pacov

1. ping stability
2. at&t not partnered yet?
3. updated resolution
4. less ham supporting
5. shot call poo town

1.  I've noticed that the lower ping is actually much more stable for me.  By that, I mean the previous ping would have fluctuations on and off since I changed to At&t.  Those fluctionations probably contributed more than anything else to difficulty playing (higher, stable ping is more predictable - 90 ping that randomly jumps to 130 and back down multiple times in a game... pretty frustrating).  

2.  From riots peering list, it sounds like they may have ironed out things with at&t and are in the process of implementing.  That said, whatever issue I had before with that ping fluctuation seems to be gone.  So far, its pretty stable around 38MS without spiking.... which means that once I get used to it, I should become more solid with last hitting, etc.  

3.  Well, I think I'm done handicapping myself by playing at the higher resolution.  That higher rez + the ping spiking made last hitting even more difficult (the minion health bar is smaller as you increase resolution - this actually gives me a smaller window for reaction time as I have less data.  Throw in some spiking and now what I perceive as the correct time becomes not, and cs is lost.  Just going back to the lower resolution increases my reaction time window as I clearly see the creep health bar... and now its an accurate depiction of the current health as there are no ping spikes.  Bottom line - I've just got get used to and then I should be all set.  

4.  Felt pretty good about my supporting yesterday (1-2 hambone moments still though). In solo queue my mentality had been disgust for my adc if I give them a great setup and they are picking their butt and miss it.  Or they just do dumb things and get themselves chunked for no reason.  Yesterday I kind of slipped into the support mindset again and went alot more protect my adc and made decent decisions, for the most part, along those lines.  Still had some bone head things (1 roam mid that accomplished nothing and left thunder holding his d a bit, and another glorious jinx save play).  

5.  w/e - we can try cow doing some shot calling - even that mute all but cow concept.  But don't ping shite and make nonspecific comments/directions.  Use your pie hole and say clearly what you want.  It's best if you can say a specific person followed by X in many cases. Or even everybody back, etc.  Some problems with positioning if I get a good 3 man setup and we can't do anything with it.  Anyway, games were fun last night - thx!

The two go hand in hand for me.  Sometimes I'm too tunneled on CS or am out of position or just don't have the mechanics to capitalize effectively on your setups.  You end up a lot more poor when laning with me instead of Danknee which sucks.

But also sometimes you see 'KILL OP!' where I see... something different than you.  

In both cases you get really bummed out and are vocal about your disappointment.  This brings out Tilted Thunder, who is always in position and focused on being ready to follow you up ham style but playing with zero regard to his own safety.

Yesterday was awesome though.  You played extremely well and it felt like we were on the same page.  Sorry you're life is a bit overwhelming right now but I'm going to enjoy playing with the more chill version of you while it lasts.

Agreed.  Tilting is bad.

I'm fine with multiple shot callers.  It usually works out better than it did in that game.  But when there are different ideas on how to handle an issue, I feel Cow's opinion needs to trump everyone else.  He's a Diamond player.  It's his team.  We need to go along with what he decides and be positive about it and not constantly second guess his strategy.  There can be time after the game to decide if we made the right calls and need to change strats if we encounter the same issues in the future.

Loved your Malph B-Rad.  But don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.  I won't feed a Diamond Vayne every game we play (I hope!) so don't give up on Garen forever.

My apologies for tiltcov.    

c9 is starting a trend...

well... my 2 weeks of on call awfulness are almost done.  70 hours last week -this week TBD.  

Let's see... I like the mastery system.  It actually motivates me to play more team builder to get my mastery maxed with supports.  As soon as I complete 1, though, I don't want to play them and move onto somewhere... which is a little bad considering the ones I've mastered are the ones I have the most experience with.  

Played some darius - 1 game of complete outplaying/crushing an olaf.  One game of getting rekt but realizing why.  Incredibly strong if you get rolling and aren't a dumbarse.  Doing real well with lissa out of top.  Consistently winning my lane and getting better with mechanics. Need to get a little more solid with csing, though.  Still adapting to the new ping, but it helps.

My isp is a POS at least once a night - thankfully it doesn't last super long, but I consistently have one game where my ping goes to crap and then comes back down after 2-5 min.  

