5.5 Champion Picks : Top 20 NA Solo Queue.

In this post, we'll be looking at the top 20 NA players, their top 3 most played champions, and the overall mesh of win rates for all champions played by the top 20 players.

I'll have one up for EUW and KR soon! Though I'll do it for 5.6 so expect it in a week or so!

Match Analysis : Doing it for other players now!

Hey guys! This is a new type of blog post I've been working on where I analyze other players games rather than my own. It's a free service that I'm offering where I spectate a players game and then do a write up on what I think they can improve on. This is my first time doing an analysis for someone other than myself so I hope you guys enjoy it. If you're interested, make sure to send me a message on my FB page! Key note, I didn't get a replay for this game so this is just going to be text.

Match :

Laning :

In the beginning of the game, sub 1:55, you went to guard the entrances to the jungle at the tri-bush. That's a little sketchy to do as an ADC against a Thresh or a Morgana. In this case, it was a Thresh. Remember that he can hook you REALLY easily and you'd be a quick first blood. Next time, just ward it and walk away. Don't stand in the bush.

In the early game, you didn't emphasize CS enough. Out of the first wave, you only had 3 cs (one because of Blitz) out of the 6 in the minion wave. By the 2nd wave, you had 5 out of 12. That early cs is really important and I'd recommend focusing on the farm rather than attempting to fight as an ADC. Remember, 15~17 cs is about the same value as a kill.

You were ganked at 3:30~ by Shyvana which is definitely unexpected since she's a farm jungler. However, always anticipate a gank around 3:15~. It's better to be cautious than to be caught like that and lose both of your summoners. Ward the river at 3:15. It's true she came from behind but it's more likely she walked through the river bush to get behind you through your tribush.

After getting ganked, you should have immediately backed. You spent around 45 seconds doing absolutely nothing. You gained a marginal amount of experience but didn't farm at all. If you backed, you could have came back into lane and started attempting to farm again. Thresh ended up flashing on top of you and you managed to get out. Remember to time that flash and inform your jungler that the support is a free kill if he comes in for a gank. Flash = 5 minute timer. Thresh flashed at 4:45. 9:45 Thresh F.

After backing there and coming back to lane, remember to play a little bit more passive and try to avoid pushing the wave out. You have no summoners so you really have no place to be going hard. Just last hit and, since the wave is under the turret it's going to reset, try to let it take as long as possible rather than pushing the wave into their favor again. You really don't want to overextend if Shyvana decides to pay another visit.

Kill on Varus was good but that really doesn't fix the misplays from earlier. Remember what Varus did wrong there though. He was hooked for one. Then he didn't click the lantern. He gave you a free kill for no reason.

9:10 ~ You have an advantage over Varus in summoners and you also are Lucian with the same items as him. That means you're going to out-trade him so inform your Blitzcrank that you can win a 2v2 and go for a fight. Still though, focus on the farm.

The ward you placed around 10 minutes was a really solid one and it let you spot out Shyvana. Good job.

Fight at 11:45. You should have fully commited to that fight because you do more damage than they do. Just focus on utilizing your passive and just fighting to the death. Instead you backed off and Varus got away. You did get his flash though so make sure to time that (16:50~ Varus F). Immobile ADC with no flash = free kill.

12:50~ Good job on the kill for Shyvana. It was really unfortunate that you had to flash but at least you secured some more gold.

13:20~ Good dodge on the Varus ultimate with your dash.

Mid-Game :

At 16:10, you backed for no reason when you were in mid lane with LeBlanc. You should have applied pressure by pushing the wave. You bought berserker greaves as well when you could have just saved another 400 gold for Infinity Edge. 

Then around 18 minutes, you get overly zealous against a Zed, Thresh, and Shyvana with just LeBlanc. You should have just backed off since 1) it's a 3v2 and 2) You're an ADC vs a Zed and Shyvana. Instead, you overstayed and had to waste heal on the LeBlanc who was trying to skirmish with them. Afterwards, you tried to fight Zed with Blitzcrank which wasn't a terrible call BUT you sat still for 4 seconds rather than trying to orbwalk (kite backwards) and Zed got a free kill off you. 

