tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44726042812542891192024-09-16T20:38:29.309-07:00Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-22131877179426209512011-08-08T19:44:00.001-07:002011-08-08T19:44:32.868-07:00<b><u>New Skins in the Store</u></b><br /> <ul><li>Sandscourge Skarner</li> <li>Earthrune Skarner</li> <li>Bloodstone Taric</li> </ul><br /> <b><u>PVP.net Store</u></b><ul><li>Added a Purchases tab that contains a history of all your purchases</li> </ul><br /> <b><u>PVP.net v1.41.17</u></b><ul><li>Players will now receive a popup message when they attempt to join a game lobby that is already full</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Summoner icons were displaying incorrectly in chat rooms</li> <li>Fixed a bug where All Random Mode in Custom Games was not correctly selecting your previously used skin for a Champion</li> </ul><br /> <b><u>League of Legends v1.0.0.123</u></b><br /> <b>Skarner, The Crystal Vanguard</b><ul><li>Crystal Slash: Skarner lashes out with his claws, dealing physical damage to all nearby enemies and charging himself with Crystal Energy for several seconds if a unit is struck. If he casts Crystal Slash again while empowered by Crystal Energy, he deals bonus Magic Damage and slows all targets hit.</li> <li>Crystalline Exoskeleton: Skarner gains a shield and while the shield persists his movement speed and attack speed are both increased.</li> <li>Fracture: Skarner summons a blast of crystalline energy which deals damage to enemies struck and marks them. Any further damage dealt to marked targets by Skarner will allow him to consume the mark to heal himself.</li> <li>Impale (Ultimate): Skarner suppresses an enemy champion and deals magic damage to it. During this time, Skarner can move freely and will drag his helpless victim around with him. When the effect ends, Skarner's target will be dealt additional damage.</li> <li>Energize (Passive): Basic attacks lower the cooldowns of Skarner's abilities by 1 second against champions and 0.5 seconds against non-champions.</li> </ul><br /> <b>Akali</b><ul><li>The cooldown before Akali's next Shadow Dance charge and her current stacks are now shown in the same buff</li> </ul><br /> <b>Amumu</b><ul><li>Amumu will now attempt to attack the target after successfully pulling himself to an enemy champion with Bandage Toss</li> </ul><br /> <b>Ashe</b><ul><li>Fixed a bug where Frost Arrow would consume mana if Ashe canceled her auto-attack early</li> </ul><br /> <b>Blitzcrank</b><ul><li>Mana Barrier<ul><li>Fixed a bug where Mana Barrier could be bypassed if the damage taken would instantly kill him</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Mana Barrier would activate when the cooldown expired even if not taking damage</li> </ul></li> <li>Fixed a bug where Power Fist failed to grant lifesteal effects</li> </ul><br /> <b>Brand</b><ul><li>Fixed a bug where Pyroclasm would fizzle if Brand died</li> </ul><br /> <b>Caitlyn</b><ul><li>Fixed a bug where planting a Yordle Snap Trap after a trap was recently triggered caused a previous trap to be consumed (as if you placed too many)</li> </ul><br /> <b>Cho'Gath</b><ul><li>Fixed a bug where Cho'Gath could gain a Feast stack when the target did not die</li> </ul><br /> <b>Corki</b><ul><li>The cooldown before Corki's next Missile Barrage charge and his current stacks are now shown in the same buff</li> </ul><br /> <b>Evelynn</b><ul><li>Fixed a bug where Malice and Spite was healing for incorrect values</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Malice and Spite's cooldown would be reset upon killing enemy clones</li> </ul><br /> <b>FiddleSticks</b><ul><li>Basic attack projectile speed increased to 1750 from 1500</li> <li>Dark Wind<ul><li>Damage reduced to 65/85/105/125/145 from 65/90/115/140/165</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Dark Wind would fizzle when Fiddlesticks died</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Dark Wind was bouncing 4 times instead of 5</li> </ul></li> <li>Drain ability power ratio reduced to .45 from .5</li> <li>Terrify cooldown increased to 15/14/13/12/11 seconds from 14/13/12/11/10 seconds</li> </ul><br /> <b>Gangplank</b><ul><li>Grog Soaked Blade max stacks has been reduced to 3 from 4</li> <li>Cannon Barrage<ul><li>Fixed a bug where Cannon Barrage would not grant gold on minion kills</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Cannon Barrage's slow was not always applying consistently</li> </ul></li> </ul><br /> <b>Garen</b><ul><li>Decisive Strike movement speed duration increased to 4 seconds from 3 seconds</li> <li>Judgment cooldown reduced to 13/12/11/10/9 seconds from 14/13/12/11/10 seconds</li> <li>Courage maximum armor and magic resistance now 25 at all ranks from 5/10/15/20/25</li> </ul><br /> <b>Heimerdinger</b><ul><li>H28G Evolution Turret<ul><li>Heimerdinger will now place Frost Turrets if he places a turret while UPGRADE!!! is active</li> <li>Fixed a bug where turrets could be moved by Crystallize, Pillar of Filth, and Cataclysm</li> </ul></li> </ul><br /> <b>Irelia</b><ul><li>Irelia will now attempt to attack the target after dashing to an enemy champion with Bladesurge</li> </ul><br /> <b>Jarvan IV</b><ul><li>Cataclysm<ul><li>Jarvan will no longer follow the target while he is in the air during Cataclysm</li> <li>Cataclysm will now create the ring of terrain regardless of whether the enemy can be targeted or not</li> <li>Cataclysm will now be slightly more likely to push targets that the ring lands on into the center rather than out</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Cataclysm could be interrupted by movement displacing abilities such as Crystallize or Pillar of Filth</li> </ul></li> <li>Fixed a bug where Dragon Strike reduced the target's base armor rather than total armor</li> </ul><br /> <b>Jax</b><ul><li>Jax will now attempt to attack after Leap Striking if the target is an enemy champion</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Jax's attacks could not be dodged</li> </ul><br /> <b>Karma</b><ul><li>The cooldown before Karma's next Mantra charge and her current stacks are now shown in the same buff</li> </ul><br /> <b>Katarina</b><ul><li>Katarina will now attempt to attack the target after teleporting to an enemy champion with Shunpo</li> </ul><br /> <b>Kayle</b><ul><li>Holy Fervor<ul><li>Armor and magic resistance shred increased to 3% from 2%</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Holy Fervor was shredding the target's base armor and magic resistance rather than total armor and magic resistance</li> </ul></li> </ul><br /> <b>Kennen</b><ul><li>Thundering Shuriken ability power ratio increased to .75 from .66</li> <li>Lightning Rush<ul><li>Energy cost adjusted to 100/95/90/85/80 from 100 at all levels</li> <li>Ability power ratio increased to .6 from .55</li> </ul></li> </ul><br /> <b>Kog'Maw</b><ul><li>Updated Living Artillery's reveal particle effect</li> </ul><br /> <b>Lee Sin</b><ul><li>Lee Sin will now attempt to attack the target after dashing to a champion with Resonating Strike</li> </ul><br /> <b>Leona</b><ul><li>Shield of Daybreak cooldown reduced to 11/10/9/8/7 seconds from 12/11/10/9/8 seconds</li> <li>Zenith Blade<ul><li>Mana cost reduce to 60 at all ranks from 60/65/70/75/80</li> <li>Particle adjusted to more accurately reflect the area of effect (actual area of effect unchanged)</li> <li>Leona will now attempt to attack the target if she uses Zenith Blade to jump to a target</li> </ul></li> <li>Solar Flare cooldown reduced to 90/75/60 seconds from 105/90/75 seconds</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Eclipse would break enemy spell shields on activation</li> </ul><br /> <b>Lux</b><ul><li>Updated Lux's autoattack to feel more responsive and increased its missile speed</li> <li>Light Binding cooldown reduced to 15/14/13/12/11 seconds from 16/15/14/13/12 seconds</li> </ul><br /> <b>Malphite</b><ul><li>Brutal Strikes mana cost reduced to 50/55/60/65/70 from 55/60/65/70/75</li> <li>Ground Slam<ul><li>Radius increased to 400 from 350</li> <li>Mana cost reduced to 50/55/60/65/70 from 60/65/70/75/80</li> </ul></li> <li>Fixed a bug where Unstoppable Force sometimes failed to pass through Crystallize, Pillar of Filth, and Cataclysm</li> </ul><br /> <b>Maokai</b><ul><li>Maokai will now attempt to attack after using Twisted Advance if the target is a champion</li> </ul><br /> <b>Master Yi</b><ul><li>Alpha Strike<ul><li>Master Yi can now use Wuju Style and Highlander while Alpha Strike is active</li> <li>Master Yi will now attempt to attack the target after using Alpha Strike to teleport to a champion</li> </ul></li> </ul><br /> <b>Mordekaiser</b><ul><li>Fixed a bug where Mace of Spades was providing the diminished Spell Vamp effect even if used against a single target</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Children of the Grave would fail to clone targets if they were nontargetable when they died (Sanguine Pool, Alpha Strike, etc)</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Children of the Grave could clone a clone</li> </ul><br /> <b>Morgana</b><ul><li>Updated Morgana's autoattack to feel more responsive and increased its missile speed</li> <li>Base movement speed increased to 310 from 300</li> <li>Dark Binding cooldown reduced to 11 seconds from 12 seconds.</li> <li>Tormented Soil mana cost reduced to 70/85/100/115/130 from 70/90/110/130/150</li> <li>Soul Shackles<ul><li>Stun duration adjusted to 1.5 at all ranks from 1/1.5/2</li> <li>Cooldown reduced to 120/110/100 seconds from 120 seconds at all ranks</li> <li>Shackle activation time reduced to 3 seconds from 4 seconds</li> </ul></li> </ul><br /> <b>Nasus</b><ul><li>Attack range increased to 125 from 110</li> <li>Soul Eater lifesteal increased at earlier levels to 14/17/20% from 10/15/20%</li> <li>Wither<ul><li>Cooldown reduced to 15/14/13/12/11 seconds from 15 seconds at all ranks</li> <li>Mana cost reduced to 80 from 100</li> <li>Wither will now reach its max slow even if its duration is reduced (ie: by tenacity)</li> </ul></li> <li>Spirit Fire<ul><li>No longer has a 0.5 second delay before taking effect</li> <li>Now deals half of its damage initially and the other half over the duration -- initial 55/95/135/175/215 (+0.6 ability power) Magic Damage and 11/19/27/35/43 (+0.12 ability power) Magic Damage each second for the next 5 seconds</li> </ul></li> <li>Fixed a bug where Siphoning Strike sometimes gained extra lifesteal</li> </ul><br /> <b>Nidalee</b><ul><li>Bushwhack<ul><li>Updated Bushwhack's reveal particle effect</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Bushwhack was reducing the target's base armor and magic resistance rather than total armor and magic resistance</li> </ul></li> </ul><br /> <b>Nocturne</b><ul><li>Paranoia<ul><li>Nocturne will now attempt to attack the target after using Paranoia</li> <li>Paranoia no longer grants assists for limiting enemy vision</li> </ul></li> </ul><br /> <b>Pantheon</b><ul><li>Heartseeker Strike<ul><li>Now does a better job of hitting targets on top of Pantheon</li> <li>Damage increased to 13/23/33/43/53 from 4/6/8/10/12</li> <li>Scaling adjusted to a .6 bonus Attack Damage ratio from a .2/.25/.3/.35/.4 total Attack Damage ratio</li> <li>Now fires 3 strikes instead of 5</li> <li>Cooldown reduced to 10/9/8/7/6 seconds from 18/17/16/15/14 seconds</li> <li>Mana cost reduced to 45/50/55/60/65 from 70 at all ranks</li> <li>Channel duration reduced to .75 seconds from 1.8 seconds</li> </ul></li> <li>Spear Shot<ul><li>Damage increased to 65/105/145/185/225 from 16/28/40/52/64</li> <li>Now scales off of a 1.4 bonus Attack Damage ratio from a 1/1.15/1.3/1.45/1.6 total Attack Damage ratio</li> <li>Certain Death now causes Spear Shot to critically strike for 1.5x damage</li> </ul></li> <li>Aegis of Zeonia<ul><li>Cooldown adjusted to 13/12/11/10/9 seconds from 12 seconds at all levels</li> <li>Stun duration adjusted to 1 second from .7/.9/1.1/1.3/1.5</li> <li>Pantheon will now attempt to attack the target after using Aegis of Zeonia</li> </ul></li> <li>Grand Skyfall<ul><li>Jump channel time reduced to 2 seconds from 3 seconds</li> <li>Land time reduced to 1.5 seconds from 2 seconds</li> <li>Edge damage increased to 50% from 33%</li> </ul></li> </ul><br /> <b>Renekton</b><ul><li>Fixed a bug where Slice and Dice was only reducing the target's base armor rather than total armor</li> </ul><br /> <b>Rumble</b><ul><li>Fixed a bug where The Equalizer would fizzle if Rumble died</li> </ul><br /> <b>Shaco</b><ul><li>Jack-in-the-Boxes can no longer be disabled or pushed by effects like Crystallize</li> </ul><br /> <b>Sion</b><ul><li>Fixed a bug where Enrage would consume health if Sion canceled his auto-attack early</li> </ul><br /> <b>Teemo</b><ul><li>Noxious Traps will now 'level up' if Teemo ranks up his R slot while the traps are active</li> </ul><br /> <b>Trundle</b><ul><li>Fixed a bug where Rabid Bite was not blocked by Spell Shield, Shroud of Darkness, or Banshee's Veil</li> </ul><br /> <b>Tryndamere</b><ul><li>Bloodlust heal per 1 fury increased to .65/1.15/1.65/2.15/2.65 from .5/.95/1.4/1.85/2.3</li> <li>Spinning Slash<ul><li>Base damage increased to 70/100/130/160/190 from 60/90/120/150/180</li> <li>Bonus AD ratio increased to 1.2 from 1</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Tryndamere was not gaining the proper Fury upon using Spinning Slash</li> </ul></li> </ul><br /> <b>Urgot</b><ul><li>Noxian Corrosive Charge will now update as the target gains or loses armor</li> </ul><br /> <b>Warwick</b><ul><li>Infinite Duress<ul><li>Fixed a bug where Infinite Duress would sometimes tick only 4 times</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Infinite Duress could sometimes break early even if not interrupted</li> </ul></li> </ul><br /> <b>Wukong</b><ul><li>Wukong will now attempt to attack a target champion after using Nimbus Strike</li> <li>Cyclone Attack Damage ratio increased to 1.2 from 1</li> <li>Wukong is now properly considered melee for items and spells that differentiate between melee and ranged characters.</li> <li>Fixed a bug where Crushing Blow was shredding the target's base armor rather than total armor</li> </ul><br /> <b>Yorick</b><ul><li>Omen of War attack damage ratio increased to 1.2 from 1</li> </ul><br /> <b>Items</b><ul><li>Quicksilver Sash is now unique</li> <li>Tears of the Goddess, Manamune and Archangel's Staff now display your unique bonus mana in their tooltips.</li> </ul><br /> <b>General</b><ul><li>Made adjustments to reduce the load time for games</li> <li>Made adjustments to how death and kill streaks work<ul><li>Dying to non-champions no longer resets kill streaks or increases death streaks</li> <li>Assists now reduce (not reset) death streaks</li> </ul></li> <li>Using Summoner Teleport on a ward will no longer reveal the ward through fog of war to enemies. Instead, it will destealth the ward to be seen if an enemy is near and reveal the teleport particle through fog of war to enemies</li> <li>Allied champions can no longer block targeting of an enemy champion if they are standing on top of one another</li> <li>Added a new in-game option for "Borderless Window Mode" that allows people to alt-tab more efficiently</li> <li>Attack-move improvements:<ul><li>Attack-move targeting is now more predictable (now targets closest enemy)</li> <li>Attack-move will now target visible wards</li> <li>Changed attack-move cursor color to red from green</li> </ul></li> <li>Added new keybindings for "Self+Smart Cast" for abilities and Summoner spells. Casting with these binds will first try to Smart-Cast the ability; if there is no target or an invalid target under the cursor, it will attempt to Self-Cast the ability</li> <li>Fixed a bug where clones did not show items in their inventories</li> <li>Fixed a bug where certain particle effects would not show up if using the minimap for targeting</li> <li>Fixed minor tooltip errors on Kayle, Soraka, Nasus, Sona, and Renekton</li> <li>Fixed a bug where some Energy runes were giving less Energy than their tooltip stated</li> <li>Fixed a bug where several spells were triggering on-cast events more than once</li> <li>Fixed a bug in which players could get stuck in a "dead" state until they disconnected and then reconnected</li> </ul>Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-59837695977508119492011-08-05T19:59:00.000-07:002011-08-05T19:59:08.429-07:00<a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/skarner-leagueoflegends.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-225" height="255" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/skarner-leagueoflegends.jpg?w=490&amp;h=255" title="Skarner-leagueoflegends" width="490" /></a><br /> Lore:<br /> Centuries ago, there lived a race of creatures as ferocious as they were wise. The brackern were unusual beings blessed with the earth’s primal magic, embodied in the form of crystals. Their kind knew of an arcane ritual to bind their life’s essence to a crystal, communing with the magic embedded in it. With this power, the brackern thrived in the Odyn Valley, protecting both creatures and crystals alike. Despite attacks from those looking to claim the primal magic, it seemed that nothing could get past the brackern’s defenses. Nothing, that is, until the devastation of a Rune War.<br /> A vicious battle was fought near the Odyn Valley and the unleashed chaotic magic poisoned the crystals. The brackern began to grow sick and die, and no amount of defensive magic could reverse the effects. To avoid extinction, their only course was to hibernate underground until the wars stopped. The strongest, most intelligent brackern hibernated closer to the surface to awaken first and assess the world’s condition for the return of their race. The recent mining operations and violent escalation in Kalamanda were enough to awaken the first of these vanguards. When Skarner burst to the surface, he lashed out in anger and confusion. Reason eventually won out over his anger when he realized that the agents of the League who found him were simply functionaries. Skarner was invited to the Institute of War to share the brackern’s story. In return, the summoners told him about the history that his kind had slept through. Much had been done to curb the unchecked use of magic since the Rune Wars, but it was obvious that the world was not yet safe for his kind to reawaken. For now, however, there is a place where Skarner can use his power to change the world into one to which his kind could eventually return: the League of Legends.