Category: PC (Page 8 of 18)

      LoL: Avoid your matchmaking woes

      February 3, 2010 /

      Annie nuking Morgana.No, this is not a post to encourage queue dodging. This is not a rant about matchmaking. It’s just a quick little guide on getting the most enjoyment from the game, particularly if you’re new and want to play with some friends.

      For starters, I’ve been in this situation a lot lately. I have two friends with whom I regularly run arranged team games. One is over level 20 while the other is in his high teens. Unfortunately, our pairing makes it difficult to find a team of similar level/skill. Some games we get stomped, the others we do the stomping. Out of five games this evening we only had one that was at all close. Here’s how Riot explained the situation to another user on the forums who was experiencing similar difficulty:

      I am going to strongly advocate that you start a practice game for you and your friends until he gets a better command of the game. By grouping with him in MM on one of his first games you’re presenting matchmaking with a decision:

      1) Either place players of level 13+ into newbie island, where the level of play is appropriate to your friend’s skill level, but the two of you, as experience players will be extremely dominant.

      or

      2) Place your friend into the regular player pool, where it is going to attempt to match you against a similar premade. If there isn’t a premade of similar construction in MM, which is unlikely, given the level (and probably Elo) disparity between yourself and your friend who is brand new, you’re much more likely to end up with a mismatch.

      The key part of that post is “practice games.” You still get XP and IP, albeit at a reduced rate, but you can choose what level players you’ll see and whether or not you want to play. In my case, since we have 3, we can even premade some Twisted Treeline, which would be a lot of fun. It’s not a bad way to get around landsliding in matchmaking and the more people that look in that practice queue, the easier it will be to find games.

      league of legends, PC, Strategy

      LoL: Is top 500 play worth it?

      February 1, 2010 /

      Anivia.I found an interesting post last night that asked what it takes to be a top-tier player. The consensus is that somewhere around 50 games over .500 you’ll start to see names from the top 500 player list, provided you’ve played a couple hundred games. I’m not quite to that 50+ mark, but I know from the way my losses go that I could get there if I was willing to play someone like TF or Twitch repeatedly to carry teams over the edge. For me, though, it’s just not worth it.

      A big part of the reason I play LoL is for the competition. After graduating college it has only gotten harder to put together a competitive game of basketball or volleyball. Most of the time pickup games degenerate into friendly matches among less-than-fit friends. It’s not a bad thing, but it doesn’t fulfill that competitive desire. There are rare occasions, though, when a friend brings a friend and suddenly we have a really solid game going.

      LoL is the same way for me. When I have those 70-80 minute games I have a blast, but they are the exception. Most of the time I’m watching teammates feed 1-5 and leave (happened to me like 25 minutes ago) or try an AP Gangplank build because a friend said the ults were lolrape. So much of the competition in this game is out of my hands that I’m content to be happy with the good games and just try to play well for myself in the bad ones.

      There is one thing that could change my mind: matchmaking. I know everyone is always bitching about it in the forums, but this is really the thing that keeps me from caring about top 500 play. In the past week I’ve been paired with players under level 15 on multiple occasions. I’ve been level 30 for at least a month now with more than 400 games under my belt. These aren’t smurf accounts either, where players have boosted ELO by trashing new players. These are players who, like the aforementioned, try building Ashe for AP (not kidding, this has happened to me) or spend 15 minutes building a Heimer turret nest in a remote patch of brush and then luring the overleveled opponent and promptly dying (again, actually happened). As long as I’m getting paired with this type of player there is no incentive to get to higher play. The landslide will likely be that much worse, if only because higher tier players are better at exploiting the unskilled.

      I’m also put off by the method for achieving the ELO necessary for top tier play. When I first started, I played a lot of TF. He was fun, felt strong, and helped me win a lot of games. I’ve since stopped, mostly because it just isn’t enjoyable for me to exploit a broken toon for gain. I really do like a challenge, and nothing about his playstyle feels challenging to me. The same can be said for Twitch, who can easily roll over a team with very little farm. For me, it’s not a fun way to play (okay, every now and again it’s pretty fun), and if the end result is bad matchmaking of a higher order, I’m going to stick to playing toons I enjoy.

      league of legends, PC

      LoL: Adaptive play

      January 31, 2010 /

      Annie nuking Nunu.I woke up this morning and decided to fire off a few solo queue matches to get the day started. I’ve been playing a lot of Shaco lately, mostly crit damage builds, and I’ve been pretty successful. For the most part I’d say my success has come as a result of other players’ negligence – standing in lane at half health with a crit shaco is guaranteed death for most champions. This morning was different. I lost four matches in a row.

      I’m not the type to place blame where it’s not due, but I think it’s fair to say that my team was failing to adapt. In my third matchup we were playing against all magic dealers. They had an AP Shaco, a Morgana, a Karthus, and two others I can’t recall. First thing I said to my team was “Magic resist guys.” It’s a simple solution to a burst damage team. Sure, they’re probably going to knock down a tower or two before your resists can catch up to the damage, but by the 25 minute mark, you should be able to fight back fairly easily.

