HD LoLcast Blog

Patch 1.0.0.107 and Snowdown Showdown

2010-12-14T14:25:00.001-06:00

Hey guys, Patch 1.0.0.107 is here, and to save you from reading the pages of patch notes, I'll give you the quick version. If you don't want to read all of this, just look for the bold/italics until you find a subject that interests you.

First of all, we have all-new skins and a new loading screen to suit the festive season! There are also a few new skins for some of your favorite champions, such as Reindeer Kog'Maw, Re-Gifted Amumu, Santa Gragas, Silent Night Sona, Nutcracko (Nutcracker Shaco), Ragdoll Poppy, and the sizzling Candy Cane Miss Fortune. Click here for more info and for some screenshots.

Also out in this patch is Cassiopeia, The Serpent's Embrace. She's a tough-to-play mage champion with poisons, a stun ultimate, and a seemingly direct damage nuke, though it may turn out to be a skillshot instead. She has some good combo abilities but it looks like given the delay aspect to two of her main spells they can be quite hard to hit and use effectively. Detailed stats for her do not appear to be out yet, but rest assured that once a few people get their hands on this new champion, stats will be sure to quickly follow on the LoL wikia.

Then of course there's the gameplay tweaks and changes. I'll just give a brief overview, and if you want the full scoop then check out the patch notes here.

So anyway, it's basically nerfs all-round, though there's a few new features such as a new penalty system for leavers and mastery saving improvements. Ezreal, LeBlanc, and Fiddlesticks got buffed, while Pantheon had his early-game nerfed, and pretty much everyone else got general nerfs, except notably Urgot had some fairly significant changes that you will want to check out if you like playing him.

As for items, several of them got nerfs, notably Banshee's Veil, Elixirs, Randiun's, Phantom Dancer, Warden's Mail, and Sunfire Cape, which had its aura changed to unique. Yes, that's right - no more stacking Sunfire Capes. Innervating Locket was removed and Last Whisper was revamped, now giving +40 AD instead of 40% IAS.

Also, Flash no longer pops projectiles, and the cooldown was increased by 15 seconds. This will save Riot from a lot of Flash withdrawal induced rage, while still balancing the spell out a bit. So no more flashing out of stuns or tower hits, etc.

And finally, the last piece of big news is that dragon doesn't give global experience any more, but does give more gold, and towers give reduced global experience but buffed global gold.

That's about it for Patch 1.0.0.107, so now you can get back in there and get to LoLing! Or, if you're not satisfied yet with the info I've given you, head on over here to check it out for yourself.

New Horizons

2010-12-13T10:57:00.001-06:00

Hey guys, today I have both good news and bad news for you. Ok well the good news might just mainly be good news for me, but that's not the point. See, the thing is, I've become a freelancer with GameZone.com, which means I'll be paid to put out one video a week for them about LoL, so you'll be seeing stuff similar to what I've been putting up on YouTube already. So I suppose the good news for you guys is that you can count on at least one video a week from me, minimum. However, the bad news is that I'm only going to be able to put up new videos on YouTube if I get the time to make more than one video per week, so my YouTube channel might end up collecting a little more dust than it currently has been.

Anyway, I know I promised you guys a Beginner's Skills series, and although my three-part guide concept has been scrapped due to my recent employment by GameZone, I have decided to continue to put out Beginner's Skills guides, just not in a three-part format, and on GameZone instead of YouTube. So without further ado, I present to you the first episode in our Beginner's Skills Guide series - Zoning!

Click here or follow this link to go view the video!

http://mmorpg.gamezone.com/videos/item/eye_of_the_summoned_ep_1/

Basic skills guide

2010-12-07T20:05:00.002-06:00

Well guys, the poll on our YouTube channel is now closed, and the results are in! We had four options for you guys to vote on, and the winning candidate would be the next video I make. The choices were:

Guide to Amumu
Guide to Master Yi
First impressions of Twisted Treeline
Basic skills guide (laning, ganking, engaging, retreating, team roles, etc.)

And now... the moment of truth! The results are in, and production begins! But on which topic? Bum bum buuuuuuum... Oh wait, what's that? You already know the answer because you looked at the YouTube poll? You sneaky little monkey! Well for those of you who didn't ruin the suspense, the answer is... oh wait, you guess it from the title of the post? *sigh* There's just no appreciation for suspense these days... Well anyway, the answer is...

Basic Skills Guide!

Yes, that's right. Basic skills guide. Preliminary interviews with the mastermind behind HDLoLcast reveal that he may in fact be planning on splitting the guide into three parts: basic laning & jungling, basic ganking, and basics of teamfights! Oooh, sounds serious! Well folks, stay tuned, because the first video should be out by the end of the week, and it will be the answer to all of your anxious voting, so you won't want to miss it!

