League of Legends

[Atriux]

I decided to make this thread to see if there were any other fellow beyonders who played League of Legends.

*I am not trying to start a LoL vs DoTA debate! I'm sure there's a DoTA2 thread out there, or easily enough interest for one*

For anyone who doesn't know, League of Legends is a DoTA remake (from a few of the creators of DoTA allstars).

There are currently 115 playable champions to choose from with a weekly rotation where 10 are free. The others can be bought with "Influence Points" which is obtained after every game (win or loss) and is essentially the LoL currency.

3 different maps, 3v3, and two 5v5.

Every aspect of this game can be played for free, although you can purchase "Riot Points" which can be used to obtain boosts and skins every champion has a variety of skins that you can buy with real money, but they're only for aesthetics) Champions can be purchased as well with RP but all champions are available with IP.

There is a "leveling system" outside of the game but that'll go up simply by playing and it influences a couple of things. "Masteries and Runes" can be bought in the lobby and they'll give you a boost in terms of stats when you bring them in game, so the variety of rune/mastery builds for each character can be played in multiple ways.
The matchmaking system that LoL uses to find a game will place teams with average level and ELO (skill ranking system) together so they try to get as even games as possible.

One thing to note is: Because it's a MOBA game that focuses on teams, you will often times find players (both on your and the other team) who have a very inadequate ability to play the game. As it's a free game with MANY players joining, you may notice it a bit.

Website: http://www.leagueoflegends.com/ (North American server)

Beyond Players

Atriux - HimeNala
Barking_Spidre - Catloaf
GenerationX - Dmaaaaa
LilDrunkenSmurf - LilDrunkenSmurf
Mitsu3000gt - DirtySouth
Little Dragon - TheLittleDragon
dandia89 - dandia
icky2unk - Ickyflex/Ickyflex1
nissanK - nissanK
RX-7_TWINTURBO - Funktastik
Skyline_Addict - wahsaihin
Unknown303 - Project303
BigBearWest - warhammer777
spikers - gizmothing
SmAcKpOo - Breeches
Freestylin - Freestylin86

Sept 2013 Edit: The above list is quite out of date and hasn't been changed in a while. If people are still interested, I can update the list.

Also: Don't forget to put your username on here so I can add you to the list.

[Awd-Tsi]

I have played dota for about 4 years and I still think it's better than lol. it has more items and heros and the map has way more places to go

[Type_S1]

LoL is pretty fun and does have a good system. If you haven't tried it you should atleast give it a try and see what it's like. Personally I think the maps are a little small but still good.

[Atriux]

I started the game a couple of months ago, wasn't entirely a fan of DoTA (and the system even) so I really didn't play much. A friend told me that we should try it to which my response was (screw that... sounds dumb) and after a couple games I found it to be quite fun.

Type_S1 I sorta agree, although I'd say definitely give magma chamber (the new 5v5) a try when it comes out (which should be in the very near future).

LoL also likes to bring a new champion to the mix every 2-3 weeks (along with doing massive updates) so the metagame can be extremely different from game to game.

[Barking_Spidre]

I play this, and I love it. User name is Catloaf. Currently sitting at 1403 ranked, not the best but it's ok.

[KeepItGully]

Don't mean to steal .. Anyone playing HON?

[Atriux]

^ Then don't steal and make your own thread?

"*I am not trying to start a LoL vs HoN debate!*"

>.>

[KeepItGully]

I dont wanna debate. I want to exchange gamertags.

[Atriux]

^ Perhaps I was too harsh, I just figured if people from both games were posting in the same topic it would stir up some argument which at this point is almost older then the mac vs pc argument... based on personal preference.

[Truevi3tromeo]

yea.. someone should start a new thread for HoN.. be nice to find people to play with..

[Atriux]

Swain (new champion) Art Spotlight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Slozl...layer_embedded

Pretty cool watch.

[Mitsu3000gt]

I played LoL for quite a while (way too much, actually...hundreds of games) and my conclusion is that it is crap. There are a number of things I dislike about it:

- It is perhaps the most poorly balanced game I've ever played, and with this type of game, balance is absolutely key.

- They do most, if not all, of their server maintenance on Friday and Saturday nights, when the highest possible number of people want to play.

- It takes about a week to start a game.

- You have to earn or buy heroes, which takes a super long time, even if you play constantly.

- You cannot prevent known game-ruiners or abysmal players from joining your game. Also the team balancing is VERY poor. Often you have lost before the game even begins due to a single player.

