Category: Champions (Page 28 of 43)

      Caitlyn official skill list and first impressions

      December 28, 2010 /
      Caitlyn Splash

      Here it is, folks. Caitlyn’s skill list has been announced via the usual ‘Champion Approaches‘ post, giving us a look at her abilities and her artwork. From the sound of things, her skills are indeed a good bit different from Miss Fortune’s, but I’m still not impressed by her art design. She’s a sheriff, right? So why is she wearing a costume dress with a crinoline poking out underneath? Maybe she’s the sheriff of the circus. I’m not trying to play the feminism card here, but why not put her in a duster and a wide-brim hat and make the skin shown a purchasable skin? My two cents, as always. On to the skill list.

      Piltover Peacemaker: Caitlyn revs up her rifle for 1 second to unleash a penetrating shot which deals physical damage (deals less damage to subsequent targets).

      Yordle Snap Trap: Caitlyn sets a trap to reveal sneaky yordles. When sprung, the trap immobilizes the champion and deals magic damage over 1.5 seconds.

      90 Caliber Net: Caitlyn fires a heavy net to slow her target. The recoil knocks Caitlyn back.

      Ace in the Hole (Ultimate): Caitlyn takes time to line up the perfect shot, dealing massive damage to a single target at a huge range. Enemy champions can intercept the bullet for their ally.

      Headshot (Passive): Every 8 attacks (attacks while in brush count as 2), Caitlyn will fire a headshot, dealing either 150% damage to a champion or 250% damage to a minion.

      Wait, she has a skill called Ace in the Hole? Is she TF’s lover? Wasn’t it the burglar she couldn’t catch that was leaving the playing cards
      ? So many questions for the design department on this one. Okay, back to the skills. I promise.

      She definitely sounds like an interesting control champion, and it looks like she’ll be able to play as both AP and AD, which is nice. It sounds like her Q is a bit like Mystic Shot on Ezreal, just that it goes through units. That should give her some good farming capability, but might make harassment a little too easy. We’ll have to see what the range is like.

      If you look at one of the screenshots I’ve linked, you can see that she has two traps down at golem at once. Granted, she could have run away after setting one, but that seems like an odd thing for Riot to put into a screenshot. I’m guessing traps have a fairly short CD, maybe low enough to let her jungle?

      The net sounds like it could be good for running away, but not so much for chasing. It makes me wonder again about the cooldown. The only reason I could see for the knockback would be so that she can’t chain snares on you, but that seems strange.

      I always loved Dwarven Sniper from Dota, so I’m excited about her ult, even if it is poorly named (there was a blog that thought her ult might be named ‘The Long Arm,’ which seems more appropriate). I like that Riot has taken away some of the frustration of playing against Sniper by allowing allies to block the shot. I don’t know how often that will be a good idea, but at least it gives a teammate the option to save you.

      That’s it for now. As always, I’ll be playing her on release (actually might have to buy her – I’m running low on IP since the Cataclysm release) and posting my play impressions shortly after launch. It’s not clear when we’ll actually see her, but I would guess Thursday. Maybe we’ll get lucky and she’ll show up a day early.

      Champions, Development, league of legends, News

      Caitlyn sneak peek: what can we say, bondage sells

      December 20, 2010 /

      Caitlyn concept art.It’s an off-patch week, which means just one thing: there’s a new champion on the way, Caitlyn. Let’s just jump right into her introductory paragraph:

      Officials from Piltover would like me to issue a statement to all of you. It is my duty to inform you that there is a new sheriff in town. The beautiful (and stylish) Caitlyn, the Sheriff of Piltover, has arrived at the League of Legends, so bandits, ruffians, rabble-rousers, and otherwise uncouth persons beware! Of course, even if you’re on the run, one look at her and you might not want to escape anymore. Of course, you don’t need to have a warrant out for your arrest to get a closer look at this pretty lady. Whether you’re an outlaw type or someone who plays by the rules, I’ve got the publicity shots for you right here!

      There is already a lot of discontent brewing among the playerbase about Caitlyn’s design. As so many have been quick to point out, she looks an awful lot like another buxom gunslinger, one who already has a cowgirl skin. I’m hoping Riot finds a way to make Caitlyn feel different. I would love to see a sniper-style character (you can see in the concept art that the sights on her gun flip up – ultimate activation maybe?), but I just don’t know if it’s going to happen. From the looks of things, she’ll be another piece of jiggly eye candy with a familiar set of skills.

      Champions, Development, league of legends, News

      Cassiopeia patch roundup: The times they are a-changing

      December 15, 2010 /

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      I realize this is a day or so behind, but I’ve been pretty busy with Spike stuff and pre-holiday stuff and frankly, so much changed in this patch it’s actually a little tough to keep up. I’ve finally been able to sit down and play a couple games, and I’ve read the patch notes enough times that I feel like I know what’s going on to a degree that I can put down a few coherent thoughts. Here goes.

      I’m going to cover champions first, though that’s not really where the big changes are.

      Cho’Gath, Ezreal, Fiddlesticks, Katarina, and Malzahar all got some incremental buffs that should help them out. Fiddle still needs a rework in my opinion, but I think Ezreal should be a bit more competitive, Katarina should feel more balanced between AD and AP, and Malzahar might deal a bit more damage.

