Shaco - A bit in-depth guide (part 1)

DANGER

I played more ranking games today with Shaco. Even though I was extremely unlucky during my regular jungling routine (first game I got crit twice by Lizard, second one our Ashe literally took my Red buff), I continued to dominate the entire map with Shaco. Against low-and-mid ELO uncoordinated teams, Shaco is simply too powerful and versatile. Although I won't be cocky and write an entire guide for playing Shaco, I will share my experiences playing with him, and what worked (very) well for me. 


First I would like to show my appreciation for Reginald, if I didn't watch his video guides, I would still be an average noob Shaco knowing only how to gank and backdoor without any overall strategies. I do not believe everyone else who watched his videos (probably not all of them like me) had a "brainblast" like I did. But before I talk about my Shaco enlightenment, here is the link to Reginald's Shaco guide:


http://www.solomid.net/guides.php?g=373

What's new(2)?

First of all, reallyyyyyyy excited that I won the SoloMid Guide Contest. You can see how excited I am right now :3


By winning this contest, I am one giant step ahead of achieving my ultimate goal - Spread the love and appreciation for the righteous queen of LoL: Anivia. (Haha, just kidding I am not that corny). Ever since I created this guide half a year ago, I realized how under-appreciated Anivia was as a champion; how she was only seen as a "no-skills OP champ" or a "underwhelming burst caster"; Anivia offered a level of depth in her gameplay that no other champion can mimic, not even Trundle and his wall.  I felt the public misjudged her. At that time, and even now, there are no other Anivia guides that truly teach the players about her mechanics and gameplay style. By creating this Anivia guide, I can make a difference and truly help those who wish to learn how to play her, and encourage other players to take a deeper look at her. I felt I have done that over the months.


As of now, I have final exams to prepare for, so this week I can't make more updates. But everything will be finished soon, and you can expect daily content updates ^^


Good luck, and as always, have fun!


SoloMid Guide Contest thread: http://www.solomid.net/forums/index.php?/topic/7079-solomid-guide-contest-winners/

My Anivia guide on SoloMid: http://solomid.net/guides.php?g=87

(Outdated for now) Anivia guide on Mobafire: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/read-announcements-first-controlling-anivia-13978

Recent events and my new love :3

You guys all deserve a cookie for being so patient!


Recently I have been incredibly busy (like always but even more so) because the final examinations are only a few weeks away! Nonetheless, I will try to do my best to keep up with the postings. By the way, I will soon be blogging for the Solomid community if everything goes smoothly. The site is run by the top players in the League, known for its high-quality, high-ELO livestreams, and recently its guide system. I am really glad that I received this opportunity to share my knowledge and passion for blogging on Solomid. Don't worry guys, while I will be posting on a consistent basis for Solomid, this is my main blog and I will continue to update it in the future! Nonetheless, the first part of my planned mini-series, "The LoL Mindset", will debut on Solomid before making its way here. Again, do not worry, there are many other articles that I plan to release only on my blog ^^.


Now you are probably wondering, who is this new love that I found? No, I didn't find a girlfriend to mitigate my loneliness T_T. This new love that I found is a champion in LoL; you would know if you have read my in-game status updates recently. That's right, he is no other than Shaco - The Demon Jester! (No homo) I guess I am "cheating" on Anivia~

Sup Bros?

Why Shaco?

My collection of lovely Mages

I love Mages. They go in, release their load, and come out -exactly my style. There are many types of mages: bursty, bulky, and supporty. Generally speaking, I usually call a champion "mage" if it meets all three criteria: 1) AP/mana powered skills 2) naturally built mage style (e.g. not AP Master Yi) 3) not a tank. 

Pros and Cons of Mages
Pros: Bursts hard; utility; AOE damage (usually); good gankers/assassins
Cons: Fragile; Mana/CD reliant; need good team support; usually harder to play than other classes


I have a collection of mages that I play with the most. Here I will introduce each of them, see if they suit your style. I only have a limited amount of time and money so I didn't buy all the mages (sorry Ryze). I will talk about the mages I didn't buy in another post.

