Author: Jeff Morgan (Page 15 of 260)

Exploring Terraria

December 10, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

I’ve been in the market for a solid new game for some time now, something to keep me occupied while I wait for Diablo 3 or DotA 2. For whatever reason, I fired up Terraria a few days ago and have really been enjoying the game. I know it’s not new. I bought the game a while ago when it was on a $2.50 sale. I had played with it some, but never really got hooked.

I think a big part of my initially cool reaction was the huge barrier to entry on Terraria. The game has a lot of unfamiliar mechanics, a not-so-transparent progression path, not to mention the fact that you’re stepping back in time in terms of graphics.

Those same things can be endearing, though. Once I was able to upgrade my pickaxe, I had fun just trying out some different things without any clear goal. While it doesn’t quite have the same creative, open-world feel as Minecraft, it’s pretty close. Terraria also has the added benefit of a robust item progression and much more extensive crafting options.

If you’re in the same boat I am, check out Terraria. Be prepared for a frustrating first hour or two, but the game really picks up from there. If I could give you one tip, I’d say find iron ore and upgrade that pickaxe as early as possible.

adventure game good new games Minecraft minecraft clone new games re-logic side scrollers terraria terraria vs minecraft

Ahri, new runes confirmed for next patch

December 9, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

It looks like the next patch for League of Legends will indeed include the Ahri release. Along with the new champion, Riot is introducing a variety of new rune options. This patch will also see dodge runes headed the way of the Wooly Mammoth (although, I hear those guys may be making a comeback).

Among the new runes will be some gold-per-10 seals. I can’t say I’m excited to see more options for passive play in lane, though it will make my GP10 builds even more interesting. There will also be Lifesteal, Spell Vamp, and hybrid Armor/MR shredding runes.

I’ll be interested to see the numbers on the Lifesteal and Spell Vamp. You’ll notice from the Patch Preview that Morello isn’t worried about the runes becoming sustain problems. I hope that’s truly the case. Personally, I’ve been having a lot of fun with flat AD runes on my carries with the new masteries. I would hate for Lifesteal to suddenly trump that decision.

league of legends, News

ahri ahri patch dodge nerf lifesteal new runes rune choices runes spell vamp

Are level gap issues returning?

December 9, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

Some of the veteran players may remember the days when a player with a few champion kills under his belt could be as many as six or seven levels ahead of his competition, even early in the game. Riot nerfed champion kill experience to help address the issue, and things seemed pretty even for a while. I would rarely see a disparity of more than four levels, even between solo lanes and duos.

Lately, though, things seem much more like the good old days. I am regularly seeing players with five or more levels on their opponents, sometimes in the same lane. Seriously. I played a game a few days ago in which my team’s bot lane Singed (don’t ask) was level 5 when the enemy Vayne was level 10. He didn’t AFK. He wasn’t getting zoned. He did die a couple times early in the game, but that kind of discrepancy should require a much more significant turn of events.

Have you noticed more significant level gaps than usual, lately?

league of legends

end of game level gap experience experience gain experience points level gap level up leveling

Single-target spells now applying red buff

December 8, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

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This may be old news for some of you, but I didn’t notice it until today while I was playing Shaco. I Deceived over a wall to catch a low-health Ashe under her second turret. She saw me and moved away, though not before I could land a Two-Shiv on her. I was devastated to see that the spell wasn’t quite enough damage to drop her, especially since I was soaking so much turret fire to attempt the kill. Much to my surprise, she died just as she entered the fog of war. As she disappeared, I saw what looked like the burning animation from lizard buff.

I haven’t been able to find anything official from Riot regarding this change – it certainly wasn’t in Volibear’s patch notes – but it seems that this has been active since the most recent patch. I saw it today with Shaco, Nunu, Ryze, and Swain, though some of the threads I’ve found confirm that it is any single target spell.

This is a pretty huge change, one that further complicates the current jungle situation. Imagine giving lizard buff to Urgot at level two. Yeah, now his Q applies lizard. Have fun with that. How about Ryze? Katarina? LeBlanc? Kassadin? Kennen? Akali? Oh dear god, Akali. The problem, of course, is that it means the jungler is giving up a serious amount of XP early in the game. Unless he is ganking extremely well, passing off buffs isn’t really an option in the early game. Still, I always like to have more options than fewer, so I’ll call this “interesting” a the very least.

Had you already noticed the change?

Current Affairs, league of legends, News

do spells apply lizard buff jungle changes jungling lizard lizard buff lizard changes red buff red buff changes single target spells spells apply lizard

The minion change I would have liked to see

December 7, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

With Volibear’s patch came a change to one of the longest-standing mechanics in the game: minion damage versus champions. Minion damage against champions was nerfed by “about 15 percent.” I would love to know the actual numbers behind the nerf, if only because it seems like champions are taking much less damage than even that.

I think the change is problematic for a couple reasons. First, it was a nice way to slow down those heavy physical damage dealers. I know, I know, lane passivity and all that, but I actually think minion damage contributed to lane activity. Riot seems to be confusing “aggressive gameplay” with “mindless gameplay.” Aggressive gameplay doesn’t necessarily mean champ-on-champ battles with no outside influence. Aggressive gameplay, at least as I see it, is encouraging more activity in lane than just minion farming, and minion damage does just that. The more potential damage sources against a champion, the more likely that champion will get low, which opens up opportunities for kills. That’s aggressive gameplay.

Reducing incoming minion damage also limited a lot of the counter options available in the lane. With the old damage, I could be losing in lane but bait an attack with a large minion wave and manage a kill. I had more options, and my opponent had a more interesting decision to make around whether or not he could get the kill. He had to factor in more variables, which means more chance for error. These are all good things.

What I really think Riot should have done is make magic damage dealers draw minion aggro the same way physical harass does. I usually don’t think additive solutions are very good – just look at the current health situation – but in this case I think more damage in the lane is better.