Don’t Feed Volibear
Movie Notes
My games were hit or miss with Volibear. I guess you could say I was a bi-polar bear! He was enjoyable but I felt he was very specialized to certain types of teams -- as I said in the movie, he'd be a lot better as a late pick in draft mode where you have some idea of who you're up against. His lack of a strong escape mechanism, combined with his complete inability to close in on many champions without a summoner ability, or move-speed items like Shurelya's, or QSS, etc., made him frustrating in a number of games. (I particularly liked my game with Ezrael/Vayne/Riven/Talon, with an exhaust to really send the message home that I would never get near them until they made a mistake; my score was good and I believe we won, but I did not enjoy the game)
I tried Volibear as a jungler, as a bruiser, as a pure tank, as a warmogs-stacking monster, and as a support tank. I found I performed best with Warmog's, Atma's, and Shurelya's Reverie as my core items, and I rarely went far beyond this build as the games didn't last long enough. Shurelya's was a huge benefit. I saw a Solomid recommendation to pick up Wit's End, though I only tried this a few times.
Build Recommendations
As always, this section is opinion, and is not included in the movie because it won't always be true, nor is it likely to be the best way to play this champion in many situations. Check out solomid.net, mobafire, and leaguecraft for guides and information when picking up a champion!
I will cover how I played him successfully as a bruiser. The following works for laning or jungling.
Runes: Armor pen or Attack Speed reds (both are effective, I might give an edge to Attack Speed depending on items). Armor yellows, flat magic resist blues. Health or Movement Speed Quints (both are good for him; I would only get Movement Speed if I had the speed bonuses from masteries as well).
Masteries: 0-21-9 was my go-to build for a beefier role on my team or as a jungler. The 21 points in defensive are fairly flexible, just make sure you get the health, armor and MR perks and the 21 pointer.
When I wanted to dish out more damage, I'd go 21-9-0 with an emphasis on physical damage in offensive and picking up the health perk in defensive.
Skills: W first in most cases. If I knew I would not be getting near minions or champions in my lane early, I'd go for Majestic Roar as my only escape, just so I could more safely stay in XP range. W is always priority from then on, with E secondary, and one early point in Q at level 2 or 3 but maxing it last. Ult whenever it's available.
Summoner Skills: Flash. After this, I tended to go with Ghost or Heal. In hindsight, I should have made more use of Exhaust and/or Cleanse, and I'd recommend giving them a try. Use other summoner spells situationally.
Gear: If I had Movement Speed quints and bonuses from masteries, I would get boots and health pots at the start. Otherwise, I would almost always get a rejuv pendant and a health pot to start.
If you can get an early Warmog's or at least a Giant's Belt towards one, do it! Otherwise get a Philosopher's Stone, then boots (if you don't have them), and then Warmog's. After Warmog's you can choose to either go straight for Atma's (if incoming physical damage is more of an issue than getting in range of your target) or Shurelya's Reverie.
Boots can safely be Merc Treads (any CC/slow heavy team), Lucidity (CDR is great for disrupting teams, and this goes well with Shurelya's), Berserker Greaves are not bad.
Introduction
Volibear is a very durable melee-range champion with moderate crowd control.
Chosen of the Storm (Passive)
Volibear's passive is Chosen of the Storm. When Volibear drops below 30% of his maximum health, he automatically heals 30% of his maximum health over 6 seconds.
Unless a healing reduction is applied, Chosen of the Storm can be looked at as a straight additional 30% health.
Though this ability scales in effectiveness off his health, it can be important for Volibear players to keep Effective Health in mind and understand that both Armor and Magic Resist also improve his survivability in regards to this passive.
When the heal occurs, a visible debuff appears that indicates the cooldown before the passive becomes available again. If Volibear dies, this debuff is cleared. However, even without the visible debuff, the cooldown still continues, and both Volibear and other players should be aware of this if he has recently died.
Chosen of the Storm has a relatively long cooldown, though it is in line with many ultimates and may be available for many or all team fights and skirmishes in the mid and late game.
Rolling Thunder (Q)
Volibear's Rolling Thunder causes Volibear's next normal melee attack to deal additional damage and fling the target behind where Volibear is currently facing. Additionally, Volibear will receive a very significant run speed bonus if moving towards an enemy champion.
Volibear does not gain any movement speed when moving towards stealthed enemies or enemies hiding in a bush. However, if a visible enemy he is chasing runs into a bush, he does not immediately lose his run speed buff.
When Volibear begins his fling, there is a brief window of time where the fling has been initiated but a champion can still finish casting blink abilities. If this occurs, an enemy may blink away from Volibear, wasting the cooldown, but still be flung behind Volibear. For this reason, do not attempt to use blink abilities when Volibear is at or near melee range and Rolling Thunder is off cooldown; instead, wait until you've been flung, then go in a better direction.
The bonus damage from Rolling Thunder is effective on towers, though he cannot fling towers behind him.
Because Rolling Thunder deals bonus damage and acts as a brief crowd control, using the ability on targets who are already in melee range and unable to escape can be effective.
Activating Rolling Thunder does reset the swing timer so he can immediately get two attacks in by using the ability.
Frenzy (W)
Volibear's Frenzy causes him to passively gain attack speed after every attack, with this bonus stacking up to three times. Frenzy stacks will build up while attacking structures. The attack speed bonus only lasts for a few seconds.
Once it has been stacked, a red paw will appear above his head. While the red paw is visible, Volibear can activate Frenzy to deal physical damage to a nearby target, plus bonus damage equal to a significant percentage of his health, plus additional damage for every percentage of missing health his target has. In other words, this ability is an execute-style ability that deals more damage based on his own health and is even stronger on opponents who are at low health.
Activating Frenzy does not consume its stacks and he continues to retain the attack speed bonus. However, the activated component of the ability has a very long cooldown and can only be used 1-2 times in most skirmishes.
If Volibear is not in danger of immediate team fights or skirmishes, Frenzy can be very effectively used for killing higher health minions and monsters.
Majestic Roar (E)
Volibear's Majestic Roar deals magic damage and dramatically slows all nearby enemies for a few seconds. Additionally, minions and monsters are feared for the duration.
Majestic Roar has a slightly longer range than either Rolling Thunder or Frenzy. For this reason, it can be useful to help get in range of a fleeing opponent to activate either of these abilities.
If Volibear can definitely catch up to an opponent using the runspeed bonus of Rolling Thunder, he may instead save Majestic Roar for immediately after the toss has occurred, to ensure that the enemy cannot flee.
Majestic Roar is Volibear's only escape mechanism, as it is the only tool that he can rely on to get distance between an enemy and himself. It is a better tool for helping his allies escape an opposing team, though, as he can charge towards chasing enemies to apply the slow.
Volibear is a strong disruptor because of the synergy between Rolling Thunder and Majestic Roar.
The fear on minions helps reduce damage he takes while ganking or harassing in a lane. It is also very helpful for jungling, especially when combined with Frenzy.
The fear on minions has one other quirk -- it will fear clones, such as Shaco's hallucination, immediately distinguishing the real player.
Thunder Claws (Ultimate)
Volibear's Thunder Claws causes his normal melee attacks to shoot out chain lightning for 12 seconds. The first charge hits his attack target with bonus magic damage, and this then chains to three unique targets in succession, dealing magic damage.
Thunder Claws can be very effective in skirmishes and team fights because of the raw multi-target damage being dealt. Though Volibear cannot control the unique chain lightning hops, it appears to always prioritize nearby champions over minions, making it useful even in large groups of minions.
Because Thunder Claws has a decent jump range, it can be used to kill enemies who've gone just out of range, by simply activating the ability and attacking approaching minions or nearby enemy champions.
