Tag: new champion (Page 3 of 8)

      Champion Sneak Peek: Renekton, the Eater of Souls

      January 10, 2011 /

      Renekton, the Eater of Souls

      Nasus has a brother, and he’s not a dog! Amazing stuff, no? Riot’s just released the Champion Sneak Peek for next week’s champion, Renekton, the Eater of Souls. Here’s the official blurb:

      Lately, we’ve seen quite a few sibling duos enter the League of Legends. While Garen and Lux may have been the first to make membership in the League a familial affair, since then Cassiopeia and Katarina have been making a point of highlighting the importance of good genes. Of course, not all families get along, and if we’re going to broach the subject of sibling rivalry there’s probably no better place to start than with Nasus’ brother Renekton, the Eater of Souls. We’re personally not sure that we’ve ever seen a fraternal relationship with more animosity (no pun intended).

      You want to know why Nasus and Renekton don’t get along? They have different dads, and Nasus knows it. I’ll be curious to see where Riot goes with this pairing. While Garen and Lux didn’t necessarily have similar skills, their skills worked well together and they had similar art design. I’m not sure what similarities exist between Katarina and Cassiopeia. Their ults do work well together, it’s just that Cassiopeia’s skill ceiling is somewhere in the stratosphere.

      I’d love to see Renekton and Nasus share thematic similarities, but their fraternal bonds will probably only extend to the art design. Let’s face it, Nasus has one of the least cooperative playstyles in the game. He’s basically a solo farmer who, if he shows up for teammates, you can’t really remember what he did. He’s great at pushing, and his ult looks awesome, but I never walk away from a Nasus game thinking, wow, we could never have done that without a giant, bipedal dog on the team.

      Champions, Development, league of legends, News

      No LoL patch today

      November 30, 2010 /

      Little Slugger Trundle.

      I woke up this morning excited to get a look at the Trundle spotlight and then wait eagerly for servers to come back online. No such luck. It looks like today isn’t going to be patch day after all, and though I haven’t been able to confirm it personally, I’ve heard we won’t see the update until Thursday. UPDATE: Tamat confirmed the patch is coming tomorrow (Wednesday).

      I’m pretty bummed out, if only because I think Trundle could be a bit of a return to sanity in the design department. Irelia was underwhelming, both in her skillset and her playstyle. She just doesn’t have the fun factor that makes some of the other reasonably powered champions a blast to play and she isn’t really strong enough to be fun to dominate games with. Trundle, on the other hand, sounds like he’ll be a lot of fun, even if he doesn’t crush, and I’ve been itching for something new to play outside the tanky dps metagame.

      At any rate, we’ll be waiting a couple days to see the nifty new character as well as the next round of patch notes. Exercise that patience, folks.

      league of legends, News, Patches

      My take on the LeBlanc nerf

      November 5, 2010 /

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      The LeBlanc nerf is already live, which is really disconcerting to me. It points, as many things have over the past couple months, to an overly aggressive development cycle. As a result, we’ve been exposed to both over- and underpowered champions, though mostly the latter. Personally, I’ve been disappointed by a lot of the recent champion releases, and I think their absence (or overwhelming presence) in ranked play speaks to the flaws in the current pace of development.

      Let’s take a look at the five most recent champions starting with the least recent.

      Miss Fortune: I know a lot of people disagree with me on her strength, but I still think she is extremely broken. It’s not her late game, it’s not that she has high survivability, it’s that she is nearly impossible to shut down in the laning phase. She can outfarm and out-harass virtually every character in the game, guaranteeing late game success. Also, consider the strength of her Impure Shots – it has a healing debuff, attack speed increase, and passive damage increase, all on one skill. Why does a ranged carry with a powerful slow and a powerful harassment skill need that kind of utility from one spell?

      I see experienced carry players wreck more games with her than any other physical carry.

      Sona: I know the LoL community was crying loudly for a new support champion, but whoever designed Sona just wanted a champion that could dominate games. It’s clear she wasn’t playtested thoroughly, because a champion that easy to play should not be able to deal that kind of damage, be that survivable, and give her team some of the best buffs around.

      Swain: Swain had a really underwhelming release and has one major design flaw – he has to be on top of the enemy team to maximize his damage output. He does have a pretty nice skillset, although it doesn’t fit very well with the current metagame. Still, his pre-buff damage was pretty pathetic and then there’s the Maledict issue. Granted, that wasn’t changed because of a rush job, rather some design issues, but the current version of Torment is nowhere near as interesting as it could have been. The idea of building a champion around Deathfire Grasp is cool and kinda different but we lost that flavor because of some ‘burden of knowledge’ crap that definitely exists elsewhere in the game.

