League of Legends

[Zkirsche]

Summoner name is Soren37.

I tried adding you as a friend (summoner name is JKirwan94 btw), but it couldn't find your username. It might be because I'm on EU west.

[Soren37]

I find the Archangel's is doritos for him. With his kit, you can just spam W, and throw an E in there as well, which means you get 8 mana. Once they're off cooldown, you can do it all again. 16 mana every 8 seconds, which means you're getting 0.48 AP every 8 seconds. As long as you're mashing on your W button, you get tons of mana, which means more AP, which means you can focus more on defensive items.

The way I generally build him, and has led to excellent results for me is as follows.

1. Start with boots, 2 mana pots, and 1 health pot.

2. First trip back, grab ToG, or the recipe items.

3. Second trip, Blasting Wand, or if enough gold, Archangel's. If not enough gold for Archangel's, get recipe items for RoA or buy CDR boots.

4. By now, I should have an Archangel's. I then get CDR boots and start building my way towards a RoA.

5. Grab defensive items. If the enemy team is caster-based, I grab a BV. If they're Attack-based, I grab Randuin's Omen. If they're balanced across the board, I just grab a mix of health, armour, and MR. So, BV and Randuin's.

For my playstyle, I focus on zoning enemy champs with my bombs until I get them to level 3. I then start harassing a tiny bit, depending on the circumstances. Once I get my Archangel's, I also try to have either W or E on cooldown. Later on, they are always on cooldown. Last game I played, I had about 3100 mana at the end of the game. This translated into 93 AP from the item, 80 from RoA, and some more AP from Masteries and Runes. All in all, I had about 300 AP at the end. I can't remember the exact mana amount, but in any event, this is the way I like to play Zilean. I haven't done this in Ranked, but I do enjoy this build, and find it to be very worthwhile. You do have to farm on your own though once you can safely do so.

As for the name, it might be why. I'm the NA servers.

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

Really? If you grab Tear Of The Goddess early, and get Archangel's later (like, lategame), you can get some decent AP off it. 45 + 3% Max Mana (which when fully boosted (with only the passive effect), should give you about another 60, and you can spam abilities for longer. Only really for AP Carry/Nuke, but that's what it's for. That's the way I see it.

Ya but that's the thing, you could be working towards a deathcap which gives more AP upfront than say...AA. Another thing to consider is that Deathcap is only 800 gold more than Archangels. And even if you're not aiming for a Deathcap rush you could be getting something like a Catalyst->RoA for survivability, typically more AP than AA during most points in the game, and earlygame lane sustain thanks to the passive heal. Mana is not too much of an issue on most heroes and to make the best use out of tear/archangels you need to be playing a hero that can freely spam abilities on a very low CD such as Karth or Cass and even then most of the time you won't come even close to maxxing out stacks.

But another thing you also should be considering is masteries when you plan on doing a Tear build. Because to make decent use out of tear you may need to go 9 points in the defense tree to get that one skill that gives you health regen based on mana which will usually leave you at 0/9/21 or some crap like that and to be honest, I usually rather just go the 9/0/21 route for mana casters because that 15% magic pen is pretty valuable and you can already get good sustain via Catalyst.

[BK-201]

Archangels is a trash item IMO. Only good on heroes like Karth and Cass and even then it is still a questionable item.

Tear is staple on Ryze.

AA is a poor item due to it being outclassed heavily by RoA. RoA will get rid of that mana problem, which is what you most likely bought AA for during lane phase. RoA provides sustainability also. Karthus uses it well only because of his passive which allows him to glass cannon freely.

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

Tear is staple on Ryze.

Of course but he's an unconventional mage in the sense that his abilities scale off of mana. I just mean the rest of the casters that scale off of AP.

[Soren37]

Like I said, Zilean can freely spam his W. It costs 50 mana, and at higher levels, can go down to about a 3-4 second cooldown, depending on masteries and runes.

I seem to find it to be a good item. I don't get it for the laning phase sustain. I find I can last pretty well if I just play passively until my bombs get to level 3. Once that happens, I just wait for them to get out of position. I get it so early so that I can actually build up the mana from it. I grab a RoA after the AA, and then counter-build for the enemy team.

[Soren37]

Like I said, Zilean can freely spam his W. It costs 50 mana, and at higher levels, can go down to about a 3-4 second cooldown, depending on masteries and runes.

I seem to find it to be a good item. I don't get it for the laning phase sustain. I find I can last pretty well if I just play passively until my bombs get to level 3. Once that happens, I just wait for them to get out of position. I get it so early so that I can actually build up the mana from it. I grab a RoA after the AA, and then counter-build for the enemy team.

[BK-201]

Like I said, Zilean can freely spam his W. It costs 50 mana, and at higher levels, can go down to about a 3-4 second cooldown, depending on masteries and runes.

I seem to find it to be a good item. I don't get it for the laning phase sustain. I find I can last pretty well if I just play passively until my bombs get to level 3. Once that happens, I just wait for them to get out of position. I get it so early so that I can actually build up the mana from it. I grab a RoA after the AA, and then counter-build for the enemy team.

Grabbing RoA after AA is a bad idea. RoA scales with time so grabbing it early is best. If you aren't using tear for sustain then RoA is a much better path for sure.