At 20 minutes, you were in mid lane but, instead of clearing the wave while Renekton and crew were hammering on the turret, you were focused on hitting them. Just clear the minion wave and the turret's going to end up being on your team hitting them. That way, you can either hold the turret for a little longer or they'll try to dive you earlier and end up killing themselves to turret damage.

After they take the mid lane turret, they go to dragon and just get dragon (remember that you can hear the dragon sound when it dies). Do NOT go to your bot lane tier 1 turret. That's a BAD idea against a fed Renekton and Zed. You WILL die. Fortunately, they backed off but you could have easily just gave a free kill up for like 3 farm. 

Afterwards, you try to fight Renekton. You didn't respect his burst damage from his ultimate and combo and it ended up killing you. Remember that Renekton's ult gives him more health and that he's a high CD but high burst champion. You're an ADC and he can almost always kill you until late-late game. 

At 25 minutes, you made a huge positioning error where you walked through the river, ignoring the fact the enemy team had scuttle crab already and ran through the vision they had. They ended up collapsing on you and you SHOULD have died when the Thresh and Shyvana jumped on you in the dragon pit. Fortunately, they misplayed so you got away but the Zed and Renekton ended up collapsing on you for a free kill. Think of it this way. If you walked through your jungle, it's a lot less likely you would have died. You most likely saw the scuttle ward so you probably knew they had vision. It was sort of pointless.

26 minutes, you basically just walked into a 9 and 1 Renekton for a free kill. Tilting possibly but it was just blatant suicide for no reason.

27 minutes, you wasted culling so I'm assuming you're tilting a little. 

At 2740 when you're at Dragon, you should never stand right by the pit as an ADC against a Zed/Renekton. Renekton was pulled over the wall and Zed just shadowed over for a free kill. You need to remember who you're playing against and change up how you position depending on their champion.

At 2840 when they're at the bottom inhibitor, you almost killed Renekton with your kiting but ended up cancelling a few autos. If you didn't, you would have gotten away and managed a kill. Good try though.

Late-Game :

N/A. Game ended at 31 minutes~.

Csing :

Focus on farming a little bit more in the early game. You only managed to get around half the minions in the first two waves.

When you come back into lane at around 14 minutes, I know you want to push the wave for the tower but you miss like 4 farm including a siege minion. Be a little bit more patient and get that extra gold too.

By 30 minutes, you only had 180~ farm. You really should be aiming for 250+ by that point. If you had slightly better farm, you would've hit your two item power spike a little bit earlier (ie/shiv) and could have potentially been more useful this game as an AD.

Build :

At 13:46, you went back and purchased like THREE health potions. You don't NEED that many health potions. In fact, I'd argue you don't even need 1 or 2. I get mana over health potions generally. Also, purchase a scrying orb. Scrying orb saves lives.

Sell your HP pots to make room for the Cloak of Agility. PLEASE DO NOT SELL YOUR DORANS BLADE FOR A CLOAK OF AGILITY. It's barely a damage increase if at all. You kept your health potions for no reason!!!!!

Your item build overall : Not bad but you only had two items by 31 minutes. That's really lackluster and you should aim to farm better to get more items.

Overall :

You could definitely have done a lot of things better and I hope that this write up proves useful. Based on your mechanics and your awareness to ward, I definitely foresee you improving to become a much better ADC. You have the potential (CLG intensifies). Just a lot of little things that end up collapsing into a big problem. It also doesn't help that you're not a very high impact player as an ADC until mid-late game. 

5.5 Notes. Patch Analysis.

Hey guys. 5.5 hit live today so this post is going to head off the topic of my self match analysis and look at the notes instead to elaborate exactly what changed this patch.

