Bran's S5 Ranked Conquest Qualifier Adventures (Games 1-3, Patch 5.7 Soft R

Yes, I'm actually back at it after the 5.7 ranked soft reset. Logged on last night, wife was super tired from restless sleep the night before so I knew I had a good chunk of game time XD

Warmed up with a couple of casual matches. Went 9/2/15 w/ Fenrir in an Assault game, where I accidentally auto-ran off the platform as we got into game, so started with 0 items...and got 4 kills before I died and was able to load up. Then went 7/2/19 w/ Bacchus in an Arena match that came down to the wire (3 tickets to 0). Was feeling pretty good after those matches.

Then DV-8 had finished up a ranked game, and so we partnered up for 3 ranked games.


This game, DV-8 decided to troll with a spicy Ah Puch mid pick. It actually worked pretty well for him (6/4/2, the only positive K/D on our team), and he would have done better with better teammates =(

I had Rama as an ADC. I'd given him the option of either ADC or Support. First few minutes were okay...we were outpushed pretty hard by Medusa and an interesting Chaac Support. They were able to steal our Void buff a couple of times. Had a couple of decent trades overall, but they hit level 5 before us, and I guess Rama thought he was safe under the tower but a Medusa ult secured her the kill.

At that point, I was sort of feeling like Tlaloc...

I was doing what I could, but it was a tough matchup. I know I could have done a few things significantly better...like my ult deployment (which I completely missed once), and started feeling like maybe some teammate deaths were my fault. Anyway, we'll revisit the Rama player later.

In terms of my build, I always feel Ganesha is slow, so I grabbed Travelers Shoes. Got Sovereignty before Gauntlet of Thebes due to the double-phys enemy duo (and the higher HP5). A later Shogun's Kusari was meant to help teamfight damage with Bellona and Rama having good basic attack function.

My participation in this game wasn't bad. I participated in 10 out of 13 total team kills...you can see, outside of DV-8, the other teammates weren't around for much of anything. We also had our Bellona being toxic and blaming everyone for being ****, and saying after the game that she was playing a 1 v 5. LOL.

With regard to warding, DV and I both dropped 10. Mr. 1 v 5 dropped 3. Our ADC and JUNGLER? I bet you can guess.

Oh well, first one down.


Trust in DV-8 (and BaRRaCCuDDa). Told him at the beginning that I'd be using his build. It's only the right thing to do when he's helping you through ranked qualifiers =P

This match felt a lot better from the start. My Cerberus Support and I tried for an early kill (right off the bat) with an upgraded Heavenly Wings (for the Fatalis effect). Got the Izanami scurrying under her tower (unfortunately no kill), but that focus meant the enemy Kumbhakarna got a few free swings on me, forcing me as low as 1/4 health, so I had to potion it up to recover. He was a great Support though, made some good calls throughout the game, etc.

In fact, our whole team generally felt solid... Chang'e came through with some nice timely heals to help sustain us through some great objective pushes.

Remember last game how I said we'd revisit that Rama? Well, he was the opposing ADC. And after the match, DV recognized that he was the same guy as last match. And now I don't feel so bad about the Support game. Even when it was just me and Iza in lane, I was outpushing strongly, and never felt really pressured (other than by ***bha roots and whatnot).

In this one, I got Warrior Tabi 2nd (for that smoother, more efficient early power curve as discussed in other threads). Got the Ichaival bridge, which felt great due to picking it up quickly due to low cost. Chose Qin's Sais before The Executioner because I had the $$$. Cringed at myself only slightly when getting Titan's Bane...(I actually didn't feel bad at all, because I'd checked enemy builds...Zhong, Fen, and ***bha all got physical protections, so I was facing a pretty tanky enemy comp). Finished by replacing Ich with Odysseus' Bow (which I didn't get to feel the effect much because the game ended shortly thereafter).

Also talked more with DV-8 about Hachiman in general, after the game. He just feels so well balanced...that escape really is nice, the CD on his wave-clear / steroid feels short, and dropping it down when taking objectives just feels right. He's my new favorite ADC (at least in Conquest).

DV dropped 7 wards, I dropped 5, Chang'e dropped 7, and Cerberus 10. What's with Junglers not dropping ANY?!?



So yeah...this was a very interesting game. It started out in the match lobby with "FootjobLover" propositioning me due to being a muffin, I assume. American Pie, anyone?

I thought our comp was pretty interesting. DV as first pick went with Ah Muzen Cab, and was mentioning needing Supports to help defend/peel, otherwise AMC is a juicy target. Yup, Amaterasu Support kept leaving him, which led to some early deaths. He came back strongly though.

Felt relatively uneventful in Mid. Mostly concentrated on farming and outclearing the enemy Poseidon. Almost had a couple early kills, but kept missing the Ult in my combo attacks (he'd sidestep at the last second, dammit). My best move was jumping past an attempted Ratatoskr gank ult and getting just out of range of the Poseidon ult that followed.

But yeah...0/1/7 isn't a very impressive score. Was playing on the passive side. At least I didn't feed.

My biggest "mistake" was losing my enemy Mid...though he was just going for the Duo-side mid-camp after he outcleared me on a wave, so I called enemy missing. He'd ended up rotating all the way to Duo for a gank. I can't remember if it was our Ama or Hades but they sort of yelled at me...I said that I did call enemy missing, but they said I should have rotated too. Well, I would have been behind, and again, didn't know he was rotating all the way, and they didn't have any wards up on that path, so I don't think I could have helped much anyway.

In any case, it was a very quick match, and we just blew through objectives quickly.

Oh, and after the match? Footjob propositioned me again. At least he's consistent.

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Final qualifiers score so far? 2-1. Yay. This is looking better than last qualifiers. Thanks DV-8.