character-selection
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The Summoner's Guidebook: Stop worrying about the LoL metagame
If there's one thing that seems to be fairly static among low and mid-level League of Legends players, it's that they dislike the metagame. If I weren't such an exception (being a kind of bad player overall), I'd say that probably 100% of low-level players challenge the meta. This kind of complaint hits the comments, my email inbox, or IMs all the time: "LoL is so dumb! There are only four viable champs in each role, and the meta is static." The first thing I'd like to point out is that those statements, regardless of variation, are all wrong. LoL as a game changes wildly from patch to patch and season to season, and while the existing Summoner's Rift solo queue metagame is more or less fixed in terms of roles (duo bot, one jungler, a "support" who does not CS in favor of giving it to an ally), none of that applies to premades of three or more players or other game modes. Even between the roles, there's a wide variation in expectations of what those roles should do. Stop blaming the game; think outside the box and start seeing the game for what it really is.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Teaching ourselves LoL matchups
I'm always looking for things to teach players in the Summoner's Guidebook. We have, however, covered a lot of the low hanging fruit in one way or another. In League of Legends, and virtually every other asymmetric competitive game, matchup knowledge comprises the huge bulk of information that is truly useful to read about. This week was originally going to be a counter-Ryze guide, but then I decided to cover a broader topic to help reach more people. I don't really like discussing specific character matchups largely because the character you're using matters almost as much as your opponent's. What does Ryze do against Kassadin in lane, for instance? The answer is not a whole lot if the Kassadin is decent. I could write a counter-Kassadin guide, but a lot of it wouldn't be usable by Ryze. Instead, this week we'll discuss how to think about the opponent's kit and develop a strategy to win on your own (or at least survive).
Breakfast Topic: How many rolls did it take to get your character right?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. A lot of players took a few swings to get their characters right. You might find that that first mage you rolled doesn't really synch with your desire to stab an Ogre with that sword. That Human might have been a bit bland for a game where you could be a goat with face tentacles from space, or a walking slab of USDA-approved beef. I know several people who started playing at the bequest of their friends, made a character, leveled it for a while, only to get the message: "I'm sorry, but your friends are on another server!" It can be a bit jarring, especially if you've leveled into the 40s or 50s when a sizable time investment has been made, but perhaps not enough to justify paying for a server or faction transfer. Mistaken class choices can only be rerolled. I lucked out. My friend who got me into WoW told me exactly which server and faction to start on before I downloaded the trial account. I picked a Human paladin because I loved paladins in Diablo 2 and started on my voyage. The ability to tank fed into my natural tendency to melee things, and sword and shield has always been my favorite aesthetic weapon choice. Others in my guild were less fortunate. Our mage, who played a paladin in beta, rolled a paladin on live servers, only to find that it was completely different than the class he fell in love with in the beta test. He traipsed through a rogue, priest, and hunter before he got around to maining his mage. Our Draenei enhance shaman started out as a Blood Elf paladin who didn't make it past level 40. How about you? Is your main your first toon?
Breakfast Topic: What prompted your class choice?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. You're sitting at your character creation screen, starting a brand new game, maybe with no previous gaming experience at all. Or perhaps you're well-versed in the realms of MMOs, and you have a favorite character archetype already. No matter which applies, we all started at that screen, wondering: What class should I pick? What does class choice even mean? What are tanks? How come this class's armor is so hideous? What on earth is a paladin? For me, I was devouring the manual that came with vanilla WoW as it installed, trying to find a class I'd like. When I stumbled upon druids and the fact that they could turn into bears and kitties (and moonkin, although I didn't know that yet), I was instantly hooked. Later, in the 40-49 bracket of Warsong Gulch, after getting wrecked over and over by warlock DoTs, I thought, "Hey! Warlocks seem OP! I should make one!" And thus, the warlock was born. A guildmate of mine chose a rogue because she'd watch her husband play and he would always exclaim how annoying they were and how much he hated rogues. His anger amused her, so rogue she went! What influenced you? Death Grip looked awesome? You wanted to dispel Hunter's Mark because you hated that graphic (my priest!)? You wanted to shoot huge balls of fire at people? Tell us about it!
The Daily Grind: What do shelved characters think while they wait for us to love them again?
Did you see Toy Story 3? I didn't, but that's because I'm a grown man who's trying to cut down on the number of times that I cry in public. I'll wait for the DVD release, thank you very much, and curl up on my couch sobbing for computer-generated toys who have been somehow possessed with souls and are accompanied by a whimsical soundtrack. Anywhodiddle, the appeal of the Toy Story series is in flipping perspective and seeing the world through a toy's eyes instead of a child's. In a silly yet fun way, it's interesting to speculate on what a toy might think and do when we're not around. Likewise, we might wonder what our MMO toons think while they wait patiently on the character selection screen until we come around again. When we abandon a game for a long stretch of time -- or even forever -- it's not uncommon to feel a pang of guilt at the thought of a lonely avatar sitting there, hoping that we'll come back to join her in further adventures. Pardon for this somewhat whimsical Daily Grind topic today, but if MMO characters had a secret life of their own, what do you think they say and do as they wait for us to return?
