Bruisers

Bruisers

Alright, I didn't bother splitting the AP Tanks from the Bruisers since they all go to the bruiser lane anyways. These guys are incredibly bulky and their fights to control their own lane are a bit more intense than other lanes because they're always in each other's faces.

Runes for the bruisers are standard, where they go for defensive stats primarily. For an AD bruiser, you go with Flat AD Marks, Flat Armor Seals, Magic Resist per level or Flat Magic Resist depending on laning opponent Glyphs, and then choose from flat AD, Flat HP or Movement Speed Quints, where Flat HP has a stronger early game advantage against opponents in most cases and Movement Speed quints are better used on Junglers. Possible subs for Armor include HP per level if you just don't need the armor in lane.

Runes for the AP tank form of bruisers are also pretty standard. Magic Penetration Marks, Flat Armor or HP/level Seals, Magic Resist, Magic Resist per Level or AP Per level Glyphs and finally Flat AP or Flat HP Quints, and again sometimes Movement Speed will help you escape ganks.

Starting items in the bruiser lane are either boots 3x pots or cloth armor 3x pots, those are the only really acceptable starting pieces. Some champions can start Doran's Shield, but it's a bit of a counter buy since you lose a lot of early game gold and should be pushed off until you're losing your lane.

When it comes to boots, it's almost always Mercury Treads or Ninja Tabi depending on what type of tank you want to be. If your enemy has an on next hit attack (nasus or riven as perfect examples) you definitely want tabi. If your enemy has strong CC and is magical based (rumble or kennen) you want Mercury Treads. Some champions such as Akali want Sorceror's Shoes, *cough*but she should be in the mage section anyways.*cough*

* Akali
Dmg: ***
CC : *
Utl: *
Dif: *
Pot: **

Core: Rylais, Lichbane, Rabadons pieces.

Personal Opinions: Akali is stupid powerful, but easy to shut down. She has no innate bulk, but if she gets a few kills and gets her Rylais she starts snowballing. She needs a specific rune page to maximize her potential, or else you waste 475g on an early Doran's Blade to activate her innate spell vamp. Gunblade used to be an amazing item on her when she'd just stack 6 of them and faceroll, but now it's kinda pointless.

Skill Advice: Her Q should be used for poke, farm and killing. You have a 6 second window of opportunity to hit a foe with a melee attack to proc the bonus damage, so wait until her Q comes off cooldown and the enemy is still marked to R, auto, Q, auto and try to finish them off. Using her twilight shroud is key for slowing escaping enemies or escaping herself, it's the ultimate juke zone. Her E is just a farming skill mostly, don't use it to damage enemies, energy restraints wont allow for it. Then finally always have 2 charges of shadow dash available whenever you want to go in for a kill else they're wasted.

Countered by: Oracle's Elixir is one such counter, but otherwise stronger enemies with bigger harass or poke, Rumble is one such champion that can shut down Akali.

* Cho'Gath
Dmg: ***
CC : ***
Utl: **
Dif: *
Pot: **

Core: Philosopher's Stone, Rod of Ages, preference beyond.

Personal Opinions: Cho'Gath is amazing, 'nuff said. He has a large sum of bulk and damage output with his ultimate, and if he ever gets a hold of blue buff he pretty much destroys his lane. His skill set makes him ultra-farm extraordinaire, but he's a lot like Amumu where his innate bulk isn't enough to make him a massive threat, and his kit isn't enough to keep him alive.

Skill Advice: Rupture should be second or last priority. Farming with Feral Scream is easy, but it's importance is to counter ganks with a high amount of reversed damage. Positioning is key with vorpal spikes, and once you start farming all his mana problems go away, but I still like picking up Rod of Ages none the less. Focus on a catalyst and he can alternatively go tankier with a Banshee's Veil. His ultimate should be devoted to getting 6 stacks of hp, or only used on players when he can guarantee a kill on them with it.

Countered by: Champions with a lot of burst early on. If you deny his farm early he falls off. If you allow him to farm and build into Magic Resistance it becomes a passive farm lane where you can hit each other but it's a waste of effort. Typically I'll have a dance off with my enemies while playing Cho'Gath because we've both got 20 seconds of down time and helping allied lanes is for suckers.

* Dr. Mundo
Dmg: ***
CC : *
Utl: **
Dif: **
Pot: **

Core: Wriggle's Lantern, Warmogs, Phage or Ruby Crystal.

