How to Play Nightmare AI in League of Legends
Nightmare AI is divided into three star levels. Personally, I think there's not much to say about the 1-star level; the difficulty is not high, and you can basically win by paying some attention to positioning. Levels 2 and 5 are the real nightmare.
The main difference in 2-star and 5-star levels is that several heroes have increased skill split counts and additional abilities. Extra abilities are particularly annoying, the most common being Anivia Egg, Shaco Clone, Nocturne Ultimate, Akali W, Hecarim Ultimate, Shyvana W, Crow Ultimate lifesteal, Three-Handed E, Janna Q. The really annoying ones are Anivia Egg, Shaco Clone, and Nocturne Ultimate. Anivia Egg gives the computer an extra life, and for heroes who need to kill to refresh skills or generate BUFFs, it can be very troublesome, so it's best not to burst when the computer has the skill. Shaco Clone is self-explanatory, it's just that a clone-like effect appears when the computer's health is low.
For countering it, you can refer to Shaco and LeBlanc. Nocturne Ultimate darkens the screen near computer-controlled players, affecting vision. Nightmare AI mode seems like it's permanently nighttime, and the map itself is darker, which affects dodging some skills.
You can solve this by increasing screen brightness. Hecarim's Ultimate can only be dealt with through positioning or hiding behind minions. Other skills are less useful, especially damage skills, which have no bonus and relatively low damage. Just pay attention to positioning.
Therefore, laning against the AI is very difficult: you might miss a lot of minions and get very few kills, resulting in being outmatched in equipment by the AI. So when choosing heroes, try to select those with strong minion-clearing abilities, as the AI is overly strong.
Laning and farming will be very hard, and killing the computer-controlled champions is too difficult, so it is recommended to have two junglers to fully utilize jungle resources, and choose three lane champions with strong minion-clearing abilities to defend towers. Only by defending towers well is victory possible.
In the early game, focus on farming and look for opportunities to quickly eliminate AI to make up for economic differences and narrow the gap with the AI, whose income is far higher than the player's. Even if you have more kills, you are still behind in economy.
Therefore, AI equipment will be a tier higher than the player's and complete builds earlier. Avoid direct confrontations with the AI, carry more health potions and items with strong sustain, have a jungler buy a sightstone to maintain vision and prevent AI roaming ganks.The computers will collectively return every ten minutes and then teleport to the dragon. This is the only point the nightmare AI can be exploited. In a 1-star difficulty spectator video watched by the poster, it was shown that the computers gather at the fountain at this time. Around the 20-minute mark, a bug occurred: several computers died at 20 minutes, delaying the time to take the dragon. However, when four heroes gathered at the fountain, all the computers collectively teleported there. Additionally, the last hero just respawned, but all the computers were idle. It's unclear if this is a bug; if it is, this bug can be exploited to attempt 2-star and 5-star victories. For example, when the computers are about to fight the dragon, one player can distract them while the rest prepare to sneak the top lane tower around this time. Since the top lane is farthest from the dragon, even if they aren't delayed or the computers teleport before everyone arrives, there is still enough time to take the tower and escape. In this mode, it's recommended to bring Flash and Teleport; healing, Ignite, and shields are not very useful and are basically ineffective in the late game. Some computer skills deal greatly increased damage and have extremely strong survivability in the late game. Killing one computer later may require the cost of a team wipe. Computers basically group together in the late game and can quickly kill any squishy target, so it's best to avoid engaging them in team fights later and focus on clearing minions. Computers generally will not dive towers to kill players unless the player's health is very low. Therefore, during the laning phase, controlling your health and alternating tower defense with the jungler can slow down the computer's tower-pushing speed and lay the groundwork for sneaky tower play. Heroes suitable for pushing towers include weapons-focused ones like Jax, Darius, Annie, and Tryndamere, paired with three heroes strong at wave clearing to defend towers. In nightmare mode, there's no chance to win team fights against the computers, so sneaking towers is the only viable strategy. When computers group up, it's best to avoid them or harass with ranged skills; however, skills like Annie's W should be used sparingly. Computers have some movement logic and will dodge left or right after a skill is cast, making them hard to hit. They also consciously avoid certain trap-like skills, which can be used to escape. But don't expect to hit or chase the computers— they operate at roughly Platinum to Diamond skill level but have outrageously strong skills. Many of their skills are nearly unavoidable, so positioning means little against them. Regarding equipment, shoes can be Swifties or Mercury's depending on the situation; if the enemy has control heroes like Leona or Morgana, choose Mercury's to reduce crowd control duration.
For output-type heroes like Little 法EZ or Fire Girl, you can go for boots of speed to increase evasion. Lane heroes can build items that provide strong sustain, such as Bloodthirster, Titan's Reckoning, Spirit Visage, or Vampiric Scepter.
Jungle heroes can get a Sightstone to maintain vision. The rest depends on the specific situation, player skill, and luck. If you encounter a hero with absurd extra abilities, there's nothing you can do except consider focusing that hero.
When the computer dies, extra abilities reset.
Additionally, in Nightmare AI, some skill damages increase, skill cooldowns can be drastically reduced, and mana costs greatly decrease. According to a video I watched, Annie at level 3 has about 3 seconds between two W casts.
In reality, Annie's W cooldown at all levels is 8 seconds. Other heroes are unknown. It's possible that the computer's skill cooldowns have been reduced by over 50%. Since the computer rarely runs out of mana, the mana cost must also be greatly reduced.
So it's not realistic to trade with the computer. These may be hidden attributes of Nightmare AI, so don't assume that just because the computer has just used a skill, it's safe to gank. Since it's Nightmare mode, it's never that simple.
Otherwise, a Diamond-level pro wouldn't be overwhelmed. Without these hidden attributes, Nightmare AI wouldn't be so broken. Nightmare AI is equivalent to the computer having half of an Infinite Power mode plus skill hacks and intelligence hacks, so winning is only possible by exploiting limited loopholes to take towers.
