First Thoughts on Vayne

Vayne, the Night Hunter, has just been released and already the LOL community is in an uproar about her supposed OP-ness. I've only played a couple games with her, and while she feels strong, she is definitely not OP. Let's do a quick review of her skills quick.

Her passive is a MS buff, making her into the fantastic chaser that she is. Nothing special about it, the only thing being that you have to be running towards the target and must also see the target. I would assume this does not work with TF's ultimate, but that might be something to be tested.

Her Q is a blink/nuke. Tumble powers up her next regular autoattack and resets the autoattack timer. An interesting thing to note that if you use it to flee, the cooldown will not start again until the proc wears off. This means if you run away and don't autoattack you have a five second period before the cooldown starts. So it gives her a lot of maneuverability, but not crazy amount of escape.

Her W gives her the punch against tanky DPS. It makes her third autoattack on the same target deal percent based true damage. This makes her an extremely good 1v1 character, but switching targets gives her a problem.

Her E is a knockback/stun. The stun is only activated when the target is knocked into a wall or similar object. A nice addition to her kit as it allows her a greater escape ability and/or a way to get someone out from under their turret. The stun is very useful and it is quite easy to get into position for this with Tumble.

Her ultimate is just a steriod. Increased MS, AD, and stealth when she Tumbles. Not much more to say on this. It just makes her into a godly chaser/ganker.

So why do people say she is OP? Well, it boils down to, 1) being new, and 2) dealing true damage. What people don't realize about that true damage is that is really is mainly a counter to tanky DPS. Sure she can burst down a squishy quickly, but the true damage really doesn't have the same impact as against a tanky DPS. 10% of 3K health is a lot different than 10% of 2K health.

So how does one beat Vayne?

1. CC. Stuns, suppresses, and other hard CC will end her quickly. She is extremely squishy, so stopping her in her tracks means she can be focused down in no time.

2. Don't run away from her. She is an amazing chaser and running away from her just allows her to kill you quickly. Like above, she is very squishy, so standing your ground and actually attacking her is extremely effective.

3. Lane with intelligence. Send a champion with CC to lane against her. Shutting down her laning phase keeps her contained and not fed, keeping her late game from being overwhelming.

Those are just my immediate thoughts, I may post a guide later on in the week, once I've played her a bit more.

C&C always welcome!

Master Yi: Game 5

Two victories in a row with Yi! My number of deaths still unsettles me though. The good news is, they are not coming from my early game anymore. The bad news is, they are coming from ganks and lack of map awareness on my part. Since I have been playing a carry, I have been warding very little, but I think I need to return to that. The lack of map awareness I have now is definitely hampering my playing and very definitely increasing my deaths. So the next step is gaining that back.

Fortunately this game, both Poppy and Mordekaiser fed pretty well and we were able to walk away with a fairly easy win. Irelia and I laned to agressively at the top, so I think I am going to work on just last hitting minions with Yi. It's easy to get into the habit of autoattacking, but last hitting just pays off more. Though it is a little tougher if your lane partner is autoattacking. Maybe Yi could be played in the middle...

C&Cs welcome!

Master Yi: Game 4

Finally, a victory with Master Yi. I can safely say I definitely fulfilled my carry role this game. Both our tank and support were less than ideal, but once I started getting fed the other team began having troubles dealing with me. I have begun to understand Master Yi's laning phase much better, noting that being very cautious and being prepared to run away quickly being a necessity. Knowing when to gank is also vital, as it allows more feed for Yi and allows lanes to be pushed quickly if necessary. But his fragile early game means he really needs the feed, so making sure to last hit minions is necessary.

Comments and critiques are always welcome!

Master Yi: Game 2

So another loss. I had a great first game, with Twisted Fate and I picking up first blood and clearing the lane soon afterwards (me dying to get them both). But I failed a gank against the middle Brand (Caitlyn didn't help because of a phone call) and he got both of us. This led to a spiraling defeat as he suddenly became too much for our team to handle.

In hindsight, it would have been best if I had just gotten a Negatron Cloak to negate the magic. Probably would have saved me in a number of cases. Ahh, the benefit of hindsight.

Master Yi: Game 1

Smashed. That's all I can really say. I fed, Lux fed, and Tryndamere destroyed us. (Apparently some people on my team cannot use crowd control well.)

The Mastery Begins

Hey fellow LOL-lovers!

It's summer now and that equals lots of free time (sort of)! So I have decided to put forth a beautiful, triumphant goal: mastering some champions. I decided this today, mainly so that I can get good at the various champion roles before I start my first ranked game (I'm level 29 now). If all goes well, I will be able to win my first ranked game with no problem. I have decided to divide my categories into four separate roles: AD carry, support, AP carry, and tank. Each category will have a month focusing on it, with two different champions being played that week. I should be able to get in about 14 games with each champion and will be posting results/thoughts after ever game (with some games being more detailed than others. Here's the schedule:

Weeks 1 & 2: Master Yi
Weeks 3 & 4: Ezreal
Weeks 5 & 6: Janna
Weeks 7 & 8: Nidalee
Weeks 9 & 10: Malzahar
Weeks 11 & 12: Veigar
Weeks 13 & 14: Amumu
Weeks 15 & 16: Shen

I'll keep you posted!