<br /> ”The humans have not yet learned to control their magic – what once was Kalamanda is now a crystal scar on the history of this world.” – Skarner<br /> Abilities:<br /> <strong>Energize (Passive):</strong> Basic attacks lower the cooldowns of Skarner’s abilities by 1 second against champions and 0.5 seconds against non-champions.<br /> <strong>Crystal Slash: </strong>Skarner lashes out with his claws, dealing physical damage to all nearby enemies and charging himself with Crystal Energy for several seconds. If he casts Crystal Slash again while empowered by Crystal Energy, he deals bonus magic damage and slows all targets hit.<br /> <strong>Crystalline Exoskeleton:</strong> Skarner gains a shield and while the shield persists his movement speed and attack speed are both increased.<br /> <strong>Fracture:</strong> Skarner summons a blast of crystalline energy which deals damage to enemies struck and marks them. Any further damage dealt to marked targets by Skarner will allow him to consume the mark to heal himself.<br /> <strong>Impale (Ultimate):</strong> Skarner suppresses an enemy champion and deals magic damage to it. During this time, Skarner can move freely and will drag his helpless victim around with him. When the effect ends, Skarner’s target will be dealt additional damage.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-82071948640172278962011-08-04T14:38:00.000-07:002011-08-04T14:38:18.968-07:00An interesting turn of events has happened; Sony is pushing back the release of their much hyped portable system, the PS Vita — the PSP’s worthy successor. It was first announced at E3 that the Vita would be coming to North America and Japan this holiday season at two price points: $249 for WiFi, and $299 for the 3G model. Has the recent, dramatic price cut by Nintendo to their 3DS system thrown a wrench into the Sony machine?<br /> According to&nbsp;Sony’s big man in charge, Kaz Hirai is not calling this a delay but rather just a precaution to make sure that there is enough software to go in line with the portables launch. This would make absolute sense seeing as this was the issue with the much sought after 3DS — despite its wide appeal it couldn’t break on the scene like Nintendo intended without a killer line up of must have first-party games and third-party support.<br /> <em>“The PlayStation business is a key pillar,” </em>the Kaz-man<em>&nbsp;</em>said.<em> “The video-game industry is evolving constantly. My expectation is for the PlayStation business to remain at the forefront of this very dynamic industry.”</em><br /> What’s this mean? Well, not a whole lot but that Sony doesn’t want their system to be another failed experiment that takes a whole year or more to finally see returns. But this does mean that Christmas sales will be non-existant and gamers and kids everywhere will have to tell their parents to hold off on getting their presents until the dang thing finally comes out — with no exact date specified.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-5648558422523566562011-08-04T09:02:00.001-07:002011-08-04T09:03:29.544-07:00<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cuINbQ3PLU0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> As many of you know if you are an avid League of Legends follower, Riot Games has a big announcement to make this week regarding something new.&nbsp; Well the day has finally come and the news it out everyone.&nbsp; League of Legends is releasing a new map, no it's not Magma Chamber, but the new map seems interesting, since the new game mode is a fast paced PVP environment.&nbsp; It is similar to capture points from FPS games, but this time translated to the MOBA scene.&nbsp; The games according to Riot Games lasts approximately 20 minutes, which faster then most games on average on Summoner's Rift 5v5 match ups.&nbsp; The objective in this new game mode is to essentially defense your nexus from the opposing team from channeling and depleting your nexus energy to 0.&nbsp; Seems simple, straight forward enough, but how is the map set up and is there any kind of protection, only time will tell.&nbsp; The new map and game mode will available for live preview at Gamescon and at PAX Prime for those that are able to attend those events in Europe and the US.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-88932683019967310652011-08-01T17:37:00.000-07:002011-08-01T17:37:56.035-07:00<a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/wukong-the-monkey-king-champion.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-217" height="245" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/wukong-the-monkey-king-champion.jpg?w=490&amp;h=245" title="Wukong-the-monkey-king-champion" width="490" /></a><br /> <br /> <br /> Wukong, the Monkey King is the newest champion to enter the ranks of League of Legends' finest warriors.&nbsp; Wukong is Riot Games' rendition of the famously known Monkey King.&nbsp; Wukong, is considered a bruiser/tanky DPS and can be somewhat of an assassin due to one of his abilities.&nbsp; Wukong definitely meets the idea of the Monkey King being a devious person however as a speedy agile and combination skilled champion it does not.&nbsp; It meets one side of Monkey King that everyone knows him for, which they do well with Wukong's ability Decoy or his W ability.&nbsp; This ability allows him to create a copy of himself and go stealth for 1.5 seconds before the copy attacks and disappears.&nbsp; This is a great ability to add an escape ability, but also provides the sense of being a trouble maker since he can hide and plot other attacks while his decoy keeps people occupied.&nbsp; However, this ability only truly fools those at the lower ELO level in my opinion as a stationary target is kind of obvious that it is the clone and therefore will not be attacked. Wukong makes for a great early game with his poke harass combination of his E ability, Nimbus Strike allowing him to dash in and deal damage followed by his Q ability, Crushing Blow.&nbsp; This is great in the lane for harassing, but sadly the damage seems to fall off late game.&nbsp; His damage overall falls off as the game progresses and he is only really capable of taking down the opposing team's carry if allowed to reach them, which is rarely the case as Wukong is a slow melee champion with just boots and a lack luster ultimate that is great for CC.&nbsp; However, aside from that the damage is lackluster as it can never reach close to its full damage even with armor penetration from players getting armor items.&nbsp; This isn't a bad move really in Riot Games' part as a tanky DPS should not be able to do massive amounts of damage.&nbsp; However, for a bruiser that is melee having lack luster survivability and mediocre damage makes him a fun champion to play with his abilities, but lacking any form of role on a team.<br /> <br /> I believe that Wukong needs some minor buffs to help him compete with other bruisers as there are others out there that just are capable of doing more damage and closing the gap easier on opposing team carries.&nbsp; That is not to say that Wukong currently is not flawed currently on the live version of the game as his Q ability is bugged along with other champions that have a percent armor and magic resist shred.&nbsp; Currently these abilities only shred off the opposing champion's base armor and magic resistance instead of their total, which is quite a big flaw on Riot Games' part to release a champion who's core abilities revolve around lowering their opponent's armor in order to deal any kind of significant damage.<br /> <br /> Wukong's ultimate is fun to use as it is Garen's, Judgement ability mixed in with a bit of Rammus', Powerball and Blitcrank's, Power Fist.&nbsp; His ultimate is great for CC and early game damage but for an ultimate it deals lackluster damage due to armor and the fact it can easily be stopped from doing any damage at all.&nbsp; His ultimate can easily be made useless by any form of CC that is a stun, snare, or slow.&nbsp; For an ultimate that is a core part of his damage this is a little unacceptable as Garen's, Judgement has a remove slow and partial slow immunity tied into it and is only an ability.&nbsp; Wukong's is similar but is an ultimate with no such thing to prevent him from not dealing any damage and practically being ignored for the rest of the team fight if his ultimate is stopped.&nbsp; Wukong's movement speed and abilities have some synergy, but lack in one key feature to allow him to deal any damage without having to rely on items.&nbsp; Wukong lacks no other CC aside from his ultimate to close the gap as a melee character.&nbsp; Wukong's, Nimbus Strike provides a dash for a gap closer, but without any kind of slow, champions can easily escape him before he has any chance of auto attacking or even doing a E to Q combination unless the Q ability was pre-queued up similar to a Jax player would do with Empower and Leap Strike.&nbsp; As a tanky DPS, his damage becomes sub par as he replaces much needed damage for survivability.&nbsp; If built oppositely with damage, then he becomes easily killed with no survivability, while still dealing lack luster damage unless built with some form of burst like critical strikes RNG.<br /> <br /> Despite Wukong's many flaws he is a fun champion to play, but still very hard to place on a team and feel satisfactory in any form of team fight when his ultimate can easily be stopped or deal mediocre damage.&nbsp; As for fixes to Wukong, I will not say he needs much, but as of right now while his Q is bugged he could use some form of immunity with his ultimate or at least a possible chance to knock up champions twice during its duration.&nbsp; Another would be to have some form of slow or daze stun effect on his Nimbus Strike so that he can actually catch up to and land melee auto attacks on the opposing champion so he is not just wasting his mana.&nbsp; Overall, Wukong needs some form of utility to be useful on the team and useful in any 1 versus 1 fights as champions can usually get away freely if they have more movement speed then Wukong does.&nbsp; Some minor movement speed buffs to his base movement speed similar to Pantheon's movement speed so as to catch people and get away a bit easier, which will be great for Decoy traps and team strategies.&nbsp; This is my assessment of Wukong as of right now, but if and when the bug on his Q gets fixed by Riot Games, then Wukong may be a force to be reckoned with for damage similar to Ezreal who has no real form of CC until Trinity Force is bought in order to catch up to opponents.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-18581721372508722672011-07-29T09:34:00.000-07:002011-07-29T09:34:09.617-07:00Heroes of Newerth, a MOBA game very similar to DotA made by S2 Games has gone free to play.&nbsp; The game originally cost $30USD or $10USD if it was on sale for the whole game.&nbsp; However know their new model is similar to League of Legends that uses microtransactions and is totally free to play.&nbsp; Those that originally bought the game will now be considered Legacy accounts and those free accounts that either purchase goblin coins their form of RP for those familiar with LoL or reach level 5.&nbsp; Overall not bad, but the trip and the amount of matches to getting there should be interesting as it is unknown how long that will take.&nbsp; I guess the MOBA seen is heating up with more and more competition arriving with each passing day/month/year.&nbsp; So for those of you who play(ed) DotA or LoL and been wanting to check out HoN, now is a good time to do so.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-32126647458337730982011-07-28T10:07:00.001-07:002011-07-28T10:07:30.276-07:00<div id="article-content"> Sony's ever popular games console may be about to step up even further in desirability with the recently announced arrival of the PlayStation 3D TV. Sony announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo during June 2011 that they will bring the model to market alongside their existing range of 3D TVs in an attempt to take the 3D games market by storm. Sony are planning to use breakthrough technology which allows two players to see individual different game images on screen by simply pressing a button, revolutionising the existing split screen method, and opening up new potential in the ways that competitive games are played.<br /> The out of the blue announcement firmly places 3D gaming as the one source of 3D content that has true potential to place 3D TV at the centre of our home technology needs. Watching images in 3D naturally increases the feeling of immersion, which of course is one of the key attractions of gaming in general - to take you out of this world and into another where you're in control and slap bang in the middle of the action. With video games attempting to deliver a true 3D experience unsuccessfully for many years, and the Nintendo 3DS not quite delivering everything it promised, it very much looks as if it Sony will ensure that their new PlayStation 3D TV takes the pole position in the race for the best new 3D entertainment of 2011.<br /> Sony have stated that the PlayStation 3D TV screen size will be 24 inches and come as part of a bundle that will include various essential accessories such as active shutter 3D glasses, HDMI connector cables to hook up the PS3 to the TV, and a 3D game which first indications suggest will be Resistance 3. The glasses operate on a rechargeable lithium ion battery that according to Sony needs a 45 minute charge to give up to 30 hours playing time, plus just a few minutes charge is expected to provide a few full hours use. With a planned Autumn 2011 release date there is plenty of time for elements of this bundle to change, and it'll be no surprise to see either different or extra games included.<br /> For anyone who's been following the progress of 3D TV technology over the last year or so, the 24 inch display size might be surprising. On first impressions it does seem on the small side given much of the focus on 3D TV has been on building and selling bigger screen models to increase the immersive feeling that's a major part of watching 3D images. But Sony are aiming this innovation at gamers who are used to smaller screens, they might be playing in bedrooms and other small spaces where standard larger 3D TVs are way too big.<br /> At roughly £320 or around $500 the price might just about be set at the right level, though extra pairs of Sony glasses cost between around $50 - $70 as well. Early reports indicate that the picture quality delivered by the 1080p, 24 inch, edge LED lit display is strong, and other specifications of the model include a 5000 to 1 contract ratio, 2 HDMI inputs, and a 176 degree viewing angle for players. This wide viewing angle looks to be a critical element of the TV, allowing players to sit next to each other exactly as they do now to enjoy multiplayer games and yet still get the full 3D effect.<br /> Other features include a headset port, two HDMI ports, one component port, and two speakers. All combined with an ultra thin display. But the ability for players to see different 3D images while playing the same game is of course the jewel in the crown. The technology uses what's known as quad speed frame sequential display technology, and in simple terms it works by combining the glasses with the TV to send the separate 3D images to the different players.<br /> Most major manufacturers, and Sony in particular of course, believe that 3D games will drive the adoption of 3D TVs even higher, and this looks to be the first real effort from a major games manufacturer to try and prove that point. For an experienced gamer the PlayStation 3D TV could become one of the all time must have gaming gadgets. And for those of us who don't class themselves as hardened gamers, then this new development might be the fuel that sets us on the road. There are already over 100 PS3 3D games in circulation and if the PlayStation 3D TV is successful it will be no surprise to see that number increase substantially.<br /> At the expected price of around $500 this option may just encourage anyone who's been sitting on the fence about buying a 3D TV to jump in with both feet. And the potential for the future is outstanding. Imagine when 3D games get to be paired with motion-sensing controls or head tracking technology, we could be facing whole new ways of gaming. Players could manipulate 3D environments with a wave of their hand. Game play and even player level creation could become far more intuitive than ever before. Should the PlayStation 3D TV be as successful as seems likely, it could open up the doorway to even more new and innovative gaming experiences.<br /> It all sounds good, doesn't it? But there are some drawbacks. The major one is that the dual player mode will only work with 3D games that have been specially created to take advantage of it. Clearly that means that all existing games will be incompatible from this perspective, though of course you'll be able to play them as a single player in 3D. Sony will reportedly have around 100 fully compatible games released by the end of the year.<br /> So we'll need to wait and see what further developments take place. But if the idea of the PlayStation 3D TV doesn't grab your imagination there's an alternative way to hook up your PlayStation to a 3D TV with the recently released Sony combination 3D TV/PC. Known as the Vaio All In One, the combo comes with a 24 inch, 1080p HD LCD monitor, plus a built-in Blu-Ray player. Connectivity to a PS3 is via an HDMI port. At a price of around $1400, the All-In-One could be a better option for anyone who wants to combine 3D gaming with their other online activities.<br /> </div>Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-73920244451461253672011-07-28T10:06:00.001-07:002011-07-28T10:06:33.303-07:00The new classes in Battlefield 3 merges the 7 classes that were available in Battlefield 2. The four classes in Battlefield 3 are going to be support, engineer, recon, and assault. In Battlefield 2 you had a medic class but it was hardly ever used, mainly because you didn't get any additional points for doing your task and the weapons were inadequate to defend yourself. The assault class is now the new medic, and it includes a new feature where you can remove your defibrillator and add a grenade launcher attachment instead. So now you are able to customize each class anyway you want. In previous FPS like Black Ops and Bad Company 2, when you see a player that needs to be resurrected, you can go up and revive the player whether they like it or not. In Battlefield 2 the player had a choice whether if they wanted to be revived or not, which gave them a chance to change class; this feature will be brought back in Battlefield 3. Also the defibrillator will have a longer wait time before you can revive someone again, in Bad Company 2 there were too many people being revived left and right which became really annoying.