When is the right time to challenge Baron?

by Reece "Sabrewolf" Dos-Santos

Baron Nashor, a global buff and the strongest buff in the game. It is capable of turning lost games into wins, winning games into losses and sometimes doesn't make a difference at all. Regardless, every league player will become entangled in the infamous Baron dance in almost all of their games so what is needed is clarity and awareness of when and how to perform your baron dance perfectly.

In the Super Week match-up of Alliance vs Supa Hot Crew in Week Seven, Impaler was within one shot range with basically no support, trying to make a steal with Elise. Granted, Elise is a brilliant champion to make steals with, but not under circumstances like that. The play ended with Impaler dead and a baron that led to Supa Hot Crew’s one defeat that week. But this is far from a trend that stays in the professional scene; the threat of giving away a “free baron” compels junglers of all skill levels to throw themselves into certain danger on the whim of a miracle steal. 

If you are playing a champion like Elise, the steal attempt is a valid one, assuming you used your rappel correctly. However, once the timing for rappel has been botched, you should consider your steal attempt over as well, since flashing into the pit will leave you faced with overwhelmingly bad odds and certain death (especially if your team isn't already diving in to help you secure the objective). Junglers like Elise, Lee sin and Jarvan have the liberty of being able to jump into the pit and still have flash available for exit, but sometimes even that safety isn't enough to warrant a steal attempt. Hanging around the wall of the baron pit waiting is almost as bad as walking face first through the entrance. It leaves you open and vulnerable in a fixed position. Many junglers and even other players make the mistake of hovering around the baron back wall alone expecting to make something other than their death happen. 

One of the biggest reasons why teams make botched Baron decisions is due to fear of being behind. Through the eyes of many, the baron buff on an already ahead team is the mark of certain loss and thus, supports wander out of position to place a ward, Junglers hang around despite having lost members and other players waste valuable ultimates to try and steal the buff.  All these examples can be easily avoided with the employment of a calm mind-set and remembrance of the following things: 

Blue Trinket is powerful:

When Baron is un-warded and you need to get vision of the pit, the Scrying orb should be the first thing any player reaches for to ensure that the dark areas of their route aren't hiding an ambush, or simply to get a look at the pit itself without putting yourself in harm’s way. In the later stages of the game, losing your support to a baron face check is not worth the vision you get from the ward they died for. Assuming they get to place it in the first place, all you’ll be doing is watching the enemy team finish the baron before they siege your base 4v5. A carefully used Blue Trinket can allow you to gain vision from a safe distance and properly assess your route as well as the decision to move towards the pit in the first place. A noticeable user of the Scrying Orb is MrRallez of SHC, who himself is usually impeccable in his positioning when it comes to big objective skirmishes. 

Your ultimates are valuable:

Often when a jungler is killed or if a team is out of position, players will resort to using abilities like Ziggs’s Mega Inferno Bomb and Jinx’s Super Mega Death Rocket to try and make a steal or simply deal damage. In the long run, this is never a good thing to do unless there are members of the enemy team that are killable with those ultimates. Especially at a higher level of play, it’s almost absurd to expect that the enemy jungler will be out-smited by your ranged ultimate. This then leaves you without important high damage spells for when the enemy team make a charge on your base with the buff. Also, the damage that may have been done to them will be regenerated by the buff or simply by going back, healing up and then moving on - which means it’s a complete waste of an ability in every instance that doesn't lead to a kill. These abilities could still prove to be helpful in the siege that comes after the enemy team secure the buff. 

Play around your team comp: 

This sounds basic but if you have a poke comp, you should poke. Most people, when faced with the adrenaline of baron dancing, tend to make miss-steps with how to play their champion match-ups. Trying to engage or getting within engage range of a heavy engage comp doing baron is suicide, while not dynamically engaging on such comps when watching a baron be done is equally as wasteful. Hai, in Week Three of the NA LCS, showed exactly what can happen once you let adrenaline get the best of you when he chose to pounce into three low hp members of CLG as Nidalee rather than finish one or two of them off with the spears he had been using to great effect up until that point. What could have been a quadra kill and even a baron ended up as merely the one kill upon Aphromoo’s Morgana. 