Even in a 1v1 situation, the bonus damage from Thunder Claws makes it worth activating if the outcome of the fight is uncertain or the burst would be beneficial.
Thunder Claws will not jump to stealthed targets and targets hiding in a bush.
While this ability does scale from ability power, it can be more cost effective to acquire Attack Speed instead, as it can be more beneficial to sustained DPS.
Countering & Champion Notes
There are a number of things to keep in mind when countering Volibear.
If Volibear gets to less than half health during the laning phase and you can safely harass him to burn his passive, this is usually worth the investment to prevent him from being overly aggressive. Alternatively, keeping him at this health while waiting for a gank, then bursting him before his full heal can occur is also effective.
Don't be baited by a low-health Volibear who hasn't burned his passive, especially if he has health items.
Volibear cannot be effective unless he can reach his targets. While his Rolling Thunder speed boost does help him in many situations, it simply is not effective against high-mobility champions, especially champions with blinks or significant speed boosts. He also has a serious problem chasing players with decent crowd controls or skill-shot slows or snares.
Volibear may purchase items such as Shurelya's Reverie to help with this, and his team may help him break in towards enemy champions. Volibear is still strong at peeling off players on a team who are not as mobile, and this benefit alone can be very effective.
For this reason, it is important to remember that you don't have to run faster than the bear, just faster than a less-important teammate.
Keep in mind that Volibear only has his Majestic Roar as an escape mechanism, and the max range on this ability is relatively limited. A ranged carry with Phage, Trinity Force, or Frozen Mallet can secure a kill on a fleeing Volibear relatively easily. Champions like Ezreal and Caitlyn can kite Volibear indefinitely with no risk to themselves if they're careful.
In a 1v1 or team fight where Volibear is a serious threat, pay attention to whether his passive is available and his health is low enough that it is about to go off, then use a healing reduction effect such as Grievous Wounds or Ignite. Additionally, bursting him immediately at 30% health before many healing ticks get off makes him much easier to kill.
Because of his mobility strengths and weaknesses and his passive, Volibear is better suited to draft mode games than blind pick games. He is a very strong pick against champions he can consistently get in range of that don't have built-in healing reductions. And if you're counter-picking a Volibear, champions with blinks are your safest bet.
The final thing to keep in mind with Volibear is his Frenzy. While he has strong AOE damage, his signature ability is this execute ability, and it can be extremely dangerous if he has built any significant amount of health. If you are at low health, do everything you can to stay away from him for a few seconds until his red paw falls off; by doing so, you not only save yourself but can potentially save other teammates since he will need to build stacks again.
Effective Health & Average Damage Reduction
The following is an excerpt from my tanking book, "Ciderhelm's Guide to Tanking." This is a more concise update to my original "Effective Health Theory," written in early 2007 and posted on the old World of Warcraft forums. I've decided to post this segment publicly since it will better allow myself and others to educate people on the purpose of the Effective Health metric.
Effective Health
We've discussed many types of ways to reduce incoming damage, but until now, we have not discussed one of the most important stats that you'll see in all types of games: Health. The reason I've saved it up until now is because Health has no practical meaning without understanding damage reduction and concepts like perceived damage and total damage first.
It's possible to have a lot of Health but still find yourself unable to take the same damage that a tank with half your Health can. The reason for this is that games will only deduct the amount of Health from you on a given attack that you did not already reduce through other means such as Armor or Block.
Let me set a couple ground rules for this discussion:
- Effective Health is not the same thing as the Health stat;
- By itself, the Health stat is meaningless.
Before going forward, I'm going to clarify that the Health stat is usually fantastic, particularly due to how it contributes to Effective Health, and most of the time an increase in Health is a wonderful thing that you should aim for. However, you should never fall into the trap that many players do in assuming that a player with higher Health is better suited to taking damage.
Effective Health is the raw damage you can take from an enemy, without heals, and be guaranteed to survive. Effective Health can never include chance-based damage reduction like Avoidance or Block unless they are guaranteed to occur on every single attack, without fail.
The mathematical measurement of Effective Health is found by combining our Health and our Mitigation:
Health / ( 1 - ( Damage Reduction / 100 ) = Effective Health
For example, if we have 10,000 Health and 75% Damage Reduction, we would calculate it this way:
10,000 / ( 1 - 0.75) = 40,000 Effective Health
If you have 40,000 Effective Health, it literally means you can survive 40,000 raw damage. Keep in mind, you can have different levels of Effective Health for different types of damage -- for instance, Armor and other physical damage reduction buffs only add to our physical damage Effective Health, while spell damage reduction would combine for a different Effective Health total. If you have zero Mitigation for a particular damage type, your Effective Health and your Health are identical for that damage type.
Why would we want to know our Effective Health? After all, our perceived damage works fine for our needs, and we really don't need to know the amount of raw damage we're taking from incoming attacks. However, it's important because it allows us to see exactly how effective certain stats are, like Armor and Health, and how we need to balance our gear, talents, and abilities going forward.
Effective Health is a metric and the limitations need to be understood before it can be utilized correctly. Effective Health is not:
- A recommendation to stack Health, Armor, or other Mitigation at the expense of other stats;
- A measure of how good a tank you are;
- A measure of how capable you are of bringing your guild through an encounter;
- A measure of how effective or efficient you will be from a healer's standpoint.
Effective Health is simply a standard by which we combine Health and Mitigation to measure your survivability in a worst-case scenario.
Effective Health is not always constant. In many encounters in MMORPGs you will want to coordinate Mitigation cooldowns, like Shield Wall in World of Warcraft, around specific abilities the enemy may be using. If you know that you'll be at maximum health prior to using a Mitigation ability, you can go ahead and include the Mitigation ability in your Effective Health for the period of time where the Mitigation is benefiting you.
I will cover the healing aspects of this heavily in the final section of this chapter.
Average Damage Reduction
Average Damage Reduction is a phrase we use to refer to the amount of damage we should reduce, on average, when taking into account all forms of Avoidance and Mitigation. For example, if we have 10% Dodge, 15% Parry, and 70% Damage Reduction from Armor in a multi-roll system, we would run our standard multiplicative equation:
( 1 - 0.10 ) * ( 1 - 0.15 ) * ( 1 - 0.70 ) = 0.2295
In other words, we would -- on average -- take 22.95% of incoming damage. Our Average Damage Reduction would be (1 - 0.2295), or 77.05%.
As a rule, getting your Average Damage Reduction helps you tremendously on relatively easy encounters, or encounters with a lot of quick attacks that don't deal much damage (thus allowing for the law of averages to play out more reliably). However, it is not a useful metric in most difficult encounters.
The principle of using Avoidance to help determine survivability can be helpful, though, if we bring probability into account. I will cover that in the final section of this chapter.
Rift Updates for 1.6 Not Likely
I really thought I would be able to swing some 1.6 guide updates for Rift but I've had a little bit of a reality check. There just isn't a means for me to invest the time I need to in order to provide a seriously high quality update for 1.6.
I'll go ahead and update my major guides to let new visitors know they're outdated. If I can find time to update my Rift work I'll surprise everyone with it. 
Don’t Feed Fizz
Movie Notes
Slippery Fizz. Without a doubt, the single most gratifying thing about him is Playful/Trickster and its ability to anger people and get you out of crazy situations. The second most gratifying thing about him is the bleed that kills people who think they might get away.
