Hi fellow summoners,here is a guide that I wrote a few years ago and kept updating from time to time. It is not perfect and only basic (might be I forgot to add a champ or 2 to be honest but I tried to include every champ, also some stuff might be a bit outdated, I´ll try to fix it up if I find something):
Edit: Before you read any further and be like "Eh but this and that combination isn´t really good because this champ favors this and that blablabla...This guide is meant to show Concepts of how it is supposed to be in general.You always have to adapt depending the match up, player skill, etc.
Types of Botlanes
Everyone knows it: Botlane is a case of its own. With more than 40 different champions played on Botlane, there is a huge amount of possible match ups and types of lanes.
This article is meant to categorize the usual Marksmen played on Botlane to give you an easy to find weaknesses and strengths of each Marksman.Please be aware that a champion can fit into several classes at the same time.
For that we will divide the marksmen into 5 classes:
“Lane Bully”, “Spellcaster”, “Tank Shreds aka On-Hit User” “Hypercarry aka Crit User” and “Utility”

Lane Bullies
What is a “Lane Bully?”A “Lane Bully” is a marksman who has strong laning capabilities and can dominate a lane if he does his job correctly. Most common examples are: Caitlyn, Draven, Lucian, Miss Fortune (most common in Low Elo) Senna, and Varus (Lethality Build). Each of them has strong laning power due to their kit:Caitlyn has the biggest auto attack range of all Marksmen LvL 1, Dravens attack damage is higher than anyone´s else, Lucian can burst down people in a few seconds due his double shot passive, Miss Fortune can zone people with her Q and deal monstrous damage, Senna has good range and built in sustain + her Q applies Glacial Augment and Varus with a Lethality Build can kill people with 3 Q´s.
At the same time these Marksmen usually fall off in the late game (please be aware of Senna here due to her in build infinite scaling) due to their early power (to make them balanced) so they tend to lose more often if they can´t end the same fast.If you play a “Lane Bully”: Try to be aggressive early game and make use of your power to snowball the game into a fast win. If you play against them: Try to play safe and go for farm instead of risky plays.

Spellcasters
What is a “Spellcaster”?A “Spellcaster” is a marksman who relies mostly on his spells to deal damage/ effective.The most common examples are: Ezreal, Aphelios, Jhin, Lucian, Miss Fortune, Samira, Sivir, Varus (Lethality Build) and Xayah.“Spellcaster” put a lot of focus onto their mana management but on the same time they are able to put out a lot of damage/ control on the game if they have the mana they need for their spells. Not every “Spellcaster” is strong in the early game, but every “Spellcaster” can dominate a certain state of game with their kits (Aphelios is special here because he relies less on his mana and “spells” and more about his ammunition and what guns he has and how he uses them but it is still the same idea in my opinion).The downside of playing a “Spellcaster” is pretty similar to the downsides of a mage: If their spells are on cooldown or if they are out of mana, the damage they can deal is way lower than at their best.If you play a “Spellcaster”: Play around your cooldowns and mana. Use your spells to deal as much damage as possible, back off and then go back in when your cooldowns are back up.
If you play against a “Spellcaster”: Make use of cooldowns and the enemy being out of mana. If you see them waste their spells, go in and blow them up.

Tank Shreds
What is a “Tank Shred”?A “Tank Shred” is a marksman who´s main damage comes from effects which get applied with every auto attack. The most common examples are: Kai´Sa, Kalista, Kog Maw, Varus and Vayne.“Tank Shreds” usually have spells in their kit which allow them to deal bonus damage with every attack/ every specific attack numbers. For example: Vayne does bonus damage with her W every three hits, Kai´Sa applies bonus damage after stacking 5 hits of plasma.Almost every time “On-Hit User” go for the same to items: “Krakenslayer” and “Phantom Dancer”. The reason for that is that “Krakenslayer” deals bonus damage every third Auto Attack and “Phantom Dancer" buffs your attack speed by 30% after attacking 4 times.
Their Itembuilds rely mostly on attack speed and their effects per attack so the damage per attack is low compared to other marksmen. The longer a fight goes, the stronger a “Tank Shred” gets.
If you play a “Tank Shred”: Play around your stacks. Depending on how much stacks you need, try to fight as long as you need. As Vayne play around your three hits, as Kalista try to stack as many spears as possible and then execute the enemy with your E “Rend”.
If you play against a “Tank Shred”: Be careful of long trades. Since “On-Hit User” get stronger with longer trades, limit yourself to do short trades to deny their strength and reduce their hp before you all in them when they can´t make use of long trades anymore.

Hypercarry:
What is a “Hypercarry”? A “Hypercarry” is a marksman who builds items with “critical strike chance”, the exception here is Kog Maw. The most common examples are: Aphelios, Ashe, Caitlyn, Draven, Jinx, Jhin, Sivir, Tristana, Twitch and Xayah.
“Hypercarries” rely on their “critical chance strike” to deal high amounts of damage with every attack. Critical attacks deal 175% damage instead of the usual 100%. By building “Infinity Edge” the damage gets further increased to 210%. These Marksmen usually buy at least 3 items with “critical strike chance”, with “Infinity Edge” being the “Core” of the build.“Hypercarries” usually get to their strongest point quite late in a game. They need time to farm gold to get their items but when they got them, they outscale most other Marksmen classes.If you play a “Hypercarry”: Try to play safe early on (Only exceptions are Draven and Cailyn depending on match up) and try to farm as much gold as possible to get to your items fast and then crush the game by killing non tanks with 2 or 3 hits.If you play against a “Hypercarry”: Overpower them early on before they can stack up their critical strike chance since their high damage output is based on “luck”. The item parts for “infinity Edge” are quite expensive so try to punish that by forcing them into bad recalls.

Utiliity:
What is a “Utility” marksman? Utility marksmen are marksmen who´s kit revolves around their team for the biggest effect. The most common examples are: Ashe, Kalista, Sivir, Senna and Varus.
They all have an ultimate which needs the team to be useable/ for the best use. They got spells for “the greater good” than just using all of their spells for winning a 1v1. Ashe can catch out a target with her ultimate, Sivir boosts the whole team with movement speed which allows them to either gap close fast to get a good engage or disengage without getting caught that easily. Kalista even need her Oathsworn to activate her ultimate and the W passive (bonus damage if she and her sworn hit the same target in a short amount of time) so she depends even more on her team/ oathsworn to be nearby. To be fair, Varus Ultimate isn´t as “good” as Ashe ultimate due to its range, but on the other hand it provides a possible bind onto all 5 targets and can disrupt the enemy formation pretty well.
If you play a “Utility” marksman: Play around your team. Use the fact that your champion is best when having back up or when trying to make a play/ making the engage. Don´t hesitate to use your ultimate to get a catch on an enemy in the mid- to lategame since this can lead to a free baron, turret or maybe even nashor. Stick with our team and create openings to decide the game in your favor.
If you play against a “Utility” marksman: Be aware of the possible sudden engage by the enemy team using their marksman ultimate. As a tank try to stand in front of your team to “eat up” the ultimate if needed so your carries are still able to respond in a fight and don´t die in the first 2 seconds. Try to catch the marksman off guard and alone (the best would be a pincer attack), so he as to blow his ultimate to escape from one side just to die to the other side and create a 4v5 scenario for your team with the marksman being dead or back to base.

The Triangle of Support:
There are quite a few Supports in the game so there are a lot of different match ups and how a lane can play out depending on who you play against who, etc.
This is a rough outline to group supports in a class, what they are good at and what they struggle with if played correct and how it should play out in theory.
This “Triangle” shows the idea of who beats who
Poke -> All in -> Sustain/ Peel -> Poke ( -> = Beats)

All in
“All in” supports like Alistar, Thresh, Leona, Nautilus, Pyke, Rell etc. excel at going in till either one side is dead or has to back off. This kind of support beats “Sustain” supports since the “Sustain” supports don´t get the time/ chance to really make use of their shields and heals. Your heal won´t help your ADC if he´s going to die anyways.
While they do have an advantage over sustain, they lose out against “Poke Supports”, because they don´t get the chance to all in due to the damage the lane already took by the poke of the enemies. The only chance for you to score kills in such a lane is by going in after coming of a recall so they didn´t have the time to poke you down.
“All in” supports are usually picked with strong early game ADC to force kills and resources from the enemy and get your ADC as much gold advantage as you can early on in the game.

Sustain/ Peel
“Sustain/ Peel” Supports are champions who are able to negate damage due to their kits via shields and heals. Common examples are Janna, Lulu, Nami, Sona, Soraka.
Their strong point is to keep their ad carry alive so he stays able to fight and farm in lane despite taking damage.
They beat out the “Poke” supports because they can block the incoming poke via their shields (which can´t be dodged) and are able to deny the high aggression of the enemy botlane. In case of having a heal instead of a shield they can even restore health that got lost by poke if they were not in range or their spells on cooldown to deny the poke.
A “Sustain” support is usually picked with a strong scaling ADC to make sure he survives the lane and get him to his items as safe as possible.
For the "butthurt" people :D :
As a subclass of "Peel" Supports we got the, let´s call them, "Warden" Class:"Warden" Supports are champions who protect their ADC by "thowing themselves between their ADC and the enemy". They wait for the enemy to engage and then counter after the enemy blew their shots to get back at them when they try to retreat. Common examples are: Braum, Taric and Tahm Kench.
Their strong point is that they are able to take a punch while offering safety for their allies from enemy champions that try to "dive onto them".They beat the "All in" Supports at their own game because they abuse the fact that the enemy is trying to use their strength and then "swap" their strength into a weakness when they failed.
They usually play rather reactive than proactive since they rely on the enemy to step up first.At the same time they struggle against ranged match ups since they are easy to abuse for the enemy via poke. "Warden" don´t have a good way to deal with that kind of playstyle.

Poke
Poke supports are often times mages who went down from midlane to botlane, like Annie, Brand, Fiddlesticks (a jungler tho), Lux, Morgana, Senna, Seraphine, Vel´Koz, Xerath and Zyra.
Each of them offers quite a bit amount of damage and range with their spells what makes them able to harass the enemy botlane from far away without fearing taking damage in return. Their goal is to harass people do death or to force them back/ to the point where they can´t fight and have to “forfeit” the lane in their favor.Keep an eye on your mana pool and cooldowns since “Poke” supports rely heavily on their mana to deal damage just like “Spellcasters”. If you play Senna out of this bunch of supports, since she has a sustain spell, you can be more aggressive and trade harder since you can heal back up ( take notice on how you use your Q, try to heal up your ADC and yourself and hit the enemy champions for best usage).
For the same reason on one hand this kind of support beats “All in” supports since they deny the possibility of an all-in by the enemy because they are too low on hp to win the fight.
You have to be careful regardless after an “All in” support comes back to lane because that is the best point in time for him to turn onto you.On the other hand they have a hard time against “Sustain” supports due to getting their poke denied or healed back up by “Sustain” supports.
Try to bait out their shield or heal and then dump damage onto them so they can´t block the damage coming in and try to kill them before there cooldowns are coming back up.
“Poke” supports can be picked with early game strong and weak ADC to either enhance the killpressure and the possible lead or to cover the weakness of a weak ADC so they get some breathing room. But if things turn bad they tend to be worse than the other support classes due to them being less “supportive” due to their kit.

Synergies between ADC and Support classes
Overall there are 3 ways to “build” a bot lane. Each way differs in their strengths and purposes and I will just call them “Comfort picks”, “Synergy” and “Compensation” to make it easier to understand.
Comfort picks:
“Comfort picks” is literally what you think, you just play whatever you are best at. This has the chance building a mismatch on bot lane if people don´t communicate a lot with each other because every player plays to his own tune. I bet you all already saw something like a Thresh + Vayne lane where Thresh engaged and Vayne just stood in the back, chilling her life and continues to farm while Thresh fights for his life. What went wrong? The bot lane probably didn´t talk with each other, picked whatever they wanted and now are playing for two different goals. Thresh wants to play aggressive and score a lead in lane while Vayne just wants to sit back and scale up. If they don´t “group” up and play together they are likely to lose bot lane hard. On the same time, because they picked their mains, they are more likely to perform well compared to playing other champions to “fit” something because they know their champion (damage, tankyness, kit, spikes, etc.).
Synergy:
Synergy is when you pick a champion that fits the playstyle of the champion from your partner, e.g.: Thresh-Lucian, Kog´Maw-Lulu, Ashe-Zyra, Draven-Leona.
If you partner picks something that wants to get a lead early game you pick something that is strong early game to help him achieve his goal (winning lane), if he just wants to sit back, farm and scale up (on ADC side) you pick something that excels at peeling so your ADC survives the laning phase (Nami, Yuumi, Lulu, Braum, Tahm Kench, etc.) and can wreck the enemies later on. The downside of this “strategy” is when you can´t achieve your goal (either win lane or scale up) because then you are in a really bad spot.
If you need 5-10 more minutes to hit your item spike as jinx or Tristana, Kai´Sa, etc. the game might be over before you get there and if you lost early game as someone like Lucian, Miss Fortune, Lethality Varus, Caitlyn, etc., depending on match up you might get outscaled by the enemy and will “lose” to their advantage due to their kit later on. If you play against another early game champion, he might snowball the lead onto other lanes so your whole team starts losing, etc.
Compensation:
Compensation is pretty specific and usually works only in one direction and that is the Support compensating the ADC in the early game.
The Support should play a poke/mage support to do this since these champions are very strong in lane and that´s when they want to shine. The poke support has the “duty” to get/ create openings/ advantages for his scaling ADC so he might scale earlie has an easier laning phase. A scaling ADC who can´t get touched is a happy ADC, even more if he gets a few free kills.
The Support shall make the lane more “competitive” so you are able to put more pressure on the enemy team as a whole (if their ADC has to recall 24/7 he can´t do shit + it forces their Jungler do something). Problems will occur if the Support dies while trying to get advantages since he can´t really expect help from his [still] weak ADC.
This playstyle requires a lot of work/skill from the Support since he has to do the main work in lane while he can´t afford f*ck up. If he f*cks up, he lost bot lane single handily and maybe even the game.
To the question: “Can you compensate an early game ADC with a late game Support?”:Hardly. Most "late game” Supports would be “Sustain” Supports since they excel at keeping their team alive and allow their carries to dish out the damage they need to do.
Even if you peel a Lucian really well, chances are bad that he will carry a team fight compared to a Jinx if they are on even terms.
Edit: Feel free to argue or comment as much as you like, just by doing that I got what I wanted:People thinking about it

Complete Vladimir guide, made by EUW multiseasonal multiaccount challenger Elite500, every matchup, every build, every playstyle. + AMA

Quintessential Vladimir guide for season 11

Well hello there wonderful people. My name is Calvin and I stream under the name Elite500, as the title suggests, I’ve been challenger for 4 seasons now and ended it since the last 2.

