Maxing a champion's certain skill first in League of Legends may seem simple and, truthfully, it is for most of them. For example, for Vladimir, you obviously want your Transfusion (Q) to have 5 skill points in it as quick as possible, which is basically at level 9. However, there are champions that require an insightful adaptation to the circumstances in order to max out their skills in the most optimal order. The three champions that I chose to unmask in this article are: Gragas, Thresh and Alistar.

Gragas

The notorious Rabble Douser has been sitting among the upper echelon of junglers for quite some time. That's because he has many strengths such as early pressure as well as team fighting prowess if it gets to late game and a decent crowd control kit. The debate in his kit is whether a player shall max his Barrel Roll (Q) or his Drunken Rage (W) first. Here are the tendencies in solo queue:

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The highest win % skill order indeed reflects what the professional players employ. The benefits in adding skill points in Drunken Rage are hard to refuse. The mana cost always stays the same at 30 mana and the cooldown is reduced by 1 second for each skill point added (8/7/6/5/4s). With that being said, Drunken Rage also catalyzes extremely well with Gragas's passive:

The skill that can have the lowest cooldown can benefit the most from Happy Hour, therefore Drunken Rage is the best option. It also adds unparalleled sustain to the Rabble Douser. Another benefit in investing skill points in his W is the damage reduction it enables for 2.5 seconds (10/12/14/16/18%). That survivability when facing the onslaughts of the jungle camps unlocks Gragas's ability to apply pressure early and frequently because ganks are always possible after farming his jungle.

Withal, I do want to point out that maxing out Barrel Roll first can still be effective. The main quality in upgrading Q first is the slow percentage (40/45/50/55/60%). That crowd control can be especially handy if your ganking priority is top, the longest lane and the lane where technically the laner is all alone. Therefore, if the barrel lands, compared to the other lanes, there's a long way to go before someone can retreat safely to his respective tower. If the champion in your top lane has a "snowballing" caracteristic and the opposing top lane champion is fairly immobile, maxing out your Q can be a good decision. Ultimately, I still recommend choosing Drunken Rage first for the various and aforementioned benefits of it.

Alistar

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For Alistar, the Minotaur, nowadays it is rather unanimous to max out Pulverize (Q). Why? Well an AOE knock up is always useful but more importantly the more skill points you add to Pulverize, the greater concordance its cooldown has with Headbutt's (W) cooldown:

As seen in the image above, if Pulverize is at level 4 and Headbutt is simply at level 1, the harmony of the two skills is perfect with a cooldown of 14 seconds. In other words, Alistar will always have the option of executing his notorious W+Q combo as both of his skills will be available at the same time more often. That is especially crucial in the early stages of the game. However, even with that being said, there is still another viable route for attributing Alistar's skill points: maxing out Triumphant Roar (E) first.

That option does seem odd but it's the most optimal choice in certain circumstances, as seen in professional matches. In doing so, you are committing yourself to the later stages of the game. Thereby, it might be more reasonable to max Triumphant Roar first when playing in 5v5 ranked teams. The choice ultimately depends on Alistar's opposing bot lane. If the enemy team has a poke type duo in the bottom lane, for example Nami with Ezreal, providing sustain to your AD carry while waiting for your jungler to come to your aid and then execute your W+Q combo is the way to play the lane. If you fail to adapt to these matchups, the enemy will poke you until you won't even want to commit to a play, limiting your options. On a side note, in terms of itemization, if Triumphant Roar is indeed the road that you choose, it would also be better to buy an Ancient Coin to optimize both the item's passive which grants gold and health points plus Triumphant Roar's sub passive:

On the other hand, when opting for Pulverize, trades will be more frequent since you will be the one forcing them. Thus, buy a Relic Shield to have the ability to tank the backlash of your actions.

Thresh

In all honesty, before writing this article, I thought Thresh, the Chain Warden, would be so obvious that he wouldn't be worth mentioning in this article. I was wrong. Personally, I always max out Death Sentence (Q) first with Thresh simply to reduce its cooldown and increasing its damage. I also do so depending upon what I observe in professional games. Yet, his Q isn't the premier choice for the majority of the players:

Image provided by champion.gg

Nonetheless, I do understand prioritizing Flay (E). When investing skill points into Thresh's E, obviously, the Flay itself increases in damage but it also increases the slow percentage (20/25/30/35/40%) and his empowered autoattack's damage increases also (Souls + up to 80/110/140/170/200% AD). Those assets mostly promote harass and peel. The only setback is that its cooldown stays still at 9 seconds, no matter what level. If Flay connects on multiple enemies, considering that the slow percentage is more pronounced and your team has the crowd control to follow up with AOE too, multiple enemies will fall. In contrast, if a player favors Death Sentence, a quick decisive kill will be his primary goal, providing much more pick potential.

Conclusion

In conclusion, in most cases that attributing your skill points becomes ambiguous, the key word is adaptation. Adapting to the circumstances can change the whole game. In terms of maxing out your skills or any other aspect of League of Legends, adapting will always be important and that's what makes the game so versatile, complex and ever-changing. The best players are able to morph themselves willingly. I hope this article helped you, the readers, add important knowledge to your repertoire to get closer to those great players. Stay tuned for more on www.team-dignitas.net!