Fizz was enjoyable but I felt his farm in a lane was very weak and made him very, very easy to harass. It gets better as the game goes on, but he can really be locked down in farm against good players or a good comp. Jungling, on the other hand, was fantastic with him -- I didn't get many clips of jungling games because they were also the first games I played (i.e. the games I don't use on new champions b/c there's not much good footage). Aside from AP, which is most of what this movie shows, I dabbled in AD, hybrid, and tanky DPS -- Fizz functions very well with all of them.
Build Recommendations
As always, this section is opinion, and is not included in the movie because it won't always be true, nor is it likely to be the best way to play this champion in many situations. Check out solomid.net, mobafire, and leaguecraft for guides and information when picking up a champion!
I will specifically cover AP Fizz in a solo lane. As stated, he works fantastically in a variety of roles.
Runes: Magic pen reds, Armor yellows, AP blues, AP quints. I tended to go for that early burst simply because I could so easily get away from most incoming damage.
Masteries: I went 21/9/0 with an emphasis on AP and Magic Pen in Offense. I also got 2/3 Armor and 2/3 MR, as well as the +30 health and prereq in Defense. The defensive points gave me a little more lasting time in the lane and help offset the lack of MR from runes.
Skills: Either Playful/Trickster at level 1 if you're laning against an opponent who can easily zone/harass you, or Seastone Trident under any other circumstance. Beyond this, get 1 point in Urchin Strike, then always prioritize Seastone Trident, then Playful/Trickster, and save more ranks in Urchin Strike until last. Ultimate always a priority.
Summoner Skills: Whatever you want. Flash/Ghost both have strong uses on Fizz, as does Ignite (to really just piss people off when combined with Seastone Trident). Haven't used Surge much to know if it's good at the expense of another ability. Cleanse is probably a good bet as it gets rid of his only real weakness in heavy team fights. I personally tended to use Ghost or Flash in combination with Ignite.
Gear: Boots/Health Pots or Doran's first, Rod of Ages after tier 1 boots, Deathcap after this. Once you're done with these, build whatever you feel is best against the team you're fighting (more AP, more survivability, etc.). It was the single most effective build I found for AP Fizz. I tried lots of other things, including my Gragas go-to of 3 Doran's Rings and Deathcap, but Fizz really benefits from the Rod of Ages benefit due to his need to stay in range and last long enough to get back out.
Introduction
Fizz is a highly maneuverable champion with abilities that deal primarily magic damage.
Nimble Fighter (Passive)
Fizz's passive, Nimble Fighter, allows him to pass through all units without collision. In other words, where other champions may need to path around nearby minions, monsters, or champions, Fizz can simply walk through them.
Additionally, Nimble Fighter reduces incoming damage from auto-attacks by a small, flat amount.
Urchin Strike
Fizz's Urchin Strike is a targeted ability that causes Fizz to dash a set distance. This can only be activated once he is within a range where the dash will definitely hit his target; however, if he is any closer than max range, he will travel past the target until he reaches the full distance of the ability.
Urchin Strike deals his attack damage to the target, in addition to bonus magic damage. It also applies on-hit effects.
Urchin Strike is an excellent gap closer against targets who are at a distance. It can also be an excellent escape mechanism against targets who are in melee range, especially if Fizz can position himself to travel in a beneficial direction.
In regards to passing over walls, Urchin Strike has a specific tweak. The ability will pass over walls if he has not reached his target yet; however, if he has already reached his target and still has more distance on the dash, the dash will no longer go over walls.
In tight areas, this can be used to his advantage by allowing him additional burst without putting him out of range of his target.
Seastone Trident
Fizz's Seastone Trident passively causes his normal melee attacks to bleed for additional magic damage over 3 seconds. The magic damage dealt is equal to base damage plus a percentage of the target's missing health; in other words, the damage dealt is significantly more powerful against a target at low health.
If he strikes a target that currently has the bleed effect applied, he will refresh the duration.
Every tick of damage dealt is calculated on it's own; in other words, if a target has high health when the bleed effect starts, but rapidly loses health, the bleed will deal more damage with later ticks.
The passive component of Seastone Trident is excellent for harassing or sustained combat, as well as netting kills on fleeing opponents. Since Urchin Strike applies on-hit effects, Fizz can land this bleed on a low-health opponent by using Urchin Strike, helping to ensure a kill.
When Seastone Trident is activated, Fizz's normal melee attacks deal additional bonus magic damage on-hit and temporarily debuff the target with grievous wounds, reducing healing on them by 50%.
The active component is excellent for last hitting minions during the laning phase. It's also excellent for providing burst on enemy champions. In some cases, he may wish to save the active component for opponents who reach low health and may attempt to heal themselves to prevent death.
Both the passive and active effects of Seastone Trident, combined with the passive damage reduction Fizz receives from Nimble Fighter, give Fizz excellent jungling speed.
Playful/Trickster
Fizz's Playful/Trickster ability combo vaults Fizz into the air at a nearby location, temporarily making him untargetable.
While in the air there is a half-second window where Fizz can activate the ability again to launch himself a little farther in any direction, dealing damage to nearby enemies when he lands.
If Fizz does not activate the ability again, he will drop to the ground beneath him, damaging enemies but also slowing them.
When Fizz vaults himself into the air, anything currently targeting him is canceled. This includes spells that are in-flight towards him, as well as normal attacks. If timed well, Fizz is extremely good at avoiding harassment spells, such as stuns that must travel towards him. While in the air, skillshots passing through him will also not land on him. If Fizz is chasing an opponent, avoiding critical crowd controls can secure a kill.
Vaulting will also stop incoming tower attacks. This can allow Fizz to effectively tower dive or harass players under a tower. Because of the bleed from Seastone Trident, Fizz may need to briefly pause before activating Playful/Trickster under a tower so a tick of the bleed will not cause the tower to immediately retarget him.
Playful/Trickster is excellent at covering distance. However, because maximum distance has two smaller hops, it is limited to jumping over smaller walls that the individual hops can handle.
Combined with the Urchin Strike dash, this ability gives Fizz enormous mobility. The ability can be used to help Fizz get in range of a distant or fleeing opponent to use Urchin Strike, and can also be used to immediately dash away from a target he hits with Urchin Strike.
While the damage of Playful/Trickster increases with each rank, the relative power of the ability remains the same at all ranks. Higher ranks dramatically reduce the cooldown of the ability, though, and it can be used several times in team fights at later ranks.
Playful/Trickster can be a good farming ability at later ranks if Fizz has built ability power. The AOE will kill caster minions and deal significant damage to other minions.
Chum the Waters (Ultimate)
Fizz's Chum the Waters is a long-range skillshot that fires at a champion or location. After 1.5 seconds, a shark comes out of the earth, dealing magic damage to all nearby enemies, knocking up an enemy if the fish is attached to them, knocking back other nearby enemies, and slowing all affected enemies by a significant amount.
Getting into more detail on the mechanics, Fizz fires the fish towards a target location. If the fish comes close to any enemy champion in its path, it attaches to them. Otherwise, it will reach it's location and leave a circle on the ground. Even if the fish has stopped on a location, it will still attach to any player who runs over it before the shark comes. The player the fish is attached to is slowed.
Vision is granted to the area around the fish, allowing it to see in bushes or other hidden areas. As the shark comes out, a much larger area of vision is briefly granted, and this is not obstructed by barriers.
A fish in a bush is not visible to anyone outside the bush, even when the aura extends significantly outside the bush. Additionally, there can be a delay before a fish fired from a bush is visible to enemy champions who don't have vision inside the bush.
Chum the Waters is a high-damage ability that can significantly alter skirmishes and team fights. Though it can be used immediately at the start of a fight, it is often best saved for key moments where it can best disrupt a team.
The slow is strong, and the relatively quick cast on the ability is great at disrupting a players that are either attempting to flee or chasing your own teammates.
