I had a pretty stellar game this afternoon as Kog’Maw. Granted, that’s not so tough these days, but I was rocking a significantly positive K/D/A ratio (22/7/7) in spite of a team of four negative K/D/As. I was playing with a friend who actually said over Skype, “You are the sole reason we are winning this game.” That’s a pretty great feeling, and it doesn’t happen very often.

More often my “carry” games are more subtle, and tell a small part of what can only be considered a team victory. I have been trying to pick champions that allow me to contribute in a big way, lately, and I think it has helped my rating. The key, to me anyway, is to pick someone that can really dish out the love. I am great at ganking, so playing gank toons allows me to maximize that part of my playstyle. I really like Vlad because he farms minions well for the entire game and his ultimate is a boon to any team. Kog’Maw is great if you have the space to farm (i.e. not laning against good harassment/stuns) and a team to distract people. Ezreal is an amazing comeback toon if your team starts down. I also like to play characters like Xin Zhao and Shaco, who can close the gap without risking too much in the process. As you all know, I’ve also been playing a lot of Master Yi recently, though I rarely feel like I carry with him. He’s often more like an annoying swarm of hornets – it hurts like hell and you can never pin them down enough to stop the pain.

So who do you use when you want to carry? I know a couple of mean Udyr players who really seem to turn games, and it’s always fun to have a pro Zilean or Morgana on your team. Drop your best carries in the comments (with a fun story if you have one)!

PS – Thanks for the pic, Miku! Front page of Google Images for Kog’maw so I linked back to your post.

Ezreal has generated a lot of hate in the forums, mostly from those claiming that he’s too weak to be competitive. While I still think he has some farming trouble, I do think he’s incredibly strong against most heroes, particularly mages, and can carry a team to victory in the hands of a smart player. To help ease the learning curve, Phreak put together a tutorial video for Ezreal.

There are a couple things every beginning Ezreal player should notice. First, Phreak is never in the thick of the fight. He’s always floating behind his team, dropping mystic shot every couple seconds for big damage and healing as much as he can, focusing on physical damage toons for the attack speed buff. Ezreal is crazy squishy, so getting in the fight is something you really want to avoid.

Secondly, he takes one rank of each skill early to get his attack speed buff as high as possible, even in early fights. While you do miss some burst damage this way, it creates a bit of a surprise for the enemy when your attack speed is suddenly 60% higher. I recently laned against a Twitch in which this saved my life endless times. He would open up thinking he had an easy kill. Mystic shot, Essence Flux, and Arcane Shift and suddenly he was well below half health in terrible position. Ignite and another Mystic and that’s pretty much all she wrote.

Lastly, and this is something I didn’t realize until I had played him for some time, your Mystical Shot passive lowers the cooldown on your ultimate. That means you should be using your ultimate at every chance you get and then heading to farm to bring that CD down quickly. This thing alone will change the way you play. It rightly encourages you to use your ultimate instead of holding it and reinforces the fact that you should be farming with Mystical to help your ult refresh.

If you can take most of what Phreak says to heart you’ll find Ezreal to be a very strong toon with the potential to carry your team. Unfortunately, his skill ceiling is high enough that it takes a very skilled player to make the most of him, so most queue Ezreal players will be underwhelming.

I’ve only had the chance to spend a few games on Ezreal but he’s driven a lot of discussion on the forums so I thought it would be appropriate to post some impressions. Ezreal is definitely strong, but he’s likely going to be queue dodge material for a lot of people due to a very high skill ceiling. That’s mostly because he has four skill shots, but he’s’ also a terrible farmer in the wrong hands.

Let’s talk farming first, actually. Ezreal has big problems farming early game because he has no AOE farm skill like many other carries. You rely primarily on Mystic Shot, which can be difficult to land on the right creep, especially in a crowded side lane. I’ve personally been maxing Arcane Shift and Mystic Shot first, though I’ll probably try an Essence Flux build today. In either case, you need Mystic to keep your farm up and some sort of mana regen to allow some spell spam. If you can master farming on Ezreal you’ll be able to play him quite well.

While Ezreal can be built like a physical carry, he should be played in a support role, much like Nidalee, though with less early killing power. You should never be initiating fights unless you feel supremely confident in the win. He’s best used at the back of a fight, buffing and debuffing his team and enemies and pushing damage through with little risk of getting hit. He is extremely squishy, and while Arcane Shift might get you out of a fight for a quick second, it has a short enough range that it probably won’t save you against any ranged toon unless you see the gank coming and use it preemptively.