<br /> <br /> The support class will have the ability to give out extra ammo to players who need it, and, like in previous Battlefield games, will have heavier guns like the PKM, which holds more ammo and packs more firepower than a regular assault rifle. They have also included a bipod on these weapons so that when you lay prone you'll have better accuracy when firing.<br /> <br /> The engineer class will have the same features in Battlefield 3 like they did in Bad Company 2, anti-tank equipment, and the ability to repair vehicles. Recon will be the new sniper class, which will have team based features on it rather than having players selfishly snipe enemies from afar, but there isn't enough info on this class yet.<br /> <br /> Battlefield 3 will include squad leaders like in Battlefield 2, and it will be a 4 man squad. Squad leaders will have the chance to create the squad and the ability to respawn someone at your location. So it is really important for the leader to stay alive and to have your team support you in order to advance through objectives.<br /> <br /> Overall they are really making the classes team based so that you work together to accomplish objectives, instead of running around trying to get the most kills. We can expect more features to come as we get closer to the release date.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-55199999232698649892011-07-28T09:20:00.000-07:002011-07-28T09:20:26.538-07:00<a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/leona_leagueoflegends.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-183" height="289" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/leona_leagueoflegends.jpg?w=490&amp;h=289" title="Leona, the Radiant Dawn" width="490" /></a><br /> It’s that time again folks.&nbsp; Another champion released, which means another guide by yours truly, Enryuu.&nbsp; Leona is Riot Game’s idea of a female tank and quite frankly she does it quite well and meets that role requirement perfectly.<br /> <strong>Champion Spotlight:</strong><br /> <iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oViu5Pv_wwY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /> <span class="embed-youtube" style="display: block; text-align: center;"> </span> <strong>Abilities/Passive:</strong><br /> <table><tbody> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_448.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Sunlight">Sunlight</a><br /> </strong> Leona’s damaging spells affect the target with Sunlight for 3.5 seconds. When allied champions deal damage to those targets they consume the Sunlight debuff to deal additional magic damage. Bonus damage is 20/35/50/65/80/95/110/125/140 (upgrades every 2 levels).</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_449.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Shield+of+Daybreak">Shield of Daybreak</a><br /> </strong> Leona uses her shield to perform her next autoattack, dealing bonus magic damage and stunning the target.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_450.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Eclipse">Eclipse</a><br /> </strong> Leona raises her shield to gain Armor and Magic Resistance. When the duration first ends, if there are nearby enemies she will deal magic damage to them and prolong the duration of the effect.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_451.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Zenith+Blade">Zenith Blade</a><br /> </strong> Leona projects a solar image of her sword, dealing magic damage to all enemies in a line. When the image fades, the last enemy champion struck will be briefly immobilized and Leona will dash to them.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_452.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Solar+Flare">Solar Flare</a><br /> </strong> Leona calls down a beam of solar energy, dealing damage to enemies in an area. Enemies in the center of the area are stunned, while enemies on the outside are slowed.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table><strong>Runes:</strong><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/leonarunes.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-186" height="261" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/leonarunes.jpg?w=490&amp;h=261" title="LeonaRunes" width="490" /></a><br /> These are the runes that I run on Leona.&nbsp; I use Armor Penetration Marks and Quintessences on Leona to help her deal out physical damage as you will essentially be building Leona as a tank with a hint of tanky DPS.&nbsp; Leona’s abilities are lack luster for damage in general so having Armor Penetration over Magic Penetration allows Leona to auto squishies down within the duration of her crowd control.&nbsp; For Seals I use flat Armor and for Glyphs I use flat Magic Resistance.&nbsp; This allows Leona to be tanky early without her W ability at the early levels and even more tanky when you start putting points into Eclipse later on.<br /> <strong>Masteries:</strong><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/leonamasteries.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-185" height="281" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/leonamasteries.jpg?w=490&amp;h=281" title="Leonamasteries" width="490" /></a><br /> This is the mastery set up I run for Leona, which is a 0/21/9 build.&nbsp; This mastery set up is a standard tank mastery set up.&nbsp; I grab everything in the Defensive Tree that could help Leona survive in the lane and towards late game such as the 4% reduced damage talent Tenacity.&nbsp; There is no point in grabbing points in Nimbleness or Dodge as you have no real runes for that and personally I don’t like the RNG of dodge chance.&nbsp; I prefer the flat mitigation I get from armor over dodge chance.&nbsp; In the Utility Tree I grab Greed just to help with gold production on top of your gold per ten items, but if you want you can put that point into Utility Mastery for increased buff duration.&nbsp; Personally I feel this is worthless because Red or Blue buffs should be going on your carries and not you.&nbsp; They are nice to have if you get them from a kill, but in most cases you will be the master of assists.<br /> <strong>Summoner Spells:</strong><br /> Flash/Ignite<br /> I run flash and ignite on Leona.&nbsp; Flash is good for escaping as Leona is quite slow so a quick blink for a head start is a nice thing to have.&nbsp; Also Flash is great for helping Leona initiate a fight.&nbsp; Ignite is great for the early laning phase for picking up kills and in general nice to have for the healing debuff it provides.<br /> <strong>Skill Order/Priority:</strong><br /> <em>Skill Order 1-6:</em><br /> E&gt;Q&gt;W&gt;W&gt;W&gt;R<br /> or<br /> E&gt;W&gt;Q&gt;W&gt;W&gt;R<br /> <em>Skill Priority:</em><br /> R&gt;W&gt;E&gt;Q<br /> You definitely want to max out Eclipse or your W ability first, and then your initiation ability E for catching up to champions.&nbsp; However in the lane leveling up Eclipse early or not is up to you as this depends on who you are fighting against.<br /> <strong>Items:</strong><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/leonaitems.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-184" height="70" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/leonaitems.jpg?w=409&amp;h=70" title="Leonaitems" width="409" /></a><br /> Whether you are soloing top or laning in a duo lane bot, your starting item is the same.&nbsp; Start off with a Regrowth Pendant and 1 Health Potion.&nbsp; This will give you both lane sustainability and will allow you to build it into a Philosopher’s Stone on first recall for your gold income.&nbsp; If possible you will grab both Philosopher’s Stone and Boots, but if not then Philosopher’s Stone definitely is a priority to start your gold per ten income.&nbsp; After buying those you should farm some more and grab Heart of Gold so that you have more passive gold farm coming in.&nbsp; Not to mention you get some extra health and regen with these two items.&nbsp; Afterwards you want to go and rush Sheen and Phage, then turn that into Trinity Force.&nbsp; Trinity Force is your main damage and burst, so as to make you a threat instead of someone that CCs and is then ignorable when spent.&nbsp; Afterwards you want to grab a Chain Vest and Negatron Cloak and start turning those into Force of Nature and Frozen Heart.&nbsp; Turn your Philosopher’s Stone into Shurelya’s Reverie and pick up Banshee’s Veil last for some more magic resist and health.&nbsp; Shurelya’s Reverie is great for helping your team escape and pick up runaways when they are just too fast.&nbsp; This item is great for utility and support as a tank, not only does it give health, but for Leona provides some much needed cooldown reduction.&nbsp; This coupled with Frozen Heart will help her greatly as her abilities are all on fairly long cooldowns.&nbsp; Some other items you could supplement in for health and to turn her into a tanky DPS are Frozen Mallet, Warmog’s Armor and Atmas Impaler.<br /> <strong>Laning:</strong><br /> Leona in the lane is best in the solo top lane.&nbsp; She can hold her own here fairly well and this allows her to farm freely and quickly get her items.&nbsp; Leona can pretty much solo carries 1 v 1, but the only person I see her having trouble with is Akali 1 v 1.&nbsp; The burst is just a bit too much even with Eclipse.&nbsp; Leona can even handle 2 v 1 top lane if needed.&nbsp; As for a duo lane, she is definitely capable, but she requires a lane partner that has some form of CC as well or heavy damage.&nbsp; This will allow you to win your lane in duo bot as you can keep the enemies off your tower and maybe even pick up some kills for some much needed gold.&nbsp; This will aid you as you will most likely be giving up most of the farm to your lanemate in the duo lane versus soloing top where all the money is yours.&nbsp; Duo lane bot will slow your build down a bit and make you fairly squishy if things go wrong.<br /> Whether you are soloing or in a duo lane the concepts are the same for Leona.&nbsp; Always initiate with your E ability and make sure that you have your Eclipse charged so that upon a successful, Zenith Blade cast, you can use Shield of Daybreak afterwards and follow up with Eclipse’s detonation effect for more burst damage.&nbsp; This combo is deadly early game to most squishy carry champions and even tanks if they are not careful.&nbsp; Some combinations you want to try besides that is to just harass with E and W to whittle the opposing players’ health pool down.&nbsp; This will not only let you win your lane by making them have to go back and play cautiously but may even net you a kill or assist.&nbsp; When you are laning and have Sheen or Trinity Force, be sure to use your Q or Shield of Daybreak on towers for pushing.&nbsp; Your Q ability applies extra damage to towers and coupled with Sheen or Trinity Force will do even more.&nbsp; Most people will ignore you because in most cases you will seem like you lack damage.&nbsp; But your disruption with CC and your Trinity Force procs, they will think otherwise when you take down their carries.&nbsp; Leona’s burst from a successful combination of all her abilities is quite deadly in a teamfight and in 1 v 1 situations.&nbsp; So be sure to try and land all your abilities otherwise you will just be running around waiting for your cooldowns to come back up because you failed.&nbsp; As for teamfights initiate with your Zenith Blade with your Eclipse charged so as to give you more mitigation.&nbsp; Then, follow up with Shield of Daybreak to stun the enemy you’re on, which is hopefully a carry, and if they are fairly close together use your ultimate Solar Flare to stun and slow for some decent damage.&nbsp; Your job as Leona no matter what is to protect your carries, while disrupting theirs and focusing theirs down.&nbsp; You can easily drop and die as Leona, but that is like any tank when Void Staff or Last Whisper is bought by the enemy carries.&nbsp; However, what matters most is if you did your job and used your abilities effectively to help your team.<br /> <strong>Jungling:</strong><br /> <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xfqMwvpc4YA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /> <span class="embed-youtube" style="display: block; text-align: center;"> </span> Credit goes to Stonewall008 for this jungle guide.&nbsp; I will say in my opinion that Leona should not jungle, but only as a last resort as her damage is quite low and therefore her jungling is extremely slow, also this guide for jungling uses different masteries and runes then what I use for laning.<strong></strong><br /> <strong>Conclusion:</strong><br /> Overall, Leona is a great addition to League of Legends and definitely is the female tank that everyone wanted.&nbsp; Leona may seem a bit underpowered due to her low base damage abilities and low AP ratios, but she brings a lot to the table for CC and as a meat shield.&nbsp; So if your looking for a tank that does some mediocre damage but does a lot of CC and can take a lot of punishment, then look no further then Leona, the Radiant Dawn.&nbsp; I hope this guide will help those that are still having trouble with Leona, so have fun on the fields of justice summoners with Leona, the Radiant Dawn the newest edition to Runeterra.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-38635845677809576362011-07-28T09:18:00.001-07:002011-07-28T09:18:38.452-07:00<a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/leona_leagueoflegends.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-183" height="289" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/leona_leagueoflegends.jpg?w=490&amp;h=289" title="Leona, the Radiant Dawn" width="490" /></a><br /> Leona, the Radiant Dawn is the newest champion to join League of Legends.&nbsp; Leona is the female tank everyone of the LoL community has been waiting for and is Riot Games’ take on a female tank.&nbsp; Now did they hit the mark in creating the female tank everyone was hoping for or did they miss the mark?&nbsp; Well from some player’s perspective they may say they hit the mark while others will say otherwise.&nbsp; My personal opinion and review of Leona simple as a female tank, I believe Riot Games hit the mark with this one.&nbsp; Leona is in fact a tank, she does not deal insane amounts of damage but instead disrupts enemy champions by crowd control abilities and is able to become a meat shield absorbing damage like a tank should.<br /> Leona is capable of providing both a tank and utility to her team by just using her abilities due to her passive.&nbsp; Leona’s passive is Sunlight, which marks the opponent that is his with one of Leona’s abilities and if an ally hit that champion it procs causing that champion to take extra magic damage.&nbsp; This is great for team fights with some of Leona’s AOE abilities as well as her crowd control abilities.&nbsp; Leona’s kit revolves around combos and chain stunning opponents to be an effective tank.&nbsp; Leona is by no means an AOE CC type of tank as her ultimate has a small radius at the center that stuns the opposing champion within.&nbsp; Most of the time you will slow the enemy champion instead of stun them due to the ultimate itself being relatively small but big enough to still be a key ability.&nbsp; Leona is a great tank early on especially with her W ability, Eclipse as it gives her Armor and Magic Resistance.&nbsp; The AOE damage on this ability is nice as well but the resistances you get from this ability is insane making Leona a great tank similar to Rammus with little to no items early on.&nbsp; This allows Leona to be a great initiator in the laning phase whether in a duo lane or in a solo lane.&nbsp; Especially during teamfights, which allows her to continually take a beating for awhile and mitigate a lot of the damage as the armor and magic resistance is quite a large amount.&nbsp; This is a great ability befitting of a tank and this is what really makes Leona shine in comparison to other tanks in the game currently.&nbsp; Her base health and health per level is great as well allowing Leona to grab gold per ten items to make money and allowing her lanemate to grab all the minions for money at little to no cost to her early on.<br /> Leona’s E ability is a great ability in her kit allowing her to act as the tank and initiate fights when in combination with her Q ability that stuns the opponents on next attack.&nbsp; All of Leona’s abilities fit well together in harmony and suit well for how a tank, at least in League of Legends should be.&nbsp; A tank should be able to disrupt and perform crowd control during teamfights and absorb most of the incoming damage.&nbsp; Leona does all this quite well, however as a trade off Leona’s abilities deal very little damage as a tank should.&nbsp; A tank with insane amounts of damage and survivability would be overpowered by far, take for example the recent case of this after the Alistar remake and Alistar being able to be a mage nuker.&nbsp; Just not good balance, while Leona is strictly a tank that deals fairly decent burst damage at the early levels but then fulfills her role well in the late game of being a tank and strictly that.&nbsp; However, due to the strength of Leona’s W ability, Eclipse, Leona is capable of becoming a Bruiser/Tanky DPS, but not nearly as effective as those that are meant to be.&nbsp; Leona has ability power ratios on all her abilities despite them being relative low ratios.&nbsp; This makes Leona in my opinion weak if turned into a damage dealer by some players, but also a very weak mage, but instead a physical damage dealer with a lot of ability power based abilities.&nbsp; This is ironic to some degree, but understandable as Leona wields the power of the sun, therefore magic damage makes sense.<br /> For those that wish to play a champion that is a tank and has gratification in being a disruptor in team fights then I suggest playing and picking up Leona.&nbsp; She is a great addition to the League of Legends roster and is essentially what everyone in the community wanted, a tank.&nbsp; To some however, Leona may seem weak at first due to her low base damage on her abilities.&nbsp; This may cause some to think she is not a great tank in the sense of maintaining threat, since in League of Legends a great way for everyone to focus the tank would be to have them deal enough damage to be a threat.