      Lux: Lux is maybe the best example of a design rush in the game right now. She was originally supposed to grant her entire team invisibility with a skillshot boomerang, just like the shield she has now. A cool mechanic, but it was buggy right up to release and so was quickly scrapped and a shield thrown into the mix. Lux is woefully underpowered – her spells have weak AP ratios, even weaker base damage, and some of the longest cooldowns around. Her only reasonable spell is her ult. Continue reading »

      Champions, Current Affairs, league of legends, Patches

      Champion sneak peek: Lux

      October 11, 2010 /

      Lux.Since I’ve been away from the game for nearly a week and a half, it’s hard to believe there’s yet another champion already on the horizon. Lux joins the League as Garen’s sister, and looks as though she fights with cattle prods. All of her skills are skillshots, though, so she seems more closely related to Ezreal than Garen.

      Here’s what I could gather about her skills from around the web:

      Illumination (passive): Lux’s damaging spells illuminate the target for 6 seconds. Lux’s next attack ignites the debuff, dealing 20-180 (depending on Lux’s level) magic damage to the target.

      Light Binding (Q): Fires a ball of light towards a target location, binding the units hit for 2 seconds. The units take 80 magic damage. Can hit up to 2 targets with the 2nd target receiving 50 percent effect.

      Lucent Singularity (W): Creates a zone that slows enemy units by 13 percent (zone lasts 5 seconds). Can be detonated to damage enemies in the area for 60 magic damage.

      Prismatic Wave (E): Passive: Lux’s cooldowns are reduced by 3 percent. Active: Fires a wave to the target location and back, instantly stealthing any allied champions for 3 seconds. Lux is also struck by the wave upon return.

      Final Sparkling (R): After a short delay, Lux fires a laser pulse in front of her dealing 250 damage to all enemy units in the area.

      Let me just say, this is the most creative champion release in a long time. Invisibility for a whole team? Granted, it’s only three seconds, and it’s a skillshot buff, but it’s one of the most innovative things we’ve seen. The slow orb is also pretty interesting – think of it like a Gragas barrel with an AoE slow effect. On the whole, she sounds much better off than Swain, mostly because she can use all of her abilities from a safe distance.

      Champions, Development, league of legends, News

      Champion sneak peek: Jericho Swain

      September 28, 2010 /

      Jericho Swain.

      Riot’s made the sneak peek announcement for Swain, the Master Tactician. It’s the usual backstory kind of stuff, but if you know how to use Google, it’s not hard to find a little more. I would like to say, this info was leaked elsewhere. Riot’s been issuing bans to people responsible for leaking information, but my test realm client hasn’t been working for a couple months. Let’s do the usual fluff, first:

      Here at Riot Games, we’re making every attempted to ensure that we deliver exciting champions to even the most twisted and deviant of human minds. So if you’re a budding veterinarian or ornithologist, it’s now your turn to start getting excited. Meet Swain, the Master Tactician. In addition to being a distinguished Noxian gentleman of impeccable wealth and taste, Swain also just happens to be a fan of our feathered friends. And like some people who wind up at the League of Legends, well… let’s just say that he’s much more than meets the eye.

      More than meets the eye, indeed. Here’s a tentative skill list:

      Carrion Renewal.Passive: Carrion Renewal: Swain gains 150% increased mana regeneration for 5 seconds upon killing a unit. Note: This looks like another great passive

      Decrepify.(Q)Decrepify – Swain sets his raven to cripple an enemy. Over the
      next three seconds, the target of Decrepify takes damage over time and is slowed.

      Nevermove.(W)Nevermove – Swain marks a target area. After a short delay, mighty talons grab hold of enemy units dealing damage and rooting them.

      Ravenous Flock.(E) Ravenous Flock – Swain inspires dread in his enemies by temporarily taking the form of a raven. During this time ravens strike out at up to 3 nearby enemies. Each raven deals damage and heals Swain for the same amount.

      Torment.(R)Torment – Swain afflicts his target, dealing damage over time. Each tick deals additional damage based on a percent of all damage taken from Swain during Torment (this includes the spell’s periodic damage).

      Ravenous Flock.

      Check out the picture of his Ravenous Flock. I am a little surprised that the shapeshift isn’t his ult, but that could be subject to change prior to release. I can’t say I’m crazy about his ult being a simple damage increase, but hopefully it turns out to be a little fun. I can’t wait for this guy to launch.

      Champions, Development, league of legends, News

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