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League of Legends announces ranked team play, Summoner Spell changes
Riot Games has announced that Season Two will bring ranked team play to the online MOBA title League of Legends. Previously, players have had their own individual gameplay rankings, but starting with the game's Season Two update, teams will be able to form up on either the 5v5 or 3v3 maps, and get their own rankings as a group. Teams will need a captain to create and invite or remove members, and will be able to choose a name and tag to go with their rating. The company is also tweaking the in-game Summoner Spell abilities. The Rally and Fortify spells, which Riot calls "underused," are being removed from play, and in their place will be Surge and Promote. Surge will allow Summoners who chose it to boost themselves up with an aura buff, empowering their champions and anyone around them with extra combat effectiveness. And the Promote spell has made its way over from the Dominion gametype, so players who choose it will be able to beef up a minion in the standard game now. Season Two doesn't have a release date yet, but it will also bring the long-awaited Spectator Mode to the game, which has already been seen on the servers in preview form. Odds are that we don't have too much longer to wait for the full update.
The Daily Grind: What unique class is your favorite?
There are certain classes that are nearly ubiquitous. Even if your game veers toward a class-free system, it's almost inevitable that you'll have a warrior-shaped bundle of abilities that pokes things with sharp weapons until they fall down and die. But while virtually every game has the big four options (fighter, rogue, cleric, and mage by other names), there are also classes resistant to pigeonholing, the sort that only exist within that particular game. Summoners in Final Fantasy XI, Dervishes in Guild Wars, Masterminds in City of Heroes, Wardens in Lord of the Rings Online. While some of the aforementioned classes might have vague counterparts elsewhere, there's nothing else that captures the same feel, and that makes them more memorable in the long run. So what's your favorite unique class (or set of abilities that are loosely shaped like a class) in a game? Are they your favorite class to play, or just the one that felt the most distinct? Do you still play the game in question for that class, or have you since moved on, hoping to one day recapture the fun in a new setting?
Massively's tour of Final Fantasy XI's March update
Eight years doesn't sound like a very long time unless you're talking about MMOs. Then it's the equivalent of dog years, only larger. But Final Fantasy XI has been running for all that time, and the game is still running strong -- and more to the point, bringing out a number of updates, improvements, and other positives for the game. Even as a veteran player, I haven't seen all of the content that's out there -- really, I'd be surprised if I've done much more than scratch the surface. I was given the lucky opportunity to get a guided tour of all the improvements and new content that the game had added with the most recent update, and it's certainly one of the more impressive drops the game has seen. Two entirely new summons, a new quest type, the penultimate missions in Wings of the Goddess, new Notorious Monsters, new areas... it's dwarfing to even consider it. I only had a chance to hit the highlights, and even then it was a lot to cover. So jump on past the cut, and see what's there to be seen.
