Eventually I'm going to not be posting about League of Legends on here, maybe. It's just hard to not blog about something that takes up the majority of your life. Last night I was over at Stanley's house watching them play, since I do not own a laptop (refer to my post about Juarez) I can't play much outside of my own house. Well The Nickbots, it's the group of us who play LoL that I personally know... inspired by the truly OP Nickbot himself, were playing against a team that decided to stack Sunfire Capes. For those unawares, Sunfire Capes give a lot of life, armor and give an aura that deals 40 damage a second to anyone in the area, and since the other team had roughly 5 a person the output was high. At this point The Nickbots were 11 kills to their 60 some-odd and were down quite a few towers, Nickbot who wasn't playing and I told Stanley to buy Force of Natures and Madred's Bloodrazer. Force of Nature gives a great amount of magic resist and Bloodrazer makes your attacks do 4% of your enemies health per hit. Once all of the Nickbots purchased a Bloodrazer the enemies were dying almost instantly, so they had to re-itemize, which put them behind in gold. After an intense 80 minute game the Nickbots turned the game around and won. This is tale is told so that you will never click yes on the surrender box.
As for my own games I did pretty well today. Everyone else in my last game was level 30 (it's the summoner level cap, I'm at level 30 too) and had more wins than me, from 30 more to 300+ more. I ended up having the most kills, least deaths, tied for the most assists, most tower kills and most minions killed. I love that frozen bird.
Showing posts with label Anivia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anivia. Show all posts
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Anivia the Cryophoenix pt 3
So... part three, gameplay. I downloaded FRAPS to try to get some footage, but the version I have only lets me download in 30 second intervals and I haven't gotten any good footage. It would be a lot easier to show you what I mean if I could actually show you examples. I can, however, show you exactly how to not use the wall. It's not my video, but it perfectly examples bad walls.
Laning Phase: Mids
So with Anivia you are likely to be in mids due to your egg which will let you take more abuse than most heroes while staying in lane and the amount of harass you can put out. If you are mids just try to last hit minions and once you get your Frostbite start harassing your opponent. Throw a Flash Frost at them, preferably through minions to get some gold, and stun them. If they didn't avoid getting stunned try to close the distance, starting when you threw the Flash Frost guarantees that you get there, and hit them with Frostbite. If you do this two or three times you almost ensure that they have to leave the lane or die. Once you hit level 6 and pick up your ultimate you can harass that much better because you have two skills that make your nuke do double damage. Throw a Flash Frost -> Frostbite if you can and then a Glacial Storm -> Frostbite. If they dodge Flash Frost, let them come back to the minions throw down Glacial Storm where you get them in the area, preferably where you can continuously hit them when they retreat, and fly in for a Frostbite.
Side Lane
The side lanes you play almost the exact same as you would in mids, except you get wall earlier so you can check the bushes if your opponents are hiding in them. The other things to keep in mind while side laning are using all of your skills to try to save your ally if he gets focus fired and focus on one champion (squishier ones are usually higher priority because they are easier to kill and can output a lot of damage or can heal their teammate.
Ganking Phase
Between level 6 and 10 is typically where the ganking phase begins. If you're mids and you've either gotten the kill or pushed your opponent out of lane you pick either tops or bottoms to go to in the attempt to aid getting kills in that lane. If you can do this as close to level 6 from the mids as possible the better. You want to make it so you have your ultimate and they don't. The phase goes into full swing around level 10 or later when you can take down a tower and roam from lane to lane getting kills and pushing the tower. As Anivia your main purpose in a gank is to tear their hitpoints down, with a well placed skill shot and your nuke you can knock them down by half or more usually, and if your teammates knew your target they can jump on them during that .75 seconds to get the kill. If you don't think you can get both champions you then are to try and cover the retreat by slowing stunning and, if you have it, walling them off. One of the best things about having a skill shot is that they usually have a much longer range than skills that have targets so you can hide in the bush outside of lane and shoot it in without them knowing that you're coming in for a kill.