Chum the Waters is very effective in tight areas, especially in the jungle, as it's much harder to avoid and can potentially affect more players. It is also fantastic when used after disabling abilities and ultimates from other champions.
Countering & Champion Notes
Fizz can be built and played effectively in a number of different ways. While his abilities suggest building him as an AP caster, he can also be effective as an AD champion; this is in part due to his effective gap closers and his Seastone Trident damage buff. His Urchin Strike also benefits directly from his attack damage as it will deal the physical damage as well as any on-hit effects. Watch what he's building to get an idea how to counter him.
Fizz is very effective in a solo lane, especially against a champion who has abilities with travel time that he can avoid with Playful/Trickster. He works in a duo lane as well. That said, he has excellent jungling capabilities on top of all of this. If he jungles, he may prefer to wait until at least level 3 or 4 before ganking due to the benefit of having all of his active abilities ready.
Countering Fizz comes down to harassment and crowd control. In the early game, Fizz will have extreme difficulty farming if he is constantly harassed from a range. While Playful/Trickster can help him, it has a long cooldown and high mana cost in the early game.
Slows are not too effective against Fizz as his abilities still allow him to get a strong distance between himself and his opponents. However, hard crowd controls are very effective, and he has no recourse against them unless he has built tanky.
Don't ignore his burst potential, though. If he and his teammates have taken off a significant chunk of your health, he may be able to jump in and quickly finish you off, either immediately or over time with his Seastone Trident bleed.
Chasing Fizz is not always a good idea, especially if you can't account for his teammates. Only ever chase him if you are absolutely sure you can net the kill on him or you know there won't be any serious risk in attempting to. Keep in mind that Fizz can use his cooldowns as they come up to quickly deal burst damage and apply his bleed while still avoiding a lot of incoming damage, so long chases can be to his advantage.
Star Wars: First Impressions
So the NDA is lifted, and I'll leave you guys with this:
- I love Bioware;
- I love MMORPGs and play nearly all significant releases;
- I don't love the Star Wars franchise.
I'm a little ways into Star Wars: The Old Republic and I'm amazed at how poor the quality is. Character creation was awful; my options ranged from anorexic to obese, with only one semi-natural body type, and a slew of all-too-cartoonish-to-care adjustments. The in-game graphics are akin to vanilla World of Warcraft in several places, about the same as Tabula Rasa (a game that had huge flaws and ultimately shut down) in most places, and a few moderately better places. The interface looks awful.
As a friend recently told me, dialogue =/= story. The dialogue in this game may be very good, and maybe the story will be, too. I haven't gone that far. But as a professional gamer who happens to not be in love with the Star Wars franchise, I don't see a single thing at the beginning of this this game that says it deserves to be in the ranks of serious MMORPGs. (By contrast, Age of Conan and Rift both had excellent early games at launch)
Maybe Rift spoiled me with dynamic world events and solid artwork or Skyrim has spoiled me with just about everything, but delving into this beta has not been good so far. First impressions matter. This was not a good first impression. There could be an amazing game under all of this that I'll get to, but my opening experience has been one that only a Star Wars fan could appreciate. Meh.
Don’t Feed Morgana
Movie Notes
AP caster! Let me start by saying she is probably one of the most irritating champions to solo queue with due to the sheer number of pubs who think Tormented Soil presents a ripe opportunity for stealing easy farm. Thank you, Soraka, real helpful.
Build Recommendations
As always, this section is opinion, and is not included in the movie because it won't always be true, nor is it likely to be the best way to play this champion in many situations. Check out solomid.net, mobafire, and leaguecraft for guides and information when picking up a champion!
Runes: Magic pen reds, flat mana regen yellows, flat cooldown reduction blues, health quints. Armor and flat magic resist yellows/blues wouldn't be bad bets, but I found her ability to recover health lessened the need.
Masteries: 9/0/21 with an emphasis on magic pen in offense and cdr/mana regen in utility. Masteries could be completely reworked as soon as tomorrow, so this'll be dated very soon (sorry!).
Skills: First point in Tormented Soil if I was solo laning mid or top, first point in Dark Binding if I was duo laning. Tormented Soil immediately helps w/ health recovery as necessary and it can be effective even at low ranks for farming in the right situations. Dark Binding, on the other hand, can have a huge impact on a level 1 gank or saving you or a teammate from one.
Tormented Soil maxed first after this. An early point in Black Shield (by level 4). Maxing out Dark Binding vs Black Shield came entirely down to whether I was playing really defensively or not -- in almost all circumstances I maxed Dark Binding before Black Shield, only changing this if I knew someone on the opposing team (my lane or otherwise) was getting out of control. Ultimate always maxed when possible.
Gear: Usually Doran's first, only occasionally boots/health pots (such as against a brand). Keep in mind she has spell vamp, so Doran's helps keep her alive often as much as boots and health pots can.
Rod of Ages was virtually always my first purchase after basic boots, and I'd wait for the investment. Depending on my gold when I returned to base after this, I would either get Sorc shoes next, or a Needlessly Large Rod towards Rabadon's. Either way, I'd usually get Rabadon's and Sorc Shoes next.
After this, it was a question of Glacial Shroud, Banshee's, or Zhonya's. Take your pick based on your situation. Zhonya's can be safely used during her ultimate.
Introduction
Morgana is a magic-damage caster with strong AOE damage and disables.
Soul Siphon (Passive)
Morgana's passive is Soul Siphon. This grants Morgana between 10% and 30% spell vamp, depending on her level. This passive helps her sustain herself throughout the game, limiting her need to return to base.
Dark Binding
Morgana's Dark binding is a skillshot spell that hits the first enemy in a line, dealing high damage and immobilizing the affected enemy. The enemy is not stunned and can still continue to use non-movement abilities and attacks.
Dark Binding will hit stealthed enemies or enemies hiding in a bush. If Morgana fires the spell and spell stops before her full range, it has definitely hit an enemy. For this reason, Dark Binding can be effective at scouting bushes.
The Dark Binding projectile has a relatively slow speed, and it is possible to juke it when at a distance from Morgana.
Tormented Soil
Morgana's Tormented Soil is a targeted AOE puddle that deals magic damage every second to all enemies who remain on it. This puddle lasts for five seconds.
Additionally, enemies who remain on it have their Magic Resist reduced a small amount every second. This is a cumulative effect, meaning enemies who stay on Tormented Soil can lose a significant amount of magic resist. The Magic Resist reduction can bring enemies below zero magic resist, causing them to take more than the stated damage of abilities.
Morgana can be very effective by following up a successful Dark Binding cast on an enemy champion with a Tormented Soil underneath them, maximizing her damage by preventing the enemy from moving. Even as an AOE spell, this can be devastating harassment against a single opponent.
Tormented Soil makes Morgana an excellent farmer. In the early game, a rank 3 Tormented Soil will kill caster minions in the back of each minion wave. In most minion waves, the puddle can be positioned so it hits all minions.
Black Shield
Morgana's Black Shield is a shield that Morgana can place on any nearby champion, including herself, that absorbs a set amount of magic damage. While this ability is active, the shielded champion cannot be disabled. This ability lasts 5 seconds or until the shield has been depleted.
Black Shield is very useful both in keeping Morgana and her allies alive. Even though the shield blocks magic damage, it will still block physical-damage crowd controls. Used at the right time, it can negate critical crowd controls her opponents must land. It is especially useful when placed on initiators or interruptable champions, such as Katarina during her Death Lotus.