Personal Opinions: Dr. Mundo is an amazing champion, especially in the jungle. He has quite possibly the fastest current clear speed in the jungle and still very powerful ganks with effective cleavers. He has very high base health and scales very well with the current Atma's reliant meta. Force of Nature against Wit's end as a magic resistance item is a hard toss up, since he does amazingly well with more attack speed and masochism.

Skill Advice: In lane, prioritize his cleavers. These are a large source of his harass and farm, and can only farm effectively with more points devoted. In the jungle, prioritize burning agony > masochism > cleavers, while Cleavers help with ganking, Burning Agony and Masochism give him stupidly fast clear speeds.

Countered by: Draft pick, grievous wounds severely damper his damage output, which comes from an Executioner's Calling or misplaced Miss Fortune or Fizz. His ganks are a lot weaker when he hops into lane at 20% health to pop his ultimate only to have it cut down to 60%~ of it's original efficiency.

* Gangplank
Dmg: ***
CC : **
Utl: ***
Dif: *
Pot: ***

Core: Wriggles or Executioner's Calling, Phage, Giant's Belt or Ruby Crystal.

Personal Opinions: Yar-Har-Fiddle-Dee-Dee, playing Gangplank is easy as Q, W, E. Well, not in that order. He has a lot of innate bulk, harass and can farm amazingly well. Build him as pure offensive Critplank (especially as an anti-mid) or a typical bruiser. The only reason I don't play him as often is that I can't help but speak his lines with him, and it gets weird when other people are around or I'm on skype.

Skill Advice: His Q or E should have priority, it's somewhat hard to farm with Q without MP5, and even then you have to commit to either farming with Q or harassing foes with Q, which should be determined by whether you started the match with 20% crit in runes or not. Otherwise, take a point in W early to survive ganks and max E and Q by level 13. Don't use his ultimate selfishly, pop it in other lanes that are going in for a kill or drop it on a turret in trouble, but don't just pointlessly save it. Make sure you steal enemy blue (if purple) or your blue otherwise to push your lane to oblivion.

Countered by: Chain vest, this is essentially why critplank is a gimmick. Once an enemy gets Wriggles/Ninja Tabi he's forced to passively farm with Parrrley in hopes of snowballing. Gank his lane often to prevent him from recovering and he's left as utility in late game.

* Garen
Dmg: **
CC : **
Utl: *
Dif: *
Pot: **

Core: Wriggle's, Phage, Giant's Belt or Ruby Crystal.

Personal Opinions: Garen has a good amount of defense and survivability, so he does well with HP stacking while not losing as much threatening pressence with his skill kit as long as you pick up Atma's Impaler before Frozen Mallet AND Warmogs.

Skill Advice: His Q is a large portion of his damage, taking poins in his E first is a big mistake since it's easy to escape that portion of his damage. Then again, it comes to preference, E has more utility and less farmability. His ultimate is an execute, and his W lets him tower dive as soon as level 4, so be careful.

Countered by: Just about everything, especially champions with poke. He doesn't have that much for built in damage, so his sustain relies on not being hit for 7 seconds before Wriggles, and even then he needs to either build purely bulky to survive trades or offensively to sometimes win trades, but it's not likely.

* Irelia
Dmg: ***
CC : **
Utl: **
Dif: *
Pot: ***

Core: Wriggle's Lantern, Wit's End, Phage or Giant's Belt.

Personal Opinions: While Jesus was the son of god, Irelia was the great gift from Riot. She has amazing potential as a solo top and is lackluster elsewhere. She is a huge counter to most solo top picks, and she's often viewed as the ultimate grudge match against Rumble. She has insane self sustain, her passive is a large amount of stacking tenacity and she has great damage output.

Skill Advice: R>W>Q=E, maxing Bladesurge or Equilibrium strike is a matter of tastes. While Bladesurge works a lot better at rank 1, it still has a much higher chance for failure. As you rank up equilibrium strike, primarily only the slow/stun duration is increased while Bladesurge's damage goes up and cooldown goes down. Her Q applies on hit effects, which loses most of it's effect since you use it to last hit. Anyways, use her Hiten Style to quickly farm back row, harass enemies out of lane or just to steal jungle camps.

Countered by: Teemo, essentially any champion that can deal more than 60 damage every time she comes in will eventually win the lane. Olaf is one such prime example. Since she can build so defensively without losing threatening pressence, it's hard to deal with her for most champions.

* Jarvan IV
Dmg: **
CC : ***
Utl: ***
Dif: **
Pot: **

Core: Wriggles, Phage, Giant's Belt or Ruby Crystal.

