"If It Looks Stupid, But Works, It Wasn't Stupid."

JustaNewb··39 votes·14,002 views

Some of you may not remember, but AP Shaco was seen as almost (almost) one of the most 'Trollish' ways to build the champion. Incidentally more and more realized it worked, until even RIOT simply made him a melee mage. The Meta changes all the time, and normally starts with some 'idiot, noob, bronze' player that realizes a new way to abuse a mechanic.

The point here is if a teammate starts building something, just let them build it. Feel free to condemn them if it fails. (I said condemn, not flame.) Report them if it makes you feel better. What ever you do, the following is being done to the point that I no longer blame some players for simply walking away from their keyboards:

  • Spam Pinging their items for the entire game. They should not go without teamwork just because you're an ass.
  • Intentionally trying to get them killed. Enough carrying Zilean bombs to them, Headbutting enemies at them, or other such childish crap that should get you banned immediately.
  • Melting down into a foam mouthed rage fit in chat. They will likely just ignore you, report you, and for good reason.
  • All around douchebaggery.

Enough with that crap. I know your mommy told you that you are special, and you can say and do what you wish, but this is the real world. Tired of seeing Ban Appeals because you are a jackass.

71 Comments

Cynikul31 votes

While I agree with just about everything said, especially

Spam Pinging their items for the entire game. They should not go without teamwork just because you're an ass. Intentionally trying to get them killed. Enough carrying Zilean bombs to them, Headbutting enemies at them, or other such childish crap that should get you banned immediately. Melting down into a foam mouthed rage fit in chat. They will likely just ignore you, report you, and for good reason. All around douchebaggery.

Under the pretense of ranked OR normal, I really don't want people playing their "experimental" builds in my ranked games WITH the exception of its tried and true (they have some games to back it up with). Super not opposed to it, shit I run AP Nunu predator jungle, but I tried it in normals first because I'm not going to expose someone to that shit unless I know it works. I expect the same level of respect back.

JustaNewb4 votes

Not sure why someone downvoted you. Have an upvote for balance.

Cynikul3 votes

{quoted}

Not sure why someone downvoted you. Have an upvote for balance.

Thanks friend [slayer-jinx-catface]

Terozu5 votes

I play Kat bot into low cc comps when we have no Ap (ad everywhere else, you need ap).

Just never into a Zyra or Leona. That shit is terrifying. O.o

50000000000000002 votes

As a replacement for ADC? Why Katarina? For the passive resets? I feel like a ranged mage would have a better time in lane, with waveclear and/or duo lane synergy. Ziggs (with tower pushing), Brand (with bouncing ult), or maybe even Swain (with the passive pull on support's CC) could work well.

But then, if you had successes before, please share some tips! I'm always down to try an unconventional picks, especially for bot lane.

Terozu2 votes

The reason is due to Katarina's nature as a champion. As an assassin battle mage hybrid, she provides massive sustained aoe damage.
In addition since she is designed to chain kills together she is able to easily snowball off two squishy laners. If one die they basically both do. And her lack of mana os a huge boost to the lane's sustain.

Of course the main reason I do it is because at level 9 when I first bought her, I played her in intermediate bots, solo bot lane. So my playstyle with her is adapted bottom lane, although the choreography on her passive did hurt her quite a bit.

Its actually a great lane, her best partners are Akali, Nautilus and Soraka. But like I said Leonas and (good)Zyras fuck you up the ass.

50000000000000001 votes

I love and will defend off meta players and picks, but they should be played in normals first. Please try to avoid first timing or experimenting in ranked games.

Shahamut18 votes

People do that even when you don't troll...

I had someone flaming me as Yasuo... not for playing him, but because I rushed phantom dancer... like, what???

People need to just quit being jerks in general.

Recon12128 votes

LMAO, i love that. I got flamed for not building boots on Cass once. You got to love the ignorant ones

Q zzy6 votes

wtf. no boots on cassiopea. Basically inting at that point

50000000000000004 votes

Her passive allows you to run it down faster too!

SH Azykan13 votes

Ezreal blue build was pioneered by a gold player is the most famous example I can think of.

JustaNewb11 votes

In Season 1 it was argued that Singed was honestly not very viable for tournament play... and then there was Laugh Spamming Dyrus.

PB4UAME3 votes

Dude there was even the Strength of Spirit Singed rune, RoA and a few other tricks that when used together actually warranted targeted nerfs because of how broken they really were back then. I was a TT player back then, but absolutely loved Singed, Kassadin, and Ryze, the OG manastackers, and well, they simply had it too good back then, but no one took the time to figure out how to get the most out of them coughRstackingManadincough until someone else popularized a previous "troll" build.

