like a team flash to initiate fights... epic win).

[Da6onet]

All european finals, boo :-(

[Keeloth]

For some reason, I can't watch the videos.  It just says "Unable to load plugin: unable to load plugin 'liverail', url: 'http://vox-static.liverail.com/swf/v4/plugins/flowplayer/LiveRailPlugin320.swf'

[Da6onet]

I caught about half the tournament live including the epic finals. Definitely worth watching the videos of the matches again. Just absolutely amazing game play. So many talented people, doing absurd things. Ward and map awareness up the ass, strategy, counter play, and the world's best crushing face with no more than four end game items, usually getting only one or two.

 One thing I found striking was that all the teams won or lost as teams. Nobody trying to be Rambo, or off alone like an idiot getting ganked.

I think Phreak analyzed it best, that if you looked at the assists on a team, they were all the same or within 1  or 2, meaning everyone was present for fights for the most part.

[Da6onet]

Got my maxed out Malz build going today in a ranked match and was carrying my team hard 25-9-12.

Then I got the worst disconnect ever, in the middle of a very decisive team fight. By the time I got the client restarted, game was over, I had been killed and we lost :-/



Zhonya's pissed off their karth so much, I'm very happy with the build :-)

[Da6onet]

How is Singed not the most OP Tank?

note: this is without blue buff


Personally I don't understand how that's not the most overpowered tank in the game.
He has an AoE slow (up every 8 with cdr), he can chase just about anyone down, his fling is a hard disable and does 1000 damage with all that AP, and with capped cdr about 3-4 flings in any given team fight, has 54.5% CC reduction (merc+ult), and if the other team ignores him, he's going to do 280 damage to every person on the other team every second they don't kill him. All this with an overall EHP of over 10000.

Even my Amumu's most offensive despair only does around 100-200 damage per second. GG :-p

edit: I figured out why he's not the most OP tank ever, even though the ult is up every 35 seconds, that's 35 seconds where he's much weaker. As well, he only has two damaging spells, which effectively cuts his role as an AP damage dealer in half (although Lich Bane works well to add a little extra oomph).

[Da6onet]

Milestone

[Arawn]

Back off Dag! Hes not OP!! If Riot nerfs him because u started this thread imma go dominican on yo Ashe! (Lolpunmuch?)

And... if your edit statement is the reason why your failing at making him the most OP... Just gotta play him some more TBH i just rely on my ult for the movement speed to catch up baddies, or to run away and make em follow me all the way thru the jungle when i face check bushes... Not on all the other sweet things it gives so i just consider them a bonus

Btw!! OMG gimme your build!!! SO HAX!

[Arawn]

im thinking of starting shaco... Dag help me!!!

[Da6onet]

Because Singed's ult lasts a whopping 25 seconds on a 60sec cdr (so up every 35) I prefer to use it as part of his base stats, using ghost as an extra speed burst as needed. I'm not failing with him, but his playstyle is distinct from other champs with similar ults like sion or alistar.

[Arawn]

I dint mean u were failing... its pretty hard to fail as singed with those stats... lol

i just sayd that u were failing at categorizing him as the most op... but let me ask you.. if not him, then who?

Btw... still owe me that build xD