Personal Opinions: Jarvan is amazing, he's just out-played by a lot of the current meta champions because of his mana consumption issues. He still fits in the jungle without many issues, but he's greatly outperformed in a lot of cases. My favorite part of Jarvan is locking an ally in my ultimate within turret range and flashing out if they piss me off. But don't do as I do, children, I'm a jerk.

Skill Advice: His E is great for last hitting at level 1 if your enemy is zoning you early, it provides the a good amount of survivability and little amount of offense early on passively and actively, so the choice is ultimate yours whether you want to max Q or E first. Maxing Q should be first or second priority, it deals a great amount of damage but unfortunately doesn't apply on hit effects like his passive. His Aegis is a late game skill or gank utensil, otherwise useless. His ultimate is great for catching foes (and allies, if you're a jerk like me).

Counters: Anything that can out harass him will win the lane. He's not a great counter to any specific pick either, which is why he's primarily a jungler these days.

* Jax
Dmg: **
CC : **
Utl: *
Dif: **
Pot: *

Core: Rylai's Crystal Scepter, Sheen, Will of the Ancients.

Personal Opinions: Jax sucks now. He lost his former passive which made him retardedly strong by giving him hard health for stacking offensive items. Now he needs to pick between AP Tank or standard Bruiser and lost a lot of his former overall potential. He used to scale better with the ability to auto attack and push hard and now it's kind of enforced.

Skill Advice: Proper use of his jumps will ensure kills or escapes. Proper use of his on-next-hit attack should be used for harass. Proper use of his counter strike will help you escape or ensure kills. His ultimate now sucks in comparison to his old one, but rewards him for building offensively by giving him a large sum of ap and ad that scales with 20% of the approrpiate stat bonuses.

Countered by: Champions with bigger burst potential than him. He scales a bit better into late game but lost his early game potential with the rework. Champions such as Nasus and Riven still completely dominate him.

* Lee Sin
Dmg: ***
CC : **
Utl: ***
Dif: *
Pot: ***

Core: Wriggles, Phage, Giant's Belt and/or Ruby Crystal.

Personal Opinions: He works best in the jungle, flat out. He tends to lose his lane fairly easily so if he can't get ganks coming early then he doesn't stand a chance. In the jungle, he clears fast and can escape without problems due to Wards and his dash-shield going over walls, so he has no problems with counter jungling.

Skill Advice: His Q takes a while to get acquainted with, but even if you can't hit with it he doesn't lose effectiveness. His W is great utility, as well as his E and a proper R can completely change the outcome of a fight.

Countered By: Snowballing, essentially. If you gain a quick advantage over Lee Sin in lane, that advantage lasts for the rest of the game. Pushing him out of lane is often just as detrimental as killing him, which is of course hard to do because of his retarded mobility.

* Nasus
Dmg: ***
CC : ***
Utl: *
Dif: *
Pot: ***

Core: Philosopher's Stone, Glacial Shroud, Sheen.

Personal Opinions: Nasus is a late game champion. He gets most of his power through proper use of farming with his Q, which scales with each enemy it kills. And thus he builds super tanky. He has a large amount of built in sustain with his passive which also means he never needs to Wriggles. Hell, he scales better with survivability than he does with flat out damage.

Skill Advice: His Q takes priority, it has higher base damage and lower cooldown with each rank, which makes it much easier to farm with it. His Slow is amazing and should take priority over his farming zone, which is a team fight mechanic and should never be used to farm with. His ultimate should be popped early or late, depending on if you're on the offensive or defensive end of that stick.

Countered by: Anything that hits hard early and can zone him without leaving him unattended. If you leave him alone in lane he'll just sit out of turret range, collecting enemies and outsustaining with his Q and passive. You need to keep on him or end the game quickly to deal with him.

* Nidalee
Dmg: ***
CC : *
Utl: ***
Dif: **
Pot: **

Core: Wriggles, Phage, Giant's Belt or Ruby Crystal.

Personal Opinions: I love Nidalee as an AP Carry, but she's too reliant on Blue to be super effective, and then most of that power is mitigated by Magic Resistance. As a Bruiser, Nidalee continually pushes enemies to their turret and then takes down the Turret if they win any early game advantage.

Skill Advice: She's got two skills in one for her Q, W and E. Essentially learn how to farm in Cougar form and push turrets with rank 5 primal surge then when you drop it, go steal enemy jungle or gank their lanes. Her ganks aren't very strong, but she can get in and out of the jungle very quickly which is a bonus.

