People need to learn how to use the keystone masteries correctly

YumaS2Astral··4 votes·3,741 views

I just have seen a Khazix guide posted here and the OP said that people were going 18/12/0 on him taking the Fervor of Battle keystone, when they should actually go 12/18/0 and take the Thunderlord's Decree keystone.

Then I started to think something that I realized those days. People are constantly using the wrong keystones, for champions. Look at this:

http://i.imgur.com/UqoIdd5.png

5 players on this battle are using Thunderlord's Decree. Of all them, only Kassadin and Riven should actually be using it. On Thresh, you are better off going 0/12/18 and taking Bond of Stone. On Shyvana, I don't even know why one would take any points from the Cunning tree on her. As for Brand, she is better off using Deathfire Touch.

I am constantly seeing this nowadays, it seems like people don't actually know on which champions each keystone should be used. Well, let me explain:

1) Warlord's Bloodlust: Take this if you are going to stack crit. ADCs benefit very well from this, and also champions like Tryndamere and Yasuo. Any champion that benefits from crits should take this.

2) Fervor of Battle: This mastery is more oriented for auto-attack focused duelists like Irelia, Jax, AD Fizz, Xin Zhao, etc. Because they are constantly auto-attacking, they can take the best advantage of this mastery, and they also like to have many on hit effects.

3) Deathfire Touch: Take this on DoT AP champions like Swain, Malzahar, Anivia, Brand, Karthus, and Rumble. Why DoT mages? Because they can constantly apply this keystone's damage, making it more useful. I also like to take it on Vlad despite him not exactly having a DoT because his low cooldowns allow me to constantly proc, his Q is neither single targeted nor a DoT (thus procing the higher damaging part of this keystone) and I like to go on the Resolve tree on Vlad.

4) Stormraider's Surge: This mastery is better used on assassins because they have the burst needed to 100-0 an enemy in a few seconds and they can use this to complement their mobility, allowing them to survive better. Examples include AP Fizz, and Talon. Generally their burst is already very high so they don't exactly need Thunderlord's Decree.

5) Thunderlord's Decree: Use this on assassins like Kha'Zix, or burst mages like Annie and Xerath. It will complement their burst and ensure that they can kill an enemy as fast as possible.

6) Windspeaker's Blessing: This keystone should obviously be used on supports, but not on any of them. For example, Blitzcrank would not take any advantage of this because he doesn't have any in-build healings and shields for his allies. The champions that should be using Windspeaker's Blessing are the squishier, more healing/shielding oriented supports like Soraka, Bard, Lulu, Sona, and Nami. Be wary that some of those supports can get Thunderlord's Decree instead to allow them to better poke their opponents during the lane phase.

7) Grasp of the Undying: This mastery should be taken on very tanky champions, preferably ones that auto-attack a lot, like Dr. Mundo, Nasus, Darius, Trundle, Shen, Volibear, Malphite, Tahm Kench, etc. They tend to stack a lot of health, and some of them have auto-attack resets that make this keystone very useful. In addition, many of them have natural sustain, and this keystone makes them even harder to outsustain. Even the ones that don't have sustain will find this very useful to sustain back the damage they take.

8) Strength of the Ages: From what I've heard, this mastery is actually a very poor choice on any champion and no one should be taking it. I don't really know if that this true, especially since it could be useful on tank junglers, as they want to stack as much health as possible, due to Cinderhulk.

9) Bond of Stone: Champions that take the best advantage of this are support tanks like Thresh, Leona, and Braum. Especially considering that they will be in a duo lane, and they want to be as tanky as possible, since as supports, they can't afford to get as much tankyness as an actual tank. A full tank jungler like Sejuani may also find this to be useful.

12 Comments

EcchiOtakuTM3 votes

Deathfire touch isn't for DoT, it's sustain damage from spells that's what you should say because anivia doesn't use DoT she's purely AoE. Also AD champs can use it like MF who's ulti racks it up quite nicely so again any sustain damage caster can use it.

Storm I do like on assassins but I still feel thunderlord is better the extra burst makes sure you secured a kill getting out is still helpful on talon but i still will always pref thunderlord over storm.

