Saturday LoLs?
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Saturday LoLs?
Anyone up for some League Of Legends tonight?
Re: Saturday LoLs?
Yes! I may have a Blood Bowl match but that should only last an hour and a half ish. I've been looking forward to getting some more lollering in.
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Joose
- Turret
- Posts: 8090
- Joined: October 13th, 2004, 14:13
- Location: The house of Un-Earthly horrors
Re: Saturday LoLs?
I really would, but the Mrs has just got back from a day out, and we are about to sit down for fuuds.
Have you tried the new Domination against the AI? Its rather fun, and very different to the normal mode.
Have you tried the new Domination against the AI? Its rather fun, and very different to the normal mode.
Re: Saturday LoLs?
I didn't know you guys played LoL. When I get Proper internet (Hurry up Jock) and I get better at the game I will happily play. Every time I have tried, I have had internet problems so I thought it better to wait to save me from being a deserter.
Re: Saturday LoLs?
Really enjoyed it last night. We had about four 5v5s with myself, Anery and Mrs Anery, and a couple of randoms. No knobbery apart from a little lane squabbling, and we won every game (against bots).
I'm consistently surprised by the u-turn I did after playing this game. I really didn't think I'd like it, but it has proven to be excellently balanced and very good fun. The teamwork thing isn't a huge issue as long as you have a basic understanding of what you need to be doing, although it can help (and I think a team of 5 5punkers on TS could be quite a horse, or maybe farce), and there's enforced friendliness - dicks get reported, judged by other players, and slapped. Playing beginner games helps too, since in theory everyone else is learning. For anyone wanting a likening to other things they might have played, think of your champion as a tiny MMO character, with hotkeys and builds and equipment upgrades, whose entire career spans a single game. With only 4 skills each it's not hard to pick up a champion, but learning to play one well has MMONG-like satisfaction from researching how to use your character's small armoury for the most effect. There's also a few persistent buffs which are configured out of game; a fairly extensive (universal, I think) talent tree and a bunch of runes which offer little buffs. Best of all, the free game is in no way inferior for not paying - the only things you can't buy with in-game cash are skins (some of which are awesomely silly, admittedly). The in-game stuff isn't a grind-a-thon either from what I've found. You can pick up a cheapy new character (no less effective than the expensive ones, but more common obviously) for a couple of games' worth of cash.
For anyone still reading, here's a mini-tale of my experience. After the tutorial I decided I'd buy someone less squishy. I spotted Kayla, an armoured angel, female but in no way gratuitous (some are, but she even keeps her helmet on), who looked like she could take some damage and chuck some healing about. Being a noob I thought a tough supporting character would keep me alive and let me hang back and learn while still being useful. I was wrong, she's not that tough and her heal is a bit crap. I got battered a few times and decided I'd picked a shit champion, until I read up about her. And boy did I read, there's a whole backstory about her leaving the war against hell to chase her renegade sister (also a playable character) down, breakdowns of her skills and uses, and a large and surprisingly restrained discussion on how best to use her skills. I took a few things away with me:
Her attacks have a small stacking debuff which reduces armour
Her 'Q' attack (ie, the one assigned to Q) damages and slows the opponent
Her 'E' buff speeds her up and adds range to her attack and puts another stacking debuff on the target
From that, and the advice of the majority of commentors, I extrapolated some ideas; buffs and equipment which give + attack speed mean you can stack the debuffs faster, meaning the longer you fight someone the weaker they get. Early in game you're hitting about once per second, by end game three or four if you can get all the equipment in time. When facing off against another hero, I'll draw them into melee then hit them with the Q attack. This damages and debuffs them, and bots usually start to run away. I follow that up with the fiery E attack, so they're taking longer to escape and I now have ranged damage. The longer they stay in range, the faster their health drops. It's not really noticeable in early game, but toward the end an enemy champion's health plummets with terrifying speed. It doesn't last long though, and Kayla is slow. At least half the time they make it to their defences (towers which do huge amounts of damage), or I get bogged down with minions and they escape. Half of the rest of the time someone else bags the kill as I get them to low health and then they lose their speed debuff and run into another player. I don't mind though, because 90% of the time that enemy hero has run the fuck away with a big chunk of health gone. Such is the game, constant parry and riposte as you hammer an enemy and drive them back, then have to withdraw before you overcommit and get into trouble.
Now that I know and love Kayla, I've picked up another. Cha'Goth, a Diablo look-a-like demon who eats the enemy minions and grows to twice his normal size. You can buy a top hat, cane, monocle and spats for him.