One of the big benefits of Ezreal is that he falls into the mixed heal/DPS category shared only by Nidalee. Mix in a Soraka, Alistar, or Taric and you have a team that will be very difficult to bring down, especially considering the state of anti-healing in the game. Depending on your lane comp, Essence Flux might be the way to go.

Overall, I can appreciate Riot’s stance on nerfs and buffs for this toon. We likely won’t see him at his full potential for a few weeks, though I wouldn’t be surprised to hear the player base calling for nerfs when that happens.

It’s finally patch day, and for real this time. Unfortunately this patch has one very serious problem – it can completely trash your installation. There are now several posts on the forums filling rapidly with reports of trashed installations after attempting a patch. I’ve experienced the same problem and had to reinstall, a long and painful process with the number of players forced to do the same.

I don’t hesitate to say that I’m a little worried for Riot. The company is having huge scaling issues. Between the server crashes, the large number of bugs/exploits that come with each patch, and the string of nerfs and buffs that seem out of line due to a lack of testing, I can’t help wondering when they’ll catch up. The list of open positions is enormous and shows some gaping holes in current company structure. Here’s a short list of what Riot’s missing: Technical Director, Database Administrator, Director of Operations, System Administrator, Senior Game Designer. That’s a short list, obviously not including junior level positions. All of those gaps are presumably being filled along with other regular duties by the current staff.

As excited as I was for this patch, I can’t help feeling more than a little miffed by all the problems. Oh, did I mention the Jax buff? Yuck.

It’s been three days since Riot officially confirmed the patch for this week – yes, I’m considering a sale on new content that ends this coming Sunday an official confirmation – and there’s still no word on when it will actually drop. Nothing. Nada. No post in the announcement forums, nothing in the server status forums. Not even an update to the sale announcement that pushes the dates back.

I’d like to say I’m not one to speculate but, frankly, I speculate often so here it goes. My guess is that there’s some trouble related to a widespread Twisted Treeline rollout. I still stand on the assumption that it’s coming in this patch. The matchmaking test on the Test Realm was so short that my guess is they got a quick confirmation that, yes, it will work. If it was a no, you can bet there would have been more testing to figure out why. It’s a pattern Riot has followed rigorously to this point. Hell, when it seems 80% of the population can’t connect or chronically crashes the servers are set to “busy” while the team attempts to sort things out.

It’s also safe to say that this is the biggest patch since launch, with the possible exception of the store. The Twisted Treeline update will change the game in a huge way, and will likely a whole new set of hardware. Add to it the major revamp the patch gave to Twisted Fate and the release of a new champ with completely new mechanic and you have the heaviest content patch we’ve seen.

I’m still convinced it won’t happen, though. Tomorrow’s Friday and there’s still no news.

A post in the official forums today confirmed that we’ll be seeing the Ezreal patch this week along with a very special treat: ghost skins! The images for Ghost Fiddlesticks and Ghost Gangplank have been in the client for awhile now. Just think, you won’t have to see four posts a week theorizing about revive, Mordekaiser’s ult and the method to unlocking these beauties. It’s actually simple -give Riot your money and they will give you the skins.

There’s still no word on pricing, but the official post did mention that both ghost skins would be available at 20 percent off regular price through the weekend. This patch will also have a Highland Tryndamere skin, adding some Scottish flavor to everyone’s favorite barbarian.

As for Ezreal, everyone, myself included, is waiting to hear his cost in IP. He’s getting the typical new hero + skin bundle for a small discount at 1375 RP. Obviously that points to a 975 RP price, which could mean either 3150 or 6300 for the IP cost. I’m hoping for 3150 since I won’t be buying it with RP. I’ve got more ghostly things to spend my money on.

I was lucky enough to pick up a Test Realm account in the giveaway so I’ve been spending a little time getting to know Ezreal and the new Twisted Fate. Both characters seem like they’ll be pretty powerful, though I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some changes to Ezreal before he goes live.

At first I thought Ezreal was extremely weak. From looking at his skills he can really go either AP or damage. From what I’ve been able to tell, though, his real power lies with a damage build. As with most carries, Ezreal is squishy. Insanely squishy. Twitch level squishy. He doesn’t hit as hard as a lot of carries, though, instead relying on skills and attack speed for damage output.

