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The Summoner's Guidebook: Staying positive in League of Legends
This is the last issue of the Summoner's Guidebook for the time being. I hate to leave, but unfortunately things are out of everyone's hands. So before I go, I will give you my final lesson: the way to be the best League of Legends players you can be. I played my first game of Hexakill last week, and it was terrible. I was jungle Shyvana, and we had a duo top plus otherwise standard lanes. All of my lanes lost. Our Ryze went 0 and 6 against the enemy Syndra. The enemy Riven had something like 11 kills in the midgame with over 26 by the end. I was the only one not behind; our bottom lane was losing, but not terribly. We won that game. Some of that victory comes from the enemy screwing up. I will fully admit that if the enemy had played properly in the midgame, we would have lost. However, even with the enemy's mistakes, we were tens of thousands of gold and several towers behind. How is a comeback like that even possible? Here's how: Stay positive and always look for the silver lining.
The Summoner's Guidebook: My goals in League of Legends
Whenever I enter a League of Legends match, I have a few goals set in mind. Of course, winning is a goal, but that's not the only goal. My agenda tends to be a lot more long-term, relative to other LoL players. We've talked a lot about meta lately, and it tends to be a hot topic with Season 4's preseason patches shaking up the meta quite a bit. There are a lot of reasons to justify not playing meta. There are also a lot of reasons to take risky decisions that might not pan out.
The Stream Team: Stacking friends in Dota 2
When it comes to MOBAs, teamwork is everything. Adventuring into the solo queue in a game like Dota 2 is an invitation for pain and suffering; stacking a couple of friends in a party results in a much more successful (and fun) experience. Tune in tonight as Massively's Mike Foster recruits a few of his Dota 2 friends and takes a more team-based approach to Valve's immensely popular title. The action starts at 7:00 p.m. EST. Game: Dota 2 Host: Mike Foster Date: Friday, January 3rd, 2014 Time: 7:00 p.m. EST Enjoy our Steam Team video below.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Avoiding LoL's wombo combos
If you've played League of Legends for while, you've probably been on both ends of a wombo combo. This amusing term describes what happens when two characters combine their simultaneous murdering efforts. You know you've hit with a wombo combo if your opponent dies to your combined assault without ever getting a chance to do anything except die. In LoL, wombo combos require quite a bit of setup. All participants need to be within striking distance of the enemy, or one of the attackers needs to pull the victim into his friends. Because of the limitations on positioning, most wombo combos are avoidable.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Bringing power from one LoL lane to another
In most of the League of Legends games that I win by a landslide, I win because my mid lane takes an early lead and uses it to help win our other lanes. Lately, my main role in League of Legends has been the jungler, and while it's nice to be fed as a jungler, I often can't win the game for my team even if I'm 6/0. However, my mid lane can simply by making things happen elsewhere. If you're ahead in your lane, you have to make your presence known, and sooner is better than later. It's nice to be 2/0 in mid lane or be up several kills as the support. However, if all you do from there is push the enemy team members to their turret and let them farm safely, you're not doing much to win the game as a whole.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Working with your LoL lane partner
The duo lane is the most strategically interesting lane in League of Legends, but that also makes it complex to play. In a solo lane, you have to think about only your abilities and your opponent's. In a duo lane, the interplay between ADC/marksman and support makes every situation different. I've talked about playing ADC and support already. Both roles are vital, but whether you're the guy with the gun or you're putting the enemy on lockdown, working with your teammate is the most important thing you can do to win the game.
The Summoner's Guidebook: How to get through a LoL teamfight alive
It feels good to be back to writing strategy articles about League of Legends. When I play a lot, I want to punch out words about what I'm thinking about, and while covering a tournament is exciting, I really enjoy teaching fundamentals a lot more. This week we're going to cover teamfighting again. You guys might remember some things about teamfighting from me a while back, including a basic primer and a guide on positioning. I feel that my understanding of teamfighting -- and perhaps more importantly, my ability to communicate it -- has improved a lot since then. Some of that is from watching tournament matches and listening to others talk about teamfighting, but a lot of it is from watching pro streams and hearing what is going on in a top player's head too. This edition of The Summoner's Guidebook is a continuation of both of the previous teamfighting articles, and I suggest reading them too as the information there is still useful. I definitely recommend going back and reading them after you've finished reading this if you haven't already.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Support in League of Legends doesn't mean healing
Out of all the roles in League of Legends, support is the most misunderstood. People expect supports to be similar to healing classes in other games, the kinds of characters who knit sweaters and cook dinner while the real warriors go out and fight on the front lines. When people first learn about the metagame, they often have the mistaken impression that because the support doesn't farm, there are fewer expectations of the playstyle. However, supports are less like MMO healers and more like the shortstop in baseball. He's not a baseman, but that gives him flexibility to be where a baseman can't be. He's constantly in the thick of the action, and his team regularly relies on him to make plays. In League, the support's freedom from farming gives her the freedom to roam, to fish for aggressive opportunities and shut down the enemy. She can even wander into mid lane or the enemy jungle in search of these opportunities. Far from a shrinking violet, the support is one of the biggest playmakers on her team. I got my start in LoL playing support, and it's a role I inherently understand well. I'm not really happy making aggressive lane plays and would prefer to relax and let my mechanics win my games for me (hence why I like ADC), but when thrust into the role of playmaker, I do reasonably well. For team leaders or just people who like to make others play by their rules, support is the role of choice.