I'm consistently surprised by the u-turn I did after playing this game. I really didn't think I'd like it, but it has proven to be excellently balanced and very good fun. The teamwork thing isn't a huge issue as long as you have a basic understanding of what you need to be doing, although it can help (and I think a team of 5 5punkers on TS could be quite a horse, or maybe farce), and there's enforced friendliness - dicks get reported, judged by other players, and slapped. Playing beginner games helps too, since in theory everyone else is learning. For anyone wanting a likening to other things they might have played, think of your champion as a tiny MMO character, with hotkeys and builds and equipment upgrades, whose entire career spans a single game. With only 4 skills each it's not hard to pick up a champion, but learning to play one well has MMONG-like satisfaction from researching how to use your character's small armoury for the most effect. There's also a few persistent buffs which are configured out of game; a fairly extensive (universal, I think) talent tree and a bunch of runes which offer little buffs. Best of all, the free game is in no way inferior for not paying - the only things you can't buy with in-game cash are skins (some of which are awesomely silly, admittedly). The in-game stuff isn't a grind-a-thon either from what I've found. You can pick up a cheapy new character (no less effective than the expensive ones, but more common obviously) for a couple of games' worth of cash.
For anyone still reading, here's a mini-tale of my experience. After the tutorial I decided I'd buy someone less squishy. I spotted Kayla, an armoured angel, female but in no way gratuitous (some are, but she even keeps her helmet on), who looked like she could take some damage and chuck some healing about. Being a noob I thought a tough supporting character would keep me alive and let me hang back and learn while still being useful. I was wrong, she's not that tough and her heal is a bit crap. I got battered a few times and decided I'd picked a shit champion, until I read up about her. And boy did I read, there's a whole backstory about her leaving the war against hell to chase her renegade sister (also a playable character) down, breakdowns of her skills and uses, and a large and surprisingly restrained discussion on how best to use her skills. I took a few things away with me:
Her attacks have a small stacking debuff which reduces armour
Her 'Q' attack (ie, the one assigned to Q) damages and slows the opponent
Her 'E' buff speeds her up and adds range to her attack and puts another stacking debuff on the target
From that, and the advice of the majority of commentors, I extrapolated some ideas; buffs and equipment which give + attack speed mean you can stack the debuffs faster, meaning the longer you fight someone the weaker they get. Early in game you're hitting about once per second, by end game three or four if you can get all the equipment in time. When facing off against another hero, I'll draw them into melee then hit them with the Q attack. This damages and debuffs them, and bots usually start to run away. I follow that up with the fiery E attack, so they're taking longer to escape and I now have ranged damage. The longer they stay in range, the faster their health drops. It's not really noticeable in early game, but toward the end an enemy champion's health plummets with terrifying speed. It doesn't last long though, and Kayla is slow. At least half the time they make it to their defences (towers which do huge amounts of damage), or I get bogged down with minions and they escape. Half of the rest of the time someone else bags the kill as I get them to low health and then they lose their speed debuff and run into another player. I don't mind though, because 90% of the time that enemy hero has run the fuck away with a big chunk of health gone. Such is the game, constant parry and riposte as you hammer an enemy and drive them back, then have to withdraw before you overcommit and get into trouble.
Now that I know and love Kayla, I've picked up another. Cha'Goth, a Diablo look-a-like demon who eats the enemy minions and grows to twice his normal size. You can buy a top hat, cane, monocle and spats for him.
-
Joose
- Turret
- Posts: 8090
- Joined: October 13th, 2004, 14:13
- Location: The house of Un-Earthly horrors
Re: Saturday LoLs?
Cho'Gath is rather fun, and damn near unstoppable when played well. My current fave is Teemo, a fluffy midget with a blow dart. He is a bit squishy, but his high speed and insane end game DPS makes him a dood killing machine. He is brilliant. Fucking annoying voice though.
The other one I'm getting to grips with is Viegar, a evil wizard midget that has an odd mechanic where killing guys with one of his spells permanently increases the power of all his spells by a little bit. He's a little rubbish early on, but has some amazing aoe abilities once he has powered up a bit.
I've briefly tried a couple of the other MOBA games, and found LoL is by far the easiest to get to grips with. I've heard people saying that it's a lot less deep, tactically, than the others, but I suspect that may only be relevant for the hardcore types who play many times a day. For someone like myself, who plays a few times a week, it's plenty deep enough.
The other one I'm getting to grips with is Viegar, a evil wizard midget that has an odd mechanic where killing guys with one of his spells permanently increases the power of all his spells by a little bit. He's a little rubbish early on, but has some amazing aoe abilities once he has powered up a bit.
I've briefly tried a couple of the other MOBA games, and found LoL is by far the easiest to get to grips with. I've heard people saying that it's a lot less deep, tactically, than the others, but I suspect that may only be relevant for the hardcore types who play many times a day. For someone like myself, who plays a few times a week, it's plenty deep enough.
Re: Saturday LoLs?
Tonight anyone?
Re: Saturday LoLs?
Yes! I was going to post about this today. Looking forward to playing again, and it would be great if we can get a couple more for a 5punky game.
Re: Saturday LoLs?
id be up for a bit of this tonight