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Help broadening my champion pool, please?

PenIceland·2/19/2015, 2:14:11 PM·1 votes·891 views

Alright, so I'm currently unranked and I main Anivia (mid and support). I enjoy playing Jayce (top mostly), Karma (support mostly), Nidalee (jungle mostly) and Corki (marksman). I'm also a fan of LeBlanc and Elise. I know how to play Amumu and Sivir but don't find them fun. Cassiopeia (mid mostly) is okay although I liked her more before the "rework." I dislike melee champions and have no aptitude for them.

Knowing all this, I thought to myself I'd like, and have more success with, champions that have low cd ults, are ranged, and are casters. So I tried getting into Fiddlesticks, Karthus (jungle... not much ranged junglers to choose from and yes I know he's probably better off mid), Kog'Maw (marksman), Zyra (support mostly), Lux (mid mostly), Quinn (top mostly), Ezreal (marksman), Twisted Fate, Poppy (top and jungle), and Kayle (mid, top, and support). But I just can't seem to get into any of them or do as well with them as any of the other champions that I play (even after giving them 5 games or so).

What champion fits my playstyle and/or champion pool? I'm passive-aggressive and capitalize on mistakes.

Or have I just hit the point where there's not much more to choose from as far as my preferances go? Eventually, getting into ranked, I realize Corki will be picked/banned a lot... leaving me with no marksman. Same goes for Jayce and Nidalee. Elise isn't in a good spot right now, even though she's fun to play, and I doubt she will help me win as much as another jungler. I'm thinking of trying Swain (mostly for top rather than mid... in case Jayce isn't on the table)? And Graves since he's sort of a marksman caster? Also, why is there no ranged AD junglers? Or am I missing something? It doesn't feel good picking up extra AP when our team comp consists of an AP top, mid, and support to go along with our marksman Corki. And does AD top Nidalee still work? Like Trinity/Iceborn into BORK into full tank? Or is it AP Nidalee or go home now?

7 Comments

Castanean2/19/2015, 3:42:23 PM3 votes

Well, I can suggest a few. Not sure if you'll like them, but it's worth a shot, right?

For Mages, I'd suggest you try Velkoz, Ahri or TwistedFate. Vel'Koz is a pretty fun champ once you get used to abusing the area you can hit with his Q and when you learn how to land his E properly, bursting squishies becomes a joy! Ahri on the other hand is ver mobile and great for kiting, not to mention her charm, which is just sooooo good! Twisted Fate is also really fun, once you get the hang of Pick a Card. Not to mention how powerful his ultimate is for roaming You could also try Syndra, but she's a bit hard to play properly.

As for Marksmen, Ashe would be a solid choice because she's never ever banned, although she offers less damage and more utility. Don't underestimate her level 1 fighting power though, you'd be surprised at her level 1 burst compared to many other marksmen, Graves not included. Speaking of, Graves offers an utterly ridiculous amount of early damage, and yes, plays just like a short range burst caster. I'd highly recommend trying him, despite the fact that he's pretty much the strongest ADC right now and will be banned a lot because of it.

Oh yeah, and try Quinn while she's still free, she's pretty damn strong! Although, She does better as a fighter or bruiser than a marksman.

As for ranged junglers... Well, there are no meta ones, but hey, experiment! If you do it right, most champs should be able to jungle somehow. You just need to find some way they can actually contribute as a jungler. They should also be able to actually clear their jungle relatively safely. And if you like her, I'm pretty sure Quinn can make a pretty nasty jungler.

Serevas2/19/2015, 3:35:17 PM2 votes

It's a little difficult to pick for a passive-aggressive style, I recommend typically poking champions with an all in potential. You have Jayce, he's a great example of that.

I think I would also suggest Ezreal, both for ADC and Mid lane. Ezreal excels at poking the crap out of his lane opponents, can last hit with extreme ease under turret, and basically as a playstyle in mid is farm and take advantage of enemy mistakes until you have Tri, then you can start going aggressive, when you get Manamura, then you can go full offensive and punish everyone. He can be a bit more mechanically intensive, but if you main Anivia and perform well with her, I don't think it'll be much problem.

You could also play a Karthus mid lane, he's not super fun as he largely focuses on farming, but you can throw down his slow and Q the enemy into oblivion if they're out of place.

I'm going to also say that I don't recommend you jungling at all, with a passive aggressive style, a large function of jungling is trying to assert your dominance over the enemy jungler to push them into a passive mode. This requires a very dominant aggressive style of play in most cases. Your way can work, but I think you'll end up getting abused more than anything.

Top lane I'll throw out Nasus, Renekton, Ryze, Maokai. Nasus is a naturally passive top lane where all you really want to do is farm initially, it's really easy to flip the man mode switch and go all in to really punish your opponent due to the stacking damage on Q. He get good tank stats so he can easily take the punishment, and through his passive and increasing damage on Q, can start to heal back the damage he takes really easily.

Renekton is one who thrives in a super aggressive playstyle, but can be played passively with a fair amount of success, if you're willing to harass with the occasional Q or double E combo(careful with the double E as it's also you're only escape.), he can also turn a gank into a double kill just by pressing R and going aggressive.

Maokai is a champion that can poke, and sustain extremely well in top lane, easy farming, and becomes just about unkillable. You can also laugh when someone goes aggressive on you, and snare them into your minions, or under tower, turning their aggression into a free kill, and you don't really have to try too hard to do it either.