I’m a big fan of skill shots, especially because the heroes that have them tend to have great range. There’s also something extremely satisfying about landing that perfect snare or arrow to get a kill. Ezreal does get great range from his skills, though I think Arcane Shift needs about 20% more range. It doesn’t feel particularly effective and the cooldown is long enough that you’ll get one, maybe two casts off. Even then, you might unwittingly land next to a creep and lose the damage on whoever you’re chasing. While his Essence Flux is good for fighting physical damage dealers toe to toe, it has more limited range and doesn’t pack the punch I’d like to see. It would be really great if he got a slow from it, but more on that later.

Ezreal’s big problem is farming. Because he deals such low damage you have to be extremely attentive for last hits. I see him as a solo toon in almost every situation, both because his ult deals heavy damage and because he can’t afford to get behind. Luckily Mystic Shot is cheap – 30 mana at rank one – so you can spam it to pick up creep kills pretty easily.

As far as build goes, I think your best bet is to take one rank of Mystic Shot and then main Arcane Shift, alternating for Essence Flux when you can. Flux cannot be used to self heal so it’s pretty worthless as a solo and Mystic Shot’s damage doesn’t improve enough per rank to be worth the extra mana cost in the early game. From there you need to farm everything you can to get to a decent item loadout. I’m a firm believer in the trinity force on this guy. Sheen procs off your Mystic Shot in the same way Parrrley does, delivering the extra damage right when the shot hits. Phage gives you the slow you’ll need to catch runners and the extra health is always nice. From there, get to a big damage item like a Black Cleaver or an Infinity if you can. Your Mystical will be hitting quite hard and with a lucky slow you should be able to rip right through most players.

As with most carries, you should be waiting for the fight to start before getting in the mix. Supporting your team from the back is a perfect spot for Ezreal, using range to your advantage to pick up some kills. If anything, I’d like to see him get a little move speed buff and a range buff to Arcane Shift. Beyond that, I think he performs well in a lot of situations so long as you’ve taken the time to farm what he needs.

Patch notes are up on the Test Realm forum for the Ezreal rollout and I’ll say it, I’m scared. I was mostly excited for the last patch, but the XP system blew chunks and that queue dodge penalty is the worst thing to happen to the game since Nidalee. There are a few diamonds in the rough, though, and I’m hoping they will be enough to carry me through.

First, Shaco is getting a massive nerf. Deceive damage is down 10% at all levels, Jack in the Box damage scales more slowly and has its AP ratio decreased, and, the whopper, throwing Two-Shiv while stealthed breaks you out. It’s not clear whether that removes your crit damage bonus – my hope is that it doesn’t – but it’s possible. You might notice that none of this makes him any more viable for the late game, which is most players’ complaint.

Then there’s Nidalee. I’m personally of the opinion that she needs the kind of nerf Shaco received. Unfortunately, Riot didn’t contact me regarding the matter, so she’s getting a tiny nerf and a little buff. Primal Surge now has its mana cost increased by 5 per level instead of the flat 50. Can I just say that this is in no way a nerf. By the time you reach the max rank, most players have more than enough mana to cover the difference, particularly if they’re going AP build. Which reminds me, AP Nidalee just got a fat buff. Javelin Toss AP ratio is up to 55% from 40%. The other change is reducing her passive to 15% move speed from 25%. Really, though, that’s not the issue with Nidalee’s escapability. It’s the fact that you can spam Pounce, which, when coupled with the brush bonus, makes her extremely difficult to kill. They could take it down to 8% and she would still probably get out of most situations.

Twisted Fate got enough changes to make him a lot less frustrating to play against and probably more overall fun. His new passive, Loaded Dice, grants TF’s team an extra 2 gold per kill. It’s actually worse than Second Sight in my mind, but not such a problem. Gate is gone. In its place is Stacked Deck, which is basically a built in Sword of the Divine. Every fourth attack deals magic damage that scales by level, affected by ability power. It also increases his attack speed and reduces cooldowns. He’s another in the latest string of toons that will benefit in big ways from Guinsoo’s. The new skill is obviously severely overpowered, but a slight nerf should bring it in line. Gate is now built into Destiny, allowing you to teleport anywhere on the map though it no longer slows. Overall, I think it’s a good change, and will actually make him a lot more fun.

There are some other minor changes, including a slight buff to the XP system (50% of a level’s XP for same level champion kills instead of 40%) , but most of them shouldn’t change the game much. The XP system will still likely too heavily prioritize farming, but it just might be enough to discourage a lot of 5-man while encouraging some push. Honestly, though, ganking is what makes the game fun. Almost no amount of XP nerfing will make me want to stop.