Best Type of Champion to Carry with in Solo Queue?

Many people wonder what the best champion to carry in solo q in League of Legends is. 

I wonder this from time to time also, and while I am no professional, I am going to give you my experienced and educated opinion.

First off, it is important to know that League of Legends is a team game, but with that said, and as you have seen I am sure, people like to go lone wolf and 1v5 the enemy team.  I’ve come the conclusion that Ranged AD champions, and squishy champions/support champions are the hardest to actually carry a game on because they almost completely depend on your team being a team, and if you don’t get good positioning, or protection by your tank and CC’ers, you will be pwned.

The best combo would be something like a bruiser, or top laner, or if you duo with a buddy, you can do bruiser/jungler/top lane.  There are of course different scenarios as everything, and anything is technically viable, but for the consistent carry on your back wins, the tankier people will do better.

Here are some good champions to carry solo q with ( in my opinion and researched from professional’s opinions)

Shen

Warwick

Nocturne

Maokai

Yorick

Riven

Shyvana

Singed

Nautilus

Mordkeiser

And the list goes on, but use your best judgement, and try to duo with a competent friend.  Get your good combos down, and try to steam roll from there.

A bit of advice, be AB-normal, as in gank people at level 2 with 3 people, then do the same to top.  Yes it will put you slightly behind on creeps, but it can allow for massive snow ball, and if you get a few more kills on someone, the game is basically won.

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League of Legends Custom Made Desktop Wallpapers

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The Best Free League of Legends Wallpaper and Backgrounds

This post and gallery ONLY include CUSTOM CREATED League of Legends Background Wallpapers, if you want ALL of the wallpapers listed at TLN, you can get their from Media > wallpapers at the top bar menu!

Hillarious LoL Tribunal Cases

In League of Legends, there is a community reporting tool that helps the community filter and temporary ban people who aren’t playing the game correctly.  This tool is called the tribunal and can be found at leagueoflegends.com/tribunal.

While taking part in the tribunal you can do up to ten cases a day, and for every case that closes with the correct answer chooses, you receive 5 IP points.   If you do tribunal everyday and don’t miss any cases, you can make 50 extra IP a day!

Here are some hilarious tribunal reports and cases, which conveniently were saved, so enjoy and don’t pity the noobs too bad!

How to Play Top Lane in League of Legends

Picking your champion and counterpicking the enemy!

Top lane is the lane that has highest counter-picking potential. You see top laners picked up as the later picks in tournament for a good reason – almost all top laners can get counter picked.

So what makes champion a good top laner? Escape mechanics, sustain and natural tankiness. These are the three most important capabilities a top laner should have. These are also three of the main reasons why the meta-game shifted from ability power champion top. After Riot Games started releasing more and more bruisers, ability power carries would just get out laned by majority of bruisers.

Bruisers generally have more sustain, escape mechanisms and gap closers. Gap closer is one of the best ways to counter an AP champion. You just deal more constant damage as a bruiser to an AP champion if you actually come into melee range with him, and a gap closer does just what you need.

First of all, you need to know what you want to do in your lane and what you are good at. If you are generally good at last hitting and you like causing chaos late game, bruisers you should like are Nasus, Olaf and Cho’Gath. These champions really require some farm to be monsters late game. You are not going to have much presence early game if you pick late game champions obviously, but if you actually get to late game you’ll be far stronger than early game bruisers like Garen, Renekton or Pantheon.

If you prefer having lane dominance over your enemy in returns for weaker late game, you will probably like bruisers like Lee Sin, Renekton, Pantheon and Yorick. If your enemy is a late game champion and you get double the CS he gets, can he really reach the late game? Things like this happen pretty often, if your enemy has twice times less CS than you, he will indeed be weaker late game than you even if he’s considered a late game bruiser.

AP champions top, this is one of the things that people preferred to pick a year back, the meta has shifted a lot since then. One of the last teams to use an AP champion with no real escape top successfully was EU fnatic , by doing that they actually won Dreamhack 2010. Malzahar, who doesn’t have any escape, was one of the most popular picks in top lane for Fnatic.

