Category: News (Page 31 of 108)

      Public Test Realm is coming back

      October 4, 2011 /

      You may remember a time when Riot had a public test realm. You may remember when pictures like the one at right – the first shots of Ezreal – would show up from time to time because of that realm. I actually remember when Riot gave out a select number of Test Realm accounts. I had prepared to be around for the giveaway, totally forgotten about the timing, but still somehow managed to snag one. It was nice for a while, but then there was the whole crackdown on information sharing, despite the fact that the Test Realm forums were totally public so long as you had a regular forum account and blah blah blah.

      But enough history! Public Testing is about to return. Here are the juicy bits from Udyr’s sticky in the General Discussion forums:

      Over the next few weeks, we will give thousands of level 30 summoners who are active contributors in the community the opportunity to join our Public Beta Environment, where this testing will take place. We initially plan to limit access to summoners who’ve reached level 30 and are active within the community, to ensure those participating in the environment have a very firm grasp on League of Legends.

      Don’t worry if you don’t meet the minimum criteria to qualify; we’ll be adding additional summoners to the Public Beta Environment over time to make sure the feedback we receive continues to shore up our release process.

      I would like to think I fall under the “active contributor” umbrella, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I’m also curious what sort of NDA will govern information obtained through Test Realm access.

      I wish I could say more about the relative value of Test Realms. I’m sure it will be good for Riot to get a couple thousand people testing new patches before they go live. I hope it will streamline the patching process a bit so that we can have a regularly scheduled patch day. But I also realize that a PTR comes with all kinds of headaches, and it’s just another place for players to run amok and do things that will ultimately detract from the value of the game, the community, and the testing appearance. Here’s hoping the initial test group has as few trolls as possible.

      league of legends, News

      Xerath skill list announced

      September 29, 2011 /

      Xerath.

      Late last night Riot posted the skillset for Xerath, the next champion to be added to the League. As I mentioned previously, Riot has scrapped the “increased-mana-cost/power-per-cast” model for Xerath and instead turned him into a sort of mini-turret.

      Let’s take a look at the skills:

      Ascended Form (Passive): Xerath feeds on arcane power, making him increasingly resilient to physical harm. He converts a percentage of his Ability Power into Armor.

      Arcanopulse: Fires a long-range beam of energy, dealing magic damage to all targets hit.

      Locus of Power: Xerath anchors himself to source of magical power, increasing the range of all spells and granting him bonus % Magic Penetration. Although he is immobilized while Locus of Power is active, his movement speed increases upon disabling the ability.

      Mage Chains: Deals magic damage to an enemy and marks them with Unstable Magic. The next spell Xerath strikes this enemy with stuns them.

      Arcane Barrage: Calls down a blast of arcane energy, dealing magic damage to all enemies in an area. May be cast up to three times before going on cooldown.

      It’s a little strange to see a return to the gold-multiplier passive that we’ve seen on so many other characters, but hopefully the fact that he’s converting AP to armor will be better than the AP to HP we’ve seen in the past. I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts on this once I actually get my hands on him.

      Actually, that’s how I feel about essentially all of his skills. The descriptions are, as usual, a little vague. All we know at this point is that he’ll be highly durable and able to attack from extreme range. I’m definitely interested to see how Riot keeps it balanced, if it can be. I can see Rod of Ages being absolutely devastating on Xerath. If his base damage while outside of Locus of Power is too high, he’ll smash enemy DPS while still competing with enemy casters by using Locus of Power to avoid their spells. It’s a strange mix of abilities to give a caster.

      We should know more next week.

      Champions, Development, league of legends, News

      DotA 2 originally scheduled for year-long beta

      September 28, 2011 /

      The release of League of Legends: Dominion made me wonder what the other big players in the MOBA world have been up to, particularly the good people at Valve. Valve has always been known for the glacial pace of its development, but the word on the street was that DotA 2 would be out this year. Apparently that was never Valve’s plan.

