Category: league of legends (Page 83 of 163)

Renekton was stealth nerfed after his spotlight

January 21, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

One of the readers here pointed me toward some very interesting information regarding the Renekton release. Apparently he was nerfed after the Champion Spotlight was recorded, but they still posted the video without mentioning the changes. Now I understand why he doesn’t feel quite right.

When I was watching the Spotlight, I was initially shocked by how much Renekton could heal with his Q. If you watch the video at the 3:30 counter, you’ll see Phreak hit level four, dash into a pack of minions, hit Cull the Meek to heal for something like 250 hp, and dash out. I’ve tried that same move probably 40 times in my games with him, and it has never healed for that much. Well, that’s because they nerfed it.

Here’s what Xypherous, an Associate Technical Designer, had to say about the change:

What happened was that, very late in development, we decided to take a gamble to make his kit more cohesive. It paid off, because his abilities are now better, but the normal process of balancing took a major hit so his numbers were in a state of super flux. 😡
So yeah, we decided to sacrifice a lot of things to make a solid champion a better one. I think I lost something like 40 hours of sleep the last week due to it. ~.~

While I don’t think the nerf killed Renekton – he seems okay for melee, but definitely not the beast he could be – I do think it bred some bad blood between Riot and a lot of the community. Obviously I play the game a decent bit, so I usually have enough IP to buy whatever champ releases without spending real cash. For a lot of players, though, that’s not an option, so they wait on what information Riot gives prior to the champion release to make a decision about spending Riot points. There’s a big difference between the way Renekton looks like he’ll play and how he actually plays. He requires a very cautious touch, or a strong lanemate to be successful. Without those things, he’s going to struggle to stay on top of a game. That’s definitely not a champion I would spend $8 on.

I’m not saying he should have been released as some crazy whirlwind of doom, rather that Riot should have either taken the time to change the Champion Spotlight, or delayed his release by a week in order to balance the champion. It would have been really easy to add a note to the YouTube video describing the changes in the appropriate place. Would it have looked as nice as the current video? Probably not, but it would have been an accurate representation of a product that people will spend money on. That’s really not so much to ask.

Champions, Current Affairs, league of legends, News

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Renekton impressions – maybe he really is related to Nasus

January 20, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

I wrote that title as 75 percent joke, and to be fair, most of his problems are melee related, not champion related. Let’s forget all that and talk about the good stuff for a minute, shall we?

Renekton has the hyperactive playstyle that I love. He’s regularly casting, has a fun little dash, and he flourishes his blade when he swings. Also, he’s a damn crocodile, in case you didn’t notice. Renekton also brings a decent stun to your team, and once the skill is at max rank, he can use the stun pretty often. His ult isn’t bad, and if you couple him with a stunner, you could have a decent lane.

That said, I am just now having my first runaway game with him, and I don’t really feel like I’m dominating all that hard. A big part of the problem is his cooldowns. They are long, to the point that you better have some cooldown reduction items with you. I understand they sort of have to be this way because of the fury system – too short and he’s constantly using furious abilities – but it limits the regularity with which you get to use his skills, which are all pretty cool. No doubt, part of the issue is that the resource system is new, and it’s still tough to know what the best use of all that fury is in the moment.

The other problem is that Renekton seems to be balanced around 1v1 fights where he is at or above his opponent’s level. In that situation he is very strong, much like Xin Zhao. His stun really cuts people up, especially if you’ve used a furious Dice, and a furious heal can be enough to keep you up against one target. Against multiple targets, though, you’re taking too much damage to even notice that heal.

It’s as though he was designed specifically to take second solo, which, when he can get it, is great. In the six or seven games I’ve played with him, though, I haven’t been solo. More often than not, I’ve been against strong ranged harass with another melee. When you’re the same level as multiple opponents and lower than the people ganking you, Renekton suffers like every melee toon. He’s easily kited despite his dash (the range is very short because he can do it twice if he hits someone) and often subjected to chain CC before he can even reach a target (or safety).