[Soren37]

I was talking to a friend, and I'm changing the order up ever so slightly. I still start with Boots, Ward, and Pots. Then I grab ToG, and then a Catalyst. After that, RoA, AA, Lucidity, Counter-build.

[BK-201]

I was talking to a friend, and I'm changing the order up ever so slightly. I still start with Boots, Ward, and Pots. Then I grab ToG, and then a Catalyst. After that, RoA, AA, Lucidity, Counter-build.

I personally find that Deathcap + RoA is much better than AA and Deathcap. Lucidity is a weird item to get on a caster generally as having blue buff is usually enough especially with the ability to blue pot. Don't bother with wards for starting items, unless you are in an Elo range where people will gank at level 2~(only Lee Sin, Nunu, and Udyr generally), the ward is most likely to be less useful than 2 health pots, as the laning power you gain is much more important than those few seconds of security. You can go back and pick up the ward later, as that's when it will actually be useful.

[Soren37]

Deathcap is still more expensive, and the Archangel's works wonders with his spammable E and W. Lucidity helps with the spammability, and I play support caster Zil, so the Lucidity is almost required.

Sorry about the ward confusion. I throw that in there to cover me for ranked games. I don't normally buy it unless I see a character with Smite. Otherwise, it's a bunch of pots.

[BK-201]

Deathcap is still more expensive, and the Archangel's works wonders with his spammable E and W. Lucidity helps with the spammability, and I play support caster Zil, so the Lucidity is almost required.

Sorry about the ward confusion. I throw that in there to cover me for ranked games. I don't normally buy it unless I see a character with Smite. Otherwise, it's a bunch of pots.

Spammability difference is minimal. Also, support Zilean is inferior to traditional Zilean, which is to be a strong mid game AP. If you go the support role, you will inevitably sacrifice cs, and as a result weaken Zilean's effect on the game. Playing Zilean optimally, you most likely will recieve blue buff, so Sorcerors will result in more. I'm not seeing how you are spending mana enough that catalyst doesn't fix the problem. I think this more of a problem with mana management than the viability of AA. The mana required for AA to reach the AP of Deathcap is 4567 mana, which is well worth the extra gold for death cap.

For ranked games, refer to above, you probably will not play support Zilean who is inferior to traditional supports.

[Wen Yang]

Out of curiosity, which server do you guys play in?

I play LoL in the SEA server, same nick as what I use here.

Also, anyone interested in Riven? I'm planning to buy her the moment she comes out (Got IP saved up).

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

I was talking to a friend, and I'm changing the order up ever so slightly. I still start with Boots, Ward, and Pots. Then I grab ToG, and then a Catalyst. After that, RoA, AA, Lucidity, Counter-build.

ToG+Catalyst is terrible itemization.

If you go support route just do the gp/5 bullshit.

[BK-201]

Out of curiosity, which server do you guys play in?

I play LoL in the SEA server, same nick as what I use here.

Also, anyone interested in Riven? I'm planning to buy her the moment she comes out (Got IP saved up).

I think the majority of us, at least the ones who post frequently in this thread are on NA.

Riven's art is meh.

[Solanum Tuberosum]

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=268412&d=1315666087

what are you talking about its the best

[Soren37]

Okay then. After hearing how much mana is needed, I'll just go gp/5.

NA.

Riven seems interesting. It's definitely going to take some skill to pull her off correctly, as her abilities all need to chain together well.

Pieman, that should be an official skin.

[BK-201]

Okay then. After hearing how much mana is needed, I'll just go gp/5.

NA.

Riven seems interesting. It's definitely going to take some skill to pull her off correctly, as her abilities all need to chain together well.

Pieman, that should be an official skin.

I'd say screw support Zilean in general. Support Zilean is inferior to AP Carry Zilean in every way. AP Zilean will fall off lategame in comparison to other APs, however this isn't too significant and Zilean has great pushing power throughout the whole game in addition to great mobility. This leads to a good potential for splitpush, and his damage isn't exactly terrible especially given that it is AoE.

[Solanum Tuberosum]

I agree, best Zilean is ap carry Zilean, when u Chronoshift someone, they will get shitt tons of hp back, and if you play support Zilean, if you bomb someone, a smart person will blow up their creeps, causing the lane to push, and leave you vulnerable to GENKS

[Soren37]

Okay then. So go mid-lane, farm like a baws, get a quick Deathcap, and start blowing shit up?

[BK-201]

Okay then. So go mid-lane, farm like a baws, get a quick Deathcap, and start blowing shit up?

2 ways to run it. Starting with Deathcap will result in being mana starved when blue buff is lacking.

Double Doran Rings -> Boots -> Deathcap -> Sorcs Boots.

Or:

Mana Crystal -> Catalyst -> Boots -> RoA -> Deathcap.

[Soren37]

Think I like the Catalyst one more. Just because of the Catalyst's passive and that the quick RoA pays off.

[Soren37]

Sorry for the double post.

New patch and character! :D

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/riven-patch-notes

And Riven spotlight.

http://na.leagueoflegends.com/news/champion-spotlight-riven-exile

I kinda like the patch notes. They did hit on some things that were needed (Shaco), and offered some nice changes. We'll see what happens.

[Wen Yang]

Now that I know that Riven is purely CD-based, I'm definitely buying her.

Her skillset makes her seem like she'd make a nasty as hell tanky DPS.

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

Riven is soooo fun.