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How do you deal with trolls?

June 12, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

I jumped into a game today with my brother, hoping to enjoy a relaxing normal 5v5. The game started off pretty poorly – our mid was feeding, we lost two towers within 10 minutes, and the enemy Vayne had a very nice minion farm. I made a poor choice early and went for a tower dive on Mordekaiser as Nasus. I was halfway through the animation for Siphon Strike, an attack that surely would have ended the 6 HP Mordekaiser, when tower killed me. He quickly responded, “u bad?”

We proceeded to stomp the enemy team for the rest of the game. Somehow, despite the bad start, our team just started to move around the map together. Our Kayle got farmed. My brother started lighting up their carries with Veigar combos, and I was Siphon Striking for 700 damage before it was all said and done. Of course, I couldn’t let Mordekaiser’s trolling go unchalleneged, so when he died, I would respond, “u bad?”

Usually trolls will just argue, but he actually asked me to stop being a dick. I complied, though I reminded him that he started the “u bad,” and that he shouldn’t troll if he doesn’t want to be trolled back. Then he typed the most surprising thing I’ve seen in a while – “you have a point, I take it back.” It was a roundabout way to apologize, but much better than anything I’ve seen in the past. It’s amazing how showing a troll just how foolish and obnoxious they are can turn things around. I’m not advocating counter-trolling in every case, but in its more mild appearances, it sometimes helps to shed light on what is probably my least favorite convention of gaming/internet culture.

Editorial, league of legends

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Riot’s take on the E3 info

June 11, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

Riot has graciously stepped onto the E3 news scene with its own explanations of the champions and features in development for League of Legends. Thank god. That Gamespot video just wasn’t cutting it.

The video rehashes a lot of the information I’ve put together on Yorick, Leona, and Skarner, though Paul Bellezza did expand on Skarner’s design direction a bit. In case there was any doubt, it looks like Tanky DPS is here to stay. Bellezza called Yorick a “tanky fighter” who can “pretty much tank down anyone.” Skarner is a “vicious and aggressive fighter tank” (the extent to which that’s different from a tanky fighter is unclear) who allows you to “focus on enemies and the more you attack them, the more you debuff them and are able to take them down.” Wedged in between these two is an archetypal tank with some crowd control abilities. If ever there was a bad time to be a squishy, July and August will surely top it.

I’m hoping that those releases will also come with some itemization/character updates that help deal with Tanky DPS. The idea behind tankier champions is a fine one – longer fights means you get to play the game more – but when it comes at the expense of so many characters and when so much of the playstyle revolves around skills like Jarvan’s passive, the gameplay isn’t very fun. This is the big reason I don’t play Tanky DPS toons – they aren’t enjoyable. It’s fun to get a ranged carry farmed up and burn through enemies. It’s fun to drop Tibbers on a group of opponents and see huge chunks of health fly off. If Riot can find a way to make these longer fights similarly enjoyable, I’ll gladly take the addition of more Tanky DPS champions to the League.

Champions, Current Affairs, Development, league of legends, News

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Champ of the Week: Nothing without a team

June 10, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

I’ve caught a few Nasus games so far this week, and in each I’ve been reminded of one of Nasus’ great downfalls – he requires a competent team to truly excel. That’s true for a lot of characters, but for Nasus it seems even more so. With no gap-closing skill, he relies heavily on Wither and the crowd control of his teammates (or foolishness of his opponents) to dish out damage.

Don’t get me wrong, Wither is a great skill. If a carry makes the mistake of buying Berserker’s Greaves that slow feels almost like a stun. Unfortunately, though, it is countered by Mercury Treads, especially if the target also has a dash of some kind. When I consider Nasus up against many of the other tanky DPS characters – Jarvan, Rumble, Renekton, Xin Zhao – I can’t help but think he’s missing a little something. Each of those characters have great damage, a stun or slow, a dash or speed modifier, and some sort of heal or shield. Nasus is notably missing the dash/speed modifier, which makes him heavily reliant on Ghost against mobile teams.

To be fair, Nasus is utterly devastating against non-mobile teams. I flat out carried a game earlier in the week by crushing a Heimerdinger in the solo lane. My score wasn’t fantastic at the end of the game, but that’s mostly because I was so dangerous that the other team had no choice but to burn me down. Otherwise, I was 3-4 shotting the squishies.

Nasus also has excellent pushing power. I’m sure we’ve all seen a Nasus walk up to a tower and seemingly hit it for half its health with a single Siphon Strike. The creep clearing power of Spirit Fire, especially when coupled with a Sunfire Cape, gives Nasus the ability to move up a lane quickly and start smashing down towers.

I’m pretty sure I already know what my one Nasus change would be, but I’m going to keep playing him through Sunday to see if it holds true.

Champ of the Week, league of legends

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Upcoming Champion: Skarner, the Crystal Vanguard

June 10, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

Riot had precious little to say regarding Skarner, but I can already tell that I like the guy. I was a huge fan of Crixalis (Sand King) in DotA, so obviously Skarner appeals to me. The only thing Riot mentioned about Skarner’s skillset is that he might be able to impale an opponent on his tale and drag them around. Sounds like a pretty cool skill. Depending on the range it might even be a sort of Rocket Grab.

With Skarner, Leona, and Yorick all coming soon, I can’t help but wonder when we’ll see the Monkey King. It’s been nearly two months since his assets were released in a preview video but we still have no word on his release date or his skillset.

Champions, Development, league of legends, News

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Upcoming Champion: Leona, the Radiant Dawn

June 9, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

Riot has a small force at E3 this year, mostly there to show off Yorick and tease a few new champions leading up to Dreamhack. Among the champion teasers is Leona, the Radiant Dawn. Leona is a direct response to the community requests for a female champion. She sports a traditional sword and shield, though it sounds like she’ll harness the power of the sun to control her enemies.

Riot hasn’t said much about her skillset, other than a potential ultimate idea, which is that she would summon a beam of light on an area that sort of detonates after a couple seconds, stunning anyone still in the beam. If I heard correctly on the video from Gamespot, someone likened the skill to the Hammer of Dawn in Gears of War. Sounds like it will look really good, and probably function a bit like Amumu’s ult, which is one of the strongest in the game.

On the whole, Leona looks like a pretty cool champion. I like seeing more traditional tanks added to the game. It means good things for balance, or so we can hope.