Chapter 232: Outrageous jungle invasion technique! [6k supplement]

"The last time Akshan appeared was last summer's playoffs against BLG, picked by Master Ye. Speaking of this, the two parties in that game are also on the scene today!"

The director immediately understood and cut a shot to the background.

That game was precisely the playoff match where Scout and Uzi appeared, in which Scout was left with the famous scene of "Ten Tigers' Power vs 0.99 Tigers"!

However, due to a slight delay in the live broadcast.

When Scout saw his own "resentful" bitter melon face appear on the live screen, he hurriedly wanted to change his expression, but was still captured precisely, immediately suffering a round of teasing from the barrage.

He only felt that being called by this Top Ten Players thing today was simply like coming to sit in prison!

The commentary booth continued to synchronize information: "Akshan didn't appear afterward, which should also be because of the numerical nerf; although there was a strength supplement in the S13 pre-season, even Master Ye hasn't picked it again this year..."

Ye Bo hadn't picked Akshan since that game.

Besides because there were more version-preferred choices ahead, it was indeed because Akshan's numerical nerf reduced his base attack damage and Q skill base damage to weaken his pushing and roaming ability.

Speaking of which, this matter really had to blame Ye Bo.

It was precisely because of his performance on the field that he promoted the "grazing" mechanism technique, which had become a compulsory course for all Akshan players—already a typical case of a perfect utilization of hero mechanics similar to Riven's fast QA.

But this technique didn't involve bugs at all; it was just a perfect case of utilizing hero mechanics.

The designer, who always claimed to "be extremely happy to see players dig and develop," didn't want to slap his own face, so he chose to perform a numerical nerf.

Grazing is the most shameless in the first few levels of laning.

Then lower your early attack damage, turning it into a mosquito bite that deals 20 or 30 damage per graze.

However, Akshan was a hero who had to be very proficient to be useful; even a slight nerf could directly beat him back to the starting point.

The designer, seeing that the nerf was too much, added a mechanism in the S13 pre-season.

{Original E skill that could last at most 3 seconds → Unlimited time}

It was just that this kind of fun change still couldn't save the appearance rate; after all, Akshan didn't have many opportunities to keep swinging E, and 3 seconds and unlimited time were no different.

The commentary booth, having synchronized the information, began to pay attention to the level-one positioning of both sides.

"JDG looks like they want to avoid fighting completely; it's clear they know V5's level-one lineup is very fierce, this game should be impossible to be like the last game!"

Miller said: "Last time, V5's Akshan-Trundle combo showed off its power at level one; this game there's Jin Kesi, plus Shen and Galio, JDG definitely can't contest it."

Guan Zeyuan, who had adjusted, also spoke again: "The good news is that Ivern shouldn't be too afraid of being swapped in the jungle..."

Ivern's passive 【Friend of the Forest】 was undoubtedly his most iconic skill.

The mechanism of not needing to "fight" jungle monsters but "planting vegetables" was a completely different way of thinking from all other heroes in terms of jungle gamesmanship.

In the stereotypical impression of many people, Ivern seemed to be a "functional slacker."

In reality, it was absolutely the exact opposite!

In fact, a well-played Ivern could be the most difficult-to-guard "counter-jungling hero," and also the most difficult-to-counter-jungle hero.

This was also why Kanavi could play him.

Ivern was indeed functionally positioned correctly, but in terms of playstyle, it was actually similar to Nidalee, also needing to constantly counter-jungle in the jungle to limit the opponent's jungler development.

An Ivern who only clears jungle and then builds support items to be a dog for teammates could only be said to have not even entered the door.

The only shortcoming of this hero was that he lacked combat power himself in the early game, which was why he needed to avoid frontal combat.

Relying on the ability to instantly kill jungle monsters with Smite, he didn't worry about any arrangements the opponent made in the jungle and could respond to them.

The JDG group, of course, also knew the strength of the opponent's level-one team fight, and the start was extremely cautious.