Countered by: Stronger farmers mostly, when she hits level 9 she'll just start continually pushing her lane if left alone because of her massive attack speed boost. You need to take an early game advantage or keep her busy until late game where she falls off as AD or carries through as an AP carry with random spears.

* Olaf
Dmg: ***
CC : **
Utl: **
Dif: **
Pot: ***

Core: Wriggles, Phage, Giant's Belt, Chain Vest or Negatron Cloak.

Personal Opinions: Olaf is a force to be reckoned with. He hurts you back more when you hurt him, and he wreaks a lot of havoc when left alone. He's a superb counter to a lot of common picks (Irelia and Vladimir for example) which doesn't fall off in late game but continues to steam roll into it. He is one of my absolute favorite champions to play just because of how powerful he is.

Skill Advice: Depending on if you're jungling or laning, you should prioritize Q or E (respectively) with little investment into his W unless you plan to completely skip Wriggle's, which you really shouldn't do. When using his Q in ganks, aim it along their escape path, it takes a while to get used to how far you shoot it off. Farming the jungle with his q, just place it right in front of you to prevent down time. His E is a great nuke that deals massive amounts of damage all the way until about the 40 minute mark, it falls off there but it's still true damage. His W is great for farming, it gives him a large amount of damage as well as spell vamp and life steal. Then finally his ultimate passively gives him flat ArP and when activated makes him immune (and removes) CC as well as reducing all incoming damage.

Countered by: Smart players. If he's laning, you have to gank him a lot and often or else he'll steam roll (he doesn't snowball, he steamrolls). Even if you manage to kill him or force him out of lane twice, once he gets his wriggles it'll become a farm war where if you try to trade with him he'll come out on top. If he's jungling, it's easy to escape his ganks since he has no hard cc, but he can dive as soon as level 4. He's typically countered by himself and how he builds, even as a Bruiser he has problems surviving in a hyper carry situation and as a tank he doesn't add enough of an immediate pressence.

When the team fight phase rolls around, if he built mostly tanky you can generally ignore him. If he built like a glass cannon you can burst him before he wipes your team. If he built as a bruiser you just have to prioritize the enemy range AD before Olaf and protect your own ranged AD, he can't be kited, he'll push through.

Additional Advice: Olaf conquers the Bruiser lane because of his E, max it first and he'll win every trade guaranteed. His only counters as a solo top are ranged units that can farm from a distance, but even then they're typically squishy enough for him to chase down and out of EXP range.

He has a fast jungle time but has a heavy reliance on blue to sustain that speed, he can quickly clear with his Q which has a cooldown just over 1 second if placed at his feet.

When you get enough gold for Wriggles and Boots, alert your team you'll be going for dragon so go offensive in lane, push your lane to tower and go back then head straight for Dragon and take it down.

I find Olaf works best with flat AD marks, Flat AR seals, MR/Level Seals and AD or Movement Speed quints, depending on your role in the match. The deciding factor on your quints should be whether you're laning or jungling, the flat AD quints fall off in late game but still give him a powerful early game.

I always build Olaf as a bruiser, it's not worth getting GP10 items because of his fast clear speed, Mercury Treads, Atma's Impaler, Warmogs, Frozen Mallet, Bloodthirster and Wit's End or Force of Nature, typically if your enemy has two magic based threats go for FoN, otherwise Wit's End.

Because of Olaf's strong early trades, he's a great anti-mid pick, especially for melee mages like Gragas where he can Q, E and chase them out of lane. Because he has sustain based on his mana constraints at level 3 or 4, he doesn't have problems trading with ranged either.

Summoner Spell suggestions: Teleport and Ghost or Smite and Ghost. I don't like taking Ignite on bruisers unless I pair it with exhaust, and Olaf doesn't really need exhaust since he can continually chuck axes to slow the enemies. Heal is a sub optimal choice because at rank 5, his W will restore 50%~ of his health with a single wave of minions from low amounts of health.

* Pantheon
Dmg: **
CC : **
Utl: **
Dif: ***
Pot: *

Core: Wriggle's, Phage, Brutalizer, Chain Vest or Negatron Cloak.

Personal Opinions: Pantheon falls off late game after his Heartseeker strike nerf. He has a very impressive early game and builds very tanky while remaining a threat, but by late game it's either too squishy for damage or too weak for tankiness. I find he fits as a great jungler because of his powerful level 2 ganks, but it works better in pre-made play where you'll get a better leash.

