Author: Jeff Morgan (Page 42 of 260)

Talon patch includes a host of client changes

August 24, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

The Talon patch is finally live (so is the champion), bringing us the latest champion along with some prep work for the Dominion launch. It looks like Dominion is damn close to being ready, which I’m really excited about. This patch also brought a host of client changes. It’s cleaned up information in some places but feels a little cluttered in others.

The picture in this post is the new post-game summary screen. You’ll notice the addition of some information, including gold earned during the game and team score totals. Obviously the screen has been rearranged to make the actual game content much larger, with less unused space.

The other UI changes include a rework of the in-game score screen, which I find a lot less effective than the post-game screen. It feels cluttered and a bit busy, I think mostly because every element on each line is a different size. The numbers are smaller than the item icons. The letters are smaller than the numbers. The summoner spell icons are somewhere in between.

There’s also the new death callout system, which I really like. The announcer sometimes can’t keep up with the action, so the callouts provide some extra, easy-to-digest information.

And obviously the landing page has been reworked, though for me it only takes up something like 2/3 of the screen. ~~I don’t know if that’s intentional and there’s more content coming or if it’s just formatted for 4:3 screen ratios. Again, that one looks a little cluttered to me.~~ This way you can keep your friends list open at all times. Why it isn’t opened for you at all times is beyond me, but at least it isn’t covering anything up now.

What do you think. Are you liking the new UI elements or did you prefer the old?

league of legends, News, Patches

kill callouts new ui post-game screen score screen talon patch UI changes ui design ui elements

Talon Champion Spotlight impressions

August 23, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

You may have been surprised, as I was, to have no patch today. It’s strange to me that we get a warning about the size of the patch, but not when it will release. Ah well, I don’t set the schedules. We’ll be getting Talon tomorrow, adding a melee assassin to the host of champions available in League of Legends.

When I first saw the Talon mechanics preview, I was ambivalent. His skills didn’t sound all that exciting and, frankly, it looked like there were some other champions that already outperformed him. After his spotlight, though, I’m pretty pumped to try him out. I might have to snag that Crimson Elite skin too. It looks pretty awesome.

I think most of Talon’s flavor comes from his two blade abilities: Rake and Shadow Assault. His other skills seem a little less inspired, but the blade stuff definitely looks cool. I also like that he seems to be focused on picking off a target, disappearing, and then showing back up for cleanup. If there’s one thing I’d worry about, it’s that he’s sort of forced to pick up at least a Phage, if not the Frozen Mallet Phreak suggests. That’s a damn expensive item (the mallet) for a character that seems very farm dependent.

I’ll be playing Talon as much as possible tomorrow and bringing my full impressions soon after. Are you interested in the Blade’s Shadow?

Champions, league of legends, News, Patches

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Champ of the Week: Brand

August 22, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

I’ve been trying to get one of my ranked ratings above 1485 for the Silver designation before the end of Season One. For me, that usually means playing an AP carry mid. It’s a position I always enjoy – it’s usually aggressive, which for me is a lot of fun. I’m usually a Malzahar guy, mostly because he’s crazy easy to dominate with, but I’ve been mixing it up lately with Brand and things have been going pretty well.

I feel like I’ve got some decent ideas about his build and his kit, but I want to spend some extra time with him, breaking down the mechanics that…light Brand’s fire. Yeah, I said it.

I’ll be trying out a few different builds this week, focusing on durability for comps that don’t have much peel and raw power for comps that bring plenty of CC. I’ll also be considering his matchups against champions like Orianna, Annie, and Malzahar. If you have any tips or…burning questions, drop them in the comments. Check back later in the week for more impressions of Brand.

Champ of the Week, league of legends

brand brand abilities brand ap brand build brand carry brand guide brand nerf brand op brand playstyle brand skills brand up

FG LoL Mondays are on – 9:30PM EST

August 22, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

FG LoL Mondays

We are on for tonight, folks. As usual, we’ll be queuing or running some custom matches depending on the number of people online. If you haven’t participated before, FG LoL Mondays are a chance to play with the other readers here and just have some fun. Any skill level is welcome. Rage is not.

To join, pop into the chat room “Fearless Gamer” in the PvP.net client around 9:20 EST and we can get started. If you’re having trouble joining the chat room, add me at “The Wiggin Boy.” Hope to see you online tonight!

FG LoL Mondays, league of legends

FG LoL Mondays

Champ of the Week: Gragas Wrapup

August 21, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

I spent most of my League of Legends time this week with Gragas, everyone’s favorite gigantically fat drunkard (to be fair to other fat drunkards, though, Gragas is our only option). It was a good week; as I mentioned in other posts, Gragas has great flavor, and some very unique tools for disrupting a fight.

It wasn’t all sunshine and flowing rivers of mead, though. Gragas has a very punishing kit compared to other casters in the game, and with so many skillshots, it’s easy to waste a few spells over the course of a game. This is actually where I think my proposed change comes in. I have to cheat a little, too. It’s not one thing, but I’ll call it one thing because, well, that’s what I’m supposed to do for this feature.

Gragas needs a responsiveness tuneup, across two mechanics in particular.

First, his auto attack animation needs to be cleaner and a little bit faster. I missed more than a few champion kills this week because I would Body Slam up to a target and get stunned, killed, or just start walking away before my auto attack animation had finished. That loping overhand swing just takes way too long to complete, and it costs Gragas a lot of damage, thanks to Drunken Rage.

His second tuneup skill is Body Slam. That skill seems to have the strangest hit conditions of any dash in the game. It also seems to suffer from variable speed depending on the distance of the cast, which can be extremely punishing if you miss your target. The animation also needs a cleanup, as it seems to lock you out depending on where the character stops along the animation path. It just feels a little too sloppy. Somewhat sloppy is okay for a drunk champ, but he feels painfully unresponsive at times.

There are some other things that I think could help Gragas out, like faster travel time on his ult, but the responsiveness changes would indirectly address some of his other issues. That feels like a fine fix to me.

If you haven’t played Gragas, I would highly recommend checking him out during a free week. He’s not for everyone, but he can be a lot of fun if you’re willing to spend your game time with an obese Scotsman with a drinking problem.