Not all that excited about ranked atm.  Kind of just going back and forth between LOL and marvel heroes.  I'm really curious what preseason will bring us this year.  Just think about all the crap they added last year.  Currently, I don't think they are doing anything all that cool, but we will see.  I expect we'll see that ranked team builder pilot soon (1-2 months).  We'll also get that new client perhaps.  But seriously, we obv need a new client.  I don't' get all that excited about it.  

randomly

here:

OK - so we know some nerfs are inbound on pbe for a few of our juggernaut pals, which is good.  I want to talk a bit about those juggernauts, but 1st - the team builder experience atm is not such a hoot.  Those project skins are resulting in fiora/yi most games.  So, we end up with 2 super snowbally folks in most games.  This is quite problematic, as it only takes a few weak people to turn snowballers into potential giants (and its teambuilder, so you have to go into blind pick assuming you need hard cc at least).  Anyway, tb not quite as fun atm, but that will die down.  

Also - fun fact - folks that play blind pick generally don't just pick those "op" champs we typically ban.  As they get to play that crap whenever, you are less likely to see them in blind pick - in my experience anyway.  Note - I'm talking blind pick here and not team builder (blind pick).

Oh - and I think skarners in a pretty reasonable place now.  He's definitely been toned down a bit - not sure if he UP or not.  Hopefully not as its... you know... nice to see variety in the jungle.

Championship skins vs victorious skins - I was getting really annoyed with folks asking about what the victorious skin was going to be, when we already know that championship kalista is on pbe.  Oh well, so I'm slow.  We still have an unannounced victorious skin to be released.  

Back to juggernauts - or I guess lets's focus on one in particular - darius.  So, for those that don't know (you prob should), darius is particularly strong because he can build full tank and not only do a bunch of damage, but that stupid heal enables him way too much.  Rito's goal was obviously to help him survive and reduce some of the kitability, but the values are way too high.  As in, if you play your crap right, unless the other team is well fed (or his team is stupid...), the odds of him being alive long enough to deal major damage and tank major damage go through the roof.  Now, when I think of juggernauts, I think of giant tanks that can just roll over you.  As in they do exactly what darius is doing - get tanky and crush.  Where I think the real problem is (outside of the ridiculous STACKING heal stats (30% max health), is that he does not need to snow ball all that much to become a lane bully.  For as much mid/late game power that he has, its incredibly way too cheap without much in the way of trade offs.  

Anyway, I said there are some nerfs on pbe - darius' GIANT heal % of 15% per champion hit is dropping to 12%.  This is valuable during gank situations potentially. BUT.... and here's where rito loses me again - they are currently BUFFING his total % heal to 36% of his hp.  So, if he hits 3 people and he has 2k hp, that's 720 hp restored.  And if he's actually super tanked up with 4k hp (1440 vs the 1200 he would have gotten before).  The good news is that his mana cost is slightly up so now its ACTUALLY POSSIBLE TO RUN OUT OF MANA.  Fun fact.. it was not possible before.  Did I mention that his q is on a 9/8/7/6/5 second cool down without cdr. Oh, and there is no debuff timer for that heal applied, so he can heal quite a bit during fights.   It's kind of stupid.

Speaking of other stupid - mord.  Now, I actually think mord is rather weak and find him more annoying than anything else.  I kind of think he was just tossed out as a joke really... but it sadly eats up bans.  I mean, he can take and use the drake.  Stupid.  Can he be dealt with?  Sure.  Can't remember the last game I lost to a mord in tb or draft.  Does he still get banned because folks just don't want to deal with it?  Yeah.  So, mostly I'm annoyed to have to ban a POS gimmick.  His damage is quite real (and ridiculous on that 3rd aa), but he's easy to deal with in lane and in game imo.  often even if you have folks feeding him.  Compare that to other champs when fed that become actual nightmares.  He's just this slow moving turd that was buffed foolishly to try to make him viable in lane... seriously - that full XP buff for shared lane experience to ensure he's stronger than the other folks in lane.  Idiotic balancing.  

http://pickem.na.lolesports.com/

World's pick em - you get an icon for just picking a few teams.  If you are magically right on all picks, you get championship riven.  

Random recaps.  Been playing a bunch through Mad max.  I think I'm getting close to the end, but its been a really fun experience.  I highly recommend the game, particularly if you can get it for $12-$15 like I did (google mad max slickdeals).  

Finished ranked team rewards top tier ward awhile back, so I'm pretty well happy with our ranked team stuff.  If we play again, swell, but I hit my goal at any rate.  

Teambuilder mentality comments - 1 - if you want to play support (common, proper supports that is), its always faster to queue up solo for that role in TB, than with another person. When you add anyone else, you have to host a lobby and go through the process of finding people.  Support/ADC as the most desired roles in TB in my experience, so its always really fast to queue up for those roles. 

