Free Week Champion Analysis

I'm really excited about this week as there's four champions I'd like to give a try to with 3 of them being on my tentative "definitely going to buy" list

Anivia: The bird is slow and fragile (although a built in GA is pretty nice as a passive). She has ridiculous wave clearing ability as well as one of the more unique and game breaking skills in her ice wall. The skill cap on her is incredibly wide, however, so practice with her a couple times. My brother played her as an aggressive support with a Riven in a game a month or so ago and they tore the other team to shreds. I'd be curious to see if some people don't try to play her as a melee support champions because the wall synergizes really well with that plan.

Gangplank: One of the more interesting champions. I don't really like his flavor but his mechanics are all fairly fascinating. He has a insta-cast CC removal / heal spell (he eats an orange). He's a melee champ but his Parrrley skill (sic) gives him a semi-spammable ranged attack that works like an auto-attack. And he has a global ult allowing you to put down an AoE of doom on an area anywhere on the map for 7 seconds (a BIG AoE). His versatility allows him to fulfill a lot of roles. One note worth mentioning if you play Dominion, an enemy Gangplank will wreak havoc on your ability to capture otherwise uncontested nodes. He can throw that ult from anywhere on the map and really ruin your day, essentially giving his team 7 more seconds to get to you (which, let's face it, is sufficient to get nearly across the map in dominion).

Janna: Another high skill cap champ. Janna is a support champ with an odd mix of abilities. A really good Janna support will put a lot of pressure on the enemy team by landing fairly long duration knockups as well as buffing (both with a shield and an AD boost) the ADC in lane. This combination of skills is somewhat offset by a pretty lackluster (IMO) ultimate that pushes enemies away (no damage) and heals nearby allies. It's really only a skill that you want to use when either you're winning a fight or the enemy flanked you and are spread out. Keep this in mind as it does limit the effectiveness of striking from odd angles against teams that have a Janna ult up.

Morgana: Kayle's evil sister (or freedom fighter if you believe her lore and not her skin). Morgana is an interesting AP champ because she has very long CDs on all of her spells (12, 11, 15 for QWE respectively). They're strong spells, but you have to make them count. What's interesting about this is that it makes her a reasonably strong candidate for something like Hextech Gunblade, DFG and Lichbane where you're using her "extra cycles" to do something productive. One other note, her snare on her Q has a REALLY long top end duration (3 seconds) so some kind of tenacity is probably going to help if you're laning against her.

Rammus: Spin to win. He's been free a couple times recently so I'm not going to say a lot about him. One thing I've learned, however, is that some people refuse to build him tanky. Punish these people. A non-tanky Rammus is not scary in the slightest.

Galio: One of the champions that I'm very excited about and is on my "definite" buy list (at least tentatively. He's a melee AP champion who scales off MR. Kind of the magical opposite to Malphite. Like Malphite, he also shares a really good team fight skill in his ultimate. His Bulwark skill gives him some lane sustain. He's a prime candidate for AP support if that ever becomes a thing again (he can do AD support but it's not as efficient). He's a hard counter for certain champions so a good one to get to know and play around with.

Nocturne: The scariest jungler ever. Another on my "probably going to buy" list. His ult is, frankly, terrifying. He also builds to cap attack speed by the end of the game so he's throwing like 2.5 attacks per second when he goes all-in. When he ults, talk to your teammates so they know where he is. It makes the darkness less scary.

Lee Sin: One of the highest skill cap champions in the game. He can play jungle, mid, or top, has great engagement range and is highly mobile. I'm definitely going to try him but whether he makes it on the "buy" list or nor is questionable given my personally low skill level at this point. Watch the pros play him though (someone like Soaz for example) and you'll see him do ridiculous things.

Varus: The forgotten ADC. I don't know a lot about him other than he was supposed to be an AD champ and you rarely see him. He has good range with his arrows but the skill shots are dodgeable. He wants to stack his blight so don't let him go crazy on you.

Nami: Another on my probably buy list. She's a really interesting support who, like Sona and Lulu, can serve that "sustain/attack" support role that seems really popular right now. She's great for team fights because her AoE stun is a bit of a monster when it hits (and it WILL hit in the chaos of a team fight) and she'll basically be guaranteed to heal 2 teammates or hurt 2 opponents. A couple notes. One, her R buff doesn't have a very big graphic so watch for it and make sure you use it (next 3 attacks in 5 seconds deal bonus damage and slow). It also increases the move speed of the champion per her passive. Her W will bounce ally, enemy, ally (or enemy, ally, enemy) so if you're casting it to heal, cast on an ally first. If you're casting it to do damage, cast it on an enemy first. It also buffs the move speed (again, through per passive) of friends. The damage actually scales better than the heal on this (interesting for a support) so late game, you'll probably want to target enemies with it for maximum effect.

All in all, another good week with some champs I'm reasonably excited about.