Skill Advice: His Q is great for trading, low mana cost and high physical damage scaling. If you're jungling typically start with either Q or W and make sure you have W at level 2 and start red. It instantly procs his passive and is a gap closer combined with a stun. His E is hard to use effectively but after his W is the best chance in the 45~ degree angle from their default escape path, in case they try to juke it. His R is best used to displace yourself and not for immediate damage unless combined with Amumu or Galio ults, place it in escape paths panic enemies or get an upper hand.

Countered by: Most bruisers these days, he doesn't have strong sustain and can only trade on his own terms, which is picking a fight with his passive up and then stunning the enemy right after it's consumed. IF any enemy top gets an upper hand early, he becomes a passive farmer that is a liability.

* Poppy
Dmg: ***
CC : **
Utl: **
Dif: ***
Pot: ***

Core: Wriggle's Lantern, Giant's Belt, Ruby Crystal or Phage, if snowballing Warmogs > Phage > Atma's.

Personal Opinions: Poppy is amazing, especially as a bruiser. Her passive is a god send with the current meta of HP stacking, and she can completely ignore all sources of damage besides one nearby target champion at level 6 for 6~8 seconds. I personally feel she only fits in the solo top role, she has potential in a bottom lane kill lane that becomes a roamer, but she can dominate her lane if played properly, which really isn't as hard as I maek it out to be.

Skill Advice: She's a fair bit of an auto attack champion that can zone enemies with strong harass and doesn't tend to be at a huge disadvantage if losing her lane early one. Priority should be given to her W then preference between Q or E. Her knockback with potential stun is hard to use because it's based on a combination of Poppy's placement and enemy direction, and her on next hit attack doesn't have high potential damage output but is important for forcing stronger auto attacks.

Further advice: Because her passive limits incoming damage based on her current health and not her max, after her wriggles is built you should either double ruby crystal or pick up a Giant's Belt if you can afford it, Phage is always a powerful item in the bruiser lane but she has some attack damage through her W added on so it can be delayed slightly. Using her ultimate in late game scenarios is usually for initiation, place it on the enemy's biggest threat or their support, don't forget that it increases all damage done to them through out the duration, so don't waste that potential.

Countered by: Stronger snowballers, if she doesn't get assisted ganks early then she can have problems snowballing, and the primary function of a Poppy is becoming an unstoppable force, since she has a rough early game she also has potentially the strongest late game if allowed to feed.

* Renekton
Dmg: ***
CC : **
Utl: **
Dif: *
Pot: **

Core: Wriggles, Phage, Brutalizer, Giant's Belt or Ruby Crystal.
Alternatively, Renekton can snowball with triple Dorans blades, but I find Wriggles path is a lot more effective. He benefits greatly from CDR so placing Brutalizer above Phage is also a good idea.

Personal Opinions: Renekton is a blast to play, he has a lot of mobility and is a very bursty melee champion that plays deceptively, much like Olaf. He uses a rage bar which enhances skills while consuming up to 50 fury. I've also found that if you shout Chaos at the top of your lungs whenever you pop his ultimate, it guarantees something dies. Especially at lan parties.

Skill Advice: R>Q>W>E, leveling his Q first should be priority because it provides a large portion of his damage output His W is a stun which should take fury bar priority above his Q and you should never dice with 50 fury. Leveling his E before his W provides shorter a shorter cooldown, but primarily his Slice should only be used to get in, Cull or double strike then Dice out. Also his Ultimate provides maximum health and doesn't heal, which means you always get the health potential as it's full "heal".

Countered by: Stronger trading enemies such as Riven as well as ranged units. If you shut down a croc early, he doesn't tend to come back in late game as easily. He makes a fairly effective counter pick to any of the squishier solo tops. He also has potential as a jungler because he has a repeatable pseudo, possible double flash with a stun and AoE clearing capabilities. Don't forget he can tower dive at level 6.

* Riven
Dmg: ***
CC : ***
Utl: ***
Dif: *
Pot: ***

Core: Triple Doran's, Phage and Brutalizer or The Bloodthirster.
Alternatively: Wriggle's for a heavy AD laning opponent, Triple Doran's is aimed towards an enemy that has decent magical damage output, Hexdrinker makes a great pick for Riven if she gains an advantage with either Triple Doran's or Wriggle's. Going the Wriggle's path helps stealing jungle camps easier as well as not taking up two extra slots for a slightly better overall effect.

Personal Opinions: Riven is one of the strongest, easiest champions to play. The only thing you have to learn about Riven is to auto attack after skill activations to make use of her passive, which isn't hard because they all reset her attack animation.