TB match making adjustments.  Folks that play TB know that there are MM adjustments that take place whenever you play a champ for the 1st few times in TB.  This often results in having some smeh folks on your team and is in many ways why some folks think mm is skewed. MM does at least seem to even out after several games.  Once that mm adjustment goes to inactive anyway.

Been playing some ranked with a pal on a off recently. Mostly enjoying the ranked experience.  Having really encountered any super trolly people in bit, which is nice.  

Speaking of "trolly" - I've been pretty consistently running a new rune page setup on all ranged supports.  5.3 gp10, flat mr, flat arm - standard ranged support masteries.  I'm often choosing coin as starting gold item with this setup as you generally aren't taking as many "poke" risks.  Critics of this rune page setup should try it out at some point.  I found it really easy to adapt to and it frequently results in you being able to get an upgraded tier 2 gold item and sightstone/sweep on your 1st back.  After that, the added gold lends itself very nicely to a zekes rush.  The money flows in great if have that tier 2 gold + sightstone/sweep buy and there's still some laning left to do where you don't need to roam immediately (eg you are needed in lane).  And that sets a good tone for additional itemization (not just when I'm being a split pushing putz).  I'm actually finishing most games with more money than 2 different roles on my team and in some cases like a game last night, with more money than both teams... without split pushing at that.  Money's a pretty big deal on support considering what that money can get the team.  

Anyway, the runes/rush for gold tier 2 item helps a bunch and also helps get that zekes which helps your adc a ton - especially if zekes is complete when the lane is still active.  

Oh - and I did get into tb against some pissers last night.  Full dumb hook squad- thresh/blitz bot lane with naut jungle.  We, uh, predictably kicked the crap out of them.  Then they predictably proved to be asshats and afk'd for 10-20 minutes after failing.  Surprisingly to me, the fellows that stayed did not tilt and still seemed to have a good time with things.  

my thoughts on the 3 support items with a lean towards gold efficiency

• relic - melee only, with the exception of thresh (only due to his w passive).  It's useful for 2 things - extra hp and you can provide sustain via the heal.  I think its generally only worth it if you can safely rush the tier 2 upgrade safely (eg you can still get needed wards).  The tier 1 item is kind of smeh imo.  2 stacks and it recharges 1 stack per 60 sec... which cuts way down on gold efficiency AND it has no passive gold generation.  It also lends to a HIGHLY predictable style of play (eg the support clearly wants to get this cannon - now is the time to be aggressive towards them).  The tier 2 upgrade really gets you into the money making sweet spot.  3 charges max with a charge every 30 seconds.  That's a huge difference in money gained.  But a complete waste if the lane phase isnt' still going on (eg that's why a rush is mandatory imo).  You heal for 50 health per creep kill and that obviously means less as the game moves along.  Anyway, my recommendation is rush tier 2 if you go this item as long as you can get 2 green wards.  Tier 3 is fine, but I usually don't prioritize it
• spell thief - passive gold generation at tier 1 (2 gp/10) with a trival 5AP and a so so mana regen bonus (25% base mana regen).  Outside of the gp/10, the stats are trivial imo at the start of the game, but the passive is where things get nicer.  3 stacks stored, 1 charge every 10 sec, with a gotcha of disabling the passive for 12 sec if you kill a creep.  That can result in a predicable pattern, like relic shield, just not as obv.  That's actually quite a gotcha considering your stacks don't grow for 12 sec and you can't proc any.  You do 10 extra dmg per stack and get 5 gold per stack.  Mandatory item on most ranged supports champs that can consistently get the extra gold (morg's a good example).  If I can't consistently land aa's or spells, I'm less likely to go this item (you can proc stacks on turrets at least).  At tier 2 upgrade is also worth a rush imo (you'll notice a pattern here...).  Your dmg per stack jumps to 15 and you get dbl the gold per stack (10) - ap goes from 5-10 (meh), no gp/10 change, 50% base mana regen (so so).  The value here is in added dmg to champs/turrets increasing kill potential and that sweet extra gold. Primarily of value if you have a decent laning period - and you increase he rate that its gold efficient by getting it sooner.  The tier 3 is ok, but I generally skip in favor of other items
• coin - 25% base mana regen (smeh), 3 gold per minion dying near you and 5 health for you only.  Tier 1 is straight smeh for gold efficiency.  It does support a more passive style of play with low risk (which makes it more ideal especially on my 5.3 gp/10 rune setup).  Also absolutely important to rush tier 2.  And when I say rush, I simply mean when you'd normally go back, you choose that over sightstone if you can't afford both.  Must always bring back at least 1 ward.  Anyway, tier 2 bumps you to getting 4 gold per creep death and 10 hp, 25% base hp regen, 50% base mana regen, 10 MS, and 2 GP/10.  Not exactly bad stats and it lends itself beautifully to the gold mentality.  Nearly 100% of the time, I upgrade this to the tier 3 item.  Its just too valuable to the team imo to skip out on due to the active.  

