twisted-treeline
Latest
Hands-on with MOBA Dawngate's closed beta
Dawngate. Another day, another MOBA, right? So why bother with this one? What does it do differently? What does it do better? Why play this over something else? I can't be the only gamer asking these questions, especially in such an oversaturated market, so I spent my weekend playing EA's Dawngate closed beta for that very reason. Here's how it all works. When entering a match, you'll choose your character and then your preferred role to help coordinate with your group. This isn't just an "I'm going to jungle" icon; it actually provides you certain benefits for playing your role correctly. For example, a "hunter" does bonus damage to jungle NPCs and is healed for a portion of their total health after you kill them.
The Summoner's Guidebook: League of Legends' revamped 3v3 mode
I really liked playing on the Twisted Treeline prior to the recent revamp. It felt like Summoner's Rift lite: a way to practice the key SR skills in a gametype that didn't require quite as much map awareness. Now, League of Legends' 3v3 mode has taken on a different face, and it doesn't feel much like SR -- or any other map, for that matter. I didn't want to comment right away on the new direction for TT. The game mode is new, and the metagame is in its infant stages. People are trying new strategies and builds, and while initially strong tactics have already been discovered, there's no telling whether those tactics will last into the start of Season 3. Any competitive game has points in time when different things are overpowered, and as people discover new counters, the true metagame will start to surface. This week in the Summoner's Guidebook, we'll look at my first experiences in TT and what I think of the new mode. It's starkly different from the old version, and the strategies are not obvious. Is it as broken as the detractors say, or is the meta still coming together?
PSA: New Twisted Treeline map now live in League of Legends
The brand new version of the 3v3 Twisted Treeline map in Riot Games' League of Legends is now live for players. This is no mere tweak: Riot has completely remade one of the game's three modes. As you can see above, there's a new layout and redone art, new map-specific items in the store (no more generic wards!), Dominion-style speed shrines, and special altars with buffs to grab. There's also a new giant spider boss named Vilemaw who, like Baron Nashor, will grant a teamwide bonus when defeated. The map is still in beta right now and is expected to be considered as such for a while, though the new version is being used in ranked Season 3 play already. Twisted Treeline's 3v3 player variant has almost always been part of League of Legends, but with this revamp LoL's millions of players have gained yet another way to experience the game.
