Category: News (Page 45 of 108)

Rumble Champion Spotlight is out

April 26, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

The Rumble spotlight went live last night and, though I really wanted to dump all of my impressions out at midnight, I decided to wait until today to hopefully give a more balanced look at the League’s new champion. I’m not sure it worked. Rumble seems like the worst parts of the tanky meta all rolled into one little bundle.

First of all, the shield thing has got to stop. Rumble not only gets a damage shield, which likely scales with AP, he also gets a movement speed boost with it, and it’s on a crazy short cooldown. At level 7 Phreak’s shield had a 5 second cooldown. Granted, it didn’t look like it shielded much, but 5 seconds? Yuck.

Rumble also appears to be able to abuse the minion aggro AI in lane because he can cast so often. Minions typically don’t aggro on champions if they’re using spells on one another, an issue typically balanced by the fact that lane casters are fairly squishy. Still, you already know some frustrating exceptions to this rule. Mordekaiser, for instance, can dish out a lot of champion damage without taking aggro from minions because he’s dealing spell damage. The same seems to be true for Rumble, which will be extremely frustrating for the softer characters in lane.

I’ll be interested to see how he actually plays in game. For right now, I’m worried Riot has added yet another bruiser class character to the game, even if he relies on spell damage to bring down opponents.

Champions, league of legends, News, Patches, Video

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Champ of the Week: Karthus

April 25, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

It’s Monday, which means it’s time for a new Champ of the Week. I was thinking about rolling with one of the remade champions from tomorrow’s patch, but I think I want to have a champion to play that won’t be getting picked quite as often as those champions are likely to. With that in mind, I’ve chosen Karthus as this week’s Champ of the Week.

Karthus currently holds a very strange position in the game – he’s one of few champions that can provide almost as much value dead as he can alive. In fact, I’ve seen some Karthus players use death as a viable carry strat. They allow themselves to be focused so that the teamfight happens on top of their dead body. Once dead, they cast like mad, dropping that humongous ult in the middle of five opponents. It can be seriously devastating.

I have a problem with the concept of global ults in general. So much of the game is knowing how to position yourself – when to run, when to fight, when it’s good to leave lane and help your teammates survive a gank. Global ults circumvent that knowledge requirement, allowing players to be more sloppy with their play.

With the advent of Deathcap, Karthus poses an even bigger threat. His ult has a pretty awesome AP ratio, which Deathcap obviously takes advantage of. Dealing 700-900 damage to an entire team before the fight starts can be catastrophic. If the teamfight then happens on top of Karthus, well, it’s probably game over.

I’ll be focusing on the ways Karthus affects the game, mostly at the early and middle game – I think we all know what he can do late game. I’ll also be taking a look at his best build. Is just rushing all out AP best for that big ult or is some sort of utility a better service to the team. At the very least, it’s going to take some time for me to get used to mouseover casting again.

Champ of the Week, league of legends, News

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Patch Preview shows off Alistar, Fiddlesticks, Gangplank reworks

April 24, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

The patch preview for next week is live, giving us a look at what’s in store for several of the game’s most neglected champions. Alistar, Fiddlesticks, and Gangplank are all due for reworks this week, all of which should be significant improvements on their respective playstyles.

If you follow Guinsoo on Twitter, you know the Alistar remake has been in the works for several months. A few times it even looked like it was patch ready and then got pulled. Basically the changes will give Alistar a lot more farming potential as well as a few more ways to use his skills that aren’t so Flash dependent. I’m really excited about this remake – Alistar was such a cornerstone of LoL at launch that it has been tough to see him slip into obscurity.

Fiddlesticks is basically having his damage normalized, which is exactly what he needs. His early healing has been nerfed a touch, but with an armor buff to keep his jungling strength. His Dark Wind bounces 5 times at all levels and now has scaling damage, which should improve his presence in both lane and coming from jungle, and Crowstorm has been rebalanced to account for the damage shift. Again, I’m really excited about the changes. I was a huge Fiddlesticks fan for a very long time. A little consistency will go a long way for him.

Lastly, there’s Gangplank. Plank has long been a problematic champion for Riot. He’s randomly bursty, has the only deny in the game (which is absolutely broken in some situations), and has a hugely unreliable ultimate. Pretty much all of that is being addressed with the patch, which I can only imagine will mean good things for the champion. He’ll be able to make better use of Raise Morale, his ult is much less of a guessing game, and his Parrrley shouldn’t be quite such a gamble. Again, excited to see this play out.

Champions, Development, league of legends, News, Patches

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Fiddlesticks remake in the works

April 21, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

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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.

Champions, Development, league of legends, News

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Rumble ability list announced

April 21, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

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.