Team Running Phase
This is where Anivia shines. If you've gotten any amount of progress in your items by now you will be one of the people your team loves because of what you contribute. When you get into huge team fights all you have to do is make sure you're not focus fired to death before doing anything, so stay back until someone else initiates, and then just unload on the other team. With your Flash Frost you can get a short but highly convenient stun on their team and Glacial Storm will tear anyone who stands in it's area apart. Make sure to hit anyone who's chilled with your nuke and you will be sure to get some very lovely kills. With your wall you can either use it offensively or defensively in these situations. If you see an opponent who is almost dead and is running, you can stop that retreat and get yourself a kill, just be careful if it's poorly timed or placed you can end up saving their life. You can easily use it to retreat exactly as you did in the ganking phase, but just as using it offensively you have to be careful because you can wall an ally in and get them killed. Starting out as Anivia go ahead and under-use your wall, because bad walls lose games, good walls help win games.
Well, I can't really think of anything more to add about playing Anivia so that seems to be the end of my guide to Anivia the Cryophoenix. If I get good gameplay footage uploaded I'll get it on here just to show examples. If you guys know anything I didn't cover or have questions leave them in comments and I will address them.
Laning Phase: Mids
So with Anivia you are likely to be in mids due to your egg which will let you take more abuse than most heroes while staying in lane and the amount of harass you can put out. If you are mids just try to last hit minions and once you get your Frostbite start harassing your opponent. Throw a Flash Frost at them, preferably through minions to get some gold, and stun them. If they didn't avoid getting stunned try to close the distance, starting when you threw the Flash Frost guarantees that you get there, and hit them with Frostbite. If you do this two or three times you almost ensure that they have to leave the lane or die. Once you hit level 6 and pick up your ultimate you can harass that much better because you have two skills that make your nuke do double damage. Throw a Flash Frost -> Frostbite if you can and then a Glacial Storm -> Frostbite. If they dodge Flash Frost, let them come back to the minions throw down Glacial Storm where you get them in the area, preferably where you can continuously hit them when they retreat, and fly in for a Frostbite.
Side Lane
The side lanes you play almost the exact same as you would in mids, except you get wall earlier so you can check the bushes if your opponents are hiding in them. The other things to keep in mind while side laning are using all of your skills to try to save your ally if he gets focus fired and focus on one champion (squishier ones are usually higher priority because they are easier to kill and can output a lot of damage or can heal their teammate.
Ganking Phase
Between level 6 and 10 is typically where the ganking phase begins. If you're mids and you've either gotten the kill or pushed your opponent out of lane you pick either tops or bottoms to go to in the attempt to aid getting kills in that lane. If you can do this as close to level 6 from the mids as possible the better. You want to make it so you have your ultimate and they don't. The phase goes into full swing around level 10 or later when you can take down a tower and roam from lane to lane getting kills and pushing the tower. As Anivia your main purpose in a gank is to tear their hitpoints down, with a well placed skill shot and your nuke you can knock them down by half or more usually, and if your teammates knew your target they can jump on them during that .75 seconds to get the kill. If you don't think you can get both champions you then are to try and cover the retreat by slowing stunning and, if you have it, walling them off. One of the best things about having a skill shot is that they usually have a much longer range than skills that have targets so you can hide in the bush outside of lane and shoot it in without them knowing that you're coming in for a kill.
Team Running Phase
This is where Anivia shines. If you've gotten any amount of progress in your items by now you will be one of the people your team loves because of what you contribute. When you get into huge team fights all you have to do is make sure you're not focus fired to death before doing anything, so stay back until someone else initiates, and then just unload on the other team. With your Flash Frost you can get a short but highly convenient stun on their team and Glacial Storm will tear anyone who stands in it's area apart. Make sure to hit anyone who's chilled with your nuke and you will be sure to get some very lovely kills. With your wall you can either use it offensively or defensively in these situations. If you see an opponent who is almost dead and is running, you can stop that retreat and get yourself a kill, just be careful if it's poorly timed or placed you can end up saving their life. You can easily use it to retreat exactly as you did in the ganking phase, but just as using it offensively you have to be careful because you can wall an ally in and get them killed. Starting out as Anivia go ahead and under-use your wall, because bad walls lose games, good walls help win games.