Even if we have a different meta-game now, there are still some AP champions who can hold their ground in top lane. Vladimir, Nidalee, Kennen are still popular picks even in competitive scene. Having an AP carry usually benefits you late game a lot. Can you see something in common that Nidalee, Kennen and Vlad have? Yes, an escape mechanic and some sustain. Nidalee has her amazing passive that increases movement speed whenever you step into a brush. Kennen has his Lightning Rush, which increases your base movement speed by 230, making enemies unable to catch him. Vladimir has his famous troll pool, not only is it a great escape ability, but also annoys the heck out of the enemy laner and the jungler.

 

Taken from skgaming,com

How to Deny XP and Gold in League of Legends

The biggest factor when comparing Dota to League of Legends is the fact there isn’t a direct deny in LoL as compared to Dota. There are ways to deny xp and gold in lane on league of legends though! This is a more advanced step, so if you just started the game, try to practice this as much as possible as it can lead to huge lane gains.

                How do you deny in league of legends? Well first thing you need is a solid laning composition.  A support/tank and a ranged AD champion bottom is always a solid choice and will make for some dominating lanes.  So, to deny the enemy you keep the minions in the middle of the lane, aka in front of river.  You ONLY last hit, or else the lane will push to the enemy’s turret.  Try to dish out more damage then you take or the enemy laning opponents may just deny you instead.

                So last hit only, have your support or tank, if bottom lane, harass nonstop while you last hit first, and harass second.  This will push the opponents back and if you stand in between the minions and the enemy you will be able to deny them the XP and last hits.

Watch this video on Denying and Zoning and it should help improve your game a lot!

Best top lane combos for double lane in league of legends?

Wondering what some good, maybe almost overpowered lane combo’s are for top lane in league of legends? Look no further!

Here is a list of good match-ups for top lane on summoner’s rift

**This isn't a pro list, just some common combos which can deny the enemy lane decently**

1. Wukong and Riven

2. Shen and Miss Fortune

3. Nunu and Ryze

4. Yorick and Gangplank

5. Yorick and Sona

6. Mordekaiser and Soraka

7. Alistar and Poppy

8. Taric and Garen

9. Blitzcrank and Wukong

10. Blitzcrank and Tryndamere

If you have a strong combo to add, please comment with it and the reasons which make it strong and I will add it to the list

Who is the Best Ranged AD Champion in League Of Legends?

There are many positions and roles in league of legends, but the most necessary on a good team would be the ranged AD carry.

AD stands for attack damage, AP stands for Ability Power, FYI.

Here is a Custom Ranged AD Wallpaper to go ONLY with THIS post,  ONLY for the BEST Nerd Viewers

Ranged AD LoL Desktop Wallpaper

– Here is a list of ranged AD champions, and my personal, non-pro, opinion on each one, with Pro’s and Con’s –

Ashe

Ashe - League of Legends Ranged AD Champion

Ashe is one of the original release league of legends champions.  She is still considered a very viable ranged AD in the professional scene.  Her strengths would be that she is almost a support with how much she can bring to the table for her entire team.  Her Hawk shot is an amazing ability, able to give vision and is priceless for real games when it matters.  She also has a slow, frost shot,  a nice harassment spell, being volley, and her Ult. can make or break a team fight or stop a fleeing noob with an arrow from behind!

So, what ARE the reason she isn’t played more than she is currently? Well, this can relate to the other ranged champions to an extent, but the reason she isn’t picked first for ranged AD every time is that Ashe has no escape! Well,  she has frost shot, but that really isn’t gonna kite many champions late game when they are fed.

Final Opinion on how well Ashe ranks against the others:

Ashe, like any Ranged AD champion in League of Legends, is dependent upon two major things.

