Category: Champions (Page 9 of 43)

Current Affairs: Poppy

August 13, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

The official LoL forums can be an exceedingly weird place and often play out like a game all their own. Threads catch fire without any apparent reason, and today is a prime example. For whatever reason, the LoL forum community is up in arms this weekend about Poppy and how OP she is. You remember Poppy right? She’s short, likes to slam people into and occasionally through walls. Still don’t remember?

I make the joke because I see her so rarely I can’t believe this is something people get up in arms about. And OP? Sure, with a 50-minute legendary farm, but her early game is atrocious, bad enough that I don’t even bother to play her anymore.

Thankfully, that’s what Riot wants to address. They want to level her power curve a bit so that she’s more enjoyable early game and less of a running-at-mach-4 bomb in the late game. There is some bad news, though. The intended design strategy to level that curve is to push her toward a tank/AD build. Yes, make her more like the existing tanky DPS. Here’s the quote from RiotStatikk:

Poppy from the outset was designed as a tank/fighter but is currently optimally used as (in my opinion) the strongest burst caster in the game if played well. We’re looking to address this by pushing more of her output into sustained damage rather than upfront burst. This change is less about “removing” her AP build and rather more about pushing forward her AD/Tank build.

I’m hoping Riot stays true to not removing her potential for an AP buid. AP Poppy is a lot of fun with a decent farm. I think the key is keeping her power level for both builds about even. When the tanky build takes over too much, I doubt we’ll see many AP Poppy players in the world.

Champions, Current Affairs, league of legends

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Have the Pantheon changes panned out?

August 12, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

After the global ult nerf patch, Morello put out a call for Pantheon suggestions, hoping to bring him back up to some sort of viability. With the Skarner patch, he got some significant buffs – lower cooldowns on his stun and Heartseeker, a much faster ult, an execute on his Spear Shot – to the point that I’ve been seeing him much more often. I haven’t had a lot of time to spend on him, but when has that ever stopped me from sharing my impressions?

I’ll start by saying that the changes are mostly a good thing. That short-cd stun can be brutal in combination with teammate CC, making Pantheon a very difficult champion to escape. The ranged execute is also a nice buff. I didn’t have much trouble finishing off a target with the old Pantheon but since the change I can’t say that I’ve narrowly missed a kill. I also played against a Pantheon today who was last-hitting teammates I thought for sure I had saved with a well-placed Dragon’s Rage.

It’s Heartseeker Strike that still bugs me. It’s in a much better place now that it can be used more often, but the animation feels a little too long. There also remains the simple fact that it’s a self-stun, which really hurts. He can cast more often, but that also means he’s locking himself up more often. I would really like to see Riot either dramatically shorten the animation time and reconsider the damage or just find a new ability to add in this one’s place.

So, serious Pantheon players, what do you think? Are his new cooldowns helping out? Does he feel more viable? Still just a pubstomp toon? Drop your impressions in the comments.

Champions, Current Affairs, league of legends

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Skarner Impressions

August 11, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

I’ve had the chance to play Skarner in a couple games now, enough to give some baseline impressions of his skills and playstyle anyway. I’m going to try to avoid comparisons to Sand King from DotA as much as possible, but I’m going to say this – Sand King had much more flavor. There, I’m done. Let’s talk about Skarner.

I’ve only played Skarner in the jungler, and I think for good reason. His kit is designed around standing on top of his enemies, but he doesn’t have the early durability or sustain to really do that. He is surprisingly fast in the jungle, though, thanks to the constant damage from his Q. It’s fairly easy to pick up both buffs and still have enough health left over for a gank. That can’t be said for every jungler, and it can throw off enemy laners if they aren’t paying attention to your time.

As good as Skarner is in the actual jungle, he’s terrible coming out of it, even at level six. Without any sort of serious dash or ranged CC, Skarner has a pretty tough time getting into position. He’s okay once he has five ranks of his shield and a Trinity Force, but by that point, lane ganks aren’t happening much. His ult also has incredibly short range. It’s fantastic for catching overconfident opponents or when used in conjunction with Flash, but it’s certainly not any sort of reliable initiation or gap-closing skill.

That’s not to say it isn’t strong. There are enough champions that are both position- and cast-dependent that Skarner has plenty of targets to drag around. My personal favorites so far have been Fiddlesticks and Kassadin, though I also snagged a Sona once or twice. I’m glad to see that the duration is pretty short. Also, I’ve heard a couple people say that his ult has too short a cooldown, but 110/100/90 seconds isn’t really anything to laugh at. Granted, he’s got some extra help from the blue buff he’s getting in the jungle, at least at early levels, but I don’t think it really needs nerfed.

