Category: Editorial (Page 32 of 34)

Autumn, weddings, torrential rain, and my terrible planning skills

October 3, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

Once again I’ve managed to plan a trip out of town on the week of a new champion’s release, which explains in part the absence of new content here. It’s been a little crazier than that, lately, and the rundown is kinda funny, so here you go.

A friend of mine got married in Missouri but decided to have the reception in Ohio in the fall (which is the greatest season, don’t test me on this). My girlfriend and I were crazy excited, but planned a trip up north without knowing the following:

1 – Our current home would get two feet of rain (yes, two feet) in just four days, be declared in state of emergency, and experience weather that would preclude going outside for anything but the most dire of circumstances resulting in somewhat spotty internet the day before a ten-hour road trip (not great when you work on the web).

2 – Once at the reception, I would be coerced into playing a game of basketball in the dark, in bone-chilling rain, after six hours of feasting and drinking any beer that started with the word “Imperial.”

3 – We would visit my brother – he attends our undergraduate alma mater – and spend the better part of an hour trying to find a restaurant that was open on Sunday night in a small, Ohio town. All three of us would then proceed to eat ourselves sick on grinders from the best greek restaurant on the planet (yeah, should have just started there).

4 – We would spend almost as much time in the car at home as we would to get from North Carolina to Ohio and back again.

And last but certainly not least, especially as far as you all are concerned:

5 – I would be out of town until Tuesday night, unable to enjoy Swain’s launch day and give you the expeditious updates on the latest LoL patch that you so deserve.

One of these days I’ll figure out how to plan a trip. in the meantime, spend some good time with Swain, so you can teach me how to play him when I return. As you might guess, FG LoL Mondays are off for this week, as I’m out of town until Tuesday. Until then – lane well, ward often, and above all, rage like the Hulk if you start to lose.

Editorial

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How do you respond to losing?

September 30, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

I’ve been spending less time than usual in ranked games since crossing the 1500 marker for the second time. It’s that “second time” part that’s really important, because it took me a while to make my way back up after dropping as low as 1410ish. Prior to that point, I usually jumped into a new game shortly after losing. I had this sense that I could “erase” the last match by winning another. Unfortunately, we all know the game doesn’t work that way, and more often than not the losses pile up along with the frustration.

I’ve taken a different approach lately. When I lose a game I back off, let myself chill out from the loss before I queue again. It keeps the rage down a bit and even better, it gets me new teammates. I often feel like a losing team tends to lose when they get paired together because a demoralizing defeat just carries over into the next game.

Occasionally I’ll play a few in a row, but it’s usually on nights that I know I’ll be okay dropping 40-50 ELO, but for the most part, I’m sticking to a one and done schedule for losing. How do you handle your losses?

Editorial, league of legends

losing losing elo losing games losing streak loss losses rage ragers raging

The client bugs have got to go

September 29, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

I’ve had a frustrating run of games recently – losses, droppers, feeders, the usual – but they’ve been made even more frustrating by the seemingly rampant client bugs.

First, check out that chat list. Looks normal, right? Except I have six friends on line but they are nowhere in my chat list. See how the arrows all point down? That means the lists are expanded, there’s just nothing in them. All last night this was happening, and I had talked to a few people (sorry, Sannu) about getting a game in. Occasionally my notification box would light up red, but when I would click it, it would just say “No recent notifications.” Neat.

Then there’s the lobby chat bug, wherein I don’t get to talk to my teammates about comp, to offer my services as a tank/jungler/carry/whatever, don’t get to beg the Gangplank who insisted he take mid at nearly 1600 ELO to not take it the second game I got stuck with him (and watched him feed, again). Or how about changes to your rune page not saving properly, masteries taking forever to load, champion skins not being selected properly (sorry, I want my Magnificent Twisted Fate, not PAX Fate), or the chat rooms I have set to load on start loading without a name and without me in them.

These things seem small, but they all happen frequently enough that, when piled onto the frustration of playing with feeders, make for a bad experience. I have just as many good experiences in this game, even more, but the bad ones feel so bad it can be hard to remember the good.

Anyone else having client issues?

Editorial, league of legends

chat server bug client client bugs fail client pvp.net pvp.net bugs server bug

Passive Resistance: Part 2 (Nidalee – Zilean)

September 27, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

I liked this name for the feature much better so I’m sticking with it for part two. In the first part of Passive Resistance, I covered the toons from Alistar to Nasus that could use a passive rework. Today I’ll go ahead and finish that list, going from Nidalee to Zilean. There are fewer champions in this section, but I think all of them are deserving.

Nunu (Nunu can cast a spell for free upon attacking a unit 7 times) – Nunu probably needs a new passive the least out of this group, but giving him one might make him a little more fun to play. As it stands, Nunu is best suited to jungling for a team that has decent CC and against a team without much CC to counter him. His passive is nice for jungling, but most junglers have golem buff so you dont’ really need that extra mana efficiency. What about a passive that made him a slightly better tank, like a slow aura (granted, this would be REALLY strong) or something to synergize with his ult?

Rammus (Rammus gains additional damage as his shell becomes reinforced, converting 25% of his armor into damage) – There was talk a while back about giving him a boost from magic resist -> ability power as well, which would make this passive great. Rammus isn’t really an attacking toon. He’s more control and abilities, so he doesn’t get a ton from this.

Sivir (Increases Sivir’s dodge chance by 10/15/20/25% while moving) – Dodge toons have been on the way out for a while now, and Sivir needs a lot more than just dodge to bring her back to serious viability. Once the supermid of all supermids, Sivir is now way too soft to stay competitive in a solo lane.