I’ve played vlad throughout every meta, no matter how rough or how much the playstyle has changed, and I’m finally here, bringing to YOU the absolute ULTIMATE, QUINTESSENTIAL, HOLY guide, everything you will ever need for season 11. At the time of writing this guide I’ve played around 500 preseason games and half of them in high challenger.

Why play Vladimir? Doesn’t he actually suck? Isn’t he noobchamp?

Do you wish to experience the pleasure of entering teamfights and leaving them higher hp?

Do you want to dehumanise yourself to and not even recognise your fellow teammates as sentient meat lumps? Can you handle the responsibility to take every game post 20 minutes as your responsibility?
Of course you do.

Setups: we’ll go over the main 2 setups including items, runes, summoners, and build
How to choose between the two setups and which play-style suits you best
Early laningphase and how to play matchups
Every matchup in the game including recommended setups for matchups
Unleashing unholy wrath upon your foes in mid to lategame
Combos
Skin choice

Setup one, the way of the gigalord:

Back in season 7 the chad vladimir players received an upgrade from thunderlords decree, electrocute, termed GIGALORDS back then, it’s power has been dormant and ever waiting since the nerfs of 2018.

This path is more optimally suited for those who wish to have devastating all in damage, those who wish to win lane as early as level 3, those who want to annihilate and leave them with .no counterplay 100-0s

This setup is best suited and optimally played against melee champions such as Sylas, Pantheon, Yone, Yasuo, Ekko, Akali, Kata, etc.

Summoner spells:

Ignite and flash are a must take with this setup, allowing you to deliver sudden oneshots with flash and having beyond unholy all in damage with ignite. Ignite also helps us with nimbus cloak and with procing electro.

Runes

Keystone:

Of course you’ll be taking electrocute as your keystone, it allows you to win a lot of trades early into the game, it’s easily proccable early with auto Q auto or auto E Q or even auto ignite Q.
The trading is nice although the main reason you take this keystone is for the HEINOUS all in damage it can do, most champions can literally be 100-0 oneshot at level 6 if they’re not innately invulnerable (looking at you galio).

Minor runes, domination:

Taste of blood is absolutely amazing and helps out in every melee matchup, feel free to swap this to sudden impact if you’re deranged and play this setup into ranged opponents. (sudden impact proccable with rocketbelt.

Poro ward is extremely consistent and can be stacked easily to grant you free 4 ap level 3 and 30 ap at around ~ 16 – 18 minutes depending on how actively you ward and where.

Ravenous hunter synergises so well with vlads huge point and click Q damage, easily accumulating 10’000 HP healed in a game. While it doesn’t sound like much, since the rune was changed from spellvamp to omnivamp it now will even heal you slightly on autohits even without stacks helping you outsustain early. Some crazy gamer chinese vlads will take ultimate hunter since their server is perma fighting, it’s also a viable choice but feels worse to me.

Secondary runes, sorcery:

For sure my favourite secondary tree to spec into, although this one is a lot more preference, I think all trees are balanced it’s just more playstyle, you flash like a maniac? Go inspiration cosmic insight with cdr shoes rush and enjoy less than 4 minute flash cooldown etc.
Transcendence holy MOLY this rune got such a nice change in season 11, 5 ability haste at level 5? Sign me the hell up. The ability cd refund is also amazing on vladimirs W since it’s basecooldown is like 30 seconds, allowing you sometimes to pool twice in fights.

Nimbus Cloak to make up for the lack of mobility before rocketbelt nimbus cloak helps out so much allowing you to kite and rundown pesky season 10 dashy champs with ease. Optionally gathering storm is also nice but with this rune setup you mostly play for early mid domination and nimbus is also great lategame. My games have been decided 1000x more by having more mobility in clutch scenarios than having 40 extra ap at 30 minutes.
For the mini runes always Ability haste, AP, and scaling hp

Build:

You best be prepared to build mejais.

Starting item:

Your starting item should be dark seal refillable every game, the dark seal buff now giving hp and 5 extra ap is absurdly good for vlad, random lucky early kills giving 10 ap is also beyond bonkers. Shaving off 350g on your mejais purchase is also essential.

First mythic:

Hextech Rocketbelt is by far the best mythic you can go in every game currently, amazing active, amazing components, amazing mythic passive, it’s just THAT good. The dash and ms is a great engage tool, hextech alternator synergises perfectly with your ridiculous ignite electro damage, the passive giving you 5 flat pen is amazing since you can get 18 from sorc shoes and another 5 from mejais since it counts as a legendary, the more flat pen you stack the more efficient it gets.

Second item:

Mejais Soulstealer allows you to single-handedly decide whether you wish to win the game or lose it, it’s a must buy and goes hand in hand with this playstyle, one two kills with a mejais, over 10 stacks? Literally the game is a done deal at this stage. Rocket belt mythic passive giving you 5 pen for a 1250g purchase makes it even good to buy at 0 stacks. I have completely 1v9’d too many games to count in the highest of elos because enemies make literally one mistake and die once.

Third item:

Void staff third? WTF what if enemies have no mr elite? Well let me tell you about this stupidly broken item that straight up out damages a god damn DEATHCAP even at 30 mr !? ? ? the item is 131% gold efficient, let alone when you pile up your 28 flat pen that you get from completing it. Remember flat pen reduces enemy MR AFTER the percentage, so let’s say someone has 50 magic resistance when you buy your void, magic resistance WH OMEGALUL? 28|40% stats on 50 mr leaves enemies with a whole 2 mr, 2 mr!!!!!

Fourth item:

Rabadons Deathcap while not nearly as good as it was last season still will round up your build, if you have just a few mejais stacks and you get these 4 holy items, the game is literally already over. Few champions can experience the delightful feel of going in 1v5 and returning at higher hp than before.

Shoes:

Unless you’re rocking cosmic insight and want türbo low summoner cd, sorc shoes are the must go 100% of the time. Why would you need damagereduction from tabis if you oneshot enemies, why would you need merctreads tenacity if you can just dodge with your W 4Head. Sorc shoes penetration just perfectly synergises with the rocketbelt mythic passive since the more flat magic pen you stack the more potent it becomes.

What the hell is the last item?

At this stage your power is so strong the final item won’t make a big difference, need dps? Cosmic drive, need a second pool? Zhonyas, need spellshield vs evelyn and zoe? Banshees. The itemshop is your oyster, get whatever you want last, I usually like to top it off with zhonyas.
This concludes the way of the gigalords setup and we’ll now proceed to the other setup.

Setup two, consistency king & lategamegod:

This play style was the meta for the longest of time and still remains viable, farm for 30 mins and then fight once and win the game 4Head. This playstyle relies less on your opponents being bad and more so on the inevitable victory that is 300 cs vladimir at the same time it’s also praying that your team doesn’t just perma fight for no reason which kinda happens a lot as well in soloq because people like fighting for no reason.

Summoner spells:

Ever thought how if everyone does just one thing the same way people would become insecure to try anything else but that specific way? That’s my opinion on using ghost > flash.

With this setup I prefer taking ghost over flash and ignite secondary. Why? Now that ghost’s duration gets refreshed on kills or assists and gives tremendous move-speed while only being on a 182 second cd with cosmic insight (163 with lucidity boots) allows you to have it up at literally every possible random teamfight, the mobility is insane for laningphase as well. If you can kill your opponent with flash in a certain scenario ghost will do the job and more, what do you do vs a vladimir that has kill pressure on your and pressed his nitroboost button? Flash away? Jokes on you this shit lasts 10000 years and he’ll just inevitably catch up.

Ghost in teamfights is also ridiculous, pop it right before someone dies and you have like 15 seconds of speed duration, can catchup to literally anyone even foolish galeforce buyers who think they are cool with their mini dash.(bit pixelated)

Ignite secondary lets you have some decent kill pressure even with this setup
You can of course go whatever you please, struggling with bully mages? Go flash tp, feel like you can’t catchup to that Ezreal in the backline? Flash ghost is the answer, etc, it’s all viable and just needs playing around.

Runes

Keystone:

Phaserush has been Vlad’s most consistent rune since seasons now. It offers a lot of versatility in the sense that it can be used to slide in an extra auto in trades, chase people down, escape ganks easier and of course mainly to slide into the backline like Michael Jackson moonwalking on the rift.
Just like electrocute it’s really easily proccable, just three swift strikes and you’re running like ~~yourprincess runs from apologizing to Tuesday~~
Even your initial ult cast counts as one of the strikes, so you could ignite ult q and boom you’re already zooming.

Minor runes, sorcery:

Nimbus cloak is an insanely good rune for vlad since the main thing you lack is mobility, and the more you have the easier it gets to get even more. If you have a reliable way of proccing phaserush such as nimbus cloak ignite all your mobility issues are fixed.

Transcendence just like with the electro page it helps you lane giving you cdr as early as level 5, and if you stack enough ability haste with zhonyas or even legendary double stopwatch you can always do some funky last fight game winning shit like –> pool –> zhonyas –> get asisst so trans ticks in –> stopwatch –> pool again. It’s like 10 seconds of immunity winning you uber clutch games.

Gathering Storm what better rune suited for the lategame king himself. All other options like waterwalking and scorch are completely outclassed by this free stats rune. I’d say Vlad is the most efficient champion in the game when it comes to flat ap considering you have ap to hp conversion, absolutely massive ap scalings with damage and healing (wtF), and an amplification on all abilites with your ult.

Secondary runes, Inspiration:

Free boots are really good at helping you scale up consistently and the 10ms it gives you on top of regular boots means you just zoom that little bit extra.

Cosmic Insight is also amazing at lowering your summonerspells, combined with haste shoes you can get almost 70 seconds off your flash, how insane is that.

Build

If you’ve been shocked by going ghost ignite you’re going to be quite surprised by this.

Starting item:

Just like with electrocute, dark seal refillable is a beyond bonkers good item to start with, however since we get free boots with this setup going dorans ring is a more affordable purchase as well into a more difficult matchup like Orianna or Syndra. My logic is if you back with ~ 350g you’ll be having to choose either between dark seal or boots, but since boots are out of the equation you don’t even need to think about them so dorans ring is a lot more affordable. At the same time this setup focuses mostly on reaching unholy power as fast as possible.

First mythic:

Mythic? Only insecure players build mythic items first.
We build DOUBLE FIENDISH CODEX that’s right. Become unstoppable. Vlad turns AP into a hyper efficient stat already with his insane scalings, so what about a 114% gold efficient PURE ap and ability haste stat? Fiendish codex’ passive is no longer unique so you can stack them.
From experience I’ve felt that anything more than 2 feels awful and going only 1 is also a viable option, although we want to accelerate ourselves and by this I mean let’s say we just pushed out midlane wave and we have some tempo. Raptor camp is up and your jgler doesn’t need them, you take them in 15 seconds total, because of this, the next time you take them you could afford another item meaning you took them 10 seconds in total, the next time 5 seconds and so on and so fort.
Getting pure ap and cdr allows you to do this faster and ultimately accelerating yourself to a point of having 300 cs at 25 minutes and being able to completely devour anyone in sight.

Second item:

Since I’m addicted to Mejais I like to buy it second, however with this setup you can skip it, if you fall behind even slightly mejais won’t get the free 5 penetration that you would’ve gotten with a regular rocketbelt build and it becomes really hard to get back into the game. Just remember if you need the power of GOD to win this game, don’t hesitate to buy the holy bible.