If anything surprises me about Skarner it’s that there’s so little chatter about him. We’re only two days past release and already the forums seem fairly devoid of conversation about him. That could mean that people are content with him, but to me it seems as though there aren’t many people that are excited about him. I’ve been able to pick him in most games after 20 seconds or so. So why the low-decibel response?

To put it bluntly, Skarner’s kind of boring. He’s spammy, but his spammy skills don’t do anything that’s all that exciting. He also has a sort of confused set of skills. It doesn’t really make sense that his Q scales off physical damage for the first half but magic damage after. Everything else he does is magic. I haven’t tried out an AP build yet, mostly because Skarner doesn’t seem like he would fair well in lane. That’s next on the test list.

How’s the scorpion been treating you this week?

Champions, league of legends, Patches

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Skarner official skill list released

August 8, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

My schedule has been all out of sorts this weekend, thanks to a wedding, a trip to my beloved Cleveland, and my upcoming return trip south. Rest assured that I’m still keeping pace with the League and will try to get a little content together over the next couple days, despite my travel.

First on that list is the Skarner official skill list release. Without further ado, let’s take a look:

Abilities:

Energize (Passive): Basic attacks lower the cooldowns of Skarner’s abilities by 1 second against champions and 0.5 seconds against non-champions.

Crystal Slash: Skarner lashes out with his claws, dealing physical damage to all nearby enemies and charging himself with Crystal Energy for several seconds. If he casts Crystal Slash again while empowered by Crystal Energy, he deals bonus magic damage and slows all targets hit.

Crystalline Exoskeleton: Skarner gains a shield and while the shield persists his movement speed and attack speed are both increased.

Fracture: Skarner summons a blast of crystalline energy which deals damage to enemies struck and marks them. Any further damage dealt to marked targets by Skarner will allow him to consume the mark to heal himself.

Impale (Ultimate): Skarner suppresses an enemy champion and deals magic damage to it. During this time, skarner can move freely and will drag his helpless victim around with him. When the effect ends, Skarner’s target will be dealt additional damage.

It’s no secret that Skarner is going to be Tanky DPS, a fact that’s confirmed by his skillset. He has an activated shield with passive damage boost, hybridized damage, and a self-heal. Golly, do you think we’ll see anyone build Trinity Force on him?

Answer: Yes. Crystal Slash is pretty much designed around Sheen – cast it once to proc Sheen, get in an attack or two, hit it againfor the slow and another Sheen proc.

I want to be clear – I’m not knocking his design. As I was writing that last paragraph I was actually thinking that Skarner sounds like a lot of fun. He’ll have great sticking power and strong survivability. The one thing he’s really missing is some mobility.

I will say this: I’m a little worried about the strength of a moving suppression. The other two suppressors in the game – Malzahar and Warwick – also self-stun when they suppress, which gives the skill some sort of balance. Skarner is going to be able to move about, which will definitely cause quite a few problems when coupled with another stunner on the team. The only thing that remains unclear is whether Skarner can use different attacks while his target is impaled. I have no idea how long his ultimate lasts, but it seems easy enough to assume that his best use will be to take a carry out of the fight and continue dealing damage to the rest of the enemy team. I’m not in love with the mechanic. Imagine if he can use Flash while a target is impaled. Suddenly his ult becomes a tower hook at a huge distance.

We’re bound to find out about his power level tomorrow. I’ll be on the road all day, but I’d love to check your comments and impressions of Skarner at my rest stops along the way. Drop your thoughts in the comments.

Champions, Development, league of legends, News

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Tryndamere gets a Champion Spotlight

August 3, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

Hot on the heels of the Tryndamere remake, Phreak put together a Tryndamere remake to show off his new skills. The video was supposed to “show [us] how to use his new tricks,” but it was pretty much a spotlight like any other. Phreak briefly explained his skills and then went on a tear, amassing 20+ kills in what looked to be a very slanted game.

I was hoping for a bit more when I saw that a Tryndamere video had been posted. Really, I was hoping I had missed something in the Champ of the Week last week. Maybe I just misunderstood his skillset, or maybe the key lies in some strange build. Unfortunately, it seems the key is as expected – get fed and he feels great.

What do you think? Did the spotlight make you a believer?

Champions, league of legends, News, Video

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