Category: PC (Page 5 of 18)

      LoL: Mordekaiser sneak peak

      February 18, 2010 /

      MordekaiserByronicHero dropped by the forums to give us another teaser for the weekend. This time, it’s a new champion by the name of Mordekaiser. He appears to be something like a death knight, covered in plate and wielding a giant spiked mace. Though there’s no official word on his skillset, the community has done some digging in the game files to find out what it could.

      The abilities are funny in that they’re all heavy metal themed. His passive, Iron Man, converts 20% of the damage he deals from abilities into a shield that absorbs incoming damage (whaddaya know, another damage mitigation skill). His Q ability is called Mace of Spades and deals attack damage plus bonus damage to 3 targets. If the target is alone, the damage is doubled. It’s pretty much an exact replica of Pantheon’s Heartseeker Strike. His W skill, called Creeping Death, is a targeted ally shield (increased armor and MR) that deals damage to nearby opponents. His E skill, Siphon of Destruction, is another cone damage spell that charges his shield based on the damage he deals. His ultimate, Children of the Grave, leeches life by percentage from an enemy target. If the target dies while under the effect, it follows Mordekaiser around granting him half of that champion’s ability power, attack damage, and health, though the ghost is unable to attack.

      I’m pretty turned off by his similarity to Pantheon. I think Pantheon is in a great spot and will obviously improve if he gets some of the suggested buffs. That leaves Mordekaiser feeling like they really wanted to build a heavy metal toon so this is what we get. It’s also hard to understand why the character development team is churning out new champs when so many other toons need fixing. TF is still grossly overpowered, even when the big nerfs he’s getting on the Test Realm. If different departments handle creation and balance, it’s time to give the balance team some of creation’s man hours.

      I’ll probably still play this guy, especially if he looks as big and badass as he seems. I just wish I understood the development strategy here.

      Development, league of legends, News, PC

      LoL: What’s the Nidalee consensus?

      February 17, 2010 /

      Nidalee.Phreak dropped by the forums today to ask for a little feedback on Nidalee. I was pretty interested in the topic, mostly because I think Nidalee occupies a very weird spot in the LoL spread of champions. She’s definitely a support toon, but she’s capable of carrying a team to victory and utterly terrifying in any 1v1 situation. The most surprising part of the discussion? People think she’s balanced.

      I don’t have huge gripes about Nidalee, just minor issues that I think could be tweaked. The real problem I see is that Nidalee can fill every gap a team may have. She heals (one of the most mana efficient in the game), has map awareness, provides a great pushing buff, has incredible escapability and, as such, is one of the best chasers in the game. Add to it all that cat form is excellent for farming with virtually zero consequence and you have a champion that feels far from balanced. It’s not that any of these in and of itself is OP, but that giving them all to a single character results in a team slot that heavily tips the scales. Consider a well played Nidalee versus a well played Nasus (support DPS) or Morgana (support DPS/CC) and I think you’ll find she offers most of the other’s benefits, with the exception of snare/slow, plus a whole lot more.

      You can find the full contents of the post in the general discussion forums.

      Development, league of legends, PC

      LoL: Support Runes

      February 17, 2010 /

      Support rune page.As my ELO has improved it’s become increasingly important to have a good mix of tank, support, and DPS on a team. I’m plenty willing to fill that role for my team, so I like to have a good rune page to support it. The problem is, I like to play a lot of different toons, so I like my rune pages to be applicable to just about anyone. That’s a tough thing to pull off for support, but here’s what I’m working with.

      For now, I focus on CD reduction and a little mana regen and some armor. The last is because I was playing an armor stack Rammus for a bit (lot of fun if you haven’t tried it – just make sure you itemize properly against mages). With my 9/0/21 mastery, I’m sitting at almost 20% cooldown reduction, which is great for someone like Alistar or Rammus. I tend to use this page for toons like Blitzcrank and Nasus if I’m playing support as well. The real frustration comes from the red runes. There just isn’t much that makes sense for a lot of toons. Most of the support/utility marks are such low percentages that spending the IP doesn’t make sense.

