Author: Jeff Morgan (Page 3 of 260)

      Nautilus skill list revealed

      February 12, 2012 /

      Nautilus.

      Riot has released the official skill list for Nautilus and…oh…dear…god. He sounds insanely strong as both an initiator and tank. Unless he has utterly terrible stat gain this guy will be a force to be reckoned with. I would imagine he was designed to play as a bottom lane support, much like Leona, but that all depends on his damage. If he has even remotely decent damage, he’ll be a brutal jungler.

      Let’s have a look at Nautilus’ skills:

      Staggering Blow (Passive) – Nautilus’ first basic attack against a target deals bonus physical damage and immobilizes the opponent briefly. Staggering Blow cannot trigger on the same target more than once every 12 seconds.

      Dredge Line – Nautilus throws his anchor forward. If he hits an enemy, he’ll drag himself to his target and his target to him. If he hits terrain, he’ll drag himself to the terrain and the cooldown is reduced.

      Titan’s Wrath – Nautilus places a shield on himself that absorbs additional damage based on his maximum health. While the shield is active, Nautilus’ attacks deal damage over time to units around him.

      Riptide – Nautilus slams the ground, causing the earth to ripple out in waves. Each wave deals damage and slows the targets hit. This slow decays over time. Multiple waves that hit the same target deal reduced damage.

      Depth Charge (ultimate) – Nautilus launches a depth charge towards a target that picks up speed as it travels. This charge knocks up all enemies it encounters while traveling and explodes on impact, stunning the target and launching them into the air.

      I think his passive will be the most binary of his abilities. If it’s anything .5 seconds or lower, it will just be a nuisance, good for interrupting the few channels in the game or maybe breaking up a running pattern, but nothing more. Any more time on the stun and that passive is among the best in the game, especially for a champion with an AoE slow, a line knock-up, and a hook. Holy hell. With Jarvan’s passive there isn’t a ton of incentive to switch targets for a little extra damage. If this passive is a one second stun there is a huge incentive to switch. Did I mention the AoE CC this guy has? Imagine the crazy stunlocks this could potentially create. Yikes.

      His other skills seem equally strong – at least as strong as Leona, which is why I’d imagine we’ll see him running in bot lane. Putting him top seems like a complete waste, much like Sejuani. I really hope he isn’t capable of quick jungle clears. If he can jungle it will just be more cement around an already solidified and fairly stagnant meta. I’ll wait for his spotlight to pass more judgement than that, but my god, he looks ridiculously strong.

      Champions, league of legends

      DotA 2 update delayed another week

      February 10, 2012 /

      Last week the DotA 2 beta client didn’t receive an update, thanks to development that still needed done on the new replay system and the platform split. The news sort of killed my buzz for DotA 2 updates because it included the fact that updates would now go through a test server before making it into the beta client. I would assume that means no new heroes in the next patch. Bummer. The same is true for this week; we won’t be seeing an update.

      There may be some good news for those of you still waiting to get beta access. In yesterday’s bog post, Valve wrote a lot about the number of servers necessary to handle demand and that they continue to increase server capacity.

      From the post:

      The primary reason we haven’t allowed everyone access to the game is because we don’t yet have enough server capacity to run all the games it would require. Our server deployment team has spent the last few months flying around the world setting up new server clusters to increase that capacity.

      Valve has also scheduled 24-hour downtime for next Tuesday. It looks like that will be for converting the servers to the new replay system, but it could also be the day Valve brings more servers online, which hopefully means more players in the system as well.

      DotA

      Nautilus, Titan of the Depths coming to LoL

      February 10, 2012 /

      The next champion to join the League will be Nautilus, the Titan of the Depths. Again, I think Riot did an awesome job with his splash art. I also really liked the sneak peek comic. It’s simple, doesn’t try to do too much with a story, just shows off this drowned guy and he looks pissed.

      I have to say, I still enjoy League’s art style a lot. It was one of the first things I liked about the game and, barring a few exceptions, I’ve been impressed with their overall style.

      I’m willing to be Nautilus will be some kind of tank, though I suppose melee DPS isn’t off the table. Looking at him, though, I’d have to say tank.

      Champions, league of legends, Patches

      Diablo 3 slated for Q2

      February 10, 2012 /

      Blizzard earnings call.

      Oh earnings conference calls, how I love you. You are the one place I can reliably get straightforward, no-bullshit answers about release dates and the success or failure of specific franchises. Blizzard had just such a call this afternoon, which means we finally know something about the release date for Diablo 3. We don’t have a date, but the game is slated for Q2, which is something.

      I was really hoping to see the game by this past November, so Q2 feels like a long way off. Blizzard did just give 100,000 more beta invites out, which means more people will have a chance to play through the highly polished first parts of Act I. I was impressed with the beta and really enjoyed myself, but it’s just so damn short.

      Some of the other interesting news from the earnings call was that Blizzard will be launching multiple titles in 2012. The safe bet is that they’re talking about Heart of the Swarm, the next Starcraft II xpac, but the hopeful guess is that they’ll launch Blizzard DotA within the year. I’m honestly experiencing a bit of MOBA fatigue, but more options and competition in the industry should mean better games overall, so I’m excited for it. I’m also curious what Blizzard plans to make of this “Blizzard Arcade” business. Trying to pack in a few titles for the casual gaming crowd? I’m sure I could be convinced to spend a couple bucks here and there on Blizzard titles.

      Diablo 3

      Riot to offer free RP to new players, not veterans

      February 8, 2012 /

      Leprechaun Veigar

      This past holiday season Riot was kind enough to dish out 450 RP to any summoner who had not been the subject of punitive action over the course of November and December. It was a nice gesture, though the surprise gift didn’t do much to incentivize ongoing good behavior. Riot did mention that the gift was the beginning of a much larger project aimed at rewarding the kind and persistent.

      That project starts…at an undisclosed time. Once a summoner reaches level 3, a staggering feat to be sure, he will be gifted 400 RP, just for sticking around. Yes, level 3. No, you don’t get it if you’ve been level 30 for the past two years. Apparently the 450 RP in December was for you…and everyone else over level 6. Honestly, these initiatives confuse the hell out of me and seem to stir up a real shit storm for the folks at Riot. Almost the entire first page of comments on that post fall in line with this sentiment, courtesy of GuardiansAngel:

      “How about you start rewarding the guys playing thousands of games of league of legends before you reward the guys who play a few games and quit.”

      Those posts have hundreds of upvotes while the actual announcement has less than 100. Now, it could be that the malcontent level 30 summoners are the majority of the players on the forums, but it could just as easily be that the people committed to the game don’t like to see new players get incentives just for being new.

      I understand that this is meant to be a gesture, but here’s the thing: gestures are usually thoughtful ways to show appreciation, gratitude, or praise. Key word in there is thoughtful. Riot’s efforts in this regard have been historically careless, and feel much more like a marketing gag to get their hooks into new players than an actual gesture of appreciation. The 450 RP this December was the exception – that was a nice gesture. This, this is just a marketing gag.

      I’m also curious, why level 3? Is Riot struggling with new player retention and, if so, is 400 RP at level 3 going to change that? I don’t believe that this is an actual strategy for keeping players around, but then why do it? Level 3 can be accomplished by winning two games – is this really something worth pumping RP into? Maybe the numbers simply worked out that when players are given a certain amount of RP, X percentage of players will double down and buy RP to bridge the gap for a more expensive purchase. If that’s the real reason this RP is going out, well, good for Riot I guess. I’m just so confused by the whole thing that I’d be happy with such a logical conclusion.

      Current Affairs, league of legends

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