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League of Legends IPL swings into Sin City
Las Vegas is welcoming League of Legends players with open arms as the best of the best compete in the next step of the Challenger Circuit: IPL 4. With $5 million on the line for the season, you can bet that League of Legends players are doing anything and everything they can to get a piece of that action. IPL 4 is taking place from today through Sunday at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Sin City. Over the weekend, eight teams will compete for rankings and a $50,000 pot. The challengers are Team Dignitas, EpikGamer, Counter Logic Gaming, Team Solomid, v8 eSports, Against All Authority, Monomatic eSports, and Curse Gaming. Riot Games says there are still IPL 4 tickets available for those who want to attend in person. For those who can't, there's always the official IPL YouTube channel for long-distance spectating.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Practice makes perfect
If you haven't noticed from previous editions of The Summoner's Guidebook, I emphasize practicing new techniques a lot. Practice is the only thing separating novice League of Legends players from experts. Talent can help speed up the process, but the best summoners are those who work hard to improve their skills. No pro player got to where he is today by playing only one or two games a day. However, merely playing a lot of games doesn't make you a good player. In fact, the wrong kind of practice builds bad habits that are hard to break. When I first got into League of Legends, I knew quite a few people who also played the game. Although a few (who are semi-pro players) are still much better than I am, I became vastly better than the rest of my peers in a very short amount of time. Want to know my secrets? Read on!
The Summoner's Guidebook: I hate Jack-in-the-boxes
Out of all of the characters in League of Legends, Shaco is probably the least fun character to fight against. His traps are highly annoying, fearing you and poking you with damage. He is extremely slippery and hard to kill, striking out of nowhere and disappearing just as quickly. Just when you think you have him, it turns out that was actually his clone and it explodes, netting Shaco yet another kill. "Annoying" is the first word I'd use to describe him, and this is what Shaco wants you to think. He doesn't want you to know his weaknesses, so he keeps you on your toes, constantly afraid of jack-in-the-box traps and invisible backstabs. However, he has weaknesses, and this week, we're going to talk about how to put the killer clown back in his toybox.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Carrying Dominion games
One of the best things about League of Legends' Dominion mode is that individual bad players can't ruin games quite as much as they can on Summoner's Rift. It's true that a bad player is still not going to be as valuable as a good player, but in Classic, a single bad player is often worse than an AFK. It's never fun to lose a game when there's absolutely nothing you can do about Tryndamere feeding the top lane. In Dominion, single players don't contribute quite as much, in general. However, there is an exception: the bottom lane. You'll be hearing me talk about the bottom lane in Dominion a lot. In most games, it's the most important element of the entire map. One player generally holds and controls the lane solo, and his ability to do this job well has more of an outcome on the game than any other individual's skill. A team that wins the bottom lane usually wins the game.
League of Legends talks nerfs and reveals Lulu, the Fae Sorceress
If you can't quite get your daily dose of adorableness with Teemo or Annie, you'll definitely want to pick up League of Legends' next champion, Lulu, the Fae Sorceress. Riot Games revealed Lulu this week with a stunning art spotlight and followed up with a full gameplay reveal and a patch preview video. Lulu is the first true support champion that's been added in quite some time, with abilities that shield and buff allies while slowing enemies. All of Lulu's abilities center around her adorable little faerie companion, Pix, who fires energy bolts at the targets of all her attacks and can be commanded to shield allies or follow enemies to grant vision. Lulu's introduction patch will be arriving with a whole host of balance changes and gameplay tweaks. Ramus will have his effectiveness as a rapidly ganking jungler nerfed with a reduction in his base damage and armour. Shaco's early-game ganking potential has been found to be a bit too strong, while his late game potential is lacking. He'll be rebalanced to make him scale better into the late game. Jax was dying far too easily in teamfights, so developers have swapped the damage and ability power from the active part of his ultimate for additional armour and magic resist. Lifesteal items are also on the chopping block, with the goal of making damage harder to regenerate in a lane. Skip past the cut to watch the full patch preview video in HD.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Dominion isn't ready for ranked
I'm a huge fan of League of Legends' Dominion gametype. One of the complaints I hear regularly is that Dominion doesn't have a ranked mode. Right now, Dominion's highly skilled summoners must choose between "curbstomping pubbies" in blind pick mode or waiting for a year in queue for draft pick mode. A ranked mode would solve these issues, as players would be encouraged to play more and would be able to see improvements in their gameplay. A lot of people don't think that Dominion is ready for ranked. Most of the arguments along these lines have something to do with poor champion balance. What do they mean by "bad balance?" I have a suspicion that many of the complaints stem from a lack of counter-knowledge more than any fault of the developers.
