[ComradeHX]

The most I got was around 8% CDR from CDR/lvl t3 glyphs.

Malphite has two problems: his stats. And he has no interrupts except for his ulti, which he uses to initiate.
It does not matter in high ELO because his team should at least have a stun or two...

But in normals(I have seen this before)...his team will wait until that nunu blasts his ult and that fiddles finished draining on malphite before they move in... by that time Malphite is dead and it is 4v5.

And yes, Vlad sucks...figuratively and literally.

[Krow]

Shimus, you keep mentioning high Elo matches. What's your definition of high Elo in terms of ranked games? I'm not sure we're on the same wavelength in thinking.

Cooldown isn't hugely important in early game laning phase. Your team's jungler will usually be getting the first two rounds of buffs. By midgame, if you're a support caster, your team will likely be letting you get blue buff unless a burst caster needs it.
You can easily start off with ~15% cooldown from full glyphs + 9/0/21 mastery.
Also, cooldown is capped at 40%. AP isn't capped. If you want to be efficient, go AP. Again, cooldown can be supplemented by blue buff if your team is competent and lets you have it.

[Shimus_Darkraven]

There's three main metas that get played, but generally speaking for even playing American Client, I run into a lot of EU Meta (teleport, wards, TF, Shen and the like) in my matches. Along with the "two ranged carries, a tank and two support" or the general "AOE and we win" team type Meta on 5's. I tend to run into a lot of people trying to either mimic or play the exact same strats as HotshotsGG or Reginald and not only that, they structure their meta around Elementz tier listing as well. It gets super annoying playing the same characters with the same concept everytime, hence my aggravation with Vladimir. I see him literally, every game. Even if we play to counter, the metas are the metas for a reason - they generally don't fail, but then again I find people in the elo ranges I'm in to be worse at playing at their champs (or they just don't give a shit and like to troll) then say 900-1200 rating where people are actually trying (considered ELO hell, ironically, and people TRY harder.)

For ranked ELO (Or just plain rating) I consider anything 1650+ High Elo. Most consider it to start around 1700 or 1750, but 1600-1650+ is when true competition starts to kick in I've found. Anything prior to that, I find myself kicking a dead horse trying to get people together for teamfights. That's my train of thought, anyways. Apparently, we weren't on the same wavelength, or I should have explained myself a bit better.

Also, while CDR is capped at 40%, if you do not meet cap requirements in a 30+ minute match you will be ridiculed if you play support (which I play 80% of the time for my vent setup) at least from my personal experience. Sure, AP doesn't cap, but you only need Rabadon's and Archangels' to stack AP effectively. I generally gun for those post 25 minute mark after you have Ionian boots and soul shroud after a rod of ages, or some such. Capping CDR is very important while playing support and anyone who says anything to the contrary I must summarily disagree with. For example, capped CDR = More Heals, More Burst, More casting in general - then you worry about building the AP to drop the hammer. With ROA and ionian/soul shroud, on Zilean I generally sit at around 3000hp making me a safe and sound support. With capped 40%, I can rewind my ult three times in any given teamfight. On soraka, while she does scale 1:1 or better on AP, she needs CDR to be able to rattle off multiple heals or her ultimate. Sure, I won't dispute AP would make you better initially, but you'd lose effectiveness over time. I'd rather have a solid build, and then combine AP to become potent, rather then reverse it and be useless and be a one-trick pony in teamfights. As you can tell, I am bitter over the patch because while they did it for Renekton and people like him, the swipe at CDR will crush the well-known strategy of supports, effectively hurting the people who the patch was supposed to be aimed at to help. It's a double-bladed sword in my eyes.

[ComradeHX]

I played a few games with the nerfed CDR items like Frozen Heart.

Not that bad...

From Runes and mastery(CDR/lvl glyph for 8.10% and mastery for either 3 or 9%) I already have a decent amount, and add 20 and it will be pretty close to 40(top it off with raduins is a good idea as well).

I think Riot did me a favor because I used to pay for over-the-limit CDR with the old items, and now I just pay less(iirc they decreased a few hundred g off the recipe).