Another example, though a tad off topic, was the tactic of starting all wards against bots while taking rally and fortify. Fortify would passively give AD, and rally helped you take towers faster by AoE buffing AD and attack speed, additionally, wards were prioritized over champions by tower so you could keep dropping them to tank tower aggro and essentially free push down the nexus for safe and easy ip/exp farming in under 5 minutes. Sounded totally troll, and might look like an int feeder from the start, but then it ends up being the most efficient strategy. ^This strategy would work against players as well, by the way, but they would react and respond well before you got to the nexus. In essence you could have as little as 2-3 champs start like this and cheese down a single tower with only one person taking rally, but it wasn't really worth the starting gold you'd give up on 2-3 people just for a single tower.

Thegreatxiu7 votes

My favorite thing is that I go AP Ezreal mid, people ask in pregame lobby if I'm going AP or AD and I tell them I'm going AP, but still once we're in game and I have AP items people get upset and spam ping my items.

Automated Riven3 votes

Wait... I'm not the only ap ezreal player?? Holy fuck man.

Thegreatxiu1 votes

We're a rare breed indeed.

ChaosThief1 votes

You are not alone...

Automated Riven1 votes

Dude I haven't seen ap ezreal except when I was playing him since runeglaive. (baring Aram)

ChaosThief1 votes

I have played a lot of OFA matches, and I have gotten Ezreal around 4-5 times. I would always go AP myself, but usually there was 1-2 other Ezreals who would also go AP. Usually.

A lot of people are sheep, but there are some that still remember AP ezreal, fear not.

Thee Pie Man1 votes

I don't even see the problem with going Ezreal in AD or AP, it's literally situational or hybrid works too. I enjoy all the playstyles those kind of flexible champions offer and love seeing people pulling off either.

Ionian Vulpix4 votes

Sure, but if that 0/6 Riven is still building a lethality item while the enemy has 3 full items, you bet MF's ass I'll flame.

Terozu3 votes

But dont. Just ignore it, you lpst one game because it didnt work out. Dont be an ass. Its a game.

It Hertz When IP4 votes

Commenter: "If I get upset I'LL BREAK THE RULES!"

3 Boards Members: upvote

...this is what's wrong with the community in a nutshell.

Itz Rewind Time4 votes

The first game I did it, people ridiculed my full AP Kai'Sa mid openly in all chat, from both teams. I've won hard both times I've used it, and carried the first one.

JustaNewb1 votes

I run her funny...

item 3158 item 3285 item 3146 item 3124 - Core

item 3031 item 3087 - If we need more AD item 3100 item 3087 - My preference

Then again I also run her Dark Harvest Keystone with a secondary of Crystallis and Overgrowth.

3TWarrior2 votes

just as a comment, static shiv adds magic damage and attack speed along with crit

not sure what would benefit the build though for AD

SociopathFriend4 votes

The point here is if a teammate starts building something, just let them build it. Feel free to condemn them if it fails. (I said condemn, not flame.) Report them if it makes you feel better. What ever you do, the following is being done to the point that I no longer blame some players for simply walking away from their keyboards

What? No- don't REPORT people because they aren't playing the way you would- especially not Normals. Just because they aren't robotically only doing the "meta" thing to win doesn't mean they're still not trying to win. Reporting for that reason is open to all sorts of stupidity- I'd wager a good chunk of the fanbase now doesn't remember Nautilus or Malphite used to be good Junglers and would think it troll if you did it.

YumaS2Astral3 votes

I honestly miss AP Shaco. It was a fun build I used to play in ARAM, URF, and other game modes. But with his E dealing physical damage instead of magic damage, it is difficult to play and justify playing AP Shaco.

JustaNewb3 votes

Yeah... not sure what they were thinking there. They had the chance to change it when they gave his Q an AP ratio.

Thee Pie Man2 votes

I usually play it in rotationals and ARAM. Still works pretty well in my opinion, just gotta bait people into boxes with low HP, people get mindless when they think you're 1-2 hits away. It's pretty satisfying bait.

brônco3 votes

Actually, you couldn't be more wrong, you can't make a blanket statement like "if it worked it wasn't dumb."

I have built garen jungle with 100% AD and Crit and dark harvest rune and got like 25 kills, it doesn't mean it isn't dumb because I stomped 1 game, and ap shaco's E ratio used to be so fucking high I don't believe anybody thought it was a troll build when you could chunk anyone on their team safely,

stop being anecdotal in your arguments it weakens them

JustaNewb6 votes

Except using examples actually helps an arguement. The concept of "dumb" has risen to a point in this community lately that it means that even if it is highly successful... it is still dumb. Like your anecdote.

Stupafly1 votes

LOL what does that even mean.

How can you try to explain the concept of the word dumb by using the word dumb. mind blown

Terozu2 votes

He didnt.

