Author: Jeff Morgan (Page 118 of 260)

Why do Baron steals happen as often as they do?

Baron Nashor

A couple nights ago I got into one of the most enjoyable ranked games I have ever had. My teammates were competent, and better still, one of them offered up a vent. My duo queue partner and I jumped on for some solid communication.

The game started really well, but our opponents had almost all top-tier champions. We had a strong comp as well, but on paper, I would have guessed that we would lose. The highlight of the game, by far, was a point when all of our lanes were pushed, we all had to heal and our opponent started to Baron. Our Ashe ulted when he thought they might finish and somehow managed to steal it.

This happens in my games all the time. Seriously, it seems that if a team is doing Baron and the opponent drops in any damage whatsoever around the time of death, it’s the opponent who gets the kill. I really don’t understand how that works. Maybe it’s just that my teammates don’t save their nukes for that last hit, but even so, how do five damage sources miss out on the last hit to one person? I’ve seen a Heimer turret steal Baron before, which almost makes me think there’s something in the coding to benefit the “underdog.” I don’t really believe that, if only because it sounds both difficult and pointless to code.

Astronaut Teemo now available

Astronaut Teemo.

The mid-cycle skin is finally available, and it comes as part of a milestone. League of Legends is now officially one year old. I haven’t personally been a part of the LoL community for a full year – more like 10 months – but it’s definitely cool to see where the game has come from over the past year.

Oh, did I mention the Teemo skin is awesome? No? Well it is. He bounces like he’s in low gravity, plants satellite dishes for shrooms, has voiceovers that sound like he’s talking through a radio can, and shoots lasers. Yes, people. LAZERZ!

Well, happy birthday, LoL, and happy birthday Riot. I bought that skin, just for you guys.

LeBlanc sneak peek

LeBlanc concept art.Today, Riot gave us the first look at another new champion. Right on schedule, LeBlanc shows up as some sort of sorceress, looking both very reminiscent of Swain and an awful lot like the Sorceress class from Warhammer (seriously, google “warhammer sorceress” – you will be shocked by the lack of creativity).

Here’s the official text:

If you’ve been looking to add a little bit of high society to your League of Legends lineup, this next patch is the one you’ve been waiting for. Allow me to introduce the talented and graceful Emilia LeBlanc, a stately sorceress ready to round out your champion selection. In addition to being extremely attractive, the Deceiver comes primed to fuel your most megalomaniacal of desires. If you’ve got a bit of mischievous thread to your personality, you’re definitely going to want to make sure to pick up LeBlanc in the upcoming patch. Would I lie?

I haven’t been able to find anything significant with regard to skillset. It seems Riot has put forth some serious effort to button down the early champion leaks, which is probably for the best.

I know this isn’t a blog about game art, but really Riot? This is about as uninspired as design gets. A tall, slender chick in a bondage suit with phallic headgear. Color me unimpressed.

I’m coming around on Swain

swain_splash_2

My initial impressions about Swain were unflattering to say the least. He just didn’t “bring it” like other champions did. He caught a buff, though, and I have to say, I’m starting to like the guy. I almost bought a skin at full price for him!

The bottom line for me is that Swain does have a fun playstyle. He has a lot of control, the nice bonus of healing himself in lane for what sometimes feels like a lot of mana, but the mana comes back. Oh, he also does great damage. With an ignite it’s very easy to get some early kills in a side lane.

The biggest place Swain struggles is the big team fights. Yeah, sounds counterintuitive with his bird, but he just doesn’t heal enough to keep himself alive through a full-on, five-man explosion of AoE. He’s great against three, though (hmm, might have to try him on TT some time soon), and he only gets better as the numbers go down. The fact that he can slow you, stun you, then immediately slow you again means you better hope to god you have Flash and he doesn’t.

Though the current metagame seems to limit Swain, I don’t think it’s a stretch to do well with him in ranked games.

Jungle Eve just worked me

evelynn_splash_1

This is not a joke. This is not a troll. My team just got legitimately smoked by jungle Eve. I don’t mean we fed, I mean we were warding, talking, moving together, everything, and we just got smashed.

I don’t really know what to say about it other than it was simply the best Eve I have ever seen. Her positioning was near perfect and she never overcommitted. Our Morgana wasn’t great, and that might have helped, but their team was meaty enough that four of them could fight and we’d be stuck either waiting for eve to pop out or watching her push a turret while we fought. It was…sort of sickening.

So what do you do against an invisible champion that is always mia? It’s very difficult to counter if done well and means you spend the majority of your time away from turrets, buying wards, and hoping she doesn’t choose you as a target. As Twitch, I was always the target.

The good news is that Eve still suffers as she always has. She’s very soft once you get to her and not much of a threat without the element of surprise. I’ll be interested to see how she progresses as more people learn to jungle with her, and what changes Riot will make to either help or hurt the endeavor.

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