- When patches come out, the overpowered heroes are made BETTER and the bad heroes are made WORSE in most cases. If they do end up trying to balance something properly, they always go way to far and a hero that used to be good is now totally useless, etc.

There is probably more but needless to say I don't play it anymore. I like these kinds of games, so if I found one that was actually well done I'd like to try it out.

[Atriux]

^ I'm just curious... when did you play? I started throughout summer and I've found a couple of your points to be hit or miss.

They constantly work with patches to try and update the game for balance... yes there are some champions that are stronger then others but imho there's no "instant win" champion at the present point.

Maitenance's are usually tuesday nights... (or monday nights) at like 2-12AM our time (again this could be influenced on when you played).

It usually takes me <2 minutes to find a game... I'm almost always in one within 5 minutes of starting to look for one (including champion selection etc)

I'll admit the IP is pretty slow (especially if you want to buy T3 runes at level 21) but after you get a set of runes getting champions isn't that bad (especially since they rotate 10 every week, and occasionally give away free champs... Tristana by liking the page on facebook, they did an advert with Alienware to give away a free cho,gath skin (and champion)).

MM has gotten a lot better, although it can be hit or miss. It's a bit better then it was before (matching up by ELO to pretty close numbers), and there's always the opportunity of playing with premades (one of the reasons this thread was created... getting to know more people so you can play with people you know).

OP characters get more OP? Again I have to ask when you played this game, in many of the recent patches they've yet to make an OP character even more OP, although I do agree they sometimes nerf a character too hard.

To each their own I guess... and while also do believe a lot could be done to nerf/buff characters to make them an acceptable level, from what I've seen they've done a lot of work on it already.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by Atriux
^ I'm just curious... when did you play? I started throughout summer and I've found a couple of your points to be hit or miss.

They constantly work with patches to try and update the game for balance... yes there are some champions that are stronger then others but imho there's no &quot;instant win&quot; champion at the present point.

Maitenance's are usually tuesday nights... (or monday nights) at like 2-12AM our time (again this could be influenced on when you played).

It usually takes me &lt;2 minutes to find a game... I'm almost always in one within 5 minutes of starting to look for one (including champion selection etc)

I'll admit the IP is pretty slow (especially if you want to buy T3 runes at level 21) but after you get a set of runes getting champions isn't that bad (especially since they rotate 10 every week, and occasionally give away free champs... Tristana by liking the page on facebook, they did an advert with Alienware to give away a free cho,gath skin (and champion)).

MM has gotten a lot better, although it can be hit or miss. It's a bit better then it was before (matching up by ELO to pretty close numbers), and there's always the opportunity of playing with premades (one of the reasons this thread was created... getting to know more people so you can play with people you know).

OP characters get more OP? Again I have to ask when you played this game, in many of the recent patches they've yet to make an OP character even more OP, although I do agree they sometimes nerf a character too hard.

To each their own I guess... and while also do believe a lot could be done to nerf/buff characters to make them an acceptable level, from what I've seen they've done a lot of work on it already.

I stopped playing in the Summer, basically when Starcraft 2 came out.

When I played, most (not all) Fridays or Saturdays were unplayable for many hours due to server maintenance. Why they wouldn't do that on a Mon/Tues night or something was beyond me.

Finding games is usually quick (sometimes 10+ min though if you're playing with an arranged team). It's the time it takes from the game found to enter the game that is absolutely ridiculous. NOBODY needs even half that time to pick a hero, runes, etc. If they do, they have bigger problems.

I know they cycle the heroes around as to which is "free" but I think you should be able to use whatever you want whenever you want. That is up for debate though.

When I was playing, they would routinely make OP heroes better, when everyone was expecting the next patch to make them worse and therefore more balanced. It got to the point where you could look at the heroes before the game started, and assuming reasonable equal skill level, the game outcome was predetermined. If they did nerf an OP hero, it was usually to the point that they made them so bad that not a single person played them anymore. If they did correct, it was a gross overcorrection in whatever direction it happened to be.

IMO they have had WAY too long to balance this game, so I hope its better now. I got fed up after giving them more than enough time to balance it and make it fun, and they didn't.

I could regularly pick certain heroes and go 20-30 kills with zero or a couple of deaths in any given game. People would leave games all the time (also why it sucked) and I don't consider myself an amazing player. It's just whoever picks the OP heroes first and knows how to exploit their cheap-ness. I got owned a lot by the OP heroes too if I couldn't pick an equally cheap hero fast enough.

