Katarina, the pubstomping queen

After much deliberation and reading her exemplary Champion statistics from lolbase, I declared Katarina the Sinister Blade number one as the most overpowered character for winning solo queue normal games. Here is a link if you want to see the entire list: the top ten pubstomping Champions and how to counter them. She is still easily countered in ranked, but if you feel like facerolling casuals with an OP Champion, try her.

"The Sinister Blade of Noxus is like a black widow - beautiful, but deadly." –- Garen, the Might of Demacia, following a skirmish in the field .

I don't think anyone can dispute the result of a fed Katarina versus a disorganised team, her passive makes her the ultimate snowball in a team fight. However, just because she's overpowered doesn't mean you can hurr durr into the enemy team and get kills, if you want to do that play something like Nunu or Jax.

Here is a video of my Kat play in normal matches:

This footage is by no means a display of skill, it is just some ganks and gameplay.

Katarina lore:

As a militaristic state, it would perhaps come as no surprise that the primary responsibilities of Noxian women are raising strong children and providing succor for husbands who walk the path of soldiery. There are some, however, for whom nurture is not nature, and Katarina is just such a creature. Born the daughter of the feared Noxian General Du Couteau, the girl was always more interested in her father's knives than in the dresses, jewelry, and other trifles that her sisters spent so much time fussing over. A childhood dispute soon unveiled her uncanny knack for bloodshed, and her father, ever the opportunist, happily fostered her killer instincts. After training under the tutelage of the finest assassins the mighty city-state had to offer, Katarina first cut her teeth performing assassinations in the Ionian War. There, her ruthless mastery of the knife and dagger combined with her sadistic temperament to earn her the title Sinister Blade, a moniker that would follow her for the remainder of her career. She is most famous, however, for her exploits in the campaigns against Demacia, especially those surrounding her engagements with the nation's champion, GarenSquare.png Garen; a rivalry which began when she recovered the remains of Sion from a vanguard under his protection.

With the demand for warfare somewhat arrested by the tenuous peace settling over Valoran, Katarina sought the allure of violence in its last remaining haven: The League of Legends. Some might say it was an inevitability that Katarina's chosen path would draw her to become a champion of the League, continuing to enforce the will of Noxus and bring prestige of war to her noble family. There, she continues to perform her bloody work - esteemed and reviled, feared and adored.

The ten best pubstomping champions in League of Legends and how to counter them

I have compiled a list of what I believe to be the best pubstomping characters for solo playing League of Legends in 2011. What I mean by pubstomp is the champions that are easiest to obtain multiple kills on with less skill and effort than the enemy team. You have little justification to pick the characters on this list, unless you're a tryhard =3

Please bear in mind, this list is for normal games only. This has nothing to do with ranked or elo, just stomping in a casual match. By no means will any of these characters have the same effect in a ranked game.

This list is now outdated, it was accurate during 2011.

I have also provided some general tips on how to play against and counter these overpowered champions, since it's likely you'll encounter at least one on this list every couple of games. Bear in mind, this advice might not be too useful, they are the most overpowered after all.

I had trouble choosing the top 5, so it's open to interpretation. But in my experience all of the characters in this list deserve to be here.

Honourable mentions:
There are a few other noteworthy characters who might of gotten into the charts, such as Annie, Evelynn, Akali, Rumble, and Master Yi. After careful deliberation and recent patch notes, I made my decisions. Most of them didn't make the list because they can be a little more tricky to play, which means they aren't faceroll.
 
Top ten overpowered Champions and how to counter them

10. Mordekaiser

Why he's overpowered: Morde is classed mostly as a soak, but he can also put out an incredible amount of damage. Lane control is quite often granted to those of Mordekaiser status, because of his big bad shield. While he isn't really considered viable in ranked, it's not uncommon to see this guy fending off hordes of scrubs and carrying in normal games.

How to counter him: 

• In the laning phase try to auto-attack his shield down when you get a good opportunity. Use your abilities to damage him when his shield is low, to work on his health.
• He doesn't use mana, so the only way to stop him is to kill him or deny/harass him. If you can prevent him reaching creeps he won't be able to charge his shield, making him very vulnerable.
• Mordekaiser has a long range on his ultimate, and it does a fair bit of damage. If he has ignite it will really do a number on you, so beware.
• In the early team fights it is vital you kill higher priority weaker targets before taking him down, since he can be quite difficult to kill. Use your best judgement.