Thanks to everyone who voted in the poll!

EDIT: We now have a video out to introduce our Basic Skills Guide Series, check it out below!

HD League of Legends Beginner's Guide - Basic Skills Guide Series Introduction

Valoran Video Contest Part Two Part Two!

2010-12-06T09:37:00.001-06:00

Yes, you heard me right - I did say it twice. It's because I'm being funny. Yes, funny. I do that sometimes. Just nod your head and laugh. Yeah that's right. Well done. See, technically this video contest is the "Valoran Video Contest Part Two", and this is part two of my posting about it, so that means I get to repeat myself. Pretty awesome, right? Yeah, I thought it was witty. Ok, you don't, well fine. Just pretend like it never happened.

Anyway, here is my second submission for the Valoran Video Contest - this time about Minions and Monsters. It's pretty cool, so check it out. The winners are supposed to be announced on December 20, so stay tuned to see if these videos cut the mustard or not! Embedded/linked below.

HD League of Legends Beginner's Guide - Minions and Monsters Guide

P.S. How does someone cut mustard anyway?

Valoran Video Contest

2010-12-04T12:00:00.001-06:00

Well guys, it's that time of year again. What? No, not Christmas you silly monkey! The Valoran Video Contest! Excuse me? You've never heard of the Valoran Video Contest! This is preposterous! What kind of summoner are you? Ok ok well I suppose it is only the second time it's actually been held, so I'll cut you some slack this time. Next time I might just cut you. Just jokes, just jokes!

Anyway, information about the Valoran Video Contest can be found here, and my submission to the contest can be found below. So go ahead, check it out, and let me know what you think!

HD League of Legends Beginner's Guide - Towers, Inhibitors, and the Nexus Guide

Patch v1.0.0.106

2010-12-01T13:28:00.001-06:00

The new patch to accompany the arrival of Trundle is finally here. Along with the new patch of course, comes a few gameplay tweaks and changes. Given the fact that some of our favourite champions are getting nerfs, expect there to be a lot of nerd rage, but since the intention is to level out the game, it will hopefully be a good thing. You can check out the patch notes here for specific information, or you can read my TL;DR version below.

So basically, ranged carries are getting a nerf, flash didn't get removed from the game this patch like a lot of people thought, and several AoE spells are getting nerfed (here's to hoping that they leave my lovely Amumu ult intact!). Lots of bugs were fixed, too. Janna got a nerf, Morgana's spell shield got a nerf, her ult got a nerf, Galio got nerfed, Pantheon had some changes, and Sona got nerfed. Doran's Ring and Doran's Sword had some tweaks, and the Lizard (red) buff was changed to do reduced slowing when applied by a ranged character (5/10/15% instead of 10/20/30%).

That's all for now folks, check out the new patch and the new champion, Trundle, and stay tuned to HDLoLcast because in the next day or so we'll have a new video coming out!

Pwn ur FACE

2010-11-29T19:22:00.001-06:00

Guys. You'll never believe what just happened to me. I'm barefoot right now because I just had my socks blown off by the awesomest LoL fanart creation EVAR!! Ok so maybe you might not appreciate it quite as much as I do, but I totally love this video and think it's really hilarious. I can't wait to see some more of their work - these guys are incredibly talented.

So head on over to YouTube via the link below and watch Pwn ur FACE by "the group formerly known as the Staff Inflection!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zf9VSDt0EN4

Oh and be sure to subscribe and thumbs up and leave them comments about how epic they are, and all that fun stuff, because us folks who make videos and whatnot love to have feedback.

Ionia vs. Noxus Grudge Match

2010-11-28T16:38:00.001-06:00

Alright guys, hold on to your hats and get ready for a wild ride, because on December 10 there is going to be an official live match in League of Legends between one team of summoners allowed to summon various Ionian champions, and another team allowed to summon certain Noxian champions. The match is going to be commentated by none other than LoL's legendary Phreak. It should be an awesome event, and you're not going to want to miss it. (More after the break)

Ionia vs. Noxus Grudge Match

For those of you who haven't ever watched something like this before and you're perhaps wondering about the reasons behind watching other people play LoL when you could just be playing it yourself instead, let me talk about a few of the reasons why you'd want to watch this event. First of all, one of the best ways of getting better is by watching other people who are better than you. There's a reason these guys are being picked to play - they're some of the best. Pay close attention to how they play and what they do, and learn to apply that to your own gaming. Second, it's going to be commentated by Phreak. Now, if you haven't ever watched Phreak commentate before, you're going to need to know two things. The first is that he often talks incredibly quickly, so you're going to really have to pay attention in order to catch everything that he says, or, like I do, get your hands on a recorded version and replay sections over and over. On top of that, though, he's actually part of Riot Games, which means he knows the ins and outs of the game like the back of his hand, so when he talks you can learn a lot. And the third reason to watch the match: when watching ridiculously high-ranked players play, you'll see them pull of moves that will have you rewinding the clip five times over just to figure out who did what. Which is basically my way of saying it's really fun to watch people pull some really sick moves for a whole game, and better yet you're not on the receiving end! Yay!