Soul Shackles
Morgana's ultimate is Soul Shackles. When in a moderate range of at least one enemy champion, Morgana can activate this ability to create chains between her and all nearby enemy champions. This deals magic damage immediately upon activation, and slows the affected enemy champions.
Any Champions Morgana has stayed in range of after 3 seconds take a second burst of magic damage and are briefly stunned.
Soul Shackles can be combined effectively with Dark Binding, either by using Dark Binding to get in close against an enemy or Soul Shackles to slow them for an easier Dark Binding shot.
Soul Shackles can be effective at splitting a team up during a skirmish or forcing a player to use a specific escape route. Because taking the full effect can be devastating, players may attempt to avoid it by taking the fastest or most effective route out of it. Depending on positioning, the most effective escape from Soul Shackle can leave an enemy team split up or a specific player out of position and ready to be killed by one of her allies.
Soul Shackles cannot be activated unless an enemy is within range. This gives the ability an added quirk -- If Morgana can activate the ability but she does not see enemy champions nearby, it means an enemy is either stealthed, in a bush, or nearby out of sight. If activated, the ability will work against these champions.
Soul Shackles is not channeled. Disabling Morgana will not prevent a Soul Shackles cast from completing and stunning enemy champions. Killing her, however, will.
Countering & Champion Notes
Morgana can be a strong harasser in the early game in either a solo or duo lane. She only needs to land one Dark Binding, followed up with Tormented Soil, to deal significant damage to her opponent. Unless you have a strong early-game crowd control, it's best to be careful about Dark Binding casts and stay behind creeps.
In the early game, any time Morgana casts Dark Binding there is short window of time where she can be harassed. Additionally, if you have decent burst from a range, you may be able to harass her immediately after she casts Tormented Soil on minions as long as you can take a Dark Binding without a concern.
It's important to remember that Black Shield is only effective against magic damage, not physical damage. It will not help against towers, and it doesn't do anything about physical damage champions. If you see Black Shield active on her or an ally, do not hesitate to continue dealing physical damage to them.
Black Shield lasts for five seconds but has a much longer cooldown. When possible, simply save your crowd controls and burst until Black Shield expires. If you have a crowd control available, such as the stun with Annie's passive, try to bait Morgana into using Black Shield without firing your crowd control.
Both Soul Shackles and Dark Binding can punish players who chase her into poor positions, especially under towers. A well-placed Soul Shackles can stop multiple aggressors under a tower, breaking up an attempted gank or push.
Soul Shackles is a game-changing ultimate. It's very strong when following other AOE disables such as Amumu's Curse of the Sad Mummy, Leona's Solar Flare, or Galio's Idol of Durand. When possible, save escape mechanisms such as flash or other mobility spells to avoid taking the full duration of Soul Shackles. Watch out for Morgana using Flash or coming in from the rear to get in position.
Though Morgana is an AP caster, her ultimate forces her to the middle of team fights to most effectively use Soul Shackles. While she can build to be very survivable, it can be a better idea to immediately focus her down as she moves into your team, thereby preventing her from finishing the Soul Shackles cast. This can be a good idea anyway since her abilities have relatively short cooldowns, especially with cooldown reduction.
Rift, SWTOR, Guild Wars 2, League of Legends, Streaming, etc.!
I've been very cryptic about the reason I left Rift and the MMORPG scene a couple months back. Though I usually keep the details of my personal life private, it's time for some big news to come out! Here is the 'family reason' (likely excuse, right?) for these changes:
He's amazing! We're not getting much sleep and obviously there are a lot of things coming up for new parents that are taking up alot of my free time right now, but everything is completely worth it.
So what does this mean for me and the site? Well, I've been pretty open with my followers that my ultimate goal is to earn money with my projects. It's why I've written the e-book you see advertised here, and it's why I am focusing on YouTube videos I can monetize (thanks to Machinima). Some people have suggested I've sold out, etc., but it's the responsible thing for me to do knowing I would become a parent and need/want to support this little guy. The realization of it all is scary. The choice has always been between going to work for a company, which I will do if it ever becomes necessary, or being self-employed and producing the guides and content you guys love. (A single "Don't Feed" video, which I expect to monetize well over the course of a year, takes 8-16 hours including games, editing, scripting, and narrating)
MMORPGs -- I said that I would not pursue serious raiding again, not for a long time, and that's going to have to be the case. To a degree, I feel like a lot of my authority in the MMORPG scene has come from being in top tier content in World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, and through the release of Hammerknell in Rift. However, the work I did rarely had to do with the content itself unless it was a boss-specific guide, but instead delving into the mechanics and the theory. As long as the community will have me, I would like to get back into Rift and update my guides through 1.6. New 10-man content should be fine, especially w/ my current gearing level. Additionally, I'm aiming for Star Wars and Guild Wars 2 content.
League of Legends and DOTA -- I'm going to be slower on my video releases. Every video is taking at least one extra day right now. The DF series was coming out every 1-2 days in the past, but it will now be every 2-4 days instead. I'm already a quarter of the way through the League, though, and it'll only be a few months before I've covered all of the current champions; after that, I'll work on mechanics guides, etc. As far as Heroes of Newerth -- I love the game, I would love to get more into it, but I need to see the numbers. The last I heard, League of Legends was quoted as having approximately 10 times the active players that Heroes of Newerth does. Video production is a full-time job for me and I need to know advertising will help support any large time investment I put into it. I'm interested in DOTA 2 as well, and on the Steam platform I expect it to do well.
Streaming is coming! My YouTube account is currently enabled for their streaming beta, though the quality isn't where it needs to be for gaming. However, Machinima has said that streaming by January should be completely ready and very high quality. I know I can use other services, but I am wanting to avoid contracts atm, and the Don't Feed series actually prevents me from doing the kinds of streaming I'd like (i.e. ranked games, etc). Stay tuned for it!
Anyway, I've got a baby in the other room who seems to be a little hungry again. Hope to see you guys soon!
Don’t Feed Leona
Movie Notes
While I've always been a big fan of Amumu and, to a lesser degree, Galio, whenever Splug has played a tank recently it's usually Leona. I figured she'd be a good next pick for the Don't Feed series (in part so he can stop playing a tank while I play a carry).
I was pleasantly surprised by her. I knew she could be annoying, but I didn't realize how effective she was at locking down targets and disrupting teams. Her short cooldowns (benefited even more with cooldown reduction) let her be extremely annoying while avoiding the huge "let's wait a minute for my ult" problem that Amumu runs into. Among the tanks I've played, Leona may be the best yet for initiation and sustained disruption. She is heavily skill-shot oriented though, so be warned.
The very last clip is a nod to Fortify, the summoner spell on Riot's cutting block. Per the rest, there were only a couple games where I wound up with a disproportionate number of kills to assists (one of them being where I'm solo top and went 10-4 before they conceded). Most of what's in this video is me helping others acquire kills, and me occasionally snagging one for any of a variety of reasons (shield going off, player getting away, or accidentally on my part).
Build Recommendations
The following is personal opinion, based on my own experiences. They aren't included in the video because they are opinion, not the absolute best way to play, so please understand that these aren't a hard recommendation and you should check guides on solomid.net, mobafire, and leaguecraft.
Runes: Magic Pen reds, Dodge (or Armor if you don't have Dodge) Yellows, and Cooldown Reduction (or magic resist) blues, along with Movement Speed quintessences.
Masteries: 9/21/0, with an emphasis on getting CDR and Magic Pen in offensive and also the Dodge run speed in Defensive (only if you've got Dodge runes as well).
Skills: First point in Shield of Daybreak because this can be used not only for initiating but also escaping at low level (whereas Zenith is strictly initiating, not escaping). After this, one point in Zenith Blade, then maxing Eclipse and Zenith Blade, in that order. Ultimate is always priority.