"Be careful, they want to enter the top quadrant!" 369 saw someone entering from the side.

"Don't let them keep you, if they want to enter, just give it to them," Kanavi instructed again.

V5's level-one keeping ability was very strong; whether it was Trundle's long-range pillar, or Shen and Galio's hard keep, there was a possibility of being forcibly hit by skills.

Kanavi was not surprised by the invasion, just a bit puzzled.

In his view.

V5's lineup was clearly also centered on mid and bot, especially the bot lane Jin Kesi, who definitely couldn't accept too much disadvantage—because the essence of Akshan's hero wasn't an "ADC," but an "Assassin" model.

If V5 wanted to use their level-one lineup advantage to forcibly swap quadrants, it seemed they should swap the bottom quadrant, which would be more profitable.

However, Kanavi quickly figured it out.

He substituted the opponent's thinking; those two commanders both liked to play "reverse thinking"—maybe it was because they thought invading the bottom quadrant was more reasonable, so they deliberately invaded the top quadrant!

Or maybe, they also thought counter-jungling Ivern was difficult, just deciding to steal a blue buff and retreat.

Kanavi already had some plans in his heart...

1:30.

Jungle monsters refreshed, minion waves clashed.

Because Ivern didn't need teammates to help clear jungle, JDG's bot lane duo touched the three bushes of the minion wave at level one, preparing to wait for the opponent's bot lane combo to appear on the lane and then sneakily hit a set!

Galio support was absolutely the first time on the field in the current version, and JDG's bot lane duo didn't know much about him.

But actually, if you think about it carefully, what is the role of a support?

{Useful without eating economy, has control, can engage, can protect teammates, can consume} Basically, as long as you have a few of these abilities, you can completely serve as a support.

And clearly, Galio possessed all of these!

It was just that JDG's bot lane hadn't squatted on the opponent's bot lane's appearance, but the mid lane had first transmitted nervous sounds.

"Hey, the opponent's mid laner isn't here."

The minion wave had been clashing for a while, but Scout hadn't seen the opponent appear.

Like Akali in the last game, considering that the mid-lane minion wave would clash first, if the mid laner missed, the opponent would definitely be on guard.

It wasn't much that he didn't appear on the lane at the first moment.

Maybe Akshan just wanted to help his teammates squat for a while, avoiding the opponent still thinking about circling back to sneak attack, and then was delayed when he came back.

But at this moment, the health of the melee minions was already close to the danger line.

Akshan still hadn't appeared!

No matter how much he helped his teammates, it couldn't be at the cost of sacrificing his own experience, right!?

"You all don't go out, be careful..."

"Hey, your position in the bot lane! Hurry back, hurry back!"

Kanavi, playing Ivern, liked to command even more, but that shouting made Ruler somewhat unhappy.

However, Ruler also knew the stakes.

Both entrances to their bottom jungle were protected by vision; at this moment, Akshan hadn't appeared, and it was almost only possible that he wanted to cause trouble in the side lane at level one!

Although he didn't know how Akshan could catch someone at level one without control, JDG's bot lane naturally didn't dare to squat in that dangerous position, hurriedly retreating behind the minion wave and following them up the lane.

Flandre, seeing Shen walking out from the river direction below, immediately retreated...

And Flandre also began to step extremely aggressively!

369 immediately became nervous, reporting suspicious information flyingly, and then directly stabilized to the point of not even listening to the experience of the first three melee minions, a look of "if you want to press, I'll give it to you."

You, Akshan, can not eat minions.

What's wrong with me missing a few minions as Ornn?

And in the mid lane, Li Ruican is also deliberately holding back, only last-hitting, and doesn't even put a point into a skill at level one to avoid using the splash damage from his E passive to affect the minion wave.

This was clearly Scout deeply remembering the painful lesson of the last game, worried that he would have to go to support the side lanes again.