Alright so now you're possibly wondering, "Ok so we've got this whole 'match' concept happening... but what's the deal with this Ionia vs. Noxus crap?" Well now Sonny Jim, you jus' pull yerself up a chair nexta the fire here boy, and let ol' man Moony tell ye a story o' grand proportions! It was a warm summer's night back when I was about your age, m'boy, and-- ok you just want me to cut the crap and give you the TL;DR version, don't you? *sigh* Kids have no appreciation for lore these days...

Ok so take a look at the map below. Ionia is that island on the right. They're generally all-round good-guys; a pacifistic, peaceful nation. Asides from their powerful warriors of course, but that's not the point. Apparently they don't actually use said warriors. Anyway the short version of the story is that there were a tons of wars going down on the big island and whatnot, but Ionia stayed out of it. Then Noxus (right side of the big island) came running on in like a bull in a china shop and took over the southern part of Ionia (see the map below the map - aka the second map). Now Ionia is all like, "Aw crap man you guys are oppressing our people, how 'bout you stop, mmkay?" So Noxus responds with, "Ok if you beat us in the League of Legends, we'll peace back out. But if we beat you, we get to keep these little monkey islands, plus we get to have someone in your high council thingermajiggy that makes like, ruling decisions and all that high-uppy schmuck-schmuck stuff you guys do over there. Buh-zing!" Oh and there was something in there about some burning monk, too, but if a fictional monk burns in the middle of the forest, does it really matter?

So the real TL;DR version - there's this match going down between a bunch of really high ranked players and depending on the side that wins it will affect the lore of the game which could result in changes in-game as well, such as different champions and whatnot. And if it doesn't affect in-game stuff, then at least it's an epic match that will be broadcasted live and commentated by Phreak. So watch it. It'll be fun.

How NOT to play

2010-11-27T11:45:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone, new video just out! Paaaaartay! This one is called "How NOT to play". What, you guessed that already? Well you sneaky little bugger... Fine, you win this time.

Anyway, this video is because of all the bad teams I've been having to play on recently in solo queue 5v5. Now, in my team's defense, three of us went on to play another game together after this (after culling the two worst players on our team, heheheh) and we actually rolled some face. It was plenty of fun. So Guzzo4 and Jforgenjorgen and Valkaiser - if you're reading this, don't take it personally, I'm not just slamming you guys. We did well in the game after this one, but in this game we had some unfortunate moments. We lacked coordination and CCs and whatnot which ended up hurting us.

So this video is going to show you some of our worst moments for your morbid fascination, and I'm going to explain to you how to avoid making the same mistakes. I play Shen and my teammates are Vladimir, Corki, Mordekaiser, and Soraka. The enemy team had Ashe, Shen, Vladimir, Katarina, and Taric. Katarina was played by my man Ninjablast, who seriously wrecked face with her.

Ok, enough blabbing, now on with the video!

HD League of Legends Guide - How NOT to Play

AP Nunu Guide

2010-11-26T20:04:00.001-06:00

Hey guys, we have a series on playing AP Nunu up and running now! Excitement abounds!

This is a three part series, with the first part focusing on the more boring stuff (skills + items), and the second part revolves around gameplay footage; covering laning, ganking, and team fights. The third part is just a montage of highlights from a game of playing AP Nunu, with some pretty cool moments in it. Links to all three videos are below. After the break you`ll find all the additional info that didn`t make it into the guides: runes & masteries, summoner spells, & jungling. So click "Read More" and scroll down! You know you want to!

HD League of Legends Nunu Guide - AP Nunu [1/2]
HD League of Legends Nunu Guide - AP Nunu [2/2]
HD League of Legends Nunu Gameplay - AP Nunu Highlights Reel

Alright so now for those promised goodies!

