So I've done the tutorial and battle training and I'm quite intrigued. The game seems fun and the sheer number of Champions is really cool. How balanced are they though? Can one of the free unlock guys compete with the ones that cost a large amount of IP or Riot points? Or does the game force you to ditch Champions from the early stages?
So I've done the tutorial and battle training and I'm quite intrigued. The game seems fun and the sheer number of Champions is really cool. How balanced are they though? Can one of the free unlock guys compete with the ones that cost a large amount of IP or Riot points? Or does the game force you to ditch Champions from the early stages?
Lots of champions are viable at any stage in the game.
Riot's mission is to make sure that every champion has viability in LOL at all stages - they tend to balance things on Tournament play. So if certain champs aren't played or certain champs are overplayed, they try to take that into consideration.
I'd say probably 60-70% of the champions are viable. Probably 10% are Overpowered in some way right now. 30% are below average picks.
I think those are pretty good numbers.
Of the Free champs - it changes week to week - Katarina is on there as well as Cho'Gath. Kat costs 3150 IP and Cho costs 1350. Those 2 right now are probably in the OP champ category. Very strong picks.
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Thanks for the post. I think I'd like to pick one that appeals to me and play it rather than worry about it being a viable option. Looks like the game has that covered then.
Ok for a free to play game - I can see why there are 30,000,000+ players. What a fun time.
I'm playing as Garen btw.
Garen is one of the best early game champions and excels at hiding in brush for ambushes...fun kills . He struggles a bit late game from when I last played him (though that was a year ago)
Better throw out your ideas about traditional item build paths / runes / masteries.
www.reignofgaming.net - is previewing some of the items on the PBE (Beta Test Shard). This is just a laundry list of items and stuff, and it will likely be no where near the final entry.
Also keep in mind that some items will be locked for Summoner's Rift and only available on Dominion or Custom games (ARAMs).
One of the main goals of the changes is to add some more viablity to Assassin champs (think Pantheon, Talon), so that they do not fall off a cliff late game and to also give "Bruisers" (Irelia, Darius, Olaf) more paths without having to spec into an off tank, but rather be better able to build more damage, and "dive" into the enemy with less consequences.
They've lowered the prices on some AD brusier items, added some AP items. They've also upped the prices somewhat on Tank/Defensive items.
The Jungle changes will allow for characters who were previously gold starved when Jungling, so be more viable in an offensive role.
Indirectly this will affect Ranged AD carries - which are currently the kings of LOL in the late game stages of a match. I think they want to get away from this "metagame".
I'm quite interested in some of the items they've provided them. Rurran's Hurricane (hits 2 enemies within a 300 range of your target for 50% of your AD + full On hit effects) - this item will be godly on Kogmaw, because his W will shred for 6% health and Madred's Bloodrazors, which adds an additional 4% health shred. It however, will not use crits, so building crit chance won't be that great for this set up.
Combine this with the fact you can add other on-hits, such as the Frozen Mallet or Phage, and you've got Kog shredding an area for 10% health per shot + AD from other items + the utility slow. Pretty beastly, at least in theory.
Overall though, it looks quite interesting. There is going to be a lot of theory crafting going on in the next little while. I am going to try my best and stay ahead of the curve.
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Stonewall (writer for the ROG site I posted above) has a good jungle preview up. Keep in mind these are still in test, they are removing items / adjusting things daily, but here is the basic stuff.
All the creeps are tougher and you get less gold on your first clear. It also takes longer. Almost every character needs the new Hunter's Machete as the first item buy + 5 pots. They did this to try to eliminate the early ganking - the level 2 / 3 / 4 snowballing that you see with a lot of junglers right now.
However (I have yet to see how this works) - the monsters scale up significantly better than before. Now essentially forcing you to buy an item like the machete / upgrade that item into something that helps you farm the jungle.
These items aren't overly effective vs. champions, see Wriggles lantern, so this is meant to reduce the early game pressure.
However, they want Junglers to be able to carry at around the 25-30 minute mark. At least this is the goal. As opposed to just being a tank or off tank like there is now.
I've yet to see how counter jungling is going to work. But it looks like it could be effective. A lot of junglers are very vulnerable on their first clear.
I'm intrigued...especially with the # of skillshots involved.
She looks like an odd combination of Taric (Ranged Stun), Sona (Heal / damage), and Leona (E is similiar to Sunlight passive and overall CC package).
Her stun looks exceeding hard to dodge, given the missle speed / overall AoE. You probably won't snare both champs, but you can at least get one.
Her base damages are also pretty high. Add to the fact she can harass you from range.
She looks completely OP to be honest once you get used to her. I can only see her being somewhat weak during midgame (lvls 8-12), but able to snowball the bot lane fairly hard early.
Her only issue seems to be lack of defensive stats / Aura, but her CC kit, especially for team fights seems like it would be very good, early and late game.
She could probably be played as an AP mid too - her mid game would be pretty bad, but she would have a good early game, and good late game if you grabbed a Lichbane / CDR.
She tends to fall off really hard and I absolutely hate her Q / W mechanics. Next to a Nidalee spear, her Q may be the easist thing to dodge in League.
If she gets ahead it can be a nasty lane for sure - but just playing defensive for the first couple levels, Lux really doesn't do much after that.
I definately see the fall off in a long late game, however her shield and snar don't. I found that as an ap carry she isnt great due to her late game, however as support you can harass the hell outta the other ad carry, zone/deny them farm a lot better than sona can. This is something u hope your ad carry can jump all over allowing you to roam up to mid once in a while for a gank. At least thats how I play her in the support role.