Link to notes : http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/patch/patch-55-notes

Champions

Bard

So Bard won't be released off off the bat but will be implemented sometime soon. I'm not going to go over his entire kit but I do feel that he's going to be an incredibly powerful pick, specifically because of the playmaking potential of his E (Magical Journey) and his R (whatever that ability is called, the one that puts everything in stasis). 

I'll post the champion spotlight here.

Azir

So, if you recall correctly, Azir was gutted a little bit in patch 5.3 where his attack range on his soldiers were reduced by 75 AND his damage on his Q was dropped significantly. These changes should help our bird out a little bit. 

Buff 1 (Attack Speed) : Should help with farming AND early trading.

Buff 2 (Range) : Huge buff. Only a 25 range nerf from his original soldier attack range. 

Buff 3 (Passthrough range) : So I guess they didn't want to buff it THAT much so the spear's pass through range is reduced a little bit (aka, poke going through an enemy) if I'm understanding that correctly.

Gangplank 

Nothing more to say than, neat. Bugfix. Those gosh darn slow immune targets not getting poisoned.

Gragas

So two mini changes to Gragas that should definitely help our drunkard out. While I don't believe this will necessarily make Gragas a top tier jungler, it should help his clear out a little bit which should in turn encourage some play. I can see Gragas potentially becoming a decent tank in the jungle with the Cinderhulk enchantment this patch mixed in with a ROA to get that necessary AP plus the synergy with the item with the 25% bonus health that the Cinderhulk item provides. I'll have to test Gragas out and see how he does.

Karma

Another bugfix. Not much to say here. Yay, Karma's functioning properly.

Karthus

This actually sounds like a pretty solid bugfix. That explains why I'd have a Graves dash through my wall sometimes and I'd just be like, uh... You wanna.. You wanna be slowed mate? Nope? Okay. Ty based Rito.

Kassadin

So two big things. 1) Kassadin has a mini VU which is pretty exciting. 2) Riftstep is being buffed a little bit and is now Riftlectricslide. 

Specifically the R, the buff looks pretty decent. While the range is still pretty small in comparison to the original range of 700, the other changes balance it out. The CD being reduced by 1 second at all ranks is HUGE plus the mana cost is multiplicative, meaning that while it's only a 10 mana cost reduction, it's a little bit more later. Here's some quick math.

Pre 5.5 : 60 -> 120 -> 240 -> 480 -> 960.

Post 5.5 : 50 -> 100 -> 200 -> 400 -> 800.  

Solid buff to Kassadin. Don't think it'll make him OP again but will hopefully increase his win-rate from 35%.

Lissandra

So I'm pretty excited about this nerf. I'm not fond of lock down champions, especially if they're in the form of AP so I never really liked playing against Lissandra. As Riot explained, this hits her in her damage output overall, her incredibly safe poke, AND her clear. It's not going to make Lissandra unplayable and I'd personally have hit her ultimate CD but I hate the champion so I'm a little biased. 

Nautilus

Tank jungle buffs, hype. So at first glance, a lot of these changes look like nerfs. In reality, this shifts the power onto his Riptide (E) instead which should increase his clearspeed significantly whereas before you'd rely on the "burn" of Titan's Wrath (W).

Addressing the changes, W damage output is down BUT the ratio on it is increasing slightly to balance it out. 9% at rank 1 instead of 7% but lategame, it's still the same. However, a slight change is that the jungle item he now purchases (Cinderhulk) gives 25% bonus health similar to Ancient Golem at the end of S4. Which means that his W late game should see a significant increase in damage assuming you build full tank.

His E CD is being reduced significantly, 3 seconds at rank 1, and mana cost is being reduced significantly as well to make it a little bit more spammable. That being said, there are some tuning to make it not THAT overpowered such as the AP ratio and the slow duration so you can't permaslow.

With the Cinderhulk, I think Nautilus will be a powerful champion since I believe he'll scale into lategame as a monstrosity. I'll have to experiment with him and see just how strong he is though.