Runes and Masteries:

For runes and masteries we have two potential builds: jungling build, and laning build

Laning masteries:
9/0/21 or 9/21/0

Get 9/0/21 if your team doesn't have anyone who is going to want to be getting blue buff all the time late game, or if you have no troubles staying alive. The Utility Mastery talent will help you keep blue buff longer which reduces the need for CDR items and mana items, and you get nice CDR from intelligence and sorcery, as well as a few other really nice masteries. However, if you're having a hard time staying alive, go 9/21/0.

Laning runes:
9x MPen mark (Insight), 9x flat mana/5 seals (Replenishment) or 9x dodge seals (Evasion) or 9x hp seals (Fortitude), 9x cooldown/level (Celerity), and 3x hp quintessences (Fortitude).

Get the mana/5 seals if you are having mana issues early game (though with your passive it shouldn't be a huge problem unless you really insist on spamming snowballs). If you went 9/21/0 you can get dodge seals to increase the chance for Nimbleness to proc and give you that little boost of movement speed. MPen marks will increase your damage of course, cooldown glyphs are going to help you hit that magic number of 34% CDR that AP Nunu wants, and the hp quintessences will really help you early game and onwards.

Jungling masteries:
9/11/10

Personally I like this build the best, because you still get the best of the Offensive tree by going 10 points down, while 10 points in Utility gets you to Utility Mastery which helps a lot while jungling, and the 11 points in Defensive gives you that edge in staying alive while jungling.

Jungling runes:
9x MPen mark (Insight), 9x hp seals (Fortitude), 9x cooldown/level (Celerity), and 3x hp quintessences (Fortitude)

Summoner Spells:

Highly Recommended:

Flash: helps you escape, get into the fray, and most importantly, get the perfect positioning for your ultimate without your enemies seeing it coming. If you go 9/0/21 make sure to get the improved flash mastery (Blink of an Eye).
Smite: if jungling, you definitely want to get this. It will make your jungling a ton easier, and really help make sure that the enemy doesn't steal your buffs (when they steal your baron buff because you didn't get smite you'll be kicking yourself real hard). If you get this, make sure you get the improved smite mastery (Plentiful Bounty)
Ignite: ignite is a very offensive spell, and can be very useful against many champions. It is going to serve you much better than exhaust because you already have a very effective slow, and ignite will add another ability to your killing rotation, which is welcome due to your low number of offensive spells (snowball and ultimate, but ultimate has a long cooldown).

Decent picks:

Clarity: when your enemies think that you're defenseless as a manaless AP Nunu, you can pop clarity to instantly regain a mostly full mana pool and really turn the tables on them. Can also be useful during laning to keep mana up to continually consume and keep you in the lane longer.
Teleport: handy for getting to those team fights that those jerks started without you.
Cleanse: nice if you're getting stunlocked + focused.

Not Recommended:

Heal: totally useless in light of Nunu's Consume ability.
Exhaust: you already have a slow
Rally: you don't do AD.
Revive: 'nuff said

Jungling:

Start with a Ruby Crystal to start you on the path to your Rod of Ages.
Skill priority during jungling: Consume > Frost blast > Blood boil
Get blue buff first - get an ally to help you if you need it.
After blue buff chow down on wolf camp, then move on to wraith camp, then smite should be off cooldown allowing you to get red buff. If you need to heal before getting red, cozy on up to mid lane and get a few consumes in to get your life back, then move on to red buff.
Don't engage a creep camp if you don't have full health and consume is on cooldown - you need at least one or the other or else you become susceptible to ganks due to your dwindling health.
Don't consume if it's going to over heal you. You don't want to waste the healing from the consume, even if it will kill the creeps quicker.

Ok folks I think that just about covers it. Any other questions just drop me a line either here or on YouTube and I'll do my best to work on some answers.

This is HDLoLblog, it's been fun, and join us next time!

Introduction

2010-11-26T16:55:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone, welcome to HDLoLcast on blogspot.com! Some of you may have heard of me through my YouTube channel at youtube.com/user/HDLoLcast, and some of you may have no idea what this place is about. Well here's the thing. HDLoLcast started as a channel on YouTube to bring to people 1080p HD videos relating to League of Legends. However, since I'm clearly multi-talented, I have started this blog in order to communicate with people through the wonders of text as well! Yaaaaaay! I can tell you're excited - that's what crickets chirping means, right?

Well anyway, here you will be able to find write-ups to accompany my videos, since although I can yabber for a good nine minutes straight without trouble, I still don't end up covering every aspect of things. So now to accompany my deluge of sound you can come here and smash up against a wall of text. Happy happy joy joy, right? Yeah I thought so.

So without further ado, welcome to HDLoLblog (see what I did there?), and don't forget to check out the introduction/beginner's guide video!