The real Second item:

Now that you have around ~ 100 ap Rabadons deathcap becomes efficient, even in its pathetic nerfed state it’ll still transform you into an onmipotent being. Deathcap is 92% item efficient with just it’s own AP and gets increased by 20% for every 100 ap so making it at MINIMUM 112% gold efficient of RAW pure AP power which Vladimir makes such enthusiastic work with. Now imagine if you had a mejais with some lucky 10 stacks on it, 136% gold efficient pure ap item combined with this? Oh Lord. Full mejais and dc = 357 ap = 500 hp more for FREE due to crimson pact.

Third item:

Most sane enemies when pressing TAB and seeing there is a 200 cs vlad at 16 minutes with a deathcap completed and double codex eagerly wanting to devour their feeble adc souls will attempt to purchase some magic resistance.
Falter their plans by buying an early Void Staff, just like the logic we applied earlier with electrocute, void staffs 131% gold efficiency combined with sorcerer shoes allows you to deal near true damage to low mr targets and to those with more than room temperature IQ who’ve built MR? Well you have a voidstaff, what good does it do them.

Fourth item:

Woo! It’s mythic time yayyy!

This is the most satisfying thing ever, building a mythic item when you have 3 legendaries all giving you instant mythic passive.
At this stage you can choose pretty much all mythics, need more haste? Go Nightharvester for unrivaled dps, playing against a lot of squishies? Unleash unholy burst with the Rocketbelt, enemies stacked giga nitro mega amounts of mr and you’re having a tough time penetrating through it? Literally buy a Liandry’s, it shreds enemy MR making your voidstaff and sorc shoes deal hyper amounts of damage. Since you have 2 codex Liandry’s is giga cheap at only 2500g and doesn’t eat up another inventory slot.

You can even decide to buy something else if you’re in desperate need for it like a Zhonyas or Morrelo, it’s not essential to have a mythic but I highly recommend it leaving it no later than this.

Last item (if you were a chad mejais buyer)

Just like the other electro setup, you may go whatever your heart desires as final ap item.
Enemies have a lot of ad? Zhonyas, need dps? Cosmic Drive, need magic res? Spirit or Banshees.
That’s pretty much it to the phaserush build, we’ll be covering when to go these setups next.

How to choose between the two setups

I am of the opinion that you can go either setup 100% of the time every game and not need to switch things up to find success, however there are scenarios where one is better than the other.
For beginners I recommend learning just one setup first or your opinion might get clouded by low sample size.
I also have a complete matchup spreadsheet with every matchup midlane in the game

If you’re more of the assassin player, wanting to oneshot specific targets and having ridiculously high kill pressure in lane I recommend going electrocute setup.

If you more feel like playing an actual controlmage and maintaining 10cs/min and unleashing unholy wrath lategame with zero counterplay then go phaserush setup.

In a realistic scenario if you’re laning vs melee champions electrocute is much better for lane and the minor runes will have a lot of effect vs them. You can go both setups in both types of matchups and it’s perfectly viable you just have to be aware of your weaknesses and play around them.

Currently I think the meta favours the electrocute setup a tiny bit more since there is a lot of early fighting and lane prio is important to help your jungler. That being said having ghost ignite phaserush means you can join any fight you want since your sums are super low so try both and see which one you like more.

Early laningphase and how to play matchups

Level 1 – 5

With both play-styles you want to play as safe as humanly possible with Vladimir pre 6, try manage the wave so it’s always near your tower so you can’t get ganked and are easily able to lasthit. It is ESSENTIAL to have on point last hitting skills, if you do not, go practice tool right now and get 100cs in 10 mins with only autohits. These early autohits really dictate the pace of the rest of the game, same theory with raptors, how much money you have dictates how much money you’ll be able to generate.

If your lane opponent doesn’t have teleport (mostly melees) you can play a little aggro and sneak in a quicky succ every now and then onto your lane opponent and eventually either deplete their hp so they have to recall or their mana so they become obsolete.

Don’t use your E early much as it mostly hurts yourself more than it hurts anything else, the self damage is always the same percentage so it really feels bad using it early to sprinkle tiny 60 damage blood bolts at the cost of like 100 hp.

You may spam Q on the minions as long as you don’t end up pushing the wave to the enemy, what makes vlad really hard to play in high elo is players will freeze the wave as soon as it starts to push vs them and it’s impossible to unfreeze unless you call your jungler to help.

If you’re playing vs someone with teleport it’s extremely ballsy to trade with them as if you do they’ll empty their mana on you and hp and just recall and come back leaving you with low hp and unable to buy items and locked in lane, going teleport yourself with phaserush of course halfway counters this awful spot to be in.

Level 1 – 5 early electrocute cheese

This strategy is really really easy to pull off, This video shows exactly how to pull this off, it’s incredibly easy to do with electrocute since you also have taste of blood and ignite if your lane opponent dares to contest this you can just punish them.

Basically you want to create a slowpush early, how do we do this? Try to fish for auto attacks or a Q on your opponent, aggroing the minions onto you, since they will chase you let them be pulled into your wave, while you drag them they will not be attacking your minions meaning the wave will push in opponent direction.

If you pull this off and just gently last hit the next 2 waves and then push in really hard when canon wave comes you’ll have stacked a MASSIVE ally wave under enemy turret while you have tempo to do whatever you like, recall get amp tome / ward for jungler / invade with jungler / anything you desire.

And what about my enemy mid, won’t he follow me and stop me? But how? He’s got 3 waves stacked under his turret trying to last hit them, he can’t just leave that or he’ll instantly lose the game.

This concept is very very important to vladimir players as your all ins are often able to 100-0 opponents, so if we do this strategy of stacking big waves at level 6- 9 and dive the lane opponent and they die they lose like 3 waves worth of cs, this is literally unbearably game losing for them and it’s SO easy to pull off especially in low elo. What on earth do you do vs a vladimir who stacked a wave, has an alternator, electro ult and ignite up and is furiously waiting to oneshot you? Literally no counterplay other than going barrier or buying hp / mr.

How do I get the wave to push into my direction so I can lasthit?

It’s very simple, most people will hit the wave level 1 like the utter troglodytes they are, just match their auto attacks and leave one out every few, once it slowpushes into your direction all you have to do is not kill the minions and let them be near your turret. The wave will ALWAYS freeze if 3 full hp caster minions are left alive and the next wave’s melee minions don’t go under tower.

Like this we can freely scale up to the lategame terror that Vladimir is.

My lane opponent has also read this guide and isn’t hitting the first wave? Wtf? If you can, push push push like your pregnant and try get your minions under enemy tower, if this happens the wave will simply bounce and start pushing towards you.
These 2 concepts are the simplest and most essential thing to know when playing Vladimir.

First recall

You’ve got around 1000g? You should start to look to setup a recall so you can either buy a fiendish codex (phaserush setup) or a hextech alternator (electrocute setup)

How do we do this?

We already know how to stack waves and crash them under enemy tower, so we simply preform just that, we push the wave out and once it’s under tower run away quickly and recall, the bigger the wave the better since it traps your lane opponent in lane while you get to recall and only lose 1-2 melees.

If you don’t want to lock your lane opponent in lane or they have tp or just don’t care didn’t ask, just push the wave out before or during cannon wave since cannon minions can tank like 8 or more turret shots meaning you have tonnes of time to walk back to lane without missing anything.

Not missing any cs during your recalls is really essential as Vladimir especially because you can’t afford to fall behind.

Vs mages who like to buy lost chapter it’s extremely important you figure out a way to force a recall before they get that 1300g because if they do somehow get that you’re in for a fun cock and ball torture session, especially with Orianna. That’s why if you can recall with 1000g you can get a fiendish and they’ll just feel awful buying a god damn mana crystal.

Post recall

You’ve just walked back to lane, you’re level 6 and have your 1000g item and haven’t lost more than 1 minions worth of exp. What do you do now?

Since you have some AP you finally get to have more than cannon minion levels of wave-clear

If you’ve got an easy matchup and are not afraid to push out the wave start pushing and looking for things to do on the map. It’s important to ask yourself these questions WHILE pushing so you don’t waste time making a decision when you already have tempo.

Can you kill your lane opponent? Dive him.

Can you help your jungler invade? Go for it, just remember you’re on a tight time limit if things don’t go well and you’ll lose farm mid with no gain.

Can you gank / dive bot/ top? If there is a guaranteed pay off, (know all summs, ults etc) then go for it! Just don’t risk anything, remember if both teams are equal you are likely to win because of vladimirs inevitable lategame scaling.

If you don’t have any options, simply ward or clear wards, going out of enemy vision forces your lane opponent to shit their pants and ping ? ? ?? ? ? ? ? where he go? Which takes focus from other players and makes them play accordingly.

Midgame

It’s VERY important to go to sidelanes IF

Your botlane’s tower died and now enemy adc and sup go mid and try to take yours, since you have fuckall waveclear you can’t hold them away from the tower and end up losing more and more. It’s very important to also not share exp since the support will probably try defend midlane with you, you want to soak up that juicy sololane exp and start exerting pressure in a sidelane.

If you see lots of champs in one spot be ready to move asap because a teamfight might break out, although as Vlad maintaining 10cs/min is above everything, you can’t have any less if you want to carry games so some teamfights are just lost causes and don’t hurt yourself more by trying to get there in time.

You can generally tell when a fight will happen when either:

Herald is up and no dragon
Dragon is up

If ally mid tower is still up and dragon is down and herald is up what do we do?

Of course sidelane top and tell your teleport toplaner to go bot and your adc supp to go mid, it’s very likely that a herald fight will start and you wanna be there.

If dragon spawns and your team wants to contest that? Sidelane botlane and rotate mid at least ~20 seconds before dragon spawn so your adc can walk up reliably.

The only fights you REALLY need to be a part of are for objectives especially dragon, ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY if you don’t have any dragons at all and enemies are stacking them.

Even the most terrible scaling champions like pantheon will be REALLY obnoxious lategame if they get something like an infernal dragon soul.

Just one or two dragons means enemy team won’t receive the dragon wincondition at like 20 mins which means the game will go on for longer, what happens if the game goes on for super long? Uh oh stinky poo poo lategame vlad arrived and you just take what you please at that stage of the game anyways.

Lategame & Teamfighting

This part of the game is much easier with phaserush and ghost especially with ghost since it also has built in scaling with level, duration and speed.

If you have the potential to reach the backline and kill them then that should be your priority above everything, in 99% of the scenarios this is easily achieved with ghost phaserush, since you literally can’t run away from a ghosted vlad. Not even Ezreal with double flash can run, not even kassadin with 4k mana can blink away in a straight line, and god have mercy if Vlad gets his ghost extended with an asisst or kill.

If you’re playing with electro and your rocketbelt isn’t enough to get you into the backline then try your best to hit as big of an ult as possible and peel for your next strongest member which is usually the adc. A fullbuild vlad demolishes anything that dares approach.

Most fights are extremely obvious when they happen late into the game, they’re either around sieging or around objectives like dragon and baron, you should always be around those when they spawn and farming nearby camps and minions.

Even late into the game you want to be farming farming farming, vlad is a super high resource champion, I’d honestly say the highest resource hog in the entire game, not even kassadin needs this much money, but not even kassadin can just engage 1v5 and demolish everyone.

Ability maxing

You want to max your Q first on both setups, however if you are ahead and are going for the double fiendish codex setup I recommend putting 4 points into Q and then start maxing E out, if you do this your E will oneshot the enemy casterminions extremely early, normally only after lvl 11, with this setup as early as level 9.
So Q → E → W and R of course at 6, 11 and 16..

If you’re playing vs a melee champ in lane going W level 2 is definetly viable and can catch people off guard like a talon jumping on you without expecting you to pool. It does decent damage and slows like crazy unexpected, good for making enemies eat towershots when they think they can just weave in and out.

Combos

There aren’t really many “combos” and it’s mostly just generic efficiency and logical thinking, you make up a lot of things on the fly. Here is a link if you are adamant on learning combos.
Say we want to proc electrocute or phaserush level 1
Auto Q Auto

There is also a multitude of ways you can combo with quick cast, smart cast, input buffer etc.
For the full combo with all sums, what works best for me:

Smartcast all abilities, Q for an empowered Q ready,
Charge E –> Flash –> Release E –> Ult –> Q – Ignite

Some people like to ult first as it releases E automatically upon pressing R however I feel like it’s a tiny bit clunky and if you release E manaully it’s literally impossible to react to unless predicted.
Super late into the game if you have phaserush you could also if you see enemies clumped up and you know they won’t be for long:
Flash –> R –> E W

Since you flash you’ll instantly be able to ult and have nimbus cloak movespeed to make sure your E and W connect with someone, if they do you get phaserush and are able to chase everyone down once you come out of pool, pooling instantly doesn’t matter as much as well since if you hit a fat R it’ll heal you like crazy, this catches enemies off guard a LOT even in high challenger.

Skin Choice

Of course the most important part of the guide.
The tierlist goes like this:

Marquis: 9/10, Extremely small model, feels amazing to play with, cheap asf, regular ult is sometimes invis vs bigger targets like cho’gath.

