New items are up on reddit.  MIDS NERFED.  Good.  I especially like the Zhonya's massive nerf.  Stupid item.

Ah - hadn't read up on the nerfs yet - going to in a minute then - thx!

I like boaz, too.   So, originally he was a bit of a handicap if he couldn't play sej and then also that he wanted to play her in all locations.  I didn't super mind that, but anyone that gets crushed by the loss of 1 champ (especially during the super fun ban sej times), makes things tougher.  He's playing a bunch more champs now and seems to really want to support a lot now.  Which, good 'ol support main pacov doesn't like as much.  

That whole tahm kench debacle was pretty great though.  In case I didn't spell it out earlier, boaz and I were playing and we dragged karl into a game.  Boaz mentions playing tahm as support and I'm like sure, give him a go.  He says its his first time playing him and I say go for it.  To be fair, I had no idea boaz playing a champ for the 1st time meant he has no idea how any mechanics work on him.  I always try out the champs mechanics vs ai before firing them up the 1st time and kind of thought most people (who aren't dicks  ) do that.  I found it pretty funny because it was kind of absurd to me and rolled with it, but karl was less of a fan - which is completely fine... because you know... games are slightly harder if someone has no idea what they are doing.  AND poor karl had to deal with my glorious TF, so - good times were had by all... or something...

Anyway, as I've mentioned several times now, I really suck as TF.  I find champs like Azir and lux a million times easier.  I think I understand how I'm supposed to be playing him, though, and am getting better.  Working on all the mechanics, fog of war usage, proper warding, how to trade/itemization vs matchups.  Still really feeling things out.  Been watching some high level play to see how good people use him and watching some coaching sessions as well.  Pretty demoralizing how often I'm getting crushed/under performing, but practice should make me less crap.

downloading the latest pbe version now - i know it has all the marksman changes in it at least.   gosu streaming kog right now

Jungle graves..

stone wall analysis of S6 masteries in the jungle:

Grabbed this from a post on summoner school:

https://www.reddit.com/r/summonerschool/comments/3qsfga/overview_of_preseason_adc_items/

Core damage items

Infinity Edge: slightly cheaper, loses 15 ad. Still good on champs who don't rely on their abilities for dps.

Essence Reaver: same price as IE, gives 20% crit and 10% cdr on its own. It also gives cdr equal to your crit chance from other sources up to 20% (so a total of 30% cdr). Essentially, this trades the 50% crit damage from IE for 30% cdr. Most champs will hit 50% total crit, so ie's crit damage boosts your total autoattack damage by ~17%. On champs who rely on their abilities for dps (tristana, sivir, ezreal, etc), the cdr from reaver could easily outweigh crit damage from IE. That said, I wouldn't make a firm statement here until after a lot of playtesting.

Overall, infinity edge was split into "ability focused IE" and "autoattack focused IE".

Zeal items

Phantom dancer: 40% attack speed, 30% crit, reduce damage taken from the last enemy you hit. Essentially, the duelist's item. Probably good on vayne/other splitpushers.

Statikk shiv: 35% attack speed, 30% crit, different lightning damage. I have no clue if the proc mechanics changed. It no longer builds out of avarice (I don't think avarice exists anymore). The waveclear item. Build this if you want waveclear (shocking, I know).

Rapid Firecannon: 30% attack speed, 30% crit chance. It stacks up like shiv, but you get 150 bonus range and some single target on hit damage when it procs. I don't know details of how the proc works. This is the sieging item. Stick it on someone like sivir and she can suddenly hit turrets from a reasonable distance. Cait might outrange turrets (800 total range). It might also be nice for short ranged carries in teamfights, but the uptime probably isn't that great.

Hurricane: This is now a zeal item. 35% attack speed, 30% crit. The extra bolts deal less damage but can crit. This is the teamfight item. Extra crits, extra on hits, and you don't trade away single target dps. This will probably be amazing on jinx/kog.

All items except pd cost 2500g (pd costs 2700g). Overall, you can choose between them based on what you want to do. Need more waveclear? Shiv looks nice. Want aoe for teamfights? Hurricane is calling your name. Some champs will have particular synergy with one over another, but all will be pretty viable depending on the game/team comp.

Lifesteal items

Bloodthirster: 200g more expensive, lifesteal isn't unique, ad reduced to 75. Still the same basic item. It will probably be best when paired with IE.

Blade of the Ruined King: 200g more expensive, unique passive nerfed from 8% current health to 6% current health. This is now a dedicated counter to health stackers. Before, it was reasonably efficient even against squishies. Now, you probably want to pass unless the enemy team is really tanky or you have insane synergy with on hits (cough cough kogmaw).

Death's Dance: 3400g (same as bork), 10% cdr, 12% "lifesteal" that applies to all physical damage, and 20% of damage taken is instead taken as a bleed effect over 5 seconds. The ability focused version of BT. If you grabbed reaver earlier, you want this to hit 40% cdr (and "lifesteal" that applies to abilities is useful on most of the champs who would want it).

