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      Community unhappy with Kayle remake

      July 24, 2011 /

      Battleborn Kayle.

      If you’ve been on the forums over the weekend you’ve probably noticed the pile of threads about the Kayle “remake.” I use quotation marks because, c’mon, a new passive and some late game nerfs and we’re calling it a remake? This is what took six months? The majority of the community seems as unexcited as I am. I think there are a couple reasons.

      First, there is precious little to get excited about in the game right now. Everyone is waiting on Season 2 or waiting on Magma Chamber news, or waiting for something that changes gameplay in a significant way. The Kayle remake was at least something to get pumped up about in the interim. Even if it went well, though, it would just pull another champion into viability, which really doesn’t do a whole lot for the game’s longevity.

      I think the biggest reason people are upset with the remake is that it’s going to be very easy to make Kayle either under or overpowered but nearly impossible to balance her. The fact that she can heal, speed boost, and make herself invulnerable means her carry potential better be in the toilet, but Riot is trying to give her something like 75 percent carry, 75 percent support power. While I think the idea of condensing two roles onto one champion is a good one, I’m not sure the game supports the change, at least not in its current state.

      Supports are already a huge balance problem. Giving a support some carry power doesn’t resolve the issue, it makes things worse. Take away too much of Kayle’s damage, though, and she becomes horrendously unfun. She’s a terrible early game farmer as it is, which seems to point her toward support, but she doesn’t have the skills to truly support a team as needed.

      I think Riot would have done well to scrap her kit entirely, think about what they really liked about the kit and kept it, and then built a champion from there. Is a targeted nuke/slow really an exciting ability? No – scrap it. Same for her ranged skill and her passive, old or new. Now you’ve got a champion with a heal/speed boost and a potent shield. It’s a nice setup for teamfighting, but how do you make her enjoyable in lane? Working with her existing kit makes for a really lackluster buff to an already underplayed champion.

      Current Affairs, league of legends

      Kayle remake goes live next patch

      July 23, 2011 /

      Looks like the Kayle remake is finally set to go live with the next patch. Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel. I was a little disappointed at first because they aren’t changing much, but I also think Kayle has a kind of cool kit. She’s an odd champion for sure, and the update doesn’t make her any less odd.

      Her passive has been remade into an armor/MR shred, which should be better than her current passive. She’s getting some mana cost buffs and base damage buffs to compensate for some of her scaling, which also should be a good thing. My biggest frustration/misunderstanding with Kayle is why she can build Righteous Fury into an “always up” skill. Just make her ranged and balance her around that. It isn’t interesting in any way that she can only sometimes be ranged from levels 1-9. Give her range and give her some balance around that.

      I’m curious to see how the remake will play out, though. Honestly, I think most of the spotlight was education about the way Kayle works. Most people don’t know when to use Intervention, which is a big part of what makes her strong. Now that they know, will we see Kayle in the support lane?

      Development, league of legends, News, Patches

      Is tournament play killing LoL?

      July 22, 2011 /

      LoL Tournaments.

      For my Champ of the Week features I always try to play a mix of normal and ranked games because I think it’s important to see how each champion plays in the different environments. In my experience, ranked games tend to be a bit more focused – teams attempt to pick solid team comps, fill each of the roles, and at least someone on the team will try to ward and control dragon. Normal games are a bit less organized – I see very little warding, team comp is kind of all over the place, and map control isn’t as important as getting kills. On the whole, I think normal games tend to be much more fast paced and much more fun, but that’s been changing and I think the tournaments are to blame.

      Lately my normal games have been against focused players with tournament comps. I just got out of a game against a Rammus/Anivia/Xin Zhao/Lee Sin/Soraka. Was it a perfect comp? No, but it was way out of my team’s league, and the fact that they also had Clairvoyance made it even worse. The game went long, mostly because I think it was full of decent players, but it was insanely boring. Let’s face it, the cautious play seen in high-ELO matches just isn’t that fun in practice. Kill counts are painfully low and most of the game is a dance about who will initiate a fight. That’s not what got me into League of Legends in the first. I fell in love with LoL because it was active and engaging and rewarded aggressive gameplay.