Nidalee

While I love playing Jungle Nid, she definitely needed some toning down since her clears were INCREDIBLY easy. That being said, I don't think the Bushwhack nerf will kick her down that much since the damage on her Pounce remains the same as well the other damage she has from her other skills. While it hurts her clears slightly, I believe she'll still be an incredibly strong jungler in this patch but we'll have to see just how powerful the lockdown tanks get (e.g. Sejuani/Nautilus/etc) since Nidalee's main counters is someone who can lock her down in place.

Rek'Sai

Quality of life change to Rek'Sai players. The one that's really cool is displaying which tunnel will be destroyed. That should be useful.

Shyvana

.5% maximum health. While it doesn't sound like much, it'll be interesting to see if she'll start to see more play if the jungle starts shifting into a more "super tank" meta. Shyvana --might-- just start popping up as a counter pick though it's more likely that Trundle will make a grand entrance.

Singed

Neat bugfix for Singed. Don't think it'll increase his play or anything but the few Singed players out there might be excited, if they even attempt to fling them into the Mega-Adhesive... That shit is hard.

Sion

As of right now, Sion's laning phase is absurd and he has no difficulties beating almost any matchup. He's susceptible to ganks, yes, BUT he can bully out a lot of lane matchups except maybe like a Renekton. His poke with his E was spammable. 

So this change basically shifts a little bit of his power onto his Q (reduction in mana cost + ratio buff though no one really builds damage on Sion) off of his E (which has slightly increased mana costs). Will this significantly impact his laning phase? Probably not. Though you might have to buy a mana potion or two when suicide to the enemy jungler's red buff and teleport top.

Skarner

The SKARNER! So before I even address this, I don't really think this is going to make Skarner FOTM, even with the new jungler item. I don't even think this will make him a top 10 jungler since the buffs seem semi insignificant. But one can hope and I'll definitely experiment with him to see how he is.

Starting off, his Q gets a flat 2 damage buff BUT, remember, his Q is semi-spammable. So it's slightly more damage. Plus, there's a bonus 2 magic damage per stack of his crystal energy (the passive thing). So bam. It's an --okay-- damage buff.

His E, also known as one of the most useless abilities in the game due to low damage and well, just being a slow, is getting a sizable boost in damage in the mid to late game. 

Again, I'll have to play him and see how he does. Here's to hoping that Skarner is more meta!

Sona

Trying to get more $$$ for that ultimate skin, I see... Jokes aside, Sona definitely needed a few buffs, especially with the silly amount of "Sona mains" that started popping out of nowhere. 

Passive : The bugfix is pretty cool. I've heard my friends express frustration when they'd accidently use their Power Chord.

R : Definitely a solid buff. Doesn't exactly make her overpowered but 200 mana on your ultimate sounds a little much, especially on a support champion. 

Soraka

Another bugfix. Riot's doing a good job on acknowledging bugs that hit the front page of /r/leagueoflegends.

Tristana

So I personally thought Tristana was strong as it is and she's even seen LCS play. This buff is interesting. So potentially, if auto attacking a champion with your E on them, you can make it so you can possibly have your Q atkspd steroid up almost indefinitely. I'll have to test this out.

Trundle

I feel like this buff was a buff in anticipation to a rise in tanks from the jungle and Trundle is the answer to tanks everywhere. I'm curious to see whether or not his buffs are more focused on making Trundle more viable in the jungle or in top lane. 

The reason I mention jungle Trundle is because, and I have to test this, I feel like you might even be able to heal while at raptor camp for instance and heal from your mid laner killing their minions. Plus, the W healing amplication now being 20% flat? I really need to experiment with this champion but I feel like he'll be a lot stronger in the jungle now. 

Then there's the bugfix on his ultimate which is pretty awesome as well.

Trollin' in the jungle INC?

Urgot

Urgot? That's a champion? 

