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PSA About Counter Building

Neko Siren·12/18/2019, 9:59:20 PM·37 votes·12,780 views

(Got a forum ban and my post removed for talking about counter building, also deleted the old one due to the spam bot downvoting last week.)

So here goes again. A PSA for newer and up and coming players trying to climb. The concept of counter building is super important. It's what allows you to circumvent or otherwise get around your enemy's strengths through items. Examples include, but are not limited to;

Katarina Teemo Cassiopeia HeimerdingerSwain >>> item 3194 item 3155 item 3102 item 3111 Damage over time and abilities that have multiple hits of magic damage will ne cut by 20% with Helm, most burst magic damage will be mitigated by Hexdrinker allowing you to live, Banshee's will hopefully avoid those pesky set up cc's from Gunblade and other things.

Aatrox DrMundo Volibear Olaf RenektonWarwick Vladimir >>>item 3123 item 3076 item 3165 Anyone with Lifesteal, Regen, or Spellvamp like the above will be heavily hampered in their ability to duel thanks to Grievous Wounds. The first two items especially are incredibly gold efficient and can be sat on for most of the game before they need upgrading.

DrMundo Zac Chogath Garen >>> item 3153 item 3151 item 3035 item 3135 Big thicc bois that stack HP or a certain resistance (Armor/Magic Resist) need a counter measure. Get around their defenses with the above items.

Akali Zed Talon Velkoz Kayn Rengar >>>item 2419 item 3155 item 3053 item 3190 item 3026 Best counter to instant damage provided by mages and assassins is a shield or cheese mechanic of some kind. Their full combos are fast but not uncounterable. Survive the initial combo, and turn on them while they wait for their cool downs.

Yasuo Draven Tryndamere Caitlyn Jinx >>>item 3143 item 3110 item 3047 item 2419 item 3076 item 3026 With champions that rely on attack speed, critical hits, or both in the case of many top adc's, running Omen or Frozen cuts their damage per second by a percentage. Tabi is also a flat 10% reduction to auto attacks, which is not at all insignificant as the game scales.

Amumu Mordekaiser Ahri Annie Galio ElisePantheon >>> item 3814 item 3102 item 3140 item 3111item 3222 Hard cc setups can really screw you over. These items will break most hard cc allowing you to move freely and avoid an otherwise guaranteed death.

There are of course countless situations within game that require difference approaches, but these are some of the more common ones I see people rage and get frustrated at having to fight when there is always an item that could improve their situation and maybe turn the tide in their favor. Thank you and have a good day.

67 Comments

The thigh guy12/18/2019, 10:13:41 PM18 votes

Funny. I also got banned for daring to talk about defensive itemization.

Was it by “the iceborne” guy for you as well?

Elite4Runner12/18/2019, 10:16:22 PM9 votes

What? ... I don't see any reason you would get banned for talking this..

Was a reason given?

xDogMeatx12/18/2019, 10:26:40 PM9 votes

banned for giving advice ouch...

5050BS12/18/2019, 11:29:52 PM5 votes

This is a great post.

This last season I have been looking at Def items and building one to counter the enemy.

I didnt know that item 3143 and item 3110 even tho both have Cold Steel the passive is different.

Heart is an Aura that does not need them to have hit you. It affects a large area so have been building it when the enemy has 2+ Auto attack champs and it really does hit them hard.

Mavëríck12/19/2019, 1:12:23 AM4 votes

Most lowbies simply cannot comrehend that items can help counter a champion. They all think that they have to build into the main stats of the champ THEY are playing without regard for how their enemy is playing or building.

Sand Ähläm12/19/2019, 1:39:27 AM4 votes

For real though, so many people disregard defensive items. item 3140 for example is so underrated. It is such a good item but almost no one builds it. Edit: I hope mods don't ban this again D:

Arammus12/19/2019, 5:46:23 AM2 votes

let me just add that grievous wounds may seem good vs vlad, but in reality they are not. never go for item 3123 . let your mages get morellos. this item is a waste of gold. a 3-4 item vlad will still heal for like 1.5k with his empowered q even if he has grievous wounds. the same goes for a mundo ult. the rest is fine

but then again lets say youre an adc and they got 2 assassins (a kha jungle, a zed mid and maybe even an irelia top) youre supposed to be a glass canon. getting that ga wont save you. or not for much longer, you will still be fucked instantly. AND on the other side you crit build will take longer to be completed.

"counter building" only works for a handful of champs vs a handful of champs.

FSRER12/19/2019, 7:37:06 AM2 votes

Very good guide but even here a major problem of the game is shown, that most of those champions that you can indeed can somewhat easily counter build, will not give you the time to counterbuild them. Is it Mordekaiser who you can not approach even when you want to farm because he will chunk your health bar with 20 ap? Is it Draven who will also chunk your health bar not caring about armor due to his stupidly high Q damage? is it Katarina who will just engage you and disengage you at will but while also being semi impossible (vs a katarina who knows what she is doing) and you having to rely on her mis-plays to kill her? TLDR, many champions can punish you for trying to counterbuild but at the same time outscaling you which is a huge problem of the game and has been around for seasons

Illabethe12/19/2019, 10:30:33 AM1 votes

Just a comment: item 3153 Isn't NEARLY as effective versus the champions you're saying it is All of the above have persistent ways to regain HP, so its current HP damage will keep resetting and unless you have other items bolstering it, Botrk becomes pretty ineffective. You need grievous wounds and probably more stat damage involved for it to be effective vs those champs.

You'll end game with high damage, but it'll all be meaningless damage.