5421

I start with Prospector’s Ring, and boots 1

I go with Flash and Promote

Typically my first ‘push’ leads to their tower going neutral, at least, and one or more from top coming to assist.

That’s when I recall and buy my first few items.

I go Morello’s tome and CD reduction boots. As other have noted, you are a serious glass cannon, so getting some damage off and judiciously using flash is more important than mana.

I get Void Staff, then Rylai’s then finish up with Will of the Ancients. I trade out the Prospector’s ring for a Deathcap.

5422

I’d probably not go Void Staff so soon. Rylai’s is much more important, especially as you already realize that the creeps are what eventually take the tower in bot lane (before level 10 anyways).

5423

You might not even need to ever go Void Staff at all in Dominion. You get 15% magic pen for free and people still rarely build armor or resistance.

5424

People who die by Akali’s hand: stupid assholes that have 1.9k health at level 18 and 5 AD/crit items

People who don’t die by Akali’s hand: smart assholes that have 2.4k health and a negatron cloak at level 18

Percentage of Dominion players that are stupid fucking assholes: about 92%

5425

The two vision items are pretty great ideas when the enemy team includes akali, because you can save all the squishy idiots on your team.

5426

The two vision items seem like purely anti-akali items. None of the other champs really use stealth as an escape. Shaco and vayne a little bit.

5427

Talon, Shaco, Vayne, and Akali are the main reasons, since they’ll use stealth to confuse you whether they’re retreating or attempting to kill you, and it’s really important that you be able to attack them. Twitch and Eve take a while to get into stealth and they’re running away while they’re doing it, which means they’re probably getting blown up fast enough that they won’t even get into stealth (assuming an assassin chases them of course).

Either way, an oracle is really important in order to intercept that Twitch, Eve, or Shaco that has disappeared from the map for the past 10 seconds and are probably on their way to cap an undefended turret.

5428

Oh yeah, forgot talon.

5429

That poor bastard.

5430

Had a good ranked game with Chequers (he finally introduced me to a team that could win a match!) and Xerath (me) proved able to push Karthus right up to his tower and keep him there. Also out-farmed the guy. I don’t think he was bad, just by level 5 the poking from Xerath becomes hard to deal with. I couldn’t pull off any kills because he would run away a lot and their jungle Eve was a constant threat but I did dominate the lane well.

So there you go, good matchup.

Built boots and pots and with my move speed quints (only 1) I was more than nimble enough to keep out of trouble. Went back for Tear, which really keeps your poke as constant as you would wish it (which is what, I think, is the key to Xerath - you need to constantly be trying to poke the bad guys as you don’t have a huge-ass burst initially). From there, Magic Hat, and then more stuff of choice.

5431

I cannot wait to play Skarner in the new free rotation, I hear he’s really strong.

5432

Skarner, Yorick and Leona in the same week? Oh dear.

5433

I haven’t tried Skarner yet, I know he’s not considered good but I’ve been wanting to try him out. But yeah, this will be a dire week for pub queuing.

5434

I played Skarner last time he was free, he’s so bad, so so bad. Probably top 5 baddie champ right now.

5435

Out of curiosity, what are the other 4 top baddie champs?

5436

All the other he doesnt know how to use.

5437

I don’t know if he’s bad or not, but does anyone play Olaf? Ever? I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen anyone play him in, what, a couple months of playing the game now. (I haven’t played him myself because I haven’t noticed him being in the free Champion rotation, and speaking of, boy am I going to miss Vayne and Kog Maw)

5438

Twitch, Eve and whatever MrCoffee and Idrisz are playing.

One of my friends has been trying to make him viable on Dominion, but he doesn’t show up in SR much anymore. As a sort of melee/tanky hero his kit is kind of overshadowed by other similar champs so no one plays him. If Riot didn’t deem it necessary to give pretty much every other champ since him a form of hard CC then maybe people would find uses for him. But a tanky melee champ with only 1 form of CC, and soft CC at that just doesn’t find much room.

5439

I see Olaf fairly often in my solo queue mid-level games (for a non-free champion anyway). He’s been in at least 3 of the last 5 games I played. In one of those, there was one on both teams.

5440

My problem with Olaf is this;

“Ohhh I get better at low health. Awesome, I’m at 30% health it’s time to go melt fac… AHHHHHHHHH <splat>”

Now, melee dps is my worst archetype right now, so take that into account as well :)

~C~