Gear: Philosopher's Stone and Heart of Gold are very early purchases, along with boots. I'll tend to get either merc treads or cooldown reduction boots, though let me emphasize that cooldown reduction boots are nearly always the better choice (you can get tenacity from upgrading Philo Stone later if necessary). Heart of Gold isn't actually necessary as it may be more prudent to just move to another item.
It seems unusual for a tank/support with all magic damage, but Phage/Frozen Mallet are very effective purchases, and I nearly always get them. Leona has a problem staying in range, which is why I get movespeed quints, and why I go w/ Phage/Mallet early. Also, Glacial Shroud for the cooldown reduction was good, and Frozen Heart was a sensible upgrade against AD heavy teams. Force of Nature was another purchase I usually didn't get to but strongly recommend for mid-late game because of the additional movement speed (and the great itemization all around).
Introduction
Leona is a tank with multiple crowd controls who deals moderate magic damage. She is exceptionally good at initiating team fights and disrupting opponents.
Sunlight (Passive)
Leona's passive is Sunlight, which causes any target hit by any of Leona's spells to be temporarily debuffed with a faint yellow aura. If one of Leona's allies attacks a target affected by Sunlight, the debuff will be removed and between 20 and 140 magic damage will be dealt to the target, depending on Leona's level.
The Sunlight debuff cannot be consumed by Leona, only by her allies. The magic damage dealt is affected by the allies magic penetration. Multiple targets can be affected by Sunlight at a time if hit by any of her AOE spells.
Shield of Daybreak
Leona's Shield of Daybreak causes her next normal melee attack to deal significantly more damage as magic damage. Additionally, this ability stuns the target for 1.25 seconds. This ability resets her swing timer, meaning it can be used immediately after another attack for added burst damage.
Shield of Daybreak is excellent both for initiating and for escaping or helping an ally to escape. It is also effective against structures, allowing her slightly more damage while pushing.
Eclipse
Leona's Eclipse is shield that grants Leona dramatically increased Armor and Magic Resist for 3 seconds. Once the shield expires, she deals magic damage to all enemy targets in a wide area around her. If even a single enemy is damaged, the Armor and Magic Resist bonus continue to benefit her for 3 more seconds.
This ability provides a large burst of AOE damage that can help clear minion waves or deal damage to players who are staying just out of range of Leona.
Zenith Blade
Leona's Zenith Blade fires a spell effect in a straight line, dealing magic damage to all targets hit. Additionally, Leona will pull herself towards the last champion she strikes with this ability, immobilizing them for 0.5 seconds.
Zenith Blade will pull Leona regardless of most conditions. For instance, Banshee's Veil and Morgana's Black Shield will not stop the pull, though it will stop the immobilize. A champion in stealth and even a target who dies from Zenith Blade will still bring her to their position. Even if Leona has been stunned or snared after the cast, she will still be pulled towards the target.
That said, Zenith Blade's pull effect is strictly limited to champions. Even player-like pets such as Shaco's Clone are unaffected by the ability.
While this ability will never latch onto minions or monsters, it can be helpful both in last hitting, both against groups of minions or against low-health minions Leona cannot get near.
Zenith Blade can be useful in juking away from a potentially dangerous situation.
At certain points in the game, a combination of Eclipse and Zenith blade can clear minion waves.
Solar Flare (Ultimate)
Leona's ultimate is Solar Flare. This is a long range skill shot that deals magic damage in a moderate area. Any enemies near the center of this effect are stunned; enemies near the outside of this effect have an extremely strong slow applied to them. Finally, Solar Flare grants sight to the affected area for several seconds.
Solar Flare has a relatively short cooldown by comparison to other tank-initiators in the League, and will be available for skirmishes and team fights. Unlike several other tank-initiators, Solar Flare has the added benefit of being cast at a significant range, giving her the option of using it to initiate a fight or helping teammates escape tight situations.
However, Solar Flare has a delay when it is cast before the effect occurs, meaning Leona must predict any movements her opponents may make before casting.
Because of the burst of the ability, Leona can also use this ability to snipe fleeing opponents.
Countering & Champion Notes
Leona has a potent toolset, allowing her to continuously disrupt an opposing team during skirmishes. There are a few things to watch out for to help counter her effect on your team.
First, she has a primary combo that she will use throughout the game. This is Eclipse, followed up by Zenith Blade, then Shield of Daybreak.
With this combination, she will pull herself towards a target, stun them or someone near them, and Eclipse will explode during this process. If she is confident she can stay in range, she may delay the use of Shield of Daybreak until at least one normal melee attack has occurred or until she needs it. In the early game she may use this simply to harass opponents or allow her laning partner to jump in and get damage on their opponents.
In this case, watch out for the activation of Eclipse. Unless she is fleeing, an Eclipse cast is a sure indication she is about to get in range of either minions or enemy champions. Because she's a skillshot champion, do your best to juke away from a potential Zenith Blade cast the moment you see or hear Eclipse, or when you feel she's about to combo.
Like other initiators in the laning phase, Leona may choose to stay in a bush so you are unable to see the activation of Eclipse. If this is a problem, either occupy the bush or use wards.
Alternatively, Leona may use Shield of Daybreak if an enemy is already in range of her, then follow it up with Zenith Blade as they flee.
While Leona can solo lane, she is very effective when paired with a high-damage player in a lane. Leona's initiates can be very strong.
Leona's ultimate is powerful and on a short cooldown, but the area affected is not too large. Stay spread out as much as possible to mitigate the potential impact on your team if she has a successful ultimate. Because of the delay on Solar Flare, juking can be especially effective if you suspect she's going to cast it soon.
Leona has relatively weak Ability Power scaling. For this reason, she is likely to build either for cooldown reduction, which is enormously beneficial to her disruption potential, or either to improve her support or tanking ability.
Leona's biggest single weakness as a champion is her speed. While she does have a number of options to lock champions down, she cannot permanently lock down a champion who is significantly faster than her; they will eventually break free. For this reason, Leona may wish to build items that either improve her speed or help slow her opponents. If you're playing against a Leona, don't get too close to her, and avoid situations where you can easily be hit by her ultimate, such as in tighter areas in the jungle.
A well-played Leona adds a lot of crowd control to a team, generally enough that the team can get away with fewer direct crowd controls on their other champions.
Don’t Feed Shyvana
Movie Notes
I'm a dragon! I didn't get to play as many games as I normally do while preparing one of these videos, but I also couldn't use as much footage as I had because there were so many details that were easiest to show in a custom game. The champion is a lot of fun -- though she's mechanically pretty complex, in practice she's not too hard to get used to because her dragon form feels pretty natural.
As far as builds, I tried a lot out, some of which were recommended here. Hybrid, pure AD, tanky, etc., and they all seemed to work. I also jungled, solo top'd, and went bot w/ other players.
Ultimately, I settled on a recommendation from a Shyvana I played against that usually priorotizes Wit's End and Phage quickly. Boots I would go Berserker when I could, but most often Merc Treads due to my need to not only stay in melee but also stay in range (the tenacity was a big help). As far as extended items, Lifesteal of any sort (wriggles, bloodthirster, etc) was very good; very occasionally Black Cleaver was good. Sunfire cape and Atmog's in a couple games as well, after the core items. All in all, I considered Wit's End and Phage important, but not absolutely necessary. Madred's should be great if you can afford it early. (What I don't recommend: Tiamats. Theoretically it should be awesome on this champion, but the range is so small and it is so situational)
Alternatively, I did a little spying on Splug's profile, who has also been playing a lot of Shyvana and been very successful with her. He seems to go for Phage and Frozen Mallet relatively soon, with an early Zeal/Phantom Dancer. Merc Treads and the occasional Bloodthirster.
