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      The big reason I’m excited for Dominion

      August 14, 2011 /

      There’s a lot to get excited about with the upcoming Dominion game mode, but I’m excited for one major feature above all else – the lack of a lane phase. It’s not just that I think the lane phase has gotten stale, which it has, or that I don’t really like trying to last hit, which I don’t. I’m excited about Dominion’s lack of a lane phase because it means teams will be playing with one another more. Honestly, I think the change could be the one thing with a shot at injecting some positivity into the LoL community.

      I’ve thought a lot about why the LoL community tends be a negative environment, and I think it pretty much boils down to this – for the first 15-20 minutes of a game, it isn’t a team game. It’s 3-4 solo experiences (3 lanes and a jungle) that have the potential to ruin the team part of the game that comes much later. In some cases, your teammates actually become your enemies. If bot lane feeds 5 kills in the first 10 minutes, it’s going to be a very tough game. Because games are fairly long, it can often feel like that feeding lane has just wasted whatever amount of time you spend in the game.

      Dominion should remove or at least reduce that initial intra-team tension. From the very beginning of the game, players have to work together to succeed. The way that the map is designed, teams will still split up, and there will still be moments that it feels like your teammates have screwed you. I think the key difference is that you’ll be playing as a team from the beginning, instead of playing as 3 solos and one team lane.

      To that end, I’m really pumped about Dominion. What are you looking forward to?

      Dominion, league of legends

      Current Affairs: Poppy

      August 13, 2011 /

      poppy_splash_3

      The official LoL forums can be an exceedingly weird place and often play out like a game all their own. Threads catch fire without any apparent reason, and today is a prime example. For whatever reason, the LoL forum community is up in arms this weekend about Poppy and how OP she is. You remember Poppy right? She’s short, likes to slam people into and occasionally through walls. Still don’t remember?

      I make the joke because I see her so rarely I can’t believe this is something people get up in arms about. And OP? Sure, with a 50-minute legendary farm, but her early game is atrocious, bad enough that I don’t even bother to play her anymore.

      Thankfully, that’s what Riot wants to address. They want to level her power curve a bit so that she’s more enjoyable early game and less of a running-at-mach-4 bomb in the late game. There is some bad news, though. The intended design strategy to level that curve is to push her toward a tank/AD build. Yes, make her more like the existing tanky DPS. Here’s the quote from RiotStatikk:

      Poppy from the outset was designed as a tank/fighter but is currently optimally used as (in my opinion) the strongest burst caster in the game if played well. We’re looking to address this by pushing more of her output into sustained damage rather than upfront burst. This change is less about “removing” her AP build and rather more about pushing forward her AD/Tank build.

      I’m hoping Riot stays true to not removing her potential for an AP buid. AP Poppy is a lot of fun with a decent farm. I think the key is keeping her power level for both builds about even. When the tanky build takes over too much, I doubt we’ll see many AP Poppy players in the world.

      Champions, Current Affairs, league of legends

      Have the Pantheon changes panned out?

      August 12, 2011 /

      After the global ult nerf patch, Morello put out a call for Pantheon suggestions, hoping to bring him back up to some sort of viability. With the Skarner patch, he got some significant buffs – lower cooldowns on his stun and Heartseeker, a much faster ult, an execute on his Spear Shot – to the point that I’ve been seeing him much more often. I haven’t had a lot of time to spend on him, but when has that ever stopped me from sharing my impressions?

      I’ll start by saying that the changes are mostly a good thing. That short-cd stun can be brutal in combination with teammate CC, making Pantheon a very difficult champion to escape. The ranged execute is also a nice buff. I didn’t have much trouble finishing off a target with the old Pantheon but since the change I can’t say that I’ve narrowly missed a kill. I also played against a Pantheon today who was last-hitting teammates I thought for sure I had saved with a well-placed Dragon’s Rage.

      It’s Heartseeker Strike that still bugs me. It’s in a much better place now that it can be used more often, but the animation feels a little too long. There also remains the simple fact that it’s a self-stun, which really hurts. He can cast more often, but that also means he’s locking himself up more often. I would really like to see Riot either dramatically shorten the animation time and reconsider the damage or just find a new ability to add in this one’s place.