1. Farm – You need gold, lots of it, inability to do this and you fall off late game

2. Positioning (team fights) – I think this is one of the main things ranged AD players overlook starting out. If you go in first and get focused, you do no damage and all your farm is for nothing.  If you let the tanks go in front and initiate, the enemy team has no option but to engage on them or retreat and take unwanted damage, at either option, you engage at this point.

So based on those factors, I would rank Ashe 7.5/10 for ranged AD champions.

Caitlyn

Caitlyn is known for having a strong early game with her poke of Piltover Peacemaker, she can zone out enemies with her Yordle Snap Traps, and can use her 90 Caliber Net to escape, or slow an opponent.  Her ultimate, Ace in the Hole, is lack luster.  I had a season where all I did was play Caitlyn, so I do like her, but for some reason I don’t pick her anymore, at least rarely.

Final Opinion on how well Caitlyn ranks against the others:

Caitlyn relies on early game snowball, why you may ask, well, she dies off a bit late game.  With enemies late game armor, her Piltover doesn’t do much damage and her Ace in the Hole is almost useless versus a competent team since it can just be blocked by another player.  She can only auto attack, which is normal and fine, but she has ZERO area of effect spells.  Her escape is okay, but it really won’t do much late game in team fights either, but it is useful for escaping over small cliffs etc.

I give Caitlyn a 7/10, because of her useless abilities late game.

Corki

I don’t play Corki, and will not explain too much on him since I would be lying or copying from somewhere else.  I see Corki in many high ranked games, the things about Corki is that you use his abilities a little bit more than you would a normal ranged AD champion, so I feel that certain builds could hang with the standard meta build on him.  For example I’ve seen people go sheen early on because of how often he is spamming his abilities.

He has good damage, good AOE abilities, and a good escape.

I will give Corki 8/10

Ezreal

Hmm, Ezreal, this will be a difficult one. I personally love Ezreal, he is a blast to play but some things are lacking.  Here are the pros and cons –

Pros ! – Extremely mobile, with his Arcane Shift you can teleport and kite all over.  His Ult is good for picking off runners and good AOE damage for a grouped up team fights.  I prefer skill shots, so his skill set I enjoy a lot.  He is no doubt fun to play.

Cons! – Lacking damage output.  If you’ve played Ezreal recently his damage output usually can’t go 1v1 with another top ranked ranged AD champions.  He is mobile but in a team fight he just doesn’t pull the weight that is needed for a ranged AD.  He is rarely used anymore as a carry in the professional scene.

Final opinion on Ezreal as ranged AD carry

He isn’t viable.  He is fun and can work in some situations but I just feel there are better picks and he will not very often see the light of day when money is on the line.

I give Ezreal a 6.75/10

Graves

Graves - The AD Outlaw for League of Legends

Woot! Graves! I personally love Graves, he is a great all around ranged AD Champion, and one of the current best in League of Legends.

Graves is top three for best ranged AD in the ranked games currently.  His abilites can clear lanes super fast, he has a slow, dash with his E, and his ULT is AOE and scales pretty well.

Pros – Mobility, Slow, AOE, Burst

Cons – Squishy like most AD carrys?

Final opinion on Graves as ranged AD carry

He is great and one of the most picked ranked games champions due to his awesome skill set.  His burst can kill you easily early game and he scales pretty well into late game.

I give Graves 9/10 overall

Kog’Maw

Kog'Maw Loves The Little Nerd Blog!

Kog’Maw is currently one of my favorite ranged AD champions.  He has long range to poke with his W, he scales good early all the way until late game, and he has I believe one of the longest ranges on his ult, in the entire game.  Kog’Maw can be played multiple ways, but I play him built as a ranged AD carry, same as I build almost every other AD carry.

Pros! – Range, Strong early game and mid-late game, his passive is great for team fights as he can do a lot of AOE If focused first.  If you keep getting focused in team fights, you can just stand way back and shoot your ultimate as much as possible to wear them down before engaging up close.

Cons! – Squishy, no good escape, his E skill is semi-decent as a slow but really is rarely used, by me at least.  Flash is a must, as it is pretty much with all ranged AD champions.

