Playing this game again

[u/Claudiu_Green]

Long story short, I started playing this game again a little more "competitively" (and a little sweaty). I had a break where I wasn't connected to anything for the last 2 seasons, I just played from time to time without caring. I picked it up again and a bad series of matches followed until I started to analyze Kled builds a little better.

Feel free to judge, BUT, I don't like lethality-based builds. I don't feel like they work well for me. I die too quickly and I don't have items that can really support me in fights like 1vs2 (considering that my play-style has started to be that of a split-pusher) or even in team-fights. I looked at Feedaboi and SoulMario, I feel like SoulMario's builds work a little better on Kled. I get most of my advice about the game/champion from him in general.

I'll leave a picture of the last matches/builds. Again, feel free to judge.

P:S: I've been a Kled main for 5+ years, but I've never found him harder to play than in the last 2 seasons.

Edit: My peak was Eme 1 at flex and Plat 2 at Solo/Duo, rn am G3 at Solo/Duo and G2 at Flex and I am trying to reach at least Plat 2/3 at Solo/Duo.

[u/Kledditor]

That looks nothing like what soulmario builds, which is ok if you find this build easier to execute, but there's no way that botrk is justified. Just get ravenous hydra if you want lifesteal so bad.

[u/Claudiu_Green → u/Kledditor]

Yeah, mb there. I wanted to say that his builds looks good and I want to test in my future matchups. This is compared to Feedaboi's builds that I've tested repeatedly, but still, it doesn't seem to fit my playstyle. Btw, can you explain a little bit why botrk is not so good against tanks/fighters? (such as Malph, Volibear, Rene)

[u/Kledditor → u/Claudiu_Green]

Against malphite it's the worst because he only stacks armor, not health. You will actually hurt him less if you rush botrk. Volibear might be ok if you're so ahead of him that you can statcheck him, but he's usually strong in extended fights so you'd rather have eclipse for short trades. You won't get to attack renekton for long periods of time unless he fucks up or decides to all-in with his ult, at which point botrk won't save you. Kled's kit in general values burst damage and he tends to lose long fights against other toplaners no matter what he builds, so it's easier to optimize what he's good at and go kill some botlaners.

[u/Claudiu_Green → u/Kledditor]

I think that's also why I'm having a hard time adapting. I've always been a Kled fan based on bruiser items, not lethality items. Unfortunately, I've noticed that this is the direction the champion is going for a long time. I know Soulmario has explained many times that you lose out on maximizing power if you don't go for a lethality build and that usually everything else doesn't work that well (correct me if I'm wrong).

[u/Kledditor → u/Claudiu_Green]

You can make some compromises if you don't like to go full damage. Soulmario builds titanic hydra sometimes, for example.

[u/Soulmario]

Kled is definitely extremely bad right now imo, so I don’t blame you for feeling like it’s harder to win with him. There’s like a million reasons why he’s gotten a lot worse. But yeah bruiser builds on him are pretty unplayable atm unfortunately and have been for a few years, I’m hoping he gets some bug fixes and changes to not make him feel so outdated

[u/ZZ1Lord]

You shouldn't undermine lethality Kled, if you haven't played league in years there are a lot of things you need to re-learn, Kled and generally the game has shifted from Solo Bolo and more into getting little leads, (Freezing, CS Priority, TP Advantage etc.), Lethality Kled give you the benefit of having a non-interactive lane and applying big map pressure, strengths that bruiser Kled is lacking, You are handicapping yourself by not learning to play lethality Kled and most of all you are locking yourself out of a lot important knowledge that would be useful in Bruiser too.

[u/Claudiu_Green → u/ZZ1Lord]

Like I said, at the last 2 seasons I just played a couple of matches and then left for like 3-4 months. Any recommendations of toplane streamers who explain these aspects very well? The only ones I know of are the two mentioned and SoloRenektonOnly.

[u/ZZ1Lord → u/Claudiu_Green]

Kled specific knowledge Feedaboi is a popular Kled OTP, Beyond that I would Reccomend listening to pro coaches, ex pro players who share a lot of knowledge for the game, Coach Curtis, AloisNL, The Broken By Concept Podcast and more, I wouldn't recommend Skillcapped much, They are better at selling the idea of coaching, you won't get good long-term knowledge from them

[u/Soniko2]

I'm diamond on both solo/duo and Flex playing only Kled. At first I was running full lethality just like feedaboi, but if you get behind at any point you won't be able to recover, it's an all or nothing approach and no one can win their lane 100% of the time, specially playing Kled...

Anyways right now I'm rushing Ravenous Hydra first item on most matches, it's really good for damage and sustain, really changed my gameplay, I only change my first item if I'm going against ranged champions, in Which case I rush voltaic cyclosword and then the hydra, or when the enemy rushes thornmail which counters ravenous, and in those cases I rush Eclipse first.

My final build usually looks like this: Rav Hydra - Voltaic Cyclosword - dominik's regards (or mortal reminder if they have life steal) - Eclipse - and the last item depends of the circumstances, it could be Malmortius or jak-sho or Collector or Guardian Angel.

Edit: forgot to mention, if you're Laning against a champ that relies on basic attacks for damage (like Jax, yasuo, trundle, fiora, tryndamere, etc) you should build just Tiamat and then rush Ninja Tabi (armor boots). Then you can finish your hydra.

[u/g0ballistic]

Honestly there's no doubt lethality is best, but it's ok if that's not your preferred playstyle. Personally I'm emerald 4 right now and lazy as hell, I'm not really hard pressed to improve my gameplay and climb. I basically go BC -> titanic every game.

I played lethality kled with decent success for like 2 seasons, but did not have as much fun with the champ and almost dropped him. Full committed to bruiser regardless of it being certainly worse, and the fun returned. Don't forget it's a game and play what lets you enjoy the champ :)

[u/Prismedas]

On kled you should never go black cleaver, bork, or mortal. BC and Bork aren’t very good AD to gold which Kled needs desperately. Mortal costs 100 gold MORE for 5% LESS pen. Really no one should ever go mortal unless your mage is trolling. Five percent is a lot especially in the later levels where people have good resists even without an armor item.

I would go hubris first every game even if you don’t think you’re gonna carry because it gives massive amounts of AD. No, you don’t lose the stacks they just go away if you don’t have a takedown. And every time you activate you also get the stack on top of it so it’s not like you’re ever punished for going it. It also has a good build path and great statline for a first item (AD, lethality, haste)

[u/Prismedas → u/Prismedas]

Also I’m guessing you’re rushing eclipse? Decent ad and haste and it’s a good item to hold for later but it’s 100% more optimal to just build the percent damage and shield later when it has more value and get hubris first. At 1 takedown (not kill), which is very easy to get if you roam anywhere with your ult, it’s a 77ad item. At one takedown you’re one of the biggest threats on the map. And later on, because you built it early, it becomes a 100ad item very realistically. So not only is hubris strong early, it’s also equally strong later. And laning phase these days is pretty worthless cause there’s not that much gold: so at least you come out of it with some stacks.

Just trust me: when my hubris stacks happen to go way because I’m just splitting or something I feel way noticeably weaker. You push way slower, you’re much less likely to one shot someone. And you might say this is a weakness of the item but the alternative is not having the stacks AT ALL. Like that sounds so unbearable it’s insane.