Category: Development (Page 25 of 51)

Kog’Maw is patch-ready

Kog'Maw, Mouth of the Abyss.

Riot’s gone and posted the official “champion approaches” info for Kog’Maw, including his skill list. It looks like the latest creature from the void will be making his way to the League by the next patch.

Let’s have a look at his abilities, shall we?
Bio-Arcane Barrage: Kog’Maw’s attacks gain range and deal a percent of the target’s maximum health as magic damage.

Void Ooze: Kog’Maw launches a peculiar ooze which damages all enemies it passes through and leaves a trail which slows enemies who stand on it.

Caustic Spittle: Passive: Increases armor penetration. Active: Kog’Maw launches a corrosive projectile which deals magic damage and doubles his passive armor penetration for 4 seconds (Removes the passive until available again).

Living Artillery (Ultimate): Kog’Maw fires a living artillery shell at a great distance dealing damage and revealing targets. Additionally, multiple Living Artilleries in a short period of time cause them to cost additional mana.

Icathian Surprise (Passive): Upon dying, Kog’Maw starts a chain reaction in his body which causes him to detonate after 4 seconds; dealing magic damage to surrounding enemies.

It looks to me like he’ll play a little bit like Kayle, with the active cast on Caustic Spittle increasing damage he deals and the ranged attack he gets from Bio-Arcane Barrage. I have to say, I’m not thrilled to see another melee toon, and his passive has to be among the worst in the game. When will that be useful? When you die? Isn’t part of the game trying to not die? Four seconds also seems like an eternity for the detonation. It would be much more interesting, in my mind, if targets he killed were infected and would explode after they had died. As always, we’ll have to see how this plays out, but for now I am wholly underwhelmed by his skill list.

Will Kog’Maw be the latest toon that’s banished to unplayability?

LoL: 5v5 Solo ranked matches may not get bans

Draft mode.

Zileas posted to the official forums today, stating that when Season One begins, the 5v5 Solo version of the ranked matches may not get the ban option present in the other two ranks. The reason? He doesn’t want people to argue.

I’ll spare you the nauseating rundown of the entire thread and just say this – I hope to god he changes his mind. As I posted in the thread, there are plenty of things for people to argue about. There are plenty of things people do argue about. I would still rather have the option to ban than not.

It seems so basic in my mind. Give the ban option to either the player with the highest ELO, or make it totally random, but we need an option for removing the things Riot breaks from the game. That sounds snarky, but the recent Ezreal “accident” made me realize again the importance of bans. Mystic was horribly broken, to the point I thought they should remove Ezreal from the game. Remember what Jax was like before the string of nerfs? Whoever had first pick could be virtually guaranteed a win.

I really hope they reconsider this. It would make the 5v5 Solo queue much less enjoyable and much less competitive.

LoL: Season One details released

Season One login screen.

I’ve been waiting a long time to see this post in the Announcement forums. Riot has finally revealed the details for Season One, which it’s probably safe to assume is just around the corner.

From Riot’s official Season One post:

Ranked Games – Once Season One begins, summoners of Level 20 or above will be able to indulge in our ranked game system. At launch, ranked players will be able to join one of three queues: 3v3 Premade, 5v5 Premade, or 5v5 Solo. Players will receive an individual rating for each of these queues.

Ladders – Once Ranked Play begins, players who choose to participate will have their Elo ratings displayed publicly on the League of Legends Ladder. On the ladder, players will be able to see just how they stack up against the rest of their fellow summoners. The ladder will be available on the League of Legends Community Site.

Draft Mode – Champion selection during ranked play will take on the form of a live draft. In 5v5 premade and 3v3 premade, the first phase of this draft process will provide the inviter of each team with the opportunity to ban the use of two champions. Banned champions cannot be selected for use on either team, so choose wisely!

After bans have been dispensed by both sides, the teams will begin the draft process. During ranked play, draft picks will be exclusive, meaning that a drafted champion will not be available for play by the opposing team. The team who received the second ban will begin the drafting process by drafting a single champion. Following that, the game will follow a 1:2:2:2:2:1 draft format for the 5v5 brackets and a 1:2:2:1 format for the 3v3 bracket.

Through this system, we hope to encourage players to embrace a wider range of champions, allow for teams to effectively counter popular strategies, and develop a familiarity with their opponents and counter accordingly. Initially Draft Mode will be available both in Ranked Play and in practice games. Casual games still utilize blind pick during champion selection.

Improved Visual Styles – Since our launch back in October of 2009, our UI Team has been hard at work improving the visual components of the PvP.net interface. With the substantial renovations required to support Ranked Games, now seemed like the opportune time to give the game a facelift. We wanted the new look for League of Legends to be brighter, more visually appealing, and easier to use. I could elaborate further, but I think that once you get a look at the accompanying screenshots their work will stand on its own.

As you can see, things will be a little different. I like everything I’ve seen in the screenshots except that shot asking the player to rate his own level of play.

How good are you at LoL?

So many people will be rating themselves improperly, whether because they don’t know any better or because they want to start at a low ELO and stomp people or whatever. There is so much incentive to lie about your relative skill level that Riot should just port over your current ELO (even though that system has some pretty serious flaws) as a basis for your new ELO. That or start from scratch. I really hope that screen is just a theoretical idea and not an actual feature.

At any rate, I’m excited about this news. It’s the best thing to happen to the game since the Kennen release!

LoL: Riot teases Galactic Nasus and Alien Invader Heimerdinger

Heimerdinger in a crop circle.

The latest post in the announcement forums is a little teaser for some very cool up and coming skins. Though the picture only shows Heimer, I’d imagine it’s also a little preview for Galactic Nasus.

From the official post:

Since the appearance of a strange craft now piloted by the famed and Daring Bombardier Corki, there has been an increase in the sightings of strange lights in the skies above Valoran. The scientists and scholars of Piltover are equally baffled by the appearance of strange crop patterns that have been dotting the countryside. This, combined with reports from the local sheriff regarding an increase in missing persons, has led to some speculation regarding the possible involvement of extra-Runeterrestrial life.

Take care, summoners! And when you’re out there on the Field of Justice, keep an eye on the skies!

I’m guessing we’ll get a new skin announcement mid week, as we have with past several patches.

LoL: Shaco deceive is broken once again

Mad Hatter Shaco.

I’ve said plenty of times that I love Shaco. That frenetic, crazy playstyle just suits me. I’m also in love with all the control Shaco brings to the map. He is one of few characters that has a very easy time dealing with Warwick by himself in the early game.

Unfortunately Shaco is also fraught with bugs. The most current is one that shows up time and time again. Deceive isn’t granting the proper amount of bonus damage. Instead of dealing critical damage (200% of your base) + a bonus 40 percent at rank one, it’s only dealing base damage +40 percent. That sucks. A lot. It takes him from being one of the strongest early game characters to a fairly mediocre pile of excrement for the first ten minutes. His jungling potential is still there, and once you get a Madred’s you’ll hardly notice the difference, but as an avid Shaco fan I’m hoping they fix this one relatively soon. He’s so well-dressed now, how could you not want him to be a real contender again.

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