Skill Advice: R>W>Q>E, typically you'll start with one rank in Broken Wings, prioritize leveling Ki Burst (lowers cooldown and half second stun AoE damage, still important) above Broken Wings and Valor. I tend to take two points in Valor by level 9, but find leveling up Broken Wings to be much more important for her damage output than the slightly higher barrier added with Valor (the cool down reduction is still good per rank) since the shield isn't typically fully used and scales with her AD.

Countered by: Ganks early on, and that's about it. Even a two death Riven can snowball. There really isn't a champion that hard counters her massive mobility and damage output. Nasus has a chance with proper farm thanks to Wither, but she typically outgrows that by level 11. Her best counter is a ban if you don't have first pick, but even then there's more important first picks. Just remember to not overextend if she's constantly pushing her lane in because she'll be counter jungling and ganking other lanes with vast priority.

Further notes: If Riven gets a few early kills and is left alone to farm she becomes nigh unstoppable once she gets her Bloodthirster. After that you just have to focus her to come out on top, if she can't keep the bloodthirster fed then she becomes less of a threat. Alternatively, Frozen Mallet is a great pick on her before Warmog's and with an item like Youmuu's Ghostblade she can ignore the Bloodthirster until after Atmogs is complete, but you'll need to start Wriggles in that scenario.

I don't typically build into CDR on Riven anymore unless I'm going 9/21/0 in masteries since it's just not worth it with a single brutalizer tree of items, since Mercury Treads or Ninja Tabi are her predominant boots of choice.

* Shyvana
Dmg: ***
CC : *
Utl: ***
Dif: **
Pot: ***

Core: Wriggles, Phage, Giant's Belt or Ruby Crystal and Merc Treads or Ninja Tabi.

Personal Opinions: Shyvana has huge damage output but virtually nonexistent CC, her ultimate activation provides a knock back, but requires a lot of proper positioning to benefit from it greatly. At level 6 she gets a free AR/MR boost which is annoying to deal with in lane. She can counter jungle before level 6 from either in her own jungle or her lane, so she requires a lot of warding.

Skill Advice: All of her skills synchronize together, her Q is a double strike that has reduced CD with every strike, her W is an ultra-farm mechanic which gives her a massive speed boost that decays over time, her E is a skill shot that isn't very impressive, but every melee strike (that procs an on hit effect wink nudge) deal a percentage of the initial damage again. Her ultimate is best used when all her other skills aren't on cooldown.

Countered by: Champions with better poke, but she's typically left to a farm lane if neither champion gets an early game advantage because her damage potential is amazing it's hard for others to safely trade with her. Just make sure you actively Ward to keep an eye and multi-gank her, force her ultimate and it'll be down for typically two minutes without proper farm available since it's cooldown is effected by melee strikes and time.

* Singed
Dmg: **
CC : ***
Utl: ***
Dif: **
Pot: ***

Core: Rod of Ages, defensive item priority after that.

Personal Opinions: Singed is amazingly fun to play and he's the ultimate troll in lane and has decent clearing speeds as a Jungler after level 6. With Ghost he can farm both jungles and all three lanes within 3 minutes, pretty amazing. His summoner spells should always be Teleport/Ghost or Smite/Ghost respectively. Get Rod of Ages or Philosopher Stone and Heart of Gold and build tanky after that, usually choosing the former or latter dependant on whether he's solo top or jungling.

Skill Advice: Effective use of his Poison Trail is king, it makes him the ultra farmer, and his ultimate means he can counter engage or escape ganks for the most part, especially with how low it's cooldown is. Once he gets Catalyst it's pretty much a farm Vs. farm lane.

Countered by: A lot of bruisers these days. Singed is amazingly tanky and has vast damage potential without AP investment and is the ultra-troll. Smart play will let him go into late game, otherwise any champion with a lot of front loaded damage before level 11 will dominate him, I.E. Wukong or Tryndamere. Anything with a powerful slow can shut down Singed if they constantly pick on him, he has no innate sustain and if you can keep him off his farm then he'll fall off.

* Skarner
Dmg: **
CC : **
Utl: **
Dif: **
Pot: **

Core: Philosopher's Stone, Heart of Gold, Kindlegem, Oracle's Elixir.

Personal Opinions: Skarner is a top tier jungler, but I find he doesn't have much utility otherwise. He was recently nerfed so his main farming utensil had it's mana cost increased, which gives him a slight dependance on blue for speed but doesn't matter otherwise. When it comes to items, build bulky. Either make him a bruiser or make him a supportive tank.

