Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Tip of the Spear

My time in League of Legends has been going pretty well lately.  In my last 10 matches I am 8 - 2 with Soraka.  I know that mentioning it will send me on a losing streak of epic proportions, but losses can be a good learning experience.

Generally, Soraka ends up in the bottom lane with a carry champion.  It's my job to keep us alive and the carry fed with last hits. Depending on who your opponents are, that is easier said than done.  This was especially true in one of my recent games.

My lane mate ended up being Nasus, which is a bit unusual. Our opponents were Shyvana and Nidalee.  It was actually one of the most challenging lanes I have been in.  The challenge came almost completely from Nidalee's Javelin Toss attack.  This long ranges spear throw does a good bit of damage when the game starts.

The Javelin Toss is a skill shot, so it can be avoided.  The problem was my lane mate did not get that memo and liked to stand still.  As a result, I had to spend a lot of mana to keep him at a reasonable health, and every so often I'd take a spear (to the knee) as well.  Pretty quickly we were pushed back to our tower.

One of Nidalee's favorite tactics was to throw spears while hidden in the bottom bush, and it was effective.  When we did manage to push them back a little, I took the opportunity to ward the bottom bush.  This let us know where she was at all times.

More importantly, it let our jungler know where she was at all times.  Thankfully, he was alert and came to gank our lane.  With the ward in place, Nidalee really did not have a chance.  A couple of successful ganks put an end to their control of the lane.

Lesson learned:  Use wards and have someone gank your aggressive opponents.  Luckily ours did it on his own.