Well, I can't really think of anything more to add about playing Anivia so that seems to be the end of my guide to Anivia the Cryophoenix. If I get good gameplay footage uploaded I'll get it on here just to show examples. If you guys know anything I didn't cover or have questions leave them in comments and I will address them.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Anivia the Cryophoenix pt 2
So I said today will be about her skills and items, and thus it shall be.
Skills
Flash Frost - Anivia brings her wings together and summons a sphere of ice that flies towards her opponents, chilling and damaging anyone in its path. When the lance explodes it does moderate damage in a radius, stunning anyone in the area.
A massive chunk of ice flies toward target location, dealing 60/90/120/150/180 (+0.5) magic damage, slowing movement by 20%, and chilling any enemy it passes through. At the end of its range or if Anivia activates the spell again, the missile detonates, doing 60/90/120/150/180 (+0.5) magic damage in a small area and stunning units for .75 seconds.
Cost
80/100/120/140/160 Mana
Range
1100
So Flashfrost is your basic skill that you use to harass and farm. Just be careful of spamming it too often because in crucial moments where you have to stun someone to save yourself and/or a teammate or go in for the kill it's semi-long cooldown will be your bane. The most important parts of learning to use this skill is leading your opponent with it and then exploding it right as it's gone past them so that you get two hits with it and you get the stun. This is one of your skills that synergies into your nuke Frostbite.
Crystallize - Anivia condenses the moisture in the air into an impenetrable wall of ice to block the movement of her enemies. The wall only lasts a short duration before it melts.
Anivia summons an impenetrable wall of ice 400/500/600/700/800 units wide, blocking all movement. The wall lasts for 5 seconds before it melts.
Cost
70/90/110/130/150 Mana
Range
1000
Your wall, it will almost certainly be the reason why your team loves or hates you. When used right it can save lives, prevent ganks, stop a chase, save a tower, get a kill or even start a gank. The best part of Anivia's wall is that if gives sight, so if you put it into bushes or the jungle you can see your enemies, this has prevented a gank countless times for me. In my opinion this is the best utility skill in the whole game. The most important part of the wall is summed up in three words: Placement, placement and(conjunctions don't count) timing.
Frostbite - With a flap of her wings, Anivia blasts a freezing gust of wind at her target, dealing a medium amount of damage. If the target has been slowed by an ice effect, the damage they take is doubled.
Anivia blasts her target with a freezing wind, dealing 55/85/115/145/175 (+0.5) magic damage. If the target has been chilled, they take double damage.
Cost
50/60/70/80/90 Mana
Range
650
Frostbite, this is where your damage will be coming from against champions. With a cooldown of 5 seconds and the ability for it's damage to be doubled when your target suffers from a "Chilled" effect this will be a spam skill against champions. Throw your Flash Frost, stun them, fly in closer, and tear their health down with this baby. If they survived that you can throw your ult on them wall off their escape and hit them with a second nuke. Most important thing is never use this skill unless they are chilled, you want that double damage, it's completely necessary (I've gotten a few kills with a non-chilled Frostbite, but because of it's short range it's usually better to wait for Flash Frost and kill them with that.)
Glacial Storm - Anivia summons a driving rain of ice and hail to damage her enemies and slow their advance.
Toggle: Anivia calls forth a driving rain of ice and hail, dealing 80/120/160 (+0.25) magic damage per second, slowing their movement and attack speed by 20% for 2.5 seconds, and chilling them.
