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Lee Sin abilities announced

March 25, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

It’s looking more and more like Lee Sin might be the real deal, not just an April Fool’s Joke. Riot has announced his official skill list, which includes in game screenshots. It would be an awful lot of work, not to mention a PR nightmare that Riot doesn’t need, to put all of this together just to strip it from under our feet.

Let’s take a look at that ability list.

Sonic Wave / Resonating Strike:
Sonic Wave: Lee Sin projects a discordant wave of sound to locate his enemies, dealing physical damage to the first enemy it encounters. If Sonic Wave hits, Lee Sin can cast Resonating Strike for the next 3 seconds.

Resonating Strike: Lee Sin dashes to the enemy hit by Sonic Wave, dealing physical damage plus 10% of their missing health.

Safeguard / Iron Will
Safeguard: Lee Sin rushes towards a target ally, shielding them both from damage. If a shield is broken, half the energy cost is returned. After using Safeguard, Lee Sin can cast Iron Will for the next 3 seconds.

Iron Will: Lee Sin’s intense training allows him to thrive in battle. For 5 seconds, Lee Sin gains lifesteal, spell vamp, and armor.

Tempest / Cripple
Tempest: Lee Sin smashes the ground sending out a shockwave that deals magic damage and reveals enemy units hit. If Tempest hits an enemy, Lee Sin can cast cripple for the next 3 seconds.

Cripple: Lee Sin cripples nearby enemies revealed by Tempest, reducing their Movement and Attack Speed for 4 seconds. Movement and Attack Speed recover gradually over the duration.

Dragon’s Rage (Ultimate)
Lee Sin performs a powerful roundhouse kick launching his target back, dealing physical damage to the target and any enemies they collide with. Enemies the target collides with are knocked into the air for a short duration.

Flurry (Passive)
After Lee Sin uses an ability, his next 2 basic attacks gain 50% Attack Speed and return 10 energy each.

I haven’t had a ton of time to think through his skillset, but I will say I don’t usually like skills getting complicated with bonus effects, especially if the secondary use requires some action first. I know it’s designed to work as a skill ceiling, but the way Lee Sin’s passive works, any miss will multiply the feeling of penalty.

I’ll wait to say more until I’ve seen the skills in action. For now, I’m just happy the Blind Monk is real.

Champions, Development, league of legends, News

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GT Academy top 16 picked for Silverstone

March 25, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

I got back into town yesterday afternoon, tired after my whirlwind trip to the GT Academy finals in Orlando. GT Academy is unlike most video game tourneys in that it gives the contestants a chance to dramatically alter their lives. It’s more than just an oversized check or a new gaming rig – for a lot of the contestants it’s the fulfillment of a dream.

Head over to Bullz-Eye to read my full writeup of the experience.

Reviews

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Magma Chamber is still months away

March 24, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

water_caverns

Over the past month or two I’ve held out hope against hope that we would get some news of Magma Chamber on patch day. For a while there I thought it might even be released to custom games until the Shiny update was ready to go. That’s not going to be the case, not anytime soon, anyway. Unfortunately, it looks like the Shiny update and, by association Magma Chamber, is at least several months away.

A player made a forum post asking about Shiny and received the following response from Tamat:

We’ve actually made some crazy advancements with this since the last time we released screenshots. We’re probably going to be releasing some new assets to give you a glimpse of where it’s at in the next month or two.

If you remember, Riot said the Shiny update and Magma Chamber would be coming at the same time. Reading into Tamat’s post, it seems that time is pretty far off. “Glimpse,” doesn’t exactly imply a load of content, probably just some more screen shots and maybe a video of a developer build. “The next month or two” is also a shaky enough timeframe to make me think there’s still a serious amount of work to be done before it’s even ready to show off.

I hope everyone’s ready for several more months of champion releases before we see a feature update.

Development, league of legends, News

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Driving the Nissan GTR at the GT Academy finals

March 23, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

As part of the trip to the GT Academy finals, the media had a chance to get behind the wheel of Nissan’s strongest racers, the 370Z and the GTR. We actually got to drive the Nissan GTR Black Edition, the only model currently in the US in light of the circumstances in Japan. Oh, we also drove the Juke.

We got to take the cars through an autocross course, which is an exhilarating experience. It was my first time on that kind of course, unlike the auto media that was there. Still, I managed a couple decent runs, most notably in the GTR.

After the autocross we were taken around the oval by a pair of professional drivers from the the Richard Petty Driving Experience. As far as I could see, we hit 105 in the 370Z and about 120 in the GTR. That doesn’t sound fast on a straightaway, but around a banked curve it felt like madness.

I’ll have a full writeup of the experience tomorrow. For now, enjoy the gallery.

PS3

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Live at the GT Academy finals

March 23, 2011 / Jeff Morgan

gtacademy_sleds

Nissan was kind enough to bring me down to Orlando for the US GT Academy finals. Until this year, GT Academy had only run in Europe, giving virtual racers a shot at competing for a spot on Nissan’s GT4 racing team. I’ve had a chance to run around with Lucas Ordonez, the winner from the first season of GT Academy and even been behind the wheel of a 2012 Black Edition Nissan GTR, a Nismo 370Z and, just for kicks, the Nissan Juke.

It’s a strange experience to be among a group of aspiring racers whose experiences have been solely virtual to this point. They are definitely excited, but there’s also an intense level of focus. I’m not a Gran Turismo player by any stretch of the imagination, so listening to these guys talk about their races, picking apart switchbacks and hairpins and straightaway strategies, is like listening in on a discussion of chaos theory from a physics professor.

I’ll be watching the finals play out over the next several hours. This last round consists of several 4-man races that will narrow the field down from 24 racers 16. Those 16 will then undergo a series of tests to prepare them for a trip to the UK where they will begin the physical competition to determine the winner of GT Academy 3.

News, PS3