Tag: Champ of the Week (Page 4 of 7)

Champ of the Week: Mordekaiser

June 14, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

Lord Mordekaiser.

I’ve had a hard time deciding who this week’s champ of the week would be. I was hoping I would get some inspiration last night, and though we did have some excellent games for Fearless Gamer LoL Mondays, but no one really intrigued me. I was thinking of playing Veigar, but I want to save him – he’s so much fun that I don’t want to use him just yet.

Then it hit me. Play someone that I hate playing.

Of all the champions in League of Legends, I think I can honestly say there is only one champion I both hate to play and hate to play against: Mordekaiser. Everything about him bothers me. He’s loud. He farms like a beast and gains a shield from that farm. He deals great damage, even when he only has defensive items. And then there’s his ult. That ult. It has turned the tide in more games than I care to count. For all of that, you’d think he would be fun to play. He must be for some, but I’m just not one of those people. That’s right, I said ‘those people.’ I dislike Mordekaiser so much that on some fundamental level I also dislike the people that like him (my apologies if that includes you).

Regardless, I’m going to play him. I’m going to try to find a way to make him work for me. I know he can be an asset to a team – he hasn’t excellent laning power and his ult really can change the outcome of a game. I’ll be focusing on the team comps that work best for him, when he can afford to get a Gunblade, and how to lane with him without completely pushing up to a turret.

It’s going to be an interesting week.

Champ of the Week, Champions, league of legends

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Champ of the Week: Nasus wrapup

June 12, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

I was only able to play one more game with Nasus, mostly because I don’t think it’s fair to the champ of the week to play him/her when it will hurt the team comp in a serious way. When my teammates pick three physical champions, two of which are already melee, Nasus probably isn’t the right choice. When I did pick Nasus, though, I was able to have another very solid game with him.

My impressions remain mostly unchanged – Nasus is really missing that key gap-closing skill. Wither is close, but not enough in a lot of cases. He also gets good move speed once he has a Trinity, but as has been mentioned, that requires a nice farm if you’re planning to have any defensive stats.

If I could change on thing about Nasus, it would be to lower the cooldown on Wither. Though it retains a flat mana rate and 15 second cooldown, I really think it needs a little buff. Wither gets hard-countered by Mercury Treads. Without it, Nasus is just a big dog, waiting to be kited. I don’t think this would tip him over the edge into OP status, just make him a bit more competitive with characters like Renekton (9 second CD stun at rank 5), Jarvan (12 second Standard CD), and Rumble (10 second CD stacking slow).

Stay tuned for next week’s champ of the week.

Champ of the Week, Editorial, league of legends

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Champ of the Week: Nothing without a team

June 10, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

I’ve caught a few Nasus games so far this week, and in each I’ve been reminded of one of Nasus’ great downfalls – he requires a competent team to truly excel. That’s true for a lot of characters, but for Nasus it seems even more so. With no gap-closing skill, he relies heavily on Wither and the crowd control of his teammates (or foolishness of his opponents) to dish out damage.

Don’t get me wrong, Wither is a great skill. If a carry makes the mistake of buying Berserker’s Greaves that slow feels almost like a stun. Unfortunately, though, it is countered by Mercury Treads, especially if the target also has a dash of some kind. When I consider Nasus up against many of the other tanky DPS characters – Jarvan, Rumble, Renekton, Xin Zhao – I can’t help but think he’s missing a little something. Each of those characters have great damage, a stun or slow, a dash or speed modifier, and some sort of heal or shield. Nasus is notably missing the dash/speed modifier, which makes him heavily reliant on Ghost against mobile teams.

To be fair, Nasus is utterly devastating against non-mobile teams. I flat out carried a game earlier in the week by crushing a Heimerdinger in the solo lane. My score wasn’t fantastic at the end of the game, but that’s mostly because I was so dangerous that the other team had no choice but to burn me down. Otherwise, I was 3-4 shotting the squishies.

Nasus also has excellent pushing power. I’m sure we’ve all seen a Nasus walk up to a tower and seemingly hit it for half its health with a single Siphon Strike. The creep clearing power of Spirit Fire, especially when coupled with a Sunfire Cape, gives Nasus the ability to move up a lane quickly and start smashing down towers.

I’m pretty sure I already know what my one Nasus change would be, but I’m going to keep playing him through Sunday to see if it holds true.

Champ of the Week, league of legends

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Champ of the Week: Malzahar wrapup

June 5, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

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My week with Malzahar was probably the most successful Champ of the Week I’ve had so far, though Nunu may have edged him out. In any case, I can only remember having one truly bad game with him, and that was this evening in a post-cookout haze. Malzahar is just an incredible pick for an AP carry, offering a solid mix of utility and damage without really falling short anywhere.

One of the biggest things to learn about Malzahar, and something I haven’t quite mastered, is when to use his ultimate. I know it sounds simple enough, but that ultimate is devastating, completely shutting out an opponent in most cases, and it can be used on a variety of targets if played right. There is that unspoken rule – never focus the tank – but if the tank has all of the enemy CC and made a misstep near a tower, a quick Malzahar ult can give your team 5v4 advantage and allow you to steamroll down a lane. The flipside is knowing when not to use your ultimate. Using your ultimate during a teamfight can cost you a lot of damage. A stun or silence and you’ve missed out on a crucial part of your kit.

Even without his ult, though, Malzahar still devastates teamfights. His AoE silence has excellent utility and the percentage based damage from Null Zone grows quickly with AP. Malzahar has no problem farming, either. At level 3, Malefic Visions hits hard enough to easily farm creep waves with a few auto attacks. With a Voidling proc, Malzahar not only burns through creep waves, he also becomes a strong side pusher that requires two people to gank.

If I could change one thing about Malzahar it would be the AI on his Voidlings. I lost more to towers than I wanted, and they often danced back and forth in the lane instead of defending me in the midst of a gank. The Voidling deals heavy damage, especially once it levels up. Having a little more control of that damage would probably make him a bit OP, which I honestly think he’s on the verge of, anyway.

Champ of the Week, Champions, Editorial, league of legends

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Champ of the Week: Early Malzahar impressions

May 31, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

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I got to play a few games over the holiday weekend with this week’s Champ of the Week, Malzahar, and I’ve been having a really good time. Malzahar is an incredible farmer, and when left alone for too long, he becomes an incredible pusher as well.

My basic strategy to this point has been simple: build enough survivability to get by and then stack up mass amounts of AP. In about half of the games I’ve picked up a Rod of Ages early (12 minutes in one case) and moved to Deathcap from there, but in others I’ve been less worried about the health stack and just picked up Catalyst before moving on. I’ve had roughly equal success both ways – the basic lesson seems to be ‘don’t overdue the survivability.’

I had sort of forgotten the massive buffs Malzahar received since his release. The last time I gave him any serious attention his ult could be Cleansed, it had a much shorter range, and it didn’t have the suppression bonus. Those changes have given Malzahar the ability to fight at great distance with devastating power.

If I’m having trouble with one thing, it’s remembering to keep my Malefic Visions up in team fights. The cooldown gets very short with a golem buff or enough CDR, making it totally feasible to have a couple spells ticking at the same time. I’m slowly improving on that, though.

I’m really curious where Deathfire Grasp could fit in a Malzahar build. I don’t know that it’s any more efficient than a raw AP stack, but the active and the extra cooldown reduction could be interesting with enough AP. I think I underuse Deathfire, even though it is one of my favorite items in the game. If I can get ahead of the enemy farm and pick one up, it’s an almost Veigar-style insurance that one of my enemies won’t get to participate.

Check back later in the week for more Malzahar impressions.