      So, serious Pantheon players, what do you think? Are his new cooldowns helping out? Does he feel more viable? Still just a pubstomp toon? Drop your impressions in the comments.

      Champions, Current Affairs, league of legends

      Skarner Impressions

      August 11, 2011 /

      Earthrune Skarner

      I’ve had the chance to play Skarner in a couple games now, enough to give some baseline impressions of his skills and playstyle anyway. I’m going to try to avoid comparisons to Sand King from DotA as much as possible, but I’m going to say this – Sand King had much more flavor. There, I’m done. Let’s talk about Skarner.

      I’ve only played Skarner in the jungler, and I think for good reason. His kit is designed around standing on top of his enemies, but he doesn’t have the early durability or sustain to really do that. He is surprisingly fast in the jungle, though, thanks to the constant damage from his Q. It’s fairly easy to pick up both buffs and still have enough health left over for a gank. That can’t be said for every jungler, and it can throw off enemy laners if they aren’t paying attention to your time.

      As good as Skarner is in the actual jungle, he’s terrible coming out of it, even at level six. Without any sort of serious dash or ranged CC, Skarner has a pretty tough time getting into position. He’s okay once he has five ranks of his shield and a Trinity Force, but by that point, lane ganks aren’t happening much. His ult also has incredibly short range. It’s fantastic for catching overconfident opponents or when used in conjunction with Flash, but it’s certainly not any sort of reliable initiation or gap-closing skill.

      That’s not to say it isn’t strong. There are enough champions that are both position- and cast-dependent that Skarner has plenty of targets to drag around. My personal favorites so far have been Fiddlesticks and Kassadin, though I also snagged a Sona once or twice. I’m glad to see that the duration is pretty short. Also, I’ve heard a couple people say that his ult has too short a cooldown, but 110/100/90 seconds isn’t really anything to laugh at. Granted, he’s got some extra help from the blue buff he’s getting in the jungle, at least at early levels, but I don’t think it really needs nerfed.

      If anything surprises me about Skarner it’s that there’s so little chatter about him. We’re only two days past release and already the forums seem fairly devoid of conversation about him. That could mean that people are content with him, but to me it seems as though there aren’t many people that are excited about him. I’ve been able to pick him in most games after 20 seconds or so. So why the low-decibel response?

      To put it bluntly, Skarner’s kind of boring. He’s spammy, but his spammy skills don’t do anything that’s all that exciting. He also has a sort of confused set of skills. It doesn’t really make sense that his Q scales off physical damage for the first half but magic damage after. Everything else he does is magic. I haven’t tried out an AP build yet, mostly because Skarner doesn’t seem like he would fair well in lane. That’s next on the test list.

      How’s the scorpion been treating you this week?

      Champions, league of legends, Patches

      Champ of the Week: Blitzcrank extension

      August 9, 2011 /

      steamgolem_splash_0

      I’m finally back in North Carolina and, armed with a freshly cleaned apartment and a beautiful laptop HP was kind enough to lend me while I was in Ohio, I’m ready to dive back into the happy little world of Valoran. Unfortunately I didn’t have nearly enough time to spend with Blitzcrank this past week, so I’ll be extending his Champ of the Week feature so that the robot gets what he’s due.

      In other news, I just attempted to log in, hoping to snag a quick Skarner game before succumbing to the inevitable result of an 11-hour car ride, but alas, a twenty minute queue timer is standing in the way. I think I’m going to let it win, too.

      So how has Skarner been? The spotlight looked like a much more accurate representation of a given champion’s skills and abilities. Phreak actually died! OMGOMGOMG! Seriously, though, I don’t consider it a good thing that Skarner is relegated to jungle duty. It seems to me there are much more reliable junglers in the game and Wriggle’s feels like a total waste. Unfortunately, he has no dash, which means he’ll also get outperformed pretty badly in lane without a decent bit of burst damage. This is all conjecture, of course. If you’re finding that his heal allows for excellent lane sustain, let me know in the comments.

      Also, how’s the Pantheon buff? I miss the days when I played him, which were basically just after he released. I haven’t messed with him much since.

      With that, I’m going to call it a night. Look for me later in the week – I should be around quite a bit.

      Champ of the Week, league of legends, Patches

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