There are more things you could do besides contest:

One of the biggest misconceptions made everywhere is that when a team is doing Baron, you must contest and you cannot let them just have it. While Baron is a powerful objective, it isn't the main objective. If you've lost members and you can’t contest the Baron, don’t. Use your time to secure the dragon, place wards in key areas or even push a lane and take down turrets/inhibiters. Walking three vs five into the Baron pit or simply loitering around the jungle entrances is a waste of your time. Baron is a commitment that can be punished if you can’t challenge for it. A well-timed push can prove to nullify the effect of the buff or even stop the enemy team from securing it altogether. 

Baron fights have proved time and time again that one moment can change everything in a game. Don’t let a Baron fight be the moment where your game changes for the worst.

A Quick List of Early Game Tips for Each Role.

(.... that Can Sometimes Decide Your Lane!)

by Evil_Toaster 

Top Laners:

If you take teleport, don't just take it because you see LCS players always take it. Use it the same way. If you take teleport and your enemy team doesn't have teleport, invade at level 1 with your team, you can always just teleport back to your lane to be there on time. There's no way your top laner can be in the bottom jungle because they will get to lane late if they try. Just invade the bottom jungle with your team and teleport to lane after. Everyone gets ahead. Additionally, communicate to your team you need wards to teleport to. Teleport is only as useful as how much you can utilize it. Ignite gives you kill pressure in lane, Teleport gives you split push pressure in late game.

Alternatively, if you do decide to take Ignite, make sure your level 2 all-in combo potential with Ignite can kill. I don't care if you have to do the math on the damage and armor and everything to know, just know. If your opponent needs to be at 367 health for two of your abilities, three auto attacks, and ignite to kill, then try to get them to that range before you go for it. You can even make an unfavorable trade if it means getting them in lethal range as long as you stay out of their lethal range. If you hit level 2 first, this is even easier, as they'll have lower health than you when they're still level 1. If your opponent also doesn't have teleport, you can even go for an all in knowing it won't kill, since you will force the enemy out of lane and they can't teleport back after recalling. Just make sure their ensuing Ignite combo won't kill you in the process.

If you force your opponent out of lane, you can shove your lane and put pressure on the enemy jungle. Putting in a deep ward can save you from a gank, clear other laners to play aggressive, open up counter jungling opportunities for your jungler, and sometimes you can catch their jungler with low health and steal a buff, especially if you're on blue side. You can also spend this time farming Wight or Golems.

Junglers:

Plan your first gank from the loading screen and optimize your clear path accordingly. Look at the lane match-ups, predict how the lanes will look like at 3 minutes. If you see like fuckin' Shen vs. Mordekaiser in top lane, you can probably assume by the time you clear your jungle, that Shen could use a gank. Start at the bottom side jungle buff, clear a small camp, clear second buff, gank.

Don't take wolves and wraiths if you're going to gank at level 3. I still see junglers go blue->wolves->wraiths->red->gank when only one small camp is needed to reach level 3. Some junglers can delay their second buff if it means getting level 4 before the first gank, but it depends on the jungler and your plans.

If you have ANY form of health regeneration/lifesteal/damage reduction/whatever, measure how many health potions you actually need to clear the jungle with little assistance or interruption, and add one for safety. Some junglers can get by the jungle with one or no health potions, and some need exactly 2 or 3. Take 4 (max with new machete start) if you need them, but if you can skip out on a few, you can effectively speed up your first buy by saving the gold. I see a lot of junglers end up with several potions at the end of their clear that they end up never using, that could be money spent elsewhere. Do keep in mind, however, that in the case of an invade or anything out of the ordinary, you might need the potion, which is why I say take one extra. If you end up with enough extra gold left, you could stand to take an early ward.

If you want to be super nice to your side laners, leave Wight and double Golems alone. Their base stats are determined at the time they spawn. Your blue side bot laners, after 5 minutes of laning, can shove their lane and fall back to farm a quick and easy level 1 golem camp that will take them no time, or they can do it on their way back to lane after a recall. If you don't have ungodly clear speeds and can get as much as you can just farming the buffs, wolves and wraiths while ganking, you can sometimes leave low level camps up so your side laners can take them without crippling themselves. Once your side laners have a decent amount of life steal or defensive stats, you can take the camps when you're around and leave them for the laners when you're not. Just be sure to communicate this strategy to them or else it's for nothing.