Final Opinion on Kog’Maw as Ranged AD Carry –

 He is a great pick, and I don’t think is used enough.  His early game range is amazing, you can just keep poking the enemy in your lane until they can’t sustain their hit points and at that point you just farm and deny XP plus last hits.

 I give Kog’maw a 8.5/10 overall

Miss Fortune

Miss Fortune is my absolute(currently) favorite ranged AD champion.

Why? Well,  I like her damage, her early game pressure, and her skill set.  Her Q shoots, then automatically shoots another shot, so basically you can hit someone for about half health in 2-3 seconds flat.  Autoattack > Q > Q’s extra shot > auto attack.

I play Miss Fortune very aggressively, because I feel she, like most other ranged AD’s fall off late game without champion kills or solid farm for 20 – 30 minutes.   Her passive which increases movement speed is good for chasing down flee’ing enemys and is great for kiting and attack move/attack move, etc.

Currently I will say Miss Fortune is my top pick for ranged AD.  Her W(speed steroid) also cuts healing in half on hit for 4 seconds.  This is AWESOME when 1v1’ing or laning bottom with support, esspeccialy vs Soraka and Sona.

Final Opinion on Miss Fortune as a Ranged AD Carry

Pick her! Play smart and aggressive and remember to Q a minion and hit them enemy behind the minion with the ricochet.  Get fed, pew pew for the win!

I give Miss Fortune a 9/10

Sivir

Tristana

Teemo

Twisted Fate

Twitch

Urgot

Vayne

League of Legends Jungle Timers FAQ

Here is a little FAQ about Jungle Timers for any Nerdy Junglers!

As a Jungler, it is your job to keep track of the neutral minion spawn timers, like Dragon, Blue, Red and Baron.

You can type out the respawn times in chat however works best for you, but most junglers do something like this.

“Dragon – 15.25~”

TB ~ 18.23 (their blue and it re spawns @ 18.23)

Okay so that is pretty much common knowledge, you just want how long they stay dead for?!

  • Blue Buff – 5 Minute respawn timer
  • Red Buff – 5 Minute respawn timer
  • Dragon – 6 minutes respawn timer
  • Baron – 7 Minute respawn timer
  • Golems / Wolves – 1 Minute respawn timer
  • Wraith – 50 Second respawn timer

Remeber to try to talk as little as possible in chat, to team or enemy team, because it will scroll your respawn time you typed out to far up to notice or remember.  Typing out the times usually doesn’t work so well in solo q but it works wonders when you are on Skype, Vent, Etc with a few good players.

 

How to get better at League of Legends?

How to get better at League of Legends?

 

As many of you obviously know, MOBA (Massive Online Battle Arena) games have gotten huge since the release of the original DOTA (Defense Against the Ancients) on the WC3 custom game client.  The biggest MOBA game currently is League of Legends, followed by DOTA2 and HON.

With the influx of popularity more and more people are trying to better themselves and their skills in lol, hence asking the question ” How to get better at League of Legends?”.   Really, the concept and game are fairly simple as the controls are only left / right mouse and Q W E R skill buttons.  What people don’t realize until later is that the hard part is strategy and teamwork.  You can only carry your team so far unless you are super crazy fed or it is still semi-early/mid game.

Here are my personal tips on how to get better, consistently, at League of Legends.

Map Awareness – I decided to put this point first and foremost because it is what I think many people overlook.

Example:

‘You are bot lane farming against another AD + SUPPORT Meta combo, both lanes seem even, 4 minutes in and still no gank from, or spotting of, the enemy jungler.’

Noobs – Continue to farm even at half health, usually pushing their lane up towards the enemy’s tower and then get ganked shortly after. How to get better at League of Legends? Look@Proz.

Pros – Would check bush (*IF YOU HAVE 75% HP ATLEAST) with their lane partner, so that they don’t face check the enemy’s jungler and get instakilled.  If health is too low to check bush, then someone, support usually, needs to go back and get a ward and place it into the shrubby bush in river, and maybe even another above bottom tower, this needs to continue to happen all game, or at least until the laning phase is over.

