League of Legends: Let's Talk About uhhh??

[Celestavian]

Hi guys, I have a question that has been bugging me for a while, and I need to know what it is I'm doing wrong.

I'm in Bronze 4 and trying to improve my Kassadin game, and while I got the "warp in and shit on their squishies" part down, my problem is with when to do it in a teamfight. One complaint my teammates seem to give me is that I don't go in enough, and I'll try to give unbiased reasons why. Last game I got called out for not helping in a 3v5 ambush (with me being the fourth guy) where my teammates got caught in an unwarded brush. I believed I was right in doing so, since 3 deaths is less than 4 right? But this is a common complaint, so I'm wondering if I'm being too conservative. Also in my last ranked game, our Vi initiated them under their tower after we both poked each other a bit, and I hesitated to go in until I was confident I could annihilate a weakened carry and then run from the fight that we were losing. This got me called a kill-stealer and they said I lost us that fight. Was I right to not go in till the end?

So, what I ask is: When do I go in? When do I run away? Is all the hostility I'm getting from noobs that don't understand my role in teamfights, or do I misunderstand it? For comparison, my current understanding of my role is to kill their ADC or AP caster and then run until my cooldowns refresh and do it again. If I can't do this, then I don't go in unless there's a runner, in which case I'll try and hunt them down.

 

[Acklow]

If you want to know how to properly Kassadin, watch some of the professional games. One of Gambit's most recent games involved Alex Ich playing Kass against Ozone. He shows exactly how to properly go in during teamfights. An important item to almost all APs is Zhonyas. Go all in and cast all your spells and immediately zhonyas. Your cooldowns should refresh at the end and you should have enough time to voidwalk out of the fight. Also Kassadin is an assassin, his job is to get in and kill someone, then get the fuck out. If someone calls KS, it's not your fault because that's your job.

 

[VKCA]

Last game I got called out for not helping in a 3v5 ambush (with me being the fourth guy) where my teammates got caught in an unwarded brush. I believed I was right in doing so, since 3 deaths is less than 4 right?

remember: people, by and large, are fucking awful at league of legends. People very rarely like admitting this though, so what do they do? Instead of taking responsibility for their own death/getting caught out/whatever, they blame someone else. Not to say that you necessarily should have bailed in this situation (having not seen the replay obviously I have no opinion), but it's pretty safe to ignore the advice of someone who just died.


Also just realized Nashor is an anagram of Roshan, can't believe I never noticed that before.

 

[Lavos]

i don't like that royal is facing omg in quarters, especially when it's possible that the chinese teams are actually the strongest in the world. it's sad to see that one will surely be eliminated before semis. that said, i really hope c9 or gambit wins.

Hi guys, I have a question that has been bugging me for a while, and I need to know what it is I'm doing wrong.

I'm in Bronze 4 and trying to improve my Kassadin game, and while I got the "warp in and shit on their squishies" part down, my problem is with when to do it in a teamfight. One complaint my teammates seem to give me is that I don't go in enough, and I'll try to give unbiased reasons why. Last game I got called out for not helping in a 3v5 ambush (with me being the fourth guy) where my teammates got caught in an unwarded brush. I believed I was right in doing so, since 3 deaths is less than 4 right? But this is a common complaint, so I'm wondering if I'm being too conservative. Also in my last ranked game, our Vi initiated them under their tower after we both poked each other a bit, and I hesitated to go in until I was confident I could annihilate a weakened carry and then run from the fight that we were losing. This got me called a kill-stealer and they said I lost us that fight. Was I right to not go in till the end?

So, what I ask is: When do I go in? When do I run away? Is all the hostility I'm getting from noobs that don't understand my role in teamfights, or do I misunderstand it? For comparison, my current understanding of my role is to kill their ADC or AP caster and then run until my cooldowns refresh and do it again. If I can't do this, then I don't go in unless there's a runner, in which case I'll try and hunt them down.

how to kassadin

 

[Yeti]

kassadin is a stupid champion, like fizz, who somewhere along the line simply scales into enough damage to oneshot anyone who didn't build mr with his RQE. maybe W + ignite needed if they have some HP. you shouldn't be afraid to jump in if you've reached this point since you will trade 1 for 1 if you get your spells off then die. however, a good tip as an assassin is to wait for enemy CC/cooldowns to be blown - escapes and support's spells - so you can jump in relatively safely and bop the backline. it's rare you want to be the FIRST one in from your team but if you wait too long you won't get your spells off cd in a fight and can only use the rotation once. you will learn with practice when to jump in precisely in a fight.