      Garen got smacked with the nerf bat. Seriously, I can’t tell you how happy I am about this one. It’s been so long overdue that I almost can’t believe it’s here. He actually got a scaling buff, but the fact that you can no longer stack Sunfires means Garen will have to work a LOT harder to get his job done. I’m glad to see him get a scaling buff, too. I’ve always been tempted by DPS Garen, and now maybe I’ll be able to give him a serious go.

      Gragas got a significant Drunken Rage nerf, which was also likely overdue. Coupled with the removal of Innervating Locket, Gragas will be much easier to bring down, but could be frustrating to play as a tank.

      I would love to be in on the meetings regarding LeBlanc because I just. don’t. get it. She starts so alarmingly broken that they have to hotfix nerf her, a move I haven’t seen since, well, I don’t even know when. Since then she’s been slowly buffed. She’s almost back to where she started. Give her a little more range and less CD scaling on her ult and, bingo! You have release LeBlanc. I know, she’s still a shade of her former self, but it’s funny that she got crushed by the hotfix and they’ve buffed her in every patch since. Also, the last thing I thought she needed buffed was her stun duration. Seriously, why?

      Olaf got a much-needed scaling nerf. I remember saying when he launched that a) he’s overpowered when farmed, but b) he’s like a bad Mundo until he gets some farm. I still believe those things to be true, though the second to a lesser extent. Olaf’s obvious advantage over Mundo is that he’s excellent in the jungle. This nerf will make him slightly less scary late game, though he’ll still be brutal.

      Twitch got a pretty big nerf, and though I originally thought it might be a bit of an early game buff, it might have brutalized him. I’m terrible with Twitch, in fact, I’m comfortable calling him my worst toon. There is something about his attack timing that I just fundamentally do not get, but I’ve tried building him every way I could think of since the patch and nothing has been all that impressive. It’s not so much the change to damage versus attack speed but the fact that his attacks are limited. You might blow your ult on one or two people just to have more show up, at which point you’re sorta screwed.

      Urgot caught a buff, but it’s a strange one. His poison became physical instead of magic (I actually like this, and it’s a perfect idea for Cassiopeia), he got a slight range buff, he got some scaling damage ratio buffs, and a shield buff. There’s definitely some creative problem solving with the physical change, but they might have gone a bit far with his other skills. We’ll see.

      After writing all this I realize I just need to make another post for all the other changes that came with this patch. You’ll see that tomorrow.

      Champions, league of legends, News, Patches

      Cassiopeia Impressions: active casting = active vulnerability

      December 14, 2010 /

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      Cassiopeia released today, adding another caster to the mix. I had the chance to play a couple games with her this afternoon and, I gotta say, I don’t really like her. Though she has a fairly active playstyle, the poison and Twin Fang combo plays away from a mages typical strength: super burst damage.

      As Phreak mentions in the champion spotlight, Cassiopeia relies on a full combination of spells to get a kill. She has to land her poisons, maximize damage output from Twin Fang, and land her ult. Miss one of those things and her damage plummets. It sounds fun, like a sort of high risk, high reward game. The problem is, her skills all utilize different casting mechanics, so it’s pretty tough to chain them. Her Q skill casts on mouse position, her W is a ground target, her E is a single target nuke, and her ultimate is a cone. Add to all of that the fact that you need to move to get into position because her range is fairly small (with the exception of Miasma), while watching your enemies to determine when they’ll be facing you so you can get a stun instead of just a slow. When you pull it off it feels great, but with Flash and all the champions with ranged slows, dashes, knockups, and knockbacks, it’s actually extremely hard to pull off perfectly.

      As I mentioned above, there’s also a very simple positioning issue. When I want to get a kill with Annie, I’ll Disintegrate -> Tibbers -> Incinerate -> Ignite -> Disintegrate, which is almost always a kill (if I’m willing to blow that full rotation). The thing is, I can cast those spells very rapidly and then get out. If I just want to harass, I can stun with a spell and cast either Disintegrate or Incinerate for a nice, solid chunk of health. With Cassiopeia, the full kill combo takes a lot of mouse movement, and the equivalent harass combo, probably something like Noxious Blast or Miasma to a couple Twin Fangs. The fact that you have to cast four or five times means you’re in range for return fire for the majority of those casts. She has no disable, so you better hope you can give better than you’ll get, or harassing won’t work very well for you.

      That said, I found she’s much more fun in lane than as a solo. With a lane partner, there’s someone to produce a little threat with you, and someone to soak some of the heat if you’re about to take return fire. It also brings more damage, giving you plenty of opportunity to bring a target down.

      As much as I wanted a poisoner, Cassiopeia doesn’t quite cut it. She has to expose herself too much to deal respectable damage, so she typically ends up casting a Twin Fang or two, which isn’t quite enough to prep someone for a kill. Her current skillset is tough to balance, though. Buff her damage output too much and she does big damage in burst, but continues to deal sustained damage like a late-game carry at every stage of the game. Honestly, I think she might be better if they just made her into a carry. Make her abilities deal physical damage so that she has some early game burst and can rely on her auto attacks later in the game. She has a ranged slow, a movespeed buff, and targeted nuke for early game harassment (that would scale well early because it worked off armor pen instead of magic pen).

      Champions, Editorial, league of legends, Patches

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