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League of Legends (2009)

Duration: 8:57

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Fairly straightforward champion. I played him primarily as a tank and a jungler, though I did do well with him top lane when I tried him out there. I also built him primarily tanky, and I know people have been successful with more AP heavy builds, so he has some versatility in that regard.

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In my opinion, he's not quite a Leona or Amumu in terms of playstyle. He's a fantastic initiator and can pull off some very solid ganks, but his kit is somewhat more disjointed than either of the other two. He plays very similarly to both when played as a tank.

Painfully slow champion. I had my most success building boots of mobility and ganking very frequently in the early game (while the move speed 5 boots knock off when you get in combat, once you're in you're usually able to lock someone down long enough for a kill). But all that said, don't take my advice as the be-all, end-all -- I have more to contribute with him in terms of mechanics than I do in recommended builds.

Here's how I built. Let me stress that this is *NOT* the only way to play this guy, and I tended towards very tanky for my team. Heavier on AP works, and I've seen it work.

Masteries -- 21/9/0 or 21/0/9, your call, but the offensive is prioritized around AP and casting buffs. You can go more defensive if you want, but he does decent enough damage that it isn't bad to improve on it w/ masteries even if you're tanking.

Runes -- Magic pen reds, flat armor yellow, flat magic reset blue (CDR optional), and health or movement speed quints (if you're planning on move speed 2 boots such as merc treds, CDR boots, or sorc shoes, use move speed quints).

Summoners -- Smite and Flash or Ghost for jungling.

Skill order -- W or E first depending on how you're jungling. Both W and E are good skills to max first and second, and you can choose which you want to, but generally the W was my choice because it dramatically increased survivability and made jungling much faster. One early point in Q, usually level 4 unless I was ganking sooner, and saved that to max last. Ult always priority.

Items -- How I built, generally Cloth Armor + healing pots first for jungling, then boots (sometimes move speed 5 as my first core item followed up by immediate ganks; you can see this in some movie clips; ganks must be successful or you're going to be hurting). Heart of Gold and Philosopher's Stone for early gold and tankiness. From there, I'd prioritize a Frozen Heart unless the team was very heavily magical, and a Force of Nature if the team was magical. Generally speaking, you have options (Randuin's, Shurelya's, or any of various tanky options).

Though his shield scales on Health, keep in mind that Armor and Magic Resist both have big impacts on its effectiveness as well. Health is fine to build but don't get trapped into thinking you must build it to scale your shield.

Both Rod of Ages and Zhonya's are excellent examples of items you should consider for more damage, since both improve your survivability as well. Rylai's is a safe bet as well (by the same token, for more tankiness and CC, Frozen Mallet is often a good choice).


SERIES UPDATE
Don't Feed Sivir is next, and pretty much done. I delayed her to get Nautilus out, but I have all the video collected for her. We'll see how fast I can get her out.

After that? Mordekaiser maybe, or another AD carry. I'm in an AD carry mood right now. Ezrael may be a good bet with Pulsefire coming out sometime in the next year.

I have a new series planned and will have the first episode out sometime. I need to figure out how to schedule it best.

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Don't Feed is a video series that covers champions in greater detail than the Champion Spotlight. This series is descriptive, not prescriptive, meaning that I aim to provide you with solid information without telling you which items, runes, or masteries are best (as these frequently change). With this information, you can better play against these champions, and you may be interested in learning to play them. Even after more than a thousand games, I am still learning new things about these champions by making these videos, and I'm sure the vast majority of LoL players can learn a lot from these.

My goal is to provide these videos for all champions in League of Legends.

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