Skill Advice: R>Q>W>E, his Q is his farming skill, W helps a lot with ganking, his E is fairly useless outside of minor sustain, it's more important in lane than it is in the jungle.

Countered by: Lots, if you can pop his shield he loses movement and attack speed and a lot of threat, his ultimate can be broken by QSS or Cleanse since it's a suppression so he can't gank a cleanse lane effectively and he can't target anybody with a QSS with his ult in mid or late game without it going to waste.

* Teemo
Dmg: **
CC : ***
Utl: ***
Dif: *
Pot: *

Core: Wriggle's Lantern, Phage, Wit's End, Ruby Crystal.

Personal Opinions: Teemo is bruiser king. Most bruisers can't trade with him because of his E, just hit them once every time they go in for farm and you'll win. The real problem with Teemo is that his damage falls off in Late game, which makes him a poor choice for a solo top. I always build him as a standard bruiser and pick him against champions like Irelia, Vladimir or Yorick.

Skill Advice: R>E>W>Q, his blinding dart should be skilled at 2 or 4, depending on what you're laning against. Other than that, keep up a defensive wall of mushrooms, deal lots of damage with his poison passive and use W to escape all situations. I can't tell you how many games I've had assured kills just by placing mushrooms in area sensitive places that enemies used to escape. Often times you'll get a random kill when an enemy jungler runs away from a failed gank and dies to your ultimate's DoT.

Countered by: Late game. He does very well as a roamer if he pushes in his lane early just so he can keep the entire map filled with mushrooms. With only blue buff, he can keep the majority of both sides of the map (top and bottom) completely stocked with explosive traps which provide a bit of damage. Most of his utility in late game is the ability to shut down an enemy ranged AD with his Q and provide map control without wards through proper use of shrooms.

* Trundle
Dmg: **
CC : ***
Utl: ***
Dif: ***
Pot: **

Core: Wriggle's Lantern, Phage, Philosopher Stone.

Personal Opinions: Trundle is one of my absolute favorite champions. The only unfortunate fact is that Tryndamere does everything that Trundle does (except placing an impassable terrain with slow radiating out of it) but typically better. Trundle synchronizes well with champions such as Cassiopeia and Karthus, where he can place his pillar in escape paths and help land their delayed or slowing fields.

Skill Advice: His primary farming tool is Q, it makes enemies weaker and him stronger. He's a great pick against AD champions that he can get in and continually harass. His impassable terrain pillar is great for ganks and is why Trundle is predominantly a Jungler. His zone of corruption is great for chasing enemies and clearing camps faster. His ultimate is amazing if you counter picked Trundle against a team with a dedicated tank like Rammus because it leeches a large portion of his AR and MR, meaning that Trundle can initiate very well. His passive kinda sucks, but sustain is sustain.

Countered by: AP and longer range, mostly. He can build as a sheer tank just for the fun of it, but I find him work best as a typical Bruiser. He does have mana constraints, so a Philosopher's Stone can help with that, otherwise invest in either a Chalice if laning against AP or Sheen to help offset the mana issues.

* Udyr
Dmg: ***
CC : **
Utl: ***
Dif: **
Pot: ***

Core: Wriggle's Lantern, Phage, Wit's End.

Personal Opinions: I just don't know what to say about Udyr other than "What next?" I play him at least one out of every 20 games, and I still just don't know what to do next on him. There's either A type Udyr or B type Udyr, where A is Tiger Stance maxed and B is Phoenix Stance maxed. Each have their own importance factors, and honestly they both do very well where Tiger stance is a bit more apparent with what to purchase and Phoenix being more open.

Skill Advice: Tiger Stance Udyr prioritizes around Wriggles, and Phoenix Stance prioritizes Wit's End first, after that while Tiger Stance typically builds into Wit's end anyways, Phoenix stance has no restrictions and only builds into Wit's End first for helping with ganking lanes and pushing camps. Either way, prioritize one or the other with Turtle stance on a slight priority and at least one point in bear stance by level 4.

Countered by: Early game, lots of ganks are the only thing that can stop Udyr, after that he becomes untouchable in lane. Being in the jungle the slight gold decrease kinda counters his damage because he'll pretty much build into at least Philosopher's Stone and often Heart of Gold either way. His mana costs scale downward with more ranks, so the bane of his existence is low levels, after that it's impossible for him to lose mana.