I forgot to mention the following, which is perhaps it's largest drawback. Even if you ignore all the balance issues, not being able to have an "ignore" list (similar to the ban list in DOTA) was a huge setback. Having ZERO penalty for leaving games IMO is unacceptable. Big deal you have to wait like 5 minutes before you can play again. Not having a banlist or equivalent, or a significant punishment for leaving games was one of its biggest draw backs as well IMO. At the very least you should have been able to create games that only let people in with certain records (I.e. certain number of games played, and no more than 1 or 2 "leaves"). Because there was no punishment, and you couldn't control who joined your games, people just left when they were doing poorly or random'd a bad hero, just like in DOTA. People only want to play if they are doing good.

[dandia89]

i agree with the balance issue, garen was overpowered for the longest time. there are a few characters that are impossible to play against which are consistently banned in ranked games and nothing has been done about them.

but i still enjoy the game because it's not as advanced as dota or hon in terms of skill level.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by dandia89
i agree with the balance issue, garen was overpowered for the longest time. there are a few characters that are impossible to play against which are consistently banned in ranked games and nothing has been done about them.

but i still enjoy the game because it's not as advanced as dota or hon in terms of skill level.

I bet $10 an upcoming patch makes those heroes better, that is what happened 9/10 times when I was playing.

How the makers of LoL don't make the connection when every single game has the same 4 heroes banned, it blows my mind. When they do make the connection, they increase the imbalance or make that hero so bad nobody ever picks it.

I hope its better now but I somehow doubt it.

[Atriux]

Recently the champions that get banned are in a larger variety of characters. I'd take your bet that they don't make an OP character even more OP.

Before it was: Heimer/shen/soraka/taric/shaco (a couple months ago).

Heimer: turrets nerfed
Shen: minor nerf to his ultimate... less banned now
Soraka: AP ratios nerfed
Shaco: nerfed

Now who gets banned? a lot more characters.

I started playing in april, so I saw the things you were talking about, and in terms of balance it's a lot better then it was before (IMHO). and they're very close to doing a major rework patch.

Right now there's like 1 "OP" character (Garen) that a LOT of people don't know how to fight against... although it really isn't that hard when you consider their build.

I agree that there is character imbalance, but I feel lately riot has done a decent job in fixing this imbalance... and not so much "amplifying" as you've described it.

[Critical]

I have no problems with the balancing in this game, if you know what you are doing any character can be powerful.

As for the waiting time, if you're level 1-5 you will be waiting minutes. Most douche bags just IP hunt in practice games till they're high levels leaving those queues deserted.

As for Garen, yes he is OP but if you don't feed him and keep up with his level it's not hard at all to defend yourself.

First champ I bought was Warwick, still my favorite one.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Have they recently nerfed Twitch, Fiddlesticks, Mortekeiser (sp), Ryze, Zylene, or that fairly new guy with a spear? If not there there is probably some huge balance issues still. I would always play Twitch or Fiddlesticks and take the solo lane - both were grossly OP when I played them, and easy to get pentakills.

Sounds like they've gotten better than when I was playing but I am still skeptical as you haven't mentioned any of the heroes I listed above as recent nerfs.

I remember several occasions though where every game people would bitch and complain about certain heroes being OP, and then a patch came out making them better. From what you say though it sounds like they don't do that anymore, so thats good.

[Atriux]

You said you played a few hundred games which would result in probably close to level 30 right?

Twitch: most twitch's aren't very good with their stealth. Vision ward when laning against them

Fiddle: never really OP... hard to deal with if you let him farm but very squishy so just play a little passive, unless he's low

Mordekaiser: can be strong if played well (like the others I see more worse then not). People just need to learn when to engage him (when theres not many minions etc).

Ryze: there are definitely way better cookie cutter casters (Annie for examle) never really been OP although he does have a hard stun

Zillean: Very strong early on (amazing at harassing) but isn't exactly considered OP. Just need to harrass him early (in lanes have both people) etc.

Xin Zhao: was op at release, but they've done well not to nerf him

Do you remember which champion was the one that was considered OP then buffed? I figured I'd remember it if you played during the period I did.

@Critical, yeah warwick is awesome... I didnt jungle until recently (when I hit level 30) but once you get up there and have mastery runes, jungling is just so awesome.