 

[mtr]

Feed Kassadin (or even let him farm well) and lose. I don't think I've ever seen a fed Kassadin lose the game, in over 1700 League games.

 

[Minwu]

Hi guys, I have a question that has been bugging me for a while, and I need to know what it is I'm doing wrong.

I'm in Bronze 4 and trying to improve my Kassadin game, and while I got the "warp in and shit on their squishies" part down, my problem is with when to do it in a teamfight. One complaint my teammates seem to give me is that I don't go in enough, and I'll try to give unbiased reasons why. Last game I got called out for not helping in a 3v5 ambush (with me being the fourth guy) where my teammates got caught in an unwarded brush. I believed I was right in doing so, since 3 deaths is less than 4 right? But this is a common complaint, so I'm wondering if I'm being too conservative. Also in my last ranked game, our Vi initiated them under their tower after we both poked each other a bit, and I hesitated to go in until I was confident I could annihilate a weakened carry and then run from the fight that we were losing. This got me called a kill-stealer and they said I lost us that fight. Was I right to not go in till the end?

So, what I ask is: When do I go in? When do I run away? Is all the hostility I'm getting from noobs that don't understand my role in teamfights, or do I misunderstand it? For comparison, my current understanding of my role is to kill their ADC or AP caster and then run until my cooldowns refresh and do it again. If I can't do this, then I don't go in unless there's a runner, in which case I'll try and hunt them down.

Something to consider in scenarios like the first is the rank (and therefore cooldown) of your riftwalk. A 3v5 or 4v5 may not have been a winnable teamfight by any means (although it's Bronze so it's still possible even, I saw a Jarvan straight up solo an ultless Shaco MF and Sona in the middle of a lane in Silver), but you could still very likely have pulled off a silence + slow on someone and gotten out. Or, hell, even lay a suppressive QE and just save your blink entirely for escape. While you probably didn't want to commit to that fight fully, there are always alternate ways to go about something especially as Kassadin with probably the best mobility and positioning tool in the game.


Depending on the location of the tower dive, and assuming Vi built so she wouldn't be instantly decimated, you probably want to straight up wait behind a wall and pile onto Vi's ult target with her after she soaks most of the CC on the enemy team. The tower can't switch aggro to you at that point, so you should be safe yourself.

 

[VKCA]

Not the comics thread but
"glass cannon"

 

[Reymedy]

Hi guys, I have a question that has been bugging me for a while, and I need to know what it is I'm doing wrong.

I'm in Bronze 4 and trying to improve my Kassadin game, and while I got the "warp in and shit on their squishies" part down, my problem is with when to do it in a teamfight. One complaint my teammates seem to give me is that I don't go in enough, and I'll try to give unbiased reasons why. Last game I got called out for not helping in a 3v5 ambush (with me being the fourth guy) where my teammates got caught in an unwarded brush. I believed I was right in doing so, since 3 deaths is less than 4 right? But this is a common complaint, so I'm wondering if I'm being too conservative. Also in my last ranked game, our Vi initiated them under their tower after we both poked each other a bit, and I hesitated to go in until I was confident I could annihilate a weakened carry and then run from the fight that we were losing. This got me called a kill-stealer and they said I lost us that fight. Was I right to not go in till the end?

So, what I ask is: When do I go in? When do I run away? Is all the hostility I'm getting from noobs that don't understand my role in teamfights, or do I misunderstand it? For comparison, my current understanding of my role is to kill their ADC or AP caster and then run until my cooldowns refresh and do it again. If I can't do this, then I don't go in unless there's a runner, in which case I'll try and hunt them down.