9. Malzahar

What makes him overpowered: Malzahar is one annoying bastard. He is granted rank nine on the list purely because of his ultimate, which is a guaranteed kill on practically anyone. The rest of his abilities are surprisingly lacklustre, but they compliment his stupidly OP stun. A good malz in mid will get first blood at level 6 most of the time, since there are almost no characters in the game that can stand up to his Stun+DoT+AoE combo.

How to counter him:

• When facing Malzahar in the lane, you can win fairly easily with your lanemate by double teaming him.
• If you're fighting Malzahar in mid, stay out of his range when he hits level 6. If you can harass him without being ultied, try to send him away. If not, call for a gank or ignore him and farm away. 
• A little magic resist like Banshee's veil or Force of nature will make him target someone else or make you laugh as you shrug off his pathetic combo.
• I thought it would be straightforward, but avoid his silence and AoE like the plague. You gotta be stupid to stand in the purple voidy stuff anyways. His pet shouldn't be too much of a problem. 
• If you can exhaust him before he ults, it will do no damage. Edit: Someone kindly pointed out his ult is a suppression, so even if you have cleanse, sadly you're still fucked.

8. Xin Zhao

Why he's overpowered:  Although some recent changes have somewhat nerfed Xin, he still remains one of the best Champions to win your lane. With an awesome gap closer and faceroll knockup, enemies will be eating your spear as you carry your team to victory.

How to deal with him:

• Xin's passive allows him to regenerate health when attacking, so don't let him get near creeps if you have harassed him.
• Once you learn the range he can leap on you from, take advantage of this knowledge and kite him.
• Stay near towers because getting surprised by Xin isn't pleasant.
• Don't bunch up in team fights, spread out a little so Xin can't hit multiple targets with his ultimate.

7. Swain

Why he's faceroll: If you haven't laned against Swain, you can count yourself lucky. This guy is one of the most rageworthy champs in the game. His AoE snare deals substantial damage, and combined with the DoT Swain is capable of killing weaker players early game. He trades that all in at level 6 for the godmode hat of douchery, since his ultimate heals him incredibly quickly. Those idiots who have trouble controlling the toggle on Swains crows and can't land a stun still get kills, which is why he is rank 7 on the list.

How to kick his ass:

• Before you get boots, it's difficult to avoid his snare, so make it hard for him to land it on you. When you have boots, you can screw around with him by moving unpredictably. 
• A lot of his damage is DoT
• His ultimate gives him a ridiculous amount of health per tick, it can require a team effort to take him down, or an ignite. Try to burn his mana if you can't finish the kill.
• Swain is almost defenseless against heavy DPS carries, he moves slowly and they can slaughter him mid to late game.

6.  Irelia

Why she's rollface: With a gap closer that resets every last hit, farming on Irelia can be like a creep hoover. Hiten style allows for a little lifesteal to help in the lane and some true damage for good measure. Her ultimate is amazing at shooting down runners, and she is surprisingly tanky. Due to some comments, I have replaced Yi with Irelia, since it seems like a logical trade.

How to subdue her:

• As usual, the best way to shut down a carry like Irelia is to deny her farm and experience.
• Don't waste time using stuns and silences on her in a teamfight, just burst her down.
• She is an excellent 1v1 champion, don't approach her unless you know you can win.
• Irelia can shoot several missiles for a lot of damage. They can be quite easily avoided if you strafe.

5.  Jax

Why he's overpowered: Jax is a whore. You can jump him with 2 people, get him to 10% health, then he'll one shot the both of you and take your tower. His burst is so ridiculous he can eat tanks in seconds, and weaker targets just dissapear. Fear the Jax, fear him.
He isn't the most mobile of characters, but that's more than made up for by his damage.

How to counter him:

• To stand up to Jax toe to toe you need to be fairly tanky. He can be bursted down, but beware he can easily take a squishier character down with him. 
• I know I've mentioned Exhaust a lot, but it is a very useful spell to shut down annoying pubstomping champions. Yes, it works wonderfully on Jax.
• Before level 6 he is very weak, and with a little co-ordination you and your lanemate can harass him out of the lane several times.
• Don't leave him to cruise around destroying your team, focus on shutting him down.

