Tag: lol (Page 11 of 12)

      LoL: Controlling the late-game

      January 21, 2010 /

      League of Legends tower.I couldn’t sleep last night so I decided to jump into a game of LoL to relax. I’ve been on a bit of a losing streak recently so I took my own advice, working the basics to try to sneak a win. Lo and behold, I was farming well, racking up some assists, and slowly turning my TF into a nuking machine.

      And for once, it was a fairly even match. We had myself as TF, Malphite, Alistar, Veigar, and Annie – a little low on the phys dps side of things but we were playing well. The other side was Twitch, Blitzcrank, Katarina, Annie and one other I can’t seem to remember. My team struggled early, but we picked things up around 14 and starting pushing towers. For the most part we were fine – our Malphite and Alistar were coordinating well and DPS was focusing targets. We did have one problem, though: Twitch.

      Despite my constant begging, our tanks just would notbuy an elixir. Sure, there was my ultimate, and I was blowing it for every team fight, but Twitch soon got wise, would flash in and invis out. By the end of the game we were all yelling at each other, everyone blamed for not focusing Twitch. Meanwhile, he continued to get double and triple kills and BD every tower we had.

      The point of this story is that the late-game is completely dependent on how you play your opponent. By 45 minutes or so, you should be heavily farmed, so it really starts to come down to strategy versus the other team. Make sure you stop to think, “what else could I be doing to help win those team fights?” More often than not, it isn’t about DPS. It’s about controlling abilities – the enemies’ – saving stuns to interrupt ultimates, focusing targets that have big AOE damage, and shutting down the invis players that turn a 3v3 you could normally win into a massacre the other way.

      league of legends, PC, Strategy

      LoL Basics: Magic Penetration

      January 19, 2010 /

      rune bookSo you’ve purchased a few heroes you like and you want to get started with a rune page. But what to get? If you dig around the forums, you’ll find every possible answer and likely end up no better off than when you started. This is a basic guide for understanding magic penetration runes and their benefits.

      If you like to play mage toons – Fiddlesticks, Karthus, Ryze – magic penetration can be a cheap start for your runebook. For a lot of mages, though, it’s a tough purchase to justify because of the way magic penetration works. Penetration only affects magic resistance your target currently has. It’s also the last debuff applied in a string of magic resistance debuffs. It works like this: fixed resistance is applied first, so Karthus’ wall, for instance, which gives a -35 magic resistance debuff. Then comes percentage based debuffs, like Void Staff. Then, after all that has been applied you get your magic penetration debuff.

      The real kicker is that penetration can’t take your enemy’s resistance below zero. Only flat resistance can do that. If you’re in some higher tier play and you’ve got enemies stacking up MR, then penetration is a great choice. It adds a level of damage you can only get from Abyssal Staff in game. If you’re a more casual player like myself, then you might see more benefit from flat AP, mana regen, or even flat health.

      league of legends, Strategy

      LoL: Coming back from a losing streak

      January 17, 2010 /

      Ashe is about to die.I have a fairly large base of friends playing League of Legends now, mostly thanks to my shameless plugs every time we’ve spoken over the last several months. Of those people I was the first to hit 30, so I get asked most of the questions regarding strategy, hero choice, etc. The big question of late, though, is what to do when you get into a losing streak.

      Games like LoL tend to ebb and flow quite a bit. I often feel unstoppable for as many as ten games, only to turn around and lose the next ten because of sloppy play and unskilled teammates. Things are never completely out of your hands, though, and a little focus can save you a lot of frustration.

      First off, take a look at your team comp. It sounds really basic, but it’s a mistake I see from almost every team. You cobble together a few wins and think you must be so skilled you can win with any comp. Not so, and it’s usually the base reason behind a streak of losses. Make sure you have a balance of range, nuke, dps, and meat.

      You also need to take a look at lane comps. A balanced team means nothing if you have a lane with no disable. Try to put at least one disable in each lane and if you have spares, pair one lane for ganking. That lane can be responsible for pushing tower first and then roaming to help the team.

      Lastly, take a look at your summoner spells and tune them to account for you team’s weaknesses. If you’ll have trouble laning early, consider Fortify on at least 2 champs. Exhaust is great for shutting down the enemy Twitch or Shaco in team fights, and Cleanse can help save you in big team fights. Avoid relying on spells like Flash and Heal because they can quickly turn into a crutch that you’ll be unsure how to play without.

      Once you’re back on your feet, try to at least keep a few of these things in mind. If you have a regular team to roll with you can be a little sloppy, but playing pugs, you need every advantage you can get.

      PC, Strategy

      LoL: Udyr nerf is on the way

      January 16, 2010 /

      Udyr.You had to know this was coming. Since the most recent patch, Udyr has become hugely popular, despite his relatively good position before the buff. Well, he’s getting nerfed, as confirmed by a red post on the forums.

      I don’t disagree. He is obviously overpowered, mostly because of the change to stance cooldown. I know, a lot of players have been bitching about the phoenix form buff, but phoenix wouldn’t make as much a difference if his attack speed didn’t get unmanageable in the early game. It’s the attack speed that lets him kill golem with such ease, which translates to dragon solos and a ridiculous early game farm.

      The nerf, though, will likely be to phoenix form. Riot has stated that it wants Udyr to have better feel, which means a three stance rotation instead of two. It’s a change I’m mostly happy with, though it puts Riot in a position to give him some nerfs that could heavily affect his late or early game, and no one likes a hero that can only really shine mid-game if he gets a safe, defensive early farm. It’s just not a fun way to play.

      Development, PC, Strategy

      League of Legends wins dual IGN awards

      January 15, 2010 /

      Corki UFO Skin.I wrote about League of Legends a couple weeks ago as my must-try game of 2009. The game is starting to pick up some critical acclaim along with shameless endorsements from a large number of players. Riot announced on its official forums today that the game won the IGN Reader’s Choice Multiplayer Game as well as Strategy Game of the Year.

      If you’ve been spending much time on the forums you know that Riot was offering up a free skin if it won two of the three awards the game was up for. Well, it won all three, meaning any player who had created an account prior to today will get a free Corki unlock along with the UFO skin.

      Few things make me want to play a game more than an active/supportive community to developer relationship. From what I’ve seen so far, LoL has one of the best, and its little perks like this that make me think, ‘Should I try Heroes of Newerth?…Nah.’

      Games in Media, PC, Strategy

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