Anivia 

My favorite Pokemon mage. I played and fell in love with her since I was level 13. Packing 2 AOE slows, 1 mini-AOE stun, a map hack, and a self-revive, she is an awesome burst and utility champion that can turn the tide of the game. If she is fed, might as well be GG for the other team. Being one of the highest burst-damage mage and best utility character in the game, she is not very popular due to her high skill-cap fail-hard ratio. Just when she almost became FoTM, Riot steps in to nerf her, quelling all QQs and put her back in the loner zone. Today, the Ice Phoenix remains untouched by noobs. (My guide available, check "guides" section)

Common Misconceptions About Items - Infinity Edge vs. The Bloodthirster

Another article today from Jebus McAzn on item theory. Today, I'll be talking about the war between two items that many DPS carries want to have, but only need or can afford to get one at a given moment. These items are Infinity Edge and The Bloodthirster, respectively. While you all should certainly know the stats for these items, if you don't, here they are:


Infinity Edge
+75 Attack Damage, +20% Critical Strike Chance
Passive: UNIQUE - Critical hits now deal 250% damage instead of 200%
Cost: 4080 gold
Recipe: B. F. Sword+Pickaxe+Cloak of Agility


The Bloodthirster
+60 Attack Damage, +15% Life Steal
Passive: Gain an additional 1 Physical Damage and 0.25% Life Steal per kill. Maximum of +40 Damage and +10% Lifesteal. Bonuses are lost upon death.
Cost: 3200 gold
Recipe: B.F. Sword+Vampiric Scepter


So we can see that when you farm a Bloodthirster up to its full stacks, its stats actually become:
+100 Attack Damage, +25% Life Steal

Karma overview and build

Karma build

Check out my Karma build here: http://www.mobafire.com/league-of-legends/build/karma-cdr-hp-ap-support-55187#lastcomment


Overview
Karma is a well-balanced support champion. She is easy to pick up but difficult to master, especially when it comes to perfecting her Spirit Bond skill. Karma can put out a decent amount of nuking power if she desires, but her true strength lies in her arsenal of support skills. Karma's persistent speed buff, AOE heal, and shield can turn the tide of a teamfight in one skill set rotation. The Mantra bonus allows Karma to be prepared for all kinds of situations and adjust accordingly. Perhaps what I found most amusing is her Spirit Bond skill. Proper usage can slow down and damage all of your enemies while speed up all of your allies during a teamfight. A team chase can lead to an ace if Spirit Bond is used properly. 


I would suggest buying her. She is definitely one of the better 3150 IP champions.

Common Misconceptions About Items - Madred's Bloodrazor

Hey, everyone who's reading this. I'm Jebus McAzn. Some of you may know me from the MOBAFire community, while some of you may know me from in-game. A little about me before we begin: I've been playing LoL since around June 2010. Regardless, I feel that I've watched a lot more videos and read a lot more guides than the average LoL player. You can add me in-game as JebusMcAzn, and go check out mine and Hypershatter's guides over on MOBAFire as well!


Anyway, enough of my rambling. This is just going to be a small guide, the type that makes you just a little better at the game. Read enough of these, and it'll really help you raise your ELO. As Phreak says, it's the little things that add up that really end up affecting your total performance.


I'll be talking today about Madred's Bloodrazor. For those of you who don't know, Madred's Bloodrazor is a fairly pricey item, but has fantastic stats. It's a common item for junglers and DPS champs with decent to high attack speed.

League of Legends Resource Directory (LoLRD)

Jan. 14. 2011

Hey guys,

I created this list when I realized the "LoL fansite directory" thread is severely outdated with most of the websites either inactive or completely shut down. (http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/showthread.php?t=22607). Therefore, I created my own list of currently active and large fansites for LoL. They include all of the websites I know that are related to LoL, including blogs, communities, youtube channels, etc. I will constantly update this page. If you have anything to add, please comment below. I hope if enough players found this useful this page will get stickied ^^.