League of Legends retiring classic skins
Get your wallets out, summoners! Four classic League of Legends skins will be retired from the store as of Monday, March 12th. The skins in question are Emerald Taric, Unmasked Kayle, Nightmare Cho'Gath, and Butcher Urgot -- and who doesn't want his favorite slaughter machine dressed up as the friendly neighborhood butcher? While they may make a future reappearance for special events, the vintage skins won't be commonly available anymore. The good news is that for the last weekend they're up for purchase, the skins will be on 75% sale, and the champions they belong to will be on 20% sale until Monday as well.
The Summoner's Guidebook: The game without a meta
It should be no shocker that the Crystal Scar is my favorite League of Legends map. Dominion is a more frantic and dynamic gametype, and it rewards tactical, free-thinking play more than the Classic game mode. The Classic maps reward technical skill and strategic thinking, but they aren't my preferred battlefield. I know a lot of you dear readers feel the same way. Dominion is weird because it doesn't have a real, established metagame. Although cries of "4 top, 1 bottom" can be heard in virtually every match, they rarely hold up for more than a few minutes, and the four top players can be seen running backdoors, ganking bottom, or solo jungle roaming as the game progresses. This is my first attempt at a Dominion overview, but the honest truth is that even the hardcore analyst-types like yours truly struggle to define exactly what wins Dominion games. There's a lot of room for discussion on this one, so let's get started.
The Summoner's Guidebook: It's time to get serious!
One of the things that was baffling for me as a League of Legends noob was the overall tempo of PvP games. In bot matches, I got used to staying in my lane, and I was never sure when it was a good time to meet up with my team or go for objectives. I actually didn't really understand what "mid game" and "late game" actually meant. However, on Summoner's Rift, those terms actually have real meaning. You have different goals in the early, mid, and late game, and if you try to continue laning when you're in the midgame, you're going to run into huge problems, as the entire enemy team is probably ganging up to come and kill you. This week, we're going to talk about the flow of the game on Summoner's Rift, and when you should be switching up your game to accomplish different things.
League of Legends reveals Fiora, The Grand Duelist
If you're fed up with all the recent mage champions added to League of Legends, you'll be happy to know that the next champion due to hit the scene is a true melee carry. Fiora is a competent initiator able to dash around a teamfight picking off fleeing heroes. Fiora's passive causes her to regenerate health every time she hits a target, stacking up to four times if the target is an enemy hero. Her first move, Lunge, is a double-dash that can be used to land a hit and escape, chase down a fleeing target, or initiate teamfights. As if that weren't enough mobility, Burst of Speed gives bonus movement speed for every basic attack or lunge that hits while it's active. Burst of Speed also provides an attack speed boost, and its cooldown resets if Fiora kills an enemy champion. Riposte gives Fiora a massive attack damage buff, causing the next basic attack or spell against her to be reflected back at the attacker. Fiora's ultimate, Blade Waltz, makes her rapidly bounce between nearby enemies, slashing each one for physical damage. Fiora is invulnerable during the move, but could easily be counter-attacked when it ends.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Get back, get back!
Last week, I said I would avoid doing articles on the situational "soft skills" in League of Legends. Well, this week kind of ruins that already. Today we're going to talk about lane positioning, zoning, and harassment. These things are not something I can just give you blanket tips on. There are a lot of nuances involved in good positioning, and every single matchup is completely different. You do not stand in the same places laning against Cassiopeia as you do against Kennen, and those positions change depending on which character you're playing, too. Even though there is a lot of matchup-specific knowledge involved in lane positioning, there are some general tips I can provide. This week I'm going to only teach you about the basics of lane safety but give you some dirty mindgame tricks that will absolutely ruin your opponents. Interested? Read on!