      I’m not complaining that the game is getting more challenging. In fact, I would love it if that were the case. I would love to have closer matches. I would love to see less surrender votes. Instead, I’m seeing slow tedious games that make me reconsider playing more than a game in each sitting. The excitement is rapidly disappearing from the game as more players turn to the tournament meta.

      The only cause I can see for the shift in gameplay is the accessibility of tournament streams. I think it’s wonderful that League’s competitive game is getting a lot of attention, but it’s making the lower ELOs a boring mess to play. As this dominant metagame trickles further down the ELO chart it becomes increasingly important for Riot to make major adjustments to the game. Support has to get nerfed. Tanky DPS has to go away. Riot needs to address all of the attrition reduction mechanics in the game, not just the new ones.

      What do you think? Are you seeing the same comps every game? Does the game feel less exciting to you or is it just me?

      Current Affairs, Editorial, league of legends

      Jungle changes on the way

      July 21, 2011 /

      Guinsoo held a Q&A session on the Chinese version of Twitter in which he talked about some upcoming changes to jungling. Jungling has grown into a staple of the meta game, to the point that I almost never see a game without at least one jungler, and most games have two. In some ways, jungling can be blamed for a lot of the passive play in the game. Junglers are the reason pushing is so frowned upon. Junglers push back aggressive play with ganking, and a big part of a successful gank comes from the slow on lizard buff, but that’s about to change.

      As Guinsoo has it, red buff will be going from a slow on target to a haste, granting the jungler extra killing power without offering too much utility. I think it’s a great change. I’ve often thought that jungle buffs last entirely too long. I would much rather see a short duration, short respawn time on the buffs than the current long duration, but that’s not really the point here. The point is that jungling is being looked at in some significant ways.

      Unfortunately the changes are a long ways off. The forums caught wind of the changes and started up the QQmobile, so Riot has stepped in to reiterate several times that the changes are in very early testing.

      I really hope the testing goes well. I would bet that 50 percent of my games go stagnant around the 20 minute mark, the other 50 being the early surrenders. At 20 minutes you’re usually looking at the third full jungle clear, maybe waiting on the second dragon spawn of the game and a couple turrets might be down. At that point it’s still way too dangerous to overextend, so teams just stand around waiting for lanes to push. It’s insanely boring, and something I hope we’ll see change sooner or later.

      Current Affairs, league of legends, News

      Champ of the Week: Fun with Flying Kicks

      July 21, 2011 /

      Acolyte Lee Sin.

      When Lee Sin first launched I was totally underwhelmed. He just didn’t seem to have that special something that makes a champion fun. He had all the right stuff – decent damage, excellent mobility, cult status with the community – but it was still missing. He was just too…boring.

      Things have since improved. He caught a little buff here and there and I’ve found him a bit more enjoyable, but I’m still having trouble really getting into his playstyle. There are a couple of basic problems. First, I don’t have a clue how to build him. So much of his damage comes from steady, consistent attacks that it seems like just about everything works (except maybe attack speed). Wriggles? Sure. Sheen? Yeah, why not. Bloodthirster? Some of my best games so far. But I’ve also worked with Ghostblade and Frozen Mallet and Sunfire and the list goes on. Lee Sin doesn’t feel particularly good at any one thing, and for me that’s just not very enjoyable.

      It’s not that I’m doing poorly, either. I’ve had some bad games, but I’ve also had some pretty incredible games. I went 12-1 today with a Wriggles -> Bloodthirster build. It was a decent game, but thinking back on it I realize part of what makes Lee Sin a bit less enjoyable than other champions. He seems to best on the outskirts of a fight, waiting for that one moment to dive into the fray and land his AoE slow. From there, it’s pretty much just praying that the enemy splits up enough that your Resonant Strike can land on your desired target.

      I’ll have more thoughts later in the week I’m sure. Keep checking back, and if you have some other build ideas, let me know. I’m still not sure what’s best.

      Champ of the Week, league of legends

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