Improve Microing - a guide to Smartcast and Selfcast

In Starcraft, an immensely popular RTS game, there is microing and macroing (nouns). Macroing means building up economy by managing workers and buildings to achieve the greatest efficiency; microing means controlling each units to achieve the best positioning leading to higher survivability and damage output. In league of Legends, only microing exists because you only control one unit -your champion. Microing in LoL is necessary to position yourself to last hit, harass the enemy champions, and most importantly, survive.  If you watch pros' livestream, you will see that they are constantly clicking -some might say a bit excessive- to move their characters around even by an inch at a time.  Pros are constantly aware of their positions and their enemy's position, of course, being familiar with the range of autoattacks and skills for most characters, they can move in and out without getting a scratch. Sometimes you will see two pros moving back and forth without attacking (except for last hit) as if they are in an invisible tug of war. For pros, microing is their second nature.

Ooooh Vlad you little bloodsucker...

Laning against Vladimir in mid is a pain in the ass, just as much as laning against Miss Fortune and Mordekaiser (will post guides on these guys later). Whenever you see a Vladimir on the loading screen in the opponent's team, you might have felt a chill in your spine, praying your carry in mid won't get sucked dry like a pig. If Vladimir gets fed, he can be compared to the final stage of Cell in Dragon Ball Z; the more he drains, the stronger he gets. Too bad there are no Senzu Beans to save your ass.


But he doesn't have to be a such a headache. Vlad is overrated in terms of his laning ability by most of the community, thanks to the usual torrent of sheep rants crying "OP NERF PLS" on the forums. Yes, he is a very strong laner, but can be shutdown easily if you know how. In this post, I will briefly give you some pointers on how to counter this constantly poking troll.


(In this post we assume your average Vlad player isn't a noob or a Pro)

Do you belong in your ELO?

Ever since ranked games have been introduced, I've been seeing countless rant threads posted in the forum complaining about how "ELO hell" is impossible to get out of, thanks to feeders/leavers/etc...Although I have not been to the deepest end of the so-called "ELO hell", I can tell you one thing: you belong in your ELO, no excuse, no exceptions.


Most players that complain about being stuck in "ELO hell" simply don't understand what it takes to carry themselves to a higher ELO. Because they don't truly understand their weaknesses and playing style, blaming others for losing is much easier. Think about it this way, if there is such a thing called "ELO hell" where its impossible for GOOD PLAYERS SUCH AS YOURSELF to rise to a higher ELO, then how did hundreds of other players do it? Do you think Riot is purposely fking with you by putting all the feeders, leavers, non-english speakers and trolls in your team for shits and giggles? To put it in an even more humiliating way, how the hell did Milkfat climbed to 1750 rating when he has only been playing LoL for 32 days? (I don't care who he duo-queued with).

No, your turn to buy ward.

For most games, warding has always been the determining factor in winning and losing a game. We all know the importance of buying wards, but most of the time for one reason or another, we forget. By reading this, you can understand your teammates' (and your own) frustration when it comes to warding and take necessary actions.


Lets start with an example.
typical argument for ward buying (player A,B,C,D,E):
You are player A.


player C: HOLY FK GUYS, we are getting facerolled lololol wtf.
player B: ya cause u noobs dont call mia, i keep getting ganked in mid -_-
player C: guys get some wards...
player D: na man i cant afford..no gold
player B: i just bought a ward kk someone else do it plox
(silence...notice how player E never said anything. Apparently farming in the bottom lane requires tons of concentration)
(game ends 20 minutes later after getting aced 5 times due to failure of knowing where the other team was)


I am pretty sure all of you have encountered this situation before. So, what are the problems here? How could have you responded and led your team to victory?