Category: Champions (Page 20 of 43)

Rumble Sneak Peek

April 18, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

We’re well on our way to a new champion again, this time with a Blitzcrank doppleganger named Rumble. Here’s the blurb:

Harpoon? Check. Flamethrower? Check. Triple rockets? Check, check, and check. Just to be safe, we’ll throw in one mischievous yordle whose mechanical prowess has been used to make the most diabolical machination ever to hit the Fields of Justice. Meet Rumble, the Mechanized Menace. His desire to see you burned, speared, crushed, stomped, blown up, or otherwise grievously injured, has him pushing his war machine way beyond what would be considered safe operating procedure, even if he might blow a gasket. But don’t call him short. That’ll really grind his gears.

I gotta say, I dig his little checklist at the beginning. I’m a little concerned that he’ll steal my boy Blitzcrank’s thunder, but all the same he seems interesting. His skills sound vaguely like Tinker from the Dota days, though I wonder how the harpoon will work out. I bet triple rockets are his ult.

Champions, Development, league of legends, News

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Champ of the Week: Cassiopeia

April 17, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

I’m starting up a new column, mostly because League of Legends is pretty slow during non-patch weeks, not counting the new champion ability posts. I really like writing about League of Legends but I needed a new focus so here we are. I’ll be choosing one champion each week as my Champ of the Week and playing that character significantly more than others and reporting on the experience. After my Cassiopeia post, I thought she would be a good place to start.

I’ll let you read through most of my initial thoughts there – no sense rehashing them. After a few games with her, my biggest problem is that her W is easy to land but low damage and her Q is difficult to land but really big damage, especially with a bit of AP. I know it makes sense – the higher damage should be harder to land – but it’s tough to know which spell to prioritize. Do I go for the cast with the highest potential damage or the reliable, albeit smaller damage?

For now, I’m rocking W after Twin Fang, just to get some reliable burst out of that combo. Later in the week I’m planning to try a build that relies very little on Twin Fang for damage. Hopefully my Noxious Blast skills will be to the point that I can make some use of them.

Check back throughout the week for more on Cassiopeia and in coming weeks for more Champ of the Week profiles.

Champ of the Week, Champions, league of legends

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I still can’t play Cassiopeia

April 15, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

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Among the changes this patch were a couple buffs to Cassiopeia. I was kind of excited because I’ve always like the idea behind Cass, I just couldn’t seem to get the hang of her. After playing with the changes I gotta say…not much has changed.

A little disclaimer: I did much better in one game with Cassiopeia than I have ever done, but it still didn’t feel quite right. You might say the buffs worked, and to some extent I think they did. The Twin Fang cast speed increase was a good thing, same for her ult. Her ult also seems a bit more reliable now, which is good.

The thing I still can get, though, is all the different ways she has to cast. She just requires a crazy amount of mouse movement to land all her different spells at the same time. I think the big problem is Noxious Blast, which is on a mouseover cast. I understand the thinking – it has a relatively short cooldown so it needs to be easy to cast. That’s all well and good until your target starts moving. And then that target starts casting spells. Spells that you need to dodge. Maybe I’m just lazy, but this equates to a massive number of clicks to land a couple spells.

This becomes a bigger and bigger problem as Cassiopeia’s opponents get more and more bursty. If Brand can blow me up in 3 spells but it takes me 5 or 6 to do the same thing, chances are he’ll fare better in most fights. I think Brand is a good counter example because both he and Cassiopeia are high energy combo casters. When you land that combo it feels amazing. With Cass, though, I feel like I’m much more taxed to land a somewhat inherently difficult combo.

That would be a fine thing if it felt like a skill ceiling but it feels more like a click ceiling. Is there something I’m missing here?

Champions, Editorial, league of legends

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Brand Champion Spotlight released

April 12, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

The Brand Champion Spotlight is live, giving us a look at his skills in action. I’m pretty excited about Brand – his passive doesn’t seem crazy strong, even if I am a bit worried about those high-MR targets. Judging by what we can see, I’d say the only thing I don’t like about him off the bat is that it’s a little difficult to see when his Conflagrate actually casts. That’s a pretty minor complaint compared to a couple of recent releases.

I really like the shift toward skirmishing heroes over teamfight/tanky heroes. The fact that Pyroclasm only has a couple bounces makes it really devastating against two heroes, but sort of average against more than that. It’s a solid balance idea that should hopefully keep him from just solo-nuking entire teams.

Champions, league of legends, News, Patches

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Brand, the Burning Vengeance is up next

April 7, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

The champion sneak peek is up for Riot’s next addition to the League. Brand, the Burning Vengeance will be joining the game in the next patch.

Here’s the official blurb:

Here at Riot Games, we’ve been positively burning with anticipation to tell you about this next champion. And that’s not just smoke and mirrors! If you’ve ever come under fire from critics for leaving a candle unattended, forgetting to turn the grill off, or an over-enthusiasm for fireworks displays, he’s sure to spark your interest. Start getting fired up for Brand, the Burning Vengeance. He’s a real spitfire who is sure to attract all you combustion connoisseurs out there like a moth to a flame.
Hey, did we mention that he’s on fire?

His concept art is pretty cool, and, judging by the look of the image, could be his splash screen. I wonder if we’re looking at some sort of fire mage, maybe even Annie’s father? That would be an interesting bit of lore. You gotta feel at least a little bit bad for this guy – Lee Sin’s hype is a hard act to follow.