Ryze being a bit mechanically intensive and requiring very specific rune and mastery setups to be really strong, is really good at punishing mistakes, because if he catches you, he'll likely all in and at minimum take off 1/2 of your hp with his spammy combo, which is typically up within seconds afterwards due to his passive.

For support I like the Thresh that was mentioned by another poster my only issue with Thresh is that he requires your ADC to follow up. So in his place, or even in addition to Thresh, I'd suggest Blitzcrank as he can do a lot of the work on his own, his pull brings him all the way to you, he gets a knockup, and an AoE silence. It's just easier to secure kills when the enemy is further out of place from your hook because you can never depend on your ADC to really follow up.

I also like your Zyra pick, I personally enjoy Karma as well, because she has tremendous poke power like Zyra, a lockdown, as well as a shield with speed boost. These get amplified, through her ultimate, and can be big time poke with a slow, a slow that eventually snares and heals her, or an AoE shield and speed boost.

Furthermore if you like mid lane a lot, you could work on trying Orianna she's difficult to learn well, but can be strong in your type of playstyle. The only thing that I suggest is that for mid lane you may want to start learning a little more aggressive of a playstyle due to the current meta. As an aggressive mid laner I'll abuse passive mid laners pretty badly.

DeloricVI2/20/2015, 1:39:28 AM2 votes

A lot of people here just have great suggestions, but you must consider that a lot of melee champions have their merits. While ranged champs definitely have their advantages, some melee champs have great gap closers and you may just find one yet. I started out playing champions like Teemo because I liked the ranged advantage, but then I started playing Sion (the rework, not the old build) and ended up finding one of my favorite champions.

Even the ones you mentioned trying have amazing utility. As long as you don't get caught by a ward, you can get easy ganks as Amumu with Bandage toss and Curse of the Sad Mummy if they look like they're going to get away. As much as I hate Master Yi, his Alpha Strike often puts you right in an enemy's face and his ult can chase all kinds of champs down. I'm just saying that you probably don't need to say %100 that you don't want melee champions.

As far as junglers go, unless you abuse runaan's hurricane (and even if you do) not many ranged junglers exist. Well, any champion can actually jungle if you're skilled with them, but the more optimal ones are usually melee range. If you have the IP kicking around, Sion is fairly cheap, and has surprising range with his cc, and proves to be a pretty safe jungle pick. His clear is usually sub 30 seconds, and his abilities have deceptive range, his Roar of the Slayer being his one-hit-wonder skill that sets your others up for successful ganks. His ult is also on a very short cooldown, but is a skill shot. Like, it can be harder to land than draven's or ashe's, but if you find someone that runs away from you in a straight line... well, you're going to ruin their day.

Although, since Yi is cheaper, I'd try him first. You seem like you would prefer assassin junglers rather than cc/tank based junglers. Assassins are very dangerous in soloqueue, because a lot of people don't take precautions against them. Another pick that I really hate, but you might like, is Shaco; most of the time with his stealth you get in range before they even know you're there. Put down your boxes in the right place and use your ranged ability, and you've got quite the tricky assassin, although remember that shaco has a very high skill curve.

As for top laners, people go ranged top all the time. It's a big problem for most tops. Vayne is especially dangerous, with her true damage and other tank-killing abilities. Teemo is annoying as sin, but he works because he can poke until you can't take it anymore. Ryze is said by many members of the community to have no counter in the top lane that they know of, so he might be worth the rather minuscule ip required to buy him. You can find top lane builds for most ranged champions, but just be slightly wary. You may want to do some testing before trying some guildes, but offbeat champions like lulu show up in top lane sometimes, and can be a little dangerous. You may also want to give Kennen a look; most underestimate how quickly he can stun until they've already died a few times, and he's ranged, runs on energy (which comes back very quickly) and his cooldowns are.... pretty nice? I think? I haven't played him, but I Can recommend him from what I heard from your likes and what he does.

Hoi Im Temmo2/19/2015, 2:56:48 PM1 votes

Most of the following suggestions are based on your passive aggressive comment. I am 'trying' to namemostly ranged casters

Top: Teemo, Lissandra Mid: Viegar, Morde, Lux, annie(?) Jung: Yi, Udyr, Trynd , Warwick (These are just bread and butter junglers that anyone can play) Sejuani, and you already said nidalee

These last two are the most consistent and standard answers.

Supp: Leona, Thresh, Braum, Sona ADC: Graves, Lucian, Vayne, Cait

Butterwood2/19/2015, 2:32:22 PM1 votes

Swain

Nova Skye2/19/2015, 4:04:02 PM1 votes

Best passive aggressive ADC in my opinion is Cait. Humongous range can keep you safe from ganks (plus a push back if you do get too close - or need to get just a little closer). Play from WAY back and then cream them when you make them dive to get to you. She's a lot of fun but her AS is very slow. Her ult starts on around 1 min 20, and you can build her to melt tanks by adding Black Clever to your basic ADC build (which should always include Last Whisperer on top of either Stattik or Phantom Dancer on top of Infinity Edge).

Gunpoint2/20/2015, 2:07:07 AM1 votes

LeeSin Nidalee Zed Kalista Ahri These are the only champions Riot allows you to play. All jokes aside I personally like Gnar.