Mid Laners:

You can literally win your lane by taking advantage of your level up timings. The moment you hit level 2, immediately upgrade your second ability and zone your opponent out of the minions that would cause them to reach level 2. If you push the first wave faster and exploit this, you can effectively zone your opponent out of the XP required to level up, and then they will level up later than you for the rest of the lane. Every time you level up, immediately upgrade an ability and chunk them. You'll have more damage, they'll have less HP, that's just all because you're a level above them, even if it's only for a few seconds. Look at your XP bar, count the minions you need to level up, and always be in position to take advantage of your power spike.

Stop warding the side river brushes in your lane when you have time to ward better. If your minions are shoved slightly past the middle, you can ward over the ledge from the river leading to wraiths. If your minions are shoved into their tower, you can also ward into wraiths which can give a lot of information on the jungler's position even if they're not there. If you have even more free time, you can run out to ward the circle bushes in the middle of the river (and clear any possible pink wards) or ward even deeper in the jungle if you know their position and won't intercept them.

Occasionally farm Wraiths and Wolves if your champion is capable of doing so.

• ADC's

Always shove the first minion wave as fast as possible. Just like I said for mid laners in the last tip, it's even more important for you and your support to shove down the first wave and hit level 2 before the opponents. An AD and a support at level 2 can cripple a level 1 AD with a full combo. It's four abilities against two. There's absolutely no way they can out trade you, especially considering your base stats will be higher. Shove the first wave as fast as possible, be in position for when you level up to damage your opponent, immediately level up your ability when the minion required to level up dies, and either zone them out of minion XP or just chunk them if they're in range. If you do this right, you can easily win lane off this exchange alone, especially if you force them to recall. But seriously, just get used to hitting control+ability the very moment the minion you need to level up dies.

Stop rushing Bloodthirster. When behind in lane, if you're rushing IE (not rushing BotRK) and you're forced to recall before 1550 gold, you can get away with buying another Doran's Blade and a Pickaxe. If the opponent comes back to lane with a BF Sword, the extra health from the Doran's Blade can eat one and a half auto's worth of damage from the BF Sword, you're only behind 18 damage (which is considerable, but not the end of the lane,) and your life steal is higher, all meaning even an auto-for-auto trade will be closer to even because you have more health and have higher life steal. Tack on the health potion you should be buying and things are almost even. The main disadvantage is you've slightly stunted your build path since the enemy can get to IE sooner than you.

Don't leave the shop without consumables. Don't recall if you only have just enough for whatever you plan on buying. Here are my general rules of thumb for consumable buying as ADC

1. At least one health potion, two is preferable, one is practically required. It's 35 gold for up to 400 gold worth of effective health in a fight.
2. One mana potion preferable. If a fight goes down you could end up with no mana. Also, if you get shoved under tower, you might need the mana to CS the wave properly, which will make the potion pay for itself.
3. One ward. Just take a ward. Even if you don't plan on warding, having a ward is important if you plan to fight someone anywhere near a brush, because you can pop a ward in the brush to give vision which means you can actually use your auto attack on them, and that can mean the difference in winning a fight.
4. Red Elixir if a dragon fight will be happening soon and you have the gold to spare. It's 350 gold for more than two Doran's Blades worth of stats, minus the lifesteal.
With this in mind, if you're waiting on recalling to pick up a BF Sword, try to stick around for another 100-200 gold to pick up consumables. Having more consumables than your opponent can easily give you a huge advantage. If you do end up at the shop with just enough for an item, wait for a health potion. It's a ruby crystal in a jar.

• Supports

Help your AD shove the first wave. If you can draw aggro from the minions and into yourself, the opponent's wave will then shove slower, meaning you're more likely to hit level 2 faster than them. You naturally have more health and armor than your ADC due to standard runes and masteries, and having more health potions, so it's okay for you to take a few auto attacks or minion damage if it can give you an advantage. Any auto attack you take from the opponent is an auto attack not going to your minions or the ADC.

