Category: league of legends (Page 64 of 163)

Champ of the Week: If I could change one thing

Desperado Cassiopeia

I played a game with Cassiopeia this afternoon during which a friend asked an interesting question: “If you could only change one thing, what would it be?” I liked the question so much I’m going to feature it in each Champ of the Week rotation in some way.

Unfortunately I didn’t have a great answer. My gut response is to say change the way Noxious Blast is cast. Honestly, I would rather have to click cast it than mouseover – at least then my cursor would be in the right position for me to land my other skills. It would also give us a visual indicator for the size of the blast, something that currently isn’t in the game, even if you click on the spell icon to cast it as is the case with Karthus.

Another option would be to make Miasma cast at a static size. I really don’t know why the spell grows. It’s a cool idea, but it’s so functionally clumsy as to be infuriating. The problem with both of my ideas is that it makes her combo a little too easy to land. Twin Fang would probably need some tweaks if either of those changes happened.

If I had to choose one and just one, it would be Noxious Blast.

Cassiopeia frustrations

attachment-1-php

Despite my misgivings about Cassiopeia, I’ve been having a lot of success with her. My deaths are usually higher than I’d like, but I’ve generally had a positive KDA and in some cases even carried my team. Until now.

As I start this post, I’m in the thick of what is almost surely a losing game, a game that has been laborious from the start, largely due to the way Cassiopeia casts. I laned mid against Karthus early, which was definitely a challenge, but one I was up to if he didn’t get blue buff at 6. Unfortunately he did, which meant I was slammed against my own turret all of the early game, woefully trying to time poisons against tower hits. My farm was pretty bad.

Karthus also had a much easier time with lane harass than I did. His casting mechanics are somewhat similar, but generally much more reliable. His slow AoE is huge while Cassiopeia’s is tiny. Hers grows, but the growth is slow and easy to see – not exactly difficult to avoid. There’s also the fact that Karthus can move his DoT spell by just moving his body. In one fight I hit him with my slow, a couple Twin Fangs, and a Noxious Blast to keep the poison up. It was looking like a kill until he hit me with his slow, which is much more devastating than my own, and then melted me with Defile and Lay Waste. It was close, but he got me and lived.

Cassiopeia’s ult is also extremely frustrating because of the facing requirement, especially against teams that kite. Karthus is a great example of a champion that will run away from you but turn back often to cast a single spell. If you catch him, great, but when he whole team is trying to keep you from him, but also kiting themselves, her ult can feel like a big waste. The slow isn’t really long enough to give you a shot at catching a distant target, and the damage isn’t spectacular either.

The more I play her, the more Cassiopeia seems to be designed around winning fights against champions that don’t know what she can do. She is very hard to 1v1 if you’re chasing her. Her ult plus an Ignite and any poison -> Twin Fang combo is pretty much GG. In most other situations, though, she’s easy enough to handle.

Fiddlesticks remake in the works

fiddlesticks_splash_1

I used to be a huge Fiddlesticks fan, but lately he just hasn’t been doing it for me. He’s very susceptible to CC, he has a clumsy skill leveling path because Dark Wind is so bad at early ranks, and his damage can be wildly unreliable. With all that in mind, you can understand my excitement to see he’s getting a bit of a facelift.

From Morello:

Dark Wind: Bounces changed to 5 at all ranks. Silence duration 1.5 at all ranks. Leveling the skill increases base damage. Large increase to AP ratio.

Drain: Now heals for a % of damage as health. Begins at 50% and scales up with AP ratio (and can go over 100% with enough AP). Range slightly reduced. (Might increase CD if we have to).

Crowstorm: Base damage lowered, AP ratio increased.

Base Stats: Pretty sizable increase. His base armor was abysmal to make up for drain – with these fixes, he can have more normal base stats.

This sounds like essentially exactly what he needs. The Drain changes are a little strange, and mostly make sense so that he isn’t out of control in the lane (Dark Wind will be awesome now), but the rest of the changes are great. Dark Wind needed a big damage bump, especially with the number of tanky characters out there. It’s also good to see that Riot is trying to account for the Dark Wind damage increase by lowering the base on Crowstorm but increasing its scaling. Good stuff.

Rumble ability list announced

Riot announced the Rumble ability list this afternoon, a list that looks remarkably similar to another champion in the lineup. I’m also pretty worried that we have yet another Tanky DPS champion joining the League. Shield ability? Check. Ranged slow? Check. Damage modifier? Check. Dear lord.

Here’s the list:

Flamespitter: Rumble torches the area in front of him with his flamethrower dealing damage to all units in a cone for several seconds. While in the “Danger Zone,” this spell deals additional damage.

Scrap Shield: Rumble creates a shield blocking incoming damage for several seconds and granting a short duration speed boost. While in the “Danger Zone,” the shield’s strength and speed boost increase.

Electro-Harpoon: Rumble launches a projectile that deals magic damage and applies a stackable slow on the target. A second shot can be fired for no additional cost within several seconds. While in the “Danger Zone,” the damage and slow percentage is increased.

The Equalizer (Ultimate): Rumble calls down a line of rockets over the target location. Enemies in the scorched area take damage over time and are slowed.

Junkyard Titan (Passive): Rumble’s abilities generate heat. When Rumble is above 50 heat, he is in the “Danger Zone,” causing all his basic spells to have additional effects. When Rumble reaches 100 heat he overheats, silencing himself and causing his physical attacks to deal additional magic damage. Rumble loses heat over time.

At first I was worried we had a Blitz clone, but he actually seems to be closer in skill style to Urgot. I am wildly unimpressed by the skillset and, as mentioned above, mostly worried about having yet another Tanky DPS to deal with. From the sound of things, his Harpoon will be extremely easy to land, giving him the ranged harass that often makes Tanky DPS toons such a problem in lane. I’m not excited for his release. Not one bit.

The blurry lines between legendary and regular skins

Cottontail Teemo.

Earlier this week Riot released Cottontail Teemo, a hilarious Easter Week skin that, frankly, I’m probably going to buy. It’s unfortunate, though, especially considering Teemo’s other epic skin, Astronaut Teemo. A couple weeks back also saw the release of Urfrider Corki, a totally amazing skin that is inexplicably 975 RP. At first I hoped they wouldn’t release the skins as legendary because I thought it somehow devalued the legendary skins. Now, though, I see that the current system is even worse – that the legendary skins aren’t really legendary at all.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the new skins. Both the Teemo and Corki skins are worth a purchase in my opinion, but they’re also a slap in the face to the people who bought legendary skins in the past. The whole point of legendary skins were that they were unique and somehow better than other skins. They had new voice work and different character models than the lesser skins. In the case of legendary Heimerdinger and Teemo, the models for their abilities were even different.

Now that 975 RP skins are getting the same treatment (minus the voiceover work), I’d imagine there are quite a few unhappy customers. It sucks that the uniqueness of those legendary skins is being devalued. Wasn’t that the point of releasing them in the first place?

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2026 Fearless Gamer

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