Soraka (Increases surrounding allies Magic Resistance by 16) – Again, the fact that this doesn’t scale means that it’s useful for all of six levels, after which it becomes completely worthless. Soraka’s been hit so hard by nerfs recently, both to her own healing power and the harassing metagame, that she could use a little boost. Sona’s introduction also makes Soraka the ugly stepsister to a healer with much greater…assets.

Teemo (If Teemo stands still for 3 seconds without taking damage, he becomes stealthed. (damage will break this effect). Moving or taking actions will break Teemo out of stealth. When Teemo breaks stealth, he gains “Element of Surprise”, increasing his attack speed by 40% for 3 seconds) – Everyone knows this. I’m sure Riot knows this. Teemo is arguably the worst ranged champion in the game. He has two skills that might as well not exist they scale so poorly, his ult is countered by Oracle’s Elixir, and his passive requires that you stand around doing nothing for three seconds, as though people would be willing to march into brush when Teemo is in the game. Teemo needs a complete rework, but a new passive would be a great start.

Twisted Fate (Twisted Fate and his allies receive an additional 2 gold per kill) – The Twisted Fate remake was one of the most complete overhauls we’ve seen in this game. While most of the changes seemed pretty cool, I really think they gave him a crappy passive. I currently average 134 creeps per game, which gives me a whopping 268 additional gold. That isn’t even enough to buy an elixir. Just give the guy a passive that will help his survivability and do away with this silly thing.

There you have it. There’s only one honorable mention from this group, and that’s Taric. I know, Taric is very strong, but he spends very little time attacking when the laning phase is up, so you don’t get a ton of benefit from the cooldown reduction. Still, it does synergize with his other skills, which is more than we can say for a lot of characters.

Champions, Editorial, league of legends

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Passive Resistance: Part 1 (Alistar – Nasus)

September 25, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

Miss Fortune’s introduction to the League has caused a bit of an imbalance. She has one of the better passives in the game, and it’s a passive that vexes Teemo fans. Teemo has an entire skill dedicated to a passive movespeed buff, and Miss Fortune’s is just better. I went back through the existing champions to see who was in dire need of a passive rework and the list is long. So long, in fact, that I’ll be splitting this feature into parts to make it easier to follow.

Alistar (deals 20/40/60 percent additional damage to turrets) – Once the pinnacle of pure tank power, Alistar now appears in almost none of my ranked matches. The Sheen nerf hit him really hard, particularly in conjunction with his passive. With an excruciatingly slow base attack speed, his passive gives him almost nothing. Also, when you’re at a turret, either you’re taking it uncontested or, as Alistar, you should be disrupting your opponent, not whacking away at the turret.

Ashe (While out of combat, Ashe’s critical strike chance increases by 3/6/9/12/15/18% every 3 seconds, removed after next attack)- On the whole, Ashe is a pretty strong toon. She farms well, has a permaslow, a free CV, and a great ult. So why this crappy passive? It essentially allows you to open the fight with a crit, which is really not much of a damage increase for a carry. You’ll probably crit anyway quite a bit as a carry.

Fiddlesticks (Nearby enemy champions have their Magic Resist reduced by 10) – First thing you’ll notice is that it doesn’t scale. Granted, it reduces everyone’s MR, but not by nearly enough. Since the string of Fiddle nerfs, he could really use a new passive.

Heimerdinger (Heimerdinger gives nearby allied Turrets and Champions 6 / 12 / 16 / 22 health regen per 5) – Heimer has officially been nerfed off most ban lists, and as such, I think it’s time he gets a new passive. The regen is nice for turrets, but since the Heimer nerf, very few teams stand and poke a turret down slowly, so this isn’t really relevant. It won’t ever serve to save you or your allies or even your greatly nerfed turrets.

Janna (Increases the Movement Speed of all allied champions by 3%) – I’ve never liked Janna’s passive and I may be one of the few. Three percent movespeed is hardly noticeable, especially when so many toons these days have their own speed boost or a gap closer of some kind.

Kassadin (Kassadin takes 15% reduced damage from abilities and transforms this damage into bonus attack speed) – The damage reduction is nice, but transforms it to attack speed? There’s a reason you don’t see people playing attack damage Kassadin. He’s also so soft that even the 15 percent reduction rarely saves him.

Nasus (Nasus drains his foe’s spiritual energy, giving him a natural 10/15/20% Lifesteal) – Lifesteal on a tank toon – need I say more? If it scaled in some way with his HP gain, this might be a different story, but most of Nasus’ damage comes from his ult in combination with Spirit Fire. Very few players play Nasus for Siphoning Strike, and even if they do, this passive relies heavily on players staying close to you. You know what happens when Nasus ults, I know you do. People scatter. Goodbye, passive.

There are a few runners-up from this category that I’ll just mention briefly. Eve takes 50 percent reduced damage from minions but she needs remade in full, so she didn’t make the list. Gangplank’s passive (a healing debuff/slight poison) isn’t great, and makes no use of his primary skills – Parrley and his ult – but it is a healing debuff, which puts him well above the others on this list. I think Karthus could use a rework in full. His ult is cool, and his passive allows you to get the ult off when you otherwise didn’t, but any passive based on dying first seems a little dumb to me. Still, there are far worse, and his passive at least synergizes with his skill set to a degree.

Stay tuned for more passive remake candidates. I thought up a better name for this feature just after posting so I renamed it.