[Open Advice Page] Need Help Deciding on Which Champion to Get? Meet Your Next Champion Today!

MrBuffington·Jul 23, 2014·3 votes·585 views

Hey guys,

So I've been seeing a lot of "I've saved X IP, what champion should I get?" threads pop up (I'm guilty of making some of these myself), I was thinking it might be helpful if we could get a large thread where people could post champions they're considering, what their current champion pool looks like, preferred roles/types of champions, and maybe their 'budget', and get advice on what champions to try out and pick up.

My general advice is to try out champions during free week and get the ones you like, feel most comfortable on or would dedicate time to learning, etc. but I also need help deciding between picks. If you think this is a good idea, go ahead and post some of the picks you're considering and why in the comments, and hopefully myself or someone a lot better at this game than I am can give you some guidance.

Cheers!

16 Comments

ZarkkastJul 23, 20141 votes

As someone who has all the champions, I say go with the one you like more (personality and style), I've always been the one to lean for mages and I highly recommend everyone to try out Syndra.

MrBuffingtonJul 23, 20141 votes

I really like Syndra, my concern now is creating a champion pool in each lane so I can at least fill and enjoy doing so when I need to. For example, I'm pretty bad at jungle and top lane, but I really liked the last game I played as Rengar. I mostly play support (and ADC), and my support champion pool is pretty decent, but my ADC champion pool is pretty limited (two champs I play comfortably, one that I'm okay with but isn't exactly strong right now)

MrBuffingtonJul 23, 20141 votes

So I wanted to keep OP as short as possible, but I would actually like some advice (lol). Right now I'm caught between getting champion for a role I play a lot (ADC, Support, sometimes Mid) or one that I play very little of (Top, Jungle). I have a pretty decent Support pool, but the other roles have very few champions I'm comfortable on (1-2 usually). Anyways, here are my current pool of comfortable champs in each role, and the top few champions I'm looking at for each role:

#Top/Jungle:

Current Pool: Top - , maybe Jungle - , maybe

Rengar : Can be played top or jungle, and is also a lot of fun (esp in jungle). : Not a jungler, but super strong top lane, has everything I like in a champion (mobility, hard CC, etc.) but for some reason never loved playing him in the past (perhaps because I wasn't smartcasting his Slice and Dice). Pantheon : Similar to Renekton, uses mana though but can be played in the jungle. Also didn't love playing him for some reason.

#Mid

Current Pool: , maybe . Used to have a larger pool, but it's been hit pretty hard lately

Ahri : Fun to play, though I sort of want to wait since she'll get a price drop with the release of the champion after next. Syndra : Fun to play as well, but hard to master Xerath : Flavor of the month pick, his kit is pretty cool too Ziggs : Hopefully they stop nerfing him soon Galio : ChickenWrap's guide was inspiring

#ADC:

Current Pool: , sometimes , maybe or if I'm out of options

Ezreal : Fun to play, concerned he's a bit weaker right now. KogMaw : Pretty fun to play, can also be a good AP Mid, but the short range when W is down kind of hurts. Twitch : Pretty fun to play also, I think he's getting minor buffs next patch (they hit him pretty hard last time) Lucian : Obligatory. Honestly don't care to play him too much, but he's silly powerful (probably will still be after they nerf him), the high mobility with no mana cost is ~~broken~~ really cool (is Triforce build still good on him?)

#Support:

Current Pool: , maybe

Leona : Just to round out the tanky support list Nami : Really great support, but I hate how squishy she is

Honestly I think I'm okay as far as Supports go, and I'm leaning more towards Rengar Ezreal KogMaw for now. any suggestions would be great! Thanks!

cshakesJul 23, 20142 votes

1st suggestion: get more comfortable with your maybies! Actual champion suggestions: I like Shyvana top lane, and she jungles in a pinch. If you don't mind getting hit with nerfs, I've heard good things about Irelia (if you're a mechanics guru, get her). For ADCs, if you like right-clicking, try Caitlyn. If you like weaving autos and skills, try Varus.

My pool of champions: Leona, Shyvana, Varus, Lux, Janna, Karma. I play a lot of Support and ADC.

MrBuffingtonJul 23, 20141 votes

Thanks for the help! I'm working on a few of my maybies (namely Orianna), I guess I just feel like I have holes in my champion pool that I need to fill, also have a hard time with just picking champs because they're fun to crush bots as or because I think I could actually do well in Ranked (basically what I did with Yasuo/Riven. Not confident enough on them to take into Ranked). Kind of why I'm stuck between Rengar, Ezreal, and Kog'Maw; Rengar is super fun to play but I'm afraid of playing him in ranked/I don't play top/jungle that much anyways (and, like you said, I should work on my maybies. I have the three top tier junglers in my pool, I should be able to play one of them well); Ezreal is fun and sort of safer than Trist/Jinx, since he has a dash/lower cooldown on his dash. I guess Lucian would be the best for this role, but I'm just not a huge fan of playing him, I guess I'm a little hipster -_- .... Kog'Maw is fun, but a lot of the reason I'm considering him is because he can be played in mid too, so I can help out two pools with one champ pick.

