Category: Champions (Page 8 of 43)

      Xerath is the official name for Magus

      September 25, 2011 /

      You may remember leaks about a champion called “Magus” from the most recent issue of PC Gamer. Riot has released his official sneak peek, which includes his official name: Xerath, the Magus Ascendant.

      Here’s what little info was made available in PC Gamer:

      This caster champ, a being of pure energy, perfectly captures the feeling of uncontrollable power. He charges up energy with each spellcast, temporarily increasing the damage and cost of subsequent spells. Playing him will be a tricky balancing act between knowing when to open the floodgates and pour out your damage, and when you’re better off taking the slow-and-steady route.

      It sounds like all of his skills will function with the Kog’Maw/Kassadin ult-style of resource management. As each skill is cast it costs more resources but also deals out more damage. There is a lot of talk of energy in the description, though I’m honestly not sure how well that would work compared with mana system.

      Keep an eye out for more information on Xerath this week. Remember, though, Riot said it would be three weeks between Riven and the patch to follow her.

      Champions, Development, league of legends, News

      Riven impressions: the power vs. kit conundrum

      September 19, 2011 /

      I’ve finally been able to get in enough games with Riven to write a proper impressions post. It seems the prevalent opinion is that she’s underpowered and needs a buff, but I think her problems are a little more complicated. I think Riven has a beastly kit, a kit strong enough that the smallest buffs could make her insanely overpowered. To me, Riven is a classic example of too many skills on one champion, even if she doesn’t hit that hard (I think she hits plenty hard, though).

      Let’s break down her full set of skills at level 18. She has a three-part dash on a 12 second cooldown, an AoE stun on a 7 second cooldown, a dash/shield on a 7 second cooldown, and a damage steroid/ranged execute on a 45 second cooldown. That’s a pretty nasty kit if she can get farmed, which I’ve been able to do in several games.

      One of the great things about Riven is her ability to weave stuns with her team. by getting to a fight early, she can dash -> stun to initiate, let her teammates use CC, and stun very quickly again. Unfortunately, she has to be very close to her target for that stun to land, and this is a recurring issue for her. Her ult’s active has the same problem, as does the third tick on her Broken Wings.

      Riven also suffers from animation issues. After activating her stun, her next auto attack seems dramatically delayed. Her ultimate’s active has a massive delay on its cast, and the animations for Broken Wings are long enough that it’s easy to flip away from your target, especially if they’re moving. Add this all to the fact that Trinity Force doesn’t do her much good and Riven starts to look pretty weak.

      As I mentioned above, though, I think she has an awesome kit. Frankly, if Jarvan and Irelia and Udyr and their Trinity Force friends didn’t have such ridiculous damage output, Riven would probably look pretty great. As it is, she’s totally reliant on attack damage for scaling, but because of her kit, her scaling can’t be very good.

      Champions, league of legends

      Riven Sneak Peek is Up

      September 4, 2011 /

      Riot posted the latest champion sneak peek this weekend, giving us a glimpse of Riven, the Exile. It comes again in the form of a mini-comic with some incredibly cheesy and over-the-top nonsense for a storyline. Ah well, this game isn’t about lore. It’s about trolling and rage-quitting.

      I haven’t seen anything about her skillset that isn’t speculative, so I’ll just say we’re waiting to see whether or not she should build a Trinity Force. My guess: yes. From her looks I’d say she’s another melee assassin, which seems like a really odd release after Talon. It might be interesting if she had some mobility and so was capable of being a real force on Dominion.

      It looks like we’ll be waiting until next week for server downtime to bring her live, which will also mean the end of Season 1 and, hopefully, the launch of Dominion.

      Champions, Development, league of legends, News

      Talon Champion Spotlight impressions

      August 23, 2011 /

      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

      Talon, the Blade’s Shadow skillset preview

      August 18, 2011 /

      Riot put together a “mechanics preview” for Talon, the upcoming melee assassin. I’m not sure why it’s a mechanics preview rather than just a skill preview. It seems to be his full skillset, but maybe they just don’t want people to think that the thing is set in stone. Tough to say.

      Regardless, let’s take a look at his skills:

      Cutthroat: An ability that allows Talon to catch his enemies by surprise. Talon leaps behind his target and silences them for a short duration, amplifying the damage of any of his follow up attacks and abilities.

      Noxian Diplomacy: Talon viciously stabs his enemy, dealing heavy physical damage and causing them to leave a blood trail that Talon can use to track them.

      Rake: Talon fans out three blades in front of him that quickly return to him, dealing damage and slowing any target hit in either direction.

      Shadow Assault (Ultimate): Talon enters stealth for a short duration, gaining a movement speed boost and sending blades that deal damage to all enemies in their path flying in every direction. Once the blades reach a certain distance, they pause and form a circle. When Talon reappears from stealth, the blades return to him, once again dealing damage to any opponent they pass through.

      Mercy (Passive): Talon’s auto-attacks deal additional damage to a target that is under the influence of any crowd control effect.

      He seems to be Vayne’s brother or depraved uncle or some such thing, at least as far as his skills/flavor go. It’s tough to get a good feel for his skills, mostly because their so basic. I like the idea of a targeted leap plus a silence, but I can’t really say much about his other skills. Slows are always nice. I’m not sure why he has a tracking skill unless his dash is on a very short cooldown. His ultimate is something I’ll definitely have to see to really pass any sort of judgement on.

      Phreak claims the Talon spotlight has neither jungling or a Trinity Force. I suppose we’ll see on Monday night. Are you excited for Talon?

      Champions, Development, league of legends

      « Older posts Newer posts »

      © 2026 Fearless Gamer

      Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