Reddit Stuff: How to Atakhan

i spend way too much time typing elaborate replies on reddit, might as well repurpose them to fill my blog a little.

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reddit question of the day is: how tf do you play around atakhan in even games as adc?

and i replied: "from my experience, i feel like the way to contest atakhan is to either 5 man or do a 4-1 split, except that the 4 is on the atakhan lane and the 1 is in mid. the reason for the split is so that the atakhan lane is always pushed.

if the opponent runs a standard 4-1, the opponent will get mid prio, and can then push or contest.

if they contest, its easier for you to control the area from the side lane bc youre closer. if they push mid you could give up two mid turrets and it would be worth because atakhan is just that valuable (coach rogue did the math).

i think the lines blur if the opponent is either 1) going 1-3-1 and taking 4 turrets in trade for atakhan or 2) is threatening soul when atakhan is top or 3) baron vs atakhan bot.

imo, the most tense situations are when both teams are either 5 man araming the side lane or when the aforementioned 4 side 1 mid split happens.

it sounds barbaric, but i sincerely believe there is no better solution than to join in on the 10 man bloodbath, respawn into beeline to atakhan over and over until one team cant take it anymore.

it is in the design of atakhan to encourage this behaviour. for starters, it is extremely valuable, leading to teams wanting to contest it. second, the insane resistance shred incentivizes defending the objective rather than trading. third, atakhan's attack patterns makes attackers clump up near it, again encouraging defending the objective. and fourth, as opposed to baron and elder, atakhan buff is permanent, which means that its value is agnostic to wave states (ie if you give baron but push mid deep, the value of their baron is diminished by the push), which, you guessed it, discourages trading and therefore encourages contesting.

so perhaps it is more important to ask how to optimize the aram. im not a teamfight kind of guy, but as anecdotal evidence i find that 1) both tribrushes for bot atakhan must be under your control before even starting it, and 2) the deeper you can push your vision into the enemy jungle the better. ofc this is true for every objective but it is doubly true for atakhan due to how atakhan encourages the enemy to contest it. if you have deep vision you can get a pick on the enemy support/whoever which is what will actually get you the atakhan. then it is easy to play the chicken game of am i camping or am i doing atakhan. side note it also helps that control of banana brush severely limits off angles of contest, which ties in to both point 1 and 2.

tldr; 4-1 or all in on atakhan side, contest over trade, tribrush control is key."

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the hope is to make this a series so i can look back in the future instead of having to dig through my reddit comments - emiki