Cost
50/70/90 Mana Per Second
Range
625
Glacial Storm, or Blizzard if Anivia really was Articuno, isn't one of those high damage, long cooldown ults like Veigar's, it's damage with a debuff and practically no cooldown. What makes it an ultimate? It does a decent amount of Damage per Second in a decent area, with a nice buff that doubles your nuke's power and has a 5 second cooldown. The drawback is that it costs a lot of mana, 90 mana per second may not seem like a lot when you have a 3k mana pool, but with this, and two offensive skills that cost more than 100, you do still run low. The main problem with its mana cost is early, at level 6 50 mana/sec is a lot. So the important thing to master with this are the three words with your wall: placement, placement and timing (though not as much timing because the wall's cooldown is a lot longer) as well as knowing when to shut it off, which is usually immediately.
Rebirth - Upon dying, Anivia will revert into an egg. If the egg can survive for six seconds, she is gloriously reborn.
Anivia's passive ranges from completely OP to completely useless depending on where you are, your opponents and your team. During the laning phase (which in hindsight I should've described the phases of the game since a lot of people who play the game still don't know about the phases.) egg will constantly save your life, you just have to be sure to get to a tower before they "kill" you so your egg will be protected. Outside of the laning phase a lot of times your opponents will just blow through your eggs health without a second thought as long as they know to do so, and your team isn't there to keep them off of you. Other than that you can use the egg offensively by baiting them into attacking it and then your team kills them, but I highly advise against it.
Skill Build Order
There's really only one way you should level your skills as Anivia, with a slight variation.
The order is as follows:
Flash Frost
Frostbite
Frostbite
Crystallize
Frostbite
Glacial Storm
Frostbite
Flash Frost
Frostbite
Flash Frost
Glacial Storm
Flash Frost
Flash Frost
Crystallize
Crystallize
Glacial Storm
Crystallize
Crystallize
This is so you get your Frostbite maxed early, but you don't start with it because you need to chill them first. The only variation being if you're in mids take Flash Frost at 4 and Crystallize at 8, because you don't need the wall as much early on in mids. The reason you don't max the wall until the end is because all putting points into it does is make it longer and that's not really needed until later in the game.
Items
So I run a slightly different build if I'm soloing, just because I want a little more health when I don't have someone right next to me. Otherwise full power to the thruster and tear them apart.
Lane
Amplifying Tome
and Health Potion
out of the gate
On your first trip back you want to try to get Mejai's Soulstealer
and Tear of the Goddess 
so you can start snowballing (getting kills to get more kills) and mana
From here I just go back when I need to and get what I can in the listed order
Boots of Speed
Catalyst the Protector
Sorcerer Shoes
Rod of the Ages
Zhonya's Ring
Archangel's Staff
Void Staff
(if your opponents aren't getting magic resist and you've gotten this far consider Rylai's Crystal Scepter as an alternative)
The only difference for my item build in mids is the following:
Start with Doran's Ring
and Health Potion
don't build to Mejai's, instead get another Archangel's Staff after you've gotten your sixth item and you've sold Doran's Ring back.
Well that's part two, hopefully it makes some sense, I was rushing it a bit. Tomorrow I will cover how to play, tactics and hopefully I can post some gameplay footage in the near future.
Skills
Flash Frost - Anivia brings her wings together and summons a sphere of ice that flies towards her opponents, chilling and damaging anyone in its path. When the lance explodes it does moderate damage in a radius, stunning anyone in the area.A massive chunk of ice flies toward target location, dealing 60/90/120/150/180 (+0.5) magic damage, slowing movement by 20%, and chilling any enemy it passes through. At the end of its range or if Anivia activates the spell again, the missile detonates, doing 60/90/120/150/180 (+0.5) magic damage in a small area and stunning units for .75 seconds.
Cost
80/100/120/140/160 Mana
Range
1100
So Flashfrost is your basic skill that you use to harass and farm. Just be careful of spamming it too often because in crucial moments where you have to stun someone to save yourself and/or a teammate or go in for the kill it's semi-long cooldown will be your bane. The most important parts of learning to use this skill is leading your opponent with it and then exploding it right as it's gone past them so that you get two hits with it and you get the stun. This is one of your skills that synergies into your nuke Frostbite.