W cost reduced but now has a mana ratio and a common build on Urgot that I've seen is Manamune and a Frozen Heart. I definitely see Urgot being a lot more tankier post change. The ultimate CD reduction is also still pretty nice. While buffed, I still don't think he'll be that great of a champion and this sounds like it encourages top lane bruiser Urgot more than ADC Urgot.

Varus

So, neat change. While I don't believe this will make Varus that much more powerful in SR, can you imagine this in ARAM? Holy moly. Varus will be an even godlier poke master.

Veigar

So basically, everyone acknowledged that after the Veigar rework, the champion was slightly gutted. Riot acknowledged this and we now have a few buffs to our yordle of doom.

Q missile speed buff should make it a little bit more difficult to dodge the skillshot. Plus the bugfix on it should be helpful.

The E delay buff is HUGE. Right now, ANYONE can walk out of Veigar stun without a problem, even if you flash E to initiate. Two things in this change. 1) The delay is reduced by .25s which is pretty big BUT also, the warning particle starts sooner meaning that the moment you press E, it'll start rather than when it channels. So I guess that sort of is to balance it out a bit.

Viktor

I actually thought this was going to be a nerf after Faker decimated LCK with his Viktor play. Just a bug fix which should help the Glorious Evolution.

Vi

Okay, so I hate this champion because I hate lock down. In no way, shape, or form do I think this change is going to make Vi terrible. She'll drop down a little bit in standards of top tier junglers due to the reduction on her ultimate damage at ranks 1 and 2 and her movement speed nerf will hurt her a little bit. 

Volibear

So this should help out Volibear's clears a LOT. Right now, all he does is use his Frenzy once... and then auto attack... press E here and there. Maybe flip a monster. Auto some more. So his clears were definitely a little lackluster. Refunding HALF the CD should help out a lot. We'll see whether or not it makes him more FOTM, especially with the Cinderhulk enchantment.

Xin Zhao

So, personally, I felt this champion was already close to being a top tier jungler but I think this change will push him over the edge. I'll definitely be playing him a bit more often to test the waters out. 

The increase to his base heal on his W at early ranks should help out his early clears and the increase in damage to his E will be huge as well. In fact, I actually feel like the increase in base damage might encourage Xin players to go for a more tanky build (e.g. Cinderhulk + tank with maybe youmuus) and rely on the base damage for the damage output. Definitely going to have to experiment but I feel like Xin might be a decent pick this patch.

Zac

I feel like these are pretty solid buffs to Zac. The buff that I'm specifically looking at is the extra disruption from his E. A .5s increase in knockback duration is pretty huge.

W : So now, you'll get the CD reduction on the W even if you cast the W a little bit later.

E : Knockback duration increase. Pretty big buff since Zac used to be the king of disruption.



Zilean

Zilean had a mini rework but still hadn't been seeing much play. The CD reduction should help a lot. I actually feel like Zilean's rework was really cool with how you can stun targets. I don't play much Zilean though so I can't comment much on these changes other than I expect him to see a little bit mor play.

Items

Luden's Echo

This item sounds pretty interesting. Note that this is another 120 AP item since we didn't have one to fill the void of DFG. It sounds very similar to a Statikk Shiv except for APC plus it applies spell effects which is actually REALLY cool. 

From what I've read and seen on PBE experimenting, I don't believe it'll be a rush item for many champions a-la Lich Bane since it does more magic damage the more AP you have but I can see it being a buy for a lot of champions later into the game as a 3rd or 4th item since you'll have a solid assortment of AP items (e.g. Morelli/Rabadon/Void etc). It looks like it'll even help with champions that don't have much wave clear and give them "fake wave clear" so if you're a champion like Akali, you can help a little bit now when you're being sieged. 

Definitely excited to see how this item plays out.