Landing an auto attack on an enemy champion will cause all enemy minions in range to stop attacking your minions and focus you instead. This simultaneously harasses the opponent, and causes their lane to shove slower. If you do this near the side bushes, you can walk into them to break the aggro, walk out, attack again, and repeat the process. Doing this can also cause the enemy minions to walk closer to your side of the lane, making it easier for your ADC to CS, while forcing your opponents closer to have meat shield protection from minions. (This tip mostly applies to ranged supports.)

When the lane is shoved, an enemy has recalled, or you otherwise have free time, ward up the river. By leaving lane your ADC can get solo XP, giving them a level advantage you don't really need as much, and by putting wards in the tri brush, the path to blue buff, and the circle brush in the middle of the river, you have complete control and can play as aggressive as you need to be in lane. No jungler will cross to your side without you knowing (unless they can jump to the side river bush from their jungle if they're on purple side, in which case, ward that too.)

Also, general rule, always try to recall with your ADC. If you stay in lane, you'll be behind and you'll have to recall eventually, which will then force your ADC to be alone against both opponents, which can cause him to lose a lot of health, and by the time you get back, the ADC may have to recall again already because he got bullied. Even if not, the ADC can get zoned out of minions and be behind in XP even though he's getting solo lane XP. There's a lot to recall timing, but just try to recall together.

So yeah that's all I got related to early game stuff. Feel free to expand/include/correct on anything said or whatever.

(*These tips are made for lower ELO players. Things can and will be different at higher levels.) 

Reworked and Remastered - Skarner Edition

by Jerrod "Thousand Eyes" Steis

            I’ve already gone over Nidalee and her rework, so now it’s time to take a look at Skarner. Skarner is a bit more straight forward and his kit didn’t receive as many changes as Nidalee. I feel more comfortable with Skarner, as he’s the first champ I ever put time into learning and for a long time I only played him. I’ve written guides for him and have spent a lot of time with all three of his different eras. So while Nidalee was more of a general look at what was changed, this will be a more in-depth analysis on how to play Skarner.

            Skarner is a champ that’s been around a long time. He was actually released a few weeks before I started playing the game in August of 2011. When he came out, he was immediately a strong pick. He had easily the fastest jungle clear in the game, along with a devastating gank pressure once he hit level 6. The trade off was that it was nearly impossible to gank someone before you had your ultimate. His Q (Crystal Slash) was a slow instead of a speed boost, and his E (Fracture) was a completely different ability. In short, the Skarner we know now, and the Skarner that was released, are extremely different champs.

           There were a lot of design issues with the original Skarner’s kit. First of all, the idea of his perma slow. As Skarner’s enemy, you basically were either stuck or not. There was no in-between or escape chance, especially during his release time when very few champions had dashes or jumps. It was a crippling slow, and not only that but it meant he was in range, meaning you could auto attack and lower the CD. Skarner could easily bring his Q down to a 1 sec CD and never let his opponent leave.

            Next in line is Fracture. Skarner’s E ability was widely known to be his weakest and most Skarner players didn’t even put levels into it until they were forced to. Essentially, he was a three ability champion. His Fracture used to mark enemies and heal Skarner when he auto-attacked them, consuming the mark. It just didn’t have a use when compared to putting more points in shield. Why would you pick something to heal you when you can get more speed and effective health from another ability?

Finally, there were the bugs with his ultimate. Skarner’s ult was known for pulling people who had gotten away. He would grab people who would flash or jump just before the grab and even midway through they would get pulled, usually wasting an important CD on their flash or escape. Actually, the reasoning behind this was an interesting little blip in the code design.

You see, Skarner’s ultimate, when cast, sends a small almost invisible projectile that - when it hits the opponent - will encase them and pull them to Skarner. However, the ability is targeted, meaning it can’t miss. So because there was a travel and cast time, there was a small time where the enemy could jump away before the projectile actually connected with them. Once it hit though, you were snared and pulled, no matter what the distance at the time, leading to a bunch of strange interactions. (I.E. Janna’s flying with Skarner after Monsoon, Trist being grabbed mid jump, anyone blowing flash but still stung.)