Crystallize - Anivia condenses the moisture in the air into an impenetrable wall of ice to block the movement of her enemies. The wall only lasts a short duration before it melts.Anivia summons an impenetrable wall of ice 400/500/600/700/800 units wide, blocking all movement. The wall lasts for 5 seconds before it melts.
Cost
70/90/110/130/150 Mana
Range
1000
Your wall, it will almost certainly be the reason why your team loves or hates you. When used right it can save lives, prevent ganks, stop a chase, save a tower, get a kill or even start a gank. The best part of Anivia's wall is that if gives sight, so if you put it into bushes or the jungle you can see your enemies, this has prevented a gank countless times for me. In my opinion this is the best utility skill in the whole game. The most important part of the wall is summed up in three words: Placement, placement and(conjunctions don't count) timing.
Frostbite - With a flap of her wings, Anivia blasts a freezing gust of wind at her target, dealing a medium amount of damage. If the target has been slowed by an ice effect, the damage they take is doubled.Anivia blasts her target with a freezing wind, dealing 55/85/115/145/175 (+0.5) magic damage. If the target has been chilled, they take double damage.
Cost
50/60/70/80/90 Mana
Range
650
Frostbite, this is where your damage will be coming from against champions. With a cooldown of 5 seconds and the ability for it's damage to be doubled when your target suffers from a "Chilled" effect this will be a spam skill against champions. Throw your Flash Frost, stun them, fly in closer, and tear their health down with this baby. If they survived that you can throw your ult on them wall off their escape and hit them with a second nuke. Most important thing is never use this skill unless they are chilled, you want that double damage, it's completely necessary (I've gotten a few kills with a non-chilled Frostbite, but because of it's short range it's usually better to wait for Flash Frost and kill them with that.)
Glacial Storm - Anivia summons a driving rain of ice and hail to damage her enemies and slow their advance.Toggle: Anivia calls forth a driving rain of ice and hail, dealing 80/120/160 (+0.25) magic damage per second, slowing their movement and attack speed by 20% for 2.5 seconds, and chilling them.
Cost
50/70/90 Mana Per Second
Range
625
Glacial Storm, or Blizzard if Anivia really was Articuno, isn't one of those high damage, long cooldown ults like Veigar's, it's damage with a debuff and practically no cooldown. What makes it an ultimate? It does a decent amount of Damage per Second in a decent area, with a nice buff that doubles your nuke's power and has a 5 second cooldown. The drawback is that it costs a lot of mana, 90 mana per second may not seem like a lot when you have a 3k mana pool, but with this, and two offensive skills that cost more than 100, you do still run low. The main problem with its mana cost is early, at level 6 50 mana/sec is a lot. So the important thing to master with this are the three words with your wall: placement, placement and timing (though not as much timing because the wall's cooldown is a lot longer) as well as knowing when to shut it off, which is usually immediately.
Rebirth - Upon dying, Anivia will revert into an egg. If the egg can survive for six seconds, she is gloriously reborn.Anivia's passive ranges from completely OP to completely useless depending on where you are, your opponents and your team. During the laning phase (which in hindsight I should've described the phases of the game since a lot of people who play the game still don't know about the phases.) egg will constantly save your life, you just have to be sure to get to a tower before they "kill" you so your egg will be protected. Outside of the laning phase a lot of times your opponents will just blow through your eggs health without a second thought as long as they know to do so, and your team isn't there to keep them off of you. Other than that you can use the egg offensively by baiting them into attacking it and then your team kills them, but I highly advise against it.
Skill Build Order
There's really only one way you should level your skills as Anivia, with a slight variation.