With the wards in place, and map awareness, it is literally almost impossible to die early by a gank.  The ward will spot the gank with plenty of time for you to run back to the tower.

Teamwork and Communication – People need to remember that this is a team game, how many games end for you by the 15 or 20 minute mark? Probably about 5 – 10%, so you can see where the “team fight” part of the game comes into play.  DON’T RAGE AT YOUR OWN TEAM! Suggest something they can improve or try not to let happen again, but don’t belittle them for a clicking in a few wrong spots, you have done the same thing, and I’m sure have been yelled at before.  No excuses, if you want to win, try to win, be a leader, and get the team feeling like a team with friendliness and helpfulness.  You can argue this point all you want, but has anyone yelling at you, or calling you a newbie or troll made you want to play better? That’s what I figured…

Champions – Champions are a fine line between getting better and just getting experience.  The most I can say here is try to counter-pick the enemy team at champion select.  If you are still semi-new and don’t play any ranked yet here is my suggestion.  When you play ranked there are usually the same group of characters picked, at least MOST of the time for the current meta game of Solo top(tanky dps), AP mid, Jungler, and then support and ranged AD bottom.   Most of these characters can be counter by another character.  You need to learn who counters who (or just Google the matchup while waiting, if you know what lane you are in and versus who) and this will help out your laning phase really good.  There is one catch to this, and that is you need to be able to play the character semi-well.  If you are still leveling up, playing a lot of normal games or maybe just trying to find the champions you like and want to call your mains, then you need to learn some good champions now!    Good Champions aren’t “SHACO’S SO OP ZOMG NERF” champions; good champions are ones who bring the most to the synergies of the team composition.  Do a search for “League of Legends Champion Tier List”; learn two or three of each of the top tier champions, of each role

Examples –

Support ChampionsSona, Soraka, Alistar, Janna

Jungle ChampionsMaokia, Gangplank, Lee Sin, Jarvan

Mid ChampionsAhri, Fizz, Morgana

Top ChampionsIrelia, Yorick, Riven, Shen

Ranged AD ChampionsAshe, Miss Fortune, Graves, Caitlyn, Corki

 

Last Hitting – Last hit, don’t push your lane up to the enemy’s tower unless you can’t help it, example being, Mordkeiser.  There are multiple reasons for doing this.  One reason is that your lane is now unable to be ganked, and you are more likely to be ganked, because you have to run twice as far to be in a safety zone, aka your tower.  Another reason is that you are enabling the other team to farm and get experience points.   I will break this down a bit further.  If you are winning your lane and the opponent is unable to last hit without risking death or punishment in the form of harassment, then DO NOT PUSH! If you don’t push you can last hit and keep the minions in the middle of the lane in front of river, and if you stand between their minions and their tower, well you just denied them all the possible last hits, and you also denied them the XP because they are out of range.   This advantage gets huge the longer it goes on.

 

TL:DR Version

  1. Ward your OWN lane early game, unless jungler, then ward what is needed
  2. Pay attention to the map, always have a good idea of where ALL FIVE of the enemy team members are, and think of what their skills will do CC wise if they catch you and if you will survive.
  3. If you are still learning champions, pick good ones to learn, aka top 1/2/3 tier champions.
  4. In champion select, try to out pick the enemy team, if you don’t know what your laning opponent is weak against, then Google… “Best champions to lane %top% against %enemy champion%”.
  5. Act as if your team is next to you at a tournament, be nice and helpful.  You can tell them what they did wrong but do it constructively, or else they will just give up on the game just to make sure you lose because you called them a noob and who knows what else.  If someone called you a noob and raged at you for getting caught 1v2 top against two ranged as a melee, most likely you would laugh to yourself and then troll the rest of the game, or at least not help the rude person once team fights come around, which usually makes for a swift defeat.
  6. Last Hit, don’t push your lanes past river towards the enemy tower.