Riot put a small fix in for Skarner’s ultimate making it so that if the enemy got out of cast range before that projectile hit, the ultimate would not connect and would go on CD. It ruined most ultimates Skarner tried to get, effectively ending Skarner’s reign and putting him where he was until just recently.

Insert patch 4.2.

·         Q -- Loses slow, and gains attack speed stacks instead

·         W -- Small buffs, Movement speed ramps up now

·         E -- Now longer and slimmer, slows instead of mark/heal

·         R -- Now roots before ult, making it more consistent

           

4.2 was ultimately a failure. People felt like Skarner just didn’t have a niche anymore. His kit didn’t mesh well anymore, and all in all he just felt wrong. A lot of clamoring about how Skarner needed a re-rework and Riot put some time into it and put out a new new Skarner in 4.10, which is what I’m going to talk about today.

                                                         Patch 4.10

I’ll be the first to say that I was not looking forward to most of the changes happening this patch. The biggest thing for me was losing the original passive Skarner had. I understood it was to make him a more "lockdown dive the enemy" champ, but I loved being able to “farm” my ultimate back up, especially considering how important Skarner’s ultimate was to who he is as a champion.

Crystallizing Sting

·         CRYSTAL VENOM----Skarner's damaging spells apply a 'Crystal Venom' debuff to enemy Champions and large monsters for 5 seconds

·         UTILITY----If Skarner lands a basic attack on a target with 3 stacks of 'Crystal Venom', he will deal an additional 20-105 magic damage and stun the target for 0.5/0.75/1 second

·         CRYSTAL VENOM----After being stunned, targets cannot be debuffed by Crystal Venom for 6 seconds

            Skarner got a brand new passive that’s completely unrelated to his old one. His passive now revolves around hitting spells on the enemy. After three spells connect, Skarner can stun them with an auto. It’s a really cool passive that plays up to his theme of being a scorpion; encasing his enemies in crystal. It also cements him into a champ who specializes in locking people down.

            It has a lot of uses, the most obvious being stunning a target to kill them. Keep in mind of all the other possibilities though. For instance, this actually makes Skarner a very deceptive duelist in the jungle. Not only will his damage increase over time through more attack speed, but he can stop you from doing anything mid fight. Leading to sometimes surprising wins.

Crystal Slash

           

·         UTILITY-----Basic attacks reduce Crystal Slash's cooldown by 0.5 seconds (doubled against Champions)

·         CRYSTAL ENERGY----Crystal Energy now additionally grants +2/3/4/5/6% movement speed per stack (up to 3 stacks)

·         BASE PHYSICAL DAMAGE----25/40/55/70/85 (+0.8 attack damage) ⇒18/28/38/48/58 (+0.4 attack damage)

·         BONUS MAGIC DAMAGE-----24/36/48/60/72 (+0.4 ability power) ⇒18/28/38/48/58 (+0.2 ability power)

            Skarner kept his old passive as a passive on his Q, which was necessary for his ability to pump out damage, proc his new stun and jungle clear. It may not seem like much, but if you try to continuously use Q without basic attacking, you’ll notice a difference. It will also help his sticking power, which I’ll get into later.

            The old Q used to slow the enemy and this was what kept Skarner in his all important melee range. When he originally got reworked he had no way to stay in range. He had a slow, but it was on a long CD and didn’t let him stay in range. His newest Q basically has the opposite effect of what his old one did. He now has his old stickiness by speeding himself up instead of slowing the enemy. Great design change. They kept the fun sticky part of Skarner, but made it rewarding for him and not displeasing for the other player. It was also great to keep it on his Q because it’s his pivotal skill. As some have put it, it’s the “heartbeat” to playing Skarner.

            They also lowered both the base damage and scaling damage of the ability in exchange for this. Riot did this to push Skarner more towards the CC oriented tank role over damage dealing duelist role. Surprisingly though, this doesn’t hurt his clear time much.