Kanavi saw his teammates who retreated and entered safe positions, continuing to sow vegetables.

But for some reason...

His heart felt inexplicably "uneasy."

Ivern first sowed a vegetable garden in his own red buff, then Q'd the stone monsters to sow the second vegetable garden, and finally headed to F6 to sow the third vegetable garden.

The whole process only took ten seconds—at this moment, Trundle had at most just finished the blue buff in his own top lane!

This is Ivern.

Compared to other jungler heroes, even if it was a jungler hero with fast clearing efficiency like Nunu, clearing a group of jungle monsters at level one would take at least fifteen seconds or more.

And Ivern only needed to fiddle in place for 3 seconds, and a "shake of wit" could complete the sowing.

And even if the vegetable garden he sowed was snatched by the opponent, Ivern's loss was at most just 90 health and mana—he could still judge the opponent's jungler's position based on the disappearance of the vegetable garden and head to counter-jungle, the same principle as Kindred's mark.

In other words.

The biggest advantage of this hero Ivern is that there is almost no "jungle clearing time."

All the time saved can be used for "running the map" ganking, and it's almost impossible not to swap jungle quadrants.

V5's top and bot lanes were both on the lane normally.

Only, still only the mid lane hadn't appeared.

Kanavi, having finished his own red quadrant, moved toward the opponent's blue quadrant, looking at the mini-map full of confusion: "Is this person not laning? How can he play like this?"

However...

When Ivern came to the wall of the opponent's blue buff, preparing to Q-fly into the pit, he bumped into a big ice stick "waiting for the rabbit" in the bush!

"Shiba!!" Kanavi was dumbfounded.

How could Trundle be here!?

He immediately realized that the invasion at level one looked like V5's "deception"!

Pretending to invade, and letting the side lanes pretend to cooperate, was just to make Ivern mistakenly think Trundle was blue-buff starting.

And Trundle could sneak a hit right here!

Ivern wasn't a new hero—in fact, this was a hero released in the S6 season, a full 8 years ago.

Even if it was cold, some basic playstyles and common sense were known to jungler players.

Ivern's "vegetable garden" needed 40 seconds to naturally mature; wanting to counter the opponent's jungle basically had to rely on Smite to instantly kill jungle monsters to do it.

What did this mean?

It meant that Ivern, having sown three vegetable gardens at this moment, was still level one!

Most importantly, because he sowed three vegetable gardens, his health was only a bit over half at this moment, and his status was very poor!

"Save me, save me!"

Ivern turns around and Qs the Trundle to run away, calling for support from his mid laner.

However, the level two Trundle has a Pillar of Ice erupt from the ground beneath his feet, directly "knocking" Ivern back, and also applying an infinitely sustained, high-magnitude area-of-effect slow!

Although Tristana has already set off, the second wave of minions in the mid lane hasn't even arrived yet; in fact, it's just a level one Tristana.

Kanavi grits his teeth hard, and after enduring another hit from an ice-cone hammer, he still has no choice but to decisively burn his Flash toward the rear.

Fortunately, Trundle doesn't pursue.

After all, Ivern still has Smite; if he escapes back into his own jungle, he only needs to kill one camp to reach level two, and with Tristana wrapping around, it would still be dangerous.

But the doubt in Kanavi's heart at this moment grows increasingly intense.

What is the point of this?

Even if they camped Ivern, it's actually unlikely for a single Trundle to kill him, as Trundle has no additional crowd control.

Even if Akshan were also lurking nearby, it's unlikely they could hold him down at level one.

Just to burn his Flash?

Wait, so...

"Where's Akshan? Why hasn't he appeared yet!?"

And just as he voices this question.

On the mid lane minion wave, the figure of Akshan finally walks out.

However, what nearly causes Kanavi's heart to stop is...

On that Akshan's body.

There is actually a Blue Buff!!