      According to an official blog post made late last week, DotA 2 was originally slated for a year-long beta, beginning this fall. During that time, Valve was planning to slowly increase the number of available heroes until it matched the original title and only then would the game be released.

      It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which releasing DotA 2 a year from now would make any kind of sense. Granted, DotA players are a loyal breed, but the options for filling the MOBA need are ever-increasing. As Dominion has shown us, there are also emerging models for arena-style gameplay that stray from conventional base-killing. Also, why hold a high profile tournament for a game that won’t release for a full year? In short, DotA can’t keep MOBA players interested forever. Pushing that interest for another 12 months seems like a surefire way to kill the game.

      Luckily, Valve has changed its plans. The new schedule has DotA 2 coming out as soon as possible with the set of heroes that were playable in the International tourney. From there, Valve will be rolling out updates with more heroes along the way.

      Weirdly enough, I think their terrible initial plan will turn into a really smart release cycle. DotA 2 will be a tough change of pace for players who never played the original. Even veteran DotA players, like myself, might have trouble adjusting after being away from the game so long. That adjustment period is only compounded by the number of new champions and mechanics a player has to learn. By launching with a limited set of champions, DotA 2 will probably be much more approachable than the version we would otherwise see a year from now.

      DotA, News

      Xerath mechanics preview different from PC Gamer

      September 27, 2011 /

      The Xerath preview in the latest PC Gamer made him out to be a resource-management champion. Based on the latest info from Riot, though, it sounds like he’s really more of a hyper-range champion than anything else.

      Morello posted a mechanics preview of the new mage yesterday, which included a description of several of his skills. Xerath was described as a “howitzer” designed for “long barrages and sieging.” Anyone remember the days of sieging? Remember when it was called poking? Yeah, baby, those days are back.

      I think the design concept for Xerath sounds pretty cool, provided it takes a reasonable amount of skill to land and effectively use his spells. It’s always a great feeling to snipe a player with a cross-map Ashe or Ezreal ult, a feeling I’m hoping Xerath can recreate.

      From the sound of things, he’ll be dealing big AoE damage from afar. That could easily be something of a problem if his range/damage are too good. Even with the spell Locus of Power, which locks him in place for extended range and defensive penetration, I think we could see too many easy snipes without really sacrificing much in terms of mobility. Also, consider the kind of zoning a character with long-range burst could perform on Summoner’s Rift. If he’s the Caitlyn of AP carries, I think he’s probably going to have some balance issues.

      I would be interested to see a character with Xerath’s mechanics have a minimum cast range. Imagine if you couldn’t hit players that were right on top of you, but had to play from a distance. That could be a very cool mechanic. With the prevalence of dash/mobility mechanics in the game, though, it could be really frustrating.

      I’m definitely intrigued by Xerath’s design direction so far. I’m hopeful he won’t be instaban OP, but it’s hard to imagine a way to make a character with his described skillset feel balanced. We’ll have to wait and see.

      Champions, Development, league of legends, News

      Xerath is the official name for Magus

      September 25, 2011 /

      You may remember leaks about a champion called “Magus” from the most recent issue of PC Gamer. Riot has released his official sneak peek, which includes his official name: Xerath, the Magus Ascendant.

      Here’s what little info was made available in PC Gamer:

      This caster champ, a being of pure energy, perfectly captures the feeling of uncontrollable power. He charges up energy with each spellcast, temporarily increasing the damage and cost of subsequent spells. Playing him will be a tricky balancing act between knowing when to open the floodgates and pour out your damage, and when you’re better off taking the slow-and-steady route.

      It sounds like all of his skills will function with the Kog’Maw/Kassadin ult-style of resource management. As each skill is cast it costs more resources but also deals out more damage. There is a lot of talk of energy in the description, though I’m honestly not sure how well that would work compared with mana system.

      Keep an eye out for more information on Xerath this week. Remember, though, Riot said it would be three weeks between Riven and the patch to follow her.

      Champions, Development, league of legends, News

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