Officers' Quarters: 5 arguments for guild halls
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. A few weeks ago, a Twitter user named Quentin Charton asked Ghostcrawler whether WoW could eventually have guild housing. Ghostcrawler's reply was "We worry that guild housing is only content for the guild leaders." If implemented properly, I think guild halls could be a home run for WoW. Here are five reasons why. 1. Guild leaders and officers deserve in-game rewards. Ghostcrawler doesn't want to create content just for guild leaders. My question is, why not? Leading a guild is not easy. It requires making sacrifices, both in-game and in the real world, since it takes time and energy. Don't guild leaders and their officers deserve a few small in-game perks? I agree that the entire guild hall experience shouldn't be for officers only. However, a guild hall could have a special place in it for officers. You could call it something simple like, say, off the top of my head . . . the "Officers' Quarters." This location would have a few small bonuses for them, like a flask vending machine you can use once a day (like Blingtron). Such a perk would be a welcome thank you to the players who make all the best group content in WoW happen.
The Summoner's Guidebook: The little stories League of Legends creates
Recently, one of you guys asked to see more personal stories showcasing my experiences in League of Legends. Normally I'm not as fond of doing that sort of thing unless there's a moral in the story somewhere. I like teaching, so that is what the Guidebook does a lot of. The column's name is the Summoner's Guidebook for that reason, after all! However, I was thinking about it when I was playing last week, and I ended up playing a really great unranked, blind pick game. The outcome was very close, and the overall dynamics of the game were a firm reminder of why I play League of Legends. There was no "mid or feed." It began with good communication by our team and good sportsmanship by both teams at the end. In my mind, that makes this story one worth sharing with you.
The Summoner's Guidebook: LoL melts special snowflakes
Never let it be said that I don't listen to feedback. Recently, one of you readers suggested that I write about following the metagame, and I thought, "Hey, why not?" This was largely spawned by the Penny Arcade comic suggesting that somehow, a player should pick the champion he wants without regard for what his team needs. Who actually believes that this is a good thing to do? League of Legends is a team game. Characters in LoL are designed with strengths and weaknesses. It is not only important but natural to pick characters that fit together. The natural evolution of this thought process is the metagame: a series of standard roles that characters can fill on a team. I've talked about meta before, and you guys seem to have differing opinions than I do. "Meta is for the sheep," you say. I don't think that picking the right man for the job makes you a sheep. I think of it more like running with the pack rather than being a lone wolf.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Teaming up to fight in League of Legends
Grouping up to fight enemies together is a concept that is old as history itself. Numerous treatises on group warfare have been written, ranging from small unit tactics to battle strategies involving hundreds of thousands or millions of combatants. A lot of the same principles of combat that are used in warfare are applicable to games and especially to team-based PvP games like League of Legends. It might not be readily apparent how ideas like the mission of a Marine rifle team might apply to a five-player team in LoL, but there are more similarities than you think. The tools are different -- for example, games use different means to suppress the enemy than real soldiers -- but the tactics are surprisingly similar. This week, we're going to cover the beginning of a fight. Starting a fight at an advantage is important element in victory, as the opening seconds of a battle matter the most. If you can leverage an advantage early on in a fight, you can snowball that advantage into a decisive win.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Good team composition for League of Legends Dominion
I would have loved to cover the IGN Pro League 5 this week, but at the time of this writing it is still ongoing. I'll do a brief overview of it next week, but its timing didn't mesh well with the timing of the Guidebook. I've been playing a lot of Dominion lately, and as many readers of the Summoner's Guidebook know, it's the gametype I focus my skills on. I try to build knowledge of League of Legends' other maps, including Summoner's Rift and the Proving Grounds/ARAM, but Dominion is definitely my focus right now (I haven't played much of the beta Twisted Treeline, so coverage of that will have to wait). One thing that really bothers me about Dominion, particularly as I creep into high level play, is that people still randomly pick champions without regard for a strategy. While I do think my overall skill has improved a lot, a major reason that I win 60-70% of my matches is because I look for where my team is deficient and pick a champion to cover that area. As you escalate into the intermediate levels of Dominion skill, a good arsenal of champions to fill roles can be a huge asset. This week, we'll look at some of the possible roles and compositions and some good champions to pick up to fill those roles.