&nbsp; Otherwise, Leona fits the tank role well and is a great addition to the champion roster and like any other champion will be enjoyed by some while others will think otherwise.&nbsp; So try her out and see for yourselves what you think of her.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-36229068549773027242011-07-28T09:17:00.000-07:002011-07-28T09:17:52.464-07:00<a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/264873_226003734084849_155123054506251_952593_3757535_n.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-158" height="289" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/264873_226003734084849_155123054506251_952593_3757535_n.jpg?w=490&amp;h=289" title="Yorick, the Gravedigger" width="490" /></a><br /> Hello everyone! Enryuu here to bring you another League of Legends champion guide.&nbsp; Yorick is a tanky DPS champion and Riot Games’ take on the necromancers archetype.&nbsp; Yorick is a neat mix of caster meets melee tanky dps.&nbsp; However, unlike Rumble who is similar in some regards, Yorick’s abilities scale completely off AD and is a pusher.&nbsp; Yorick is a great champion for lane dominance especially in a solo lane, due to his abilities and lane sustainability.&nbsp; Anyways enough of the chit chat and onto the guide.<br /> <strong>Champion Spotlight:</strong><br /> <br /> <iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lSDYK-s7siQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /> Champion Spotlight of Yorick provided by Phreak of Riot Games.<br /> <strong></strong><span class="embed-youtube" style="display: block; text-align: center;"> </span><br /> <strong>Abilities/Passive:</strong><br /> <table><tbody> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_443.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Unholy+Covenant">Unholy Covenant</a><br /> </strong> Yorick’s takes 5% reduced damage and his basic attacks deal 5% more damage for each summon that is active. Meanwhile, Yorick’s ghouls have 35% of Yorick’s Attack Damage and Health.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_444.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Omen+of+War">Omen of War</a><br /> </strong> Yorick’s next attack will deal bonus physical damage and summon a Spectral Ghoul that deals additional damage and moves faster than Yorick’s other ghouls. While the Spectral Ghoul is alive, Yorick moves faster as well.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_445.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Omen+of+Pestilence">Omen of Pestilence</a><br /> </strong> Yorick summons a Decaying Ghoul that arrives with a violent explosion, dealing damage and slowing nearby enemies. While the Decaying Ghoul remains alive, nearby enemies continue to be slowed.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_446.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Omen+of+Famine">Omen of Famine</a><br /> </strong> Yorick steals life from his target and summons a Ravenous Ghoul that heals Yorick for the damage it deals.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_447.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Omen+of+Death">Omen of Death</a><br /> </strong> Yorick conjures a revenant in the image of one of his allies. If his ally dies while its revenant is alive, the revenant sacrifices itself to reanimate them and give them time to enact vengeance.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table><strong>Runes:</strong><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/yorrickrunes.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-174" height="262" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/yorrickrunes.jpg?w=490&amp;h=262" title="YorrickRunes" width="490" /></a><br /> These are the runes that I am currently using for Yorick.&nbsp; I run Physical Damage Marks as this allows me to take advantage of Yorick’s early game harassment and makes last hitting easier.&nbsp; All of Yorick’s abilities are magic damage and scale off of attack damage so increasing that earlier makes him that much more deadly.&nbsp; I grab Armor and Magic Resist for Seals and Glyphs so that Yorick is tanky in lane so as to not feel incredibly squishy as well from the enemy’s harass.&nbsp; For Quintessences I use Movement Speed as this helps chase enemies down as well as run away a bit easier with or without Yorick’s Q ability up.<br /> <strong>Masteries:</strong><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/yorrickmasteries.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-175" height="284" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/yorrickmasteries.jpg?w=490&amp;h=284" title="YorrickMasteries" width="490" /></a><br /> The masteries that I use for Yorick are the standard 21/0/9 build for DPS as runes cover any form of tankiness that is needed for him in the lane for the most part.&nbsp; Also this beefs up his lane harass by grabbing some abilities in the Offensive Tree, as well as, experience gain and sustainability from the Utility Tree.<br /> <strong>Summoner Spells:</strong><br /> <strong><em>Flash/Ignite</em></strong><br /> Flash is a great gap closer and escape tool, making it a necessity on Yorick.&nbsp; Another viable option is Ghost but you already have a built in Ghost with Yorick’s ability Omen of War.&nbsp; Ignite is great for the laning phase as well as the late game for its healing debuff and picking up early game kills.&nbsp; Yorick is all about harassing the opposing player and making them pay for overextending for minion kills during the laning phase.&nbsp; Having ignite on hand makes this even more true by allowing you to pick up some early kills when people think they can go toe to toe with you.<br /> <strong>Skill Order/Priority:</strong><br /> <em>Skill Order 1-6:</em><br /> <em></em>E&gt;W&gt;E&gt;Q&gt;E&gt;R<br /> or<br /> W&gt;E&gt;E&gt;Q&gt;W&gt;R<br /> The skill order here depends on how you laning phase is progressing.&nbsp; If you are being harassed quite frequently then level up E more or first.&nbsp; Otherwise you can split your skill points between E and W to increase your slow utility if you are not being harassed as much, therefore not requiring much lane sustainability.<br /> <em>Priority:</em><br /> R&gt;E&gt;W&gt;Q – Lane harass heavy lane<br /> R&gt;W&gt;E&gt;Q – Offensive laning for utilty<br /> <strong>Items:</strong><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/yorrickitems1.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-176" height="82" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/yorrickitems1.jpg?w=490&amp;h=82" title="YorrickItems1" width="490" /></a><br /> This is the end game item build you should try to shoot for.&nbsp; Start off with a Meki Pendant and 2x Health Potions.&nbsp; This will give you lane sustainability in both mana and in health if you need to use the Health Potions.&nbsp; After recalling the first time you should have enough for Tear of the Goddess and Boots.&nbsp; After that you should farm and use your abilities to get as much extra mana as possible so that on the next recall you can buy Manamune and have some decent attack damage.&nbsp; Next depending on how the game is going and how well you are farming and doing, you should buy Phage and start building Trinity Force otherwise you should grab Negatron Cloak or Chain Vest depending on what is needed more.&nbsp; After that you want to finish up Atmas Impaler or Banshee’s Veil if you need resistances more.&nbsp; However, if you need more health over resistances then rush for Warmog’s in order to farm it up in preparation for Atmas Impaler.<br /> <strong>Laning:</strong><br /> During the laning phase as Yorick you want to harass as much as possible.&nbsp; Constantly you should be spamming your E and W abilities on the opposing champion(s).&nbsp; Make sure not to spam too often as you can easily run out of mana using these two abilities.&nbsp; However, you should be using it when the opponent tries to go for a last hit or gets to close to you.&nbsp; This will not only annoy them and push your lane, but you will also deny the opposing champion from being able to get any money unless they are very good at last hitting by the tower.&nbsp; In doing so you have be very careful not to get ganked by buying wards whether you are in a solo lane or duo lane.&nbsp; If you are soloing and have a jungle, solo top lane so you can farm as much as possible and deny the opposing team’s top solo lane.&nbsp; As long as you harass and use your E and W abilities properly, you should be able to either kill that champion depending how smart they are at calculating your damage output or deny them experience and money.&nbsp; Another thing to note when playing Yorick is if they opposing champion wasted their flash then know when to jump on top of that opportunity if they overextend with your W and Q abilities.&nbsp; This will allow you to not only catch up to them with your Q but also keep them slowed with your W so you will get an easy kill.&nbsp; Also if you know that you are going to lose a 1v1 fight then don’t be afraid to put your ultimate on yourself to add another copy of yourself, in order to increase your damage output and secure the kill.&nbsp; When it comes to the late game the best thing to do with Yorick is to either ult yourself and take on people with your ultimate or put it on your carry.&nbsp; This will allow you or your carry to come back if they die and probably kill one or two people.&nbsp; Otherwise, then that for team fights you want to go in and try to take out their squishy champions such as their carries.&nbsp; You want to be constantly on them and make sure your ghouls are constantly up so as to take advantage of your passive.&nbsp; This will allow you to take reduced damage and deal extra damage.<br /> <strong>Jungling:</strong><br /> <br /> <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8Ro-_fPGWJU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /> This is how you can jungle as Yorick, this guide is credited to Stonewall008.<br /> <span class="embed-youtube" style="display: block; text-align: center;"> </span> <strong>Conclusion:</strong><br /> In conclusion, Yorick is a fun champion to play and is a interesting take on the Necromancer archetype.&nbsp; Yorick is great for those players that like to play tanky DPS but also like to be a champion that likes to get into the action.&nbsp; Yorick doesn’t bring a lot of CC to the team but still brings a good amount of utility by being able to deny farm from the opponents he faces in his lane.&nbsp; Therefore, if you like Necromancer in general and enjoy having a champion that is revolved around spamming abilities, then, Yorick is your go to champion.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-38895643287637211862011-07-28T09:15:00.001-07:002011-07-28T09:15:54.918-07:00<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kn-Y6jawdHM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /> <br /> Kayle is undergoing a remake and Riot Games’ Phreak has kindly provided for us a preview and champion preview for Kayle.&nbsp; The rework is a bit interesting as her passive is remade and some her abilities have been remade.&nbsp; Her passive now shreds armor and magic resistance that stacks.&nbsp; Her Reckoning now has a lower damage amplification but now has increased missile speed and flow, her heal is nerfed a bit but the movement speed boost is a bit more now.&nbsp; Her Righteous Fury ability is pretty good now in the fact the splash damage and range is a bit higher but the AP ratio got nerfed as a result.&nbsp; Overall the remake seems interesting, but only time will tell.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-69941342612146143192011-07-28T09:14:00.001-07:002011-07-28T09:14:33.733-07:00<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oJCWmGTaVnU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /> <br /> Riot Games just released a teaser video displaying and announcing his ability kit.&nbsp; Wukong is definitely going to be a fun champion to play, seems like a well done mischievous, tricky monkey that fits the folk lore behind the title of “Monkey King.”<br /> Well hope you all enjoyed the video and look forward to his release and playing as much as I am.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-65342164240922399122011-07-28T09:13:00.000-07:002011-07-28T09:13:12.276-07:00<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2uh4u22apYs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /> <br /> The animations and actual champion model for the newest champion to be revealed is Wukong, the Monkey King by Riot Games. So enjoy the teaser video for as long as it stays active on youtube and I hope you’re excited for this champion as much as I am.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-91588112439298629102011-07-28T09:12:00.001-07:002011-07-28T09:12:21.499-07:00<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="350" src="http://www.leagueoflegends.com/board/attachment.php?attachmentid=213791&amp;d=1310103811" title="Leona, the Radiant Dawn" width="594" /><br /> <strong>Lore:</strong><br /> On the upper slopes of Mount Targon, the warriors of Rakkor live and breathe only for war. However, Targon’s peak is reserved for a special group of Rakkor who answer to a “higher” calling. Members of this group, called the Solari, retire their mantles of war, choosing instead to devote their lives to reverence of the sun. According to legend, the Solari were formed by a warrior who could call the raw might of the sun down upon his enemies in combat. He claimed Mount Targon’s summit, the point on Valoran closest to the sun, for his solar devotion, a tradition which generations of Solari have preserved to this day. Though they maintain their reverence, no other warrior possessed the gifts of the founder – until Leona.<br /> Leona’s parents were traditional Rakkor, both bred for the heat of battle. To them, Leona was a problem child. She was capable of fighting as fiercely as any other – including her childhood friend, Pantheon – but she did not share their zeal for killing. She believed that the true worth of a soldier lay in her ability to defend and protect. When it came time for her Rite of Kor, a ceremony in which two Rakkor teens battle to the death for the right to bear a relic-weapon, Leona refused to fight. For this, the Rakkor leaders ordered her execution, but when they tried to strike the fatal blow, sunlight burst forth, bathing Mount Targon in light. As it faded, Leona stood unharmed and her executioners lay unconscious around her. The Solari immediately claimed Leona, demanding that her sentence be repealed. She donned the golden armor of the Solari and they bestowed upon her the sword and shield passed down from the ancient sun-warrior of legend. The Solari helped Leona focus her abilities, and when she was ready she left to join the League of Legends.<br /> “The sun’s rays reach all of Runeterra, so too must the image of its champion.”<br /> - Leona<br /> <strong>Abilities:</strong><br /> <strong>Shield of Daybreak</strong> – Leona charges her shield with the power of the sun causing her next melee attack to deal additional damage and briefly stun the target.<br /> <strong>Eclipse</strong> – Leona raises her shield granting her additional Armor and Magic Resistance for 3 seconds. When the effect ends she deals area of effect damage and increases the duration of the defensive bonuses by 3 seconds if she damages an enemy.<br /> <strong>Zenith Blade</strong> – Leona throws a blade of sunlight that deals damage to all enemies in a line. Leona teleports to the last enemy champion hit by this attack.<br /> <strong>Solar Flare</strong> – After a brief delay, Leona calls down a beam of solar energy dealing damage and slowing enemies. Enemies in the center of the beam are stunned instead of slowed.<br /> <strong>Sunlight (Passive)</strong> – Leona’s abilities mark the target with sunlight. Allied champions that damage marked targets deal additional damage and consume the mark.<br /> <br /> Looks like the true female tank will soon be upon us!&nbsp; I will be posting a review for both Leona and Yorick after testing both thoroughly after the patch and release of Leona.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-71921942693542637692011-07-28T09:11:00.000-07:002011-07-28T09:11:36.802-07:00<a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/264873_226003734084849_155123054506251_952593_3757535_n.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-158" height="289" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/264873_226003734084849_155123054506251_952593_3757535_n.jpg?w=490&amp;h=289" title="Yorick, the Gravedigger" width="490" /></a><br /> <br /> The patch has been released and changes have been made to Yorick as he was deemed underpowered by Riot.&nbsp; I will review Yorick now pre-patch and post-patch as I have played him in both instances.&nbsp; Yorick, the Gravedigger is supposed to be Riot Games’ take on a fan favorite, the necromancer.&nbsp; Yorick is a bit unique in being a tanky DPS as he has 2 ranged abilities, but is also a melee champion.&nbsp; Yorick’s abilities are also unique in the fact that upon use, Yorick summons ghouls which are minions that take damage over time.&nbsp; However, unlike minions gain a portion of Yorick’s health and attack damage and prioritize champions over anything else.&nbsp; This makes pushing a bit difficult for Yorick as there is always a chance his minions will cause the tower to target Yorick over the ghouls.&nbsp; This makes the player have to be cautious and aware of what is happening with his ghouls.<br /> <table><tbody> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_443.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Unholy+Covenant">Unholy Covenant</a><br /> </strong> Yorick’s takes 5% reduced damage and his basic attacks deal 5% more damage for each summon that is active. Meanwhile, Yorick’s ghouls have 35% of Yorick’s Attack Damage and Health.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_444.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Omen+of+War">Omen of War</a><br /> </strong> Yorick’s next attack will deal bonus physical damage and summon a Spectral Ghoul that deals additional damage and moves faster than Yorick’s other ghouls. While the Spectral Ghoul is alive, Yorick moves faster as well.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_445.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Omen+of+Pestilence">Omen of Pestilence</a><br /> </strong> Yorick summons a Decaying Ghoul that arrives with a violent explosion, dealing damage and slowing nearby enemies. While the Decaying Ghoul remains alive, nearby enemies continue to be slowed.