First item purchase was usually Doran's Shield unless I was very confident I was going against a caster.
For masteries, 21/0/9 heavy in offensive worked well (don't bother w/ the crit damage increase), but I settled on a tankier 15/6/9 build that went for the low-hanging armor and magic resist in defensive.
Summoner spells were exhaust and ghost or flash, almost exclusively, unless I was jungling. Lacking either as a jungler (where I would pick up Smite) was a huge hindrance.
Technical note regarding Burnout: I never measured this lasting longer than 8 seconds. It can definitely last 8 seconds, but the tooltip suggests it should last 9, and I went ahead and included the stated time in the transcript. (Not a huge deal, but worth keeping in mind if you see a patch note in the future)
Introduction & Fury of the Dragonborn (Passive)
Shyvana is a melee champion whose abilities deal a mix of physical and magic damage.
Shyvana uses a single resource, Fury, and this is used only for activating and sustaining her ultimate ability. As such, Fury only becomes available once she has acquired her ultimate ability. Fury is gained slowly over time, even while dead, and a small amount is gained for every normal melee attack.
Shyvana's passive, Fury of the Dragonborn, causes her normal melee attacks to uniquely affect each of her abilities. Additionally, Shyvana's ultimate, Dragon's Descent temporarily alters her other three active abilities. For this reason, this video will first cover her ultimate, then will cover the effects of her passive and her ultimate while covering her normal abilities.
Dragon's Descent (Ultimate)
Shyvana's ultimate is Dragon's Descent. This ability passively increases her Armor and Magic Resist.
When activated, Shyvana is transformed into a dragon and flies forward towards a target location, dealing magic damage to all enemy targets in her path and briefly pulling enemy targets in the direction she is traveling. While in her dragon form, the bonus Armor and Magic Resist from her ultimate is doubled.
Dragon's Descent can only be activated once Shyvana has 100 Fury. Once activated, she will rapidly lose Fury until she reaches zero, at which point she will revert back into her normal form. Because Shyvana gains Fury from normal melee attacks, she can prolong her time in Dragon form by continuing to attack targets.
Dragon's Descent can be used both for initiating and escaping. However, it can be used in a variety of ways mid-combat, in particular to stop runners, deal damage to a single enemy or a group of enemies, or pull enemies towards a desired location.
Dragon's Descent is excellent at peeling chasers off one of her allies by moving them away, and the additional survivability granted by using it can help her to either stay in a fight or get out herself.
Because Dragon's Descent is very effective at keeping you somewhere you don't want to be, try to keep yourself positioned safely out of her reach. When diving towers, be cautious of her using her ultimate to keep you from escaping the tower.
Shyvana can use Dragon's Descent instantly once she reaches level 6, as putting a point in the ability grants her an initial 100 Fury. The ability can pass over walls, and can carry enemy players over walls if positioned well.
Twin Bite
Shyvana's Twin Bite causes her next normal melee attack to strike twice. Additionally, this ability resets Shyvana's swing timer, meaning she can use it immediately after another normal melee attack to provide a total of 3 attacks in succession.
Twin Bite's additional attack triggers on-hit effects, such as those provided by items like Wit's End or The Black Cleaver. This allows stacking effects to rapidly apply to a target and allows for increased burst damage. Twin Bite also grants Fury twice.
Only the first attack of Twin Bite can critically strike.
Aside from the useful burst in solo and team fights, Twin Bite is excellent at helping bring down towers.
Fury of the Dragonborn, Shyvana's passive, causes all of her normal attacks to reduce the cooldown of Twin Bite by 0.5 seconds. This means that Shyvana can use Twin Bite more rapidly while consistently melee attacking targets. Though Twin Bite is effective against structures, her normal attacks against structures will not reduce the cooldown of Twin Bite.
While in Dragon form, Twin Bite will cleave, dealing attacks to all targets in front of her. All of the targets affected will have on-hit effects applied. Because Twin Bite attacks increase Fury, landing Twin Bite can dramatically increase the longevity of dragon form by recovering a large amount of Fury instantly.
Burnout
Shyvana's Burnout causes her to deal magic damage in an area around her and dramatically increases her movement speed for 3 seconds. The movement speed bonus is moderately reduced every second she remains spinning. Burnout is not channeled, and Shyvana can move, attack, and cast while it is active.
Fury of the Dragonborn causes all of her normal attacks while using Burnout to extend the duration of Burnout by 1 second, granting up to a maximum of 6 additional seconds. In other words, Shyvana can keep the ability active for up to 9 seconds if attacking a target to increase the duration.
While Burnout does not deal damage to structures, attacking structures will increase the duration of the ability. For this reason, Shyvana may wish to go to the rear of a tower when attacking to allow Burnout to damage incoming minions while she is attacking the tower.
Burnout can be used as a limited escape mechanism. However, it is much stronger in chasing, as she will be able to benefit from the prolonged duration while continuing to attack a target.
Along with her other abilities, this can be used effectively in the early game jungle if she chooses to jungle. It can also be used to harass or farm in some circumstances while laning and in the late game.
While in Dragon form, Burnout will leave scorched earth wherever she has traveled, leaving a patch of fire for 5 seconds that will deal magic damage to enemies who path over it.
Burnout will continue to stay active while switching in or out of Dragon form. For this reason, it can be a good idea to trigger Burnout immediately before activating Dragon's Descent, leaving a massive burning trail in a line where opponents may be.
This ability can also be used to more effectively escape with Dragon Form, as the damage from the trail may deter attackers.
Flame Breath
Shyvana's Flame Breath is a skillshot fireball that deals magic damage to the first enemy it strikes in a line. Flame Breath also debuffs the target, reducing their Armor by 15% for 4 seconds.
Fury of the Dragonborn causes normal attacks striking a target with the armor debuff to deal 15% of Flame Breath's damage as extra magic damage. Both attacks from Twin Bite will deal this bonus damage if used on a debuffed target.
Flame Breath can be used during the laning phase to snipe last hits on targets she cannot easily get near. It can also be used effectively while engaging higher health minions, monsters, or champions, to provide quick burst by landing the fireball on an enemy in melee range and immediately following it up with Twin Bite.
Flame Breath is also useful for quickly checking small nearby bushes. Though neither the spell nor the debuff grant vision, if the spell stops short it is a sure indication that an enemy is in the bush.
While in Dragon form, Flame Breath shoots out in a cone, debuffing all targets in front of her. Combined with Twin Bite's cleave in Dragon form, this can provide massive burst in a close-quarters team fight.
Unlike the single-target version of this, the conal flames continue traveling past enemies they've hit, allowing Shyvana to saturate a wide area with the attack.
Countering & Champion Notes
As a general recommendation, Shyvana is an excellent champion for players who need to learn to stay in fights rather than immediately run out. Though Shyvana is complex, there are a few simple rules to understanding her.
First, her Dragon form is essentially her team fight form. While it can -- and should -- be used to secure kills in 1v1 situations and small skirmishes, being in Dragon form defines her role in many large team battles, in mid and especially late game. While all of her abilities help her excel in 1v1 situations, her Dragon form abilities transform them into AOE and strongly encourage her to stay in the fight.
Second, Shyvana always wants to be in melee range of at least one opponent and consistently using normal melee attacks unless fleeing. Countering her means making use of blinds, exhausts, or abilities that either keep her away from you or get you away from her. If you cannot take her 1v1, do anything that prevents her from auto-attacking you. And in team fights, try not to group too closely together or get in a position where she can easily pull team members towards undesirable positions.