Personal Udyr goals;
* Tiger LaneDyr: Wriggles, Frozen Mallet, Wit's End, Atma's Impaler, Warmogs, Mercury Treads.
* Phoenix LaneDyr: Wit's End, Shurelya's Reverie, Trinity Force, Force of Nature, Randuin's Omen, Mercury Treads.
* Tiger JungleDyr: Wriggles, Shurelya's, Frozen Mallet, Atma's Impaler, Mercury Treads, Wit's End, Oracle's Elixir.
* Phoenix JungleDyr: Wit's End, Shurelya's, Randuin's, Trinity Force, Mercury Treads, Warmogs, Oracle's Elixir.

As you can see by my preferences, Tiger is more Bruiser based while jungle retains utility, while when I play Phoenix Stance in lane, I typically build the same as in Jungle except I don't focus on grabbing FoN instead of Warmogs in the jungle phoenix version.

The reason to go Phoenix Jungle is if you want faster clear speeds early on, which is why I don't typically like Phoenix Udyr because while it can clear massive waves of minions, it doesn't have much utility in a team fight without proper placement.

But nonetheless, Udyr is very bulky innately, and quite possibly able to rock an AP Tank setup, but I haven't bothered with it because he revolves a lot around Attack Speed.

For summoner spells, I typically grab Teleport/Flash or Smite/Flash. It's possible to roll with Ghost instead of Flash on Udyr, but it's for the most part built into Bear Stance aside from the unit collision ignoring factor, which can amount to a lot. Flash is the safe pick, Ghost is the man pick.

When it comes to Runes, I tend to prioritize AD on Tiger Stance and AS on Phoenix Stance, no real reason other than making Phoenix stance's passive proc slightly faster. Flat Armor Seals are a must and Magic Resist per level work better than flat magic resist unless you're laning against an early AP threat. Quints I tend to vary between flat health in lane to movement speed in the jungle.

* Wukong
Dmg: ***
CC : *
Utl: **
Dif: **
Pot: **

Core: Wriggles, Phage, Giant's Belt or Ruby Crystal.

Personal Opinions: He's the ultimate counter to glass cannons and a large variety of bruisers. While he doesn't offer chunks of true damage, he does snowball quite hard and doesn't typically lose trades with opponents, especially with his built in escape mechanic.

Skill Advice: His Q forces an autoattack and his E gives him massive speed as well as a gap closer. His ultimate shouldn't be used selfishly in late game and his W should be preserved for escaping from threats, especially when you can't trade well.

Countered by: Mages as well as bulky bruisers with high sustain, such as Yorick. If his escape path is blocked, he dies. Simple as that. Wukong can be built as a Glass Cannon as a counter to glass cannons, but I don't prefer to build him that way because of his passive pushing him up to tank tier in team fights.

When it comes to items, he's a potential candidate for Trinity Force, but I find his Q and E synchronize better with Frozen Mallet, Warmogs and Atma's Impaler. He can benefit from Wit's End, but he might be better off with Quicksilver Sash so he can break immediate CC and pop his ult when a team fight picks up. Brutalizer is a strong early game item on Wukong, but I also find Wit's End is better overall by late game except for the speed increase, the attack speed boost is neglible.

* Yorick
Dmg: **
CC : **
Utl: ***
Dif: **
Pot: **

Core: Manamune or Chalice, preference on bulky or threatening after.

Personal Opinions: I like Yorick, he's a very strong champion up until the 30 minute mark, but starts to fall off the later the match proceeds. He benefits greatly from low cost itemization, like items such as Manamune which will tend to build up to max by the 25 minute mark. He has a lot of innate bulk and two of his three spammable ghosts scale very well with his Attack Damage. Spirit Visage is a great item for more lane sustain, but I don't always build into it and tend to make him into a typical Bruiser with the exception of Manamune in place of Wriggles. He's an exceptional counter to AP carries, especially a mid where he can have Blue donated.

Skill Advice: Use his Q for escapes or closing gaps, it has reliance on hitting a foe which is it's only flaw, so remember to hit minions if you need to catch up. Use his W ahead of enemy targets to slow their escape and help with your approach, it has great synchronization with his E, which you should use after you slow an opponent and rush in with a Q ready. Yorick works in trading with foes and zoning them out early, and his biggest redeeming feature is that he can completely deny an enemy lane once he has mana sustain.

Countered by: Late game, early ganks, that's about it. I can't think of any hard counter to Yorick if he gets his farm. You have to deny him early and keep denying him. But the problem is that even if you do slightly deny his early farm, he can still get it as the game moves on, which is why he's a perfect candidate for solo top.