That is what makes the new Ryze so great: 2 spells that scales with mana, one of which only scales with mana and the other has bad AP ratio... you can just max CDR and keep casting with a rushed tears. And I found that even though AP is not that great for Ryze, the slow from Rylais and the hp helps immensely(especially considering that frozen heart is one of the core items). Mastery + Ryze's lv5 Q + frozen heart = max CDR?

Afterwards it is just stacking mana and some AP(ROA or BV).

Overall I find Ryze more enjoyable and not the "one-combo-to-rule-them-all" nuker(we have plenty of nukers in the game already that pretty much play with the same strategy of run/flash-in, nuke, ghost out).

I played a game with a evelyn and just waited for her to stealth-stun me and then promptly ulti-E-W-Q-flash out of range-kite with ghost and pwned her before she even got close... the match was lost because my teammates are retarded and no one other than myself got wards... It was ranked...

[Shimus_Darkraven]

Playing more and more games as Malzahar lately. His pool is just ridiculously op on AP scaling. I had it at 9%+9% with 700ap in a couple matches. That's 18% of your max hp, each second... it literally just liquifies you into a puddle of plasma. Throw in his DOT and his ultimate, and you're boned. I usually build Rylais and Rod first, putting him at around 3k hp as well, then rush AP afterwards if the game drags on.

Oh yeah, and Renekton is still the shit. Honestly, he did not need the buff they gave him. He's ridiculous, straight up. Ours went with Youmuus and Frozen and perfected with 13-0-18.. he's just beyond OP. Riot really needs to look at him, hardcore.

[tsansuri]

Yeah, you definitely have to make sure you control a Malzahar well, and build up magres. As for Renekton I think he really did need those buffs, but to me he sort of seems like Akali, if they have a good start and a couple kills, they snowball really hard. If not though, it just keeps getting harder and harder to keep up in a group.

Ryze definitely has potential, but I only see people who used to play him trying him, and they just walk up and nuke, then die. Pretty funny to see all and all. I do kind of like the changes they made to him though, it's certainly an interesting twist on a caster.

And I despise being the only one buying wards, which is any game I'm not playing with my friends. I mean don't get me wrong I don't mind buying shit tons of them, I typically main Kassadin so I'm roaming those parts pretty frequently so it's no trouble to pop some down if not just for my team, but for the safety of my ganks.

The thing I've been hating lately is everyone's seemingly complete disregard for team comp. I played against a team of 4 AD carries and 1 tank. My team each built a thornmail, even the casters, and we just loled all over them the whole game. That wasn't so bad since it made our lives easier but when it happens on my team it's frustrating to no end.

[Ketai]

Originally Posted by tsansuri

And I despise being the only one buying wards, which is any game I'm not playing with my friends.

^This
I always end up buying wards and pleading to the team to buy wards after the first gank. I also never see any AD (and or any ad whatsoever) full carry teams anymore as well as no hybird teams. Everyone just masses their AP carries with a tanky tank (usually mundo since ramus got nerfed).

[Shimus_Darkraven]

Originally Posted by tsansuri

And I despise being the only one buying wards

I know how you feel, in random games with no friends I seem to be the only one buying them until people get the idea to buy wards off of seeing me buy them, like someone had to set a trend for them.

Originally Posted by tsansuri

That wasn't so bad since it made our lives easier but when it happens on my team it's frustrating to no end.

I know that as well, which is generally why I wait for everyone to pick their champions and pick accordingly. If they're squishy, I tank. If they are heavy AD I go AP (generally Heimer or Malz). It's easy to pick around the team, and you have the added bonus of if you're the only person of ONE type (Be it AD or AP) generally the other team builds to counter the rest of your team, so you end up raping them.

I bought Renekton and got him runes, but on 5's you exactly hit the nail on the head - if he gets a kill or so like Akali, he can snowball. On 3's is where he's ridiculously OP - but then again, 3's has the Tanky DPS Meta in spades so I shouldn't be shocked there. Regardless, it's fun to slice in(e), Stun(w), Cull (q), and dice out (e) all in two seconds. That combo usually can chunk 1/3 life off anyone, even a tank, if you've built rage.


Edit: LOLOLOL

[Only registered and activated users can see links. ]

[tsansuri]

hahaha poor Ez, smacked in the mouth again.

[ComradeHX]

Ezreal freeweek = hell.

All the noob squishy Ez...EZ-kill(for the enemy).