Sweeping Lens

Technically a bug fix but the CD on Sweeping Lens is now 15 seconds longer. Sort of sucks. :(

Raptor Cloak

Neat buff to an item half the playerbase doesn't know exists since not a lot of people build an Ohmwrecker. It's slightly more gold efficient now that it has more armor and has a new passive.

Zz'Rot Portal

This item's still in the game? This is another buff to the item and it looks like the item will be significantly stronger. Double the base damage against structures and more than double against non structures. Plus they have a longer decay time. Solid buff on the item and I'm excited to see how it's used in competitive. I don't think it'll see much use in solo queue though since it's tough to organize that in the solo queue environment.

Ohmwrecker

Ohmwrecker builds out of Raptorcloak so it gets the movement speed buff as well. Yay!

Righteous Glory

So I'm curious about this buff. I felt that this item already sees a decent amount of play but I guess it needed a little bit more help? Bonus health on it definitely encourages the item on more tank focused champions (e.g. Maokai) or tank initiate junglers such as Sejuani. Like it says, Cinderhulk will be huge with this item since Cinderhulk gives 25% more health.

Jungle Items

Bami's Cinder

RIP Juggernaut. Hello Cinderhulk. 1K gold item that helps clears for tank junglers? Boy, am I down!

Overall, the passive on it is pretty neat. Lets assume you can purchase it around level 6. 5 + 6. 11 magic damage to nearby enemies. 16.5~ damage to minions and monsters. Should help tanks with clears. 

Cinderhulk 

This item is going to be pretty solid and, mixed in with the Gromp buff with potentially a Thornmail, will make tank junglers monstrous. This item also reimplements the 25% bonus health from the end of S4 Ancient Golem but REMOVES the TENACITY. That's a huge change and no longer having the Tenacity will definitely hurt tanks, I feel. Though this time, we do have the tenacity potion to help us out so it's not as bad.

This item's going to be crazy though and I can't wait to try it out.

Game changes 

InhibNexus Turrets

Most people were scratching their heads at this change but I'd like to clarify what this means. Basically, the game snowballs a little less hard when one team gets a lead where they get a pick off dragon and then proceed to take a ton of turrets. 125 less gold on Inhibitor turrets and 100 less gold on Nexus turrets. Meaning,  125 x 5 less gold and 100 x 5 less gold. Plus no global team experience.  

Overall, anti-snowball mechanic and I'm not down with it since games already last WAAY too long as it is.

Tier 2 Turrets

I'm glad that the shield mechanic is being removed, at least on the mid lane tier 2. The shield health being reduced is also pretty solid since that was a tedious mechanic. The turret health increasing is okay, I feel, since I'd imagine the turrets would be a little bit too weak without the shield. Plus, it's also a little bit stronger meaning that the split push strategy for the inner 2 turrets won't be AS effective.

Minions

While this post is pretty huge, to sum this up, minions are stronger. Watch out for that

Jungle Camps

This is a buff to all junglers. All camps do less damage and then the wolf camp gives more gold. I'm pretty excited and you should be too!

Gromp Buff

So the Gromp Buff is the only combat smite other than the red and blue buff. To math this out :

Pre 5.5. Level 18. 4 + (8 x 18). 148 dmg.

Post 5.5. 4K health. 10 + 400. 440 dmg.

Tank buffs, woahhh.

Thanks for reading guys!

Match Analysis (Game 2 of Diamond V Series)

Match :

Champion : Rek'Sai
Role : Jungle
Build Order :

Runes & Masteries :

Video Notes :

Advanced Match Details :

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/1733045364/45281188?tab=overview

Match Analysis (Game 1 of Diamond V Series)

So I decided to do this in video format instead of writing out a super long analysis. If you guys would prefer it in video format in the future, let me know!

Match 1 :

Champion : Jarvan IV
Role : Jungle
Build Order :

Runes & Masteries :

Video :

Full advanced match details :

http://matchhistory.na.leagueoflegends.com/en/#match-details/NA1/1732994202/45281188?tab=overview