Category: Reviews (Page 10 of 24)

      League of Shields: Locket of the Iron Solari

      February 1, 2012 /

      Locket of the Iron SolariToday’s patch introduced a new tank/support item called the Locket of the Iron Solari. I know supports have been complaining for a while that there aren’t enough support items. I have so little sympathy for them, mostly because I think the current version of support is really toxic to LoL as a game, that I’m sad to see Riot adding these kinds of items. That’s to say nothing of the fact that it adds yet another shield to a game in which shields already have huge presence. Hello survivability creep. How you doin?

      Here are the stats for the new item:

      +300 Health
      +35 Armor
      UNIQUE Aura: Nearby allied Champions gain 15 Health Regen per 5 seconds.
      UNIQUE Active: Shield yourself and nearby allies for 5 seconds, absorbing up to 50 (+10 per level) damage (60 second cooldown).

      I don’t think the shield is too big, and I will agree that as long as support is going to be a cornerstone of gameplay that they need to have more support options. This though? More survivability? I played a game today against a Galio/Janna combo. Janna built one of these early, which meant we could never get through the shields. At least with healing there is some counterplay; use ignite or an Executioner’s or play a champion with counter-healing. The only counterplay to shielding is more damage, but building more damage in an already tanky metagame isn’t really an option. The tanky DPS gets tankier and can deal out just as much pain as a carry buying damage items.

      What do you think? Is this a good thing for LoL or pushing survivability even higher than it needs to be?

      league of legends, Patches, Reviews

      Learning Invoker in DotA 2

      January 30, 2012 /

      Invoker.

      I was never an Invoker player. Something about constantly having to bring up his spell list and, frankly, a lack of real interest just kept me from learning him in any serious capacity. I could cast a couple spells, but for the most part I was just a bumbling fool, awkwardly trying to punch in commands with what felt like hooves. I miskeyed everything. I don’t know if I’m just more dexterous now or if the world of keyboard has changed so much, but I’m really interested in picking up Invoker.

      I know, I know. Everyone and his mother plays Invoker. It’s for good reason, though. Invoker is an insanely strong character, and by insanely strong I mean overpowered. His utility cannot be matched and he performs equally well on offense and defense. He’s also extremely mobile, has huge lane presence, excellent health regen, and a variety of AoE crowd control skills. Yeah, he’s a little strong, and naturally I want to play him.

      The best I can describe Invoker to anyone who hasn’t played DotA is that he’s like a game of Magicka within a MOBA. He requires the player to input combos for spells which are then “invoked” to be selected. At any given time, Invoker can have two skills queued up. Each skill has its own cooldown, so once cast, he can switch to invoke another spell, cycling through as often as necessary. Once he has a decent item farm, his only limitations are the cooldown of his invoke power and the cooldowns of each of his spells.

      He also diverges from the standard stat system by employing three orbs that he can change to affect his stats. Quas, his first stat, gives him health regen and bonus strength. Wex, his second stat, gives him attack speed, move speed, and bonus agility. Exort, his third stat, gives him damage and bonus intelligence. The stat bonuses are permanent, but the qualities he gains from each orb vary depending on what he has active at the time. It’s a crazy system that ends up playing very dynamically on the field.

      I’m having an absolute blast learning how to play him – kind of reminds me of the first time Shaco really clicked for me in League.

      Reviews

      Morello offers up design direction

      December 1, 2011 /

      Orianna.

      A couple days ago, Morello took the time to write out some thoughts on design direction for the future of LoL. It sounds to me like Riot has some good ideas, but there are a few issues built into the design direction that I find important.

      Here’s the most relevant part of Morello’s post:

      So while a player’s first few games with a new champion should make sense and they can get to “I didn’t completely -suck-” in these few games, we want the “do well/own” portion to come in with more practice, mastery, and understanding the champion’s little idiosyncratic deatils that makes you a great player compared to an average player.

      Love it. Absolutely love it. This is why I really liked Orianna on release. She was fun, but challenging – a whole new way of thinking about the game. Since her release there haven’t been any similar champions, but I’m glad to know there may be more coming down the pike.