Crystalline Exoskeleton

·         COOLDOWN16 seconds at all ranks ⇒ 13/12.5/12/11.5/11 seconds

           

            A welcome buff to the shield/speed boost. It’s good to note that this was secretly buffed by adding movespeed to Crystal Slash as well. Move speed grows multiplicatively, which means when you add more you get a lot more. Basically, if you have full stacks on your Q and pop your shield you will fly towards people, and if they don’t have a jump or dash, you will be all over them. Outside of that, there really isn’t much to say about changes. Do remember to use this a little before you want to engage so you get full speed by the time you charge in.

Fracture

·         MAGIC DAMAGE80/120/160/200/240 (+0.7 ability power) ⇒40/60/80/100/120 (+0.4 ability power)

·         COOLDOWN14 seconds at all ranks ⇒ 12 seconds at all ranks

            In actuality, this is a straight nerf. You can’t even really claim that the CD buff is worth anything, because you easily get it lower with Skarner’s old passive. AP Skarner was pretty much ruined with this change, and even though I never tried it, I’m kind of sad about that. One thing I love about this game is how many different ways there are to play it. Any different build path is really interesting and the possibilities are un-ending in some cases.

            I’m pretty ok with this in the grand scheme of things though. It’s a small nerf to an ability that was a one point wonder in most cases, and everything that was gained in return was very much worth it. The slow wasn’t even touched, which is what the skill is used for anyway. Fracture’s come a long way from its original ability, but it feels at home now.

Impale

           

·         IMPALEMENT----Impale consumes all stacks of Crystal Venom and deals 50/75/100 magic damage per stack consumed

·         COOLDOWN----130/120/110 seconds ⇒ 110/100/90 seconds

Skarner’s ult now has a really interesting interaction with his passive, but I’ll get back to that in a second. Let’s look at the CD reduction. Overall it’s great, but doesn’t help much. This is really more just to make up for the loss of the old passive. One of the things that I loved about the old Skarner was getting to level 6, using my ult, and then going back into the jungle and farming as hard as I could until it came back up. You can’t do that anymore, and it also makes Wriggle’s Lantern a much less viable buy. You’ll still get decent use out of it, but nowhere near as much as before.

Now for the interesting change. Skarner’s new passive has a different interaction with this spell. You can choose how to spend the stacks, either for a stun before/after the ult for more lockdown potential, or more damage.

It may not be obvious at first glance, but this is a huge decision to make. Let’s take it a bit deeper by looking at examples.

Say you’re ganking a lane:

·         In scenario A, your laner is a champion with good CC like Jax, Nasus, Renekton etc. Stack your passive up and before you stun them, use your ult. By level 16 you’ll get an extra 300 damage out of it. Even early on you get 150, which is a lot at level 6.

·         In scenario B, we’ll say your laner is someone like Teemo or Tryndamere. Essentially someone with no CC and especially on someone with no items or building tank, you’ll want to proc your stun before you use the ultimate, or in a perfect world, use your ult before hitting a spell. These champs need more help keeping people in range and generally have more than enough damage to take people down.

            Once again I really love this design idea and it let’s the player make choices that can impact how they involve themselves in the game. You can do more damage or stun. Plus, it rewards smart play with the damage by making sure you get 3 full stacks and then using ult. It gives you the ability to be what’s needed at the time, while not making Skarner overly powerful.

Conclusion

            So wrapping it all up, what’s been changed? Skarner was a sticky fast jungler before, and the first rework he received pushed him more towards a duelist with fast clear speeds and a kit that was wonky when put together. He got his slow moved to a longer CD ability and his trademark stickiness was lost in the crossfire. However, the attack speed move to his Q was great for his clear and damage.

            4.10 brought a new passive that enhanced his CC and lockdown ability, which more fits his theme. His clear was still held as fast, and now with two abilities that can speed him up, his stickiness was brought back by reversing his original Q ability.

            Skarner’s back! He’s not as damage heavy as he used to be, but he is a lockdown king and his ganks are scarier than ever. Your early gank pressure is now viable and you’ll still clear just as fast as you did before. Plus 4.11 is out and he was barely touched. My impression is that Skarner is here to stay.

Also, if you’re interested in learning Skarner and want to know how to play and/or build him, I’ve made a guide. It’s not perfect, and I’m not amazing player, but I love Skarner and I want to teach people more about how to play and dominate with him.

Skarner Guide