Mercurial Scimitar: 75 ad, now has 10% lifesteal. I have no clue how this item will turn out. In theory, this can replace both a defensive item and a lifesteal item now. Will people get "double" lifeteal? Will they grab a second zeal item for all of the crit chance? Will they just tank up with a banshees? Have fun playtesting it when you get a chance.

Armor pen items

Last whisper is now a component. It builds into at least two different items.

Lord Dominick's Regards: 40 ad, 40% bonus armor pen (unique), up to 15% bonus damage against targets with more health than you. Dedicated tank buster, pretty straight forward. Use against health stackers.

Mortal Reminder: 40 ad, 40% bonus armor pen (unique), greivous wounds. The mundo/voli/etc counter that you have been waiting for. If the enemy team has a lot of sustain, this is the item you want.

Youmuu's ghostblade: 65 ad, no crit. The price was increased to 3200g. This is no longer a replacement for a zeal item. However, the two last whisper items give bonus armor pen, not total armor pen -- they don't do anything if the target isn't building armor. Against low-armor teams, youmuu's might be efficient as a replacement. This will need some testing.

Honestly, people might just skip this entire category when against a squishy team. Ghostblade will probably be reasonably efficient, but double zeal items or the like might be better.

Random other items

Trinity Force: less attack speed, less movespeed, 5 less ad, no ap. However, it has 20% crit and 10% cdr. It is the same basic item, and it will be used on the same champs and built at the same time (ie usually rushed). The changes make it synergize really well with essence reaver (you hit 40% cdr at 2 items), and the extra crit is nice with IE as well. Trinity/ER will be very viable on ez, and trinity/ie will probably be effective on corki (I don't think he likes cdr enough to make trinity/er better, but I could be wrong). While it is technically a zeal item, it doesn't really fit with the other zeal items (different stats, different build order, etc).

Guinsoo's rageblade: gives stacking ap/ad/attack speed (like sanguine blade). At full stacks, it also gives some on hit damage. Not really an adc item, but it might be viable on kog/corki/ezreal?

Maw of Malmortius: loses the bonus ad when low on health, but you get attack speed/lifesteal/spellvamp when the shield procs. Might be a viable defensive item? Who knows, people might run maw/mercurial against heavy ap comps and semi-sorta get double defensive items and double lifesteal (in a weird sort of way).

Overall, item builds will be much more situational. There are a lot of item builds with very similar base single target dps. The key is choosing the items that enhance what you actually want to do, mesh well with your champion's kit, and are effective against the enemy's champions and builds. Goodbye constant cookie cutter builds, hello having to think occasionally.

new jungle camp is on pbe now - not sure if it was enabled earlier, but it is now.

Well, it appears that CLG has decided to go full retard.  Thats an interesting choice.

winning isn't everything, karls.  Oh... wait... they are trying to... lift?

Got Diamond 3 tonight after a big win streak! Pretty neat! 

It's time cow.  Linked improperly so you have to click.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd9hUh3rDdU

and this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S97fyE9JxA0

 and I had to dig for this cause of the peen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsVmtgSWaMs

and last

This one is worth the payoff - watch all 52 sec

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xakvhGMENS4

Fun times aside - great job on hitting D3 - grats!    

Today I've watched some additional coaching sessions from a few folks, this time with a general champ focus instead of just TF focused.  One vid in particular was talking about the 3 bars, as he put it.  You have a health bar, a mana bar, and an unseen bar called a lethal bar. Developing your skill w/ the lethal bar is critical.  Basically, its having an understanding of exactly where you and your opponents lethal bars are.  That calculation requires understanding of your damage, spells, etc - and your enemies spells.  For instance, a level 6 annie w/ ingnite can 0-100 a yasuo a lv 6 yas if he does not successfully wind wall if he does not have his shield up.  0-90 with a shield.  Still 0-100 if he's a dummy.  Compared to a yas, who can like 0-50 without creep wave dancing or 0-70 with good creep wave dance, etc. 

Folks with a good understand vs bad understanding lethal calculations can be a huge factor.  For instance, if I'm a tf and I only have 20% hp, I know I need to be super careful.  But that's a no brainer.  Just basic holy crap imma die.  Everyone does small calculations like that.  I'm more talking about having a crystal clear understanding of the matchup, items, and summoners, and know that right now, if I go in on malzahar and he has 65% hp, I will kill him.  The faster I make that calculation while the other fella has more hp, the more probably I'm going to catch the guy off guard reducing his window to react.  If I don't understand the matchup, then I don't necessarily know how the lethal bar setup works - which means a more experienced player could try to flash kill me when I'm at 80% hp, etc.  

