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The Summoner's Guidebook: Learning to help your jungler in League of Legends
I've been doing quite a bit of jungling lately in League of Legends. Jungling is hard, and one of the keys to being successful as a jungler is simply out of your hands: Your lanes need to play as if there were junglers in the game. I've played a jungler in countless games in which there was nothing to gank at all because my lanes played without regard for whether a jungler might come into lane. I'm not a pro jungler. Out of all of LoL's myriad roles, jungling is my second weakest (after mid lane). Rather than give advice on something I'm really bad at, I'd rather talk about jungling from the lane perspective. This week in The Summoner's Guidebook, we'll talk about the jungler's role and how you can help your jungler out. It isn't a simple matter, but I've been taking notes over the week about things that frustrated me and things that worked out for the best.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Will Korea dominate League of Legends, too?
When I first started following the League of Legends pro scene, I was introduced to top teams like Team Solo Mid and SK Gaming. As I watched matches and player interviews, the first thing that came to my mind was this: If Korea fielded a LoL pro team, it would be incredibly scary. When Riot Games added support for Korean League of Legends and OnGameNet began running regular tournaments, I had to check it out. Sure enough, big pro-gaming teams like StarTale and MiG started fielding pro League teams, and most of the things I suspected were true. Korean teams have amazing coordination and incredible mechanics compared to their western counterparts. This was put to the test last weekend during Major League Gaming's LoL Summer Arena, where Korean qualifying team Azubu Blaze utterly destroyed the other teams, losing only once to Curse Gaming. Most of the matches weren't even close. What's the secret to Azubu Blaze's dominance? Can it be reproduced in the West, or is League of Legends going to end up like StarCraft -- dominated by the Korean scene?
The Summoner's Guidebook: Is League of Legends' grind too much for a competitive game?
League of Legends has had one of the most meteoric ascensions of any current e-sport. From the first tournaments of season one to tomorrow's MLG Summer Arena, LoL has made a bigger splash in the e-sports community than any title launched since StarCraft II. However, the long grind to get to summoner level 30 poses a difficult barrier of entry for players looking to someday join the pros. It isn't necessary to grind levels to unlock +3 infantry weapons in StarCraft, so gating runes and masteries behind a grind seems a bit ridiculous. I've thought that the forced grind was excessive since I started playing LoL. I'm not opposed to having a grind at all, but I've always thought it was silly that levels and runes can't be purchased with real money. Are levels and grinds bad for a competitive game like League of Legends, or does the grind actually improve the quality of player skill at the higher levels?
The Summoner's Guidebook: I suck at middle lane in LoL
There are five roles on Summoner's Rift, and I play four with reasonable competency. Support is my strongest role; I'm cautious and attentive and I like warding. Also, I don't have to last-hit, a role at which I feel my skills are a bit deficient compared to the rest of my skillset. Despite feeling deficient at last-hitting, though, I actually play carry fairly well, given my current matchmaking rating. I am virtually always ahead in creep score compared to my opponents, and if an ally in my lane gives up first blood, it is almost always my jungler grasping at an opportunity that is not there. I've always been decent at solo top, I've recently learned how to jungle, and my jungling has been directly responsible for my team's victories quite frequently. There is one role in League of Legends' Classic gametype I'm not so good with, and that's solo mid. I'm not even an apologist for it, really. People fight over mid lane often enough that I've really never felt the need to field champions that play there. Many of my friends also specialize in mid lane champs. Although I feel my Classic skills are a bit on the weak side, solo mid is a special deficiency for me. Can we improve it? Let's find out!
The Summoner's Guidebook: Why big metagame changes to League of Legends could be bad
It's fairly common knowledge now that League of Legends is undertaking a massive rework of its two permastealth champions, Evelynn and Twitch, in the next big patch. These changes were desperately needed. Evelynn was in horrible shape; she's the least-selected champion in the game by far, and her gameplay needed a tremendous amount of work. Twitch was in better shape, but he was a poor selection on Summoner's Rift for either of his two roles (jungle and carry). Twitch was considered a strong pick on Dominion, however. Riot Games chose to completely rework these two champions, weakening Twitch's stealth aspects in order to make him a more normal carry. Evelynn was completely reworked, and she is so much different from her old self that she's basically a new character. Both of these champions are still "weird," however; despite the changes, neither character exemplifies any element of the current metagame. I think that this is sort of dangerous. Riot has already introduced one very weird champion recently that has turned out to be viable (if not strong), Jayce. The stealth rework patch will also be succeeded by Zyra, who has very weird caster/pet mechanics. With all of these dramatic meta changes, League will become very unpredictable, especially at the middle levels of skill where I reside. I think that this is somewhat of a bad thing.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Is League of Legends sexist?
The portrayal of female characters is a popular topic on the League of Legends official forums. People are very enthusiastic about their opinions of the League's female champions, most of whom are drawn to emphasize their sex appeal. Rather than focus on that, though, I'd like to home in on whether the League is an equal-opportunity workplace. Are women fairly represented in all roles, or is there a gender bias? This week, we'll look at the various roles that can be played in both gametypes and ask the important question: Are men and women fairly represented?
The Summoner's Guidebook: Balancing League of Legends' offense and defense items
Last week, we talked specifically about building League of Legends' attack damage champions and the multiplicative effects the various bonuses have on these heroes. Building attack items is fairly cut and dried. The good attack damage items (IE, BT, PD, LW) are common to most pure AD builds, and there's not a lot of reason to heavily deviate from building them. Defense is another story, however. In Dominion, defense is more heavily itemized than in Summoner's Rift simply because irregular engagements happen constantly. On Summoners' Rift, there is more structure to specific engagements, and a single champion getting spotted out of place either results in an epic bait or a brutal gank. In those situations, defense doesn't help much. However, it's important to itemize defense in any game mode, and in Dominion, it is outright critical. Building only damage items will cause your champion to get melted by enemy attacks very early on, while building defense allows you to play more aggressively and capitalize on damage opportunities with less risk. Building defense is also important for bruisers who must close the gap to melee range, which inevitably means taking more damage than normal. Want to know all about the best time to start building tank? Read on!