4. Tryndamere

Why he melts face: Everyone knows the Tryndaking. His 'R' is arguably the best ultimate in the game, 5 seconds of wtf he can't die. I've seen people play tank on Tryndabling and still get a godly score while carrying the team. Up until level 6 he's nothing special, but after that a good player can't really die on him if cautious. What makes him rank four on the top overpowered list however, is not his ultimate. When Tryndamere gets on you, slows your ass, then start critting you like Batman you know it's all over.

How to combat him:

• He always has his ultimate up, trust me. 
• Ignite him before his ulti wears off, it will usually finish him.
• Be wary of tower dives, Tryndamere can and will do it at level 6. If you can kite him around the turret, it could backfire on him.
• Don't waste time nuking him while his ulti is up, focus other targets instead.
• If you face him when he casts his slow, it will reduce your attack damage but you won't be slowed. If you can abuse this, it makes it much easier to kite him.

3. Nunu

Why he's wtfOP: With unstoppable lane staying power and a hard hitting slow, Nunu earnt his place as rank 3 in the overpowered chart. In a normal game his ultimate turns the tide of team fights, and is easy to place. At max rank Nunu's snowball and speed increase is awesome for setting up ganks and teamfights. There's nothing to aim, it's near impossible to die if you're playing cautious, and you can harass/kill most champions in the lane.

How to beat him down:

• If you're quick, you can escape his ultimate before it's fully charged. Flash is excellent for this.
• Eating creeps restores a massive chunk of Nunus health, if you can force him back, you can keep him on the defensive.
• Beware if Nunu is missing, he is very fast and his snowball makes it very hard to escape.
• Silence or stun his ultimate, it will do no damage if you interrupt it early.
• In a teamfight focus his allies first. Besides his ult, Nunu has little utility in a 5v5 situation.

2. Udyr

Why he's godly: With a slight buff recently, Udyr is now terrifying. If you find yourself fed on this guy, you've pretty much won. Towers, Nexus, Players, or Baron, it's all dead if it tries to face the stance shifting bear man.What surprises me, is how underplayed this guy is. His turtle stance has something like a 2 second cooldown, which makes him a good soak, practically as good as Mordekaiser. Tiger stance is where it's at, it places a powerful DoT on everything, including towers. I think a lot of people just don't know how to play him, but you'll want to when you see an Udyr go 10-0 in 3v3.

How to fight him:

• If he's jungling, put some wards up and gank him early game.
• Don't waste time trying to harass him in the lane, he can heal and shield himself. Either attack his lanemate or burst him down.
• Udyr is incredibly vulnerable to kiting. It is the best way to survive his burst. Flash is also excellent.
• Seize control of the game early on and don't allow it to get to late game. A fully built Udyr is a wrecking ball.

1. Katarina

Katarina statistics on Lolbase are better than any other champion

 Why she's an overpowered bitch: Now we're down to the rank 1, I can really start complaining. Katarina takes no skill at all, yet kills fall into your lap faster than a drunk ugly chick at a party. Her ultimate is spin to win kill everything nearby except tanks, and to top it all off, she can teleport directly onto enemies for optimal spinnage. All of Kats abilities reset cooldown upon killing an enemy, so the more you faceroll the more you can faceroll wut? Seriously, if you can't succeed on Kat you really need some practice, kills are easy pickings. If you want to learn more about her, take a look here.

How to not get killed by her:

• Her ultimate cooldown is supershort, so have a disable ready every time you encounter her.
• Early game her damage output isn't very good, and she can't farm very well. Capitalize on this by denying her experience and gold.
• Don't let her farm throughout the game and she won't be a threat.
• Exhaust stops her ult killing your entire team. 
• She can use shunpo to escape easily, try to see which creep/champion she is going to teleport to before she does it.
• Don't risk standing in the ultimate, unless you're a tank.

That's it for my list of faceroll Champions, if you enjoyed it or disagree with any of the above, please comment!

If you want some hilarious League of Legends comics to kill time, here's a link.

Edit: Thanks to a comment from a viewer, I have changed the eighth rank from Shaco to Xin Zhao. He made a fair point, since Shaco isn't particularly easy to play.

A few minutes of Ezreal play and Summoner showcase

I have a some footage for you today. I got a few kills playing as Ezzer in the lane with an awesome Gragas. Also, Summoner showcase #34 is out, so I thought I'd cover that incase anyone likes to laugh at that kind of thing.

