Chryxis' Corner Vol 2: New Year, New Season, New...builds?!

Welcome back to the most sophisticated corner for discussion known noneother than Chryxis' Corner!  Yes, I'm back, after a brief hiatus for the holidays, and struggling with building a computer, I'm back; refreshed and ready to provide new content for you readers to enjoy, cherish, and maybe, just maybe to post on your fridge? With the new season, a lot has changed, some better, a lot for the worse; and Riot has acknowledged this, they know a lot of champions are problematic, and slowly but surely we'll see a more balanced game in the long run. After all, Change is Good, right?!

Kha'Zix Mid! Bruisers mid! Oh my!

I thought a lot harder on that segway than I probably should have, I guess, but hey, that's just how it is. As a mid-main, I have been playing a motherload of Kha'zix. If you get anything out of this article, a TL;DR, or summary: Kha'zix is broken, buy him, play him, and win. After playing him on the new patch, I can tell you he's still very strong. Though he might not be first pick or ban status now, Kha'zix is still stupidly strong, and really, any champion with reset potential is. (Lookin' at you Kat...) Now that's all fine and dandy, but the real point here is about experimentation.

If there was ever a time to experiment in making a new meta, it's now. Seriously, as several pro players have stated, the cost of armor is too high for what little it does for you against the penetration changes, health is too cheap, and magic resist isn't very readily available. This is why we are seeing a lot of the bruiser and AD assassin mid picks, but I think we can take this further. With the stat changes this translates into AD carries suffering at all parts of the game, bruisers being fantastic at all parts of the game, and AP champions excelling mid to lategame. Because of this, I feel like we are going to be seeing some very interesting team comps coming out of the competetive scene soon. All bruiser comps, back to double AP comps, to comps possibly not even having an AD carry. If you want to try something new, do it! I've been stomped, and carried with, several of the team compositions listed already.

 

Let's get ready to RUUUMBLE!

Continuing on, I want to highlight some of my favorite champions for specific roles with this patch, Kha'zix mid, and now Rumble and Elise top! (Elise doesn't get special mention in the title, I hate spiders.) Until the beginning of the LCS qualifiers, we really didn't see that much Rumble play out of the competetive scene. After Riot nerfed his base damage on Q, people seemed to forget him, people always forget that nerfs make things balanced, not underpowered. As it is right now, his Flamespitter has less base damage, but better than 1:1 ap scaling. This means his early game is a bit weaker, but after a few points leveled into it and some items, his Flamespitter hits like a truck. A fiery truck of doom.

Rumble is all about spamming your spells, and whittling your opponents health down, until you can go in. Along with this comes mastery in his heat management, and knowing when to overheat to get out a bit of extra damage. Once you master these, Rumble is amazing (still!) I've also played him mid quite frequently with good success, give it a try!

As for Elise, I'm honestly surprised she hasn't seen nerfs at all. In fact, her W recently got changed (buffed!) to get rid of an annoying bug that would stop her from gaining the attack speed bonus initially on her first auto attack. To me, a champion that can build complete defense items and still put out a ton of damage is just asking to get nerfed, but she hasn't been touched yet, and I don't think she will anytime soon. The thing that makes both of these champions unique, is that their build path of Liandry's Torment and Rylai's Crystal scepter fit perfectly and synergize well with their kits. They provide both champions with spell pen, the ability to chase, and an annoying dot to go along with both of their annoying dots.

The best part is nothing really "beats" these champions. They are lane bullies; picking them pretty much 100% guarantees an easy lane, barring jungle pressure. They are great for newer players, and everyone should pick them up. For both: spam Q until the opponent is low, then hit your other skills to go in for the kill!

Rumble in the Jungle!

Lastly, in the jungle, I've been practicing a lot of Shaco (You thought I'd say Rumble?). I always tell my teammates in ranked, "If you put me in the jungle, we are guaranteed to lose." And for the most part this holds true. I'm a pretty good mid player if I say so myself, but when it comes to jungling, my results are laughable at best. If you've seen a trend so far in this article, it's that I like to bully! Not in real life; that's mean guys. But in the game, I love being a big bully and annoying the enemy. In the jungle, Shaco fills this role perfectly.

To start my reign of terror, 9 times out of 10, I'll start blue. (You'll want 3 boxes at blue, and 1 to help you and your team kill the wolves.) After getting a smiteless leash you have 2 options. Be a wimp and go for your own red, Orrrr....Run straight for the enemy's red and wait in the bush. Place a box or two in the area in case they try to run, then either smite their red when it's almost done, take it completely yourself, or attempt to kill them. All 3 of these options are equally annoying. Even if you don't get a single gank off, just denying the enemy jungle alone will have the whole team banging their heads on their desks, shouting, "That damn clown!" as you run away cackling.

I've found that Shaco takes a bit of practice; He's not a very complex champion in itself, but his kit takes a bit of finesse if you want to pull off fancy tricks. Don't give up on him if you fail one or two games, I sure did..miserably. Instead, stick with it and eventually you'll be the most feared Demon Jester in Valoran!

That's it for this installment of Chryxis' Corner. Stay tuned for next week's! As always if you have any thoughts or criticism, I'd love to hear them!

Chryxis