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_446.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Omen+of+Famine">Omen of Famine</a><br /> </strong> Yorick steals life from his target and summons a Ravenous Ghoul that heals Yorick for the damage it deals.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_447.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Omen+of+Death">Omen of Death</a><br /> </strong> Yorick conjures a revenant in the image of one of his allies. If his ally dies while its revenant is alive, the revenant sacrifices itself to reanimate them and give them time to enact vengeance.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>As for laning pre-patch Yorick, was pretty good.&nbsp; He is capable of pushing in a solo lane and can definitely hold his own against squishy champions like any tanky DPS should be able to for the most part.&nbsp; Yorick’s lane dominance is all about harassing with his W and E abilities. Above are his abilities and passive for reference purposes.&nbsp; Omen of Famine is capable of keeping you in the lane as long as you have mana for it allowing you lane sustainability and the slow from Omen of Pestilence is amazing for keeping the enemy champion slowed for some initial auto attack hits.&nbsp; Also when coupled with Omen of War you will constantly be on top of the enemy champion unless they have flash or ghost.&nbsp; Yorick’s passive that allows him to take decreased damage and deal increased damage for the more ghouls he has out is great for making him a tanky DPS.&nbsp; Overall Yorick’s kit fits him well as a Necromancer archetype.&nbsp; Even Yorick’s ultimate fits this well because you create a ghoul that is similar to Mordekaiser’s Children of the Grave ulitmate but upon the targeted ally dying, control goes to the targeted person and not the owner of the ultimate.&nbsp; So this is essentially a Mordekaiser pet to start and then turns into a Zilean ultimate except the person is not revived.&nbsp; Overall a really nice job of Riot to create a champion that uses similar abilities to current champions but takes a different spin on how it is implemented and used in game to fit the archetype of the champion they were aiming for.<br /> As for Yorick in a duo lane, the mana costs and his ghouls lose their strength and purpose.&nbsp; The ghouls are easily CCed and easily killed when there is another person in the lane.&nbsp; This causes Yorick to become a squishy melee champion that can only harass and poke for minimal damage.&nbsp; This eventually leads to him running out of mana depending on how often he casts as the abilities for ranged harass for Yorick is relatively expensive.&nbsp; Overall pre-patch Yorick felt underwhelming and was a fun concept but it slightly fell flat with the mana costs and the fact his ultimate deteriorated over time similar to his ghouls.&nbsp; For an ultimate this shouldn’t happen as it makes the ultimate not fun to use and a waste of mana as it will never reach its effect as it can be easily killed on top of the deterioration.<br /> <br /> Post-patch Yorick feels more like a bruiser as the Necromancer archetype Riot Games was shooting for.&nbsp; Yorick’s abilities still feel like you have to wisely choose when to use his abilities as you put more ranks into it.&nbsp; But, they feel a bit better cost for use wise then pre-patch as before you would run out of mana a bit quicker then needed as you need to juggle your ghouls to make use of your passive.&nbsp; The increase to his mana per level for base stats also help to increase his mana pool despite how small to be able to throw out another spell cast if needed compared to pre-patch.&nbsp; Yorick’s W getting increased range for casting helps for harassing even if it was only by a small amount.&nbsp; The change to ghouls being immune to slows and taking 50% reduced AOE damage helped a lot as well.&nbsp; This allows his ghouls to survive a bit which is the main part of his kit and actually be able to be useful harass on champions.&nbsp; However, to some extent this helped the duo lane greatly for Yorick and jungling, but made his solo laning a bit OP.&nbsp; Yorick can not only deal damage and harass well by poking with his ghouls but sustain very well in lane now.&nbsp; He is by far no immovable object like Warwick or Udyr but definitely very strong in lane.&nbsp; Overall the buffs were necessary but I believe that decreasing the cost of his abilities and increasing his mana per level was a bit unnecessary.&nbsp; One or the other I believe would have been fine for buffs along with the rest.&nbsp; Therefore, Yorick is a good tanky DPS now if not a hair OP.<br /> <br /> Overall, a good addition to League of Legends, and a great champion befitting of the Necromancer archetype.&nbsp; If built tanky DPS then he can do his job as a bruiser and go for the carries and definitely take them out, however building him as DPS is also viable but making him fairly fragile.&nbsp; If someone wants to play a Necromancer in League of Legends, Yorick definitely is a champion one should check out as he is a fun champion to play, yet different from the standard Necromancer commonly seen in games.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-63825457762996364682011-07-28T09:04:00.001-07:002011-07-28T09:04:54.660-07:00<a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/oriana_splash_0.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-142" height="289" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/oriana_splash_0.jpg?w=490&amp;h=289" title="Orianna, the Lady of Clockwork" width="490" /></a><br /> Hi all!&nbsp; Enryuu here to bring you another guide for League of Legends and I apologize for the delay of this posting.&nbsp; The guide will revolve around on how to play Orianna, the Lady of Clockwork.&nbsp; Orianna is a support nuke mage.&nbsp; Orianna’s abilities are a bit different from her mage counter parts because all the abilities revolve around her ball.&nbsp; This ball is similar to a pet that you need to keep track of based off location so you can deal damage.&nbsp; This adds for more concentration and intuitive gameplay by making the player aware of his/her positioning to maximize his/her damage output.&nbsp; In this guide I will be explaining how I play Orianna, which is more of a mage nuke instead of as a support as I prefer to deal damage.<br /> <br /> <iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/EUpTRoSQEX4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /> Champion Spotlight by Phreak of Riot Games. <br /> <br /> <strong>Abilities:</strong><br /> <table><tbody> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_438.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Clockwork+Windup">Clockwork Windup</a><br /> </strong>Orianna uses her ball as a focus for her spells and attacks. Orianna’s ball automatically returns to her if she is too far away from it.Orianna’s autoattacks deal additional damage plus 20% of her Ability Power in magic damage. Subsequent attacks against the same target within 4 seconds deal an additional 15% magic damage. This bonus stacks up to 3 times.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_439.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Command%3A+Attack">Command: Attack</a><br /> </strong> Orianna commands her ball to fire toward a target location, dealing magic damage to targets along the way (deals less damage to subsequent targets). Her ball remains at the target location after.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_440.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Command%3A+Dissonance">Command: Dissonance</a><br /> </strong> Orianna commands the ball to release a pulse of energy, dealing magic damage around it. This leaves a field behind that speeds up allies and slows enemies.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_441.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Command%3A+Protect">Command: Protect</a><br /> </strong> Orianna commands her ball to attach to an allied champion, shielding them and dealing magic damage to any enemies it passes through on the way. Additionally, the ball grants additional Armor and Magic Resist to the champion it is attached to.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_442.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Command%3A+Shockwave">Command: Shockwave</a><br /> </strong> Orianna commands her ball to unleash a shockwave, dealing magic damage and launching nearby enemies towards the ball after a short delay.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>Orianna’s passive is good for when you want to build her as a mage as it scaled with her ability power fairly well.&nbsp; However, this puts her in danger as you have to be fairly close to sustain auto attack damage for the full effect of her passive.&nbsp; This provides a risk and reward type of situation for Orianna.&nbsp; Orianna’s Q ability is a relatively short cooldown ability that is used in order to move the ball.&nbsp; This allows for good lane harassment as well as repositioning for Orianna’s other abilities.&nbsp; Orianna’s W ability Command: Dissonance is Orianna’s bread and butter spell.&nbsp; This ability does the most damage and provides the most support that in my opinion makes Orianna shine.&nbsp; This ability allows Orianna to speed up her teammates and slow down enemies similar to Nasus’s Wither ability but with the opposite effect of it being the max slow or speed at the beginning.&nbsp; Orianna’s third ability Command: Protect is another support ability and if used for damage relies on proper positioning.&nbsp; This adds to Orianna’s gameplay by giving the player a sense of strategy by planning who you want to use the ability on for positioning.&nbsp; Orianna’s ultimate Command: Shockwave is similar to a gravitational pull ability where it pulls enemies towards the ball’s location after a short delay.&nbsp; Her ultimate is great for CC and for capturing enemies that run away.&nbsp; This brings great utility to the team as well as an escape mechanic on top of her W.&nbsp; Her ultimate also does a fair amount of damage for a champion that is able to play a support role as well making her a capable mage if built in that fashion.<br /> <strong>Runes:</strong><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/oriannarunes.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-145" height="262" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/oriannarunes.jpg?w=490&amp;h=262" title="OriannaRunes" width="490" /></a><br /> These are the runes I use for Orianna.&nbsp; I take Magic Penetration Marks, Ability Power per Level Seals and Glyphs, 2x Flat Ability Power Quintessences and 1 Magic Penetration Quintessence.<br /> These runes allow for Orianna to deal the most maximum damage possible, but the drawback is being squishy and having poor mana regeneration making you extremely reliant on blue buff or on mana ability power items such as Rod of Ages or Archangel’s Staff.<br /> <strong>Masteries:</strong><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/oriannamasteries.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-144" height="279" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/oriannamasteries.jpg?w=490&amp;h=279" title="OriannaMasteries" width="490" /></a><br /> I build Orianna using standard caster masteries going 9/0/21 grabbing Archaic Knowledge for Magic Penetration in the Offensive Tree and grabbing Utility Mastery in the Utility Tree as well as Blink of An Eye for increased buff duration and reduced cooldown on Flash.<br /> <strong>Summoner Spells:</strong><br /> Flash/Ignite<br /> Ghost/Flash is another set up one could use as a squishy caster to allow for more escape potential.&nbsp; However, I feel that Ignite will net you some good early kills whether you are in a duo lane or solo, while your W makes up for not having Ghost as a summoner spell.&nbsp; Flash allows you to pull of some nice escapes as well as some good initiations on champions as well as catching up to them.<br /> <strong>Skill Order/Priority:</strong><br /> R&gt;W&gt;Q&gt;E<br /> <em>Level 1-6:</em><br /> Q&gt;W&gt;W&gt;E&gt;W&gt;R<br /> <strong>Items:</strong><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/oriannaitems.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-143" height="67" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/oriannaitems.jpg?w=401&amp;h=67" title="OriannaItems" width="401" /></a><br /> These are the end game items that you should have by the end of the game with substitutes being made depending on what you need and the team composition of the opposing team.&nbsp; The first item you should start off with is a Mana Crystal and 2x Health Potions.&nbsp; This will give you some lane sustainability and a bigger mana pool to allow you to cast and harass bit.&nbsp; This will aid you in your farming and is a good item to start into for turning it into Catalyst of the Protector on your first trip back.&nbsp; Grabbing Catalyst of the Protector as soon as possible is great for lane sustainability, which helps further with creep farming and gives Orianna a nice bump in health.&nbsp; Afterwards you should back and grab boots and finish off Rod of Ages as soon as possible so that you can let its passive kick in.&nbsp; Sometimes however it is best to instead go quickly for a Rabadon’s Deathcap and grab a Needlessly Large Rod instead.&nbsp; This allows for a quick AP boost and increases your burst damage significantly, but that all depends on how you game is progressing.&nbsp; After Rod of Ages or Rabadon’s Deathcap buy a Void Staff then begin finishing off Zhonya’s Hourglass and Lichbane in whichever order is necessary.&nbsp; Lichbane synchronizes greatly with Orianna’s passive due to the proc effect of Lich Bane when you cast your spells.&nbsp; Another good item in place of Lichbane is Will of the Ancients for Spell Vamp and Ability Power for yourself and your team.&nbsp; Ionian Boots of Lucidity are the best boots in my opinion for Orianna because she requires cooldown reduction to be effective since this allows her Q ability to be on a 3-4seconds cooldown if you are cooldown reduction capped.<br /> <strong>Laning Phase:</strong><br /> During the laning phase Orianna should be harassing every now and then with her Q due to it being a low mana cost ability.&nbsp; This should be used to harass minions as well as the champions if possible.&nbsp; This will help Orianna with last hitting with her passive a bit.&nbsp; It takes a bit to get the hang of Orianna’s auto attacks on top of her passive’s damage for last hitting minions for farming.&nbsp; Therefore, I believe you should practice this to maximize your farming capabilities early game as it gets extremely easy to clear creep waves at higher levels with her W ability maxed out.&nbsp; The best way to harass in lane is to first Q to move the ball into position and then staying relatively close so as to move your ball in short distances so the enemy champion can’t easily dodge the ball.&nbsp; This will allow you to hit them with your W as it has a fairly short radius.&nbsp; If you are getting harassed don’t forget to use your E ability to bring the ball back to you for damage if possible, otherwise use it for shielding yourself and giving yourself bonus armor and magic resist so the damage being dealt to you is minimizes as much as possible.&nbsp; Always remember this as Orianna is a very squishy champion like any other caster especially with this guide and rune page.&nbsp; Keep an eye on your mana as you harass and strategically plan whether you should go all in or just harass in lane for kills.&nbsp; Orianna can deal a surprising amount of burst so once you learn how much damage you can deal you will be grabbing kills easily and escaping with your life intact in no time.&nbsp; Towards end game the best combination I found to use Orianna’s abilities in is to initiate with Q then use her ultimate for a quick CC and burst damage followed up with her W for more burst damage.&nbsp; Then, if there is anybody in line with your ball for damage from your E ability use that for even more damage.&nbsp; In most cases you should have landed yourself a kill on a squishy AD Carry or AP Carry or brought most of them to low health for your team to finish off.&nbsp; This guide pertains to you grabbing a solo lane so you become the AP Carry for your team as well so be sure to call for a solo lane.&nbsp; If you are in the side lane this laning phase portion doesn’t change much but you may need to play a bit more defensive and supportive.<br /> Conclusion:<br /> Overall Orianna is a high skilled cap champion that takes a little while to get used to.&nbsp; But once you get the hang of her you will be enjoying her mechanics and dealing damage like an AP Carry and aiding your teammates to victory.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-9506972374704523642011-07-28T09:03:00.000-07:002011-07-28T09:03:36.373-07:00Some possible League of Legends skins for champions.&nbsp; One has already been confirmed which is Viking Tryndamere.&nbsp; These others are speculated leaks.&nbsp; So take these with a grain of salt.<br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/xeb01h.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-124" height="289" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/xeb01h.jpg?w=490&amp;h=289" title="Viking Tryndamere" width="490" /></a><br /> <div style="text-align: center;">Viking Tryndamere</div><a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/ilyz3.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-123" height="289" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/ilyz3.jpg?w=490&amp;h=289" title="Commando Lux" width="490" /></a><br /> <div style="text-align: center;">Commando Lux</div><a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/bxswsh.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-122" height="289" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/bxswsh.jpg?w=490&amp;h=289" title="Executioner Mundo" width="490" /></a><br /> <div style="text-align: center;">Executioner Mundo</div>Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-50514127000934996622011-07-28T09:02:00.000-07:002011-07-28T09:02:00.097-07:00<strong><a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/264873_226003734084849_155123054506251_952593_3757535_n.