Anyway, the more I'm focussing on one champ (tf), the more I'm learning all of these matchups and how to play against each of them.  This is different than my normal style of play where I swapped between champions very often.  I actually think I kind of dislike tf.  In his favor, he has pretty solid wave clear and generally speaking, I actually find his lane phase not too difficult.  He can do a dbl red card start on the back wave which helps alot in reducing the amount of aggression the enemy can put out as they have to switch to last hit mode faster.  He's also an amazing ganker with huge map presence.  Super. But - he also requires at least semi intelligent reaction from your teammates, which does not always occur at this elo.  I really dislike champs that often require teammates in order to carry.  TF's lane phase usually isn't all that stellar and really relies on his ult to snowball himself/his lanes.  If those early/mid ganks fail, now you are probably a bit behind.  And can be missing out on money as you are leaving lane to go for those ganks.  A couple blown opportunities means a HUGE problem.  Compare that to a mid that can just steamroll mid and take a turret - personally, I prefer the steamroll my lane and not rely on other lanes concept.  

Why yes... Yes I am. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-zpOMYRi0w

Kind of super sick of tf.  I wish I had the same level of patience as some folks with just playing a champion over and over.  For me, its really only a matter of time until I'm like fug this.  I really dislike that he's generally dependent on his teammates and lacks a bit of kill pressure outside of the global (which again, generally relies on teammates).  And I'm finding that teammates aren't always reacting well (there's a diff between me just ulting like a goon and there being an actual play where folks don't follow up - I'm whinging about the latter).

All the high elo games are pretty much the same.  tf has a so so laning phase unless he's fighting against a bum.  TF scopes out the lanes, ults and drops a yellow card - 1-2 kills is generally the outcome + a turret.  Plus its just a really boring pattern - hard push/farm and roam or use fog of war to add pressure.  Games go well if you lock down the first 2 or so ult ganks.  You become very reliant on your team if they don't go well.  I'd still rather just overpower and win my lane.

All said and done - due to all my work, I'd say my TF was about a 2 out of 10 (10=good) before I picked him up, and I'm probably like a 4-5 now.  Fair to keep in mind MID is my least played role, so its not just learning the champ and matchups, its learning proper movement, warding, lane control for mid as well.  

Sadly, though, this is about the point where playing TF is work and not fun.  I have no doubt I could drill a bunch more games and bring up my skill to a 6-7, but... kind of don't want to.  

Got to say I'm really enjoying the coaching videos I've been watching.  Some are so specific as to breakdown a players movements and ward positioning and itemization - right down to literally why is this guy standing here right now.  Downside of the coaching vids - it takes a bunch of time.  Highly recommend checking some out if you are interested in getting better - most of these are vids coaching high diamond and some even challenger.  I usually do a search on youtube for X champion coaching - and then try to find something very current based on publish date, etc.  

Anyway, all this said and done, I'm starting to rate myself on role and champion now - kind of independently.  For instance, for support - the highest level of mastery being a 10.  Independent of champion, a mastery of 10 means tracking the jungler, tracking flash/spell timers, communicating with the team relevant info (mid lane flash down until 11:25), etc. Pinging out the enemy jungler.  Drake control, proper pink placement, on top of warding, roaming as appropriate, etc.  More or less mastery of non specific champion mechanics, strats.  Then you have a champion rating - which is much easier to classify as knowing and playing a champ optimally mechanically, etc.  I'm really just applying the system to myself and its a sliding scale based on my experience.

For instance, I considered myself extremely good in the support role.  Would have gone so far as to put myself at like a 9 out of 10.  I play with the high diamond fella and now I see what I'm actually not doing in the role.  That bopped me down to a 6 out of 10 in my mind.  And with focus and effort, I move to fill in and learn those things I was missing.  Once I master that, I'd bump myself all the way back to 9 or 10/10.  I'd play again with someone significantly higher ranked than me, find more things I'm missing, downgrade my rating, and so on.  This way I don't really even have to factor elo in when evaluating myself - other than to assume that even if I lock down everything I'm currently working on perfectly, I'll still have many things I don't even know about to improve.  

Teammates you can't count on to follow up?  Sounds like you've been playing yourself some Teambuilder.  "Dis Bronze Support Poppy is no damn good!"

Sorry TF is a chore for you, really thought he'd be your cup of tea.  Hopefully you find your Kalista someday!  Any idea what your plan is as far as roles and champs next season when the new Rolebuilder kicks off for Ranked?  I'm thinking I'm gonna try and be a Bot lane specialist and play Kalista or Thresh if I can, MF/Leona if I can't.  Might have to branch out more on my Marksmen choices since Riot is set on giving them all their own strengths and weaknesses instead of having a bunch of "Attack Move Click To Do Lotsa Damages" clones running around performing the same role.

1st look at new champ select

na.leagueoflege nds.com/en/site/2016-season-update/new-champ-select.html

scroll down to see vids of it in action.

also this:

"This upcoming season we're replacing the solo/duo queue with a dynamic group queue, where you'll be able to climb the ladder with any number of teammates, going from single participation all the way to a full team comp."

and

"When you're in a division lower than Gold 1, if you lose a promotional series, the next time you enter your series, you'll start with at least one win. "

Lots of interesting news today!

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/site/2016-season-update/ranked-improvements.html