My items aren't too different that an ap carry lux, just have cd boots and a phil stone (along with my kages) as my first 3 items
So I started playing a few weeks ago and im enjoying learning the champions through the Coop AI mode. I have no previous experience in this genre of RTS, when will I know my skill set and game sense are good enough to play other players? How much IP do you get in those matches?
She looks like an odd combination of Taric (Ranged Stun), Sona (Heal / damage), and Leona (E is similiar to Sunlight passive and overall CC package).
Honestly, the Q reminds me a bit more of Cho'Gath's stun. I haven't seen any video of her yet, but the way it reads makes me think you have a second or two to read it before anything happens.
Ultimate wreaks of overpowered at the moment, being able to completely turn around a fight if set up well. I think the duration of the slow will drop as they attempt to correct that.
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Originally Posted by CaramonLS
She looks completely OP to be honest once you get used to her. I can only see her being somewhat weak during midgame (lvls 8-12), but able to snowball the bot lane fairly hard early.
I think Riot intentionally releases OP new champions. It's been a pretty consistent pattern for a while from what I've seen...it entices people into buying them, just so they can nerf them right ahead of their free week. This gives them a larger base to test their real balancing with (and a little more money ).
So I started playing a few weeks ago and im enjoying learning the champions through the Coop AI mode. I have no previous experience in this genre of RTS, when will I know my skill set and game sense are good enough to play other players? How much IP do you get in those matches?
I would give it a try now and see what happens, but here are some questions below to give me a better idea:
1) Are you playing beginner or intermediate bots? How often do you win?
2) You get 10-20% more IP IIRC, even more if the game goes longer (it scales upward so you can't exploit bots for quick IP gains)
3) What is your creep score @ 12 minutes in a solo lane?
4) What character level are you?
Right now if you can achieve 50-60 minion kills in 12 minutes, you're fine for now.
If you can achieve 80 in 12 minutes you're very good, but it will become the expectation when you get to level 30 / into ranked.
If you can achieve 100 in 12 minutes, you should consider starting an LOL team.
The reason why I highlight Creep score is that it can make up for a lot of flaws a player has at any point - because at the end of the day you still have money to buy items.
A Championship / Tournament level Creep Score would be 300 creep kills in 25 minutes. That also means you're taking jungle camps and almost for certain playing an AP mid character. It is something to shoot for. Something you should be aware of, but don't let it consume everything that you do.
The best I've done is 260 in 25 minutes in a real game as Karthus. I can break 300 in custom games, but those don't count. I can usually do 220 in 25 minutes if the laning phase lasts that long.
Honestly, the Q reminds me a bit more of Cho'Gath's stun. I haven't seen any video of her yet, but the way it reads makes me think you have a second or two to read it before anything happens.
Ultimate wreaks of overpowered at the moment, being able to completely turn around a fight if set up well. I think the duration of the slow will drop as they attempt to correct that.
I think Riot intentionally releases OP new champions. It's been a pretty consistent pattern for a while from what I've seen...it entices people into buying them, just so they can nerf them right ahead of their free week. This gives them a larger base to test their real balancing with (and a little more money ).
There is a vid up on ROG. Cho's knock up would be a good way of putting it, that is how it works for the caster, but it doesn't do work quite like that for the opponent - there is no "dodge me" circle.
It is harder to dodge because it comes at you like a projectile (Lux's singularity), but can be launched overtop of minions.
See I don't know if Riot releases OP champs so much as opposed to Riot not really testing to see how the champs function in the roles they are given.
See Diana, Zyra (lesser extent), Elise, Jayce.
Diana functioned fine as a Jungler on release. Maybe a tweak here or there was needed, but it seemed as if Riot completely forgot that her kit could be used for laning. Or figured she'd get bullied in lane.
That was when Diana was completely OP. She became this Leblanc like lane bully post-6, able to jump and stick to any target she desired until they died.
Zyra is now used as a support (and a rather good one at that) with great zoning ability and a good snare. But you are right, she was OP as hell when she was released in mid and is still somewhat OP now.
Elise was not meant to function as a top laner. But she does. Amazingly well. She is a very good anti-brusier with high base stats - the AP version of Jayce.
She doesn't scale well late game, but can snowball a lane out of control. She is really hard to deal with for a lot of top laners. Nothing too special mid or Jungle - but those were the positions they thought she would do originally.
Jayce of course was thought to function in the Jungle (LOL NO), and possibly bottom lane. He actually is underrated as a bottom lane counter (kind of like Urgot was), but he wasn't really thought of as the terror in top lane when he was released.
I think Riot doesn't do enough testing to where these champions really fit in the meta, nor how OP they can be when some people who actually know what they are doing decide to build them.
Riot Logic - "Diana's AP ratios are so good, people will build only a bit of AP and then spec into tank items afterwards"...
Instead they build her as a glass cannon and wreck everything (shield OP).
So I started playing a few weeks ago and im enjoying learning the champions through the Coop AI mode. I have no previous experience in this genre of RTS, when will I know my skill set and game sense are good enough to play other players? How much IP do you get in those matches?
Just stop playing against AI right now and go play some matches against other people. It's the only way to really learn and you'll be matched up with players of a lower skill level as well. You'll make lots of mistakes but that's part of figuring out how to compete. Bot matches are pretty much useless aside from getting a feel for your champion.
. He struggles a bit late game from when I last played him (though that was a year ago)
).