Rumor: Super Street Fighter IV getting 10 new characters in total
Every Street Fighter fan site ever perked up its ears late last week when Famitsu held a live streaming demo of Super Street Fighter IV. The administrators and visitors of said sites immediately began to pick the bones of the demo clean of important gameplay details -- the most fascinating of which comes from the above still image of the game's character select screen. The alleyway brawling enthusiasts of EventHubs.com discerned from said image that SSF IV will add 10 new characters to the game's roster -- four of which are still unannounced. You can watch a brief YouTube clip of the Famitsu stream after the jump -- it definitely contains the menu seen above. We've contacted Capcom to find out if these fans' assumptions are accurate.
Improving the character selection screen
I really like this post over at Mend Pet -- after five years in a game's life, no part of the WoW interface should be remiss from getting the occasional update, and they mention possibly the only part of the game (even the login screen's been updated quite a few times) that's been the same since day one, the character selection screen. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with it, as you can choose your character and get into the game. But everything can be better, no?
AoC teases a new character selection screen
Those rapscallions at FunCom must love the power they wield over us -- releasing provocative statements, pushing the live date back -- and now this. According to their site, they've uncovered a never-before-seen character selection video, straight from the dev team. And, while the news was written in a coy manner, it's clear that this is actual information, and that we'll be seeing this screen when the real thing finally hits.Aside from that, it's a straightforward video, if short. It shows three different high-level characters: an Aquilonian Conqueror, a Stygian Herald of Xotli (pictured to the right), and a Cimmerian Barbarian. They all look fantastic, and the level of detail is striking. It's coming, kids ... are you prepared?
Rolling the same toon
When I'm being completely honest with myself, I'm forced to admit that one of the things holding my alts back is that I get dissatisfied with their appearance. Whether it's the limited number of options you get at the character selection screen, or just an overwhelming and completely inexplicable preference for a single character model, I always find myself thinking at some point in an alt's 20's or 30's that I'd take them back to the drawing board if I could. I deleted a level 30 Night Elf Druid in no small part because she bore an uncanny resemblance to Cher, and I am very uncomfortable both with the idea of playing Cher and Cher being able to kill people with Moonfire spam. I'm pretty close to deleting a level 30 Draenei Mage for the same reason. Well, not because she looks like Cher, but something about her appearance just....bugs me.My main is the only character for whom I've never had that impulse, and I don't know why. Female Tauren don't have particularly interesting animations, jokes, or special attacks. They're less plausible (how on earth do they run like that?), less dramatic, and less impressive-looking in endgame armor than their male counterparts. Maybe it's just their distinctively awkward gait -- you can tell it's them from a mile away -- or just that so few people play a Hordeside female who's not a Blood Elf, but I find them hopelessly endearing.So I keep rolling moo-cows. Or, to be accurate, a particular model. Call me boring, but no toon from my growing herd will ever be mistaken for Cher.
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I rolled my class because ...
When you first get World of Warcraft, staring at the race/class selection screen can be a daunting task. There are so many factors to choose from, and you're unlikely to know anything about how the classes really function besides what you read in the manual. And, as you can see by the many people who start out arguments with "I rolled a ____ because the character description said ...", you can sometimes be horribly mistaken about what your class will end up doing. My first class ended up being a druid because "I can be a cat! Cool!" Unfortunately, I was so scared of wasting mana that I hit everything with my staff and quickly grew bored. Also I thought Teldrassil was the entire world and that I was almost finished with the game. After learning a bit more about the game, I rolled a paladin because I could do damage and heal myself. That got scrapped around the time the damage began looking ... not so hot. Finally, my friend's enticements to join the Horde grew too strong to resist. I rolled a rogue for two reasons: I could hide instead of fighting things, and I could steal stuff from people. I also decided on a troll because troll females stand up straight and have mohawks. (Ah, the days before everyone rolled undead for Will of the Forsaken!) As I leveled to 60 and raided MC, BWL and AQ40, I discovered that hiding and stealing may not have been the best reason to roll a rogue. The Twin Emps do not work well with pickpocketing. Other classes, such as druids who want to use their hybrid skills in raids and paladins who bemoan their lack of tanking abilities, claim they were misled at character selection. Why did you pick your character's race and class, and do you have any regrets?