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-118" height="289" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/264873_226003734084849_155123054506251_952593_3757535_n.jpg?w=490&amp;h=289" title="Yorrick, the Grave Digger" width="490" /></a></strong><br /> <strong>Lore:</strong><br /> The work of gravediggers is essential amongst the living, but invaluable in the Shadow Isles. There are many shades of death there, and each is embraced rather than feared or reviled. One can only ascend from one state to the next with the magical aid of a skilled professional. At the end of the first Rune War, Yorick Mori made his living as a gravedigger. His family owned and maintained the Final Rest Memorial, one of the oldest cemeteries in Valoran. The shovel he employed for his work had been passed down for generations. Each gravedigger taught his son that this shovel was imbued with the spirit of every forefather, and that those spirits would protect him during the long lonely nights amongst the tombstones. To his eternal regret, Yorick died without an heir, bringing the proud Mori line to a close. His body was interred with his shovel in the family mausoleum, and the Final Rest Memorial soon fell to ruin. Death, however, was not the end Yorick had expected.<br /> Yorick emerged on the haunted shores of the Shadow Isles – not quite dead, definitely not alive – still clutching his beloved shovel. He soon learned that with it he could act as a ferryman for the Isles’ undead denizens, helping them climb death’s many-tiered ladder. This proved a curse, as a gravedigger must “bury his quota” before he too can ascend, or so the legend goes. No one knows what “his quota” is. Yorick dug tirelessly, waiting in vain for the day when he would be freed of his burden. As decades turned to centuries, the shame of his failures came to a head. He returned to Valoran to find his corpse, convinced that salvation might be buried with it. When he arrived, no trace remained of either the mausoleum or the memorial. Hope nearly lost, he discovered the League of Legends, and there saw an opportunity to immortalize the family name he allowed to be forgotten ages ago.<br /> “Die first, then we’ll talk.” -Yorick<br /> <strong>Abilities:</strong><br /> <strong>Omen of War</strong>: Yorick’s next attack will deal bonus physical damage and summon a Spectral Ghoul that deals additional damage and moves faster than Yorick’s other ghouls. While the Spectral Ghoul is alive, Yorick moves faster as well.<br /> <strong>Omen of Pestilence</strong>: Yorick summons a Decaying Ghoul that arrives with a violent explosion, dealing damage and slowing nearby enemies. While the Decaying Ghoul remains alive, nearby enemies continue to be slowed.<br /> <strong>Omen of Famine</strong>: Yorick steals life from his target and summons a Ravenous Ghoul that heals Yorick for the damage it deals.<br /> <strong>Omen of Death</strong> <strong>(Ultimate)</strong>: Yorick conjures a revenant in the image of one of his allies. If his ally dies while its revenant is alive, the revenant sacrifices itself to reanimate them and give them time to enact vengeance.<br /> <strong>Unholy Covenant (Passive)</strong>: Yorick’s attacks deal more damage for each summon that is active. Meanwhile, Yorick’s ghouls deal some percent of Yorick’s Attack Damage and have some percent of his total health.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-76283226029340258302011-07-28T08:57:00.001-07:002011-07-28T08:57:34.980-07:00<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="306" src="http://riot-web-static.s3.amazonaws.com/images/news/May_2011/5_30_Orianna_New_Skins/Oriana_Splash_0_thumb.jpg" title="Orianna, the Lady of Clockwork" width="520" /><br /> <br /> Hello all, I apologize for the delayed post but I’m here to bring you another review of the newest champion released by Riot Games.&nbsp; Orianna, the Lady of Clockwork previously known as Orianna, the Clockwork Girl, however some legal issues arose there so the naming had to be changed a bit.&nbsp; Orianna is a magic casting support/nuke champion.&nbsp; She is capable of bringing a lot of support as well as nuke potential of a mage depending on how she is built.&nbsp; Orianna is a bit different from your typical mage and adds a bit of a new gameplay experience and mechanic to the game.&nbsp; Orianna’s abilities revolve around her “ball” as it is named, which isn’t a pet by any means.&nbsp; The ball is like another champion that can’t be targeted in a sense or a pet you have to keep an eye on.&nbsp; Wherever the ball is, is where Orianna’s abilities will occur at, which adds a bit more to your gameplay experience by making you pay attention a bit more to not only your own positioning but the ball as well.&nbsp; This adds a bit more of a intuitive gameplay experience and one where you have to focus a bit more then normal.<br /> <br /> The fact you have to pay attention more allows Orianna to be a fun and unique champion despite some of the abilities being similar to other current abilties or a small new spin on older ones.&nbsp; Overall it makes Orianna different from a typical support and mage as its not all about point and click with her.&nbsp; Orianna also can be considered a range DPS of sorts for a mage as her passive allows her auto attack damage to scale a bit higher then a typical mage.&nbsp; Her passive is effected by ability power and the amount of times you auto attack the same target within a certain time period.&nbsp; This allows her to auto attack and synchronize well with a hybrid build path or a lich bane/sheen build path opening up unique builds to take advantage of certain abilities and her passive that comes with her kit.&nbsp; Orianna’s first skill allows her to move her ball which thankfully is on a relatively low cooldown once you are rank the skill up allowing for almost constant movement of the ball.&nbsp; Orianna’s second ability allows her to have a speed boost and slow area of effect, which takes Nasus’s Wither ability and makes it used here for enemies and the opposite in a speed boost for allies.&nbsp; This is one of the abilities that I mentioned earlier that takes a small spin on older abilities and makes them a bit different.&nbsp; This ability however has a small radius and I believe it could be enlarged a bit but I don’t know for sure how balanced that would make it or not.&nbsp; The radius seems awfully small for it though, I believe the range is a mere 200 radius if that.&nbsp; Overall the ability is not bad and I like the design of the bubble that is created to show the area of effect of the skill because it is shaped similar to a cog in a clock.&nbsp; Orianna’s third ability allows her to recall her ball to herself or put it on an ally giving them increased armor and magic resist while on them and a shield for a brief period of time.&nbsp; Shields seems to go hand in hand with support as it seems like no new champions are being given any kind of heals lately as it adds to passivity of gameplay.&nbsp; This move is pretty neat as it requires positioning to be useful but the shield and travel time of the ball can make or break a save, which makes Orianna a little less of a desired shield support champion as compared to those that have instance shields like Morgana, Janna, and Karma.&nbsp; Orianna’s ultimate is the most unique ability that adds a bit of flavor to the game and takes a new spin from other similar abilities.&nbsp; This ability is similar to a gravitational pull in a sense where Orianna can pull enemies towards the ball similar to a suction effect.&nbsp; This is a nice AOE ability and takes a spin on older abilities such as Blitzcrank’s grab and Urgot’s ultimate as a pull and swap effect.<br /> <br /> Overall, Orianna is a champion that is both fun as support and as a mage.&nbsp; Riot adds a bit of a twist to the gameplay of this champion by adding in the ball mechanic and how it revolves around her skills.&nbsp; Orianna is still new and there are some bugs retaining to her gameplay, but overall its not an unpleasant experience by far and is a champion support and mage players should give a try.&nbsp; Orianna is also a good champion for new players to learn in order to grasp a better understanding of positioning for other champions that require it to be effective.&nbsp; So all in all nice job Riot on a well done champion that is fun despite using old mechanics and could still use some minor tweaks at least from a player’s perspective but is nonetheless fun and enjoyable to play.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-72163766279972235782011-07-28T08:56:00.000-07:002011-07-28T08:56:46.178-07:00<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="356" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/readers/2011/05/07/1_2.png" title="Vayne, the Night Hunter" width="540" /><br /> Hello folks.&nbsp; It’s that time again, another champion was released by Riot Games, which means another guide by yours truly.&nbsp; The newest champion is Vayne, the Night Hunter who is a ranged physical damage carry/assassin.&nbsp; Vayne isn’t the most unique champion designed by Riot, but her playstyle and ability kit make her pretty fun and unique in her own way.&nbsp; Vayne is a little bit different from the typical physical damage ranged carry champion as she has true damage in one of her abilities which really helps define her role in the current meta game as a tank destroyer.&nbsp; Anyways enough banter and onto the guide.<br /> <br /> <iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gZDJqpFspmg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br /> <strong>Champion Spotlight by Phreak:</strong><br /> <span class="embed-youtube" style="display: block; text-align: center;"> </span> <strong>Abilities:</strong><br /> <table><tbody> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_433.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Night+Hunter">Night Hunter</a><br /> </strong> Vayne ruthlessly hunts evil-doers. She gains 40 Movement Speed when moving toward nearby enemy champions.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_434.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Tumble">Tumble</a><br /> </strong> Vayne tumbles, maneuvering to carefully place her next shot. Her next attack deals bonus damage.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_435.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Silver+Bolts">Silver Bolts</a><br /> </strong> Vayne tips her bolts with a rare metal, toxic to evil things. The third consecutive attack or ability against the same target deals a percentage of the target’s maximum Health as bonus true damage. (Max: 200 damage vs. Monsters)</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_436.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Condemn">Condemn</a><br /> </strong> Vayne draws a heavy crossbow from her back, and fires a huge bolt at her target, dealing damage and knocking them back. If they collide with terrain, they are impaled, dealing bonus damage and stunning them.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_437.jpg" /></td> <td><strong><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Final+Hour">Final Hour</a><br /> </strong> Readying herself for an epic confrontation, Vayne gains increased Attack Damage, stealth during Tumble, and quadruple the bonus Movement Speed from Night Hunter.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table><strong>Runes:</strong><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/vaynerunes.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-93" height="263" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/vaynerunes.jpg?w=490&amp;h=263" title="VayneRunes" width="490" /></a><br /> Rune set 1.<br /> This is my first rune set that I sometimes use, which consists of Armor Penetration Marks and Quintessences, Dodge Seals, and flat Magic Resist Glyphs.&nbsp; Vayne is a physical damage dealer, so having more base armor penetration is the best way to do more damage, having dodge runes allows some survivability along with the flat magic resist rues.&nbsp; You are however pretty frail with this rune set, but it’s all a matter of preference of starting items and whether you want to do damage or survive.<br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/vaynerunes2.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-94" height="261" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/vaynerunes2.jpg?w=490&amp;h=261" title="VayneRunes2" width="490" /></a><br /> Rune set 2.<br /> This is my second rune set that I use sometimes depending on how I feel and team comp.&nbsp; This one is a bit more on the safer and tankier side of things.&nbsp; The runes are 9 Armor Penetration Marks, 9 Flat Armor Seals, 9 Flat Magic Resist Glyphs, 1 Armor Penetration Quintessence and 2 Flat Health Quintessences.&nbsp; The health gives you a bit more of a health pool to work with early game in order to harass due to Vayne’s aggressive playstyle.&nbsp; This comes at the sacrifice of more damage by removing 2 Armor Penetration Quintessences.&nbsp; Also you get a bit more reliable mitigation and sustainability by having armor runes over dodge runes.&nbsp; This removed the RNG aspect of dodge runes since in masteries that I will get to next you don’t go into the defensive tree.&nbsp; But you can go tankier and put 9 points in the defensive tree and grabbing Strength of Spirit if you like playing a less fragile ranged champion.<br /> <strong>Masteries:</strong><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/vaynemasteries.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-98" height="300" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/vaynemasteries.jpg?w=490&amp;h=300" title="VayneMasteries" width="490" /></a><strong></strong><br /> These are the typical masteries I use when playing Vayne. I go 21/0/9 grabbing a point in improved ghost since it is one of my summoner spells.&nbsp; The main difference here from my mastery build and the mastery page that Phreak uses in the champion spotlight is that I don’t put a point in Archaic Knowledge for the extra magic penetration.&nbsp; This is mainly because I don’t build Madred’s Bloodrazor like Phreak did in the champion spotlight which deals magic damage so having a point here would benefit you more if you went that build route.&nbsp; I however concentrate more on damage and critical strike damage in general and play Vayne like a typical AD Carry would be played item wise.&nbsp; I have tried both mastery versions and I prefer this build over Phreak’s as all of Vayne’s abilities physical damage so magic penetration isn’t really needed.&nbsp; I would go into more detail as to why I choose which point in each mastery but these masteries are pretty much standard on AD carry champions so not really going to go into much detail as these are used commonly.<br /> <strong>Items:</strong><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/vayneitems.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-100" height="70" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/vayneitems.jpg?w=403&amp;h=70" title="VayneItems" width="403" /></a><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/vayneitems2.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-101" height="69" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/vayneitems2.jpg?w=404&amp;h=69" title="VayneItems2" width="404" /></a><br /> These are the two end game item builds I use typically for Vayne.&nbsp; Usually my game ends before I get to this point, but the damage output you can get from these two builds are phenomenal.<br /> The first build focuses on abusing Tumble and your other abilities to proc&nbsp; Trinity Force.&nbsp; This gives you a little extra burst damage and allows you to push the towers effectively by taking chunks out with the Trinity Force proc.&nbsp; This build also gives you a bit of extra movement speed to help you in catching up and running away from your opponents.&nbsp; The other nice thing about this build is that you get a slow from Trinity Force which allows you to continually pummel your opponents and take advantage of your W ability and the true damage behind it.&nbsp; This also gives you a bit more utility by giving you a slow to allow you to stick on your opponents but allow your teammates to catch up to that opponents as well.&nbsp; This build also offers Vayne some extra survivability by giving health and a slow from Trinity Force which is a trade off by giving up a bit more damage output.<br /> The second build focuses more around a carry build and allows you to take more advantage of your W ability and the true damage proc.&nbsp; This build focuses on heavy damage and gives you a bit less survivability but gives you extreme damage and carry potential.&nbsp; This build solely focuses on obliterating and heavily crushing your targets with damage.&nbsp; You will probably have somewhere around 300+ damage with this build allowing for your critical strikes to literally 2-4shot squishy targets with no armor mitigation.&nbsp; The attack speed will help you in that regard as well as proc your true damage.&nbsp; However you lose out on utility for straight up damage numbers in this build.<br /> In the end these two builds can decimate opponents as long as your teammates are there to support you as Vayne is more of a 1v1 type champion so don’t expect any crazy AOE damage from her.&nbsp; Vayne is all about decimating and destroying that single opponents you set your eyes on first then moving onto the next one until you get that ace or you die.<br /> <strong><br /> </strong><br /> <strong>Skill Order/Priority:</strong><br /> Offensive:<br /> R&gt;Q&gt;W&gt;E&gt;<br /> 1-6 Skill Order:<br /> Q&gt;W&gt;Q&gt;E&gt;Q&gt;R<br /> or<br /> Q&gt;W&gt;E&gt;Q&gt;Q&gt;R<br /> Defensive/Utility:<br /> R&gt;Q&gt;E&gt;W<br /> 1-6 Skill Order:<br /> Q&gt;E&gt;Q&gt;W&gt;Q&gt;R<br /> These are the skill orders I use depending on how I feel like playing that game and how the game is going.&nbsp; Typically I use the more offensive approach and grab a point in each skill by 3 and then going the offensive skill order approach maxing Q then W then E.<br /> <strong>Summoner Spells:</strong><br /> For summoner spells I use Ghost and Flash.<br /> The main reason is because Flash gives you an escape mechanism since you don’t really have any.&nbsp; Ghost is mainly for another escape mechanism since your passive isn’t very useful outside of chasing opponents.&nbsp; Ghost therefore is useful for helping you catch up to those opponents with ghost on top of your passive or to help you get away.<br /> Alternative summoner spells you could use in place of Ghost is Exhaust/Ignite/Cleanse.<br /> <strong><br /> </strong><br /> <strong>Laning:</strong><br /> For laning Vayne makes a viable solo lane champion as well as someone who can handle duo lane fairly well.