Quote from _Ai_

New item? I've never seen that before.

Came with the recent patch.

They added a new AP item as well.

_Ai_, they basically added 2 new items

First is that one, which works the same way (or almost) as the sunfire cape. The only new thing about it is that now the green jungle upgrade doesn't give you tenacity, but builds from that object and gives you basically a jungle sunfire cape

The other one is the Luden's Echo, which gives 120 AP and 7% bonus movement speed. About his passive, it's the same as the statik, only that it scales on AP and works only with single target spells

Anyway, about Bard, I think they mostly can't play him because the roamer meta was considered way over from god knows how much time ago. With him, Riot is trying to bring it back on certain levels, but it's like forcing your bot to go, instead of ADC+Support (which they play 10 times out of 10), double Bruiser with no experience about it

So Luden's Echo basically replaces DFG in the 120 ap triumvate. Sounds good to me.

Quote from _Ai_

So Luden's Echo basically replaces DFG in the 120 ap triumvate. Sounds good to me.

Doesn't synergize well with Katarina and Ahri now, sadly.

But, I did instakill a Fizz with Veigar and that item. I was trolling and said all my nukes are single target. We ended up losing with me at 15/2/6, but the instakills felt so good.


o3o

It synergizes ok with ahri, But this item is godslike for cassiopeia, with your e spam you can get it every 4 seconds... and damn does it do dmg.
not to mention cass is a magerksman and that movement speed is really helpful.

I would think that the new ap statik Shiv would be good on shaco.. I like playing ap shaco sometimes.

It would work due to the boxes and his e. but remember its only on casts (spells)

Quote from Stracked

It synergizes ok with ahri, But this item is godslike for cassiopeia.

I didn't really understand the whole "single target spells" part and got one for VelKoz. I am not a smart man.

It's super super mega ultra turbo annoying. To be playing as bard and to make a play happen with magical journey and then to get no assists because you didn't land a hit.

It's like, worse than hitler.

When the score board says 0/2/1 and you know for fact that you're personally responsible for at least six kills.
It's the worst feeling I've ever felt in this game.

On a more positive note, gangplank and taric botlane is too good to be true.
After the match I had found that I was emotionally drained from having too much fun.

There's so much SIN-ergy to talk about.

Double heals, Gangplank loves CC, parlay gold increase and being able to secure kills/escape.
And the absolute synergy orgy that is my ultimate increasing his damage, shatter reducing their armor, gangplanks Q critting with infinity edge and our sheens. More fun than any mortal sinner should be allowed to have.

Quote from StickBoy111

Doesn't synergize well with Katarina and Ahri now, sadly.

But, I did instakill a Fizz with Veigar and that item. I was trolling and said all my nukes are single target. We ended up losing with me at 15/2/6, but the instakills felt so good.


o3o

Kata's E is a single target spell, so that'd proc it. And as kata im sure thats pretty much what you need anyways, ap and more damage

Quote from _Ai_

Kata's E is a single target spell, so that'd proc it. And as kata im sure thats pretty much what you need anyways, ap and more damage

Still think the DFG was better.

RIP


Those memories where tanks just melt. But then, that's why they removed DFG, right? To prevent the AP mage suddenly bursting a full tank.

Quote from StickBoy111

Those memories where tanks just melt. But then, that's why they removed DFG, right? To prevent the AP mage suddenly bursting a full tank.

No
They removed it because it was never used against tanks

Basically, for AP champs, they made 2 items so that they could deal with tanks: Laundry (Burn DoT) and Deathfire (Burst)
However, Riot noticed one thing: that instead for "tank bursting", Deathfire was being used by AP carries to completely annihilate squishies, to the point that mid lane phase was just a competion about who could afford it first, since by then he'd be snowballing no stop
Because of this, many champions' viability was compromised: Ahri, for example, was considered a champion that without Deathfire was useless. Because of this, Riot started buffing Ahri. However, in this way, with Deathfire she was even deadlier than before, resulting to her being nerfed
Thus, Riot finally understood 2 things: that Deathfire created balance issues and that mages needed to be buffed so that they wouldn't have to depend on it. However, they were still useless, since in those days assassins were the must in mid and they'd have ended annihilated no matter the buffs

For this reason, after Deathfire was taken away, mages were buffed and assassins were nerfed

And thus the Tanky DPS/Offtank meta entered (which is still up)

Am I the only one who can't stand facing riven right now?

