Tuesday, December 11, 2012

What will the new meta be?

Metas (i.e. standard strategies) change in League of Legends. But they change very slowly. The current meta is probably best described as

Bruiser - AP - AD/Support + Jungler with Red side frequently doing lane swaps to bring their ADC up top.

The new meta has a variety of possibilities.

1) The most recent two tournaments have shown the strength of a Zyra in support because she has the ability to grow into another Carry in the late game. If you're CLG.EU and you plan on taking games long, Zyra is very powerful because of that. We may see an increase in these "carry" supports in this role.

2) Dovetailing onto that idea is that there are some supports that are very strong when partnered with AP carries instead of AD carries.Morgana is the quintessential one but there are some others.

3) Jungling is harder but the rewards don't REALLY kick in until about 10 minutes. One possible adaption as a result is less time spent by individual people in the jungle at lvl 1.

Imagine this setup

Vayne: Relatively self-sufficient ADC who can get out of trouble when needed.
Morgana: AP Support and good AoE damage for team fights (as well as a nice CC)
Nunu: Ability to Consume for sustain and an ADC oriented attack speed buff
Diana: Powerful late game initiate and early - mid game lane presence
Malphite: Powerful late game initiate and ability to farm and builds armor

Malphite goes top
Vayne goes bottom (note, these are inverted on red side)
Diana is in the middle
Morgana goes blue buff side jungle
Nunu goes red buff side jungle

Malphite helps Morgana leash blue. Morgana takes blue and wolves (in some order)
Nunu goes Wraith, Golems, Red buff
If they do this right, they're finishing around the right time. They then do one of three things
Gank together in a lane trying to create a 3v1
Go separate to support their lanes (with Morgana synergizing well with malphite and Nunu with Vayne)
Go together to counter jungle
As the game progresses, Morgana is responsible for cleaning out wolves and blue buff while Nunu continues to farm Golems, probably leaving Red buff to Vayne and Wraiths to Diana. Once Morgana/Nunu hit 6, they're responsible for making a call on Dragon

That's a team plan that seems reasonably consistent while also maximizing jungle xp. Yes, your ADC will struggle more than normal. You shouldn't try this if you don't have an ADC comfortable last hitting under tower. On the other hand, the other team can't afford to push super hard because you've got two junglers running around.

Under this scenario, Malphite really becomes the primary bruiser in game since he's so encouraged to stack armor and he's (likely) against an ADC on the other side. However, certain other characters can work too. Xerath, for instance, has the range to poke an ADC and keep him under control. Ditto for Heimerdinger (who's passive will also helm him sustain in lane). It also makes sure that the team isn't reliant on any one individual making team fights significantly less "do or die" for the team (yeah, losing Vayne hurts, but we've got Morgana and Diana to help. The one drawback I see to the above team comp is a bit of lack of AD damage. Nunu should probably build hybrid to provide SOME diversification of damage types.

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