      That didn’t happen. While everyone agreed on getting resists, my four teammates rushed their favorite item build. Tanks were building for armor, our Ashe was rushing Inifinity, and so on and so on. You can imagine how well it went. Along with the strong pushing power, my team was dying…a LOT. We surrendered at 25.

      Obviously solo queue is part of the problem, but there’s also the simple fact that people don’t adapt enough. They read a new build online and think every game is the appropriate place to try it out. You should be ready and willing to change your plans from the very first item. Waiting till you get that Zeal or Soulstealer could easily be the difference between a win and a loss. That 1200g is a major setback, particularly if you won’t make much use of it. Instead, get yourself a Negatron cloak and build for something like a Banshee’s. That extra survivability will allow you to stay in lane longer, giving you better farm and the defense to keep your turrets alive.

      league of legends, PC, Strategy

      LoL: The stages of the game

      January 27, 2010 /

      Nunu gets some alone time.The two friends that got me interested in League of Legends weren’t Dota players. We had known each other through mutual friends and eventually through WoW and it was just something they decided to pick up. Over the past month or so we’ve been playing together more often, but it was just the other night that one had his epiphany, that moment where you realize something about the game you’ve been trying to put into words for days, even weeks: stages.

      We had talked before about the importance of managing what most consider the three stages of the game: early, mid, and late. That was easy enough. The revelation had more to do with individual heroes. If you’re new to the game you may be struggling with the difference between characters – some can gank early, some take a while to farm up, some take a lot of work to be viable at every stage of the game. It’s a simple thing to conceptualize but much more difficult to put into practice.

      Consider a toon like Nunu. As far as difficulty, he’s pretty low on the scale. You run in, you snowball, you hit a few times, you snowball again, you see friends, you blow Absolute Zero, you watch your team mop up your kills. Nunu is great at harassing early, largely because of his crazy health pool. Try that with Yi, though, and you’re going to get rocked by creep aggro and likely die several painful deaths early on. He requires more farm before he’s truly dangerous, and even then he’s pretty smushy.

      The point is this – every hero has a different game cycle and it’s something you need to weigh heavily when strategizing against the other team. Take your time to farm properly if you’re a late gamer or a mage. Harass hard if you have the HP to do so to keep the other team underleveled. Gank heavily mid-game so your farm toon can have a solid late game. And by all means, change your strategy for each toon. The variety of playstyles is part of the beauty of this game. Play to your individual character’s strengths and you’ll be able to increase that gap between your wins and losses.

      league of legends, PC, Strategy

      LoL: Power of the push

      January 26, 2010 /

      Nexus go boom.Yesterday’s post was about the importance of team coordination and the simple fact that playing a premade can save you a lot of headaches. Today, I wanted to cover something that’s easy to overlook in a game you’re dominating: pushing.

      You probably know the story well. You drew a good lanemate and the gods that be have matched you against a scrubby Twitch. Within ten minutes your team has ten kills to the other team’s one and you have all the outer turrets pushed. You would keep ganking but your opponent has virtually disappeared off the map, appearing only to defend a tower. Before you know it you’re 35 minutes into what looked like a quick surrender, and you’re starting to get pushed back. A few of your teammates got greedy and lost some killing spree gold to enemy turrets. By 45 minutes, you’re staring a loss in the face and there’s little to be done. Communication has completely broken down and your team is dying in groups of two or three, leaving the towers sorely lacking defense. By 55 minutes it’s a blowout, and you’re stuck wondering how the game turned on you and blaming anyone with a name you can quickly type.

      This is probably the most frustrating loss in the game, and it’s really a symptom that separates the good teams from the bad. Regardless of how well your early game went, you need to keep pushing, intelligently. The reason your team got ahead in the early game was smart play. You weren’t tower diving for kills. You weren’t lingering in lane with five MIAs. You were playing smart, and you need to continue to do so to win the game.

      Most teams that suffer this sort of loss neglect the three lane dynamic. They’ll constantly push one lane while the others are driven to their own towers. Then, if the push fails, the other team turns to capitalize on the death timer. Pushing inner turrets takes planning. If you see two teammates about to cross river mid for inner turret, push bottom up. When the other team attempts to defend, they’ll likely defend with 2-3 against the smaller force. That’s when you collapse with your remaining three teammates and push that mid inner turret. If your opponent sends all 5 to defend that mid tower, have your teammates retreat while you continue to push bottom and take a chunk out of the turret. Remember, the only turrets that regenerate are at the Nexus, so any damage done is progress.

      If you find the other team is trying to turtle, focusing on team wipes to stay in the game, get out into the woods. Get yourself some buffs and take dragon down. If your opponent is particularly cautious, don’t be afraid to take Baron. When you’re ready, push with 3-4 teammates in one lane while the others do the same in a separate lane. The pronged attack forces the weaker team to split up, increasing their disadvantage.

      Whatever the case, don’t give up an early lead because you were greedy for kills. You got the lead by playing smart and, as your ELO rises, you can only hope to keep that lead by sustaining that intelligent playstyle.

      league of legends, PC, Strategy

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