League of Legends

Anyone on here play? I've been playing dedicatedly for almost a year now and this is one of my all time favorite games I think. I took a break to play SCII for a while, but now it seems like most of my "gaming" time is being devoted to LoL.

 

Wow i'm kind of shocked that not many people here have played/know what this is. For those of you who played Warcraft III, it's an offshoot of the DotA mod. Except with League of Legends, they've fine tuned it to a point where the game is absolutely outstanding.

It's based on 5v5 team combat. Matchmaking sets this all up for you. You have different "champions" (heroes) that all have a unique skill set. For example, you have healers, tanks, dps, mages, etc.. Similar to DotA, teams gradually fight towards destroying the other teams' base.

I would highly recommend any of you that are into MMO/strategy/RPG/team oriented games to give this a shot. Best part about the game is that it's FREE.

here's a link to the website: http://www.leagueoflegends.com/

video review from when it was released:

Spoiler

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The game has come a long way in a year and a half since the release and I think is probably one of the best online PC games available atm. Try it out if you haven't heard of it already.

 

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Although there's a 30 dollar fee, HoN used to be better. LoL had lots of server issues and things of that nature because it's free. However, since the game has gotten bigger and more people have started playing there are rarely server problems. LoL is a much better value. Once you get into it and hit lvl 30 (doesn't take too long) the ranked competitive mode is insanely addicting.

 

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Yes, there's a lot of customization. Every champion has a unique skillset. Also, the items you can use during any given match vary greatly. The whole point is to counter what the other team builds. There are items for any playstyle. Whether you like to play a mage, dps, tank, support, or a hybrid of any of those. In addition, if you feel like it you can buy "skins" that give your favorite champion some extra flair.

 

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lol ok so first off you want to strike a good balance between farming (last hitting minions in the lane) and harassing the enemy champs. You really want to focus on getting as many last hits on the minions as possible. This will give you a major gold advantage and help you have better items than your opponents.

The rest varies greatly

If you're playing a tank, you want to get heavy duty armor and magic resistance items. If the other team has lots of DPS type champions, buying thornmail/sunfire cape/randuin's omen/frozen heart is a great idea. If the other team has lots of mages or AP champions, buying a banshee veil and force of nature is a good idea. So the roll of a tank is to initiate team fights and to make sure you keep the enemy team away from your dps while also attacking their dps.

if you're playing a support you want to get some AP items and some support items. For most supports getting a Rod of Ages and mejais soul stealer (which gives bonus AP per kill/assist) is enough AP. Then you want to focus on getting items such as Soul Shroud/Aegis of the Legion/Shureliyas Revelrie. Your job during team fights is to keep your team alive while also making things hard for the opposite team.

if you're playing a melee dps champion you want to get items that do a lot of damage. but at the same time, you will be focused a lot during team fights so you want to get some defensive items as well. focus on getting a high damage item (such as: infinity edge, trinity force, black cleaver) along with an attack speed item (such as: phantom dancer, youmuu's ghostblade) and then getting on or two defensive items (Thornmail, Banshee Veil, Frozen Mallet). During teamfights your job is do consistent damage over the duration of the fight.

if you're playing a mage you want to get almost all AP items. You want to start with something like Rod of Ages which gives you bonus AP/Mana every minute you have it. Then build something like mejais soulstealer (if you're having a good game) or Archangels staff which also gives you bonus AP based on mana over time. You want to cap your AP off with items such as Rabadon's Deatchap and Zhonya's hourglass. And usually a mage should build banshee veil near the end because other mages tend to focus you. During teamfights your job is to do a lot of damage in a few bursts. You want to nuke the enemy team as much as possible and bide your time until you can do it again.

if you're playing ranged dps you want to get mostly damage items. So for ranged champs items such as Ininity Edge, Madred's Bloodrazor, and Black Cleaver are almost always necessary. This is because a lot of the time you will have to focus the enemy team's melee dps and tanks later on in a fight. It's hardest to kill those champs and ranged dps are usually the ones who can do it. As a last item type thing you want to get something like guardian's angel which is armor+ a revive built in. That way if you manage to get killed, they'll have to deal with you all over again. Which really is something the opposite team will not want to deal with. So in a teamfight, you want to to focus fire down the biggest threat on the opposing team, than do consistent damage over time to the enemy's melee champions.

All in all, the most important things to do are work with your teammates, focus a single target, don't constantly go for kills, and pay attention to what the other team is doing.