As for build, I’ve tried several things, but the thing I liked most so far is a Bloodthirster -> Trinity. Trinity is a little strange on him, but the added movespeed, health, and slow proc make a big difference for his gameplay. His cooldowns are long enough that you usually aren’t wasting the bonus damage procs, either.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say about him in a few days. I’ve been pretty busy with work and starting up a Minecraft server so I haven’t put quite as much time into studying him. This weekend I should be able to get a few more games and let you know how he feels.

Champions, Editorial, league of legends

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Renekton Champion Spotlight is live

January 18, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

If you’ve been wondering just how Renekton will feel in game, check out his Champion Spotlight above. He’s definitely looking very strong, with a playstyle a bit like Xin Zhao but with more mobility. That’s right, I said more mobility. Expect to get crushed by him today.

At one point, Phreak addresses an apparently OP little chain of events by saying, ‘remember that I have 2-5 levels on all my opponents and 6000 gold worth of items at 18 minutes.’ So…his farming potential is not overpowered? Remember when you said, ‘because you should always be able to heal yourself, you should be farming minions very quickly,’ at the middle of the video? I’m fine with the existence of melee carries, but we’re talking about a melee champion that got 110 minion kills in 12 minutes.

All of this really belongs in my impression post for later today, so I’ll leave you with this. I think Renekton is going to be exactly like Xin Zhao – extremely powerful, able to jungle, but much better in lane because he’s such a huge threat to his opponents.

Champions, league of legends, News, Patches, Video

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Riot to allow players to participate in the ban process

January 17, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post about Renekton, it’s been a busy few days. I finally got to catch up on the forums a couple days back and found a strange post in the Announcements forums. The post gave us the first look at Riot’s newest disciplinary strategy: crowdsourcing.

Here’s the gist from ByronicHero:

Permit me to introduce the Tribunal, a revolutionary system by which you, the players, are empowered to evaluate cases of bad behavior. Soon, when you log into your account on the League of Legends website, you will be presented with the option to review random player reports. Bundled with each report will be supporting information relevant to the case, such as chat logs and game stats. With these materials at your disposal, you will be asked to vote to either punish or pardon the reported player. Once a case receives enough votes in either direction, the case will be resolved. In accordance with the verdict, the reported player will receive either a pardon or be subject to disciplinary action.
So why should you take part in Tribunal? Well, for starters, you will have the opportunity to help clean up the League of Legends community by ensuring that reports of player harassment are handled in a quick and timely manner. But if civic virtue isn’t incentive enough, we’re going to throw in an IP reward for each case in which you’re part of the majority vote.

This is a strange system, though I’m not quite ready to pass judgement. This is definitely the most direct way I’ve seen a company deal with the complaints about disciplinary panels. Has anyone played another game with this type of system?

There are a couple potential problems. First, by rewarding IP for the majority vote, it doesn’t necessarily encourage people to act fairly, just to act in groups. Granted, the easiest way to do that would be to vote on the evidence, but it wouldn’t exactly be difficult to organize large groups of voters to farm up IP. If the reward is large enough, I could easily see people doing just that.

Then there’s the simple fact that you can grief players you don’t like. I’m hoping there’s some sort of pseudonym system, whereby reported players are given an alias for the review. Without that, it seems like your’e really asking for people to abuse the system.

Those problems aside, though, it might be a decent way to get things done. The ban process is notoriously long and seems a bit useless when the bans don’t happen for several weeks or even months. This could make a things much quicker, which means players feel the penalty for poor behavior close enough to the behavior that, hopefully, they’ll wise up.

Current Affairs, league of legends, News

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FG LoL Mondays are on! (9:30PM EST)

January 17, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

UPDATE: Postponed until 10 – not many people online and we have some people in games. Check back around 10EST to see if we can get a game together.

We are go for tonight, folks. If you’d like to play some arranged games with myself and the other readers here, log on to LoL around 9:20PM EST tonight and join the chat room ‘Fearless Gamer.’ I’ll try to get things started as promptly as possible.

Though we can definitely do the All Random, All Mid we’ve run in the past, I’d like to get some normal games going. If we have enough people, we could do a progressive ban like we’ve tried in the past.

Hope to see you there!

FG LoL Mondays, league of legends