Rumble Between the Junglers: How the DotA fight began
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Mathew McCurley takes you through the world running parallel to the games we love and enjoy, full of rules, regulations, and esoteroic topics that slip through the cracks. Defense of the Ancients is a genre all unique to itself. Sure, the concepts are not brand new and the bulk of the original game was created using the Warcraft III World Editor, but the lasting appeal and standing reverence of the DotA genre continues today and shows no sign of slowing down. Part tower defense, part real-time strategy unit movement, this game type has experienced astounding growth all over the world over the last decade. As the genre grows, Defense of the Ancients-style games, or MOBAs (multiplayer online battle arenas), or ARTS (action real-time strategy), or... wait... what are we calling this genre? My initial reaction to the entire naming fiasco was wonderfully summed up by Joystiq's own JC Fletcher: "Which giant company has the rights to the fan-created, community-promoted word 'Dota?'" He's right to be cynical -- justice will be meted out over a word that was born in the Blizzard maps community because of the actions of two super-huge gaming companies. That's not all there is to the story, however. Therein lies the crux of the hot topic of the day -- Blizzard has finally thrown in its opposition of Valve's attempt to trademark the name Dota for its upcoming release of DOTA 2, a literal successor to the original DotA throne. The problem is that there are a whole bunch more facts, people, and anecdotes in this story than most people know. I wrote a short post on the Dota trademark issue a few days ago that served as the basic of basics, what the news was about. Here's the short version: Valve is attempting to trademark a name that many gamers (and companies) consider to be a general term for the genre rather than the proper name for the game that spawned the genre. Hell, it could be both.
The Summoner's Guidebook: I suck at last-hitting
Given all of the fansites dedicated to League of Legends, you might wonder what kind of content I have planned for The Summoner's Guidebook to set it apart. Fortunately, there are quite a few little niches to cover. Our focus with the column will be on the beginner to intermediate players and improving key elements of lower-level play. While I do recognize and admire the pro League scene, websites like SoloMid.net and Curse Gaming's new LoLPro.com have tons of advice to push your gameplay from the expert levels of play to the master and professional levels. This week, we're going to start with the basics of laning well. While there are dozens of guides on how to do this, I want to cover them in the Guidebook because their importance can't be stressed enough. Laning fundamentals are something you should practice in every game, even as you learn new strategies or tactics. If you can commit yourself to constantly improving in this area, you'll see dramatic leaps in your ability to play. These tricks are the hardest skills in the game to improve on, so getting better at them gives you a significant edge over most opponents. If you want to take the first steps to improve your LoL game, you'll have to read on.
League of Legends reveals Nautilus, announces Sona nerf
Riot Games adds a new champion to League of Legends' growing roster every few weeks to keep the game fresh, and this week Riot revealed the game's next champion Nautilus, the Titan of the Depths. Nautilus is a tank with a unique initiation ability: He throws his massive anchor toward a target, and then drags himself toward the anchor. His abilities encourage spreading damage around during team fights, with his passive adding bonus damage to his first attack against a champion every twelve seconds and immobilising them slightly. A shield ability and area-effect damage spells make Nautilus a dangerous tank to be near during team fights. A number of gameplay and balance changes will be coming in the Nautilus patch. Shen is getting a complete ability set retuning to make him scale better to late game, and let him function better as as tank. It's been a long time coming, but unsurprisingly LoL's dominant support champion Sona is due for a few nerfs in the upcoming patch. The mana regenerated by Soraka's Infuse will be increased but she'll no longer be able to cast it on herself to essentially have limitless mana. Nerfs are also on the way for Vladimir, aimed at decreasing his early game presence without disrupting his fun gameplay. Check out the full patch preview video after the cut for more details.
The Summoner's Guidebook: A community guide to League of Legends
Greetings, summoners, and welcome to the first installment of the Summoner's Guidebook! For a new player, the Guidebook is a one-stop-shop to gaining familiarity with the various elements of League of Legends. For the more advanced players, we'll also be covering ways to improve on weak areas of your play and how to deal with the toughest of matchups. I was a new player once, and I remember being extremely daunted by the number of things I needed to learn to be competitive in LoL. Although the journey from newbie to expert was long and difficult, I learned a lot about common mistakes and how to reduce them. If you're looking to step up your game or if you're just getting into the League, the Summoner's Guidebook is the place for you to learn without being treated like you're a noob. This week, we're going to cover the community resources available to you. There are a lot of websites dedicated to League of Legends, and it would be foolish to assume that this column is the only place to get advice on the game. If there's something I haven't covered yet or there's a topic I'm unfamiliar with, you can be sure that one of these places will have the info you're looking for. This article can't possibly cover all the League fansites on the internet (there are probably hundreds), but I can focus on the ones with the best information.