Try to rush tear => turn into archange staff right off the bat
then rush zhonya

during a fight, catch a squishy out of position with r+e+q+one boosted by w auto then you can zhonya when everybody is on you, when zhonya fades, you can r away, or r to get another kill

you need to be conservative early with kass, but then, as with every single assassin, you need to do plays : kass is a player maker, and this is why it is so strong to carry in soloQ (as you as you don't get totally counter picked and crushed in lane)

I boosted a friend's acc with kass, and that was so damn easy at a low elo to carry a whole team with that champ

 

[Acklow]

The thing about Kassadin is that his build is so copy-pasta that it's impossible to get it wrong.

 

[Minwu]

Out of curiousity, what build would that be? Some people will probably give funny looks for buying this on almost any champion, but I think RoA can work well if you give yourself enough time to stack it. The AP you get really ramps up with an AAS and HP is always nice on a melee champion. I'm going to guess that Zhonya's/Dcap/Void/Lich are the other choices.

 

[Lavos]

Out of curiousity, what build would that be? Some people will probably give funny looks for buying this on almost any champion, but I think RoA can work well if you give yourself enough time to stack it.

xpeke agrees

e: i play a lot of kassadin and if i'm having trouble in lane i will rush catalyst into rod of ages, if not then go for tear to archangels asap (want to get seraphs fast for power spike) and then itemize according to enemy team, zhonyas is generally a good second buy. from then it's all about getting the void staff and deathcap for massive burst damage. abyssal scepter is also a solid pickup.

 

[Acklow]

I build Fairie+5hpots+1mpot+1ward->Tear+Boots->RoA->DCap->Defensive Item (Zhonyas/Froheart/Abyssal)->Seraphs->Void Staff

Swap Void Staff and Defensive Item if ahead.

FroHeart is very effective if built with RoA and Seraphs due to the ap it passively gives through seraphs. DCap helps amplify that. I had over 600 ap with RoA/Seraphs/Froheart/Dcap alone in my last game with Kassadin.

 

[Reymedy]

Thing is, RoA is not a go-to-go item on kassadin, because it delays a lot your power spike actually.
So let's talk about XPeke, playing in a team who is CENTERED around letting him get kills, farm... allowing him to split push during ages.

So well, if your gold/silver/plat team allows you to do that, go for it.
Else, go for a fast Archangel Staff and rush to Zhonya, to be able to force plays as soon as possible and be ready to do it inside the team fights (coz once again fnatic is about disrupting fights to make it as chaotic as possible, in soloQ most of the time, people just gather and walk like a train).

I just tried it (because it's been a long time that I didnt try RoA actually), and I'd only recommend it when your laner is able to lock you down and kill you in one single burst (read : Annie, Cass, Liss...).

EDIT : Okay it's just what Lavos said.

 

[Firesong]

kassadin takes ages to spike regardless of what you rush lol- he's very weak until at least level 6 no matter what
i don't play mid at all so perhaps i'm full of shit but i always thought that both seraph's embrace and roa are core on kass, and i find it hard to imagine that one makes you spike sooner than the other... tear takes about the same amount of time to stack as roa does :S
either way whether you get tear or catalyst or both first that's a lot of money you spent on stats that aren't going to help you do your job, which is of course to assassinate people and make plays. so you shouldn't be expecting to spike in power until that "wasted" money has had time to develop into items that will increase your damage
http://www.probuilds.net/champions/Kassadin

 

[jeb4]

step 1: get this

step 3: barf on ppl

 

[Reymedy]

kassadin takes ages to spike regardless of what you rush lol- he's very weak until at least level 6 no matter what
i don't play mid at all so perhaps i'm full of shit but i always thought that both seraph's embrace and roa are core on kass, and i find it hard to imagine that one makes you spike sooner than the other... tear takes about the same amount of time to stack as roa does :S
either way whether you get tear or catalyst or both first that's a lot of money you spent on stats that aren't going to help you do your job, which is of course to assassinate people and make plays. so you shouldn't be expecting to spike in power until that "wasted" money has had time to develop into items that will increase your damage
http://www.probuilds.net/champions/Kassadin

