Category: PC (Page 4 of 18)

LoL: My first experience with the queue dodge penalty

February 26, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

The patch a few days back brought along one of the most undesirable things I’ve seen in League of Legends: queue dodge penalties. I’ve written enough about the semantics that you should have a feel for how it works. As a quick overview, your first dodge gets you an advertised 3-minute ban from joining queue. The next dodge is 10 minutes, with a reset 8 hours from the initial ban. Here’s how it really works.

This afternoon I queued up with a friend for a quick game. For whatever reason he didn’t join queue when I did. Instead, he was stuck at the invite screen for Arranged Team. By the time he asked if I was in queue, the game had popped. It showed him at champ select but on his screen he was still at the AT invite screen. He hit cancel and got dumped back to the home page. Instead of staying in queue and forcing him to relog, reconnect, and deal with whatever random hero he got, I dodged.

On relog we tried to queue only to be greeted by the new leaver screen that pops up over the client with a timer that counts down your penalty. Our timer? 5:14. I haven’t take math since my freshman year of college but that seems like slightly more than three minutes. Luckily we didn’t have the same problem, but I will say, I’m fairly annoyed by the fact that this isn’t functioning as advertised and that I was penalized because of a client error over which I had zero control. The more interaction I have with this new system, including the fact that dodging is till extremely common, the harder it is to believe that Riot actually pushed this through. There are so many reasons for a game to fall apart in queue that penalizing the process seems arbitrary and absurd.

I hope to god Riot realizes just how bad this system is and fixes it soon, but my guess is they won’t. It took a poll in the forums about Champ Select AFKers for someone from Riot to take interest in any opinion that doesn’t penalize queue dodging. This could have easily been considered prior to the patch. Now we get to sit back and watch as the company tries to clean up. It’s going to be a rough couple of weeks.

league of legends, PC

dodge penalty dodgers dodging lol queue dodge queue dodge penalty queue dodging riot

Blizzard still wants to release SC II in the first half of the year

February 26, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

Depending who you ask, Starcraft II has been in development as long as 10 years. The game finally entered closed beta earlier this month, which is hopefully a sign that we will see it go to print before the end of the year. Blizzard is staying optimistic as far as timetable is concerned. The latest Blizzcast included Chris Sigaty, production director for the game, who said they were shooting for first half of the year for release.

“We were targeting three to five months for the beta, we’re really at a three month period of time for the beta at this point. We are still targeting the first half of this year, so with that in mind, it really shortens the window of time with our major content patch coming out pretty close to the end whether it’s even worth it putting out the map editor at that point.”

The map editor is one of the things that has everyone all hot in the pants, but it wouldn’t be so bad not to have it at release. Just remember, you’d be playing StarCraft II. Are you really going to get hung up on a map editor?

Source: Blizzcast Ep. 13

Activision, Development, PC, Strategy

betas blizzard blizzard rts sc2 scii starcraft 2 starcraft 2 beta starcraft II

LoL: Rolling with Jax

February 25, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

With yesterday’s Jax buffs you can bet you’ll be seeing a lot more of the lamppost-wielding master at arms. The changes made him much more viable for competitive play, but he still requires a skilled player to truly dominate a game. I lost a few games in a row as Jax today, in part because my teammates couldn’t quite figure out how to complement the Jax playstyle. He is very different, so I’ve put together this quick guide to help you get the most from any Jax you might lane with.

As with most melee carries, Jax is most effective when he’s fighting. He really starts to shine, though, when someone is attacking him back. This is especially important to consider early game, when one stun can be the difference between a kill and a death. If specced and runed, Jax can have nearly 20% dodge at level one with Counter Strike. If you see him engage an enemy, especially a physical damage dealer, get in there with him. Chances are he’ll have a Counter Strike stun within the first 2-3 hits.

The same is true for the rest of the game. By level 6, Jax can easily have 30% dodge or more if he gets his Ninja Tabi, and it improves, albeit with diminishing returns, from there. If you see Jax engage and you are confident it will be an even fight or better in your favor by numbers, fight. His damage output is huge, and with his dodge chance and stun, you should both walk away in the end. The one exception is two casters, like an Annie/Ryze combo. Without silence, you’re both probably dead.

For the rest of the game, your best bet is to shut down casters early and often. Very few players can withstand Jax and a friend, and once you reach a certain farm level, meeting Jax one on one is guaranteed death.

There is one situation in particular that I feel needs covered because it happened to me several times today and it is infuriating to watch. If you have a Zilean on your team, consider that he can use his ult offensively. It is not just a tool to help you get away from an ignite or a poison. Jax is a great target for Zilean ult because he is very high damage and has to get in the mix to be a threat. If Zilean throws his ult on Jax, blow all of your cooldowns on as many enemies as you can see. They’ll surely burn Jax when he jumps in, but if you’ve done enough damage, he can pop up in the center of the scrum and wreak havoc.

Jax is in a better spot than he’s ever been, but he requires an extremely aggressive playstyle to succeed. If you can support that style, you’ll probably have a lot of fun playing with him. If not, be ready for a long game, because you’ll need a lot of farm before he becomes effective.

league of legends, PC, Strategy

jax jax changes jax patch jax remake jax rework jax support lane combo laning new jax patch zilean

LoL: Gragas hasn’t made a comeback

February 25, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

In my post about today’s patch I neglected to mention the big changes made to Gragas. The barrel-tossing brute hasn’t been in many of my games since his release. The ones in which he’s appeared have typically resulted in a loss for his summoner’s record. He simply doesn’t cut it. Today, Riot tried to rectify that situation.

Gragas got a round of buffs and bug fixes to help him get his groove back. He now attacks faster, scales better, moves faster in Body Slam, his barrels roll faster, and his ultimate casts farther and hits a larger radius than before. Granted, it was just patch day, but I have yet to see him once.

I’ll admit, I’ve never played Gragas. I’m willing to bet, though, that his unpopularity comes from his feel. His spells aren’t very interesting, and for thick casters you can do a lot better. I’ll keep an eye out for Gragas sightings over the next few days but I’m willing to bet the buffs weren’t enough.

league of legends, News, PC, Strategy

gragas gragas buff gragas changes gragas nerf gragas sucks lol new champions new champs patch patch day

LoL: Learning to play mage

February 21, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

We’ve all been on the receiving end of an ability power beatdown, the kind where you can’t seem to leave your tower without getting insta-gibbed. There are few things that make me want to play mage more, but it’s not always a walk in the park. Mages walk a very fine line between blowing up the opponent and dying themselves because of low defense and a tiny health pool. Played well, though, mages can be very rewarding.

Playing a mage well requires you to plan further ahead than any other toon in the game. You should have a constant awareness of how much damage your skills will do by the number, not just how much you think you can pull off you enemy’s health bar. A Malphite at half health is very different from a Tristana at half health. For Malph, you have to break his shield before he actually takes damage. Trist, on the other hand, can jump away in most cases. Whichever you choose, you better be confident your spells can either take them down or hurt them badly enough that they’ll run. Part of being a mage is putting yourself into compromising positions for kills. If the kill doesn’t go off, be assured that you’re the next target.

If you’ve come up through the ranks playing mostly physical DPS toons or tanks, I would highly recommend making a smurf account to learn your mages. The playstyle is radically different from the other champions in the game, and learning at a high ELO can be difficult. Once you have a general feel for being the squishiest thing on the map, pick up a few games with friends before heading into the solo queue. The extra experience will give you the edge necessary to enjoy early success