JustaNewb5 votes

Especially when you consider that Dumb actually means unable to talk, or mute.

Oleandervine2 votes

If it looks stupid, but works, you got LUCKY.

AP Shaco was a very niche, off meta build for him that was little more than a gimmick. Riot just added in ways for that to evolve into more than a gimmick, but that still doesn't mean that people who originally ran it years ago weren't lucky it worked.

JustaNewb8 votes

There is a distinct difference in "they were lucky," and "their play style worked with the build."

If we are all to be robots, never building outside of the Meta, RIOT may as well take away the store and just give items via time table+kills+assists.

Oleandervine2 votes

Their play style only worked because of luck. They were lucky because other players built ARMOR and not MAGIC RESIST against a traditionally AD assassin, and that's why AP Shaco was able to be effective. No one, not even today, builds heavy MR against Shaco. When Riot saw that AP Shaco was becoming popular because it's effective against people who aren't trained to build MR against Shaco, they began adding in more avenues for AP to be relevant in his kit. So it was definitely 100% luck that people didn't start building MR against AP Shaco when it was first a thing.

JustaNewb7 votes

This post REALLY isn't about Shaco. You do know that, right? Also you have to build both against Shaco. (Armor and MR). All of his skills scale on AP, but half do physical, half do magical. Just saying.

Oleandervine1 votes

Yes, I get that this post isn't about Shaco. But I was explaining why AP Shaco only became a thing because it was based on luck. Going AP Shaco back when it wasn't a completely meta or viable build for him was still considered kind of stupid.

Same goes for off meta stuff tried today. It can still be stupid, even if it works, because in 90% of the cases, you got lucky because it worked. I've done Caitlyn and Jinx support before and won. They worked in those games. Does that make them any less stupid? No, I went in knowing what I was doing was dumb and for fun. I just got lucky that the opponents were thrown so off guard by it that I was able to take the advantage.

JustaNewb7 votes

That's generally what happens, however, in a game with such a linear minded community. I rush a revolver on MF, primarily because they assume I am trolling as AP... until I finally shoot THEM and they realize it stacks with her passive, and the Slow and Healing from gunblade is simply nice... and it amps her ultimate.

Point is it works for me. I like playing my ADCs for opening burst so hard they instinctively try to run - followed by massive sustain to ignore their team as I focus them down.

It Hertz When IP1 votes

{quoted}

I like playing my ADCs for opening burst so hard they instinctively try to run - followed by massive sustain to ignore their team as I focus them down.

I think that's just ADCs in general.

MEI 4 HONGKONG2 votes

I am so glad you posted this!

I mainly play ARAM (which I feel is a Kamikaze version of Hyper SR Lte) and often get team mates that main SR. Just 2 days ago I got the question, "How the h*ll does an AP item help Xayah?!?" (I built Rylai's). Well, not at all...except for CC from its slow. We had 2 ADC's and were heading into a loss mid-game. I figured 2 tanks, 2 ADCs and Vieg...f-it, I'm going "supp" ADC. I already had 2 damage/crit items and AS so why not capitalize on setting up kills. Totally worked. Enemy team was confused, didn't know how they were being slowed from so far away and we won :)

Been playing League (like I said, mainly ARAM) since 2012 and three years into it I decided, "This is Aram, there is no meta. Do what it takes to win." Don't get me wrong, I personally would NVR go into SR with that belief unless (like others have stated) I fully tested the build in a normal first and no, it doesn't work out 100% of the time (correct runes are key) but boy does it feel good when you pull it off. [slayer-jinx-wink]

TotalJerk2 votes

AP Shaco was actually bad until the Assassin update, though. Pink Ward was hardstuck plat until Riot actually made it viable.

Automated Riven1 votes

Could be that pink ward actually plays at a play level.

Lolman9782 votes

Once I got flamed for building Doran's Ring on Zoe...

Saianna2 votes

I once, very long time ago, saw rammus building 'GottaGoFast Rammus". It felt amazing untill everyone in our team saw Rammus score plummeting with his each rush from base. He threw the game for all of us for lolz.

On the other hand whenever random teammates in ARAM were bunch of aholes, I went with "i dont give a fuck anymore" builds. AD swain? Sure. Tank Zed? Sure. Tank Sivir? Why not. Attack speed Garen? Actually, no, that one Ihaven't tried.

You know what? Even with those wtf builds I still did better than my team and actually carried... I was so disspointed, trying to be useless, yet winning the game to the assholes in my team...

5050BS2 votes

I get pinged for building item 3100 on Swain but win lane almost every time.

FutureCreator2 votes

I remember the rage induced ramblings of an ADC every time I picked Kennen support with item 3310 item 3116 . Really miss that speed buff nowadays :(

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