Honnestly that's not true, Kass can spike PRETTY fast if you get the snowball roll (or just decent farm on a passive lane). His base damages when he reaches the lvl ~11 are really good.
If you rush Archangel Staff, you'll get it full by the minute 20 (really easy to do so, myself that's more around the min 18). Now, play it yourself, build a RoA, and check the minute mark when you'll have the upgrade of the archangel.
Plus, delaying your Zhonya is something I don't like, because Kass is just like Fizz (in even worse because Fizz can juke with Q and have that extra mobility) : You wanna engage and combo that squishy, but as soon as you use your Ulti/Trickster => people go HAM on your ass. Zhonya makes your life so much easier, you go in, everybody focus their attention on you, Zhonya, get the heck outta here and you're like "untouched" most of the time : You did damage, you had presence in the team fight, and you're still here, ready to do the clean as you're supposed to do.

To sum up, if you think you'll be forced to team fight 5v5 before the minute 30, I'd try to get the Zhonya asap (and just skip the RoA since Archangel Staff provides you already with what you need).

Anyway, as I said, I'm really adamant about that build because I spammed that to insane sucess recently. So I highly suggest to anyone thinking that RoA is a must to try to skip it. Not saying it's bad, not saying it's less good, but the point of the text I wrote was to "help" that dude thinking he was lacking some team fight presence so yes... imo you have more presence when you do the one shot someone + zhonya + oneshot someone else/escape.

 

[Lavos]

i remember in around week 7 of the lcs, c9 hai played some kassadin and did a really good job without building RoA at all, after the game he said (paraphrasing) "rod of ages is almost never needed on kassadin". i sometimes still like building it just because catalyst is a great item in lane when you're getting kicked around. but you don't have to go RoA every single game like a lot of low elo kass players seem to think ~_~

oh and i went from silver 4 to silver 2 in five days, maybe i can get gold before the end of the season and snag me an elise skin ^^

 

[Jebus McAzn]

just hit plat III! huzzah

i feel like RoA on kass is a matter of personal taste - i've seen kass players rush AA, abyssal, RoA, and deathcap and all have been met with varying levels of success (like lavos said, hai doesn't build RoA at all while peke ended up building two during one of the group stage games)

 

[Mr.E]

xPeke was super fed and could have won stacking Sword of the Divine at that point, so I'm taking only slightly more stock in his item build that game than I do OMG's team comp against LD.

It's too bad the teams I want to win the most (NA and DA BEARS) have the worst odds. :(

 

[remlabmez]

C9 > Fnatic
NJBS > Gambit

Skt1 > DA BEARS
Royal Club > OMG

NJBS > SKT1
C9 > Royal Cub

NJBS > C9

Those are my predictions. (not trolling)

 

[BLINGAS]

i actually have the same predictions as rem fk

also why is dfg swain the best champ in da game

 

[Sapientia]

just hit plat III! huzzah

i feel like RoA on kass is a matter of personal taste - i've seen kass players rush AA, abyssal, RoA, and deathcap and all have been met with varying levels of success (like lavos said, hai doesn't build RoA at all while peke ended up building two during one of the group stage games)

Peke himself said, that double RoA is not the best build, but he likes to buy it in easy matches, because it looks cool.


fnatic > c9
gambit > njbs

skt1 > bears
royal club > omg

fnatic > royal club
skt1 > gambit

fnatic > skt1

 

[Reymedy]

I'm pretty sure that OMG will beat Royal but let's see v:

 

[Jebus McAzn]

Peke himself said, that double RoA is not the best build, but he likes to buy it in easy matches, because it looks cool.

yeah obviously double RoA isn't an optimal build path but it's not half bad for stompy solo queue games. personally i prefer the single roa

My predictions for the bracket stage (with zero actual knowledge on how well NJBS is going to do):

Fnatic 1-2 C9
Gambit 0-2 NJBS
SKT1 2-0 Bears
Royal 2-1 OMG

C9 1-3 NJBS
SKT1 3-2 Royal

NJBS 3-2 SKT1