Since the game as Ez turned out really badly afterwards (we didn't play too well), I decided to cut the rest of the game from the video. Irelia and Olaf were both really bad, which is why we beat them down so much over a period of ten minutes.

Hopefully the quality of the clips are much better, I've been looking into a way to keep the filesize small and the graphics fairly nice. Seems like I may have found the best settings.

Summoner showcase is always quite amusing to watch, you gotta be boring as hell to take it seriously though. I want to know who came up with this crap, and I hope they don't get paid. Surely the funds could be put towards better customer service?

I also collected some League of Legends wallpapers for this post, I hope you find one worth saving.

Kayle is surprisingly underrated these days, she's still good though.

 This is the chinese version of Taric, far cooler than ours. Hard to say if more or less faggy.

 Some guy on the League forums made this one, pretty awesome huh. Katarina and Jax is a pro laning combo too.

 Hell yeah Udyr got buffed he's a monster now. Overpowered, try him.

Very... Purple. Morgana for the win, gotta love the stun.

Normal match

Here's ten minutes of play I accumulated over the last few days. It isn't my best play, and I'm 0-1 when the recording starts.

Not to play the blame game, but cruddy Mordekaiser let me die =3

The quality isn't quite what I wanted, in future it will be better. I know the clicking is annoying, I'll find a way to quieten it.

Finally back on track

It's been a long time coming, but I've managed to get my video editing software working flawlessly. I've also now got my hands on the EU client for LoL, so I can play on both EU/US. Not only that, Riot have announced the season one winners, TEAM FNATICMSI.

TEAM FNATICMSI managed to win a whopping $50,000 prize, the lucky buggers. Good thing it's only $10,000 each between them eh? And with that, season one of League of Legends is over. What does that mean, you ask? Nothing, except now it's season two.

If you are interested in playing with me (really?), search Serenity blogs on facebook and post your summoner name and which client you play. I'll add you and we'll do a game sometime. Beware on the EU though, I have barely any characters yet.

I've been rendering my footage for the last few days, and collecting tidbits too. I don't really know whether to record the voices of whom I'm playing with on skype, or just to cut audio entirely and replace it with some nice music =P If you have suggestions, please comment, because I love reading every comment here, and I love deleting the flamers too. So you can't go wrong.

In the meantime while I produce a video, I thought I'd provide you with some comics and a video:

If you're interested in more League comics, here are links:
More comics 1
More comics 2
More comics 3
More comics 4
More comics 5
More comics 6

League of Legends comics

I know a lot of people come here only for the comics, and who am I to deny you your birthright. One day I may run out of comics, but that day is not on the horizon so enjoy!

It's taking me quite some time using premier/vegas to make a video, but it will be here soon.

In the meanwhile however, here are the League of Legends comics for you to read. I found some pretty good ones this time too.

If you want moar comics than this, check out these posts:
Comics 1
Comics 2
Comics 3
Comics 4

Sony Vegas or Adobe Premier and a Rant

So I'm trying to decide which editing software to use, I have enough experience to use both Premier and Vegas.

So far, I have recorded a couple of games, although only one of them was good enough for footage. Fraps is excellent software for recording LoL games, but it cannot compress as it works, hence a 30 minute game equals a whopping 30 gigabytes of your hardrive space.

Today, I'm going to be ranting a little about League of Legends, because I'm upset the forums aren't full of people putting Riot in their place anymore.

I found this epic comic. Even though it's entirely fictional, it only furthers my impression of Riots incompetence.

 Don't get me wrong guys I love League of Legends, but since World of Warcraft came out, I've had a critical eye for any problems dealt with badly in a game. Riot can't seem to do anything right anymore, from the rushed out tribunal to their pathetic E3 performance.

Riot are the kind of company who should be busking copies of their game on the street outside E3, they shouldn't be allowed inside. Looks like they put a lot of effort into the video too, not that it does much good.

Spectator mode? I'd rather use fraps than Riots shitty coding, thanks. They also introduce 3 new champions, probably because they are still guilty about magma chamber and their dozens of other promises.

So today I've been overly insulting towards Riot, but in my eyes, they got extraordinarily lucky with their game, and the only thing keeping League afloat is the fact that it's retard friendly. Ever met a high elo player who wasn't pissed off at the game for some reason? No. Because all the good players know the game is flawed.