Bloodlord 8.5/10, A timeless classic with absolutely insane taunting game, instantaneous laugh. Absolute badass voiceline, sounds and animations that make you feel allpowerful but at 1850rp? Idk..

Nightbringer: 8/10 Probably my most played, shortish cape, nice sounds and animations, literally invisible ultimate, beyond pay2win, if you’re looking for the most pay2win its probably this one.

Darkwaters: 7.5/10 basically budget nightbringer with a giga big nasty looking cape. Also has an invisible ult, arguably more invis than nightbringer.

Cosmic Devourer: 7/10 I like the stars aesthetic but imagine making a new skin without pay2win ult, what are you doing right??

Academy: 6/10 Kinda slick, not having a cape and being in a weird suit looks good but his hands look literally cancerbig.

Soulstealer: 5/10 wtf are these sounds, legit sound like it’s windy outside and has the most ugliest cape in the game.

Default: 4/10 bloodlord should be default and this should be removed, legit so beyond ugly.

Count: 1/10 Scuffed ass default vlad chroma so bad it should be against the geneva convention.

Vandal: dugu/10 You have to say no homo before using this skin, never touch another man’s skin.

Nosferatu ?/?? Absolute power.. At a price.

General tips

The minute you forget to farm is the minute you’re out of the game, always farm.

Taking jungle camps is really fast after double codex

Don’t be scared to use ignite generously, if it means your opponent runs out of pots they’re FUCKED since you can just trade 50 hp for 300 of yours and you’ll eventually outsustain.

If you want fast results NEVER blame your team, even if they fucked up, what good does it do you to just move on? Try figure out what YOU could’ve done to prevent x from happening

If you’re extremely strong and baron is already up, just tell your team to start it with you, you don’t have to finish it but it’s a for sure way of starting a teamfight and making enemies fight you when you want it. Worst case scenario you keep hitting baron, they steal it, you end their lives, gg.

The period of where you have crimson rush gets extended by E, Zhonyas, and Pool.

For some reason if you have enough cdr and pool as soon as your E ends and start a new channel in pool that E will have no animation and be invisible, not very usable though.

If you have any questions, ask me anything I’m always happy to spread light on things I didn’t elaborate on. I also stream of course on twitch.tv/elite500, if I didn’t cover something feel free to ask :D, preferably on the post instead of on stream so others can see it too, I'm streaming as i post this guide so i'll reply to comments in queue
streaming right now again so i'll reply to comments in queue

A Guide On How To Buy A RTX 3080 - USA Edition

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SharpeyX's discussion and guide on patch 11.3

[Serial][UWDFF Alcubierre] Part 79

Beginning | Previous
A peaceful wonderland lay in front of Damian. Snow drifted down from the heavens, falling amidst evergreens and gathering upon boughs already laden with the flakes that had come before. The scenery was untouched by man. Unspoiled by the eons of hate and strife and horror. Just an unending nature, stretching out in quiet bliss for as far as the eye could see.
It was perfect.
Damian wished he could go there one more time. To walk the land of his youth. He knew it was still out there. Still beyond the reach of Humanity. The silent paradise of the outskirts of Kaamanen, off on the cliff of the world in Old Earth's Finland.
He felt his age now. Felt stretched and thin, like all of the weight of the past had finally found him and piled on. A weathered hand reached up and ran through the scruff of his beard. Then it pulled out, momentarily catching a tangle before he raised it in the air in front of him.
"Back to it then," he whispered, taking one last look before the hand swiped down.
The wilderness was immediately replaced by a world preparing for war. All four walls of the bunker shifted to depict status reports and requests for comms coming from all directions. He had only stolen a few seconds to gaze upon his homeland, but it had been enough to make a chaotic situation a true conflagration.
Everyone needed something. All of it was a top priority.
Thankfully, many carried out their duties admirably, marching toward their chosen destinations without the need for guidance from above. For all of its miserable history, Humanity had finally learned how to govern itself -- how to turn ideas into actions into progress. There was so much that had been accomplished since they had emerged from the shadow of the Automics, and yet here they were again: fighting for the future of the species.
Damian jabbed a finger and thumb forward toward the wall. "Where are we at on Wave Two?"
A harried Captain appeared in the view, a hive of activity behind him as he walked along the corridor, his wrist raised in front of him. "Good progress, Secretary. We can get out of the berths on the timeline, but we're going to be worse than useless without some supporting infrastructure."
They were scheduled to depart immediately after the Zix freed up following the departure of the Boomerang fleet, which should be completed in the next few minutes. By the look of things, they'd be carting along everything they could shove into the hull and figuring out as much of the mess as they could later. After what happened to Wave One, they'd be taking more precautions with the launches, only moving out of the berth when the Zix were in a position to provide them immediate passage to their designated launch point. They'd be joining the two Wave One vessels that had successfully escaped at Alpha Site -- the Wave Two boats couldn't survive without them.
"Understood, Captain. Keep your head swiveled and get folks buckled down."
The Captain nodded, "Yes, Secretary. Is there anything else?" He looked eager to be off the comm.
"Nothing else, good luck."
"Yes, Secretary. Thank you." The link dropped.
Damian turned forty-five degrees and jabbed at another wall in the hexagonal room. This one depicting the progress of the Boomerang Launches. Another comm link sprang to life. "I've still got nerves on this one, Joan."
The Fleet Admiral sat comfortably in her chair, the broad, curved sweep of the *UWDFF Sun Tzu'*s Admiral's Bridge rolling out behind her. "It's suboptimal. Had Captain Erikson survived the battle at Halcyon, perhaps my involvement would be unnecessary." She shrugged, "But there is no one else suited to this task other than myself. Earth's defenses are a known quantity and UWDF leadership is more than capable of overseeing the task."
"We don't know what they'll be throwing at us," Damian replied.
"Everything, I imagine." Her hand flipped into view briefly and swiped away. "Our only chance may be to stay on offense. Hard to know without more information."
"I don't see us getting that until they make their arrival, not unless Kai has more nuggets to drop."
Joan glanced away from the viewscreen and then cursed. "New wormhole triggers. Probe one gone." She exhaled. "There goes the second." Similar alerts had flared to life on Damian's side, adding a red hue to a portion of a single wall, one that was easily lost amidst the sea of red surrounding it. "We need to leave, immediately."
The chart depicting the Boomerang Fleet's exit from the solar system indicated that slightly over half the vessels had yet to depart. They would be transitioning out soon enough, but Joan's tone made it clear she was unenthusiastic about the rate of progress. "So eager to leave me, Joan? And here I thought we would never be parted."
Damian's banter only merited an annoyed furrowed brow as a response, her hands furiously swiping in the air. She barked a series of orders, rerouting all fleet traffic. Damian waited while she conducted the orchestra of Earth's defense. When the flurry of activity died down, she turned back to Damian. "They'll have an updated picture now. We need to get it out of date as quickly as possible. Things that are moving need to move in a different direction. Things that are sitting still need to be somewhere else if possible."
"Still hoping they're slower than the Zix?"
"Unclear. The Amalgans are a black box. However, we risk nothing by maximizing the advantage if it exists."
"Fair. Think they'll be coming soon?"
"It'd be logical. The longer they wait, the more likely it is that they'll need to re-canvas, unless they're waiting for their FTL sensor network to spread."
"Maybe they'll just decide to pack it up and call it a day. Leave the barbarous Humans alone on their rock before we get any crazy ideas."
Joan snorted.
There was a silence. The conversation had come to an end, and Damian was just prolonging it to put off all the rest of the mess on his plate. He wanted to say something appropriately charismatic to Joan, but the Fleet Admiral was immune to charm. Instead, he opted for simplicity. "Good luck, Admiral. If you get your chance, make it count."
She nodded curtly, her eyes meeting his as her chain raised back up. "I intend to, Secretary. You'll be in good hands, until I return."
"Of course, Admiral." He reached up and swiped the comm link off. If the Boomerang Fleet was successful, he wouldn't be seeing her again. There would be no way to generate a wormhole home unless the Amalgans decided to give her a lift back in an act of charity, which didn't seem to likely under the circumstances. Damian wasn't a particularly sentimental person, but he'd miss her. Assuming he was around to miss.
The timer ticked down and the UWDFF Sun Tzu transitioned out of the system without further incident. It was odd to think about, that she had been there one moment and in the next she was light years away. He supposed it didn't matter. A light year or a mile away, it was the same difference.
Two new comm links came online as Damian connected to Admiral Kai Levinson and Captain Alistair Bishop. Kai looked considerably less fatigued than he had the last time they'd interacted, though he still looked like he'd been through hell. Captain Bishop was considerably more spritely, though he had he bags under his eyes from long nights and hard days. "Are you two ready?"
"Yes, Secretary," they said in unison.
"Joan seems to think we'll be in for it soon enough. Get underway and see what this Cerebella can do for us," Damian said, his attention focused on Kai.
"Yes, Secretary," Kai repeated.
"Kai? No bullshit. I'm taking a chance here, trusting you when I've got enough red flags to reupholster my couch." He jutted a thumb behind him. "And it's a big couch. Seats twelve."
"We're keyed in for Interstice. Once we arrive, it'll take a short amount of time to make contact and meet with an Evangi vessel keyed for Ecclesia. Then it's one more jump from there and then I'll be having tea with the Cerebella."
"I know the plan, but it's a shitty one and I'm expecting you to make it seem like a good idea in retrospect."
Kai nodded, "Secretary, this isn't the first shitty plan I've been involved in. They're something of a specialty at this point."
True enough. Kai had a habit of gravitating toward the thickest tangles. It was a trend that'd only picked up after he'd lost his family. No surprise there, he wasn't the only one with survivor's guilt. Not the only one that was looking for a decent way to die for the sin of having lived. "Captain Alistair, the ship is yours. You see something you don't like, you hope back Earthside and we sort it out then. If the Admiral has issues following orders, then you have my personal permission to toss him out the airlock."
Alistair seemed uncertain on the best way to respond. He was a promising captain, but this was his first foray into the nosebleeds of leadership. Under different circumstances, Damian would have looked for an alternative, but he'd been in training as an alternate for the Alcubierre and Joan had given him the nod.
Nothing like having the fate of Humanity hang on hare-brained schemes thrown together at the last minute with zero information.
Great time to be alive.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Damian made a shooing motion, which accidentally caused two screens to minimize in the background. "Get out of here."
"Yes, Secretary," they said, again in unison.
Damian killed the comm link and then turned to the next wall. A large image of the Earth dominated the center panel, showing a real time feed of the planet as it spun its way through the cosmos. A few swipes later, and the blue, white and green Earth was covered with overlays depicting the defensive assets in orbit. Humanity had made some investments in orbital fortification, but they were largely limited to shooting down space junk -- they weren't ready for a full on planetary assault. The cost was too high for the utility offered. Clearly they should have considered the possibility of galactic hitmen in that calculus.
The five status walls surrounding him continued their updates, interrupted only by the sixth wall that served as the exit to the rest of his leadership bunker. Damian slowly turned in a circle and came to a stop at the door, feeling a momentary urge to kick it down and claw his way up the hundreds of yards worth of tunnels leading back up to the surface. He didn't want to be down here if things went south. He wanted to be up top, staring death in the face with everyone else.
But the Earth needed leaders, and he hadn't been smart enough to retire the last go around. Joke was on him.
As he stared at the door, the alerts began to ping out, and the crimson hue of the bunker deepened. Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping. One after the other, almost colliding. Dread crept into ever pore as Damian slowly turned around and faced the walls behind him. The planet Earth was still there, but Polaris station, one Humanity's key trading hubs, was not. Instead, it had been replaced by a molten pile of slag amidst a field of debris. Damian ran over to the wall, and raised a hand, turning it slowly counter-clockwise on the vid feed. Gradually, the video reversed itself, the debris field coming together and then reforming, though it was obscured by a brilliant flare of light.
UWDF Command chimed in, "Secretary, have you--"
"Just tell me what happened."
"Some sort of energy weapon, we're trying to trace--" New pings sounded out. Fleet Admiral Fatima Ahuja paused, her mouth drawn into a thin line. "Another." She turned out of frame. "Nothing? What do you mean nothing? I thought we had eyes!" She exclaimed.
Ping.
Ping.
Ping. Ping.
"They're everywhere. They're...they're everywhere."
Ping. Ping. Ping.
Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping.
Damian could only watch as one priceless asset after another disappeared in brilliant light. Gone before they had a chance to respond. Gone before they had even realized they had been targeted.
Brilliant minds. Brave souls.
Gone in a flash.
Gone.
-=-=-=-
Valast was bored.
Of course, there were many demands upon his attention, the affairs of the Combine could not be conducted without the oversight of the Premier, but they were unwelcome distractions from his brooding about the Amalgans. Yes, entire worlds were starving. Yes, the economic fabric of the Combine was in shambles. Yes, the Combine Compact was frayed and facing disintegration.
No, he did not care.
So long as the Evangi and their minions were free to roam the galaxy, there could be no safety. No security. No chance to build an empire that befit his ambition. Any work that he might do today could just as easily be undone by them tomorrow. They had proven that quickly enough at Halcyon. He was willing to go through the motions of governance, if only to pass the time until he received notification that Humanity had been exterminated like the pests they were.
Being left in darkness was the most bothersome aspect of the entire affair. He questioned the nature of the Cleanse Contracts, finding it incredibly annoying that the Amalgans would be granted the right to conduct their business without observation or assistance. It was an oversight he intended to remedy once the Amalgans had completed this current tasks. Soon, they would learn that the facile administration of the Evangi was a far cry from the leadership he intended to exhibit.
Valast's ear twitched and he glanced at Minister Gorman, who was blathering away in front of him. Somewhere in Gorman's ramblings he had said something sufficient stupid that it interrupted Valast's train of thought. Valast really should have Gorman killed, it would make matters easier. "Repeat that," Valast said, talking over whatever Gorman was mumbling about.
"Repeat...repeat what?"
"Whatever it is you just said," Valast replied, his ears now flapping in irritation. "The thing before this thing."
"I..um...about the tra-trading routes?"
"Yes. The trading routes, Gorman. What else would I be talking about? Repeat it."
He swallowed and then cleared his throat of some hanging phlegm. "Oh, yes, well, I said there is good news." Gorman's bobbed his head up and down a few times, nodding along as he spoke. Trying to emphasize that yes, this was very good news and he should be appropriately acknowledged and rewarded. "We have been able to extend trade to more planets than anticipated due to reduced trade flow with the Amalgans."
Valast's claws began to grind on his cushion. "Reduced? How so?"
Gorman shrugged, "They have said they will handle the matter themselves."
"Themselves."
The nails of Gorman's forepaws clicked together with delight. "Yes, yes, yes, it was my own solution. With the duress caused by the loss of the worm projector, I was quite worried we would lose access to critical trade routes. Every additional world was a strain, you see, so the question of how best to cover the gaps was brought to me as Trade Minister." Gorman's chest puffed out at that. "So I suggested to the Amalgans -- who are much more talkative due to your involvement -- that they conduct their own trade utilizing their projector. Subject to appropriate tariffs of course. This allows us to service an additional fourteen sys--"
Gorman's rambling died out as Valast raised a paw. The Premier glowered at the Trade Minister. "You told them what?" Valast spoke with an exaggerated pause between.
Gorman now looked considerably less certain. "To...to...use their own--"
"You allowed them to circumvent our trade network?"
The Trade Minister shook his head violently, "No, as I said, they must comply with our tariff frame--"
Valast leapt up from his cushion and sprang from the raised dais to land on the ground in front of Gorman, who immediately began to cower. Valast swiped a paw along the top of Gorman's head, dragging his claws along until a thin smear of red emerged amongst the densely packed brown fur. Gorman let out a yelp and scrambled backward, with Valast in pursuit. "You've destroyed our leverage, you idiot. Let them have everything they wanted all so you could do what? Save a few worthless worlds?"
Gorman continued to retreat, his eyes wide with terror. "Y-y-you gave them the worm projector! I thought that's what you wanted. What else would they use it for?"
The question landed with a force beyond Gorman's feeble capacity as an orator, stopping Valast in his tracks. They would use the worm projector to complete the Cleanse Contract of course, there was no alternative available to them. Well, there was an alternative, they could have just made use of Combine projectors, but they hadn't accepted it. But that didn't mean they had ulterior motives...
Of course it meant that.
Everyone had ulterior motives. Everyone was scheming. Always trying to find a way to unravel the progress he had fought so hard to secure. They couldn't help themselves. Envy was a natural condition for those who surround him. And Gorman, feeble-minded dullard that he was, had simply exposed the Amalgan's plot earlier than expected.
Valast snorted. If the Amalgans meant to compete with the economic power of the Combine, they would find themselves sorely outmatched. A single projector, even two, could never serve as a basis for opposition. They could play their little games, and Valast was quite happy to play along with them to see whether they were as treacherous as those he had sent them to destroy. If they proved their loyalty by destroying the Humans and their leash-holders, then perhaps it could be the basis for a very profitable and mutually beneficial relationship.
If the Amalgans tried to grasp beyond what Valast permitted, he would destroy them.
Valast sneered down at the huddled mass of Mus on the floor before him. "Gorman, you are quite lucky that your terrible decisions may be played to the Combine's benefit." Valast flicked off a piece of stuffing from the destroyed cushion behind him -- he hadn't remembered when he had torn it asunder. He then preened his whiskers carefully before continuing. "I want every transaction they complete carefully monitored. Every world. Every location. All of it."
The smaller Mus peeked out from under his claws, one hand reaching up to dab at the crimson slash on his head. He suppressed a wince and then nodded, "Yes, of course. But...how will we know where they are going?"
A paw waved in the air as Valast made his way back to the dais. "That the sort of problem I have you around to solve." Valast glanced over his shoulder. "Not a speck of iron moves without our knowledge, Gorman. Your life depends on it."
Gorman returned to his feet and bowed deeply, "Yes, of course, Premier, I'll see to it." The Trade Minister turned around and made a hasty exit, his claws clicking on the polished floor as he scurried off, leaving Valast alone once more in the room.
Valast moved to the side and pulled a new cushion out from the pile, tossing it atop the dais before he hopped up behind it. As he settled down on the cushion, he began to mull the matter over further. It made little sense for the Amalgans to try and compete economically with a single projector. They would have the same problems the Combine currently had, only magnified multiple orders higher due to the limited keys set to the Amalgan territory and their limited access to projectors. Perhaps it was nothing more than trying to secure their own interests and reduce the Combine's leverage.
It made enough sense. There was also no reason to believe they would not complete a task they had completed thousands of times before. But still, their ownership of the worm projector created additional considerations, many of which he had not fully contemplated in his haste to be done with the Humans.
Valast exhaled. He had been given no other choice. Once again, he had been called upon to exhibit the courage and tenacity of a leader amidst a sea of cowards too afraid to act. If there were unintended consequences that arose from his dealings with the Amalgans, then so be it. They were powerful, but they were not the Combine. If they could not see the benefits of well-compensated subservience, then they would suffer the pain of disobedience.
He would starve them. He would crush them.
And, in the end, he would win.
It was his destiny.
-=-=-=-
Demand MOAR if you want to see MOAR!
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Log Horizon Seasons 1-2 Recap/Primer (Anime-Only)

