Category: Strategy (Page 5 of 8)

LoL: Gragas buff is on the way

February 4, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

If you’ve played any games as Gragas you’ve probably felt pretty underwhelmed. I know I have. Generally, I like to give a new toon a chance to shine, but Gragas really can’t, and it comes down to his lack of internal synergy.

I realize that sounds like something from a Six Sigma retreat on 30 Rock so I’ll try to clarify. Gragas suffers because his skills are a weird mix of AP and physical damage. While some at Riot contend that he does best with a health/physica DPS build, the player community is frustrated with where that puts his AP scaling skills, most notably Barrel Roll and his ultimate.

Luckily, Riot has seen the light. Gragas will soon be receiving a buff per red posts on the forums. I’ll be interested to see how much, though. As it stands I think he’s fine for the early game, but he really suffers mid to late. Buff him the wrong way and suddenly he’s too big early and starts to feel just right late.

For what they got wrong with Gragas, they got completely right with Pantheon. I am completely in love with that Spartan bastard.

league of legends, News, PC, Strategy

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LoL: Avoid your matchmaking woes

February 3, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

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

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LoL: Adaptive play

January 31, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

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

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LoL: Learning the tanks

January 30, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

In my opinion there are very few pure tanks in League of Legends. A lot of characters can tank, but that doesn’t make them the best for the position. Tanking is also a bit of a strange concept in LoL because there isn’t an aggro mechanic forcing players to attack the thickest guy on the team. Tanks do pose significant threat to a team, though, not because of their damage output but because of their control skills.

Take Alistar, for instance. If the opposing team is rushing your inhibitor turret with Alistar at the forefront, do you try to focus him down while the rest of the team is out of range, or do you let him beat on the tower and focus the weaker targets, hoping he won’t land a crucial headbutt combo? As negligible as his damage may seem, he can quickly put you in a bad situation.

When I see a tank played well it makes me want to tank. Since I’ve been seeing a lot of solid Alistar players lately, I decided to give him a shot. In my first game I had a lot of trouble. I was blowing through mana, despite my manipulator and a few regen runes. What it all came down to was an overuse of skills, particularly for the item build.

Playing a tank is all about picking the situation. Despite your thick exterior, smart play and attentive farming still works best. With Alistar I focus on last hitting exclusively until level 5 or so, stepping in and out of the brush to keep control of the lane. From there it’s just lending support to your carries. Keep building toward survivability until you’re meaty enough to take a solid beating from a couple opponents. When you’re headed for towers, don’t be afraid to rush in and smack the tower while your teammates handle your opponent. That’s the paradox a tank presents to an opponent. Do they deal with you, in which case you can blow your mitigation skills and back up to prep for some control, or do they let you continue to beat down the tower and try to deal with your opponents.

As with all things in this game, discretion is best. If you’re picking your fights wisely, using lane position and teammates to your advantage, and saving your mitigation skills for moments you truly need them, you should be just fine. From there, it’s all about experience.

league of legends, Strategy

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LoL Guide: Twisted Fate

January 28, 2010 / Jeff Morgan

This week’s free rotation includes Twisted Fate, a character I cut my teeth on, so it seemed appropriate to throw together a quick guide for anyone interested in giving him a shot. Fate has one of the best skill sets in the game and is capable of completely dominating a lane and eventually a team. In the right hands, he can easily swing a game himself.

MasteriesRunes
There are a lot of different ways you can go with this. I would recommend CD reduction and mana regen or CD reduction and ability power. With 9% CD reduction from masteries, a mere 6% in your runes means you have capped CD reduction with golem buff. It is very easy to get golem with TF, so I don’t rune for more than 6%. I would avoid spell penetration if only because it’s so easy to break people down without the extra help. Having more mana is never a bad thing, though.

Playstyle
Twisted Fate’s strength comes in his ability to instantly outnumber the opponent. His third skill, Gate, when cast with his ultimate, Destiny, becomes a 1.5 second teleport to any location on the map. Your focus at every stage of the game should be unbalancing the other team, creating highly undesirable situations from what would normally have been an even fight.

If you haven’t yet mastered the Pick a Card skill, create a practice game, sit at fountain and practice. You should be able to hit a Gold Card 100% of the time during practice, which will greatly increase your chances in the middle of a fight. By the end of the game, a crit Gold Card can hit for as much as 50% of your opponent’s life, so get used to picking it. Continue reading »