&nbsp; I believe she is best fit for a solo lane so it allows you to get the level advantage and gives you ganking potential with a higher success rate.<br /> At the start of the game depending on who you are fighting you can start off with either Boots and 3 Health Potions or a Doran’s Blade.&nbsp; Doran’s Blade gives you health and some extra damage for harassing purposes.&nbsp; However you sacrifice lane sustainability because you will have to return if you get harassed too much.&nbsp; Lately I have preferred starting with Boots and 3 Health Potions so you can stay in your lane and farm a bit longer.<br /> While in the lane you should be focusing on constantly harassing your opponent when you can with Tumble and playing as aggressive as possible with the least amount of damage taken as a result.&nbsp; This should all be done while you are farming and getting last hits as well.&nbsp; You should therefore have either more or be on par with your opponent’s creep score for minion kills in farm.&nbsp; Don’t forget that Tumble resets your attack timer as well so you should be auto attacking your opponent then Tumble then auto attack again to proc your W.&nbsp; Another trick to use is to deny your opponents by harassing and pushing them further back from experience range with your E skill.&nbsp; Definitely whether you are laning or in a teamfight be sure to time your attacks and skills to deal the most damage possible on top of your W.&nbsp; This will make your presence known and instill fear into your enemies.<br /> After farming for awhile depending on what your laning opponent is looking like and how you are doing in the lane, on first return you should be able to buy a couple of Doran’s Blades or Boots and another Doran’s Blade.&nbsp; With any extra gold buy some Health Potions and some Wards.<br /> Afterwards start saving up to buy a BF Sword, or a Sheen depending on which route of the build you are going.&nbsp; Another option would be to buy a Zeal as the increased attack speed as well as movement speed should help you out in the lane.&nbsp; Afterwards finish off your BF Sword and turn it into an Infinity Edge or you should be buying more of the components for Trinity Force.&nbsp; If you are going the offensive build by mid game you should have Infinity Edge, Berserker’s Greaves or Mercury Treads, Zeal or Phantom Dancer and be on the road to building Bloodthirster and the remaining items as you see fit.&nbsp; The defensive build at this point in mid game you should have Trinity Force, Infinity Edge and one of the two boots mentioned previously then building up Phantom Dancer and the other items accordingly.<br /> When it comes to the end game and teamfights be prepared to stand in the back and wait for your turn to go in.&nbsp; You are a weak and fragile champion so remember that and remember to focus one opponent down at a time from afar.&nbsp; Use your Tumble to dodge and to run away.&nbsp; Use it for damage as you kite, but don’t ever use Tumble to roll into the enemy and start a fight.&nbsp; Your ultimate and Tumble is a great combo to use as it gives you both extra attack damage but a stealth on your Tumble.<br /> <strong><br /> </strong><br /> <strong>Conclusion:</strong><br /> <strong><br /> </strong>Overall Vayne is a great champion, a little unoriginal in ability concept but a good carry champion in general.&nbsp; Vayne is a bit unique and makes a great option to choose over other carry champions for her true damage in the current tanky DPS metagame.&nbsp; Vayne however is extremely fragile despite the crazy damage output she has.&nbsp; Therefore be sure that when you pick her to play aggressive but also safe so as to minimize your damage intake while maximizing your damage output.&nbsp; If you’ve played a physical range carry champion or have played Ashe and are fairly good with her or any other, then Vayne should be no new concept to you.&nbsp; Vayne is all about position and remembering you are the carry but are also fragile.&nbsp; This will allow you to play her the most effective way that I’ve seen and experienced despite the builds being expensive.&nbsp; But, damage and destruction never came cheap, so have fun and hunt the noobs while you still can because Vayne with this build and guide you’ll always be on the hunt for more blood.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-88322739312736114772011-07-28T08:53:00.000-07:002011-07-28T08:55:19.817-07:00Vayne, the Night Hunter is the newest hero to join the League of Legends champion roster, she is a ranged DPS assassin/carry.<br /> <br /> Vayne is a physical range DPS with a kit that has abilities that are not that unique, yet round out and fit her well. Vayne’s passive is Night Hunter which allows her to chase enemies down by giving her bonus movement speed. This ability is similar to Warwick’s Blood Scent ability except instead of working when the enemy is below a certain amount of health, it is always up as long as you can see the enemy you are chasing. So overall this ability is pretty nice because it allows you to chase those runners down, but it’s not overpowered enough to override someone who has ghost or movement speed abilities like a Teemo. This ability kind of foreshadows Vayne into an aggressive playstyle, which is true because Vayne is an aggressive champion by far compared to other champions. However, unlike others you have a double-edged sword because Vayne is squishy as a ranged DPS and becomes slow when running away. So overall Vayne can’t really be played passively otherwise it sort of hurts you in the end.<br /> <br /> Vayne’s first ability is Tumble, which has the range of Nidalee’s pounce ability or Renekton’s Slice and Dice. Overall a small range but it allows you to move or as the ability states Tumble in that direction. The animation here is great, perfect for those “Star Fox” fans from the good old days. You end up doing a tumble or a “Barrel Roll!” This ability is Vayne’s core skill, it allows you to dodge skill shots and move away from danger just like any other flash like ability. However, unlike the other abilities other champions have that allow champions to pass through walls, Tumble does not. This is a bit of a disappointment at first because I think realistically Tumble should be able to work in certain areas of the map such as Tumbling off a cliff or ramp-way. Something simple, it is understandable that they don’t want you tumbling through walls. Let alone the amount of knowledge that it takes to know the areas that Nidalee and Renekton can jump through on the map to apply to Vayne’s Tumble. Overall the ability is fun to use as it is on a short cooldown and it adds a bit of versatile damage, burst, and harassment at the early stages of the game. Which is where this champion shines the most similar to the champion, Caitlyn.<br /> <br /> Vayne’s second ability is Silver Bolts, now this skill is nice coupled with her other abilities mainly because it deals true damage to the target on the third attack including abilities. True damage helps Vayne stand out among other carries just for the simple fact that she can hurt tanks and tanky DPS which is still the craze in this game for a metagame. This ability and champion helps alleviate that and the damage is relatively minimal compared to other champions that have true damage abilities. This true damage ability is based on their maximum health and is relatively low at the beginning. The ability starts off at 4% of the opponents maximum health and then scales up to 8% at max rank. So overall it’s not to overpowered but the ratio needs to go down to make it seem a bit more balanced. This is only because this ability is based on auto attacks as compared to others that have similar abilities but have on cooldowns. Olaf only can do up to 300 true damage but hurts himself in the process, while Irelia has a small amount of true damage dealt but has a cooldown due to the true damage being an on activate ability. This I believe would balance Vayne a bit more but at the same time would lower her effectiveness against the tanky DPS metagame out there currently. Overall this ability is nice and is good for an auto attack type champion such as Vayne, but at the same time is a bit hard to balance as this will deviate her roll and utility in the current metagame. Another reason is that this ability makes her stand out from the other carry like champions because this ability is unique as it is the first true damage ability on a range carry type champion.<br /> <br /> Vayne’s third ability is Condemn, which is an ability that is similar to Poppy’s Heroic Charge, except can be used as a distance. The damage dealt is physical damage which makes sense as Vayne is a physical damage type champion. The skill knocks the opponent back and if they collide with a wall they become stunned for 1.5seconds. This ability is great for Vayne who for the most part is squishy but also has no real escape utilities and mobility when running away. The ability can be used for knocking opponents away making the gap they have to close greater. Offensively this skill is a pretty decent skill cap which is great for the utility this ability brings as it takes finesse and positioning to stun the target against a wall. The ability is great when used offensively as it stuns the opponent allowing you to get deal out extra damage to the opponent while they are stunned as well as give you some utility during teamfights. This applies to both being used as a knock away or a stun to save someone during teamfights as well as be useful aside from doing damage.<br /> <br /> Vayne’s ultimate is Final Hour, which isn’t that great of a unique ultimate as it provides Vayne with increased attack damage, bonus movement speed on top of her passive, and a stealth for 1.5seconds when she uses Tumble. The ultimate is borderline overpowered for the amount of utility and survivability it can give Vayne. The stealth is enough to be considered Vayne’s escape and survival ability but only a long cooldown as I personally have gotten out of some bad situations using her ultimate and Tumble combination. The attack damage bonus as well is phenomenal as it gives a pretty significant amount of attack damage. The amount of attack damage is almost on par with Master Yi’s Wuju Style ability in my opinion as even with a small amount of damage items the damage output Vayne can deal when the ultimate is activated can be somewhat staggering.<br /> <br /> Overall, however Vayne seems to be a champion that some can consider overpowered and others balanced. In my opinion Vayne is a champion that is borderline on both regards. The ratios on Vayne can be considered well received but at the same time the abilities of her kit can make her seem and appear overpowered when coupled with certain items. But, like all attack damage ranged carry champions this will vary based off the game played as a fed champion can be considered easily overpowered when they can take out your less fed team. However, Vayne seems to be balanced in some regards as she provides and shows the signs of a carry by the damage output she is capable of dealing, which is on par with other ranged carry champions given similar items. As far as dealing with tanky DPS champions however, Vayne excels at this and can be considered overpowered as her one ability provides true damage which is not mitigated by defensive items. This makes her an excellent counter to tanky DPS where other carry champions fall behind. Vayne, however despite being a strong and aggressive champion does have some points to her that counter this strength. Vayne’s attack range is fairly short but above other ranged champions in some regards which makes her easy to be harassed with her aggressive playstyle by those that have a longer range. Vayne can also be easily kited by certain champions that have slows and snares. Compared to other champions as well Vayne doesn’t really have any escape mechanics and therefore lacks survival in some regards on top of her small health pool. This overall balances her exquisite damage for lack of survivability and mobility.<br /> <br /> Balance POV:<br /> <br /> If Riot Games were to nerf to balance this champion I personally would not disagree with it, but the areas of balance would have to be fine tuned properly or Vayne would lose her roll and unique purpose in the current metagame. Vayne’s true damage ability could use some fine tuning so as to make tanky DPS champions and tanks in general not feel so helpless. The other ability I could see needing some fine tuning would be her ultimate by giving less attack damage. Vayne’s Condemn could use a small ratio change or base number change as the initial damage coupled with damage from collision with terrain could be seen as a bit too high. This holds true especially when Vayne gets attack damage items that really help her damage output.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-52334597063442402962011-07-28T08:48:00.000-07:002011-07-28T08:48:17.708-07:00<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="325" src="http://riot-web-static.s3.amazonaws.com/images/news/April_2011/4-21_Rumble_Reveal/rumble-splashthumb.jpg" title="Rumble, the Mechanized Menace" width="520" /><br /> The newest champion released by Riot Games into League of Legends, is Rumble, the Mechanize Menace.&nbsp; Rumble is a yordle that rides a huge machine that is equipped with a flamethrower, taser harpoon, and everyone’s favorite rockets!&nbsp; Now Rumble is another champion that is a tanky DPS adding to the tanky DPS metagame.&nbsp; Rumble however is a melee AP tanky DPS, which varies a bit from the norm as he is a melee mage.&nbsp; Rumble also has a new resource system called heat.&nbsp; Each of Rumble’s skills uses about 20 heat except for his ultimate which is free.&nbsp; When Rumble goes above 50 heat he is in the danger zone, which gives three of his abilities bonus effects.&nbsp; When Rumble reaches 100 heat though his passive activates because he overheats.&nbsp; Junkyard Titan is his passive and upon overheating he gains bonus magic damage on his basic attack and is unable to cast his spells for several seconds while he cools down. His passive does scale with AP and its pretty decent damage if you are in melee range when this occurs.&nbsp; But the challenge is keeping yourself in range of the champion as well as trying to have your Q be the skill you have active when you overheat.&nbsp;&nbsp; So his passive is good in most cases but still pretty difficult to use late game as he needs to be in range of everyone but is silenced during this.&nbsp; So this passive is a double-edged sword in teamfights.<br /> Rumble’s Q is Flamespitter, Rumble torches opponents in front of him, dealing magic damage in a cone for 3 seconds. While in Danger Zone this damage is increased.&nbsp; This ability isn’t too bad, its not that great for farming as its damage is lower against minions.&nbsp; This ability is nice for farming still nonetheless but you have to be careful as this pushes the lane easily and is hard to sometimes get last hits with just this skill.&nbsp; Flamespitter is great for early game harassment though against champions since it’s on a relatively short cooldown so that by the time its done channeling its off cooldown practically so you can continually spam your Q.&nbsp; This I will say is great for harassment purposes but can get you in trouble as you have to be relatively close to the champion.&nbsp; The AP ratio on it isn’t terrible but like the rest of his skills relatively low.&nbsp; So going full AP on Rumble isn’t very viable as you become too fragile for teamfights and your damage becomes useless as most of it is damage over time.<br /> Rumble’s W is Scrap Shield. Rumble pulls up a shield, protecting him from damage and granting him a quick burst of speed. While in Danger Zone, the shield strength and speed bonus is increased.&nbsp; The shield is not a bad but it needs to be leveled up relatively early after your Q spell since your Q is your main damage ability.&nbsp; Your W however keeps you alive late game as the shield and speed boost helps you chase people down and absorb some damage as you get into melee range in teamfights or ganks.&nbsp; The ratio is once again low probably like .4-.5 for all his abilities is what it looked like when I played Rumble.&nbsp; This spell coupled with your Q is your bread and butter combination for damage and survivability.&nbsp; Which isn’t bad for Rumble but it would be nice for him to have other skills be just as useful to make him more viable.<br /> Rumble’s E is Electro Harpoon. Rumble launches a taser, electricuting his target with magic damage and slowing their Movement Speed. A second shot can be fired within 3 seconds. While in Danger Zone the damage and slow percentage is increased. This skill is good for chasing people down but has a mediocre skill cap as it is a skill shot.&nbsp; The second shot being able to be fired and cost no heat is nice for this skill as well as the fact is stacks the slows on the target making it easier to deal damage to the target.&nbsp; This skill however for damage as well as cooldown is mediocre at best and therefore not really a high skill priority.&nbsp; Even with AP this skill brings no real burst damage like other casters but is merely there to bring some kind of CC utility to fit with the rest of Rumble’s abilities.<br /> Rumble’s ultimate is The Equalizer. Rumble fires off a group of rockets, dealing magic damage in a line and creating a wall of flames that damage and slow enemies. His ultimate is nice to have for finishing people and for teamfights as it creates a damaging line/wall that slows.&nbsp; The damage is pretty good for burst as it lands as well as the damage over time.&nbsp; This ability is great for catching people off guard as well as the range is fairly large which makes sense since you are launching rockets.&nbsp; This ability feels like the only ability in Rumble’s arsenal that makes him feel slightly like a mage in my opinion as it provides some burst damage on impact.&nbsp; However, this skill is a skill shot that you pick a start point then drag to farm your wall so you have to be careful about how you use it.<br /> Overall Rumble is a decent champion in my mind after having played Rumble for awhile and trying different masteries and builds with different rune sets on him.&nbsp; By far Rumble is indeed a tanky DPS and must be played as such as he needs to be in melee range to deal any significant damage.&nbsp; However, he also feels a bit underwhelming at times as his damage output seems to draper off late game since he needs more survivability in order to have some kind of presence late game.