      Morello calls this kind of design “optimized nuance.” It’s great for the game, but it needs to have a place, and nuance isn’t really what League is about right now, at least not at my ELO. Right now the game is about safety. That’s what the massive health pools and the support lanes are all about. Safety.

      The good news is, if Morello really wants to introduce optimized nuance, he’ll have to also change up the metagame, and that’s a very desirable design direction.

      Reviews

      Graves skill list announced

      October 12, 2011 /

      Graves in-game.

      The skill list for Graves was officially announced in a post that also included some in-game screenshots. I’m really excited for Graves. His in-game model looks absolutely awesome, his skills remind me of Dwarven Sniper from DotA, and I think his skillset looks to be somewhat interesting. I think my big concern is that he’ll have to be too close to deal real damage and he won’t have the survivability to keep up.

      Let’s take a look at the skillset:

      Buckshot: Graves fires three bullets in a cone damaging all enemies in the projectiles path. Enemies at close range can be hit by multiple projectiles, but each one beyond the first will deal reduced damage.

      Smokescreen: Graves fires a smoke canister at the target area that deals damage and creates a cloud of smoke. Enemies inside the smoke cloud have reduced sight range and movement speed.

      Quickdraw: Graves dashes forward gaining an attack speed boost for several seconds. Attacking enemies lowers the cooldown of this skill.

      Collateral Damage (Ultimate): Graves fires an explosive shell dealing heavy damage to the first target it hits. After hitting a champion or reaching the end of its range the shell explodes dealing damage in a cone behind the target.

      True Grit (Passive): Graves gains increasing armor and magic resistance the longer he remains in combat.

      I can’t say that Graves has the most original skillset in the game, but it does seem to synergize well. He can dash to get in close, use Smokescreen and Buckshot for some AoE damage, get in a few attacks, and probably dash back out depending on the cooldown for Quickdraw. His ultimate seems to be focused around an AoE metagame. I’m not thrilled about the way the skill works – there are a nearly infinite number of reasons the AoE splash will miss, even if you’ve taken the time to line up your target, but hopefully it will at least be enough bonus damage to bring down the occasional secondary target.

      I’m curious to see how Smokescreen works. My guess is it will be a slightly limited version of Nocturne’s ult, which is kind of interesting. I’m not in love with the mechanic when it’s a global cast, but as a limited range skill that can affect just one or two targets it actually sounds nice.

      Reviews

      Season 1 Rewards and the Importance of Achievemnts

      August 31, 2011 /

      As the end of Season One approaches, players have been scrambling to rank up for rewards. I’ve been in the mix myself, finally pushing through and securing gold late last night. It was challenging, but that also made it fun, and as a result I’m going to get some rewards. The funny thing, for me anyway, is that I don’t care much about the rewards. I’m not a Jarvan player. I don’t post on the forums much, if at all, but the simple fact that there is a reward associated with a tangible goal made the journey toward that goal a lot more compelling.

      There was also an interesting side effect, which is where the whole “importance of achievements” thing comes in. As my rating edged closer to the 1520 mark for gold status, players were more helpful and level-headed. Granted, this is some circumstantial evidence, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to suggest that the attitude adjustment is due to the fact that players have a common goal beyond just winning.

      It’s rare that I play with people who don’t want to win, but there’s really very little incentive to winning beyond, well, just winning. The ELO grind really didn’t mean anything. Players at every ELO rank complain that the players in that bracket are noobs and trolls. There’s also the fact that ELO is an endless grind. I can hit 1800 but what then? More games? Maybe make it to 1900? Maybe fall back down to 1600? There is no tangible reward other than bragging rights to make the ELO grind interesting.

      This Season One reward is nothing more than an achievement system, and for me it worked pretty well. I know there are still a lot of players struggling with ELO hell, but let me reiterate this – getting out of ELO hell won’t make your games that much better. There will still be trolls. There will still be feeders. There will still be games you just can’t carry. I don’t think you’ll see a real shift in player attitude until Riot gives us something more than just a win and a ranking to worry about.

      Editorial, league of legends, Reviews

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