His slightly trembling fingers press the Tab scoreboard—the opponent's creep score is even 8, which means two jungle camps!

Even more outrageous is Akshan's status.

Nearly full health!

You have to know, even the Trundle who had the bot lane duo help him hit it a few times isn't at full health after finishing the Blue Buff!

"Completely unaware! Kanavi's mental state is really about to collapse!!!"

The God's Eye view has its eyes wide open the whole time.

"Akshan... can actually do this!?"

"No, this is too broken! He doesn't even have a jungle item!"

"Can this hero really clear two jungle camps alone, at full health and without taking damage!?"

Everyone watching the God's Eye view sees it clearly.

Just as V5 invaded the top half of the jungle and confirmed the opponent had abandoned defense, only the top and mid laners remained in the blue zone, while the others all recalled on the spot.

Shen actually didn't help hit it much.

It was mostly to mask their intentions, making JDG truly believe Trundle was starting in the top half.

And one sees Akshan pulling the Blue Buff halfway, then suddenly firing a grappling hook at a protrusion on the wall, and he actually begins to spin in place in an incredibly bizarre way!

The extended grappling hook acts as if the air is a support point, driving Akshan's figure to rotate.

The output of 【Heroic Swing】 is quite absurd, triggering his passive crazily with nearly max attack speed.

This is utilizing the {end-point compensation} mechanism of the E skill, aiming at a "slight protrusion" on the corner of the wall, then instantly releasing it with extremely fast hand speed via E + Right Click, using the mechanism where E causes a back-kick jump to change the starting point of the grappling hook...

Achieving "mid-air rotation in place"!

Regarding this move alone, it was actually possible in the old version.

But previously, Akshan could only spin for 3 seconds, and spinning in place was easily interrupted by the opponent rushing his face; the opponents aren't stupid, so this kind of rotation is just a small trick useful only in specific situations.

And the changes to the E skill this season don't have much impact on the vast majority of Akshan playstyles—but they have a huge impact on "jungling"!

After all, only jungle monsters won't run around, obediently staying in front to be shot, and they won't knock Akshan out of the air.

But the infinitely extendable E skill, even without the jungle item's buff, has a terrifyingly high clear efficiency; with precise positioning, Akshan can even start fighting two jungle camps at once!

As for the secret to taking no damage...

"No wonder he started with Culling Blade! Master Ye's choice of items and runes seems to have a lot of thought behind it too!"

In the replay, Akshan's health bar continuously pops up green +3+3+3+3, with a healing light band flying out from time to time.

It is precisely 【Culling Blade】 + 【Fleet Footwork】!

The passive effect of Culling Blade is {each basic attack restores 3 health}.

Every basic attack from Heroic Swing triggers it independently!

Compared to Doran's Blade's {3% omnivamp}, the difference in healing per basic attack in the early game is nearly 3 times—after all, for omnivamp to heal 3 points, an Akshan with 53 attack damage would need to deal 100 damage after armor and magic resist are deducted.

But Culling Blade's fixed healing fits perfectly!

And the energy stack accumulation of Fleet Footwork also relies heavily on attack frequency, and it also receives independent stacks for every shot of the E skill.

With the two combined, the healing speed is simply terrifying!

【Holy crap, he's spinning, he's actually spinning!】

【Urgot, known as Little Akshan!】

【A sentry gun in the jungle!】

【The King of Firepower would call him an expert!】

【You like farming, right? I'll tear up your whole vegetable garden!】

【Kanavi's Kun-Kun isn't working out; he cracked in less than two and a half minutes, not allowed to debut!】

Kanavi's mental state is indeed somewhat affected.

He didn't expect that he still couldn't defend against this...

The main thing is, now he seems to have nowhere to go!

The Red Buff, which matures fastest in the jungle camps, is still over ten seconds away, the other two camps are about 20 seconds away, and there's only one camp of wolves left in the top jungle at most!