The order is as follows:
Flash Frost
Frostbite
Frostbite
Crystallize
Frostbite
Glacial Storm
Frostbite
Flash Frost
Frostbite
Flash Frost
Glacial Storm
Flash Frost
Flash Frost
Crystallize
Crystallize
Glacial Storm
Crystallize
Crystallize
This is so you get your Frostbite maxed early, but you don't start with it because you need to chill them first. The only variation being if you're in mids take Flash Frost at 4 and Crystallize at 8, because you don't need the wall as much early on in mids. The reason you don't max the wall until the end is because all putting points into it does is make it longer and that's not really needed until later in the game.
Items
So I run a slightly different build if I'm soloing, just because I want a little more health when I don't have someone right next to me. Otherwise full power to the thruster and tear them apart.
Lane
Amplifying Tome
and Health Potion out of the gateOn your first trip back you want to try to get Mejai's Soulstealer
and Tear of the Goddess so you can start snowballing (getting kills to get more kills) and manaFrom here I just go back when I need to and get what I can in the listed order
Boots of Speed
Catalyst the Protector
Sorcerer Shoes
Rod of the Ages
Zhonya's Ring
Archangel's Staff
Void Staff
(if your opponents aren't getting magic resist and you've gotten this far consider Rylai's Crystal Scepter as an alternative)The only difference for my item build in mids is the following:
Start with Doran's Ring
and Health Potiondon't build to Mejai's, instead get another Archangel's Staff
after you've gotten your sixth item and you've sold Doran's Ring back.Well that's part two, hopefully it makes some sense, I was rushing it a bit. Tomorrow I will cover how to play, tactics and hopefully I can post some gameplay footage in the near future.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Anivia the Cryophoenix pt 1
Anivia is an immortal being of intense power. She can instantly freeze a path in front of her, covering all in its wake with thick frost – she can even force the cold to violently explode, throwing razor sharp ice shards in every direction. She can also concentrate this ability on a single enemy, riddling his flesh with deep frostbite. The cryophoenix can also summon a glacial storm, a blizzard of terrible fury that both harms and slows those within. When defense is needed, Anivia can create an impassible barrier of ice. Furthermore, Anivia can never die. Whenever she is killed, she simply transforms into an egg, waiting to be reborn.
"Some say the world will end in fire, some in ice. Anivia awaits the inevitable latter."
Alright, now I can get started on my section of the typing. As someone suggested last night I'm bringing this blog to you in parts because a single post of an Anivia guide will be just too much to type. So I'll cover all of the pregame stuff and my opinion of Anivia.
"Why play Anivia when you can just play Annie?"
The forums are stupid and should not be on my blog. There are many reasons why I play Anivia over Annie. Reason one is that playing Anivia is by far the most fun I've had playing LoL. Two, her stun may be harder to hit and less AoE than a Tibbers stun, but you can spam it every 12-8 seconds (depending on it's level) and although Annie's stun is a full second longer Anivia's slows everyone it hits. Three, yes Anivia is possibly one of the hardest champions to master but if you know her she is completely worth it. Although there are more I'm going to put one last word, wall.
Runes and Masteries
I feel that any caster that uses mana (see not Vlad) should run a 9/0/21 mastery set shown here.
For runes I like building
9 x
Greater Mark of Insight +0.95 magic penetration9 x
Greater Seal of Clarity +0.1 mana regen / 5 sec. per level (+1.8 at champion level 18)9 x
Greater Glyph of Force +0.17 ability power per level (+3.06 at champion level 18)3 x
Greater Quintessence of Force +0.43 ability power per level (+7.74 at champion level 18)This gives you totals resulting in
+8.5 Magic Pen
+16 Mana Regen/5 at level 18
+50.76 Ability Power at level 18
With Archaic Knowledge and your magic pen marks most heroes who have 30 magic resist will only have 17 against you. This means that instead of reducing the magic damage dealt to them by 23%, they only reduce it by 14.5%.
That will do it for today's post on my guide to Anivia, tomorrow I'll probably cover skills and items.
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