Third, Shyvana's Twin Bite gives her a lot of build options, and you'll need to watch out for exactly what she's building at any step of the way. She can be effectively played to suit most roles, but Twin Bite strongly emphasizes any items that are proc-based. Wit's End is very, very good because it disproportionately increases her damage output while adding to her already-strong survivability. Phage is frequently used as well, providing her a high chance of slowing one or many targets with a single use of Twin Bite.
Fourth, Shyvana is naturally very tanky, especially once she acquires the Armor and Magic Resist from her ultimate. However, she has very little long-term sustainability without a significant item investment, and her lack of crowd controls can leave her vulnerable to being kited.
Finally, while Shyvana is capable at jungling and Riot has said as much in their official video, she is not a strong ganker until she reaches level 6, and this is further hindered by losing a summoner spell to accomodate Smite. If you choose to jungle with her, make sure your lanes have crowd control available if they're looking for early ganks.
Don’t Feed Ashe
Movie Notes
I enjoy Ashe a lot. She's a fairly straightforward champion but her gameplay places tons of emphasis on not screwing up, even a little bit.
As far as builds, I usually started with boots and 3 health potions, or Doran's with an early return to base for boots and health pots (using teleport early). Infinity Edge is an absolute must; you may not always be able to rush it, but it is a core item and you should absolutely have it as soon as you can reasonably put it together. Boots -- Berserker Greaves, Merc Treads (if necessary), or the +3 movespeed boots; I know people dog on those a lot but every little bit counts. Defensive items were iffy -- if people can regularly reach you, chances are you're totally screwed anyway. I did pick up Banshees a few games. There's a lot of discussion about Zeal and how quickly to get it (if ever), as well as Last Whisper, and I found I preferred IE first, LW second, finished boots third, and zeal fourth, if I could.
In my opinion, Ashe really suffers in the current environment due to the number of champions with gap closers and high burst, and this is even more true with each new champion they release. Even a couple months ago I didn't have as frustrating a time w/ her as I am some games now. When I say in the video that it all comes down to your team (and your own positioning), I mean that moreso than I have with other champions I've covered recently. Yes, she can keep people slowed, yes, she has her Enchanted Crystal Arrow in a pinch, but sometimes you'll just be screwed if opponents can walk past all of your teammates. I would *not* recommend her against serious opponents unless you're confident in your knowledge of most of the dynamics in League of Legends.
That said, she's extremely good. In a couple days of playing I managed to pull off a pentakill, quadra kill, several triple kills, a couple baron steals and a lot of buff steals. The Crystal Arrow is fantastic, but I also should have emphasized that Hawk Shot is really a game changer, too, and gives her a utility that makes her very valuable in a good team.
Introduction
Ashe is a ranged, high physical damage champion.
Focus (Passive)
Ashe's passive is Focus. This increases her chance to critically strike by a percentage every 3 seconds. At level 1, this provides 3% critical strike chance every 3 seconds, culminating in 18% every 3 seconds at endgame.
This bonus stacks. For this reason, Ashe will begin many encounters with at least one guaranteed critical strike, and will critically strike more frequently than most other champions. Focus will help Ashe in early and mid game minion farming as well.
Frost Shot
Ashe's Frost Shot causes her normal attacks to slow their target by up to 35%. This can be very effective both at chasing down players who are running away, as well as keeping close range attackers at a distance while she is moving away.
This costs mana per each normal attack, and if Ashe keeps it active when she does not need the slow, she will rapidly deplete her mana reserve. Ashe may prefer only to use Frost Shot in specific situations where the benefit is nearly certain to help acquire a kill or keep her or a teammate alive.
Volley
Ashe's Volley fires 7 arrows in a cone, dealing a base amount of physical damage plus bonus damage equal to her attack damage. Additionally, any targets hit by Volley also have Ashe's current rank of Frost Shot applied to them, slowing them.
Volley begins with the very long cooldown of 20 seconds, but reduces down to 4 seconds by the final rank. At max rank, Volley can be used very frequently for strong area damage. It is also very effective at farming minions.
Hawk Shot
Ashe's Hawk Shot passively increases the gold she earns from last hitting enemy units by up to 5. Additionally, she can activate to fire a shot that grants vision over a large area for 5 seconds.
The vision granted from Hawk Shot does not detect stealthed units but it does give sight to bushes in the affected area.
Hawk Shot initially has a short range that allows her to see in potential gank spots near her lane but not too much further. Higher ranks have a massively increased range and can be used for strong scouting in preparation for team fights or escapes.
Hawk Shot has a very long cooldown, and this cooldown does not decrease with higher ranks.
During skirmishes, Ashe may fire Hawk Shot before an enemy enters a bush to ensure her and her teammates do not briefly lose target on the opponent.
Enchanted Crystal Arrow (Ultimate)
Ashe's ultimate is Enchanted Crystal Arrow, a massive skill shot arrow that is fired in a line and will travel across the map until it hits a target. This arrow ignores all unit collision and will only hit champions.
The champion that is hit by the Enchanted Crystal Arrow is stunned, takes magic damage, and is slowed by 50% for 3 seconds. The duration of the stun is increased by the distance the arrow has traveled before landing, maxing out at 3.5 seconds.
Additionally, all champions near the target take half the damage and are also slowed by 50% for 3 seconds.
While Ashe is a respectable carry in her own right, Enchanted Crystal Arrow is what sets her apart as a very strong addition to most teams. If it lands in an ideal spot, it is one of the best initiations in the game. This is true both in the early game, where she can fire either to her lane or across the map to any other lane, and in mid game and especially late game, where a well placed arrow can decisively change the beginning and outcome of a fight.
Enchanted Crystal Arrow is also a good escape mechanism if she is being chased. While the stun duration isn't as long when fired nearby, it can stop most aggressors, especially those who attempt to tower dive.
Followed up with frost shot to keep opponents in range, Ashe can kill many opponents who attempt to flee.
Enchanted Crystal Arrow has a variety of uses for sniping kills or buffs. Since the AOE damage hits all enemy targets, it can kill minions such as the blue golem, red lizard, dragon, or baron.
Countering & Champion Notes
Though Riot has marked her as a recommended champion, Ashe is extremely dependent on her team in competitive play due to her limited escape options and her need for farm. There are very few champions Ashe can go toe to toe with in a 1v1 situation before she has a significant item investment.
Countering Ashe primarily involves getting past her team. As a ranged carry, she does best by positioning herself out of reach of opponents and making herself hard to reach. Assassins with strong gap closers are best suited to reaching her and bursting her down during a team fight, though nearly anyone else who can reach her will be effective against her.
Don't underestimate Ashe's AOE damage in team fights. Volley is essentially a spammable AOE that can quickly turn the tide of a fight while also preventing easy escapes from those affected by the slowing debuff.
Ashe is an incredible farmer, especially at late game. If you can knock her farm down in the early game, especially to a point where she cannot acquire Infinity Edge quickly, it will benefit your team.
Keep an eye on her mana. Ashe players who are less familiar with her will quickly run out of mana by accidentally leaving Frost Shot active too long. Even so, Ashe does have a limited mana pool, and may not be able to use many abilities after extended team skirmishes.
If you see Ashe backing away from the minions in a lane any time after she hits 6, assume she is checking the map and potentially firing an Enchanted Crystal Arrow towards an opponent. This can sometimes be an ideal time to attack, as she may be distracted.
Watch out for an Ashe with the Teleport summoner ability. If Enchanted Crystal Arrow lands from across the map and she has a nearby allied unit, she can teleport directly to the target while they are stunned and follow it up with other attacks.