The Summoner's Guidebook: Items and runes for League of Legends' attack damage champions
Attack damage is a universal thing for most League of Legends champions to build. Even characters that do not normally build AD are commonly played as AD in "joke builds." AD champions also have some of the widest variety of items available. There are a fair number of caster and tank items and a handful of hybrid items, but items that bolster physical attacks are everywhere. This can cause some confusion in what to build, and today we're going to talk about what gives you the most bang for your buck. This article will focus heavily on offense rather than defense for AD champions. We'll cover defense in a later week.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Stopping the endless rage in League of Legends
Tryndamere is one of the most overrated champions in League of Legends. This is not to say he's a bad champion; he's a strong pick in both Summoner's Rift and Dominion. However, he's considered by many players to be overpowered and nigh-unbeatable. He has a combination of two elements that contribute to this: He's easy to play and hard to counter. An inexperienced player can get a lot of success by being a huge bully as Tryndamere. I find this to be unacceptable! Tryndamere's rage is hardly endless, and dealing with him is one of the best early matchups to learn. Once you know how to deal with his tricks, he's much weaker, and you can walk all over him. People who rely on Tryndamere's gimmicks to win games will be stopped cold once you've mastered the counters.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Why last-hitting is important
We've covered last-hitting quite a bit in previous editions of the Summoner's Guidebook. However, a lot of people new to the MOBA scene don't understand the importance of last-hitting. I don't mean that they don't understand the importance of the action within the game; I'm sure we all understand that getting gold is a good thing. But last-hitting is important from a design perspective too. I think League of Legends (and MOBA games in general) are better because last-hitting is a part of the game. I didn't always feel this way, of course. When I was a MOBA nooblet, I thought last-hitting was an unnecessary PvE element in a competitive PvP game, and it took away from the game's clear objective: taking enemy turrets. When I really sank my teeth into LoL, last-hitting finally clicked. It's a really critical element of the genre, and this week, I'll explain why.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Dealing with Heimerdinger
When I was a League of Legends nooblet, I latched onto Heimerdinger during a free week and found him really fun. He was my first taste of bottom lane Dominion play, and he contributed a lot to my early wins. I felt pretty invincible as bottom lane Heimerdinger, and while he was highly gankable, I used it as a way to practice flashing to escape. A lot of my mid-levels were gained by playing Heimerdinger. In Dominion, he's a strong bottom pick, though he has a lot of weaknesses that can be exploited. On Summoner's Rift, he's a strange pick that nobody knows where to place. We'll talk about either case this week and some things you can do to handle them.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Improving your game through spectator mode
I love spectator mode. Since the patch introducing it to League of Legends, I've had the opportunity to observe top-level players and even my own friends. If you ever wanted to learn how to play like a pro, you now have your chance. High-level games of Summoner's Rift are just a few mouse clicks away, and if you're a little mentally fatigued from playing the game, you can sit back and enjoy some high-level play. It was one of the best updates thus far for League. Watching high-level streams or spectating high-level games can dramatically improve your game if you know what to look for. This week, we're going to cover some of the ways you can improve your game by stealing strategies and techniques from top players.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Putting together a good team composition
Although it would be nice to win all our games on the merits of skill alone, a lot of matches of League of Legends are won or lost at the character select screen. While individual champion balance is always in flux, the synergies between champions matters far more. This week in the Summoner's Guidebook, I'll give you some advice on picking characters that complement your team's strengths. Remember that a champion is only as good as you can play him or her, and a better champion doesn't ensure victory -- it just makes victory more likely. This is League of Legends, though, and we should take every advantage we can get.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Improving our skillshot dodging skills
Although the term "skillshot" was a new word for me when I started playing League of Legends, the concept of avoidable attacks is something that is very intuitive for even novice gamers. Skillshot is just a fancy term that roughly means "dodgable attack" in MOBA games. Although the official terminology sometimes differentiates between ground-targeted AoE and true skillshots (which are generally projectiles or groups of projectiles), that distinction is not really necessary for us. If it can be evaded, we'll call it a skillshot. Dodging skillshots is something that is fairly easy to develop skill for. It takes only a little bit of mental effort to dramatically improve your ability to evade them. It's also a skill that can always be improved with practice. We can always react to them faster or predict them more reliably. This makes it a good area to improve on because we can always get better.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Upping my kill-death ratio
Those of you who have been reading WRUP know that I've been playing a lot of Kassadin lately. He's an assassin with a very high skill cap, and he's ridiculously powerful in Dominion. Kassadin is also kind of hard to play. He has a lot of strange mechanics, and his powerful tricks are somewhat unintuitive. Recently, I had a small epiphany that dramatically improved my skill. This improvement improved more than just my Kassadin game; it boosted my overall skill level with every champion in League of Legends. Before I made this development, I was performing terribly. I ended up playing a lot of bot matches because I felt my execution with Kassadin was really awful, and every time I went back to PvP games, I felt more and more behind. Suddenly, after a string of bad decisions cost me a match, I realized something I was doing wrong and went on to begin dominating. I went from getting focused down early every fight to utterly demolishing teams and causing enemy players to second-guess fighting me 1v1 even with both of us full on life. What's the secret, you ask? I'd like to tell you, so read on!
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.
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.
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.