For starters, her fucking shield is way too massive, especially in combination with a blood thirster. If I had a dollar for every time I've seen her narrowly escape engagements she shouldn't be able to lately I would be able to buy all of her skins. And it's an escape/chase AND it's cooldown is 6 at max level AND she's manaless.
Insane. I hate it!

And since everything she has including her shield scales massively off of her bonus AD, all she has to do is build massive damage items. She can delete people like Kha'zix could last season.

Her ultimate is like an instant win button.

The last 3 games I've played with her on the enemy team, she snowballed epically bad and destroyed everything.

Watching her constantly escape/delete my team makes me want to FREAK out.

Quote from Jutsu

Am I the only one who can't stand facing riven right now?

For starters, her fucking shield is way too massive, especially in combination with a blood thirster. If I had a dollar for every time I've seen her narrowly escape engagements she shouldn't be able to lately I would be able to buy all of her skins. And it's an escape/chase AND it's cooldown is 6 at max level AND she's manaless.
Insane. I hate it!

And since everything she has including her shield scales massively off of her bonus AD, all she has to do is build massive damage items. She can delete people like Kha'zix could last season.

Her ultimate is like an instant win button.

The last 3 games I've played with her on the enemy team, she snowballed epically bad and destroyed everything.

Watching her constantly escape/delete my team makes me want to FREAK out.

I play (and play against) Riven quite some times and these are my two cents about her

First thing is, get a ranged champion. Or a champion that can either freeze lane with no problem or can farm under tower (basically a Rengar :P)

Now, first thing that counters a Riven is how you plan to play your early: she's one of the strongest early game champions and usually a lane with a good Riven ends with her having scored some kills at the end of the laning phase, thus making her a snowball-machine
For this reason, the first thing you want to do is to starve her both of cs, both of kills: even if she doesn't show it, she has problem farming at early levels, since she relies quite a lot on her passive to get proper last hits; thus, she needs to use her skills to proc her enhanced auto attacks; however, by doing so, she pushes lane, since they are all AoE (except E, but no sane Riven relies on it for farming); by pushing lane, she does 3 things
-She gets less farm, since early farming with her Q-W is not that good
-She puts herself on the risk of getting ganked
-She cannot try to engage you, since you're near your tower
Now, if you pick someone, as I said before, that can either freeze the lane, either farm with no problems under tower, she's bound to be completely useless until extreme late game (where everyone has full builds), since damage items cost more gold than defensive ones (but building defensive items on Riven is as good as building her full AP)
This is one side of the coin
The other is about getting someone with good range harass
Not many people know this, but Riven has one of the lowest HP Reg in the game (she's something like the third of fourth). If you think you're good enough to bait her shield or to either deal a lot of damage on her even with her shield, consider this option, since it will force her to either take a Teleport on champion select (thus reducing her killing potential if she were to take ignite), either to lose gold and experience by recalling
About teamfights, just remember this: she has to get in front and personal to deal damage. This said, you can either poke her down, either burst her and retreat (retreating in this case is easier, since she's the one who gets closer to you guys). Just don't get all near when she starts with her combo or you're pretty much fucked

About champions who can counter her, here are what I've read about

-Garen and Cho'Gath are considered some good counters because of their silence and their executions. However, by my personal experience, I'd be careful about choosing them
-Kennen is considered a good counter because he can easily harass her and escape from her engages. Also, if she tries to all-in you, your R and passive should just destroy her
-Another one they say counters Riven is Renekton, because he can engage as hard as her but, instead of her, he can out-sustain her with his Q
-A good one with which I had lots of fun once is Mordekaiser: because of his kit, you put her in difficulty for early farming (since you can easily push her to her tower) and she can't possibly engane on you without suffering more than you do
-There are also Olaf and Darius, but I didn't read (nor now I want to imagine) how they counter her


I hope this helped