      I’ll probably continue to mess with various setups using Tier 1 or 2 runes, just to see what I like. I would hope for a mark buff, but I don’t think that’s very likely. What do you like to go for? Magic Resist? Armor? The scaling buffs?

      league of legends, PC, Strategy

      LoL: Twisted Treeline timeline

      February 17, 2010 /

      Twisted Treeline.When I opened the announcement forums and saw the words “Twisted” and “Timeline” next to one another I was ecstatic. Finally there was some news about the 3v3 map that we’ve long awaited. You know how this ends, though. There is no timeline, no new information. Just a nostalgic look at how far the map has come (which could actually be a good sign that it’s coming fairly soon).

      It’s a fun read, and it does give me hope that we’ll see the new map by the time Spring rolls around. As I’ve said many times on this blog, I primarily play with two friends – we’re looking forward to the map for obvious reasons.

      There is at least one more change to be made before the map is quite ready. Here’s the teaser for that change from the original post:

      The Twisted Treeline originally envisioned needed a lot of work to bring it in line with the goals of the Design Team. In order to balance it to be on equal footing across the various champion types, to allow for multiple opening strategies, and to keep the game length under control, many different aspects of the map required extensive tweaking from the original design. Ultimately, the Twisted Treeline of today is a very different place than the one that debuted on October 21st, 2009.

      And there’s more to come! The Design Team has authorized me to tease you all with the promise of at least one more, game changing feature that they intend to pull from their proverbial bag of tricks. Stay tuned!

      Source: LoL Forums

      Development, league of legends, News, PC

      LoL: Snowballing and its eventual nerf

      February 15, 2010 /

      Morgana's about to get ganked.We’ve all been on the receiving end of a good old-fashioned beat down at one time or another. The other team bangs out a couple early kills and suddenly you and your teammates are stuck 3 levels down and your towers are getting steamrolled.

      This situation happens frequently enough that Riot is looking at ways to change it. According to a post from Zileas, they’re trying to discourage the 5-man roam that has become so popular. Here’s his post:

      Our philosophy on this issue is that individual snowballing is good, and team snowballing is bad. Right now, team snowballing occurs too much — one super carry twitch is a lot easier to handle than 5 guys who are 3 levels higher than each of you.

      We are going to make some experience table tweaks to reduce team snowballing without hurting individual snowballing much. We are also going to make a new 3 lane map that is larger, has less cross-map connectivity (so that there is higher cost to 5 man roam, and less shutdown of the farming/laning phase via the first tower being down), etc.

      We probably will nerf flash.

      We wont be nerfing snowball items. Emotional highs from the game you super carried make this genre sticky. We removed it too much in the beta, and it cost us. Sorry, but being super carry annie or super carry corki once in a while gets a player through the 8 defeat in a row streak they hit the next day.

      I’m on the fence about early gold for kills. It’s been something we have been talking about, for the reason you cite. OF course, an early kill is also harder than a late kill.

      I can appreciate the thought behind this, though I worry about the pace of the game. The roaming gank squad has already taken its toll on pace. I’ve had a number of games recently where safe play from both sides led to more than 20 minutes without a death. Discouraging ganking seems like it will just make the laning phase that much longer and more painful. There are plenty of games in which I feel like losing my outer turret is the best thing that could happen because it breaks me out of the laning mentality. I realize that this is the point – to keep people from leaving lane – but that’s where the fun of the game is.

      If anything, I think the best solution is the 3-lane map with less interconnectivity. That at least gives you the option to farm a lane once the tower is down with some potential for intra-lane ganking so long as there are enough hiding spots.

      What do you think? Are there too many games in which snowballing is a serious problem or are you okay with the 5-man roam?

      league of legends, PC, Strategy

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