The Summoner's Guidebook: League of selfishness
Even though League of Legends' new Honor Initiative has greatly improved the conduct of summoners as a whole, I've become very frustrated with "selfish" player behavior as of late. I've been playing a lot of ARAMs inbetween Dominion matches lately, and both game modes give rise to the same problems: impatient players who are too hungry for blood. Killing enemy champions is given a lot of incentive in LoL, and players often put themselves in awful situations that end up putting their whole team at risk of defeat just to get a single kill. This "blood in the eyes" phenomenon is pervasive across the entirety of League, but it is especially common in ARAM. This week, I'm going to look at this kind of selfish behavior and cover some ways you can focus on more team-friendly actions. No, this doesn't mean giving me all the kills. It just means playing for the benefit of everyone and not just for your own personal pride.
The Daily Grind: What's your ideal group size?
Every MMO lets you team up with other players. This is unsurprising when you consider that it's one of the main selling points of the genre. But there's always an upward limit, and there are always target team sizes that the game bases content around. Content is largely designed in World of Warcraft to target groups of five, Guild Wars tailors most of its content for groups of eight, and Final Fantasy XI expects a team of six. But each of these games also provides content for more variable sizes. Today's question isn't whether or not you like teaming up; it's about what your ideal majority size would be. Do you generally prefer to have a group of three? Groups of two? Groups of five? How many people do you like to party up with on a regular basis? Or would you prefer that most content simply scaled to the number of participants involved? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Acrobatic quadrocopters hunt in packs, seduce you into submission (video)
We've kept a pretty stern eye on the development of GRASP Lab's quadrocopters, and with good reason it seems, now that the four-bladed aerial ninjas have even more alarming abilities at their disposal. In the video after the break, watch them hold a variety of complex formations like it's no thing -- even while on the move. The 'copters can also take flight, or resume position, after being thrown into the air, navigating real world obstacles with deft fluidity. It's part of University of Pennsylvania's Scalable sWarms of Autonomous Robots and Mobile Sensors project (conveniently SWARMS for short), which is responsible for developing the air-born acrobats' new grouping skills. They say it's an attempt to replicate swarming habits in nature, though we're not convinced.
Wings Over Atreia: What's in it for me?
That does it. No more Ms. Nice Wings. This time I am just going to unleash! Let my rant all hang out. Admittedly, I am not normally one to complain; I can see the good in most every situation, and I can roll with the punches like it's an Olympic event. But even my feathers get ruffled sometimes. It's true! And sometimes you just can't bite your tongue anymore or all you will have is a very sore tongue. Now I know I am not a rant-master like Jef, but even fledgling ranters must begin somewhere. And this week, I found just such a place: immature, self-serving, can't-pull-their-thumbs-outta-their-ears-unless-there-is-something-in-it-for-them-gamers in Aion. You know the type -- those who think the world revolves around them. Those whose spoiled-rotten antics ruin groups and legions alike and who are the reason why many a block list is so full. They without whom drama would die a quick death and be a forgotten plague. They're the bane of chat channels everywhere -- they are the trolls. Throw yourself past the cut for a look at some recent Aion tantrums and sure-fire ways to minimize the effects of blatant immaturity. Careful, though -- I cannot be held responsible for any resemblance to gamers near you.
Quadrocopters juggle balls cooperatively, mesmerize with their lethal accuracy (video)
You've seen one quadrocopter juggle a ball autonomously while gliding through the air, but how's about a pair of them working cooperatively? Yeah, we've got your attention now. The Zurich-based lab that brought us the piano-playing and ball-bouncing quadrocopter is back with a simply breathtaking display of robotic dexterity and teamwork. Like all mad scientists, they call their Flying Machine Arena research "an experiment," though we see it a lot more as a Pong-inspired dance of our future overlords. We all know how far video games have come since two paddles batted a ball between one another, right?
Quadrocopters learn to build things, when will humans learn to fear them? (video)
The GRASP Lab quadrocopters were impressive enough by themselves, all slashing and swooping through the air with unerring precision, but then their makers had to go and give them the intelligence to work in groups and today the inevitable has happened: they've learned how to construct things! Sure, the structures are rudimentary, but we can recognize the beginnings of human containment cells when we see them. Skip past the break for the bone-chilling, teamwork-infused video.
Five tips on being a better agent in Global Agenda
When it comes to action-based shooters like Global Agenda, gear is good but skill is better. Way better. Even the most technologically endowed enemies can come crashing down with a little teamwork and creative ingenuity. But if you're new to the game, new to action-based shooters, or just not doing so hot in your PvP matches, then you might need some help. That's where we come in. After playing a huge amount of PvP, PvE, and a decent amount of AvA in Global Agenda, I've found that many players make a few common mistakes. So, while I know this article will result in more deaths for me, I want to help all of you avoid these common mistakes and play a better game.