&nbsp; This causes him to lose his early game damage effectiveness for survivability.&nbsp; I feel that Rumble could use a bit higher AP ratios or base damage on his abilities in order to make him a viable choice seeing as he has no other form of CC other then slows.&nbsp; This is no hard CC such as a stun or fear, but instead of a soft CC in order for him to catch up to champion in order to be able to do mediocre damage late game.&nbsp; This damage can be considered negligible by enemy carries as well by build some magic resist which most carries build late game so they are not easily taken out by your own team’s carry.&nbsp; So in the end, Rumble isn’t a champion that will help carry a game or be considered overpowered except early game, but can be considered a force to be reckoned with when coupled with other tanky DPS as you can’t easily kill them all and Rumble before your own team falls.&nbsp; I still believe he could use some buffs but overall not a terribly overpowered champion by far.&nbsp; However, the fact Rylai’s Crystal Scepter being a core item in Rumble’s build makes him seem not as fun a champion as you can’t really try to make various changes aside from 4 other items.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-82610680075094612002011-07-28T08:45:00.000-07:002011-07-28T08:45:45.736-07:00<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="236" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/brand_splash_0thumb.jpg?w=400&amp;h=236&amp;h=236" title="Brand, the Burning Vengeance" width="400" /><br /> Here’s another guide by myself Enryuu for the newest League of Legends champion: Brand, the Burning Vengeance.&nbsp; Brand is a caster AOE AP nuker champion that is all about doing burst damage and damage over time.&nbsp; That’s just a brief description about Brand, so let’s dive right into the nitty gritty of the guide now shall we?<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /> </div><br /> <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vvuAw6KNn2E" width="560"></iframe><br /> <br /> Here is the champion spotlight by Riot Game’s Phreak.<br /> <b>Abilities:</b><br /> <table><tbody> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_423.jpg" /></td> <td><b><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Blaze">Blaze</a><br /> </b> Brand’s spells light his targets ablaze, dealing 2% of their maximum Health in magic damage per second for 4 seconds. (Max: 80 damage vs. Monsters)</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_424.jpg" /></td> <td><b><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Sear">Sear</a><br /> </b> Brand launches a ball of fire forward that deals magic damage. If the target is ablaze, Sear will stun the target for 2 seconds.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_425.jpg" /></td> <td><b><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Pillar+of+Flame">Pillar of Flame</a><br /> </b> After a short delay, Brand creates a pillar of flame at a target area, dealing magic damage to enemy units with the area. Units that are ablaze take an additional 25% damage.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_426.jpg" /></td> <td><b><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Conflagration">Conflagration</a><br /> </b> Brand conjures a powerful blast at his target, dealing magic damage to them. If the target is ablaze, Conflagration spreads to nearby enemies.</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"><br /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="" src="http://leaguecraft.com/images/icons/spells/spell_427.jpg" /></td> <td><b><a href="http://leaguecraft.com/spell/Pyroclasm">Pyroclasm</a><br /> </b> Brand unleashes a devastating torrent of fire, dealing magic damage each time it bounces. If a target is ablaze, Pyroclasm’s missile speed increases.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>Brand’s Q ability is a skillshot ability that has a fairly decent range and on a fairly low cooldown as you rank it up.&nbsp; The ability also has a 2 second stun if you hit a target that is afflicted by your passive Blaze from being hit from one of your other abilities.&nbsp; Pillar of Flame or his W ability is a AOE skill shot that after a short delay shoots up a geyser of fire at the location you chose to damage your enemies and will deal more damage if they are ablaze.&nbsp; Brand’s W skill is his main nuking ability due to the additional 25% damage it can deal to units that are ablaze.&nbsp; Brand’s E ability is a single target ability but when ablaze has an AOE effect where the damage jumps to nearby targets.&nbsp; Brand’s W ability coupled with his E makes up his bread and butter combination for farming creep waves.&nbsp; His ultimate is Pyroclasm and is a single target AOE ability that bounces from target to target including minions up to five times.&nbsp; The damage that his ultimate does is pretty good as well so his W and ultimate are his main damage dealing abilities.<br /> <b><i>Skill Priority:</i></b><br /> R&gt;W&gt;E&gt;Q<br /> <i>Level 1-6 Skill Order</i><br /> W&gt;E&gt;W&gt;Q&gt;W&gt;R or W&gt;E&gt;Q&gt;W&gt;W&gt;R<br /> <i>Combination Skill Order:</i><br /> W&gt;E&gt;Q<br /> AOE damage&gt;Spread more AOE&gt;Stun<br /> This skill order is use more for farming minus the Q at the end.<br /> Q&gt;E&gt;W or Q&gt;W or E&gt;W<br /> Hit one&gt;AOE damage&gt;Nuke<br /> This skill order is for harassing and is a good way to get more chances to harass and land your W.<br /> E&gt;W&gt;Q<br /> Single target damage&gt;Nuke&gt;Stun<br /> This skill order is what I mostly use in order to set someone ablaze from a fair distance and then nuke them.&nbsp; Following it up with a stun to continue the combination or for a stationary target that will eventually run away as my R gets put on them to bounce between them and their allies.&nbsp; Another common one I use is the second skill order but going Q&gt;W&gt;E so as to hit one target as I am running away, nuking them, then spreading the damage around to other enemies to make them back off.<br /> These are the typical skill orders of your abilities for combinations.&nbsp; Your ultimate can be tossed in once the target is ablaze from your initial ability that hits them.&nbsp; The main reason for no order for your ultimate to be used in is because it bounces faster if they are ablaze making it harder to break the chain.&nbsp; This allows for the full five bonces but you have to know when to use your ultimate as well.&nbsp; The more clumped up the enemy team is the better your ultimate will be.&nbsp; Brand’s ultimate is good for team fights mostly and is a good finisher ability for a nuke on the initial hit if your other abilities are on cool down and you need an ability to finish someone off for the kill.&nbsp; This should really only happen during the laning phase still as you want to save your ultimate for team fights in order to maximize your damage output of your W ability, Pillar of Flame.<br /> <b>Runes:</b><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/brandrunes.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-58" height="259" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/brandrunes.jpg?w=490&amp;h=259" title="Brandrunes" width="490" /></a><br /> For runes I grab Magic Penetration Marks in order to deal more damage by ignoring some of their starting magic resist.&nbsp; Seals I grab Mana Regeneration Per Level and Glyphs I grab Ability Power Per Level.&nbsp; Quintessences I grab one Flat Ability Power and two Flat Health.&nbsp; This adds to having a bit of AP at the beginning with some health for survivability coupled with mana regeneration for sustainability.&nbsp; The Ability Power Per Level Glyphs are good for late game and as the game progresses so you get a bit stronger seeing as how I play Brand, I don’t get AP items first.<br /> <b>Masteries:</b><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/brandmasteries.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-57" height="302" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/brandmasteries.jpg?w=490&amp;h=302" title="Brandmasteries" width="490" /></a><br /> Masteries I go the standard 9/0/21 build for a caster.&nbsp; Grabbing Archmage’s Savvy for more AP and a point in Deadliness just so I can get further down in the Offensive Tree.&nbsp; Then Sorcery and Archaic Knowledge for reduced cool downs and more magic penetration.&nbsp; In the Utility tree I grab points in Perseverance and Good Hands for reduced death time and for regeneration for lane sustainability.&nbsp; Awareness for more experience, then Greed and Meditation for mana regeneration and just to have some extra gold on the side going passively.&nbsp; A point in Utility Mastery for increased buff duration when I get Blue Buff.&nbsp; Quickness and Blink of an Eye for increased movement speed for mobility and reduced cool down for Flash.&nbsp; Intelligence and Presence of the Master are great for more reduced cool downs on abilities and also reduced cool downs on summoner spells.<br /> <b>Summoner Spells:</b><br /> For Summoner Spells I have tried Ghost/Ignite and Flash/Ignite.&nbsp; Flash/Ignite seems to work best because you need a pretty good escape mechanism and initiation which flash brings.&nbsp; Brand is very squishy with an unreliable stun from his Q ability, which is where Flash comes in handy.&nbsp; Ghost/Ignite works well as well just not as effectively as Flash/Ignite, but use what summoners fit your playstyle as well because don’t forget this is just a guide to help not something you follow religiously to the core.&nbsp; Another alternative I have tried is Ghost/Flash which works but for the survivability and escape utility they bring you lose out on killing potential from Ignite.<br /> <b>Items:</b><br /> <a href="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/branditems.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-56" height="68" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/branditems.jpg?w=406&amp;h=68" title="Branditems" width="406" /></a><br /> These are the items you should end the game with typically and is what I have found works best at least for me.&nbsp; There can be some exceptions for survivability like Archangel’s for Zhonya’s Hourglass.<br /> Start off with a Mana Crystal and 2 Health Potions, this will allow you to farm and stay in lane long enough to go back and buy either Boots and a Ruby Crystal or a Catalyst depending on how much you farm and if you are soloing or laning.&nbsp; Then proceed to farm until you have enough for either Sorcerer Boots and a Blasting Wand or a Needlessly Large Rod.&nbsp; If you have been farming well and have gotten some kills you should have a Rabadon’s Deathcap by around the 20-25minute mark at the latest.&nbsp; Then finish up your Banshee’s Veil and start building for magic penetration by building a Void Staff, then&nbsp; build Rylai’s Crystal Scepter in order to add a slow and more survivability on top of your Banshee’s Veil.&nbsp; Then if the game is still going then build a Archangel’s Staff in order to buff your mana pool and AP so you can nuke harder and stay in fights without going OOM if you don’t have Blue Buff.<br /> Catalyst early allows you to continually farm due to the proc heal and mana return it provides when you level.&nbsp; This allows you to stay in your lane and harass while the opposing champion(s) have to return in order to get health or refill their mana pool.&nbsp; Catalyst is a great laning item if bought early also getting Sorcerer’s Boots early allows your passive to do more damage since it is effected by magic penetration.<br /> <b>Laning:</b><br /> Laning phase is pretty good for Brand as he has pretty good range to not only auto attack at 550 range but also his abilities have a fairly long range as well.&nbsp; This allows Brand to harass freely for the most part without taking much damage which I assume was Riot’s intention seeing as Brand has no reliable CC and utility aside from being a flat out damage dealer.&nbsp; Brand’s early game should be spent harassing with your W and auto attacking for last hits on creeps as well as harassing the enemy champion(s).&nbsp; This of course if allowed to harass since things always vary from game to game as well as player skill levels.<br /> Upon landing your W on the opposing champion(s) try to to land your Q for a stun or to use your E ability in order to harass their teammates and creeps with the AOE damage capability of E.&nbsp; Some neat combinations you should try on champions when you are laning is W to E for spreading more AOE damage.&nbsp; Using your Q to start then to E or W allows for nice AOE harassment or damage.&nbsp; Overall you always want to be casting and harassing when you can so that you have the advantage on the opposing champion(s).&nbsp; This will then entail you to pick up some kills or assists because they will be low and your W does good damage as a nuke.&nbsp; Sometimes you can even pick up kills from your passive by the enemy dying from your DOT, otherwise having Ignite will insure a kill.&nbsp; Don’t be afraid to tower dive with flash or ghost sometimes as well if you have been landing your Pillar of Flame ability as well because that skill does some good damage that at level 1 people ignore, but as you rank it up as you level even without AP it does a good chunk of damage.<br /> For laning as well there are some good partners that couple well with Brand, which are champions that have DOTs as well or those that have CC so you can land your abilities easily without having to thread your Q through minions to get a stun.<br /> <b>Conclusion:</b><br /> That’s about all there is to know really about Brand, he’s not a fairly complex champion so this guide isn’t too long.&nbsp; But if you have played a caster before then he will not be a new concept to you and should be fairly easy to pick up.&nbsp; I don’t think Brand is a high ELO type champion but I am only in the mid ELO right now so I can’t really say for sure.&nbsp; This is just my personal opinion as a player.&nbsp; The only thing that may make Brand complex is the order or combination of the spells you should be using and when is the optimal time to use them.&nbsp; This will come in time so get out there and try Brand so you can get the combinations down and become the damage dealing mage nuke you always wanted to be or pyromaniac whichever you prefer.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4472604281254289119.post-7347124355621243492011-07-28T08:40:00.001-07:002011-07-28T08:40:44.730-07:00<img alt="" class="aligncenter" height="235" src="http://adrelion.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/brand_splash_0thumb.jpg?w=400&amp;h=236" title="Brand, the Burning Vengeance" width="400" /><br /> Brand, the Burning Vengeance is the newest champion released by Riot Games in their release one champion every two weeks schedule.&nbsp; This brings the grand total to 74 champions now.&nbsp; The last two champions released were physical damage melee assassins, but Brand brings a change to that pattern as a magic casting nuker.&nbsp; Brand is an AP caster that does AOE damage and nukes depending on the combination of spells cast.&nbsp; Brand is a combination spell caster where each spell when combined with another has different effects.&nbsp; For example using his Q ability on a target that is afflicted by his passive Blaze from being struck by one of his other three abilities becomes stunned for 2 seconds.&nbsp; Brand’s abilities all differ in this regard but all work off his passive.&nbsp; His W deals 25% more damage, his E does AOE damage, and his ultimate spreads to other targets quicker.&nbsp; This makes Brand a bit more unique instead of an easy to use champion where it is just point and click to damage and nuke enemy champions.&nbsp; Instead it gives the player a decision making tree to go one route or the other and have to decide in what order to cast one’s spells.<br /> Brand is a solid AP caster that is capable of farming due to his AOE abilities.&nbsp; This in some regards I consider his one and only OP aspect due to the fact that if a group wants to push they can easily be stopped by Brand’s ability to clear minion waves quickly.&nbsp; This adds passivity to the game which is something Riot has stated they want to do away with in order to speed up games.&nbsp; However, Brand also needs this ability as an AOE damaging caster to be able to do as much damage as possible by farming with his abilities.&nbsp; Brand has no utility as a caster other then the 2 second stun effect of his Q ability if the target is Ablaze.&nbsp; Even then this stun can be a bit tricky because his Q ability is a skill shot so the chances of it landing become smaller.&nbsp; Therefore, he has an unreliable form of crowd control(CC) as a form of utility to help his team and himself in order to escape.&nbsp; Brand instead is just that a magic damage dealing nuker.&nbsp; If Brand is farmed whether by creep score or champion kills and has a lot of AP be on the lookout because his damage is no joke.&nbsp; Brand’s main damaging abilities are his W and his ultimate, which can be easily dodged due to the fact it takes time for the AOE effect of his W ability activates.&nbsp; Overall Brand’s abilities and kit make him a fun champion to play due to the fact he is a combination caster and damage dealer.&nbsp; Brand also uses a lot of mana when using his abilities so getting Golemn buff or having mana items on him are a must if you plan to cast a lot in team fights and manage to kill people while anticipating chances for missing abilities.<br /> In conclusion, I would like to say that Brand is a fun new champion that is one of my favorite AP casters of this moment.&nbsp; He is a capable solo and laner that can harass the enemy champions well not only with his abilities but with the damage over time effect of his passive.&nbsp; My only concern would be his ability to add passivity to the game by allowing turtle effects in losing games due to his AOE farming capability.&nbsp; Brand is in no way an AP carry but he can definitely help change a team fight around if played correctly due to his AOE damaging abilities and kit.&nbsp; Therefore I will say that Brand for the most part is spot on,&nbsp; but I believe his AOE capabilities to be a bit high and need to be toned down.&nbsp; However, this would have to be done carefully as to not destroy his presence in fights; let alone his ability to farm in order to become a presence that the enemy team should be wary of.Adrelionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07727945146521111713noreply@blogger.com0