Log Horizon season 3 is about to start, and if you're like me you do not at all remember everything that happened in seasons 1 and 2. Well, I didn't want to risk getting spoiled from reading wikis, so I binge-rewatched the first two seasons this past weekend and took a ton of notes so I can share with anyone else needing a reminder or ten.

This is certified 100% anime-only content meant specifically for anime viewers. I haven't even glanced at the light novels or wiki. Fans who have read the novels, this is NOT the place for you to chime in with "clarifications" and "by the ways". This place is for anime-only viewers, most of whom do not want to know the slightest bit of what happens next so we can experience it ourselves. I and the people in this thread do not give a rat-man's ass about some novel exposition from volume 2 that the anime skipped over in season 1 - go make your own thread if you are compelled to share that information.

This post is almost certainly going to hit the character limit, so I'm not going to summarize every major character or every plotline from the first two seasons. I could never hope to outline every major character's arc and development over 50 episodes in that few characters. Instead, I am only going to focus on the rules of the world and the plotlines that were still ongoing/unresolved at the end of season 2 - in other words, what I think you may need to know heading into season 3. Even if you don't remember them well, I'm sure you'll pick up the interdynamics of all these goofballs well enough just from seeing them in action again.

Poster Characters

Basics

Elder Tale was a MMORPG that a bunch of people played. One day, everyone who was logged on got transported into a world that resembles the game. This event is now known as The Apocalypse.
Elder Tale's setting was called Theldesia. Geographically, it is the same land/ocean layout as the real Earth, but half as large.
When it was just a MMORPG, the game had 13 different servers, separated by region. If your character was in Theldesia's equivalent of Japan, you'd be playing on the Japanese server, and in order to travel to Theldesia's equivalent of Australia you'd have to switch to the Australian server. Most players played on the server corresponding to their region.
A 14th server, called Mare Tranquillitatis, also existed - it was a beta-testing server used for experimentation and testing features before they rolled out. Some players had access to it. Its geographical region is... the Moon.
The series has so far taken place entirely in the Theldesia equivalent of Japan, which is called Yamato or The Yamato Islands, and particularly in the city of Akiba (aka Akihabira) which is located approximately where Tokyo would be.
The Elder Tale MMORPG ran for 20 years in real-life before The Apocalypse happened.
Post-Apocalypse, the history of Theldesia has a ratio of 12:1 for events that happened in Theldesia vs in the real world. An event that happened in the 10th (real-life) year of Elder Tale's run happened 120 years ago in Theldesia history. This means that some Adventurers who had created their accounts and done notable things in earlier years of the Elder Tale game are now characters that are known to be over a 100 years old within the history of Theldesia.
When people and monsters in Theldisia die, their corpses turn into bubbles/particles after a short time.
The Apocalypse happened on the same day that the 12th expansion for Elder Tale was launching. This new expansion - called The Novasphere Pioneers - increased the level cap for players from 90 to 100, and was to include many new raid bosses and other content. Because of timezones, only the Japanese server had the expansion applied at the time The Apocalypse occured.
As of the end of season 2, it has been about 1 year in Theldesia since The Apocalypse.

Populations of Theldesia

Adventurers

Adventurers is the collective name of player characters in Elder Tale, turned special folks trapped in Theldesia after The Apocalypse.
Adventurers can be any of a bunch of different races - humans, dwarves, cat-people, fox-people, wolf-people, and more. They have classes, special skills, and all sorts of MMORPG staples, and typically can improve all these things beyond any other population in Theldesia.
Adventurers have a "friends list" which they can add each other to. They can make long-distance voice calls to anyone on their friends list - they refer to this as Telepathy.
Adventurers can also talk psychically to other adventurers they have formed a party or a raid team with. Note that this is a separate ability than Telepathy, so effects that block Telepathy from working won't necessarily also prevent party/raid chat.
When an Adventurer dies, they reappear at a Cathedral or another respawn point nearby (e.g. if in a raid zone they respawn at its entrance) after some time (anywhere from minutes to half a day).
In-between dying and reappearing, they have surreal experiences based on moments from their life before The Apocalypse, during which they must mentally confront the failures that lead to them dying. Once they've finished that, they appear on a beach on the moon (Mare Tranquillitatis) with the world (presumably Theldesia, though it could be the actual Earth I suppose) hovering overhead. There, the Adventurer must sacrifice a piece of themself (eventually confirmed to be a memory from their life before The Apocalypse) to return. When they wake up, they retain only the vaguest memory of this ritual or none at all. (See S2E6 for an example.)
Adventurers mostly live in Adventurer Cities - cities that have special buildings like guild halls, banks, and Cathedrals, and which are populated mostly by Adventurers but with many supporting People of the Land living there, too. Most or all of the Adventurer Cities in Yamato and many of their surroundings have a post-apocalyptic aesthetic, full of overgrown abandoned modern structures like highways, parking garages, and broken-down cars. There are 5 Adventurer Cities in Yamato:
Akiba (aka Akihabara) - Situated where Tokyo would be in real life. This is the primary setting of the series. Governed relatively liberally by the Round Table, a group of the most influential guilds.
Shibuya - An incomplete Adventurer city with no guild hall very near to Akiba. All the adventurers who were there have gone to Akiba so it is empty.
Susukino - Northern city in the real-life equivalent of Hokkaido. It started out as a violent city run by oppressive guilds. Akiba sent forces up there several times to let anyone who wants to leave it and come to Akiba, so only a couple hundred Adventurers remain there. The Akiba guild Silver Sword ended up moving there and taking it over, which made it less violent and lawless than before.
Minami - Situated to the west, vaguely where real-life Osaka would be. Governed autocratically by the guild Plant Hwyaden.
Nakasu - Even farther to the west. Very little is known about it.

Monsters

Monsters are hostile wild animals - things like angry giant plants, wild felines that attack in forests, etc. They are aggressive, have stats and levels and special skills, but are of similar intelligence to animals. They haunt certain areas, and when they die eventually replacements respawn there.
After they are killed and their bodies dissipate they "drop" ingredient/crafting items and gold coins.
Most Adventurer Cities, People of the Land cities, and some People of the Land villages have a "no monster" effect/barrier that prevents monsters from entering into them. Large-scale events like the goblin nation invading Eastal are probably not prevented by this.

Demi-Humans

Demi-Humans are a special type of monsters that includes species like goblins, giants, fishmen, and other usually-humanoid hostile creatures. Unlike other monsters, they have actual social structures, use weaponary, and seem to be at least semi-sentient.
Miscellaneous demi-humans can be found in the wild like monsters, but larger populations of them also occupy significant portions of territory - e.g. there is an area of Yamato full of goblin tribes that live in their own society and where People of the Land are not present. These areas can have complex social structures.
Similar to monsters, demi-humans magically spawn/respawn in their lands. Since they have some intelligence but are difficult to research, it's unclear whether this is new individuals spawning or whether they are actually respawning with intact personalities in a similar manner to Adventurers.

