June 04, 2016

Bran's Newbie Adventures in ConquestLand - Episode VI (Return of Poor Timin

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Conquest  |  noob  |  educational  |  iSux
I've been trying to branch out just a bit more. Played a couple of Clash matches recently as Scylla (she's super fun, but I need lots of practice)...I'm at least even K/D but should be doing a lot more damage. 3 games went 11/10/4, 7/7/6, 1/1/1.

Also played some more Joust matches as Odin (I'm still not very good at Joust). Went 7/3/5, 6/7/7, and 1/3/6.

But anyway, back to Conquest. Over the past few days I've gotten a few games in. At this point, I'm definitely not a game-changer, but I'm also not (usually) a detriment to my team anymore, even when playing with people I don't know. I don't feel like I'm the weakest member of the team, which is something.

Khepri Support games:

Okay, need to talk about this next game in more depth.

To start...holy hell. I mean, what the hell was I smoking? Answer: nothing...I had been drinking. Just beer, though they were heavier ones, and they were slowly wearing off.

Things went south immediately. At the damage buff, I was up against a pillar when the minion was killed, and I tried to go to the side to avoid it...right into the pillar, which moved as much as me. Yup, the Support stole the damage buff. Says Zeus: "I...will...end you." Fair enough...VVS!!! Told him I'd make it up to him later. He didn't really have a choice.

I was horrified by this event, and I was still thinking about it way too much, screwing my play horribly. Both the ADC (a friend =P) and I died before 50 seconds were up.

By the 10:30 point of the match, I was 0/5/4. Yeesh. But I noticed I was feeling a bit more alert. Ahhh...beer wearing off...sweet.

Some good plays, good saves, etc., and well...look how it turned around.

Final score: 5/6/23 (Win: 43 minutes). None of my teammates were absolutely dominant, so it was a good, solid, satisfying team win.

I'll get some annotations up for this one later.


Alright, next up. Final score: 0/4/26 (Loss: 41 minutes...by MINION). Okay, check this out. Our team had 55 kills, 91 assists. The enemy, winning team? 38 kills, 38 assists. Talk about a steal. We dominated overall play, but sadly couldn't come together to finish them off. Here's a lesson. Rather than pushing for objectives, pushing all minions back in all lanes is pretty much an objective itself, especially if they're riding up against your phoenixes. It would have been best to split up and push those waves back, and maybe gone for the fire giant if we had time. Oh, I think my best move of the game was ulting Ratatoskr milliseconds before Ne Zha got him up in the air. I got a "KHEPRI I LOVE YOU" from him for that move.

My biggest issue right now, I think, is the timing for using Khepri's ult to save people. Enemies generally recognize and will stop attacking, so it's a huge timing thing with regard to not using it so soon that enemies just wait for the ult to end before finishing their target, and using it too late (duh, the teammate dies before you can activate). I think I do alright, but you want that ult to work everytime, and that's going to take a lot of practice (and always a bit of luck).

And finally...

Another Solo-Lane Game

Chaac is probably the safest solo-laner. With the combination of his passive (allowing him to use an ability for 0 mana), having his mana buff 2 of every 3 minutes, and some self-healing, he has amazing self-sustain in-lane. Add a sufficiently strong distance AOE damaging ability, and you've got an incredibly solid, if non-dramatic pick.

This matchup was obviously lopsided, as our team dominated every role. That said, I was alone a lot of the time, and I found myself in a mirror match against another Chaac, so it was a good individual challenge for me to out-duel the enemy. Had a couple of good plays, and was able to escape a potentially deadly situation.

Also, I've started thinking more and using standard strategies. Was sure Chaac was my lane enemy, but didn't buy a relic until I confirmed (which was something I didn't do in a previous match as Zhong Kui, and which screwed me against Fenrir). Also bought less Mana Potions than I probably would otherwise, because Chaac is very mana efficient. Was watching the minimap a bit more also, and kept an eye on the mana buff camp to make sure I had it as often as possible. Standard stuff for other people, but still not instinctual for me. I'm improving. Good job, me.

Final score: 1-0-3 (Win: surrender @ 14 minutes))