I hope they rework strength of the ages sometime I don't know to what but It's minor

I just hope you change deathfire touch's whom it's best on

Aside from that I hope storm is more valuable to me someday as for strength it needs a rework or buff

Ralanr2 votes

I cannot say how many times I've seen Illaoi with warlords. I...I just don't know how to respond. It's like people don't even think about their masteries anymore.

As for strength of the ages, I always put that on jungle Sion. Because why not?

EcchiOtakuTM1 votes

{quoted}

I cannot say how many times I've seen Illaoi with warlords. I...I just don't know how to respond. It's like people don't even think about their masteries anymore.

As for strength of the ages, I always put that on jungle Sion. Because why not?

Undying is better for sion as any tank however laning I might actually try str of ages while laning a few games but undying offers so much more it's not even funny

Also Funny i have a friend who always takes warlord on darius I keep telling him it's useless and to get undyingg or at least fervor but he simply refuses to listen. I'm not even being rude just saying it friendly once every day and he still get warlord with no crit.

Ralanr1 votes

When I lane with Sion I use Grasp (it's my favorite mastery keystone, but I don't use it the best).

Honestly I just don't remind people. People can build what they want, and none of my friends have an issue in their choices.

EcchiOtakuTM1 votes

I stopped reminding him recently i only did it for the first 3 days lol

Altho sadly to this day he still does warlord darius with 0 crit. I put up with it but

i cri men i cri evritim

Ralanr2 votes

Gotta let him learn for himself.

Dark Nephthys1 votes

Yea on Shyvana you always go Grasp of the Undying, it is so good on her. Though I could see Strength of the Ages for any tank junglers since more health is always good but even on them if that jungler uses auto attacks a lot then I'd still take Grasp.

EcchiOtakuTM2 votes

Actually shyvanna is better with fervor of battle since she stacks it up easily and her entire kit uses on-hit anyway

Dark Nephthys1 votes

Yea that's true, I guess it depends on how you plan on building her. If you're going full tank Shyvana then I'd probably still get Grasp, but if you are going a more offensive on-hit then Fervor would be better. I generally go Botrk into tank when I play. Though I do want to try out AP On-hit Shyvana with Fervor some time item 3115 item 3124 item 3146 item 3100 Eh a build like that would probably be terrible, but Rageblade would be strong on her lol.

EcchiOtakuTM1 votes

I probably wouldn't lich bane tho since shiv would be better off just doing nashoor, rageblade, hextech, shoes, devourer and something random like deadman depending on the situation

Penns1 votes

I mean, if you want you CAN take Thunderlords Decree on Brand. I also love going Thunderlords Decree with Thresh because it just lets you win any trade, probably better than the 8% damage reduction thing. Shyvana is the only questionable champ in that example imo.

Also I dont think you should take Stormraiders over Thunderlords on most.. or any assassin. Fizz either uses DFT for a stronger dot or Thunderlords because, like with Zed, it has increased damage with their ults. The only champ I can think of it being useful on is Talon, but even on him, you cant have enough damage, can you?

Duke Anax1 votes

Nice summary, but some Additions:

3)Deathfire Touch: This requires neither DoT, nor AP. It also works with AD abilitiy damage. And it's good on anyone that can hit their enemies with abbilities at least once every three seconds. (1,5 for AoE.) Ryze is a prime Example here.

4) Stormraiders Surge: I don't think this is very usefull for Assassins. They already have Mobility and Movespeed specifically is less usefull when you are in deep, because you gonna be hit with CC. This is more usefull for immobile burst Mages like Annie, because they are a bit removed from then fight and actually get a chance to run

5) Thunderlords Decree: As you said yourself in #6 it's not only for Burst, but also for three hit Poke Combos. In fact repeated Poke is actually a more effective use of this Keystone than occasional Burst.

6) Windspeaker's Blessing: This is not only for Supports, the increased healing also works on self healers like Aatrox or Mundo, even though they can't use the resist Buff. It's Nuts on Alistar, becasue he got the selfheal sustain and the potentially teamwide AoE Heal at low cooldown for potentionally constant Armor/MR buff.

  1. Strength of the Ages: It makes for a pretty good midgame on Junglers that scale on health when you combined it with Cinderhulk and Titanic Hydra. And it's the only Keystone that interacts with Minions and Monsters instead of Champions.

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