People of the Land

People of the Land are what were NPCs back when it was a MMORPG. In the game they just had simple NPC patterns, always saying the same things and doing the same basic tasks, but since The Apocalypse they are now fully sentient humanoids with their own lives, backstories, generations, politics, culture, etc. The People of the Land greatly outnumber the Adventurers - for every Adventurer City there are another dozen or more "regular" cities full of People of the Land and a bajillion towns and farms spread across the countryside.
People die when they are killed.
Revival spells on a recently-dead Person of the Land slows down how fast their body disperses but doesn't prevent it.
The People of the Land in eastern Yamato (the area around Akiba) are socially structured as European-style feudal nobility, with each city and its surroundings ruled by a Baron and a patrilineal Duke as overall ruler of the area, or something like that. They have their own knights, armies, academia, etc.
Named NPCs would have lasted in the game for the whole 20 years that it ran before The Apocalypse, and with the timeline acceleration mentioned earlier that would make some of them a hundred years old or more, but it seems The Apocalypse retconned this and where necessary the names of characters the required continuation became titles passed from teacher to student, and so on. The People of the Land don't seem aware of any incongruities there.
People of the Land can learn skills, have classes, and other things that Adventurers can do, but they learn them much more slowly and generally have a lower "cap" on their level or abilities than Adventurers.
While People of the Land are less powerful than Adventurers, in some special cases they can have access to equipment that puts them on par or beyond the abilities of Adventurers. Of particular note, the Royal Guard (aka Defenders) are People of the Land who keep the peace in the no-combat-zones of Adventurer Cities - they have special armour that massively buffs their physical abilities and makes them able to teleport around the city.

Ancients:

Ancients (aka Progenitors) are a special class of People of the Land that are much more powerful than usual - even more powerful than maxed out Adventurers. In the MMORPG, these were mainly for two roles - legendary NPC characters tied to a particular quest, and the 13 Knight Orders. Only one Knight Order has been named in the anime - the Knights of Izumo that defended Yamato (since there are 13 regional servers, presumably there is one Knight Order per server). The Knights of Izumo suddenly disappeared around the time of The Apocalypse.

The Kunie Clan:

The Kunie Clan are a special group of People of the Land that manage all the banking and financial systems of Theldesia. They are of some mysterious other humanoid race that look similar but not quite the same as humans or elves, and they seem to all be almost identical (plus many or all of them seem to go by the same name, Kinjō, making them even harder to tell apart).
They can be found at the guild halls or banks of Adventurer Cities and similar places, but they also have secretive villages where they originate from that Adventurers and most People of the Land do not know about.
The Kunie Clan are not necessarily the actual cause, but are at least somehow involved with the world's supply of gold and how it gets distributed to monsters/demi-humans when they spawn. This includes access to the giant lake of gold coins that reside deep below the Depths of Palm and which serves as the world's main vault to store coins before they teleport to monsters and demi-humans.
They are also involved with many other "fundamental" aspects of the world, especially operating and managing ancient magical technology. For example, they can deactivate and reactivate the magic circles beneath Adventurer Cities which power the anti-monster barriers and Guard armour within the cities.

Instincts, Progress, & Innovation

When Elder Tale was a game, players were limited in what they could achieve by the limitations of built-in character animations, feats needing to have been pre-programmed as skills, and the game interface itself. Following The Apocalypse, the Adventurers in Theldesia still have access to the game interface and can still do everything the old way... but they don't have to. A magical leaping sword strike formerly activated by pushing a button can now also be activated by doing the same motions and thinking about using that skill. In fact, the latter option is better - the Adventurer can control and manipulate the skill with greater control and precision than the rote motions that result from doing it through the menu.
Just as this applies to combat skills, so it goes for the rest of the world:

Food and Crafting

Combining ingredient items through the in-game interface according to a pre-programmed recipe makes food that looks correct and does nourish the body, but has no distinct taste or smell. But, if a player with the chef sub-class actually combines and prepares the ingredients by hand, it makes real food. More complex and difficult recipes require finer ingredients and a higher level in the cooking skill or they still end up turning to mush.
Similarly, Adventurers with crafting sub-classes and skills can make superior, more refined, and more varied designs if they go through the process by-hand rather than using the crafting menu.

Innovation

Adventurers with the skill and ingenuity to create and craft things by-hand rather than using the menus are also not bound by the finite list of recipes and inventions that were programmed into Elder Tale. They can combine basics in all sorts of new ways not seen before. Soon after The Apocalypse, clever Adventurers developed basic steam engines and the rate of invention has been rapid ever since - less than a year later, someone has mixed magic and technology together to create a magitech hover train.
These changes have had a far-reaching effect on the societies and economies of Theldesia. Facets of Adventurer culture such as their food and clothing have been swiftly embraced by the People of the Land and Adventurer economies have largely shifted away from quest-like tasks such as raids or guarding a People of the Land caravan to their own Adventurer industries, which has fractured the traditional Adventurer-People of the Land relationship and lead to many unforeseen consequences, such as an attempted goblin invasion.

Teachings

Teachings (aka Overskills) are supposed new skills achieved by some Adventurers that were not possible back when it was a game. They are commonly perceived as being a higher-tier version of commonly known skills or powerful new abilities.
In actuality, Teachings are just (a) unorthodox applications of existing skills, or (b) instincts gained from becoming more in-touch with the world and losing the mentality of it being a game. E.g. Nazuna figured out that she can use the protective barriers she normally cast on other people as airborne platforms she can climb/jump on instead. Adventurers tend to

"The Apocalypse is not over yet"

As Shiroe comments, the natural laws of the world post-Apocalypse are altogether a confused mish-mash of Elder Tale game mechanics with real-world logic. Gradually, however, these two separate systems are starting to merge. Some known examples are:

Initially, an Adventurer needed to have the chef sub-class in order to be able to make any real food - even if a non-chef Adventurer prepared the ingredients perfectly, it would still turn to mush. After some time, though, anyone can now make basic recipes and the chef sub-class (plus leveled up cooking skill) is only needed for intermediate and harder recipes. Likewise for any other sort of crafting.
Adventurers whose Elder Tale avatar had a different body than their real body got stuck in their avatar's body, but retained their original voice. Over time, their voices are becoming more like what their body's physical vocal cords would naturally sound like.
The size of the world is slowly increasing, presumably until it becomes the same scale as the real Earth.
Objects had all sorts of associated flavour text in Elder Tale. They still have this flavour text in Theledisia after The Apocalypse, but it is just that - two objects with the same stats but different flavour text behave identically. After many months, though, the flavour text of some objects started coming true.

The Debauchery Tea Party

The Tea Party was a group of 15~30 Adventurers on the Japan server that frequently partied together in Elder Tale, many years before The Apocalypse. They were known for pulling off a number of incredible feats in the game, and generally had a more loose and fun tone than other groups since they weren't a structured Guild.
The Tea Party disbanded several years before The Apocalypse and many of its members moved on to other things. Some members joined or started guilds, while conversely many others had not logged in for years by the time of The Apocalypse.
Almost immediately after The Apocalypse, Shiroe checked his friends list to see who else that he knew was online/trapped in Theledesia, so he should have a pretty good idea of which members are/aren't in the world, but we the audience didn't get an exact list. Currently we know of 9 former Tea Partiers who are in Theledisia...

In Akiba:

Shiroe, Naotsugu, and Nyanta partied together in Theldesia and eventually formed Log Horizon.
Back when the Tea Party disbanded, Sōjiro, Kazuna, and Saki created a guild called the West Wind Brigade, with Sōjiro as guild-master. Saki wasn't logged in at the time of The Apocalypse.

In Minami:

Intix is the #2 seat on the Council of Ten of Plant Hwyaden and therefore 2nd in command of Plant Hwyaden behind only Nureha. She seems like a real big jerk and is part of the faction there that wants war and total dictatorial control of Yamato. Up until the end of season 2, it seems she was emotionally abusing Nureha to get her way within Plant Hwyaden. (I don't think they ever actually specifically said Intix was in the Tea Party, but from the way she's shown with them in the OP and how Kazuhiko/KR talk about her it's 99% certain.)
Kazuhiko is also on the Council of Ten of Plant Hwyaden. He seems to be fairly disgruntled with the way things have been going over at Plant Hwyaden, but is hoping to change it from within. He's kind of a jerk about it, though. He and Shiroe have been occasionally in contact with each other and have been sharing some info.
KR is on the Council of Ten of Plant Hwyaden. He's very carefree, but seems like a good guy overall - like Kazuhiko he doesn't necessarily approve of the way Plant Hwyaden is running things or their desire to go to war with Eastal and Akiba. KR is a summoner with a skill to possess creatures over vast distances - at some point he possessed a horse in the China serveregion to scout out what things were like over there and while traveling around in China he encountered Kanami's party. And he can summon a giant fucking dragon that solos raid bosses. He only told Kazuhiko about his journeys in China, not Intix or the rest of the Council.

Elsewhere:

Kanami was the leader of the Tea Party for most of its run, but she moved to Rome a few years before The Apocalypse and stopped playing the game at that time. During that time she had a daughter. Eventually, she got back into Elder Tale, creating a new account on one of the European servers, and she got trapped by The Apocalypse, too. Since the Novasphere Pioneers expansion pack content had only been loaded on the Japan server and figuring it was related to The Apocalypse, Kanami started journeying from Theldesia's Europe counterpart all the way to Yamato. Also in her party are a teenage mutant ninja frog, a farming bot that may have gained sentience, and an Ancient.

Unresolved Plots & Mysteries

Regan, New Magic and the World Fractions:

Regan (aka Li Gan) is a mysterious guy who has shown up a few times and gradually become an ally of Shiroe. He was first encountered when Shiroe et al went to a conference with the People of the Land nobles. He seems to be a Person of the Land, but I don't think that was ever actually confirmed. If he is, he's an extraordinarily knowledgeable one, possibly on par with the Kunie Clan. He's a shady guy who may have a hidden agenda.
He has the title Sage of Miral Lake, a name that was associated with a lot of lore in the game before The Apocalypse but (as far as we/Shiroe know) not a character anyone ever encountered. He says it is a title passed down to him from his teacher, the previous Sage of Miral Lake.
Regan's main interest of research is magic that is on the scale of altering the entire world, something that he says has only happened 3 times so far in events he calls the World Fractions - the creation of monsters/demi-humans, the arrival of the first Adventurers (240 years ago), and The Apocalypse.
Since each World Fraction was an unprecedented form of magic, he is intensely interested in the creation of new forms of magic that did not exist prior. Shiroe's Contract Magic which turned Rudy into an Adventurer was one such new magic, and one that Regan thinks could some day be world-altering. Around the same time, Regan says he felt another brand new form of magic with similar potential happin in the west.

Death and Resurrection

Regan and his predecessors were researching a so-called Spirit Theory about how death and resurrections work. His theory posits that people (Adventurers, People of the Land, and Demi-Humans) are divided into anima (physical attributes, correlated with HP) and psyche (mental attributes, correlated with MP). The psyche and the anima are each required for a person to persist - when people take too great of an injury their anima is too damaged to persist to it dissipates; the healthy psyche stuck inside the body dies when there's no anima to support it.
Since when people die in Theldesia their bodies turn into bubbles/particles, that is their anima dissipating. If the psyche is intact, revival spells can pull those dissipated bits of anima back to the rest of the body and put them back into place (up until the point where the body has completely dissipated). But if the psyche is also destroyed, there is no mind to reassemble the anima as it once was.
For Adventurers (and possibly demi-humans), their dissipated anima particles all travel to their respawn point, so their psyche can still reassemble them there. For People of the Land, the dissipated anima just scatters in all directions, so even a healthy psyche can't do reassemble them and dies.
However, the reassembly can't be perfect... some energy must be expended for the process. And since the anima seems to be reasembled perfectly, Regan and Shiroe theorized that some psyche must be lost - in other words, the person loses some of their memories. (See S1:E14 for the full spiel)
When Shiroe shared this with the Council, Krusty was able to confirm that this is indeed the case, and further suggested that it seemed like memories of their lives from before The Apocalypse might specifically be targeted. (After a particular death, Krusty could no longer remember the name or appearance of a cat he owned.)
Regan implied the Ancients had different spirits than ordinary People of the Earth and that this could be significant.
Shiroe and Akatsuki eventually remembered the experience of being on the moon between death and revival. We don't have a lot of comparison points as no one talks about it much, but it sure seemed like Adventurers always forget that in-between experience once they woke up (Akatsuki herself when she revives seems to remember it for a moment and then quite specifically forget it).
(Continued in the Navigators section)

Enemies in the West

To the west of Akiba and Eastal are three People of the Land nations - the Westelande Empire, the Ninetail Dominions, and the Fourland Dukedom - and within those are two Adventurer Cities - Minami and Nakasu.
Following The Apocalypse, a guild called Plant Hwyaden lead by Nureha took over Minami by conning money out of the People of the Land nobility and buying the Cathedral, then forcing all Adventurers to join Plant Hwyaden through the threat of controlling the respawn building. Plant Hwyaden now rules Minami and its environs autocratically, and is much more integrated with the People of the Land nation, the Westelandian Empire, than Akiba is with Eastal. Their combined government is run by an organization called the Council of Ten Seats - Nureha and her nine advisors/ministers, which includes some people of the land.
Nureha herself is a somewhat emotionally unstable person and she occasionally runs off on her own private journeys, so the much of the actual policy-making has been driven by Intix and Mizufa, the bloodthirsty Westelandian army general.
Ever since establishing control, Plant Hwyaden have made efforts to suppress information about the west making it to the east. This isn't outright possible, as plenty of Adventurers in Akiba have friends in Minami, but it has overall made it more difficult for Shiroe and the Round Table to gather detailed information about Plant Hwyaden's capabilities and motives.
Likewise, the presence of spies from Minami in Akiba has lead to the Round Table waging their own information warfare, trying to keep their own secrets and knowledge of their operations out of the hands of Plant Hwyaden.
Nureha herself came to Eastal, disguising herself as a People of the Land chronicler named Dariella. She was seen suspiciously visiting various various places in the east, and then eventually met up with Shiroe, who saw through the disguise. Revealing herself as Nureha, she encouraged Shiroe to join Plant Hwyaden so they wouldn't have to be enemies, but Shiroe declined. Apparently she knew Shiroe in the game before The Apocalypse and is somewhat obsessed with him now, but Shiroe doesn't remember her at all, and furthermore it's clear that Nureha lies a lot so who knows how much of this is true.
Recently, factions within Plant Hwyaden - especially Intix and Mizufa - want to go to war against Eastal and Akiba. They have been power-leveling their People of the Land soldiers (using a disturbing magitech system wherein People of the Land control spirit monsters), built a giant hover train base, and have been making other preparations.
They sent a small expeditionary force to the border of Eastal which caused a bit of havoc in some towns, but Kazuhiko and Nureha made them withdraw.
The threat of all-out war or a smaller, more focused attack by a faction within Plant Hwyaden still looms large. Nureha seems to be taking a more active role in government and standing up to Intix now, but that doesn't mean she has full control or even that she wouldn't order an attack herself.