I used to really like Irelia, now I just have a hard time balancing my mana pool with my desire to Q every single minion, mainly why I like top laners that need no resource (Malphite is more just a pick I practiced since he's pretty easy to play, he's really tanky with some items, and he has a really good initiate. I mostly just stall out games with him, not really going for kills or anything). I like Shyvana, I guess it's just that I have Malphite for passive lanes, and if I want an aggressive lane, Renekton is really great (Shyvana is kind of somewhere in the middle, I think). For some reason I'm fine with auto attacking when I'm playing Trist or Jinx, I just get bored of it on Caitlyn, not sure why (I think I just want to use her spells more, but she doesn't have the mana for it). Varus sort of suffers from the immobility that Jinx has, he's fun though. I don't know, I guess part of this is just me being indecisive or venting, lol. Thanks for your help!

cshakesJul 24, 20141 votes

If you're unsure of your Ranked abilities on a champion, I suggest playing enough normals to gain confidence vs real people and knowledge of lane match-ups. (The people in Normal Draft Pick are typically better than the ones in Normal Blind Pick, FYI.)

Another thing you could do is find some "tier lists" and see if anything catches your fancy. One can be found here. They aren't necessarily accurate, but can still be useful.

MrBuffingtonJul 24, 20141 votes

Thanks for your help!

BeowitzJul 24, 20141 votes

Well I've only played the three you're debating when they were on free week, and Koggles and Rengar both got some changes since I did play them last. I didn't have fun with Ezreal or Rengar (but rengar's changes make him look funner IMO).

If I were to suggest one of the three though. I'd probably say Rengar. He fills your two weaker roles and you noted him as being fun. I'd also guess he's a better flex pick than the other two and you have 2 characters in your main pool for ADC (vs 1 for the others). Plus you listed negatives about the other two, where as only talked positively about Rengar.

The downside being that you listed ADC like it were a second most common role. But if we're talking buying with RP here, Rengar is more relatively expensive IP wise, so it'd be easier to purchase the other two with IP [also, high five to a fellow voluntary support. from my limited experience we're more of a rarity XD.]

MrBuffingtonJul 24, 20141 votes

haha, the downside to Rengar is that he has a pretty high skill cap (managing ferocity, getting good positioning in bushes, etc), and I find him hard to play if you don't build him as a bruiser, instead of full assassin. Also I don't think he does much from behind, but that's true with ADCs too. It's not like I don't have bruiser carries I can play top and jungle (Riven and Wukong, for example), but I think you're right, I had fun with Rengar, I should probably learn to play him.

[high five], lol I've actually noticed more support players on the CB than I see in game, it's strange.

BeowitzJul 24, 20142 votes

My friends said that about him as well (hard to play if you don't build him as a bruiser).

They weren't on your list, so you might be either disinterested with them or something, but two people whom I've played as top's who are also junglers (from what I hear), and I've even played them as support (Cause I enjoy off beat supports from time to time.) are Zac and Rammus. From what I've seen neither are really popular, but the new Spirit of the Ancient Golem should be good for them in jungle.

Maybe it's something about the mindset of someone who enjoys the support role lol. I'm fairly new to the boards, and I don't get to play that often myself (my house internet wont even let me log in to the game T.T) not sure about any others though~.

MrBuffingtonJul 24, 20141 votes

both of them are good junglers, I don't think they're quite my style of jungler though, thanks for the suggestions though! I get the whole internet thing, sometimes when I want to play my ping is unplayable (like 14k lol). other days it's fine though :) Thanks again!

D4rK N0v4Jul 24, 20141 votes

hi everyone, so my main role is jungle, but i dont really know who to play and have fun with anymore. (i have eve, j4, mumu, kha, rengo and lee.) I've seen that elise was getting nerfed next patch so we can get her out of the way. I would also like to learn how to play mid lane, but i don't really know which champ is good in this lane anymore. If you guys have any suggestions on who to play mid/jungle that would be really appreciated :D

MrBuffingtonJul 24, 20141 votes

Long range mages with good wave clear seem to be popular in mid lane right now (ie. Xerath, Ziggs, Lux, etc)

For jungle, I think rengar and lee are some of the more fun champions to play. If you don't like them though, try pantheon maybe, or fiddlesticks/karthus if you're really looking for something different. I also like Wukong in the jungle. You can search for Nightblue3 games, he teaches how to play these champions

D4rK N0v4Jul 26, 20141 votes

as i said to beowitz, idk about ziggs, (i might just be too harsh about the nerves tho) xerath sounds cool, plus people are starting to play him in lcs so he must be good. I enjoy playing rengar in the jungle, but i dont feel confident enough to play him in ranked games and for lee im really bad with him so i just end up feeding with him... panth and fiddle sound cool, i'll probably try them out eventually. I already watch nightblue sometimes, but thank you for the info ;) thank you very much for helping me out :)

BeowitzJul 24, 20141 votes

I watched a Fiddlesticks jungle game fairly recently and that health sustain was awesome (need something for the mana though). Not sure how viable he is for mid-lane.

not an expert, but I'd say Ziggs should be a pretty good champ to start playing mid lane on. He has really good waveclear, decent poke (though that got nerfed recently I believe, not sure how effective it was). an escape/displacement (for your jungler). An ult to clear a wave at your turret (if you back) or to clear another lane, or to help out on a kill (though situationally random's could get mad at you for that) (it can also function as a check dragon and baron.)

D4rK N0v4Jul 26, 20141 votes

idk about ziggs, i know that he was pretty good in the past but if they keep nerfing him like that... i was maybe thinking about syndra, but she kinda looks hard to play. Fiddle sounds cool tho, I might buy him and try him out thanks a lot for the help :)