Akshan returns to the mid lane at this time—because Tristana didn't push the wave and instead went to help, and Akshan stole two whole jungle camps, now he only needs one melee minion to reach level two!

Originally, Tristana would definitely have been able to push the minion wave to Akshan in the early game.

But because he was beaten to level two, and Akshan has the Blue Buff and can use Q infinitely, Tristana is temporarily unable to contest the minion wave.

Kanavi ponders in his heart... he feels he must "save himself"!

"Can you guys in the bot lane bait them? Otherwise, it's going to be very hard for me to play later."

Both bot lanes are about to reach level two.

JDG's bot lane play also seems to suddenly become somewhat aggressive.

Rell suddenly Ws 【Ferromancy】, crashing down and leaping high on her iron horse, sitting toward the Jin Kesi who has no displacement!

Under normal circumstances, Jin Kesi fears these heroes who can force their way into melee range the most—like Leona and Nautilus, Jin Kesi still has a chance to dodge hooks and Es with movement.

But Rell's W skill, even if it misses the knock-up upon landing, can still force her way into melee range, and once she's in melee range, her full kit of crowd control can easily make it difficult for Jin Kesi to create distance!

But just as Rell leaps high with her W.

Galio's E 【Justice Punch】 kicks out in the opposite direction—directly knocking her out of the air!

The wind-up for Rell's W is even longer than Leona's, and the main displacement distance of W relies on the "slide" after landing.

But now, being interrupted by Galio's reverse punch causes her to almost look like she's stepping in place!

It's also because the wind-up is too long; even if Rell flashes Q to stun first and then Ws, Galio's back-kick E can still knock her down from the air!

"Damn, this guy seems to counter me a bit." Missing says with difficulty, realizing that his most important engagement tool seems hard to use.

If Rell cannot engage with W, even if she has Flash, the threat to Jin Kesi will inevitably be greatly reduced.

And the range of Jin Kesi's rocket launcher is more than just a little bit longer than Xayah's.

If the support can't engage, it's clearly difficult to achieve any results in the bot lane matchup.

Fortunately, JDG's goal for this wave is considered achieved.

Xun, who is jungling, sees the intensity of the fight in the bot lane and senses that the opposing jungler is very likely to go there too, so he immediately sets off.

After all, in Xun's view, Ivern hasn't even finished harvesting the camps in the bottom half of the jungle, and there are no camps to clear in the top half, so he can only gank bot.

However, Kanavi's experience on the competitive stage and other aspects are certainly still stronger than Xun's current level; the jungle matchups in the first two games actually show this to some extent.

Compared to his schemes, Xun is still a bit green.

"Kanavi is so bold this wave! He didn't wait in the bottom half for the camps to mature... he just cleared the Red Buff and went straight into the opponent's jungle!"

"Isn't he afraid that if he runs into Trundle in this position, he'll likely die without Flash!"

If Kanavi had stubbornly camped in the bottom half waiting for the camps to mature, waiting until the last F6 matured, Trundle would likely have already ganked the bot lane.

And once Trundle didn't see Ivern appear in the bot lane, he would clearly realize immediately that this was a "luring the tiger away from the mountain" tactic and would immediately return to defend his own red zone!

In terms of timing, it's very difficult for Ivern to wait for the three camps in the opponent's red zone to mature.

Therefore, Kanavi just cleared the Red Buff, not even bothering to clear the Krugs below, and went straight to the opponent's red zone by taking a detour.

As long as Trundle wastes enough time in the bot lane, Ivern could very well turn the jungle disadvantage around in one go!

This wave is both the uniqueness of the hero Ivern.

And it is also another confirmation of Kanavi's playstyle characteristics.

Even when playing Ivern, he can't really accept his own losses, even if it means letting his main carry side lanes take risks for him.

But at this moment.

The person JDG is most scratching their heads over isn't Ivern.

It's the mid lane, that Tristana who has inexplicably started to retreat timidly...

(End of chapter)