The Disappearance of Krusty Suzumiya

Krusty is the guild leader of D.D.D., one of the most important guilds in Akiba.
When flavour texts started becoming real, the scythe (which admittedly had some pretty evil flavour text) of Krusty's lieutent, Takayama Misa, one night suddenly flew up into the sky and show a giant red beam of pain around her. Krusty pushed her out of it and got caught in it himself. Then the beam disappeared, Krusty and Misa's arm vanishing with it.
For the longest time no one knew what had happened to Krusty. He did not respawn, could not be reached by Telepathy, and Misa's arm couldn't be healed or revived either.
At the very end of season 2, they discovered that Krusty is in China with Kanami.
He still has Misa's arm with him. And it is twitching (ew).

Ennui & Social Safety Nets

Living as an Adventurer is easy. Slaying a couple low-level monsters every few days gives more than enough gold coins to buy food and a bed. Throughout their time since The Apocalypse, the leaders of Akiba have struggled to keep its culture and economy engaging so that its people will have motivation and drive.
However, the mostly-capitalist system of economy and governance they've established, especially with its focus on guilds within the government structure and trade in its economy, has furthermore left a growing population of Adventurers who do not have social standing, influence, or prized trade skills and who do not wish to leave the safety of the city disenfranchised and despondent.
The Round Table is aware of the issue but hasn't figured out what to do about it.
Most recently, Eins and his enormous guild Honesty have been the leading voice for this issue. He's even suggested some extreme socialist/communist economic reform measures, but no one else thought that was a good idea.

Navigators

During a westward quest, the junior members of Log Horizon encounter Roe2, Shiroe's second account, acting independently from him. She says a bunch of cryptic stuff and also sends a letter to Shiroe via the juniors. Putting it all together (but she could be lying about some or all of this):
Navigators are artificial lifeforms that come from a society that ran out of empathion and now search different universes for more in order to survive.
What, exactly, empathion is is not entirely clear. It seems to be a resource necessary for life and which is evidently tied to the psyche.
The Navigators were brought into this world by a process they call "the Match", something they don't fully understand and which they did not cause. Probably the same thing as The Apocalypse.
Navigators are divided into two types: Observers, whose role and motives is not yet fully clear; and Harvesters, who are less intelligent than Observers or Adventurers/Humans and who prioritize collecting empathion above all else.
Adventurers dying is one way that empathion is collected. Given the name and the correlation with the psyche, it's 99.9% certain that this is the same thing as when Adventurers give up a bit of their memories on the moon before they revive.
Navigators don't have their own bodies in Theldesia - instead, they have taken over the bodies of unused character accounts and monsters. In particular, Roe2 took over Shiroe's alt account on the Mare Tranquillitatis server (and other Observers have likely taken over other accounts there) while Harvesters have taken over Geniuses (see below).
Roe2 was able to get to Yamato by swapping positions with a summoned creature, but most Observers are still on the moon. She told Shiroe that if he contacted them, they could help him find a way home.

Genius

Geniuses seem to be a new type of quest/raid boss that were introduced in the Novasphere Pioneers expansion pack. They have a common theme of being disguised as People of the Land (including all the appropriate menu pop-ups), and are only revealed as monsters after certain triggers or once confronted.
Most, but not all, of them become powerful raid bosses once revealed.
Easily identified (once unmasked) by them all having a "Genius of " title.
They have all been taken over by Harvesters, used in Harvester plots to thwart Adventurers and increase the rate of Adventurer death so that more empathions are collected. And this means they can show up anytime as new adversaries rather than only as part of quests or events.
Their abilities and tactics vary wildly. Some are simple combat adversaries, another was stealthily kidnapping Adventurers through hypnosis.
One Genius/Harvester referred to Elias, an Ancient, as "a survivor" suggesting that they are related to the disappearance of the Ancients.
While they aren't as intelligent as Adventurers/Observers, don't think of them as mindless foes. As soon as Akiba started planning to use the Shibuya antenna station, the Geniuses setup an Eternal Moth hive around it blocking the Adventurers' attempts to use it and potentially forcing them to destroy the antenna along with the hive.

The Third/Fourth Party

Since The Apocalypse, Shiroe was searching for evidence of "the third party" - that is, people or things other than Adventurers and People of the Land, and who presumably caused The Apocalypse. He believes that The Apocalypse must have been caused with some motive, and therefore whoever is responsible should be out there somewhere. However, all his various investigations could not find any evidence that a third party exists until Roe2's letter.
However, Roe2 says that the Navigators did not cause The Apocalypse, leaving this still an open-ended question.
Since the Navigators are "artificial" lifeforms, it hasn't been ruled out yet that whoever created the Navigators is also the ones that caused The Apocalypse.

A Way Home

Of course, the big question always looming over the Adventurers has always been "can we go home?" As they learn more about the world and create even more advanced new magics and technologies, they may find such a way.
At the end of season 1, Nureha suggests that Shiroe is on the verge of finding a way home. Shiroe says he doesn't know if whatever technique he's cooked up yet really does send someone home, yet, all he knows is that it makes them disappear.
Following the letter from Roe2, Akiba is now trying to contact the moon where they may be able to learn more about how to get home from the Observers.
Some Adventurers are truly desperate to return to their old life and feel that Theldesia is their prison, especially those who feel disenfranchised by the current socioeconomic structure of Akiba. At its most extreme are the Odyssey Knights, who intentionally get themselves killed in order to glimpse the old world in the mid-revival dreams.
On the other hand, many Adventurers have adapted to life in Theldesia. Many enjoy their life here better than their old life and have no wish to return.
Shiroe was torn on this issue, seeing no good option. Either undo The Apocalypse, separating thousands of happy Adventurers from their friends, their new lives, sending many back to misery... or don't, forcing the other miserable thousands to remain imprisoned in Theldesia. But a well-timed inspiring conversation with Kanami reminded Shiroe of what Log Horizon is all about - achieving the impossible third option. Hence, Shiroe and Log Horizon aren't trying to undo The Apocalypse anymore, they want to find a way to merge the two worlds so people can travel freely between them.

Other Mysteries

The fast-travel gates between Adventurer Cities have been offline since The Apocalypse. Regan says it has something to do with the moon phases.
Does old Shiro really drink that much juice in one night, or are those bottles for pissing mid-raid?
Will Akatsuki ever sit on a chair normally? Does she always sit seiza because of ninja roleplay, or because it makes her taller?
Goat slimes?

The Crushes

Shiroe and Kanami almost certainly had a mutual crush back in the Tea Party days. Shiroe wasn't over it for most of the series but he is now.
Akatsuki has a crush on Shiroe but is shy about admitting it/pushing it and Shiroe is pretty oblivious to it.
Minori also crushes on Shiroe. She's more upfront about it, but he's even more oblivious to this one, though pretty much everyone else has noticed it. (Shiroe and Akatsuki are both college-aged while Minori is like 14 or something so this isn't much of a love triangle per se, more of a character development for Minori plus a way to pressure Akatsuki into taking more initiative.)
Nureha is unhealthily obsessesing over Shiroe from afar.
Serera has a little-girls-first-admiration sort of crush for Nyanta, and absolutely everyone knows it. Nyanta is a perfect gentleman.
Marielle and Naotsugu started out as just platonic friends that get along well, but this has gradually evolved into something vaguely resembling the start of a relationship. They were even long-distance-calling each other every night to share their day with each other for a bit.
Shōryū has a crush on Marielle, which Marielle is oblvious about. Shōryū gets jealous when Marielle pays attention to other boys (particularly Naotsugu), which Hien loves to tease him about.
Henrietta likes dressing up cute girls in cosplay as a hobby/obsession. She has a squad of subjects for her obsession in her guild, but she is especially fond of doing so to Akatsuki.
Henrietta has had a couple moments of thought about crushing on Shiroe, but has no intention to pursue the idea further.
Sōjiro is a harem protagonist.
Nazuna is Sōjiro's one true love, or else the childhood bestfriend character that hangs out in the harem but ultimately only loves him platonically.
Naotsugu must decide who he loves more, Marielle or panties.
Krusty and Princess Lenessia have a pretty good thing going. I dunno what it is, but it's good and it was going, until he disappeared.
Rudy is an eager puppy and Isuzu is his proud owner.

Best

Best boy: Nyanta
Best girl: Kurinon
Best speech: Shiroe (sorry William, yours was good, too)
Best faces: Akatsuki
Best smile: Nazuna
Best hat: The other giraffe girl
Best pants: Kushiyatama

Afterword

I'm really glad I rewatched all of Log Horizon. In my opinion, it is a series that has gotten even better with age. If you are debating about delaying season 3 to rewatch the first two seasons or not, I say do it.
There was no shortage of isekai series when Log Horizon first aired, and that number has only increased since. But how many isekai series actually want to seriously engage with their premise? Having the protagonist recognize that they've been transported into a video game world only to immediately shrug off all possible ramifications of this is funny, sure, but it's also definitely taking the easy way out. Nowadays, many series don't even bother with the 5-minute isekai-and-forget-it routine and just opt to pitch it as a fantasy tale in a nonsensically video game-themed setting, but even then the characters rarely engage with the consequences of the setting being game-ified.
Not so Log Horizon.
Log Horizon never forgets that its characters are real people and real gamers, worried far more about the existential unknown than yet another goblin king. It's not just that the story dabbles into politics, economics, and social reform, though that's great, too. It's the constant fear of the unknown, the optimism to rally against it, and the heart to learn lessons from it.

Player/Analyst Tweets & Other Things – LCS 2021 Week 1 - TSM vs C9

IMPORTANT
I’ve received some feedback and I’d appreciate it if you could answer this one question poll to determine the ideal timing of this thread. POLL LINK: HERE
Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening GrubhubGamers!
What is this thread?
The main purpose of this thread is to provide a place for all social media posts/comments related to TSM’s games of the week from pro players/analysts/influencers/orgs. The thread is updated manually after every game in this order:
Interview (if TSM wins) > TSM Tweets > Opponent Tweets > Others
I also take notes on LCS Co-streamer’s analysis (sometimes 2+) but because it is not the major focus of this thread, the quality varies from day to day and I would highly recommend just watching their vod which I’ll provide here if it is available.
Today’s Live Analyst: Doublelift
Analyst Vod: Link
Today's Match Up:

TSM	C9
Huni	Fudge
Spica	Blaber
PowerOfEvil	Perkz
Lost	Zven
SwordArt	Vulcan

PREGAME

Tweets:
Perkz

maybe some Ryze tomorrow ? (Tweeted yesterday)

TSM (Twitter)

Tweeting the day after a loss [picture of a dog on a laptop in a battlefield]
Excited for our absolute banger match vs. C9 soon. [pictures of PoE]

Tim Sevenhuysen

Since I was so WRONG yesterday, let's try again.
Predictions: FLY < EG | DIG < TL | 100 > CLG | C9 > TSM | IMT > GG |

LCS Official

@C9Perkz : I want to make sure TSM doesn't take a series off us while I'm on the roster. @Bjergsen : Yeah, Perkz is a funny guy. He has a big mouth.
A new chapter in the @Cloud9 and @TSM rivalry begins today when they face off in week one of the 2021 #LCS Spring Split!
Video Link

Medic

Okay, the game we've all stayed up for. @Cloud9 vs. @TSM . Please don't be shit.

