Tag: map control

      Still not sure how I feel about the dragon changes

      December 22, 2010 /

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      Though I’ve spent most of my gaming time in Cataclysm lately, I have been sneaking a few games of LoL with my brother. There’s been a lot for both of us to catch up on, though the dragon change has probably had the most impact. Teams are definitely playing the game differently now that dragon is worth so much gold.

      One of the most interesting setups I’ve seen was a team that ran two junglers. I’d seen it before, but it had never seen all that effective. I guess I should mention they were both jungling in their own jungle. I was jungling ours (and getting ganked all the damn time – there is no getting away from Nunu and Trundle). With two people constantly mia, our lanes were playing very safe. No one was farming well, so no one wanted to buy wards. Obviously this is all a bit anecdotal, since it was just one game, but there does seem to be a lot more focus on dragon in general, and more games seem to slip away from me early if my team doesn’t ward.

      I really think the double change – XP nerf, gold buff – was a little too much. Dragon is such a crucial element of the game that I’d always prefer to err on the side of moderation rather than dramatic change. I’m still working to figure out just how much it matters, and there are some farming toons/comps I’d really like to try to exploit the extra cashflow. What have you seen?

      Development, Editorial, league of legends

      Pro Tips: Control the Dragon

      August 8, 2010 /

      Dragon control.

      At the outset, this seems like a very simple and sort of “no shit” post, but based on my experience I think this post is necessary, particularly with as young as ranked play is. If there’s one thing I find myself furiously pinging in almost every game, it’s little skull over the dragon. As Phreak reminds us in almost every Champion Spotlight, the dragon is not only worth more than a tower in gold, it’s also a couple heroes worth of XP for your entire team. If you find yourself having problems in ranked, start playing toons that can keep control of dragon.

      It should go without saying that this won’t guarantee wins, but it can definitely improve your chances and hopefully give your team the edge for early ganks that may have otherwise gone the opposite direction. Most jungling toons are also good at taking down dragon, though some may require a little itemization to deal with the dragon’s health pool. Examples of good junglers/dragon-killers would be toons like Udyr, Shaco, Xin Zhao, Warwick, Amumu, and Fiddlesticks. While Shaco and Xin Zhao are regularly banned (occasionally Amumu as well), I almost never see an Udyr or Fiddlesticks ban, and despite some nerfs, both remain strong characters. There are some less played options as well. Gragas makes a surprisingly good jungler, and Poppy is plenty capable of killing dragon with a little help.

      When you’re running one of these characters, dragon should be your number one priority. I cannot stress that enough. Remember the gold and experience benefit to your team. Getting dragon early and often means your team has both a level and gold advantage which only grows as the game continues. Once you’ve taken a few dragon kills, dragon also creates a great choke point to encourage the team fight that will hopefully be working in your favor. If the other team isn’t trying to stop you, it just makes dragon that much easier.

      Even when your team is in control of dragon, make sure you’re warding. It’s easy to be out of position when the dragon spawns, and though you should be focusing on dragon, it can be advantageous to knock down a tower if your opponent is out of position. Even if you have the opportunity to push while the other team takes dragon, abandon the tower. Always keep in mind how much the dragon provides. It’s not a little game inside in the push/gank game. The dragon is the game, it’s just something people tend to ignore.

      I like to think about things this way – the towers, the heroes, the creeps, all of those things will be there regardless of whether or not you go for dragon. If the other team is serious about dragon, though, you will be woefully behind.

      league of legends, Pro Tips

      State of Heimerdinger

      June 30, 2010 /

      Blast Zone Heimerdinger.

      Heimerdinger has slowly risen to become one of the champions I see most in-game. Though known for his incredible pushing power, he is also an excellent defender and farmer, giving him the items needed to put out big damage over the course of the game. With yesterday’s grenade buff, I think Heimer is among the strongest support champions, despite his turret vs. tower nerf.

      I was pretty shocked to see Heimer catch a little buff. Yes, his turrets deal less damage but he can toss more grenades so his net effect on towers is just about the same. The real key to Heimer is getting a strong early farm and good early magic penetration. Magic penetration, especially early in the game, increases the damage output of your missiles for some nice harass. My personal preference is to max turrets and missiles side by side and stand well back behind my creeps so that should my opponent come to harass they catch a missile in the face.

      Heimer is strong in teamfights because he gives his team control over positioning. What could have been a successful chase through the woods quickly turns into death for you or multiple teammates if Heimer comes to back up his teammate. The slow from turrets is great CC and the heal his ultimate provides can keep a push alive. In short, Heimer is one of the most frustrating characters to play against if played well.

      Phreak dropped into a recent forum thread to say they (the devs) aren’t quite done with Heimer. He specifically calls out the Heimer vs towers situation, which is really the worst of it. If his team has good ranged harass, he’ll stand by and lob grenades until your towers are gone and there’s precious little you can do about it.

      Heimer is unique because he gets to play a different game than everyone else. While not quite the micro fun of a Chen or Meepo from DotA, he still has big control over the positioning of teamfights and the lane creeps. If you’re playing Heimer right now, enjoy your day in the sun. It won’t last forever.

      league of legends

      LoL: The Twisted Treeline dilemma

      June 14, 2010 /

      Twisted Treeline.Since the launch of Twisted Treeline I’ve gone back and forth about playing on the map. For a while, I was in love with it. While people were still learning the faster playstyle, it was easy to pick up some quick wins. After a bad losing streak, I swore off TT, though it was hard for me pinpoint exactly why.

      I’ve since gotten back into TT and been mostly successful, but it hasn’t been without frustration. I think I finally have a bead on the design behind TT that makes a loss there so much more frustrating than on Summoner’s Rift. The problem behind TT, or more appropriately, the design dilemma, is that the map has to encourage more fighting to produce a quicker game. It isn’t enough that the lanes are shorter, the towers less durable, and the gold generation quicker. The map has to produce confrontation, and the way Riot chose to do that was by heavily prioritizing the two major jungle creeps, Grez and the dragon.

      This is actually why TT is so frustrating in comparison to Summoner’s Rift. On SR the buffs are definitely important, but the map is much larger, so sacrificing position in order to acquire buffs can mean the difference between defeat and victory. Teams that ignore buffs can still win the game if the opponent focuses too much on the buffs without thinking about positioning.

      Twisted Treeline, on the other hand, is small enough that you can get the buffs without stepping out of position, especially since many of the stronger heroes on TT have ways to get over the walls. The big problem, then, is that players play TT just like they play SR – getting buffs when its convenient but not prioritizing them. This puts the team at a huge disadvantage, so big, in fact, that I’d say you don’t have a chance of winning if you lose those buffs three times in a row. The buffs not only increase your team damage output, they provide enough experience and gold to set your team way ahead, in both level and itemization.

      The problem, at least in my mind, is that the importance of the buffs is discreet. Everyone knows that buffs are good, but most players don’t know how good. One way to fix this would be through some sort of spotlight on map basics. Another potential balance change would be to offer bonus gold for killing the wearer of the buff. It wouldn’t have to be the full amount, but something to help a team that either doesn’t know how important the buffs are or hasn’t been able to properly control the map catch back up. It would significantly slow the snowballing effect that is such a problem on TT.

      Have you guys seen the same trouble on TT or is something else typically the cause for your loss?

      league of legends

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