A few of us discussed this before, but I really think its worth noting that trying out this style of play is cool.  Give it a go and see what you think.  I'm actually quite used to it and understand what I can and cannot do (just like folks that prefer to run mana regen runes run out of mana if they don't have them - I know how to play without bonus hp or with less ap damage, etc - my build sacrifice HP, AP, or added armor - that's it).  I don't think its viable to look down on a strategy for a lack of defensive stats provided you are playing well and providing what your adc needs.  And also note I'm not advocating the max gp/10 strat via runes on melee supports (though I do still strongly advocate rushing the tier 2 gold item if the lane phase isn't super close to ending).  

I honestly don't think it super applies, but for the sake of argument, lets say I run a normal support rune setup for a ranged support, but I take teleport/flash.  What I've done is change the win condition for the lane in a way that hurts my adc (unless I can provide reliable cc that would ensure my adc's safety, but we'll leave my craziest thoughts on the side).  Running tp would mean that the adc can be all in'd and the enemy team has a potential advanced before the game even started - all with the bonus of leaning the adc towards tilt.  

I'd argue that gp/10 runes are not the same scenario as long as there is adaptation on the the supports side - NOT required by the adc (for instance, you are little more squishy, so you need to be super mindful of how you poke/zone).  Most supports I'm finding require ZERO adaptation as I play them though - which results in that strong 1st back with sightstone/tier 2 gold item.  Which means a much faster zekes... which means an adc on steroids.  So, if I'm getting my adc a very strong mid game spike, likely MUCH earlier than the enemy team could, well then... might actually be a good idea. And if that added generation results in additional items for the team... well then again.  

Best of all, the numbers I provided are all undershooting the actual value you get from the passives as I didn't include the relic/spellshield/coin values - so there's more value, but I don't think I can stress enough how important I think the tier 2 upgrade is.  

Some more ranked last night - plat V 95 lp atm.  Still duoing with the same fella (also plat V).  He's Somewhat inconsistent, but really high APS as an adc - more talented than me in that arena (eg give him a little peel and he's likely going to kill the entire enemy team).  

Decision making seems to be the major problem with folks I'm running into around this elo.  Lately, I'm seeing extremely talented players mechanically, but with incredibly poor decision making skills - to the point of completely throwing.  We'll have pretty good leads that will get thrown by a few people blindly hanging out mid while the rest of the team is clearly elsewhere and the enemy team is all mia.  Predictable things happen.  It's bad when it happens once... but this happens like 3-4 times in games to completely blow away our lead.  I like that things like that sort of nonsense do dry up the higher you go in elo.  I just spend a bit of time saying... wow, this guy could clearly hit plat I at least if only he was a little smarter.  Also seeing people making insanely aggressive dragon calls, people not rotating to cover clear threats when we gain nothing by having an extra guy w/ us, etc.  

Seeing the game a little differently makes a difference imo - for instance, if I play top, I'm generally really keyed into that I need to keep my lead if I get one and if I'm down, I need to not make things any worse.  

I have discovered that Skarner is not good at carrying bads.

Game 1 was...special.  Our top lane went top Vi.  With ignite.  I don't really mind off meta picks, so I wasn't too nervous because I figured that it was just a Vi expert or something.  It was not.  Vi goes 0/9/0 to an Irelia, which is bad as it turns out.  Everybody else actually did ok, but you can't stop super fed Irelia when your top doesn't finish a single item in a 33 minute game (seriously).

Game 2 begins in champ select with a top Teemo.  With a silver border.  With no escapes.  And began the game with "Oh wow, I stealthed in that bush really fast, did something get changed on Teemo?".  It turns out that the Teemo is my best teammate.  I started out like 6/1, but you can't really carry as Skarner and I needed 1 competent teammate.  The other team was actually really bad, but our team was worse.

Game 3 we just ran all over the map killing them without mercy until they surrendered.