Logitech G Esports

We're pretty sure @Huni 's main motivation to win the #LCS is just to hog the trophy from @Spicalol . Saturday LCS continues as @TSM will battle it out against Cloud 9!

G2 Esports (Twitter)

TSM is a bad team right now. I'm sorry you stayed up to watch that dumpster fire against an actual decent team. It will be a 20 min C9 win. (posted 5min before game start. copypasta?)
- C9: TSM is a bad team right now. I'm sorry you stayed up to watch that dumpster fire against an actual decent team. It will be a 20 min C9 win.

DURING DRAFT

Doublelift

Nidalee ban from C9 is smart since Blaber doesn't really play it.
Doesn't like the bans from TSM, Spica doesn't have much to play after. Probably just Lilia now.
Spica hovers Shaco every time to troll Doublelift
If TSM picked Ori 3rd pick then they would have the better draft so far (AziJax is the scuffed version of Ori/Camille)
Scrimming versus Lost/Treatz was pretty challenging for Dl/Bio.
Game to watch for Lost. Kaisa is a champ with more skill expression. Can be more lane dominant too. Lost/Swordart probably has a really high skill ceiling.
"I'm gonna lose my mind" (after Corki pick) really wanted to see Ori 3rd pick or Syndra last pick.
Got double counter picked bot lane.
Should've just went for the support counterpick. Support counterpick is everything for bot lane. You get so many more options (kill/dive/roam) with a counter pick in the support spot. Wasted on the Corki.
Says he must be missing something because he knows that Bjergsen is very smart. (Very wrinkled brain, not smooth brain)

There is 0 bot lane champions that can come in that would EVER influence r4 mid lane pick. Zero. Why on earth TSM goes Leona r4 when C9's last remaining 2 champs are both bot champs, is totally mindblowing. It's a parody in itself how terrible the draft phase order is
Also Corki over Seraphine is weird. Corki is so bad atm idk. Also c9 not taking seraphine is weird too idk gg

C9 Veigarv2

Let's get it
why TSM gives us 4 of our OTPS? (azir mf udyr alistar) god damn noobs XD

Amazing

Ignite doesn't seem that worth if every Camille that runs it also runs it down in the first 5 mins of the game

DURING GAME

Doublelift

Alistar counters Leona because he makes it really hard for Leona to engage. Also Vulcan is very comfortable on Alistar.
TSM's bot lane might get shit on 2v2 based on the champs.
MF also beats Kaisa in a lot of trades. If you're playing against a good palyer, MF should beat Kaisa every single time.
Blaber's clear is really sick (camps + scuttle by 3:20)
Really smart flash by Blaber (3:30) Knew to go straight for the wall because Camille doesn't have flash.
Major risk for Camille to run Ignite because in theory you should win lane but a smart jungler is going to play around the flashless lane.
TSM needs to make good use of Corki package cd because the champion sucks at every other time.
TSM is trolling (8:30) Camille ulting an Azir at turret is really bad.
Game is an "open" now after two really bad dives from TSM. (9:00)
Luckily Zven is always on TSM's side (~12:40 Swordart catches Zven)
Perkz is the main target for TSM right now (~18) because he doesn't have flash. C9 just need to play front to back.
Fudge is playing like Faker of top lane right now (~21 dive top lane 2nd turret) C9 had a lot of balls with their Baron play. Very coordinated. Stunning Spica before Baron is in smite range to force him to flash into pit before he gets knocked up.
Udyr is so broken. Can solo kills adcs/mid laners. Crazy clear times, point and click stun. Really fast/lots of survivability.

Jensen

diving the alistar didnt work? ahh blows thats unexpected

Yassuo

LCS has been an experience today (After TSM dive AlistaMF level 6)

This game is FNC vs G2 take 2, but C9 just have a draft kingdom edge over TSM and TSM have decided to throw the game away by 9mins. Also curious if it was Fudge's fault Huni decided to int the game away. (After TSM dive AlistaMF level 6)
Dunno why Corki tps, should just eat golems and push 2 top waves, then go w/ team to get gromp/scuttle. There's 0 worlds in which there is a contest on dragon. Also the perma pushing waves out by TSM even tho they can't take a fight and no objective up is weird too #LCS (~18)
Never would I have predicted that at 23minutes when a team is down almost down 10k and baron that a teamfight would happen in bottom lane/red side enemy jungle.

Bwipo

First Camille dives with Azir R up. Then diving Alistar when he's level 6. @FNCHylissang come take notes

Ender

interesting dive from huni. been watching too many fnatic vods (Camille ult on Azir under turret)

Markz

The @Cloud9 zoo is running wild. They got a bear, cow and bird.

Vedius

Is Udyr supposed to do that???? (Udyr solos Corki)
- Ender: STUN RUN JOB DONE

C9 Mithy

Jungle is really weak this patch

Kelsey Moser

Words cannot describe how much I hate Corki picked into Azir
But I think people think I'm memeing because I hate watching Corki Azir meta. No Corki picked into Azir is legit only good if you assume enemy mid cannot lane on Azir
Literally any mage I don't care. Corki into Azir is the epitome of "enemy mid won't punish me"

Amazing

1 Liandrys beats 2 Liandrys, check mate noobs (~23)
I'm here to tell you now that ManBearPig is real, and he most certainly exists in the form of Udyr

Treatz

$7 million Alistar @VulcanLoL 🤔

Meteos

That corki build looks like a certified win trade

POST GAME

TSM

Huni

nothing yet

Spica

nothing yet

PowerOfEvil

nothing yet

Lost

nothing yet

SwordArt

nothing yet

Coach Bjergsen

nothing yet

TSM Report

A few early game missteps put us in a rough spot as we drop our second game. We look to turn things around tomorrow to close out the weekend. GGWP C9

TSM (Twitter)

F
- TSM GreekGodx: F
- Dellzor: PepeSad

C9

Fudge

nothing yet

Blaber

nothing yet

Perkz

after huni decided to int to kill me I just completely lost it and couldn't handle my emotions anymore. i'm no longer deathless :(

Zven

nothing yet

Vulcan

Rly good early game but kinda broke my hands as the game went on... balanced as all things should be 🤪

Coach Reignover

nothing yet

C9 (Twitter)

In a sub-30 minute game, #C9LoL take the #C9WIN over @TSM and go 2-0 to start off the #LCS split! #GGWP

C9 Mateus

LET'S GOOOOO #C9WIN

C9 Jack

GG @TSMReginald & @TSM . Huge respect for our long time rivalry and know you guys will only get stronger as the season continues as always.

C9 Gaylen

If I see more udyrs in soloq I'm holding you personally responsible @blaber
- Blaber: Not my fault

OTHERS

Hai

imagine being bjergsen and watching that game and trying to prep review afterwards. where do you start lol, maybe just pretend it didn't happen?
C9 Jack: Step 1: Come out of retirement.

Lolesports Stats

Repeat for 28:31 and you have a recap of @blaber 's game on Udyr as @Cloud9 make quick work of @TSM #LCS PIC OF BLABER'S STATS

Azael

TSM looking like the worst value roster in the league. Paid for TL, got CLG.

Shakarez

I went to do an m+ run what did I come back to Corki's build

Tim Sevenhuysen

Blaber good. #LCS

When did SoloRenektonOnly join TSM ?

Fionn

Blaber on his way to slap after hearing NA owners want to delete all homegrown talent

Travis Gafford

TSM making me think a lot about the Ship of Theseus lately. Will be good to talk about them on Hotline League this Monday with @MeteosLoL joining @TheeMarkZ and I!

Phreak

It's 2021 and TSM and CLG are tied in the standings.

Kien

swordart probably has like... a 75%+ all-time domestic win rate... pretty clear that the LCS is the hardest league in the world even if it might not be the best 😄
- Shakarez: Huni has an LEC and an LCK title. He's been in the LCS for more time than in those two leagues combined and has never won a title in NA.

Amazing

But yeah, TSM seems to be on very different pages throughout the game. I think it would do them well to cut down on the multiple threat playstyle, and streamline into limited interaction top laners + 4 man botside with inherent synergy
The production you get out of Huni is limited, and SwordArt seems to be on a different page altogether. Too many chefs spoil the broth in this case, limiting the divisiveness would help Lost and PowerOfEvil to at least get to a teamfight stage

IWD

It's ok i'm sure Impact or Licorice wouldn't be doing much better!

what is the best bot for twitch video

Nightbot is another Twitch viewer bot that you can use for YouTube gaming as well as Twitch, making it nice and versatile. We also love that it is arguably the most user friendly viewer bot out there, making it super simple to work out how to use. Moobot is a moderator bot which is also extremely popular with Twitch streamers. It is similar to Nightbot by functionality and basic commands. The bot is absolutely free and has a very comprehensible dashboard. PhantomBot. PhantomBot stands out significantly to other bots as it’s one of the few Twitch chat bots which is open source. It’s the best Twitch bot for advanced users as there’s a huge community behind PhantomBot, developing new and unique features of their own, taking advantage of the code being open source. This months recommended Twitch viewer bot is Viewerlabs.com. Read my review Tags twitch (7) twitch bot (1) twitch chat bot (6) twitch follow bot (6) twitch view bot (1) Twitch Viewer bots (1) viewer bots (6) Compatible with Twitch. A minimalistic bot who just wants what’s best for you, Stay_Hydrated_Bot will show up on your stream to remind you to drink water. There’s no fancy dashboard here, just a command or two to set it up and then the Stay_Hydrated_Bot will periodically turn up and remind streamers to stay healthy and hydrated. Most Popular Twitch Bots in 2021: The most popular chatbots on the market are; Streamlabs, StreamElements, Nightbot, and Moobot. A few years ago, if you wanted a specific feature from a bot, you had to get a select bot. Now, most chatbots give you access to the most popular features. Moobot acts as your Twitch mod, automatically removing spam and undesirable comments in your Twitch chat. All fully adjustable to fit your community. Saying things repeatedly... Your Moobot has built-in Twitch commands which can tell your Twitch chat about your social media, sponsors, or anything else you don't want to keep repeating. One of the best things about a Twitch viewer bot is that you can use it to send thousands of accounts to check out your channel, which is going to boost its social proof. Final Thoughts. So, there you have it – some of the greatest Twitch viewers bots in the industry, in our opinion. This bot might be familiar to almost everyone who has browsed through Twitch. Nightbot has been one of the leading chatbots for a lot of streamers. With its easy to use interface, you can access powerful moderation tools and song request features, any streamer can make use and elevate the overall chat experience. StreamElements Bot. If you use the rest of StreamElements products, the bot is a must-use. With chat commands, spam protection, moderation and timers built in, it’s simple to use and completely free! The most interesting part of StreamElements bot is what they call ‘Modules’. Modules allow you to connect your Twitter account, alerts from StreamElements and include mini-games to keep your Twitch chat engaged and talking with one another.

what is the best bot for twitch top

Best Twitch View Bot/Chat Bot (working 2020) - YouTube

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9 Best Twitch Bots For Your Stream 2021 (Free & Paid

what is the best bot for twitch

what is the best bot for twitch - win

Space Engineers Game

What is the best chat bot for Twitch?

The team I play with has a Twitch jungle one-trick. What AP-carries is best for me to take bot?

My brother is going to duo bot with me. What are the best supports to buy for an adc like Twitch? Who is must have for a support main?

Basic Guide for Botlane Match Ups/ Champ Classes

Complete Vladimir guide, made by EUW multiseasonal multiaccount challenger Elite500, every matchup, every build, every playstyle. + AMA

Quintessential Vladimir guide for season 11

Table of contents:

Setup one, the way of the gigalord:

Summoner spells:

Runes

Keystone:

Minor runes, domination:

Secondary runes, sorcery:

Build:

Starting item:

First mythic:

Second item:

Third item:

Fourth item:

Shoes:

What the hell is the last item?

Setup two, consistency king & lategamegod:

Summoner spells:

Runes

Keystone:

Minor runes, sorcery:

Secondary runes, Inspiration:

Build

Starting item:

First mythic:

Second item:

The real Second item:

Third item:

Fourth item:

Last item (if you were a chad mejais buyer)

How to choose between the two setups

Early laningphase and how to play matchups

Level 1 – 5

Level 1 – 5 early electrocute cheese

How do I get the wave to push into my direction so I can lasthit?

First recall

How do we do this?

Post recall

Midgame

Lategame & Teamfighting

Ability maxing

Combos

Skin Choice

General tips

A Guide On How To Buy A RTX 3080 - USA Edition

Requirements:

1. Getting Alerts

2. Setting Up Settings

3. Setting Up Apple Pay Settings (If you have an iOS device)

4. Checkout Methods For Each Retailer

Newegg

Best Buy

Amazon

BHPhotovideo

Other Retailers

5. When Do Retailers Restock?

Monthly Meta Post for January 2021

SharpeyX's discussion and guide on patch 11.3

[Serial][UWDFF Alcubierre] Part 79

Log Horizon Seasons 1-2 Recap/Primer (Anime-Only)

Poster Characters

Basics

Populations of Theldesia

Adventurers

Monsters

Demi-Humans

People of the Land

Instincts, Progress, & Innovation

Food and Crafting

Innovation

Teachings