I want to know what happened to the $400 million that tencent spent on Riot, because their production values haven't increased that much.

As you leave my blog today, you need to ask yourself a very important question. Where is the content we were promised months ago? Where is that money you spent on RP going to? Why have Tencent (now majority stakeholders) not told Riot to stop being douchebags?

Ask yourself these questions, because I sure as hell don't know the answer.

Megapost

I don't think my recent content has been fulfilling enough in terms of length. Slowly but surely, the quality of my blogging is increasing. The most practical way I can think to further that goal is by creating a MEGAPOST.

What is a megapost I hear you ask? It's one of these beautiful little buggers, so you'll be prepared in the future when I come to your house and ask you to describe a megapost. Creepy gestures aside, Let us kick off with some comics, since I know y'all love em.

 I thought this one was pretty epic, it's a shame move quick got nerfed. Here's another good one that is sadly invalid today.

 

 I've never personally seen League of Legends as a competitive game. Even in ranked matches, the amount of serious players loses by a tragic landslide to the casual and the plain bads. However, when two strong teams come together, it's remniscent somewhat to a clash of the titans (no relation to the shitty movie).

Anyway, I spent a little time watching some high elo ranked games and chose a shining few to present for your viewing pleasure today. If you don't like said video in terms of skill and/or editing, I strongly encourage you create some time to contact them through their youtube account and annoy the crap out of them.

HotshotGG as Nidalee   
















aAa vs MyRevenge
 


Solomid vs Counter Stop Gaming










All of the above demonstrate high elo play, and the skill involved seems attainable, even to me. The barrier that divides the professional from the average doesn't seem such an intimidating leap. A good phrase to quote now might be 'It's easier said than done'. However, I still believe the best players on the other MOBA games (DotA and HoN), display a superior level of skill that leaves people thinking 'Damn, I wouldn't wanna lane against that guy'.

If I were asked to provide some logic behind why HoN and DotA players develop a higher skill cap in general, I would attribute it to several things:
- Denying. Killing your own creeps sounds strange at first, but when you have to deny the whole creep wave AND get all the last hits, it forces the player to maintain a harder laning rotation.
- Slower game progress. In HoN and DotA, the laning phase usually continues for a longer time, giving you more time to make mistakes, grind gold, and make your enemies miserable.
- Unforgiving environment. Anyone who has played a MOBA game has to deal with the learning curve, but you can't get kicked and banlisted for being bad on League of Legends.

This video is a tournament match in Heroes of Newerth, take a look if you're interested.

Anyway, I haven't had the chance to mention the Tribunal is finally out, yay. Now we all have to hope our rage games don't appear for vote. I know I have plenty of matches that would result in my ban if the light of the tribunal ever revealed them.

Despite the poor IP rewards, voting on the tribunal is pleasantly entertaining. There's something relaxing about reviewing someones incredibly retarded behaivour, and then maliciously slamming down the banhammer on them. There's a high guarantee that they'll always be banned, because nobody goes to the tribunal to protest for innocence.

If you have a lot of characters on your account, beware. If you show up on the radar, chances are you'll be shot down by the very people who deserve to be banned in your place.

I'd be amazed if you actually read this far of your own volition. Therefore I thought this would be the perfect interval for these:

Recently I have sunk into a rut while playing matches. Nine games out of ten I'll pick Vayne, merely because she's so easy to play, and yet so devastating late game. It's not even boasting to say I don't remember ever getting a bad score on her, you gotta be on heroin to fail at Vayne.

She can't always win games, she can be killed easily and shut down; there is no disputing that. But if you don't play like an idiot, it's always easy to avoid death and be sitting on a few kill by mid game.

I'm looking forward to some comics about her, I doubt I am the only one who gets pissed off when she's all roly poly poky poky with her stupid passive.


This is undoubtedly the longest post I've made so far on this blog, and I am impressed with it. The only thing missing is clips of my gameplay. I have promised my own footage, and I shall deliver. Sadly, I am adjusting to a new mouse, and it's still giving me a little trouble. I'm also at a loss as to which video editing software to use. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd be grateful. It's not acceptable to come back with raw unedited material, nobody wants to see that kind of eyesore. At the very least, I need to trim off all the boring bits.

Although this is a little over affectionate from me, I'd like to say thank you for taking the time to read this post, or even skimming through it. I appreciate every person that took the time to come here, and I hope to see you again!