on the other hand, if you are permafarming the jungle you don't receive EXP nerfs until you are three levels ahead. And you get +5/10 gold per big minion. The missing smite will hurt if you are only farming until level 6 though (Skarner).

it also helps lower sustain junglers that need to base a lot, since they will be getting 1 "free" smite every time, which will prevent them from falling too far behind.

Still have 3 spots open for the fantasy LCS league

http://fantasy.lolesports.com/share/join/league/430055/6umwfWu13hkpYmycUNrV

Can you guys think of any champ that would legit want/use?

new

Zz'Rot Portal

You can now build Portals which spawn little Voidspawns who explode on enemy structures.

Think of this new item as a follow-up to our original preseason promise of adding more strategic diversity to League of Legends. Specifically, the Zz'Rot Portal is designed to provide tanky dudes with a new way to opt into pushing strategies while also having enough utility to be used in other creative ways.

RECIPE Raptor Cloak + Negatron Cloak + 950 gold

TOTAL COST 2800 gold

ARMOR +50

MAGIC RESISTANCE +50

BASE HEALTH REGENERATION +100%

UNIQUE PASSIVE Point Runner: Builds up to 30% Movement Speed over 2 seconds while near turrets or Void Gates.

COOLDOWN 150 seconds

UNIQUE ACTIVE Spawns a Void Gate at target location for 150 seconds. Every 4 seconds the gate makes a Voidspawn that travels down the nearest lane. Voidspawn explode when attacking structures. Voidspawn ignore champions and void targets (150 second cooldown.) After the third Voidspawn made by Void Gate, additional Voidspawn gain 50% of your Armor and Magic Resistance as damage.

It's super pricy and I just can't think of who would prefer this item.  Def does not seem like something you'd be able to (or want) to rush.  On top laners, its a ton of money and if you are doing well enough to be able to afford this, you probably don't want it.  Cost prohibitive on supports.  It's designed with tanks in mind... I just don't see a good champ for this. Any of you?

mm... janna split push... nomnom

Nasus would probably do better with Frozen Heart. CDR == more Qs.

A better example would be tanky duelist junglers who want to splitpush (Udyr being #1 but also Volibear, fed Skarner/Hecarims). Can't be punished by "rushing" the item after your jungle item, lots of MR so you can very safely run CDR/lvl blues, has positive syngery with the HP/tenacity jungle enchant.

oh I forgot Garen.

Well - let me cover some of the tactical sides of things.. I'm off today and putzing around vs bots atm to get familiar... its a bit odd.

1st  - so you summon the void gate.  The void gate has around 800-900 hp (eg can't be immediately destroyed).  The gate lasts 150 if not destroyed.  You can summon another gate at 150 seconds.  Void gates are IMMUNE to skillshots and AOE spells - you've got to auto attack to destroy them.  Cast range to setup the gate is small (eg pretty much on top of you). 

Minions spawn from the gate every 4 seconds.  Now, after 12 seconds, each void spawn now gains 50% of your mr/arm as damage (which is around 100 dmg with just the item itself + your built in stats).  Void spawns attack MINIONS, TURRETS, and INHIBS.  I'm not certain, but I don't believe champs get gold for killing void spawns.  You also get all the gold generated by your void spawns if they last hit a minion.   In order, void gates target minions, then turrets, then inhibs (currently a bug where they will try to attack a base turret even if inhibs are up and inhibs are in range to attack).

Their attacks between minions and turrets are different.  Minions they just aa and do a little damage.  To turrets they are like a small bomb.  Just be aware that they can easily tank a turret shot or shots so they always get through unless weakened by a champ or minions. 

Lastly - void gates have a limited range - once outside of the limited range, the voidspawn die very, very quickly.  If placed right, you can setup a gate and it void spawn will be able to attack 2 turrets. That's about the max range though (can't describe super well - range is decent though).

OK - so how to use.

defensive ideas

• Position them to support you under turret - makes your turret more difficult to take as you constantly pushing out minions
• Position them further down the lane to slow a push or draw attention (eg my turret 1 is under attack, I drop this up near enemy turret 1 to take creep agro). This could be used to end/slow split pushes
• Just use as a distraction to ease pressure.
• use as a ward for top lane - kind of smeh idea, but you can see things around it and it could fit in a few places for safety and be useful too.

offensive

• If you are able to farm past a turret (ex think singed), dropping a void gate back where its safe means your voidspawn will be doing 100% damage to the turret.  Voidspawn focus on minions if there are any first, so this allows for fast pushing on turrets.  You also help the team because you almost certainly draw the jungler and/or mid as, not only are you an annoying putz, but you are also taking out a turret at the same time.
• Really, really, really useful on sieges.  You can use them to slow a push in another lane while you siege.  And honestly, that can be pretty big imo.  They are also useful if placed directly near where you are sieging.  They pack a bit of a wallop. even if only a few get through - that makes a difference in the siege. 

Another thought - perhaps donger could use these out of top lane or even as the terrible support dong. 

I can't imagine watching me play vs bots would be super exciting. Go waste your time on reddit instead. 

That mode could actually be fun.  A good chance to try out creative builds anyway.

I'm just going to troll by picking Teemo for the enemy team every game.

Need one more for Fantasy LCS. I am looking at you HEDGIE! 

http://fantasy.lolesports.com/share/join/league/430055/6umwfWu13hkpYmycUNrV

Things I learned last night:

1. Rek Sai is still OP
2. The gate thing has a short range so it is sort of useless for split pushing. It is excellant at seiging though, once the minions start hitting structures they fall fast. (Seige comp resurgance??? eh?) It gets pretty fun when you have 2 gates up at the same time
3. Renekton might be back as king of top lane, will need further review
4. I need to be more optimistic about losing games. We should of lost the game I was playing as darius but one team fight later and we steam rolled down  mid lane.
5. Velkoz farms absurdly well (was on track for 200 cs at 20 minutes until everyone came mid).

We've all been there. 

You aren't using it optimally.  I'm certainly not an expert, but I waste a good chunk of time yesterday trying it out against bots then against humans.  It can serve all sorts of purposes, but one of the strongest is to place it near a turret when you need or want to be somewhere else. If placed in a certain way, you'll take out the turret in no time flat if folks aren't around.  If placed another way, you'll do some damage to a turret and keep a lane from pushing.  Last - it absolutely, very quick, wrecks inhibs and the enemy base.  You do like 400 + damage every 4 seconds with one of these.  Anyway, its interesting..

I spent a bit of time thinking about it and banner of command.  Banner of command is rubbish re: its activation.  This item is down right excellent with its activation.  What you might not factor in is how well it can farm a lane while its freezing creeps as well. You get a fairly decent amount of gold generation - AGAIN - when you place it correctly.  And honestly, you are probably placing it fine if it isn't destroyed within 45 seconds AND you are able to hit at least 1 turret.  Though sometimes just dropping it to freeze a lane is completely fine. You drop it far back enough and that's 150 seconds you don't have to worry about crap. 

hmm.. Banner of Command did get buffed, remember. The promoted minion is now /immune/ to magic damage, for example. i think BoC is certainly better on supports, at least.