See League of Legends' Ziggs in action -- he'll blow you away
It's Ziggs week at League of Legends as Riot Games pours out the love for this hexplosives-flinging gremlin. A new Champion Spotlight video gives a good overview of this character, highlighting Ziggs' bomb-happy skills and key strategies for success. If being a Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight appeals to your playstyle, check out the video to see if Ziggs is your soulmate. As part of the Ziggs celebration, there are two new skins for him in the store -- Major Ziggs and Mad Scientist Ziggs -- as well as a special skin for Poppy (Scarlet Hammer Poppy). Check out the Champion Spotlight video after the cut and make sure to read up on Ziggs in our previous coverage of this new character!
League of Legends reveals Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert
If you're a fan of League of Legends' cute, fuzzy, and distinctly psychotic yordles, you're in for a treat this week! Riot Games has revealed the game's next champion, a furry little yordle who's as adorable as he is deadly. Ziggs the Hexplosives Expert may look innocent enough, but he'd just as sooner drop a bomb in your lap than give you a hug. In a new gameplay reveal, developers give us a look at each of Ziggs' abilities, some screenshots of him in combat, and a dose of lore to blend the new champion into LoL's ever-growing roster. Ziggs is able to throw a bouncing bomb, set up a delayed satchel charge and scatter proximity mines across the ground that detonate on contact. His ultimate ability, the aptly named Mega Inferno Bomb, is essentially a long-range portable nuke that deals massive damage to those inside the primary blast radius. All of these abilities add up to make Ziggs a scary little damage-dealer to come up against in a match. The Ziggs patch will bring with it a number of additional balance changes, including the removal of the critical strike mastery in the offense tree, a buff coming to Jax, and a significant nerf heading for Lee Sin players. Check out the Ziggs patch preview video after the break for more details.
League of Legends update bringing sharper AI, new bots
League of Legends is well known for its challenging team-based gameplay and its rather steep learning curve, leading many users to play co-operatively against AI in order to hone their skills. In addition, co-op vs. AI is "the primary game mode for a surprisingly large percentage of users" according to senior producer Mark Norris. In light of this, Riot Games is bringing a huge new update to League of Legends' AI matches. For starters, Riot will be introducing AI bots for a whopping 40 of the game's champions, allowing players to test their mettle against a wider variety of opponents. In addition, the AI itself is in for an update that will allow bots to behave more like their human counterparts by utilizing predictive targeting for skillshots (such as Ashe's ultimate) and employing a great deal more strategy than the current bots. Of course, there are still some things that bots can't do (such as intelligent jungling), but Norris suggests "that's actually a huge advanced area that we do want to look at and get into, that we're in the the real rudimentary stages of trying to figure out right now." For the full details on what awaits players in the upcoming AI update, just click on through the link below and read the full story.
League of Legends updates co-op vs. AI mode, more improvements coming
When Riot Games first announced that it was adding the ability to play co-operatively against AI bots to League of Legends, it expected it to be used by noobs, says producer Mark Norris. "When we put it out there, we put it out there with sort of the sole intent of having new players get an introduction to League of Legends."But what the company found was that the game mode, which takes some of the human element out of the MOBA genre's relatively steep learning curve, was actually being used by all sorts of players. "One thing that kept coming up was the majority of the people who play League of Legends will play, every week, at least one co-op vs. AI game. And it's actually the primary game mode for a surprisingly large percentage of players."With that insight, then, it's probably not surprising to hear that Riot is updating the co-op vs. AI game mode, enabling AI bots for 40 of the game's champion characters, as well as adding play on the Dominion game mode to the mix.
League of Legends' Sivir draws second blood
With a nickname like "Battle Mistress," it's a safe bet that League of Legends' Sivir isn't the docile, domesticated type. Sporting heavy ranged damage and the ability to hit multiple targets at once, Sivir has been a popular champion over the past couple years. This week, Riot Games is turning the spotlight on Sivir with an informative six-minute video highlighting her abilities and strategies. Sivir is a strong pusher and excels in fights with many combatants. She's a good pick for those who aren't as concerned with precision and one-on-one strength but instead love to rack up large numbers in the middle of chaos. It's interesting to note that Sivir already enjoyed a Champion Spotlight on the LoL site, but since she got a makeover in 2010, Riot felt that it was important to give her another moment in the limelight. You can watch the full video after the jump!
